What did you learn from the beta that you can pass on to your fellow Guild war players?

I spent most of my time in the beta trying out all of the classes and only a few minutes before the end of the beta found two vendors in the noble area of Divinity's Reach a weapons vendor and armour vendor.

They sell almost every basic (white) weapon/armour type for all classes for about 60 copper.

Also on dwayna high road in Divinity's Reach you’ll find a vendor that sells all the basic tools for gathering.

Well, I have some crucial tips for any who want to get good at a ranged class:

1. Always keep moving. Remember, most skills in GW2 allow you to cast on the move. The targeting system in GW2 is hard enough as it is for most people (especially melee), so exploit this to the fullest by moving constantly. Whether it be to dodge-cancel a long activation when you realise you're going to miss or just circle strafing, keep moving.
2. Move and heal! If you're ever standing still while healing, you're doing it wrong. Every heal skill in the game I've experienced myself or seen in action allows you to move whilst using it - do so! If you're standing still while healing, even if you don't think anyone is around, you're setting yourself up to be a real target (especially from thieves and mesmers who can turn invisible and/or bamf - or even worse, a rifle warrior with max burst).
3. Bring at least one immobilise or cripple with you - whether this is part of your preferred weapon set or one of your utilities, it doesn't matter. Bring one. (oh, and preferably bring two if you can - though more than that is a bit overkill)
4. As a counterpoint to 3, bring at least one condition removal skill with you, preferably one which targets speed-reducing conditions and/or can be used while dazed.
5. Last, but not least, use your dodge meter! It regenerates fairly quickly, so use it, don't save it up unless you know you absolutely need to (like if you know there are canons about in WvW)

Aside from those, remember to resurrect folks duders. Not only is it a nice thing to do, it also increases your team's long term damage and support.

Explore!

I've seen a number of people complaining about the fact they felt they had to grind, because they were too low a level to progress to the next area/story mission.. but they seem to be missing the fact that just exploring through the areas and finding the points of interest actually nets you a fair amount of experience. Unlike other MMO's, it's not supposed to be a grind to max level. Take your time and enjoy the game.

Remembering to move around and pay attention to what you're doing is also very important for combat. I saw too many people who were clearly just spamming every skill they had available, even when it made no sense, which means you have to wait for the recharge when it might be sorely needed.

Not sure how it will be at release, or even the next BWE...

This past BWE, in the Mists, there's been an armor and a weapons vendor giving out all basic weapons and armors free-of-charge. What's not as apparent though is, that the vendors got additional tabs of wares, where you find runes. Runes work like enchantments (for weapons) and set-bonuses (for armor). The default armor you get has the default class set of runes socketed into your gear, which might not be suited for PvP. There's like 50 different sets of runes, all of which have different attribute bonuses and a special setbonus for equipping 6 runes of the same set. I was using 'Runes of the Lich' on my Mesmer, which gave me vitality and power I believe, as well as a chance to spawn a bonefiend with every attack. A Mesmer with bonefiend companions is a sight to behold.

Long story short, for structured PvP, take your character customization seriously and optimize your gear for your playstyle (for free at the respective vendors in the Mists). Revising and respeccing your traits in the Mists should be a given, as well as doing so for your weapon choices and utility/elite skills loadout. So you'll have some semblance of a gameplan.

@WinterSnowblind said:

Explore!

I've seen a number of people complaining about the fact they felt they had to grind, because they were too low a level to progress to the next area/story mission.. but they seem to be missing the fact that just exploring through the areas and finding the points of interest actually nets you a fair amount of experience. Unlike other MMO's, it's not supposed to be a grind to max level. Take your time and enjoy the game.

Remembering to move around and pay attention to what you're doing is also very important for combat. I saw too many people who were clearly just spamming every skill they had available, even when it made no sense, which means you have to wait for the recharge when it might be sorely needed.

Exactly what I came to say. After fully exploring just two of the major cities I was down-scaled to the content for pretty much the rest of the beta. There's always another way to gain experience, so people who are under-leveled just aren't looking hard enough.

Skill point books can be banked and used by other characters.

Hearts on maps are indicators of a quest giver, and once you have done whatever is required, he sells gear upgrades and salvage kits. Its a little more interesting then it sounds, but that is the basic gist.

Hearts are not indicators of dynamic events - these must be found by exploring and become indicated by an orange circle on the map. Also don't leave immediately after a stage is complete - there can and will be multiple stages in a dynamic event.

• If you think you've finished the events in one area and haven't reached the level for the next zone, take the Asura Portal to Lion's Arch, and then to the main cities for the other races. Do those events in that area before you say there's no more content for your level.
• Explore cities, way points, and points of interests. You'll receive experience for doing so. Helpful during early levels.
• Dye manufacturers are in your home instance. They require a dye seed and then 24 hrs to process your dye. You can also buy dyes from the Gem store or "plant food" to speed up the processing of the dye. ArenaNet has previously stated that unlocked dyes should be available to all characters on the account, and not on a per character basis though it was character by character during this weekend.
• After you've completed an event, talk to the "heart" NPC and check his wares. They usually sell accessories, rings, and other stat boosting items for karma.
• Revive others, but please don't do it directly in front of the event boss. If an attack is coming, please stop and dodge.
• Don't be the douche that runs away holding the last rabbit needed to complete the event. Seriously, no other rabbits were spawning and the dude ran.

Here are a few things that were probably super obvious to most but I didn't realize immediately.

• If you find yourself hurting for gold, make sure you don't wait until level 13 to figure out that the mail that is sent to you after completing quests isn't just a nice "thank you" letter, there is actually money attached. Holy derp Batman.
• The items that you pick up that are labeled "salvage items" are just that, items meant to be salvaged. Don't vendor them. Use the salvage kits on them to net yourself a decent amount of crafting materials. Before that I was just salvaging whites.
• As mentioned earlier, the bank is shared between characters so that is the way you will be sending items/money back and forth. You can't send mail to yourself.
• If you see a Champion Bloodthirsty Black Moa just run, run the other direction and never look back.

• Take a second every so often to stop and look around , its such a beautiful world that has been created for us , and as you bounce from heart to heart its easy to miss
• (I think this may have been pointed out already but) When you jump "into the mist" for Structured PvP you are given a default load out of you skill points, you can reset this for free(at least you could during this BWE) and tweak your char. to fit you play style
• Experiment with all available weapons/off hand items for each Profession , you might be surprised how much fun non-traditional weapons are ie. Elementalist using dagger + dagger
• Reviving others, in addition to being the right thing to do(most of the time) nets you XP as well so , take a second a look for your fellow adventurer who may be in need of assistance

I didn't get super intro the gameplay, but I did hit level 10 in the beta on one character, and I played the first quest for the other races,

• You can bind a button for high-res screenshots in the keybind menu. By default, it's not bound to anything.
• Hold Shift while taking a screenshot to remove the UI from the shot. Very helpful for sick landscape or character photos.
• Learn the layout of the main cities. They're actually bigger than most MMOs, and your quests rarely take you through the whole city.
• Like someone said, try out different weapon sets with different classes.

Complete the tutorial area in the mists before entering PvP. You can't change weapons otherwise.

Saw many people in the guild that were strapped for cash due to traveling fees.  There is one simple fix, the trading post!
- I made 50+ silver a day on the trading post, some times I was able to get 20+ silver within a 1 hour period.
- I always sold my items for 50copper to 1silver less than the rest of the sellers to in sure quick sales.
- I ended up with over 1 gold with this system and I played maybe 3 hours total on sat-sun.
- Don't be afraid to sell cheaper stuff too, lower level characters are looking for weapons and items too.

@Subjugation said:

• If you find yourself hurting for gold, make sure you don't wait until level 13 to figure out that the mail that is sent to you after completing quests isn't just a nice "thank you" letter, there is actually money attached. Holy derp Batman.

Oh god I feel so stupid right now. Didn't realize this at all while playing.