What is the most important thing to do when you start?

In your opinion, what are the top 3 things that you believe to be most important to accomplish when you start playing?

Leveling ASAP? Doing missions? Getting run all over the place? Getting the best armor and weapons? Making a certain character build for wealth creation? Make a farming build?

I'm curious what people think!

1. Use Search Button
2. Post in Q&A forum
3. Don't post duplicate threads on the forum

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100000. Read the stickies

/sarcasm on
1. Don't Use Search Button
2. Don't Post in Q&A forum
3. Do post duplicate threads on the forum
/sarcasm off

ah but you see young Padawan I wasn't being sarcastic or was I? /doubletake

But really this should be in the Q&A forum, not Riverside. But first thing you should do is spend time in Starting Area (Island or Pre-Searing), learn the game skills a bit before moving on.

1. Develop contacts with people who can take you further than you could easily learn on your own. Whether this involves joining a guild or not is not important.

2. Learn the theory of the game - builds, skills, what things do, and so on.

3. Learn the practice of the game - how to play and apply what you know in 2.

If you have those three, you're pretty much set...

On a serious note; The most important thing to do when you start is do all profession quests, or you'll end up as a very low level in high level quests.

1) Have fun.
2) Find a good guild or learn to love the henches.
3) Have more fun.

Silent Kittys advice only applies to Factions. In Prophecies you can goof around as much as you want, because the ramping up of difficulty is slower than your own levelling up (provided you do pretty much any quests at all).

It is simple, take your time, don't get run to places (not against running as such but I would not recommend it for your first character), that really does not teach you anything! Do the quests not just for the xp but to learn the mechanics of your character.

Why run to droks to get the best gear and still not be able to kill stuff because you don't know how to work with your character?

Research, yes use the search on here as people say (I do but still do not get the search to work correctly! Those that do are lucky, I just searched for something before posting this and it found nothing, even though I know I posted it yeaterday! So those that are quick to jump in with use the search also note that not everyone is getting results back!)

It is about fun as well, you will find that some people forget that!

When you are in an area, you may find yourself starting to get overwhelmed by foes etc.. That may be a sign that you need to look for better armour or higher level weapons but it also may mean you need to take a closer look at your skills and the tactics you use. If using henchies then the choices you make for one area may not be the best choice in another area. Also it could be that you are not the right level for the area, go back and see if there are quests you have missed to give you vital xp to raise your level!

There should be enough in pre searing to get to grips with the basic mechanics of your character, the same in cantha on the starter island. On the starter island in cantha you should quickly get to lvl 20 by doing quests and missions. I would recommend that you do not team up with lvl 20's in the early levels as they pretty much kill stuff on their own! You need to struggle in the early stages as it will develop your ability to assess a situation and try it from a different angle.

Just make sure you have fun

Assuming we're talking Prophecies:

1. Do all the quests you can which get you skills as rewards.
2. Dont go throught to Post Searing until you have done (1) and if possible do secondary quests too.
3. Check forums for anything you may have missed.

Assuming we're talking Factions:

1. Do all the quests you can which get you levelled up a.s.a.p.
2. Get help from anyone offering on the harder missions & do both 15 attribute quests.
3. Check forums for anything you may have missed.

drinking dwarven ale

1. Enjoy the Game
2. Learn the game all of yourself. This is quite important, don't just take the shortcut of getting everything handed to you... yet.
3. Once you've learned the basics, you've read the skill descriptions and have avague glimpse of what you can do. Now is the time to enhance that knowledge by visiting sites. Not earlier.

Sites like Guildwiki can be quite harmfull to a new player in that they prevent own thinking and experimenting but moreover promote pure copy cat style of playing.

Do not run! Keep black dye untill you find a dye trader. Have fun. Learn the mechanics by yourself in your own pace.

1.Have fun
2.Learn your own playing style, don't just mimic others.
3.If someone is offering something too good to be true,(wanting to by that black dye for a whole 200g!) it probably is....

1) Don't make a w/mo
2) Discover the wonderful world of mesmers.
3) Remember its only a game, not love.

1. Try out each profession before settling on one (at first)
2. Don't let other players discourage you (especially on these forums)
3. Don't worry about having the best weapon or armor right away. You'll learn alot more getting to that point in the game as intended, instead of buying the best as soon as you can.

1) Level up quick
2) Start saving up money for skill points + armor and weapons as soon as possible
3) Find a good ~ helpful & friendly guild so you can get help in hard missions, quests and simply others to share stuff with

1) Try complete as many of the side quests before moving onto the next main mission (going back to clear them up is a nightmare)

2) Dont spend all your money on dyes, armor and weapons, get by as much as you can with what you've got, see whats available, make an educated decision.

3) Gain knowledge and understanding of the different classes, skills and builds using guides and asking questions (preferably on Guru ;-) )

And somewhere in between all these try and find a GOOD guild

Having fun
Doing all the quests
Completing all the missions (preferably in 1 go )