Did I miss out on anything important?

Hey,
I started out guild wars and was doing a few quests around ascolon city and whatnot; got the secondary proffession of mesmer (i'm a ranger). What I'm wondering is: I had only done a few quests and someone in my party went to the academy or something, then before I know it we're battling the char and I'm in old ascolon. Apparently I can't go back, so is this a big deal? Did I miss a lot of important stuff?

It's not TOO huge of a deal, any skills you missed you can buy off the skill trainer and theres plenty of quests around to lv you up to 20 reguardless of weather you get to post sear at 3 or at 8.

It all depends on how much you did in pre-searing, what level your at and, as a ranger, whether you got the pet you wanted or not.

There's a decent amount of environment to go through in pre-searing and quite a few quests for xp. If you're a level 3-5, it might be easier to restart as you're gonna die alot in post-searing, until you get your hp's up.

Either way, you'll do ok. You can restart and catch content that you paid for or you can stay and start the 'real' game.

You missed a whole lot of "content". It isn't necessary to visit this content, as I bring all my characters to the academy at level 2, but that is my personal preference. If you want to enjoy the scenery and gain experience with your character and playing the game, by all means romp through pre-searing till you fall on your face

I think you mean level 3. You can't bring them through at level 2.

The only significant thing you really missed is that if you didnt do the quest from Devona called "Tithe for Ashford Abbey" or something like that you missed on on gaining an extra Skill Point.

Also...hopefully you got your Resurrection Signet as well.

You really should do at least those 2 things, do all the quests for your primary and secondary profession to get free skills before you go at the very least. If not your just costing yourself skill points and time later.