Are we having fun yet?

I have been playing GW for about 3 weeks now and thus far have a beginning Mesmer, a level 3 warrior and a level 11 Ranger/Elementalist. I enjoy the game but have some questions because I may be doing some things wrong.
1. My Ranger; he has some excellent equipment due to the kindness of a guildmate. He still dies frequently attempting to complete the missions like Angela's ashes and others in that area. Is he too low a level to attempt quests there? If so, where should he be questing? The Northlands?
2. The Mesmer. I can tell he is going to be a real challenge to try & play until he gets some more powerful skills. Any suggestions as to what areas I should concentrate on? Please don't say that it all depends on my style of play. I just want a clue as to what has worked for others. Additionally, what profession would match well with Mesmer?
3. Do I have any access to a vault before the Searing?
4. Is there any advantage to using an expert salvage kit over the regular on plain blue items?
I am sure I have other questions but those should hold me for a while. Thanks in advance for your replies.

no vault in pre

with an expert kit you have a chance of something nice and no chance with regular

i expert salvage everything except regular junk

on the ranger

is he standing back ready to run or trying to wade in and getting killed?

or being overwhelmed by numbers?

edit

i assume he has level 10 armor and not the starting or collectors set

0. Yes. Definitely.

1. lvl11 is probably a bit on the low side for a quest like Ashes. OTOH, it's been a very long time since I did it, and I've heard they made it easier since then, so YMMV.. I know that I'm certainly too much of a gimp to have been able to handle it at 11 the way it was before.. I finally went through there at 14 with a lvl13 buddy and we wiped the place clean though

You should be ok for most of the other quests up there though, but then again, if you're finding them frustrating, why bother? Level up a bit in missions and come back when it's fun again! Ranger/Ele might be a tricky profession though; you're going to really need to keep an eye on your energy reserves..

2. The Mesmer gets my vote for coolest skills in the game, but definitely makes up for that by being a bit of a bastard in terms of making you *THINK* about what you're doing (or trying to do, as the case may be).

Couldn't say what you should concentrate on as it really depends on your style of play (who said that??!), but my current favourite skills are (in no particular order): Chaos Storm, Backfire, Arcane Thievery (LOVE this one), Arcane Echo, Blackout.. Empathy is a nice little workhorse. Spirit Shackles is a real PITA to have cast against you, so I take great delight in deploying it occasionally.. Very cool profession though, IMO.

3. Nope.

4. I can't say for sure if there is any actual hard fact on this, but in my experience I almost always get rare crafting items by using an expert kit on blue, purple and gold salvage item drops. Other things like weapons and items don't seem to follow this 'rule' -- you just seem to get more of whatever they'd regularly salvage into, and the occasional rare material.

Far as I know there is no possibility of salvaging rare crafting materials out of anything with the basic kit though..

HTH

Ashes is a hard quest for lvl 11's. Rnagers are not tanks and belong in the back sniping out the Overlords and casters. And You need to take it slow doing ashes... don't aggro 12 charr at once.

Ashes quest...ahhhh fond memories. My first time through that quest was the first time I ever saw -60%. And the single most satisfying feeling I've gotten from this game to date was going back there pure solo with my lv 20 elementalist and laying that entire zone to waste! I still get charged up thinking about that.

DUBYO TEE EFF is angelas ashes.... ive heard altheas ashes but not angelas ashes

Angela's Ashes is a harrowing tale written by Frank McCourt. As mentioned, it should not be attempted before lvl11

Wait a second... someone who misspelled "soldier" in their own forum nickname is going to quibble over someone else putting Angela's Ashes instead of Althea's Ashes? I'm sorry, but that's downright hilarious.

Soldire ...... is german spelling for the english word soldier..... have fun making fun of a non-american w/e luchaire means

lol
i did ashes when i was lvl 10
...just bumrushed the ashes and i won it for us.. (of course i died 2 seconds after)

ive never done ashes but once, and im not doing it again. too much of a hassel, ill make up the 2kexp by ascending at level 18...

Luchaire you're a retard.

Angelas ashes is a film

The Mesmer........so under rated!

Definitely cool and absolutely a different way to play the game. The typical damage dealer is looking for the biggest dude in the area to slash on.

The Mesmer is looking for the little bastard foe who's casting and targeting the party, then shuts them down so the warrior can contiue hacking on the melee foe who's trying to get to you!

And 90% of the time the people in group your in have no idea what you did.

Och Tongue!

Very much agreed. I weep when i'm in a group that won't take a mesmer "cuz mezmers is teh sux0rz". And as a caster, I hate/fear nothing more than a damn mezmer (including mezmer-type mobs). Spirit shackle makes me useless in a big hurry, and backfire...*shudder* just to name a couple.

AhhAA! Well if it's a film now then it means that they did nerf it and make it easier!