GW2 Free to Play Tips

Guild Wars 2 has gone free to play. Here are some tips based on my experience with playing a main character and an alternate character to level 80.

Race and Profession Tips

• Although each of the races have different racial skills, you should
  choose a race based on aesthetics i.e which race would you enjoy
  looking at. Humans can be dressed up with T3 cultural armor. Asuras,
  with their small height have easier times in certain jumping puzzles
  and have some advantage in PvP as its hard to see their moves.
• You can choose any profession for solo or open world play but groups
  prefer the following professions for dungeons:
  
  • warrior - close combat / damage buffing
  • guardian - close combat / reflection / protection
  • elementalist - range combat / aoe damage
  • mesmer - close combat / reflection
  • thief - close combat / stealth
  • engineer - range combat / stealth

Main Character Leveling Tips

• After the tutorial, you will be dropped on to the world at Level 2 in
  the starting zone for your race. All the waypoints to the starting
  zones of the other races will also be available so you can
  start playing with your friends by warping into their starting zones
• If you are solo, just stay in the starting zone of your race and
  complete the hearts in level order while exploring vista and points
  of interests. Participate in events when you encounter them on
  your way to the next heart. Also try to do daily achievements that
  can be completed in your current zone.
• Do your personal story objectives as soon as they become available.
  After completing the personal story objectives for the first time at
  level 10, complete the map of your races home city. Afterwards
  return to completing the map of your starter zone.
• Move to the next zone from your starter zone and complete the hearts
  in level order.
• When you get to level 20, do your personal story then afterwards,
  complete the second zone to bring your level up to around 25.
• Move to the next zone to get to level 30 and do your personal story
  objectives. Afterwards visit Plains of Ashford and look for
  Ascalonian Catacombs Dungeon and do the Story Mode
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 40. Do your personal story objectives then go to Queensdale and
  do story mode of Caudecus’s Manor Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 50. Do personal story objectives then go to Caledon Forest and
  do story mode of Twilight Arbor Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 60. Do personal story objectives then go to Dredgehaunt Cliffs
  and do story mode of Sorrow’s Embrace Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 70. Do personal story objectives then go to Fireheart Rise and
  do story mode of Citadel of Flame Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 76. Go to Frostgorge Sound and do story mode of Honor of the
  Waves Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 78. Go to Mount Maelstorm and do story mode of Crucible of
  Eternity Dungeon
• Complete the previous zone or move on to the next zone to get to
  level 80. Go to Cursed Shore and do story mode of the Ruined City of
  Arah Dungeon
• Start farming Ascalonian Catacombs explorable mode for the dungeon
  tokens. Purchase the weapons you use first then chest and leg armor
  then the other armor pieces
• Once you’ve completed, farm Citadel of Flame explorable mode for the
  dungeon tokens. Purchase the weapons(berserker) you use first then
  chest and leg armor then the other armor pieces

Alternate Character Leveling Tips

• Follow the Main Character Leveling Tips above to get to level 10
• Go to your home city and learn armorcrafting, leatherworking or
  tailoring depending on the armor type required by your alternate
  character
• Use the gold and materials gathered by your main character to get to
  level 300 of the crafting skill you learned above. This will also add some
  levels to your alternate character
• Craft 18 slot bags and replace the smaller bags on your main and alt
  character. This is a big improvement when farming
• Learn artificing, huntsman, or weaponcrafting depending on the
  ascended weapon type that you want to craft for your main
• Use the gold and materials gathered by your main character to get to
  level 450 of the crafting skill you learned above to create ascended
  weapons
• Use your alternate character to refine ascended raw materials. This will increase the ascended weapon crafting level and eventually reach 500.

Items, Gold and Karma Tips

• Hoard liquid karma and only use them when karma booster is active
• Hoard Writ of Experience and convert them to Tome of Knowledge
• Save your gold. Try to use just the items that you find. Don’t
  purchase weapons unless the ones you are using is 10 levels below
  your current level.
• Sell all white/blue/green items that is unusable by your profession
• Make sure you always bring gathering tools so that you can gather the
  resource nodes you encounter as you explore the map. This will lower
  the cost of crafting the items you want later on
• At the minimum, craft 18 slot bags by leveling to 300 the required
  crafting skill of your alternate character