Map Icons and Hero Tab

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Category: New Players

Written by Zpyr0

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Hearts, Way Points, Points of Interest, Skill Points and Vistas

 Hearts: There are zero quests in Guild wars 2, instead they have Hearts. You fill a heart by doing the basic tasks asked by the npc. You start a heart by being in a close radius to the NPC that has the heart above their head. Killing monsters is not always the objective or the fastest way to complete the heart. Some hearts ask you to clean up spills or pick up active bombs and give you credit towards the heart that way. After completing a heart do not forget to check out what they have for sell :-D Every NPC sells something different and some even sell bulk food items used in cooking!

Waypoints: These are located through out the maps and act as your fast travel. You can use these in town free of charge, but when you are outside in the world there is a fee. You can not travel to a waypoint if it is contested (2 crossed swords over the icon). You either have to wait for it open or run to the battle and free up the waypoint so others can use it.

Points of Interest (poi): These are just spots on the map that you have to walk to. You do not need to activate them, just walk within a close enough radius to them. These places have unique things to them or relate to the worlds history. 

Skill Points: These involve skill, yah duh haha, but they come in two forms. Kill an NPC(s) that spawn or kill an existing NPC(s) and Commune with the place of power. The Exp resulting from completing these is a good amount and never shy away from one. After you are level 80 you will continue to level and upon each level you are given 1 skill point. Skill points are used to unlock special skills for your characters. You also use skill points to purchase unique items like near the Mystic Forge in Lion's Arch or in WvWvW. 

Vistas: My favorite thing in the game honestly. The game encourages you to hope on anything you can find to get to the top of a random spot. Vistas once clicked give you an amazing view of your current surroundings. They do not serve any real purpose other than obtaining 100% map completion and fun when you have time to kill

100% map completion

After you've obtained all the items listed above you are rewarded with a chest and TON of experience. Inside this chest you will find various rewards ranging from harvestable materials, crafting materials or even gear. The items found in the chest always reflect the zone you completed. So if you cleared a 0-15 zone, you will get level 15 gear and tier 1 harvestable materials. 

This is a blast to do and even has a greater purpose. After you have completed 100% of the world you are given Gift of Exploration, an Item used in Legendary Crafting.

Skill Ups and Traits

Slot Skills: These are simply put as unlockable moves. When you receive a skill point from leveling up and doing skill point challenges found through out the world you can use them to unlock Slot Skills.

Traits: They are like talent points and if you do not know what those are, they are basically modifers. You chose what traits you want based on your playstyle and what sounds like fun. In Guild Wars 2 there are cookie cutter specs, but the difference in effectiveness is eh, who cares! have fun!

Unlocking Trait Tiers: There are 3 tiers of traits and you need a book to unlock each of them. You can purchase these books from NPCs and get more exspensive with each tier.

You've got Mail

When this lights up you have new mail. Also note that when you complete a heart, the NPC of that hear will send you mail. The contents of that mail is mostly money and do not forget to collect it o.o after 10 NPC mail you lose it. You are also onlu allowed 10 messages from players. So don't forget to clean out your mail box often ;-)

Wonderful World of Dyes

Hit "H" (the hero tab) it brings up your stats and other neat information. Above your character there is a Dye Toggle on/off switch. located on the left of the image below. 

Click on it to take you to your dyes :-) this part gets real addictive and fun!

Now you can Freely Edit your colors. To get new colors you unlock them using Unidentified Dye that drop randomly from monsters. There are over 350+ colors I believe and the rarity ranges from Fine, Masterwork and Rare. Unidentified Dye also have a very important purpose, you use 250 of them to create a Gift of Color. This is used in Crafting legendaries, but don't worry about that just yet ;-)