[Lenneth]

Lenneth,

I'm curious about gaining a better understanding of this game. (Bear in mind it's been over 10 years since I last played an MMO). Is the game more geared towards solo play or being in a group in regards to making progress? In Everquest it seemed like being in a group was practically a requirement if you wanted to take on the tougher monsters and gain experience. Another question is how much time does one need to spend on this game on a weekly or monthly basis to make decent progress?

A Group is a must if you want to do Dungeons but otherwise you can solo the whole game, and their is a LOT of resources for finding a group doing the Dungeon you want to do without having to rely on getting friends to help you.

Character professions are done in a somewhat unique way in GW2 and their are builds for each that are deceptively powerful.

example on professions the character I posted the pic of is my main fem character which is a Level 80 (current max Level) Mesmer (they use mind tricks on enemies) of the Norn Race (think 12' tall Vikings).

Time Investment can be as much or as little as you want, Leveling can be done in many ways, either by fighting, crafting, doing the storyline, questing (GW2 Calls Quests missions fyi) exploring, or doing dungeons (need to be lvl 35 to do those), you literally gain experience points for everything, up to lvl 35 the easiest/fastest way to level is to fight area bosses & explore (crafting is 2nd easiest) but that said i've made lvl 35 before in about 2-3 days (about 6 hours per day) solo.
(although who says we need to be in a race to level up?)