Guild Wars 2: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I always meant to, but I never did when the screenshots didn't come out like I thought they would (it didn't show the little popup when you hover over gear).. but I wanted to write a little 'how-to' guide or beginner's guide for Guild Wars 2. I know that its a tad late, but there 'are' new players every day and I was very lucky to have very experienced friends who would answer my very noob questions. 

The worst thing when playing a new game is being lost and not knowing the things that makes a game great that everyone else seems to know. So per the request of one of my closest friends (that's you Brown Magic), i'm gonna do my best to answer all the questions he has and provide a newbie friendly guide in nice bite-sized entries versus one huge entry where TL:DR will naturally happen.

I'll be answering the following areas below:
- differences between solo play, group play, world pvp, etc
- item hierarchy (blue, green, gold, purple, etc), and important attributes
- zone wide rewards and when to move on to the next zone
- how to read the basic map
- basic overview of races and classes
- what to do from levels 1-15, then 15-30 etc (not just grinding but types of things you can experience best)
- overview of gathering; purpose, do you need it, why there are so many mats, zone equipment
- overview on skills vs traits and how to spend
- some setup options, moving gathered items, how to access bank
- overview on karma, mystic coins, and other currency; how to get, why you need it, how to spend
- differences between personal quests, heart quests, dynamic quests

I guess I partially didn't end up writing alot of this b/c i'm by no means a master of the game, but I am passionate about it and won't go on to brag about how it'll never be cancelled.. unlike some games.... b/c it eventually will.. but I would have moved on a long time ago and playing Guild Wars 4.
If anyone has any questions they have (ill answer them to the best of my limited knowledge) or would like to see me write something, please leave a comment and I'd love to try to get it posted for you!