Pretty subjective, but if I were in your shoes (but knowing then what I know now) here's the kind of tips I wish I'd gotten/understood back when:

- Play the game & have fun. Not trying to be glib or anything, but earlier in your journey is just the better time for enjoying the story missions and Delves and "lower-tier" content in the game if you care about it at all. Later down the line, a lot of that stuff gets easy enough that you can sleepwalk through most of it; and if you wind up playing in group content more you'll often find others just don't afford you the time to enjoy things at your own pace. Plus there's just the obvious spoiler risk or continuity issue if you go playing the game's story content out of order. Getting your exploring, questing, Delve delving, skyshard hunting, book reading, etc. done just feels best earlier in your personal progression, imo.

- Get to CP160 asap! It's not necessary, and I generally don't recommend grinding if it's not your thing (it's a fun-killer for me, personally) -- BUT 160 is gear cap & thus the point the gear you earn becomes permanently useful. Earning awesome stuff that becomes outclassed just by leveling up sucks, and in hindsight I wish I'd meandered less before earning those first 160 Champion Points. It's probably the best first thing to work toward from a practicality standpoint. You can get there more quickly just by following a Dolmen circuit, doing the Daily Random Dungeons, endlessly murdering zombies in your favorite spot, doing loops in Skyreach, or whatever; just put your focus on earning XP in whatever way you can stomach to get to CP160 before focusing on earning specific gear. Find a balance between superuberomgxpgrind and just playing & having fun that works for you.

- Start leveling all crafting skill lines and researching Traits now! (IF you care about crafting at all, that is -- it's totally optional.) Trait research takes forever (as in, months even at maximum speed; unless you pay $$$ to speed natural progress) and getting all your crafts to 50 can be costly (either in gold or items) if you're in a hurry. Get on track with it now and wait for it to max out naturally with your own loot and whatnot; no need to hurry if you don't have immediate need. You'll be glad it's done later on, but won't be stressed about it if you're doing it kinda passively. Crafting is among the most useful and profitable pursuits in the game. Most people find it beneficial to have a dedicated crafting character (and Motif learner!) so that the ~100+ skill points needed aren't a burden for their combat-oriented needs; but YMMV. (Bonus extra-subjective tip: Nightblades make the best master crafter/harvester characters, mostly just because of the easy Invisibility -- being able to nope out of situations when you're just looking to gather materials or whatever is a huge time/frustration saver.) Also, don't forget your mount training! ;P


Those three things are kind of it, early on. The stuff you do in the early game is largely up to you, but I think most people would agree that story missions (base game, earlier DLC, then later DLC) are a good place to start since it's all lower difficulty than, say, soloing dungeons.

Delves are about on-par with story missions, difficulty-wise. Then Public Dungeons are the next step up. Craglorn content is a step further, I reckon. Once you're smashing through Delves, Public Dungeons, and soloing a lot of the Craglorn stuff, I'd say you're pretty much ready for soloing Group Dungeons. (Trials cannot be done solo, afaik.) A lot of the base game dungeons start out comparable to Delves, though; as in, they're not really that difficult to solo even early on. Only you will know when you're ready to try them, but don't be too afraid to just jump into ones like Fungal Grotto 1, Spindleclutch 1, Darkshade Caverns 1, etc. right off the bat and see where you land. If you can dish out any damage and keep yourself alive (heal), you can clear them very early. It's also not a super linear Delves>PDs>Craglorn>Group Dungeons progression, though; feel free to mix and match to taste. Basically all of this can be done from level ~20 onwards, tbh. With varying degrees of difficulty, obviously.

Once you hit CP160, you can start focusing on clearing the content that holds the gear you want. Get better gear so you can spank enemies harder! >:D