The Desert is actually not that bad. The problem is actually in the difficulty change between Kryta and the Desert. You could complete the Krytan and Maguuman missions with nearly anything, and the monsters in explorables weren't that much of a pain, maybe except for the Wind Riders and, of course, Verata. As long as you took Alesia and didn't aggro more than a group at once, everything worked there.
It's not really true for the Desert.
It's the time you have to learn the tricks and the team's composition, sometimes the hard way.
First off, equipment.
Be sure to always have the top available armor rating. The skin doesn't matter, and the armor doesn't have to be elite. Since you have EotN, you can travel from LA to EotN and get max armor at the Boreal Station.
Unless you get some breakpoints, or you need to maximise your farming potential, or you're running a minion master, never use runes adding +3 to attributes; the -75hp is too much for new players. Use two, max three +1 runes to the attributes you use in your build. As a rule of thumb, all other rune and insignium slots should be taken by survivor & vitae add-ons; some people prefer going +armor, especially for paragons and warriors, but that's really more noticeable in the hard mode.
For caster characters, staves are the easiest to use. Go for one with +10 energy, 20% chance for halving skill recharge of spells (so-called HSR, or global HSR, because all modern staves work for all spells, despite the staff's attribute!), +5 energy from inscription, +30hp from the head and +30hp from the wrapping. It's the most newbie-friendly option, as well as fully working one later on. It's also quite cheap to get a staff like that (the hp mods don't have to be perfect, even +28hp would be fine, and it'd be much cheaper) and it doesn't have to be of any used attribute (spawning power staff like that is totally fine for an E/Mo), because only the auto-attack damage is affected when not meeting the staff's attribute - and, as a caster, you won't really be auto-attacking at all.
For physicals, be sure to use max items and meet their attribute requirements. The mostly wanted mods are +15% while over 50% hp (so-called 15^50), +hp and armor penetration. Less wanted skins and higher req weapons are also dirt cheap to get from other players.
Be sure to equip your heroes, too - their armors can be boosted with runes and insignia as well.
Then your build may be a problem, and that which you run on your heroes.
GW1 has a hell lots of skills, what makes it impossible to have them properly balanced - or, even, balanced at all. It means that there are skills that are shitty crap, even if the description looks promising, and there are those that are used most often, and form up cookie-cutter builds. Of course, the number of
working builds, aka those that will let you complete content (including not only the Desert, but even hard mode) is vast, much greater than the most commonly used builds (so-called 'meta'), but newcomers are usually advised to use some of the most powerful, already tested and community-approved builds, so that the learning of the game's mechanics is not so painful.
That said, visit
this site for builds, including full team builds for heroes later on, or at least for some inspiration and general outlook on what actually works in this game. Even if you decide not to run a popular build, for whatever reason, knowing them might be highly beneficial for you.
General note: running a Warrior/Monk with Healing Hands or Word of Healing won't work in this game.
Now, once you sorted out your equipment and your own skillbar, you must keep in mind that GW1 is a team game. It doesn't really matter if you team up with other players or use henchmen and/or heroes. Going out solo is good only for farming (henchmen not stealing drops) and nothing else.
Always fill your party full.
Keep in mind that your own build is only 1/4, 1/6 or 1/8 of the whole team. You won't be able to do most stuff solo (note to veterans: please keep the context of my post in mind before nitpicking on that), but on the other hand, you only contribute to your team's overall performance. It's best to perceive the whole team as one build that consists of 32, 48 or 56 skills, although from time to time some of those skills might be inaccessible due to running out of energy or dying.
Getting the proper team build is much more akin to getting up a deck in Magic: the Gathering than to other MMOs. Still, there are some easy things to keep in mind:
* always use two Monks - one healing Monk and one protective or prot/heal hybrid Monk; this can, and should, be later changed to suit your playstyle and team (and using a N/Rt healer is much more desired than a Monk one, but don't bother about it right now); so, in the Desert, always use Alesia and Lina;
* do not use melee henchmen/heroes; the melee AI sucks terribly;
* Ranger henchmen/heroes are generally inferior to casters unless used for a very specific build, or running with full physical teams buffed by three Paragon heroes; as it's too soon to think about such complex builds, i advise against using physical henchmen/heroes at all;
* be sure to take Mesmer henchmen/heroes, as well as Elementalists - they often offer a healthy mix of control and damage;
* as soon as you get a Necromancer hero, set them up as a minion master - all details on the pvx wiki.
You might ask how to get new skills, and it's actually a valid question.
The easiest way is to create a PvP character, most preferably a Monk, and - if you have Factions - get to Jade Quarry via Luxon or Kurzick diplomats at the Battle Isles. The first few matches will feel awkward and you won't really contribute much to the team, but you will accumulate Balthazar Faction. With it, you can unlock skills on your account, which may be used by all your PvP characters and all your heroes, across all characters.
Now, in order to get those skills available for your PvE characters, buy skill tomes from other players and you're ready to go.
Other ways of getting Balth include playing some Random Arenas (if you don't have Factions) or using a PvP Ranger in the Zaishen Challenge and Zaishen Elite; you can get up to 6k Balth a day via ZE, and it's
really easy. This way, you can accumulate enough Balth to unlock the desired builds really soon.
So, equipment, skills and builds covered...
But that's not all
First of all, always, be sure to check
the wiki about the location/mission you are about to enter. If you don't want to read up on the story or quests, don't - but be sure to check the foes you're going to encounter. Do you really need that much hex removal? Maybe monsters won't cast that much nasty hexes and you can free a slot on your monk hero. Wouldn't more condition removal to get rid of blind become useful in this mission? Will there be more physical monsters or casters, rendering skills like Aegis and Guardian at least questionable?
Knowing is half the battle and adapting is one of the greatest virtues to learn here.
Learn pulling. GW1 is not like some other MMOs i've played, where one character can take a whole group of twenty monsters and blow them up using several skills. You will often find killing a group of five monsters pretty difficult with a group of eight.
That's why you shouldn't ever engage more than one group of monsters a time. You'll know that those specific monsters are of one group because after you attack one of them, all the other will come after you, as well.
The best way to pull is flagging henchmen a bit behind, and attacking a monster using longbow or flatbow. It doesn't matter what stats this bow has; the range is what is important - bigger than the aggro bubble, so that you can hit the monster with an arrow before being engaged by it. Then simply withdraw behind your henchmen and, after a while, release the flag. Be sure to only pull monsters back into a previously cleansed location.
Read a bit about the
aggro mechanics. Quite often it's much more beneficial to run away and 'break aggro', then go back to resurrect your fallen team members, than rush into monsters only to completely wipe.
Read a bit about
traps if that's what annoys you in the Desert. Most of them are quite visible before getting into them, if you know what to look for, and you can simply send the most durable of your henchmen to set them off.
Try not to ball up, aka don't stay in a big group with your henchmen/heroes. Try to be spread a bit, so that one Meteor spike from Hydras won't kill the whole group. You can use flagging, or you can aggro the monsters yourself, so that you are the target of their first spell, and then slide away from your team, taking the first hit only on you, getting healed much faster and easier.
Learn about covering your hexes and enchantments. If you're going into a location with some enchantment stripping, you might want to grab another enchantment and cast it on top of the most important ones, so you lose this crappy, but cheap and quick-recharge enchantment rather than something vital. If you're going into a location with a lot of AoE enchantment stripping, you might simply avoid using them at all, and rely on other ways of getting energy or protection.
Learn about and practice corner-blocking, when possible. The general idea is to make groups of monsters ball up in one spot, which is behind a wall so that their projectiles won't hurt you, by using a corner. To some extent, it may be used in full henchmen/hero teams with little to no effort. Simply be mindful of your surroundings and try to use them to your advantage, blocking enemy arrows, flares and fireballs with rocks and walls.
Be aware of
AoE scatter of mobs caught in AoE-over-time kind of damage.
Finally, don't give up - adapt. If your builds are completely fine, try a different approach, but don't be afraid to experiment with skills. We all were in your place once, struggling with a particularly nasty mission or location, or even a specific encounter, but we made it through - and so can you
