1) hit the M key on the keyboard and the first tab called "special ops" that is your main PVE - everyone keeps thinking the desert gimic is the pve, but it really isn't it was more of an after thought added to give some interesting background and free gear to get you up to an appropriate level for pvping fast. Special ops missions btw are raid style timed assaults - each difficulty level has more content than the last and adds different gameplay elements that must be completed
2) I haven't had much problem leveling myself because the so called 50% rate seems to be the same rate of exp as the release game was for subscribers, but i may be wrong - anyways you can double your rate and drops permanently by paying 19.99 which is far superior than many other payment/premium plans of free games where you end up spending about that much and the time limit is finite - also you can buy high end end game gear with in game currency (and the gear can also be attached with in-game crafting upgrades too) at your respective mercenary shops - I.E. there is a shop for each class archetype just find a navigation console and click "*classname* gear vendor" to find your respective shops... you will notice you need lots of currency for these items, but thankfully you can get all the currency you need by using mercenary pvp - which is the main means of gaining cash and rep in this game
3) have you Hit M yet and even qualified for 90% of the game content yet? and I have no idea why this is the second GA topic in the mmorpg section because honestly as I've stated in a previous post else where that leveling up really has little bearing on how powerful you are in game - if you honestly read the stats of the high end gear and try out some of the skills your character's your strength marginally increases and you have no vitality stats/energy/health or nothing that increases by level - this is an mmofps and honestly you can kick the butts of people twice your level, i do it constantly it's no big deal - think of the levels as like the ranking system in AVA - yea your rank increased and you can use more weapons, but are any specific weapons/health stats of the higher ranks SIGNIFICANTLY higher power than the lower ranks? the answer is no and its true in this game as well
last but not least this game isn't about waiting for a developer to make content for you - it's about making your own content with the battles you choose. get your butt up to level 30, get into an alliance and start conquering the map (M key bottom tab named AVA)





