From what I understand there will be no monthly fees on GW2. And Assimilator1, DOA stands for Domain of Anguish. DOA is the elite area in Nightfall that you can access after you finish the game.
And as far as finding new players, that can be a bit tough. A lot of the people in the beginning areas are new players and a whole lot of them are people who have multiple characters and have started a new one. Playing with higher level people can be a bit boring for both the new players and the higher level player due to the lack of challenge in a lot of the earlier areas. The advantage of having a max level character(or close to it) helping out is that you can pick up some tips while you're playing that will make things easier for you all the way through the game. Probably your best bet if you want to enjoy playing with other people in the beginning is be selective who you take with you. If you want a higher level player, try to get a monk or someone who won't one-hit kill all the enemies. That way your character can still "lay some smack down" on the monsters and the higher level player can just stay back and heal when necessary. There are lots of ideas and ways of playing with other players and that was just one idea.
Another thing to be wary of is "pugs" a.k.a. pick up groups. Don't get me wrong, there are some GREAT pugs to be found. However, a lot of pugs either aren't very experienced or have the mindset that there is only one way to do things........their way. Be prepared to "ping" your skill bar(hold ctrl and click on your skill bar and it will paste it to chat). People in a pug who are worth your time will look your skills over and make suggestions based on trying to help you. Any pug who simply says "your bar sux"....that's a group that you want to leave cause they will more than likely not be overly team oriented. Just something to consider for those who are starting out. And if you haven't been exposed to it yet, most likely you will at some point.....so I'm just trying to alert you ahead of time.
For those of you who have lots of questions....you might check out this site. It's a forum like this one dedicated just to Guild Wars. There is a ton of info on there such as item prices, minipet prices, runes, mods, dyes, and even more. There are some rather "elitist" people on there at times but a lot of the people who post are helpful.
Incgamers Unofficial GuildWars Site
And if you have questions about skills, armor, quests, missions, collectors, materials, runes, bosses, etc.... this is a good site for help and walkthroughs if you should happen to need them.
GuildWiki(unofficial)
GuildWiki(official)
Finally, for those who like to try different builds for farming or experimenting, here is a site for you to try.
PvXwiki
please note that at the time I posted the link for GuildWiki....the site was down. It shouldn't be down for too long but you may have to check back in a bit.
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