In the low-level areas, the events do repeat quickly. That starts to taper out to a more reasonable level around level 10 or so, when you move out of the very beginner areas.
And what the hell are Trophies and what does "soulbound" mean? I have a shit ton of those, and they seem to have no purpose whatsoever? Is it just vendor trash?
Go to a vendor, click on the Sell tab, and hit "Sell Junk" to get rid of gray items (trophies). Soulbound means you can't give it to someone else. You can only vendor it, salvage it with a salvage kit you buy from a vendor, or drop it in the Mystic Forge in Lion's Arch.
My first weapon skill seems to have three effects assigned to it. Does that mean it randomly picks those effects, or do I have to mash the button so it cycles through the effects? (I'm guessing the latter.)
It chains them. Your first attack is an auto-attack, so you don't have to keep spamming the button. Hit it once, and it will cycle through those abilities.
I also, from time to time, seem to do a combo. The game just says "Yeah dawg! You did a combo! Word up! You can also do finishers!" and never bothers explaining what exactly it was that I did that was a combo, what a finisher is, or how you do one.
Don't worry about combos right now. Get a feel for your own abilities before trying to pair them up with another player's.
But a quick explanation: there are two kinds of combo abilities: combo fields and combo finishers. If you do a combo finisher within a combo field, a new effect will occur. For example, if I drop a ring of fire, and you have a combo finisher: projectile on your bow, if you fire your arrows through the ring, your arrows will become fire arrows, causing fire damage to the enemies. You can mouse over an ability to see if it provides either of these two effects.
I'm only now (level 25) starting to see groups working together to use their combo abilities. (Even though I still see people foolishly moving out of my healing fields. FFS, people, the white rings are good! Quit running out of them!)
Edit: Oops, that was in reply to Creston.