And since preparation is everything, I've created a loadout and skill-set to best match my play style using this: http://ninjalooter.de/gw2/charakter-planer.html (EN is on the top right corner of the screen)
At first glance, the whole thing might seem a bit confusing and possibly a bit overwhelming to the average WoW noob. But if you take the time to read all the descriptions and popups, it's all self-explanatory and it all makes perfect sense. Most of all, it's nearly impossible to fuck up your character. You can use the skills and traits to make your class suit your play style, but you cannot really pick any bad or wrong ones.
For instance, your character might get a choice of three different healing abilities and you may only pick one. One restores a low amount of HP but comes with only a 20 seconds cooldown, the next one heals more, but can only be used every 30 seconds and then there's one with a really massive heal and small HoT-effect, which comes with an equally whopping cooldown timer. They're all perfectly viable in their own way, there's no right or wrong and in the end, it's all down to personal preference. Same goes for your possible buffs and oh-shit buttons. Small buffs can be kept up pretty much 100%, mega buffs have a much greater effect, but only last for a few seconds and come with a hefty recharge timer. They all get the job done and should you end up picking something you really hate, then it's easy enough to replace.
Of course you'll want to avoid picking trait bonuses, which raise your critical rate with swords if you only use axes, but if you lack the common sense to figure this out, then GW2 probably isn't for you.
Customizing your abilities is easy enough and it's incredibly fun. For instance, I depend on greatswords in battle, so I've unlocked a greatsword life tap. I use my aegis all the time (magical shield thingie that takes hits for ya), so I've upgraded it to burn enemies that hit it and to heal me if somebody pops it. Claire's warrior uses axes, which build up her adrenaline meter like crazy, so she's picked a trait that gives her a crit-bonus that goes up with adrenaline. She also likes to switch to her gun a lot, so she's activated a small adrenaline bonus, that triggers whenever she changes weapons. Well, you get the idea. Basically, you pick the stuff that powers up your favourite abilities and weapon types and that's that. It's not rocket science and that's the whole point.
So I fired up the pvp browser, jumped into the first random match I could find and started killing people. Casters, thieves, other guardians - I was on top of the scoreboard the entire time. I'm fully aware that many of the people I fought weren't using optimized setups and that a couple weeks after launch the average skill level is going to increase a lot. But I had a metric shit ton of fun, my skill loadout worked perfectly and my gap closers and CC abilities were enough to defeat ranged and melee characters alike.
One feature I'm particularly fond of is the sparring NPCs. There are max level NPCs of every class in the pvp staging areas, who are happy to kick your ass for the sake of practice. Now, of course they're not as talented or difficult to kill as any skilled player, but if you're struggling against a certain class, then the sparring area is the place to go. Familiarize yourself with their abilities, learn how to read and counter them, feel more confident when you face them on the battlefield. Good stuff.
Wanna know the best thing about last night? Not only did I manage to solve my main char(r) dilemma, but... oh wait, you'll want to open this link in a new window before we continue. Done? Alright, so keep that small window open, read this next sentence and press the button in that new window all at the same time, okay? Here goes: Claire's main is gonna be a warrior! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNNNN!!
Originally, she had planned on playing a thief. You can see how that worked out when looking at the video I've linked on top. Basically, she died about 800 times. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's probably a L2P issue. But that's not the point. Thing is, she wasn't 100% sure about the whole thing. Then she tried a ranger and that only made things worse. We've genuinely written down a list of pros and cons for both the thief and the ranger, as though to figure out which of the two she should dump. Ranger would have won by some small amount, but you try and reason with a woman. It's THEM who came up with the stupid pros and cons list in the first place, but can they just accept the one thing with more pros and fewer cons? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! "I dunno, the ranger seems better, but they're both fun." Sigh. Back to square one.
Fortunately for her, I'm a kickass dude and one hell of a listener. She told me how she didn't like how fragile those classes were. She didn't like the looks of a leather-clad charr. Charr in full plate look so much cooler, she said. Okay. So you don't wanna be a glass cannon. You don't wanna wear leather. You love full plate. Why are you playing a thief again?
Long story short, she rolled a warrior, grabbed a sword, an axe and a gun and started chopping people in half. She didn't die once that night. Because she's got the fucking heavy armor and the biggest health pool in the whole damn game. Kill 3 higher level monsters at the same time with one overpowered special attack? Sure, why the hell not. Thief. Ha!
So yeah, it's all decided now. I'm gonna be a guardian, she's gonna be a warrior. She's finally hyped up about it and looking forward to the launch now. She stopped caring for the past couple of weeks, because she couldn't even get herself to like the classes she originally considered for her main. Now that's fixed, we'll be battle-clad heavy metal kitties together and two weeks from now we shall take over the world. Life is good!
-Cat
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