I narrowed down my choices. I had already played Elementalist extensively in previous events. I played a War to 23 and a Ranger to 15 in this event.

My current plans now are to create three characters for headstart, then pick one and play through to 80. Current rankings for me are:

1. Human Elementalist.

2. Norn Ranger.

3. Sylvari Warrior.

I really enjoy all three professions and races.

I love the complexity of Elementalists and the Human zones are the ones I played the most. Starting with something familiar seems like my best bet, making the initial progression during Head Start smooth, plus the added bonus of getting to see where the Personal Story goes beyond the BWE cap. I also realized this weekend that even though the Human zones are the ones I'm most familiar with, I still haven't seen everything in them or experienced all the DEs.

I really enjoyed playing a melee Ranger. A lot of really cool skill animations, a very energetic form of game play and I love finding and taming pets. I had a fair amount of experience with the Norn lands, but no where near as extensive as the Human lands. I love the snowy environs. I've done none of the Personal Story, so the starting areas and city may be familiar, but the story will be completely fresh.

I really love the look of the Sylvari and the way they move. What I saw of the Sylvari areas, I really liked. I'm saving them for later, though. As my third character, there will be a lot here that is completely fresh and new. Best left for a phase of the game when I can really just take my time.

Eventually, I'll play all five races. I'll wait for my "bottom two" professions to be tweaked and improved before considering alts beyond the first six characters. (I'm still not happy with Mesmer. Engineer doesn't currently fit my playstyle).

I fully expect and intend to get at least 1,000 hours of play time over the course of the first year, just from the PvE game. I'll be greatly limiting my sPvE and WvW time during the first few months, in order to maintain my focus on the PvE world.

During one of the closed, invite only beta weekends I played a Norn engineer and absolutely fell in love with the class.   C'mon, who doesn't like a flamethrower?   That will definitely be my main during release, and, I look forward to playing around & experimenting with many different builds.

And for the final beta this weekend past, I created a Charr guardian and had more fun than I thought I would.  Whirling dervish of death with a two handed sword (okay maybe not death, but still satisfying nonetheless), sending opponents flying with a two handed hammer (FORE!!!), short duration speed buff, and cc with a scepter & shield combo.  Everything about it was fun!

My time in the all the beta weekends put me at over 100 hours game play.   I tested nearly all classes excluding Necromancer and Elementalist.  I thought I'd play a Norn Warrior come launch until I played a little Asuran Guardian.. It was so Apropo to how I fell in love with the race and the class..  My little "Apropo" hates being called cute... He's not cute, adorable, cuddly, or any other endearing titles, He's a force to be reckoned with in a small package and your shins will recieve the brunt end of his furry if you call him anything besides fear enspiring. His family moto is "I am EVIL!!" Stop laughing!!!"  ;)

I didn't even bother to try Guardian during BWE 2 because I thought I'd never like it.  But this time when I finally did I really enjoyed it. While I don't usually play fighter classes I somehow really like the Warrior and Guardian in this game.

Before my first BWE the Necro was my main choice but every time I play it I keep getting more doubts. In theory I like the profession but it has to be the most bland caster in the game (referring to skill animations). I think their coolest looking skills are all sadly their underwater stuff (frozen abyss is awesome).

Also, even though I didn't really care for the Mesmer last BWE, this time something about them grabbed me and I had a lot more fun with one. But I feel the class mechanics have some issues that stil need to be worked out, especially in PvE. I'm kind of going to wait and see on them. If I hear they've made some smart improvements by release I will likely play one.

My view of the races hasn't changed significantly other than my falling for the Sylvari character creation options. It's going to be difficult for me to not want to just make Sylvari since they seem to have the most potential variety. But I do love the Asura animations as well. And even though the "Norn shuffle" bothers me as well I still like the race's aethestic enough to look past it.

This weekend made my decision more complex.  I've decided on Human, even created one as a template, but I cannot decide on a profession.  First it was Mesmer, then Mes or Guardian, then DW dagger Ele and now I'm back to one of the three.

I wish DW dagger Ele had more survivability or was at least as effective as staff.  I didn't play with traits much so we'll see.  It will be an interesting head start.

LOL, I love reading all these responses to the OP. It is all so similar to what I am experiencing as well!

The fact that there will be 5 dfferent starting areas with so many classes that are awesome makes for a ton of playability and adventure. I for one will not be rushing to get to 80 on any character. The whole is game is end game so make the most of it!

It is true that once you get to 80 you can really start decking out how your character looks, but that will all come in time.

I can honestly say that I have already gotten my money's worth in the time I have played!!

Was that fanboyish enough??!?!

I always planned on playing a Human Mesmer, but that had the potential to change to Sylvari and/or potentially Elementalist. After playing Sylvari this past weekend, I've decided to indeed roll Human come launch, and had such a blast playing Mesmer I'll be going that route as well!

I am a bit at a loss.. i think i reduced the options between asura and sylvari as race, as class... eh  hard choice, i ilked elementalist, warrior, mesmer.. i have yet to try guardian.  i know i will not play an human necro, but that's mostly it... ahh choices choices what a sweet tormet they are.

As i wrote above i will not roll a mesmer for 1st char but i have to say that mesmer armor is so cool.

We played with a guild at one of the tournament pvp matches. These guys propably were playing from the early start of this BWE couse all had very good armors.

Until i saw the mesmer...

I thought that teleported to Warhammer online. That mesmer's armor was exactly like a zealot! I Guess that was the rr 20 pvp gear.

Originally posted by Apropo

My time in the all the beta weekends put me at over 100 hours game play.   I tested nearly all classes excluding Necromancer and Elementalist.  I thought I'd play a Norn Warrior come launch until I played a little Asuran Guardian.. It was so Apropo to how I fell in love with the race and the class..  My little "Apropo" hates being called cute... He's not cute, adorable, cuddly, or any other endearing titles, He's a force to be reckoned with in a small package and your shins will recieve the brunt end of his furry if you call him anything besides fear enspiring. His family moto is "I am EVIL!!" Stop laughing!!!"  ;)

made me laugh and think about the days people still roleplayed ingame :)

Originally posted by grstevens

The fact that there will be 5 dfferent starting areas with so many classes that are awesome makes for a ton of playability and adventure. I for one will not be rushing to get to 80 on any character. The whole is game is end game so make the most of it!

This above all is the greatest draw for me.  I personally think that the attraction to a lot of the game's other elements will wear out a lot faster than a lot of people think, but GW2 is the first well-made game in a long time that offers a meaningful diversity of race and class choices that encourage exploring different combinations to find the ones that "fit" the player.  I think having the personal connection is a really important part of getting players to keep coming back over long time periods.  There will be lots of Charr and lots of Engineeers, and even a number of Charr Engineers, but they are not "my Charr Engineer."  I think GW2 captures that feeling better than most games.

The last beta didn't really change my mind on what my main will be, still set on Thief at the moment. In PvP, they are seen as "non-viable" (words from the high-end PvP teams, not mine) as far as tournaments go, but I think, aside from some quirks they could fix, that they are indeed viable. 

The Mesmer was A LOT of fun and will probably be my other main for PvP. 

I REALLY enjoyed this last beta compared to the others, I just hope they can fix some things with certain classes in a month.

Prior to BWE3 I kept flip-flopping between Mesmer and Engineer as my main so I decided to try Ranger this time.  Crap now I have to choose between 3 professions instead of 2 :(

I've never been this undecided on what I'm going to play prior to the release of an MMO.

Stil sticking no Norn Warrior, no change, even though I tried all other classes in the various week ends.

I originally wanted to be Ranger like in GW1 but first I didn't like it because of the bugged pet AI / squishy pets. I wanted to be Ele or Necro. However, in BWE3 I fell in love with Ranger again because the pets are much better now and they don't die that often. Also, I tried shortbow for the first time and it was hella fun! My main will be Ranger. :)
Edit: I was excited about the Sylvari but they are too fancy for my taste after all. I'll be Norn.

before this last BWE I was sure I'm going to roll ranger as main and guardian as alt...

now.. I'm not even sure if I'll have a ranger :D 

Originally posted by Xobdnas

Going in I was thinking I'd be a ranger, probably a Norn ranger.

Now I'm not so sure. All the races are fun, all the classes are fun. I'm probably going Engineer, Human (couldn't get over the slow Norn shuffle) or Sylvari (Sylvari mushroom hair plus Engineer backpack = Japanese WWII looking character). Asura blew me away, best animated race in an MMO in a long long time but I don't like being the cute little guy unless my name is Yoda (someone beat me to it, this time!).

I opened a tread, i think it was yesterday, where several well educated players gave a pretty good analysis on several clases... maybe it can help you to clear your mind and make a good desicion.

anyway heres the link.... not triying to do self propaganda btw :p

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5149937#5149937

Originally posted by Graey

Originally posted by Inf666
...

Two things.

 

1. What about the mesmer do you think they need to fix? I played one this BWE...to be honest I'm not sure if its my taste or not, which leads to my second question.

 

2. In PVP...say I make a guardian, can you see what their higher tier gear will look like, as I want really nice looking gear when I cap via pvp or pve. This is a deciding factor but only like 25% or so. The reason why I say this is because I'm having a hard time picking a damn profession. Really quite irritating.

I played several chars into the level 10-20 area and by far the mesmer needed the most time to get there.

- Clones / phantasms are dispelled after every mob.

- Clones do 0 damage and override phantasms when they spawn.

- You have to build up your "combo points" just to see them die by two hits.

- Hardly any AOE skills.

- Core mechanic does not work (Creating worthless clones to then detonate them for worthless dmg).

Add it up and you have a low kill per time ratio. Especially in groups where everyone seems to be spamming high damage skills and AOEs all the time you feel out of place with the mesmer.

Sure you have a nice survivability for a cloth class but its a pain to have to do so much just to come close to the performance level of other characters. They just spam 1 spell and do more burst damage than you do with 3 phantasms and some clever thought out combo.

I am especially worried about the end game viability. Why should any group take a mesmer into a dungeon if they are out-performed in virtually every area? Its not fun to LFG for hours.

Originally posted by Inf666

Originally posted by Graey

Originally posted by Inf666
...

Two things.

 

1. What about the mesmer do you think they need to fix? I played one this BWE...to be honest I'm not sure if its my taste or not, which leads to my second question.

 

2. In PVP...say I make a guardian, can you see what their higher tier gear will look like, as I want really nice looking gear when I cap via pvp or pve. This is a deciding factor but only like 25% or so. The reason why I say this is because I'm having a hard time picking a damn profession. Really quite irritating.

I played several chars into the level 10-20 area and by far the mesmer needed the most time to get there.

- Clones / phantasms are dispelled after every mob.

- Clones do 0 damage and override phantasms when they spawn.

- You have to build up your "combo points" just to see them die by two hits.

- Hardly any AOE skills.

- Core mechanic does not work (Creating worthless clones to then detonate them for worthless dmg).

Add it up and you have a low kill per time ratio. Especially in groups where everyone seems to be spamming high damage skills and AOEs all the time you feel out of place with the mesmer.

Sure you have a nice survivability for a cloth class but its a pain to have to do so much just to come close to the performance level of other characters. They just spam 1 spell and do more burst damage than you do with 3 phantasms and some clever thought out combo.

I am especially worried about the end game viability. Why should any group take a mesmer into a dungeon if they are out-performed in virtually every area? Its not fun to LFG for hours.

You are entitled to your opinion, but that was not my experience at all- I find your underperformance with Mesmer to be your own shortcomings.

Played Mesmer to 28 this past weekend.  My favorite weapon combo after trying them all except pistol was Staff and sword/torch.  The clones are far from worthless.  Sword and staff have plenty of AoE output.  If you are failing to make use of the illusions before enemies die its you're own fault.  There are four shatter's available and traits to make their death more effective.

I agree with your point about Mesmer requiring more strategy and timing than some of the other easy-mode professions, but to say they are lacking in performance is not my experience.

I'm still undecided which class to play first to 80.  I thought i would like warrior, but it wasn't what i expected.  I might go Ranger or Guardian, but i'm still not sure which race to choose.