What's your first character going to be?

[Threash]

Something I'm not quite clear on: with instant lvl80 characters, as long as you've got the slots, you can just create whatever characters for pve,  Asura characters for pvp, and then use the pvp currency to buy stuff for your Asura?

The instant characters are for battleground pvp only.

[Threash]

Here is the list of racial skills for reference.

[Furiously]

You can hide your tiny asura inside huge norn

Hey man, if you play a Norn named George I'll play an Asura named Kuato.

I think the cast of Seinfield would be more fun....It would be a party...that does nothing.

[Draegan]

Sylvari Mesmer (assuming they get fixed to some degree)
Sylvari Necro

We'll see.

[schild]

I don't even know what the classes are! Yay!

[ezrast]

Will probably be Guardian if I play at release. I commented on it in the impressions thread - I focused on harassment and crowd control rather than buffing and support. Not sure how useful it is but it gave me something to do in PvP other than plink away with a ranged weapon at the closest target all the time. Run in, pin a target, punt it towards your zerg, pop defensive skills while people waste CDs on you, win your team a few inches of ground and maybe a kill.

[sachiel]

Asura Elementalist: small package, lots of WvW utility. 

Played a ranger during the first BWE and it was much more fun than I expected and will probably be my second class.  Ranger was my "least likely on release" class, but it surprised me.  I think most of the classes will be like that. 

[tazelbain]

Elementalist Fern.

[Morfiend]

Human Thief.

[Feverdream]

Sylvari Elementaliist.
Sylvari Mesmer

If I get the time I'll have to make a Norn Ranger.  The Norn lore and storyline is just too perfect for a Ranger...and Rangers specced heavily into Spirits appeal to my love of support classes -- they actually feel a lot like playing a WoW Shaman in that build.

[satael]

Human mesmer (since I've played it the most) and joining a hardcore pvp guild or asura engineer (since I've tried neither asura nor engineer) and playing alot more casually.

Leaning towards the more casual side of things...

[Mosesandstick]

Sylvari something. Maybe guardian.

[MrHat]

I don't even know what the classes are! Yay!

Same boat.

I know nothing about this game except that I enjoyed GW1 and havne't heard anything bad.

Will probably be the first game in a while I go in 'cold' and just pick at selection.

[waffel]

Not sure if this video has been posted anywhere, but after watching it I'm ridiculously pumped for this game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TgAf4lbvTM

[Draegan]

Just a small tip that I'd like to pass around.  If you're the type of person that picks small races because you can hide behind stuff, then if you play a Mesmer you should pick a bigger race (Charr/Norn).  Creating clones just adds more stuff in your enemies field of vision thus allowing other players to hide behind or dodge behind etc. 

It's not a big tip, but it's something to think about.

[trias_e]

Human's overplayed, Charr and Asura I can't stand aethetically, so I'm looking at Sylvari or Norn.   Class-wise, I Haven't played a beta weekend yet, but have watched videos.  So I'm kind of just guessing here.  The classes that have looked the most fun:  Thief, Necro, Guardian, Elementalist.  Guardian and Elemantalist are being played by my two closest buddies, so I'm torn between thief and necro.  Norn thief is just silly, so either Sylvari Thief or Norn Necromancer. 

Are melee Necros as fun as they look to play?  The videos I've seen of them just look ridiculously badass.

I love the way thief looks to play as well:  Popping in and out of stealth, very mobile.  Not sure if it has any decent utility though.  I also have no idea if there are some classes with better synergies than others.  Considering I'll be playing quite a bit with a Guardian and an Elementalist, is there any synergistic reason to pick Thief or Necro?

[Lantyssa]

Guardians are a snoozefest.  At least at low level.

Really though, a lot of it is dependent upon class and weapon combination.

[ffc]

The only class I didn't like from the most recent beta weekend was the Necro (lvl 10 or so) because I didn't feel any of my spells had any fancy visible feedback / impact compared to the other classes.  It was one of the classes I thought I would like the most so I was surprised it didn't resonate with me.

Warrior and Guardian let me herpderp through pve content with ease, and I prefer Guardian just because I like the look of the spell effects like spitting fire with the torch offhand compared to the relatively tame Warrior animations.  Thief required a lot more planning and I died the most with this class; the double pistol attacks are never got old to watch.  I didn't care for Ranger pets or Engineer turrets so builds without either of those would be nice to explore.

I liked the Norn starting area the most.  I don't know if it was smaller than the other starting areas but I felt like there was much less running and I never had to search for appropriate level content.  I also hate the Norn voiced comments during level up the most, go figure.  I'd take another race to the Norn area but then I would miss the personal story stuff.

edit:  I forgot to mention the Mesmer 2H sword ranged attack makes a "clank clank clank" sound that will drive you, and everyone around you, insane.

[Draegan]

The only class I didn't like from the most recent beta weekend was the Necro (lvl 10 or so) because I didn't feel any of my spells had any fancy visible feedback / impact compared to the other classes.  It was one of the classes I thought I would like the most so I was surprised it didn't resonate with me.

Warrior and Guardian let me herpderp through pve content with ease, and I prefer Guardian just because I like the look of the spell effects like spitting fire with the torch offhand compared to the relatively tame Warrior animations.  Thief required a lot more planning and I died the most with this class; the double pistol attacks are never got old to watch.  I didn't care for Ranger pets or Engineer turrets so builds without either of those would be nice to explore.

I liked the Norn starting area the most.  I don't know if it was smaller than the other starting areas but I felt like there was much less running and I never had to search for appropriate level content.  I also hate the Norn voiced comments during level up the most, go figure.  I'd take another race to the Norn area but then I would miss the personal story stuff.

edit:  I forgot to mention the Mesmer 2H sword ranged attack makes a "clank clank clank" sound that will drive you, and everyone around you, insane.

I agree with your statement of Necros.  I love the minions, but you have to constantly resummon them which is fucking annoying.  Also your opinion of their skill feedback is spot on.  You get no real visible feel for their attacks.

Guardians are pretty cool, but I'm not sure if I enjoy their playstyle.  Last time I played one, they didn't have a viable ranged spec.  I've heard that they've changed stuff with the sceptre though.

[KallDrexx]

Arenanet has stated that Necros were one of the worst off classes and in the need of the most balancing for diversity.  By other comments made by Jon Peters I assume it's only second to mesmer (which they also stated needs a good balancing and fun factor improvement).

[Threash]

Necros were by far the most tanky class with their multiple health bars.

[Draegan]

One problem with Necros is that their Death Shroud abilities suck.

[kildorn]

I enjoy hammer guardians. I didn't like the 2h sword feel even if the skills seem strong. Staff is also pretty brutal as shotgun type damage skills go.

I'm hoping to start off with a mesmer, since every BWE I've loved them a bit more.

[Lantyssa]

One problem with Necros is that their Death Shroud abilities suck.

This.  While I like my Necro, I disliked Death Shroud because I used two abilities of it.  The other two seemed useless.

[tazelbain]

Well, I just love Elementalists.  They have biggest kit of any class except maybe Engineers which I have no interest in.  Kit being the tools used to deal with a variety of scenarios on the field battle.

[01101010]

Well, I just love Elementalists.  They have biggest kit of any class except maybe Engineers which I have no interest in.  Kit being the tools used to deal with a variety of scenarios on the field battle.

I am flirting with having an engineer as my main out of the gates, but looking at that ability/kit list is daunting.

[kildorn]

It's only bad if you try and roll with a bunch of kits. I personally used just the flame thrower because it's fucking awesome.

[Evildrider]

If you don't play an Asura with an afro you are doing it wrong.  Just saying.

[Tmon]

The head start starts at midnight pacific time on the 25th.  Although if the BWEs are any indication it might very well start an hour or two earlier.

[Tyrnan]

The head start starts at midnight pacific time on the 25th.  Although if the BWEs are any indication it might very well start an hour or two earlier.

That seems a bit odd (is that 2 or 3AM on the east coast?) but is great for us EU folks

[Miasma]

There is still a fair bit of confusion about exactly what hour it starts.

[Arinon]

That's 3am EST and would suuuuuck.  Would end up being like 5am before sane people could log in.  Fuck PST up its stupid ass.

[satael]

The head start starts at midnight pacific time on the 25th.  Although if the BWEs are any indication it might very well start an hour or two earlier.

That seems a bit odd (is that 2 or 3AM on the east coast?) but is great for us EU folks

It's 10am for me which is pretty pretty much ideal start for a whole day of gaming (unless it turns out to be 12+ hours of waiting for the game to be fixed due to some unforeseen problems and then being too tired of waiting to care when it's finally fixed)

[Tmon]

oh they also announced a four hour stress test for tomorrow starting at noon pacific.

[Miasma]

Their countdown thingy does not seem to correspond to midnight PST though.