Profession/Race/RP Issues.

[RD]

I somehow doubt it because that would mean they are quite unbalanced, which would be problematic for dungeons etc.

Hm... I don't know, I don't think it's a huge difference, but just look at their skills:
With Hammer, guardian has three attack skills, a condition removal, and a protect. Warrior has five attack skills.
With Mace (main hand), guardian has two attack skills (one that heals), and a protect. Warrior has two attacks and one protect (which also causes damage). I'd be surprised if the healing guardian skills does as much damage as a warrior attack.

I'm not going to compare every skill, but I stand by my guess. Plus, we know guardians inherently have less HP than warriors, so they HAVE to be more defensive to survive.

[Alaris]

Comparing a given weapon across profession is probably not a fair comparison, as weapons can change role across profession. Axes are thrown weapons for rangers for example.

I don't want to compare skill-by-skill either, I think neither of us has the time or dedication for it ;) But I think the OP might learn something useful from this:

1) Warriors do have more HP, but Guardians have two passive virtues that boost their survival (one regens health, one blocks). I don't know what is easier to survive with though to be honest.

2) Guardian can be pretty offence-oriented using for example a greatsword or a sword + torch, and equipping spirit weapons. Tome of wrath is an offensive elite. This gives the guardian an almost exclusively offensive build.

3) Warrior can be pretty defence-oriented using hammer or dual mace, as both of those weapons cause KD and a variety of shutdown conditions (cripple, daze, etc). He can then take defensive shouts, banners, and stances, with the battle standard as elite. This gives the warrior an almost exclusively defensive build.

4) Making an offensive guardian or defensive warrior is feasible, but you have a lot less skill choices to pick from compared to a defensive guardian and offensive warrior. Hence my argument that these two differ not in balance but it variety. Warriors have more options for making an offensive build, whereas guardians have more options to make a defensive build.

A quick overview (I didn't actually count skills) shows that warriors have twice as many offensive skills to pick from than defensive skills, whereas the opposite seems to be true of guardians. I assume though that an offensive warrior skills equates an offensive guardian skill, and a defensive guardian skill equates a defensive warrior skill. This is an assumption of mine though...

[Gmac]

You can untie stats from skin. Some item called Stone of Transferral (iirc).

Awesome.

Keep a rifle handy / avoid the arrows. The collision detection on projectiles is quite good.

Well I was going to try to avoid a gun if at all possible, to give myself the ability to play with sword and board and maybe a 2 handed hammer or duel wield axes, to have both offensive and defensive capabilities.

I'm not going to compare every skill, but I stand by my guess. Plus, we know guardians inherently have less HP than warriors, so they HAVE to be more defensive to survive.

Yeah, after looking through the skill tree's of both Warriors and Guardian some more it seems like Guardians have more support traits that allow them to be more defensive, especially in a group dynamic (Healing allies, Removing Condition's, ect.)
It also seems like if they wanted to walk a more selfish (for lack of a better term) path they could throw out some pretty good dps. (maybe a 2 handed sword wielding Human Guardian with Hounds of Balthazar?)

Has anything been said about the ability to play multiple roles? Like WoW's dual talent spec, or how Rift allowed you to have several different soul sets.

[Alaris]

Well I was going to try to avoid a gun if at all possible

I would advise perhaps a bow then. You should be able to fight a ranger at a range with either a rifle or a bow... if nothing this will take some of their ranged advantage (if any) while you close the gap. Then again, some melee weapons give you abilities to close the gap really quickly.

It also seems like if they wanted to walk a more selfish (for lack of a better term) path they could throw out some pretty good dps.

I would call it "offensive". Killing foes is a good way to keep allies alive too, you know ;)

Has anything been said about the ability to play multiple roles? Like WoW's dual talent spec, or how Rift allowed you to have several different soul sets.

A lot. GW2 is the hybrid's dream come true ;)

1) Each weapon has its own traits, which means that swapping weapons actually keeps you good at whatever the weapon is good for. So in a weapon swap you can really change your main role. You can go from offensive to defensive, or from ranged to melee, and this is actually encouraged balance-wise.

2) You can easily change skills when outside combat, afaik even when outside city walls. They've designed the system with traits etc so that it's easy to change your skills around. I don't know if there is a way to "save" them into builds though... that feature is either in there, or will likely get implemented later... it was a pretty important part of GW1.

In GW2 (and GW1), your role is mainly decided by the skills you choose. So the fact that you can change them easily supports the ability to change role easily as well.

[RD]

SNIP

I see what you are saying now, balance v. feasibility. I really didn't understand what you meant before, and all of your points kind of just proved what I was saying in the first place lol

I guess we'll see. I still think that a warrior who fully specs damage will be better than a guardian fully-specced for damage (foregoing ANY skill or trait that might help him defensively in favor of one that causes more damage). Without bringing any defensive skills or traits to compensate for his low HP, the guardian is inherently at a disadvantage. A warrior specced similarly will still have some roundabout defensive skills (KDs, cripples, etc.) plus the higher HP pool.

We won't know for some time, but that's my suspicion.

[Alaris]

We won't know for some time, but that's my suspicion.

Of course.

But remember that guardians get their 3 virtues for free, which means that their low HP is at least partly compensated for with higher regeneration and % block chance (unless they choose to share those with allies, that is).

[Akirai Annuvil]

Well I was going to try to avoid a gun if at all possible, to give myself the ability to play with sword and board and maybe a 2 handed hammer or duel wield axes, to have both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Rifle seems to be oriented around single target ranged offensive, so you could combine that with say mace+horn for a second defensive set, control and support. Bow is multi target offensive btw, I'd advise against it if you're expecting 1v1.

Yeah, after looking through the skill tree's of both Warriors and Guardian some more it seems like Guardians have more support traits that allow them to be more defensive, especially in a group dynamic (Healing allies, Removing Condition's, ect.)
It also seems like if they wanted to walk a more selfish (for lack of a better term) path they could throw out some pretty good dps. (maybe a 2 handed sword wielding Human Guardian with Hounds of Balthazar?)

Has anything been said about the ability to play multiple roles? Like WoW's dual talent spec, or how Rift allowed you to have several different soul sets.

I haven't played around with traits, but you can switch skills and equipment between combat, and swap between weapon sets mid-combat. If you want, you can multi-role.

[Alaris]

Once you trait a weapon, the game remembers the traits for that weapon so that re-equipping it (or any weapon of the same type) also loads the traits you chose.

[Gmac]

Rifle seems to be oriented around single target ranged offensive, so you could combine that with say mace+horn for a second defensive set, control and support. Bow is multi target offensive btw, I'd advise against it if you're expecting 1v1

It's not that I would prefer a Bow over a gun. It is to my understanding that you are able to have 2 weapon(s) sets equipped at once, and are able to swap them in combat, of course with a cool down. So I wanted to combine the defensive abilities of a sword(or any 1 hand weapon) and shield, and have a more offensive weapon set equipped as my second set (Hammer, Great sword, dual wield Axes ect..) to swap to. Giving me the ability to unleash some good damage at close range, as well as have the survive ability to withstand enemy focus fire. Ranged classes don't really appeal to me, and I don't think I would like to play a warrior that way. But who knows, the ability for a warrior to strike at range might be absolutely necessary, especially in 1v1 encounters in open terrain.

[Alaris]

Seems like an offensive set + defensive set would be viable. If I would do that (and I might sometimes on guardian) I would try to get some skills to boost mobility. You can get mobility skills on weapons and utility. That should be enough to equate you with ranged opponents.

There may be some things you can't do well as a melee-only character, but in both PvE and PvP you'll have a lot of ways to contribute regardless. Even in big fights against dragons, there was a lot of stuff to do for melee characters that didn't want to go close to the dragon, like defending the cannons from attackers or taking down walls and such that the dragon was putting up. I'm confident that you'll find ways to be useful in WvW as well.