Guild Wars 2

I’m at the point in my personal story where I have to choose, but I’m not exactly sure what all the differences are, as far as things that actually affect my character and not just story. I saw the different armor sets for the different orders, is there anything beyond the look of the armor I should take into account? I’m a Ranger (don’t think that matters, but who knows).

Basically, I want to avoid a situation of joining an order then saying “Oh man, I should have picked that one instead!” I don’t know if there are different items/weapons/armors that I need to take into account, or what have you.

There are trophies, but it’s yet unknown what they do. Other than that, I think it’s mostly the storyline and which Asura gate you can teleport to from Fort Trinity..

There’s an armour vendor from each order that you can only buy from if you joined theirs.

If that’s not important to you, then pick your favorite. Nothing else really matters.

I had this question too, and my rudimentary searching has told me that your assumptions are correct:
1) Mentor and storyline, obviously.
2) Appearance of Order weapons & appearance of Order armor