Guild Wars 2

Main-hand weapons:
Pistol, Mace, Axe

Offhand:
Shield, unarmed

Defining characteristics:
Soldiers would all be in mechanical armor like the Asuran racial, could be constant or summoned/donned upon entering combat – or maybe an F1 skill

Charr-battle suit of typical charr construct (perhaps evolving from stick base model to full of junk/tires/spikes at 80. [water – diesel sub]
Asuran-perma Asuran power suit evolving from the common to the grander asuran models [water- robotic octopus]
Human-Etherial spirit type construct evolving with elemental themes gaining bits of fire/earth/water/lightning all together at 80 [water undead pirate]
Sylvari-arboreal of coarse, with everything from moss and ferns to huge mushrooms and redwoods at 80 [water kraken!!]
Norn-animal themed robots – spider, wolf, drakes and dragon at 80 [water- killer whale, nuf said]

Roles:
Melee and short range combat with emphasis on actively absorbing/redirecting damage and helping fights become more than either circle strafe kiting or gear check melee dps.
DPS role – Mace – spinning attacks, ground pounding, armor break
offhand shield – charge,
offhand unarmed – lost stats so probably heals/buffs/speed

Defensive- Axe – spins around group deflecting attacks, reduces enemy melee damage
offhand shield – heals group for amount of melee damage taken
offhand unarmed – grabs/throws/holds

Ranged pistol – anti-crowd control/debuff/conditions
offhand shield – concussion waves
offhand unarmed – stability buffs party

Compensation for limited weapon choice: all 3 mainhands on quick cycle

Types of skills: one main trait in each tier whose passive is always active and affects model of robotic suit spider/mushroom/tank/golem/fire ghost etc. and is tied to the other skills that may be selected

Traits emphasize powers of weapon sets, shield defense and suit incarnations

Gear:
base models should be fairly plain so gear shows significant aesthetic improvements.

Player size:
With camera limitations norn and charr are already difficult to see past or use in jumping situations at times . . . so maybe Asura get to be the biggest and both norn and charr get to be the smallest.

someone linked a polearm weapon in LA map chat a few weeks back. i hypothesize this means a new heavy class.