Guild Wars 2

Melee Combat
In general I feel our melee combat set is fairly weak. To break it down
Greatsword
Damage here is lack luster. Compared to GS of other classes, its simply very small. My SB handily out damages it and its similar to my Longbow damage on single targets, despite all the added danger of using this weapon vs staying ranged.
Auto Attack: No conditions are applied, buffs or otherwise. One and two strike about as fast as any other classes great sword hits, third attack has a very brief evade. This is very underwhelming for an auto attack spam.
Swoop: Compared to Guardians similar leap which also blinds nearby foes, the Ranger variant is again, kind of underwhelming. The AoE damage is ‘ok’.
Counter Attack/Crippling Throw: Interesting ability but somewhat odd in this set. It is a knock back primarily on what is our heavy melee build. Not terrible.
Maul: Not a bad skill
Hit Bash: Good Control.

Overall this becomes a very difficult to position weapon. It has some movement and evasiveness built in, and some control and some condition damage, but in general very little of any one thing. Hard to build a ‘build’ around a great sword. Damage is simply poor.

Sword
More of our skirmishing weapon
Auto Attack: A three attack chain that moves us, gives might to our pet and cripples our foe. Damage is so so but overall the snare and might and movement give it a unique purpose for chasing down people.
Hornet Sting/Monarch Leap: Very good set overall
Serpent Strike: Um…how few times this connects? I hear other classes with similar ‘roll behind the target’ abilities also seem to disdain them. The thing is the evasive animation takes to long, enemies move, the strike never connects.

There is no real theme here to build around other than straight power in general. I feel our melee offhands (axe/dagger) are quite good but the main hands are just lacking compared to other classes.

Pets
Pet animations for attack and F2 abilities are simply to long. While I dont want to see their DPS increased, I think the animations need to be made far shorter, with longer periods between attacks to compensate. Right now if someone just keeps moving, pets almost never get an attack off on the opponent because of how long the attack animation is.

Spirits
They die in a hit…they were simply over nerfed

Agreed 100%. Other things that bother me are the longbow auto attack speed being very slow and the barrage cooldown could be slightly lower.

Ooh, and the root for the one-handed sword on attack is really annoying.

I like our offhands, and axe seems fine.