Guild Wars 2

Greetings,

I am a “veteran” WoW player, so I tend to lens all other MMO/RPGs through that.

I really like the feel of GW2 so far, but I’m still not clear on which class I’d like to pursue.

So far – I’ve played an Engineer to 19, Thief to 21 and Ranger to 12.

Can’t really compare the engineer to anything except maybe a WoW Druid? Seemed very versatile, lots of cool stuff, and seemed to be good to group with.

The Thief was a fun class to play, but I never really got into it.

Ranger feels like a WoW Hunter, and I enjoy the play style. I’ve read not-so-encouraging things about the Ranger class, but I’ve realized that people who tend to complain about a class tend to be responding to a recent incident rather than an over-arching problem.

I’m trying to figure out which class would be the best for me to solo the world with?

Guardian was going to be another choice, but I feel they would be slow and clunky to level alone, but have superior durability in combat.

Points I’d like addressed please:

1) Are all classes capable of the same level of soloing, if we hold player skill and experience constant?

2) Are there some classes that will have a longer “build up” before they become awesome?

3) Is there a rested XP mechanic? Or just log out anywhere?

Many thanks!