to add, I think you do not understand how deep the character building system really is if you narrow it to the weapon skills of your favorite weapon set. Not only can you change that, but there is also a huge number of “right side” skill combinations. The costumization of your traits is another thing easily overlooked at first glance. you can freely distribute between a number of traits that will further unlock various perks, every second of which you can choose from a list of quite some variety. Those skills and the traits are not unlocked after an hour of playing – I think you see the game from a very biased position and you do not bother exploring its possibilities.
I would disagree. First of all, in every pvp situation numbers count greatly, so your complaint that the side with overwhelming force will win is invalid. Yes, of cause and rightly so. The natural advantage of ranged weapons is the dictation of combat situation, you got the advantage of doing higher damage when you can close the distance. Also, some kind of immobilization is available for all classes. And finally, warriors can use ranged weapons too. It is not a problem of the system, but your unwillingness to adapt to a given situation. I am quite happy that GW2 finally broke a MMORPG combat system that a million games have been following for years now. Of cause it will take some time to get used to the new possibilities, but I´d rather do that than have the only game with a fresh approach sacrificed on the altar of habitude. So, even if you like the living world, the answer you seek to avoid seems like a better solution to me. I do not intend this to be a personal attack, but I do not want to play yet another version of the randomly named EQ-clone (or whatever game originally started the tank/healspam-concept).