Had some questions about GW2 before i decide to buy it.

[Meledelion]

It's quite common to have people ping their gear though, I do it every time I grab a pug...

[HoopyFrood]

It's a pretty good game actually. I played it on and off and initially hated it due to its complete departure from the WoW model, but I've grown to appreciate it.

Good combat with a leveling progression that limits what you can screw up talent wise. There's also no "Wrong way" to play your class and it you find something really bad you can always change it on the fly.

Never feeling the need to catch up with friends in the game. They can easily quest with you and still get rewards relevant to them. This is pretty big if you start late or have more time then the guys you play with.

Overall the game turns into what you make of it. One of the first hangups I had leveling was running into a gap in the leveling zones early on where I wasn't high enough, but after taking it upon myself to go to another race's starting zone I saw how it all worked out.

Pretty safe buy IMO even for a non raider because the lack of trinity actually makes you think about how you want to do a dungeon boss. Once again it's up to you to play with the game and not necessarily hang on for the ride.