Roleplaying character creation

Choose Primary Profession
The most important decision you make will be what your primary profession is. You cannot change this later. More information on each profession, including attributes, skills, and miscellany, can be found on the Professions page.

Warrior
"The mightiest of mighty, the bravest of the brave, the Warrior is the master of melee combat and heavy armor."

Warriors are the tanks of Guild Wars. They can take damage well, and they're fairly good at dishing it out. Most of their skills focus on causing damage, though some can cause some Conditions, particularily Knockdown and Bleeding.

Pros:
 * Strongest armor in the game.
 * Every party needs a couple warriors.
 * Armor crafting material is fairly easy to come by.
 * Easy to play successfully.

Cons:
 * Very vulnerable to status effects.
 * Very common -- warriors are plentiful.
 * Very little tactical diversity.
 * Very equipment dependent.

Ranger
"An agile and wily survivor, the Ranger specializes in archery, beast mastery, and attunement to nature."

The Ranger is a great debilitator. While they don't do as much damage as Warriors or Elementalists, they can cause a variety of conditions. Rangers can stop casters from casting and the injured from running away, among other things. They can also set devastating traps that enemies can trigger, as well as cast nature rituals that affect everyone -- friend or foe.

Pros:
 * Long range attacks keep you out of harm's way.
 * Skills that debilitate others are immensely valuable, especially in PvP.
 * The Ranger is one of two professions that can have minions, but the only one whose minions don't have a constant health degeneration.

Cons:
 * In areas that are mostly uphill, rangers are useless.
 * Very skill-dependent; you'll have to spend time questing and looking for skills for your ranger to be useful.

Monk
"The servant of divine spirits, the Monk uses prayer to protect, preserve, and restore the well-being of companions."

Monks are great. Monks are great. Monks are great.

This is not writer bias; it's merely that everyone needs a healer around, and the Monk is just that.

Despite the obvious greatness of Monk healing, they're also rather effective at offense. Smiting monks can do serious damage, especially against the undead (of which there are plenty!).

Pros:
 * Ability to heal.
 * Very easy to find a party.
 * Good vs. undead.
 * Equipment makes little difference overall.

Cons:
 * Your role in the party is more passive than an offensive class. You'll be busy, but you'll spend most of your time watching Health levels.
 * Armor material is somewhat more difficult to come by.
 * You'll be expected to have certain skills, so Monks must quest more than other classes.
 * Pressure; if you are the only Monk in a party everyone is going to want to be healed. In larger parties this can be a problem.

Necromancer
"One who has learned to draw power from blood sacrifice and communion with death, the Necromancer uses black magic to cast curses and raise undead minions."

Necromancers are a powerful class. Their blood magic allows them to leech health from opponents to keep themselves alive. Their minions can be raised from nearly any corpse and can be quite powerful. They also have some great hexes, allowing you to cause all sorts of nasty effects on the enemy.

Pros:
 * Best solo class in the game: you can heal yourself while damaging the enemy, and you can raise minions to help you.
 * Hexes allow you to cause damage to the enemy over time.

Cons:
 * Rather difficult to play effectively.
 * Many groups don't recognize the value of a Necromancer in the party (though this may be changing).

Mesmer
"The paragon of illusion, misdirection, and control, the Mesmer subverts the damage-dealing capabilities of others, manipulating their perception to achieve personal goals."

Mesmer is a class fairly unique to Guild Wars. Mesmers are the masters of hexes -- spells which last a sizable amount of time, either causing damage over time or damage whenever a condition is met. Their hexes cover all sorts of conditions, so the Mesmer has the potential to be the ultimate anti-Anybody, if they are so configured.

Mesmers also have a unique attribute which allows them to cast their spells faster than others: Fast Casting. Only primary Mesmers get this ability. That said, Mesmer is probably the rarest primary profession in Guild Wars, though it's a common secondary.

Pros:
 * Hexes are amazingly powerful if used correctly.
 * Mesmers are crucial in PvP.

Cons:
 * Very few area-of-effect spells. Mesmers are best against single targets.
 * Very difficult to play effectively.
 * Must specialize against certain builds to be effective -- "general" Mesmers are pretty average.

Elementalist
"The master of arcane lore and magical aptitude, the Elementalist calls upon the power of fire, earth, air, and water to obliterate enemies."

Elementalists are nukers. Their abilities are very powerful. Each element tends to focus on a certain style of play -- fire for direct damage, water for area-of-effect conditions, air for single-target conditions, and earth for support.

Primary Elementalists can easily get the largest pool of energy in the game; their primary attribute, Energy Storage, increases maximum energy by 3 for each attribute level invested in it. This coupled with their energy-increasing armor, Elementalists can often exceed 100 energy.

Pros:
 * A lot of options and play styles with this profession.
 * Relatively straightforward to play.
 * Largest energy pool in the game.

Cons:
 * Elementalists are pretty common (but not as common as Warriors).
 * Weakest armor in the game.
 * Certain enemies are strong against certain elements. If your elementalist is ill-prepared, he/she can be useless.

Choosing Appearance
The appearance of your character has no statistical influence on the game. Keep in mind that you cannot change your appearance once you've finished character creation other than having the ability to buy armors that look different and dying them different colors. If you're interested in how your character may look in some of the different armor types available to your profession, you can check out the PvP character creation and experiment a bit.

Choosing a Name
Names in Guild Wars must be at least two words (not real words, however, the name simply must have a space in it somewhere). Players who create characters with obscene names (as defined by the EULA and decided on by the game's administrators) often find their characters deleted, or have their accounts simply banned for a time. Names cannot be changed, so choose carefully if you plan to invest a lot of time in your character. If you're having trouble coming up with a name, there are many fantasy name generators available; a google search should give you plenty of results.