I'll see if I can help address your concerns:
y'know, to tell you guys the truth, post-searing Ascalon is really starting to shit me. what's doing it for me is the vast quantities of creatures that pop up out of the ground over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. you clear out a run from one place to another, go through a portal to do one thing, then come back and they are all repopulated again...
Problem #1: Old Ascalon comprises about 4% of the game. If you're spending hours and hours and hours there, try moving on... do some of the Primary quests, which will take you to new lands where you'll fight all new enemies.
add this to not being able to jump up onto things so there is pretty much only static ways that you can run through terrain and henchmen that are so frustratingly lame and underpowered and you'll begin to see why i am getting annoyed. i mean, when i heard that there were henchmen i thought that maybe it would be ok for soloing, because i don't really have time to fuck around finding people to play with who aren't total fucktards. but why even bother giving players henchmen if they're going to be so useless?
Actually, the henchmen are pretty awesome, as far as CPU-Controlled characters go. What - specifically - is your problem with them? The Healer Henchman (Allyssa?) dies pretty easy... she always will, because she seems to be more focused on healing teammates, than on healing herself... and the enemies always rush her (I don't blame them... take the healer out first, makes sense). As for not being able to jump, I was a little worried about this at first too... but then I realized that - at least in this game - it would be pretty pointless to have a 'jump' feature. What do I need to jump over, exactly? I suppose it would be nice to jump down to some of the paths, rather than running around little ridges and such... but it's not game-breaking, IMHO.
also, i've had the same fucking weapon for the last say, six levels. nothing drops anything interesting. i know that this game is supposed to be all about the skills & how you use them, and they say that being uber will never be about time played, etc, but if it is supposed to be all about that then why the hell do we get so little skills to begin with? before anyone says anything: yes, i am doing quests to get new skills, but hardly any of them are interesting enough to use anyway, so i'm stuck using the same ones i always use.
I can't speak for Elementalists/Mesmers, but I know Ranger/Necro/Warrior/Monk sets pretty well, and the skills you get, all throughout the game, are both interesting and useful. Finding 8 skills, out of both professions, that compliment each other well, is really rewarding. Once again, if you think you're stagnating with the quality of skills you're getting, MOVE PAST OLD ASCALON. I cannot stress, enough, just how little of the game you have actually seen.
About your concern with weapon... there are excellent weapons in the game, but you won't find them in Ascalon (unless you buy them off another player). MOVE PAST OLD ASCALON!!!
so here's a recap of what's pissing me off:
running on annoying set paths through bleak wasteland settings that all look the same with a bunch of underpowered henchmen fighting against the same annoyingly unavoidable creatures over and over again with the same weapon i've had for 6 levels and a bunch of skills, only a handful of which are interesting at all.
LEAVE OLD ASCALON! If Guild Wars was ONLY the top 1/4 of the map (Ascalon & surrounding areas) then YEAH... it'd get VERY boring, VERY fast! Seeing the same charred landscape for hours and hours would really start to take it's toll. But, you haven't seen the coast, the jungles, the swamps, the deserts, the snow-capped mountains... get what I'm saying? You've seen SO little of the game, do not pass judgement on it. This game hardly even BEGINS until you get to Kryta, and beyond!
someone please tell me it gets better than this.
It get's better than this.
at the moment i'm playing Elementalist/Mesmer, and to tell you the truth i am enjoying the Mesmer side more than the elementalist. also, perhaps i'll switch over to my melee character for a bit and see if there's any difference in the way the game feels, but i'm not exactly holding my breath.
Try a few characters, play them through Pre-Searing, and a little beyond, just to see what suits your playstyle. Each character plays as a completely new experience. Warriors have their 'Adrenaline' skills, Necro's make use of leeching abilities, and exploit corpses for AOEs, pets and buffs, Rangers get a primary pet, a slew of archery/self-buff skills, and eventually traps. Monks are probably the most versatile and EASILY the most sought-after teammates in the entire game... keep that in mind!
edit: i just read back over that and found it to be both harsh and totally true. unless i can find something to save this game i am really thinking that i might reopen my WoW account and go in search of PvP encounters or something. this game is very very different to what i was expecting, and even rather different to the beta of it that i played a while back.
The fact is; this game is not better than WoW. Do I mean to say that WoW is better? Hell no. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. Guild Wars really is NOT an MMO. If you want a 'typical' MMO experience (Race to uberlevel, race to ubergear/weapons, spawncamping, random PC encounters in the world (PVP or otherwise) then this game, frankly, isn't for you. Guild Wars is not about your level, or even your weapons (unless you play Warrior, then the weapon does really matter). Guild Wars is all about your skills, how you use them, and how you play in general. I've been in teams where a lvl 20, decked-out in the nicest armor/gear has dropped like a fly, when a lvl 12, in the same team, with pissy gear, has completely OWNED the mobs we've been fighting... ONLY because the lvl 12 knows what he/she is doing, and is using skills that really work well together.
With my Necro/Ranger, I can NOT find a groove... the skillsets do not compliment each other very well. With my Warrior/Monk the game is - at times - a little too easy. I can take my lvl 15 Warrior/Monk, in a group with lvl 20s, fighting all lvl 19s or 20s, and often I am the last man standing in a really tense situation. Hell... I've CLEARED entire areas, after my higher-level teammates have died, just so I could turn around and rez them.
WoW: Gear + Level = Uber.
Playstyle + abilities = So what?
GW: Gear + Level = So what?
Playstyle + abilities = Uber.