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My first beta on tuesday
I'll spend it getting to know my surroundings, my class, starter quests etc...
Got some questions :
1) Professions. What professions are there and are they divided into categories like gatherer/crafter? How many can one pick?
2) PvP and endgame. Someone said endgame is purely raiding. I have my doubts but what I really want to know is will there be viable gear for pvpers at max level from pvp alone or are we required to run raids to get the best gear for pvp like in some games ahem...?
3) At what level are warfronts available?
4) Is there a big speed gap between levling by questing, grinding mobs, warfronts, rifts? From what I heard, rifts are sporadic but a huge boost to XP when completed, true?
5) Economics. There's an AH I guess? How viable is player created "stuff"? Are there armor/weapon loots to be sold on AH? Are professions good for making cash? What different qualities of gear is there, WoWs grey, green, blue, purple, legendary?
I havent spent a single minute ingame, maybe some of these become apparent quickly I wouldnt know until tuesday, thx in advance guys 
Comments
There a professions like armor smith, weapon smith, tailor, harvester, miner, etc. You can choose 3.
There is PvP-gear, you buy it with PvP-currency.
You can enter the first warfront with lvl 10, every 10 lvl more another become available
The endgame is the same as WoW/EQ/EQ2/LOTRO there are many dungeons and raids that you can do for gear and achievements. Also if your into pvp there are a ton of warfronts(battlegrounds) that you can run for pvp gears.
1: There are 3 different gathering professions, and 5 or so crafting ones - They have different synergies with each other. You can pick up to 3, but that should be enough for at least one craft + the gathering skills needed for it. Examples would be getting Weaponsmith/Mining/Foraging for a self-sufficient weaponsmith, or Butchering/Outfitter/Runebreaking for what is basically a tailor/enchancter/leatherworker/skinner combo (Outfitter is both cloth and leather armor).
2: Very few people know about the actual endgame yet - The people who have been testing it (the alpha testers) are still under an NDA agreement, so not much can be said about any of these things. My hunch though, is that pvp will be viable as a levelling and endgame path as well.
3: Technically, I think you can get in at like level 11-14.
4: The game works best (IMO) if you do a little bit of everything. Quest grinding is supposedly still the fastest exp but it is, as the name suggests, a grind. Much more fun to mix it up with rifting, dungeons and pvp. Either of those are viable paths for levelling. Grinding mobs doesn't seem like it'll be worth it if you're going for exp alone. (if you're going for loot though, there are some choice spots for mob grinding).
5a: Yes, there is an AH. The search tool needs some work, but it has basic functionality
5b: Crafted stuff is very useful, and can be sold. In some cases, green quality crafted gear can be as good as blue quality dropped gear. However, I'm guessing it'll take a while for the market to settle into anything resembling normal. A lot of people will most likely be crafting, and flooding the market with stupidly low priced items (ie. less than production cost) for a while at least.
5c: For the beta at least, raw materials sold better than crafted good, but the same can be said of almost any MMO. There is a system for rare/specialized/exclusive crafting recipes in the game though, and a slight element of luck (with augments for gear), so well-made rare crafted pieces should fetch a good price.
5d: So far, I've seen Grey, White, Green, Blue and Purple quality stuff, in that order. So pretty much like you know it. (You forgot white quality in your post).
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On the professions, I believe in game there is info on which gathering works best with which profession. Mostly standard, but a couple where different than what I expected. Generally, you would take 2 gathering and 1 crafting profession for your total of 3. Crafting seems extremely generic in this game, but I didn't dig very deep, so I can't comment on viability for making money and quality of crafted items.
Rifting, PvP and Dungeons all have their own ways of getting gear that are not available elsewhere. We haven't seen end game, but I would think that all three would allow access to high end gear and offer their own end game level achievement. We don't know for sure though. I believe there is also an end game world PvP zone. Given the fact that Rifting and general PvP offer their own reward systems, I wouldn't be surprised if the world PvP zone has rewards of it's own.
Level 10 for Warfronts. (Or there abouts).
I can't give you objective numbers on XP rates for each activity. Time seems to pass faster for some activities vs. others i.e. Rifting is fast paced and exciting, so an hour Rifting seems to fly by vs. and hour grinding. I did a little grinding and thought the XP rate was decent. I also had a few drops that were better than what I was getting from questing, which had me wishing that the beta had developed an in game economy. The AH is there, but people seem to have not been interested in spending beta time worrying about buying and selling gear.
My impression is that Grinding, Rifting, PvP and Dungeons are all viable and offer their own incentives.
I know the game has grey, green, blue and purple tiers of loot. Not sure on Legendary. I thought it was cool that the game would broadcast when someone was the first on the shard to obtain a particular blue/purple item.
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nice and fast guys, many thanks!
"4: The game works best (IMO) if you do a little bit of everything. Quest grinding is supposedly still the fastest exp but it is, as the name suggests, a grind. Much more fun to mix it up with rifting, dungeons and pvp. Either of those are viable paths for levelling. Grinding mobs doesn't seem like it'll be worth it if you're going for exp alone. (if you're going for loot though, there are some choice spots for mob grinding)."
That's the great part of this game....just go with the flow. Does not feel grindy at all. There is so much going on. I got lots of exp Rifting (more in the same amount of time than quests), although I made more gold questing. One does not have to grind mobs at all to level.
awesom. i had the same experience
One other thing I havent seen mentioned that gives an added flavor while leveling (beginning mid-teens I think)... Ancient Wardstones.
This is something that is -in addition- to Questing / Rifting (public grouping) / Invasions and yields currency and experience. It is player-driven content and any Ancient Wardstone location can be activated for either Guardians or Defiants. From what I understand, It allows players to strengthen or weaken controlled zones or opposing faction Quest Hubs. (PvPvE)
2) There are PvP currencies you accumulate to purchase PvP gear. No you don't have to PvE to get PvP gear.
3) level 10
4) so far it's been my experience that rifts and invasions are about the fastest xp.
5) player created "stuff" sells quite well.
1) 9 professions, 3 gathering, 6 crafting, you may choose any 3.
2) There is end game PvP built into the advancement. That is to say, certain aspects of PvP are not unlocked until you reach max level including a huge warfront of epic scale. While the PvE end game is much of the focus, PvP is not an after thought. it is woven into the game.
3) Black Garden is available at lvl 10.
4) Rifts are the best exp but it is not hugely noticable. Mostly you end up having so much fun killing rifts, invasions and other events that you forget sometimes to quest and then notice that you are still advancing at a nice rate. They did a good job making the rifts not feel like something that is getting in the way of advancement.
5) The economics is solid. Anyone can make good money off selling essences, dropped gear and artifacts for collections. I have heard that the crafted gear is very competitive to drops outside of instances and quest rewards but I did apothecary so I don't know directly. Most professions make things that everyone can use and even they armor/weapon crafting type professions make stuff for at least 2 callings so I expect that making money off professions will range from good to great. And the color codes are basically the same though I haven't seen anything "legendary" yet.
Great link for all the info you could ever hope for is here.
All die, so die well.