A lot of problems press had with the beta weekend is they treated it like Warcraft - and they got trounced for it.
Beating on doors with abilities taking forever? Of course, you need, oh I dunno, SIEGE weapons. Questing with mobs actually taking damage and near dying after 2 or 3? Learn to realize that your skills are not just spam them and win - they are manipulations of the enemy that you have to use at the right time. Only your first attack is the one you should be hitting between setting up combos with your profession to win.
You can't walk into GW2 with the kind of mentality that "oh, I've played MMOs before, I can do this easy." It's not a clone of any other MMO. You will feel familiarity, but then it will subside after a moment when you realize, oh shit, you need to hotkey that dodge button and use it regularly. It's not an "oh shit" button, it's a "work me into your strategies" button.