I just got this game Tuesday and only actually started playing last night.
Couldn't play Tuesday because of the serious patching that had to be downloaded and installed. We are talking a 300MB patch, then a 600MB patch, THEN a 4.8GB update. I don't understand why that had to happen. It's all good though.
I made an Assassin on Bane server (Cultural PvP). I chose Cultural PvP because I like that you are only PvP'ing the other two races (there are three). It gives it more of a normal feel to PvP.
I have only gotten to level 9 on my Assassin, sine I did not have much time to play yesterday. From what I have seen, my favorite things about this game are:
Graphics are insanely nice! I am playing at 1920x1200 with 8xAA and everything on high. Beautiful world (from what I have seen) and JetSonic was right about the water! best I've seen in ANY game. The developers claim DX10 is not implemented yet, but there is an option to turn it on in the settings and to enable SM 3.0. Doing that does make the game look a lot better.
Combat is very fun once you get it out of your head that you can't just right click a mob 50 feet away and it will automatically run you to him and start attacking. It's very fun to have to swing your weapons manually, despite how tiresome it may sound. It gets to be second nature after only 10 to 15 minutes of playing. The combat system is much more advanced in this game compared to most MMO's which is why I feel PvP is going to be very, very fun in the future!
Variety. There are three races and TWELVE classes to chose from. It reminds me of EQ2 when I used to play. You don't see the same old five classes etc.. It's nice to have that variety, and I think that will play a large role in the PvP mechanics.
The last think I like is the fact that this well known company has a background for great PvP (Dark Age of Camelot). I feel like they will do a good job with it. We shall see.
Some of the bad things that I dislike, or will take some time to get used to:
Mob AI doesn't seem to be very good. It's almost like if you pull a mob from a pack, it's random if the rest of the pack will come with it. You can clearly tell a linked mob from a patrol. If I pull the patrol, carefully, he will come alone. Sometimes if I pull that same patrol, the mobs near it will just decide to come after me, even though I pulled the patrol with enough caution and distance. It is hard to explain, but if you are in game and see what I am talking about, you will understand that something just.. doesn't seem right.
Graphical glitches. As nice as the graphics are, there are some NPC's and items of armor that, when worn, just don't look right. Headbands clipping through hair is distracting due to flickering polys. There is even an NPC in the starter town whose breasts clip through her top! I trust that these little glitches will get cleaned up in the near future. It's just an annoyance for now.
The interface could use some work. Well, could use some customization. For some reason, I'm not sure if it's my client or what, but all of my interface options for the UI in the settings are unchangeable. They are like grayed out and I cannot change them. Hopefully once I am able to change them, I can customize my UI the way I want it.
I obviously need more time with this game, since I have barely played it, but I am enjoying it and looking forward to how the PvP evolves. here is a scaled down screenshot of my topless Assassin in the harbor of the starter city(Not safe for work):
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2788/cwaocsi2.jpg
Take care.