Guild Wars 2 has five playable races. They are:

Asura
Sylvari
Norn
Charr
Humans

Other than aesthetics and lore, the only difference between races will be

racial skills. Each race will have unique choices to make at character

creation which will provide a background story for that character. These

changes only affect the story the character experiences.

Along with the five races, there are eight Professions:

Elementalist              Guardian
Ranger                        Thief
Necromancer             Engineer
Warrior                         Mesmer

Different professions will have access to different weapons, skills

(excluding race-specific skills), and traits. Armor is dependent on

profession types; scholars (Elementalist, Mesmer, and Necromancer) will use

light armor, adventurers (Engineer, Ranger, and Thief) will use medium armor,

and soldiers (Guardian and Warrior) will use heavy armor.

Unlike traditional MMORPGs, there is no dedicated healer profession; instead,

any profession can perform any role, depending on their weapon skills.

Similarly, professions are not bound by race.