I played the Vigilance Guardian A. (I do play it on the live servers from time to time as well)
Does this feel like a Jedi Guardian? Please explain why or why not.
Yes, it still feels very much like the normal, live version of it. I still have all of the core abilities, (except saber throw, but we were told we could choose that later on, it just wasn't included in the ability paths you provided us with for this PTS cycle), and the fighting is also still the same, at least for PVE.
Is there anything that feels missing or out of place in the combat rotation?
missing: stun/cc-break & interrupt (bug?)
out of place:
force push - still a rather useless ability for PVE, the only time I can see myself using that is if i need to interrupt a channel of an enemy, in case you dont add the normal interrupt again. For PVP, this ability might still have some use.
Slash - I get that this is a basic, core ability. Every Jedi needs to have a saber slash of sorts, but after you have your full rotation, there simply is no need to ever use this ability. It still becomes very redundant in the higher levels. I would like to see this ability be replaced by another ability once you reach a certain level (like force swing gets replaced by Vigilant thrust) (edit: this is also the case on the live server, very useless ability at lvl 75)
possible bug 1:
In the abilities window, i had both force swing and vigilant thrust available to use, even though the latter should replace the former. I was therefore able to use both abilites, even though they shared a cooldown.
possible bug 2:
the new passive abilities didn't show in the abilities window.
possible bug 3:
zealouse leap wasn't available to me, even though in your description of the pre-set abilities it said that I should have had it
What are your initial thoughts with the effectiveness of the Jedi Guardian against enemies?
The damage dealt still feels pretty much the same to me, however, I would be able to give a more precise answer if I had my full gear.
BUT: the survivability feels down a looooooooot, i even struggled against the silver enemies on Onderon (also my companion was weak af, and therefore always dead after 2 or three enemies, which might factor into that - also, better gear might change survivability)
How are you enjoying or not enjoying this class?
I am overall still enjoying this class, as I said, it still feels very much the same, despite some utilites missing. Fighting with a lightsaber is still very enjoyable.
I would also like to add, that I kind of understand the comments, saying that this feels like a dumbed-down version of the Guardian, because the PTS version might have a very hard time being useful in PVP, there are very few defensive abilites left for the non-tank classes.