I guess I got buttfucked then when i paid for my preorder of guild wars 2? o_O

Exactly. But, you can sell gems for gold --> gold for weapons. Although, the weapons will be cosmetical of nature anyhow.

What people don't seem to fucking understand is it can't be pay-to-win if all the armor is equivalent in stats and its just cosmetic, and any items you get that give you an influence cannot be used in PvP.

Let me put this in simple terms: IF YOU WANT TO LOOK PURTY AND HAVE MORE MONEY SUPPORT THE DAMN GAME WITH MORE MONEY.

WIN WIN.

yeah im not taking the time to read everything :x

So what exactly is buying items from the cash shop that allow you to have boosted item drop rates and xp rates..?

It's more items that have exactly the same stats as common items, but with a different look to them.

The only thing debatable is the XP boost. But, considering it doesn't take long to get to max level anyhow that's a moot point.

Apparently you will be able to continue to "level up" once you hit the max level cap and get more skill points which you can use to buy items and other misc. things, so it might help out more than you think.

No, it won't.

there were xp scrolls in gw1, i dont see a reason there wouldnt be similar ones (in addition to the boost) in gw2.

There were also crafting critical exp bonus boost and a magic find boost. That magic find boost would seem a bit *must* for all if some use it, but then again, items have only cosmetical differences as pointed out. Only thing that will affect performance item-wise would probably be upgrades (runes/insignias from gw, anyone?) and weapon and skill choices.