Jumping in a bit late so here's a mish-mash of thoughts.
Orcs are a fine race choice. I like how the orcs in L2 are NOT the same as the myriad of ugly cookie cutter mobs you find in other games. (All except Warhammer, as GW has pretty much created and refined the 'ugly dog-faced brutal orc to its penultimate. Waaaaagh! (
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10))
That said here's how the choices of class for orcs tend to pan out.
[Levels 1-20]
Orc Fighter - Very basic. Just choose a weapon and bash away.
Orc Mystic - Hardest class to start without any 'twinked' gear, even with the newbie buffs. You'll find yourself doing a heck of a lot of melee even though you are a 'mage' class. Get used to it, as this doesn't change much at all. Orc mystics are Buffers First, melee second and crowd control/debuffer(DoT) last.
[Level 20-40]
Monk - Probably the most well rounded of the Orc character paths. Here is where you start to get a good view of the capabilites of the class. (Totems) You only get light armor masteries from here on up, but pretty much every Monk has agreed that heavy armor is still more useful until L40.
Raider - Just like the Orc fighter only more so. A 2-handed sword is the preferred weapon. You also start to get the (few) skills that seperate Orcs from Dwarves and Humans.
Shaman - Just like the Mystic, but you at least get some better buffs. You can pretty much stick with heavy or light armor through second class. Play with the AOE skills a little at least...so you can see how weak they are. =/
[Level 40+]
Tyrant - Flexible damage dealer with a good amount of HP. Unlike dagger DD's though, you will rely on attack speed and raw damage instead of just crit damage stacking. You also have plenty of ranged/movement abilites to back you up. (SS costs can be high if your using them all the time while boosting your attack speed in a group.)
Destroyer - Just like the Raider, even more so. By now you should hit like a dump truck. Not those piddly ones you see at road construction....more like the ones only found at strip mines. Polearm use is more worthwhile now if you join some AOE parties and your '30% HP' skills start to add up more. Your still slow as ever though and ranged combat will be your main weakness.
Warcryers - Buffs start to slowly accumulate. You'll probably want to have a set of Robes in addition to some heavy/light. Weapon choices can be more interesting as you gain the 'good' buffs. How you equip yourself after this is all up to your playstyle. Overall you are just going to get stronger from this point on.
Overlord - Welcome to Limbo. Population You. From now until L79 your probably going to be soloing. The developers don't even care that you exist and your ability to solo is poor due to the very weak selection of buffs. AOE doesn't even need you and the only time your 'in-demand' will be at sieges as a 'buff-box'. Avoid this class, unless your sure that your clan/ally will support you fully or if you want an extreme challenge. (Yes, you can be extremely helpful in mass-pvp...but you need some hefty support to get there.)
[On to the rest!]
Grind - The XP grind is indeed steep, but once you get familiar with it, the XP grind isn't all that bad at all. (It is *much* easier to get XP now than at any other time in the games history.) The adena/gear grind however could make or break you.
Quests - Rewards are low. But you need to grind the hell out of them anyway as an added way to make any sort of cash in the game. Overall you activate them, grind and then cash them in later. Some are worth more than others, but pretty much none of them will pay off in the short term.
Raids - Unlike WOW, you never *have* to raid. They are also fairly static outside of the 'Epic' raids. (Orfen/Ant Queen/Baium, etc.) The developers keep messing with raid drops so their desirability keeps changing from update to update. Right now we are at a bit of a low point for Raid rewards so raiding isn't terribly popular beyond the extreme high or low ends.
The World - There are plenty of places to go and see, although it really doesn't take all that long to see most of it. It's still a fairly static grind/heavy setup. That said, most of the preview information from the Developers is pointing towards them making the game less static and more involving in the future. (Trying to at least.) Information about the next update (Kamael) should start rolling in during the next few months, so watch the forums as you explore the game to see if what your experiencing and where the game seems to be heading is to your liking.
[Dying in L2]
When you die, you lose a % of XP. And yes you can delevel. You also have a chance to gain a 'Death Penalty'. You need a 'Scroll of Recovery' (buy at general stores) of the appropriate grade for your character to remove this debuff. If you die more than once this debuff can stack up to level 15. You need one scroll to remove each level of the penalty. Each level of the penalty has higher (worse) effects on your basic stats. Also, if you are deleveling for cash/SP be aware that if you delevel more than 10 levels you will lose any skills or skill levels you learned at the higher levels. (Everything up to that 11th level is safe though.) Thus if you are 32 and delevel to 22 you don't lose anything except the ~100K in recovery scrolls you need to remove your accumulated (L15) Death penalty. Delevel to 21 however and any skill you learned at L32 are lost without any compensation. (Your L28 skills are untouched though.)
You will not drop any gear (anymore) when you die, unless you are red with over 5 PKs. There is a anti-pvp buff added in interlude to prevent someone (or you) from engaging in pvp (ganking) when there is a 10+ level difference between both of you. (Available up to L39 from the guides). Outside of that, it's an open pvp world outside of town. (Not terribly common at this time outside of clan war/ganks but not unknown either.)
Bad Players - There are still 'perma-reds' floating around so you still need to watch for these. These days it's probably more of an issue that you avoid scammers. Every server seems to have at least one or two perenniel shop or craft scammers as well as those who will try to trick you out of your gear/adena. Just be aware they exist and don't hurry into anything. And if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. (Always verify shop items and craft prices!)