Armor and weapon choices?

I just pre-ordered today, so I only got to play for a couple hours in the BWE before they turned it off, so I had a couple questions.

Are the weapons and armor you can use based on your primary class only?

I want to play as a primary healer, I have been a primary healer in every RPG I've played, so I'm obviously going to chose to be a monk. However, I really don't like dieing, so I was thinking of being a warrior so that I can wear heavier armor and have better survivability as a whole. So if I choose to be a primary monk and secondary warrior will I be able to wear heavier armor? or will I just end up having a bunch of useless melee skills?

Is there any good equipment?

I played for about 3 hours from starting a level 0, and there were about 5 items that dropped 20 times each. Breaking them down got me useless ingots and wood, and the crafter items were all just slightly better items then what I was wearing. And when I created a prebuilt level 20, the level 20 was wearing the exact same gear as my level 0 with slightly better stats on it. It doesn't appear to me that there is any character customization (short of dyes) beyond choosing your primary class. i.e. you can spot an elementalist a mile away, same with a warrior. Is there stuff that looks different, or does different things, or is everything just a slightly better version of the gear you start with?

I can't wait to play again, I'm hooked already haha

Any character can use any weapon, but your armor is indeed determined by your Primary profession.
As a Monk, if you took a Warrior subclass, you wouldn't get to wear the heavy armor, but you would get access to the Tactics attribute line, which does offer a number of defensive stances that can be useful in a pinch.
There's a bunch of different armor sets that are available for each profession that each convey their own bonuses as well as having differing appearances, though the soonest point in the game that they become available is Yak's Bend (or in Lion's Arch if you just started at 20.) While there are these differing sets, it is as you say - that you can spot any given profession a mile away, which is intended so that people can quickly assess targets in PvP, or choose team mates in PvE, etc.
Hopefully we'll be getting up some pictures of what all the different sets look like up on the site soon enough.

I'll agree with Spooky but I'll expand a bit more on something he neglected to mention.

Anyone can use any weapon, true, bu in order to use weapons *well* you'll need to have their associated attribute and attributes are also determined by profession. Not primary profession (Except for primary only attributes which are, well, only available if you're in that primary profession. Weird, huh?) but you'll get access to attributes from both your professions. This is important because better weapons have prerequisites. You'll need to have a certain rank in a certain attribute in order to use that weapon to its full potential. If, for example, you find a wand that's tied to Fire Magic (Say it has Fire Magic 5+ Required, that means you need 5 or more in Fire Magic) then only someone wiht Fire Magic can possibly use it best.

You're the one who determines your attributes, though, so you might not necessarily have the required Fire Magic and will need to look elsewhere for a good weapon that's tied to an attribute you're actually using. But only someone who has Fire Magic in the first place will want that wand, in this case because Elementalists are the profession with Fire Magic that's any Elementalist/* or */Elementalist. Different weapons and items are linked to different attributes. Wands, staves, and foci get linked to the various caster attributes and you'll have no difficulty finding one linked to an attribute you care about, while axes, hammers, swords, and bows all have their own particular attribute you'll need in order to use them well, and shields are linked to either Tactics or Strength. If you're interested in using a shield or a melee weapon, you'll need Warrior as one of your professions and if you're interested in using a bow you'll need Ranger because those are the professions that have the right attributes. Everyone else has attributes that affect foci, wands, and staves.

So, while going /Warrior to pick up Tactics lets you use defensive stances it also lets you heft a better shield to be even more protected. A Monk/Warrior may have better armor because of that shield while, say, a Monk/Elementalist may have more energy because instead of a shield they'll have a focus linked to Fire Magic or another attribute. But, there's nothing stopping that Monk/Warrior from using a focus linked to Healing Prayers to have greater energy instead of a shield, too. Or, better yet, swapping back and forth between a focus and a shield depending on the situation.

Thanks for the replies guys. I just noticed in the little manual it says:
Should have just read a little closer before asking I guess hehe.

Are there any websites that show screenshots of what the various professions look like in their different armor sets?

Sure, here you go