I think you will just have the same level just need to level up your foci if you switch

I believe most if you are not looking at this from the right perspective. Just like most single player games or MMOs you have a separate save file. The reason they said you won't lose your progress is because they wanted to assure you that there wasn't a one-time choice of class with your account (like some unsuccessful MMOs have done).

Nice wall, do you know what the enter button is for? Paragraphs would be nice, my eyes don't want to bleed this much. Here is how I think character switching will go down: You start off, you pick your race/class whatever. Say I pick a Titan to begin with. It locks me in on Titan until I pass a certain point in the story, maybe pass all the tutorial levels and gain the ability to have access to everything. (Meaning: I can have a focus, grenades, my 3 weapons, I know how to use my abilities and all that) Video games trickle those things at you one at a time. [quote]Here is your primary, and here is a secondary, press Y to switch between them, no go kill some bad guys. Oh look that easy tutorial boss you just killed dropped a heavy weapon. Hold Y to equip it. Now you've leveled up, hurray! Here are what these stats mean, this is what you do with them, your primary weapon leveled up, how about you spend some glimmer on upgrading it's skill tree. Oh, you've come to an obstacle, a chasm and a wall. If you're a hunter/Titan use your movement ability to get across the chasm, if you're a Warlock use your hover ability to get up the wall. Here is a pretty hard to destroy 'thing'. Use your special ability to destroy it, press LB and RB to activate your super. Now you've reached the Tower, go buy something from the shop, and return this quest item. BAM, cinematic opening the world to you. You're done your tutorial, you can now save and start a new character.[/quote]So, once you're done the tutorial, you save and you can do the entire thing over with a different class. Whichever class you proceed the story with, will level up and get the gear and be awesome. You can switch to your other character, but he will be back to just after the tutorial level, and you'll have to replay missions and sidequests to level up, or you can just jump into multi-player with a low leveled player, leveling up with each match. Also, the differences between your Warlock, Hunter and Titan aren't that big. Sure Warlocks may have less health than say a Titan, but it ultimately comes down to your playstyle that will dictate success in a raid/strike. If 3 Warlocks jump into a raid, they can come out victors, so long as they play smart. One can have the Nova bomb focus, the other the revive, and who knows what else there are in terms of foci. One player could be the healer who stands back sniping, one could be aggro with their nova bombs and heavy machine gun, another could alternate, defending both players from the smaller insignificant enemies while the other 2 focus on the boss. If you all decide run in and be aggro, you all might die by said bosses ground pound instant kill move. You fail. Doesn't matter if you were a Titan, Hunter or Warlock.

I will start by saying that I might be incorrect with all my assumption of what bungie has implied by commitment to decisions in game. If you are accumulating experience for all that constitutes a build that is the commitment. The weapons, armor, equipment and focus you use are all being leveled. You can change any of these facets, without losing the investments made in those areas and begin to gain experience with the new tools that would make up a different build. I guess by the old d&d example, just because you change from your level 10 Paladin to a Ranger you are not automatically a level 10 Ranger. I do not think that a Warlock can change to a Titan, but there may be some overlap in what each can do. I am guessing the concern here is based in the lack of commitment in a multi-spec change on the fly system as seen in some MMORPGS where the points in skill trees are interchangeable. I am imagining that a Titan will always be a Titan, but there will be a variety of play-styles that the Titan foci and gear will cater to. As far as I know nothing has been said recently concerning weapon kits or talent points previously listed as requirements to advance a skill tree (based on E3 Thunderlord). There might be a great deal more commitment required of players in the spending of these points.

I was just reading that again, and I think its referring to switching out your focus - under the same class character. The example of the Warlock was to have one focus build for doing damage and another for being a healer. I was unclear as to if you can actually transfer those xps to a different class character.

You can't change character class, hence why they have multiple character slots. You can change focus, I was reading it in game informer. Focus is essentially the mind set your character goes in with, so you can have multiple play styles for the same character. Focus is interchangeable like armor, weapons and equipment. The reason for this is so characters aren't limited to only certain styles (Each focus has to be leveled up). Take the warlock, unlike a caster in other games he can use normal weapons and punch his way around the place. But has the added advantage of throwing a Nova bomb n such. Perhaps though your mates are all Damage focused, well you can then be a healer instead. So the warlock can be DPS or healer, but not necessarily both at the same time. As an add-on, all classes are DPS classes, the Titan though still being the toughest doesn't lack damage. hope this helps.