I played this during open beta right before release and it was fun, but a bit of a mess at the time. Has it gotten much better since then?

I don't have an answer for you. I actually bought the game and played for awhile, but, the framerate inside buildings was absolutely insane. It was a slide show. Hence, I quit. So, I also wonder about the improvements.

The game play has gotten considerably better. They revamped Khal, fixed a lot of the bugs, and are about to release permanent flying mounts.

However, the game is still very buggy. I recently upgraded to an 8800GT, and vanguard doesn't seem to support it to well. Still a lot of quests that are broken also, and fps still remains low.

I would give it at least till the next game update, which is due very soon. Might be worth checking out then.

Depends on what you mean by better. A lot has changed since closed and open beta...

The game has gotten considerably easier, for one. There is rested XP now, the death penalty is a joke to the point that I wonder why it hasn't been entirely removed, there's teleportation in a lot of places.

Performance is much better though, and there are more quests, items and monsters than there were in beta. Most of the classes have also changed a lot, and there will soon be visible helmets.

Yes... visible helmets in vanguard are apparently not vaporware after all. :D

Vanguard is still missing something and it feels very empty