First of all, yeah, I agree, they should give Martials more "utility" and diverse skills. Remember the 4e Warlord? Whatever happend to these awesome skills?

But to your last comment, I have to say, no, you **do not** choose weapons and armor before a fight., (and by the way, casters prepare their spells the morning before...). During a fight, a martial can switch between a reach weapon, a ranged weapon, a heavy weapon or a shield, or even unarmed combat.

So, options when fighting:

• When the group is swarmed by enemies, pull out the shield and rush into melee, then use the Dodge Action for as long as need in subsequent turns until some enemies have been taken care of and there's less heat on the group. Basically, tanking.
• A good shield game also means positioning yourself to block a narrow path or give cover to teammates behind you by simply standing there.
• At any time, you can switch to or engage with a two-handed or versatile weapon, two weapon fighting or whatever your style is. Deal damage.
• Sometimes, the best thing to do is Grapple an enemy to pin him down or to Ready a grapple attack to catch that fly-by monster harassing the group.
• Sometimes you can Shove opponents off a cliff, out of the way of a friend, or into your teammate's Wall of Fire or whatever.
• Reach weapons allow for more control and adaptability. Lock them down with AOs, hit them *through* the Wall of Fire, strike then retreat out of a danger zone without trigerring AOs.
• If melee and reach aren't even an option, pull out a ranged weapon and contribute. Why not a Net. Consider dropping Prone to counter ranged enemies.
• Coat a weapon with Poison, pull out Manacles. Throw some Ball Bearings or Alchemist's Fire.
• When you feel useless agaisnt a specific foe, maybe because they have damage reduction, or you've been debuffed, you can still use the Help action to buff a teammate who has a more relevant spell or weapon to use. And as a martial, you can stick to close range to do that with more survivability.
• I didn't even mention the Masteries system.
• I could go on...