Ive made a few in my time of where GW2 had some qualities that have long since faded but this one is less about saying GW2 is bad and more about saying what the current zones are doing wrong.
The problem with Grinding when it becomes too much:
Too much of a ‘good’ thing to some is often a bad thing to others. One of the issues with Season 2 and HoT zones dry top/silverwastes and all the HoT zones specifically, is that every single bit of content requires you to regularly farm events in that zone in order to aquire a zone specific resorce thats basically a glorified time sink that takes a few days of your life to get the attained equipment you desire.
Solution:
Not “every” zone, needs a grind, not every zone “needs” gear that is attained via farming regular content, some zones “should” be easy, almost laughably easy because it balances the challenging content and gear from the easier more rewarding content that gives a level of instant gratification.
Basically, grinding needs to be something available to the zones in HoT and episode 1 of S3, but from now on, every future zone should have bosses that literally “drop” the loot you want every run you do them, literally “drop” the gear you need to start making progress, such as maybe an early ascended accessory to start people off.
Catchup isnt a bad thing, nor is toning down older content
When was the “last” time you honestly tried to farm an Amberite weapon with a zone of people? When was the last time you cared about bandit crests, when, was the last time you tried to get a Sceclarite weapon?
If the answer is, forever ago, then your on the right track to recognising the problem. The issue is that older content is going to be less relevent, and that includes the grind towards it.
Solution:
Simply reduce the grind, its time to nerf the amount of geodes you need to collect Amberite weapons, its time to nerf the amount of crests you need to collect Carapace Armor, and theres “nothing” wrong with that nerf since it was “relevent” then, and not now.
Easier is often better, Gw2’s launch advocated this game as a casual friendly MMO
Longevity is less tied to grinding, and more tied to gratification, people “like” to feel rewarded, they dont like to spend weeks upon weeks farming for specific loot that feels pointless and niche in the games future.
Example: Going through ascalonian catacombs to grind dungeon runs for the tears feels like you’re missing the point. Its not the resorce that mattered, its the loot.
If I kill a dungeon boss, I want a dungeon loot reward, I dont care if its an item I cant use, I dont care if its a duplicate of an item I already own, I “want” that loot as it feels like an “instant” reward.
Grinding has much more effective ways of appearing, in Wrath of the Lich King in WoW the large success of the expansion was lended to the fact there were “multiple” ways to loot things. Not all of it required farming weeks of dailies, sometimes, you could just spam dungeon runs and get loot every boss, even useless trash.
Solution:
If I get a piece of loot I cant use, thats leagues more interesting to me, than getting a masterwork or rare piece of loot that has no value to me at all, TL:DR I am probably “not” going to care if I get a rare, but I will care “greatly” if I get an exotic, even if its one I cant use.
The Casual matters, no matter what the hardcore say
In the end, There are OTHER ways to add content with challenge that does NOT require the game to sacrifice its casual base for its hardcore, or vise versa.
Examples and Solutions:
Raiding: Add a story mode raid difficulty for those looking to experience the lore of the raid, simply deny anyone doing it any loot while doing so or if they get any loot, maybe they get a basic ascended accessory at the end of the run per account.
Dungeons: Make every story mode entirley solo, not just Arah, so that everyone can get into explorable without having to waste the effort on finding a group. Revamp the Explorable experience to make it harder and more challenging, and equally, reward loot every boss, even crap loot nobody wanted in ADDITION to tokens.
Fractals: Incentivise the noobie to join the fractal experience, offer a double-reward weekend event, tie this to other experiences like raiding/dungeons and pvp to increase their value.
PvP: Add the “activities” into this category as an ‘alternative’ to the mainstream pvp progression, let people earn the progression rewards from it, though keep the ranked pvp rewards to ranked gameplay only.
WvW: Add a third borderland type, not much to say on this but there is more I can go into but id need a seperate topic for it.
Dailies and Questing: Add a “Dragon Watch” mini secondary questing system that lets you do mini quests at random once per day, each one takes you across Tyria doing variable activities and offers a bit of lore/va thats repeatble each day with random new adventures, similar to fractals, rewards you with some laurels at the end.
Specializations: As a future way of fixing the “trinity” you’ve created, give us 18 new specializations by expansion 2, ambitious I know but hear me out, by adding 3 specs for each class, you can give each one a soft trinity of its own, allowing us to pick tank/heal/dps for any class bringing “back” what Vanilia GW2 had, the ability to play without feeling too grounded to a class/role choice. I could go into some suggestions on this but I digress its just something to muse on.
Anyway, these are “some” things you can do to fix the game and work on it in a productive way.