Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone.
I played GW2 long ago in 2013. I don’t really remember why I stopped playing after couple of weeks, but decided to give it another try. First thing I saw on the site is new expansion, Heart of Thorns. I don’t know, should I buy it or not, because I don’t know about this game much. Is it possible to play GW2 “vanillla” without extension? What restrictions will I run into? Is it possible to play the story from the very beginning? Is it possible to play through the original game (up to lvl 80) and then buy the extension?
I’m afraid there is high chance I remember why I’ve stopped playing GW2 and don’t want to waste money. Thanks in advance.

Everything that was in the game before the expansion was released is still there and still accessible. So yes you can still play the whole of the original story, go to all of the maps that were in the game at release (plus a few new ones) etc.

What you can’t do is access any of the new stuff – you won’t be able to enter any of the maps added with the expansion or Season 3, play the new storylines, make a revenant, use masteries like gliding or use the elite specs on your characters.

You don’t need any of that – it won’t stop you doing anything but you might run into problems if you look up builds as people recommending them tend to assume you’ll have the expansion.

I think it’s a good idea to play through the game you’ve got for a while first. HoT isn’t massively different from the base game so if you don’t enjoy what you’ve got there’s no reason to buy HoT. But if you do like it and want more it’s well worth it.

u will be missing the new traits is the big one

but no hand glider and no precursor crafting and so on

The gw2 vanilla game is free to play so anyone is able to play it. You having a paid account will be able to play gw2 as you used to without any vanilla restrictions. You will however not be able to play any new content because it is locked behind the expansion.

pretty much wvw and pvp will be ruined for you,, yes you can still play wvw and pvp but everyone else will have options to a whole new stock pile of tricks unless u get the expansion ….

if u play pve casually and have not done a whole lot of anything you have nothing to worry about