If Guild Wars 1 were more a little more like Guild Wars 2…
All vanity armor sets would require the same grind as Obsidian armor, but they alone would have the best stats in the game. Obsidian armor would require ten times the amount of work to get and would cost the equivalent of almost 1000 USD.
Waypoint travel would cost gold. The Fire Island Chain would be the only viable source of income in the game. Mobs would somehow be even more annoying, and would cast Meteor Storm five times as often, along with every cripple, freezing and immobilizing spell in the game.
Collectors would now instead collect an imaginary currency instead of items; rewards costs several dozen times over what it should. Their rewards would still be worthless, though.
Farming code would make it impossible to farm an area. (Oh wait, they did that.)
Resurrection signets and spells would use a secondary resource: your gold. People wouldn’t bring them anyway.
Henchmen would cost money to use, and would “eat” all drops of any kind.
After getting a good looking armor set in PvE, when entering PvP, it would be removed and replaced with a coconut helmet set.
Instead of hundreds of skills with various combinations across all secondary professions with countless ways of interacting with another to create a rich combat system that will earn several critical awards, you instead get 2% of this selection. Your skillbar is locked to weapon skills and key slots so that you only get to choose three actual skills, some of which become mandatory due to the loss in build synergy.
Seven new armor types are added, and stats from your actual armor are split across them unnecessarily to increase the amount of gold sinks in the game.
Monks are rounded up by all the various races and executed in what will later be remembered as the greatest day in the history of Tyria. (No complaints here.)
All elite abilities will remove your skills and give you several worthless abilities that are barely ever of actual use.
Attributes are locked to create “permanence of character.” (Oh wait, they did that.) But it will never be removed, as it is a gold sink.
Upon completing a campaign, rather than receiving a token to grant yourself a free weapon of your choice with a unique skin, you instead receive a coconut helmet, feathers and three imperfect blue items. Togo greets you and then kicks your character in the balls before berating you for not enjoying the game properly.
The story somehow now makes even less sense, and is split into several chapters that do not actually integrate. Characters you do not care about die and you are expected to feel something. Villains who you rarely see appear only quickly enough for you to kill. (Wait… did GW1 do this too? It’s hard to tell.)
Upon winning in the Hall of Heroes, you open the golden chest and receive a common rarity Club of Troll Slaying, the equivalent of 50 copper and a single token, which you will need 50 of to purchase a single weapon. The Ghostly Hero kicks your character in the balls for not enjoying the experience and expecting a reward, whether you complained about it or not.
Zaishen Keys are earned through daily achievements. The chests drop common tonics and merchant summons.
Player to player trades are taxed once for sending, once more for receiving, and again for accepting the item, then again for receiving a tax notification notifying you that you have been taxed. Trades also now cannot be accepted and approved until after they have been sent, making private transactions using gold work entirely on the honor system.
The world is still entirely instanced with two exceptions: towns, and Chinese-made bots that plague every zone in the game.
Everything is soulbound. Everything.
Dungeons would cost more to complete than what they actually earn. Completing dungeons in a timely manner results in Dhuum being summoned to harshly beat your character, then steal any gold or items you earned, before berating you for not playing for the experience instead of the reward. Actually finding a group for a dungeon would be nearly impossible, even right after their introduction to the game, baffling ANet entirely.
No Guild vs Guild. No Fort Aspenwood, no PvP of any kind other than Random Arenas and Team Arenas. Random Arenas and Team Arenas now behave like Hero battles, and victory is achieved only through control of waypoints.
The battle against Abaddon consists now entirely of fighting waves of Margonites over the course of thirty minutes, followed by using a cannon to shoot him in the face for ten more minutes as he tries to slap you with tendrils. After defeating Abaddon, Kormir kicks your character in the balls and – oh wait, she did that.
[While I consider GW2 to be a big step backwards in many ways compared to GW1, a list detailing all the things GW2 fixed from GW1 would be equally long, but probably less entertaining.]