what todo as a returning player (casual)
WvW is mostly done by zergs capturing points, so not much changed there.
One way of getting orange gear is by doing doing dungeons (explorable mode).
As far as I know there are some reports of lesser active servers. But having seen the amount of reports bout servers in GW2 and that of in other games (e.g. lotro) I must say that it seems to be mostly from a minority of people who want to be in a group of 100+ players all the time.
Arise, opressed of Tyria!
WvW is mostly done by zergs capturing points, so not much changed there.
thats just not true, i know multiple smaller groups and solo players in WvW, they act as scouts, flippers and general harassers, there is nothing more fun in WvW than picking off people from the back of a zerg as VERY rarely the zerg turns on you you thin out there forces, see where there going etc.
alternatley in a tower, upgraded and with arrow carts and things at the ready you can fend off alot of people in one zerg with even as small as 10 players, you can tell your commander (in the current map) to come to the back of the tower if you have a mesmer, your group drops down zerg portals off and you go to flip the camp/tower they took on the way.
WvW i not just ZvZ, albiet it can definatly seem like that sometimes and there does need to be more incentives for smaller groups, like more points attained or something.
find a guild that is comfortably sized for you. Make sure they focus on what interests you now.
The personal story is pretty interesting and you get a weapon skin when you finish the dungeon.
As Drix stated, WvW is more than zergs. I generally just go in and do whatever. Sometimes I go in with my small guild (5-8 of us in a mini zerg or broken up in groups of 1-4 doing whatever we please), other times I run with a major zerg, other times I just roam around and finish the map and look for small groups to help out.
Don’t get stuck thinking you have to do one thing in WvW or PvE, there are a lot of options. Base what you do on how you feel when logging in. Heck, you can even have multiple guilds – maybe one for PvE and one for WvW.