Thank you Sabo for a great post. I am complete agreement with most, if not all of your points presented.
There is one thing I would like to add to your list:
Enemies do not immediately respawn in GW1. When you entered an instanced area, whatever you killed stayed dead. Eventually, if you were so inclined, you could clear out the whole area as part of progression towards your Exploration title. But titles aside, the fact that my downed enemy stayed dead (and didn’t return unless you zoned in and out again) gave me that sense of temporary achievement.
In GW2, that sense of achievement is slapped back in your face. An example of this occurs very early in the start of GW2 – the Bandithaunt Caverns. Running in, meeting thugs, killing or stealing back supplies as part of your quest objective. Then, you turn around to head home. Not 5 minutes later, the thugs you fought respawn in the exact same spot you killed them. This can start to feel frustrating especially when you’re low on health and suddenly you’re swarmed by a mob which you thought you killed earlier.
It also makes playing solo nearly impossible especially for caster classes; even with my Warrior I struggled through areas that have incredibly insane respawn rates. Not everyone wants to team up with another player or their guildies – some days, maybe I just want to be on my own – but in GW1, this wasn’t really a problem because, you’re right, I could bring my henchmen or my heroes.
This is one of the biggest flaws in GW2 that is a deal-breaker for me. While I am no stranger to dodging like a maniac and picking out a path that contains the least number of wandering mobs if I don’t feel like fighting, it doesn’t change the fact that some of the respawn rates are so ridiculous, even a full party of five can’t handle it.
