Guild Wars 2

Awesome! I will definitely be there again

(though I did not RSVP because I do not use Facebook lol)

I am not online much nowadays but you could always try joining our guild. We use discord and have a lot of friendly players, and do quite a bit of stuff together. We are not always in discord but if you ask in guild chat for company, you can often find someone willing to help out or just team-up. At least it gives you another option of finding people to game with.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/Aw-NA-PvX-Casual-Join-Aurene-Wardens

Anyways, good luck finding people and feel free to whisper me if you want to do something in-game together.

Karnyvor.5482:

Silvatar.5379:

Karnyvor.5482:

GW2 for the game is great to play. However, with all the client crash issues the game has been going through this summer, I would wait until Anet solves it before I played as a new player.

You make it sound like there was a problem with Anet’s game which was not the case. They were targeted by DDoS attacks.

If that were the case, then the clientside crashes wouldn’t be happening primarily during prime time, during the summer. This leads me to be concerned that server capacity/stability might also be an issue. This is further supported by the fact the new Living Story episode was released yesterday, then at prime time the mass client crashes started.

Further, while I’ve been playing MMOs a long time, I’ve not heard of one before that suffered so many successful DDOS attacks. This has been going on for months.

Whether its a serverside issue or constant DDOS attacks, unless resolved, it will kill the playerbase.

You are right, there was an issue with the story but they put out a patch on the same day that it was released, and as far as I am aware, there have not been any more issues with it. I assume you do not visit the GW2 forums often though otherwise you could not have missed all of the numerous threads that were popping up everyday about the ongoing DDoS attacks. It was confirmed by Anet here on the forums as well as on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6lgfxe/there_is_gamewide_ping_spikeslag_happening_again/

Karnyvor.5482:

GW2 for the game is great to play. However, with all the client crash issues the game has been going through this summer, I would wait until Anet solves it before I played as a new player.

You make it sound like there was a problem with Anet’s game which was not the case. They were targeted by DDoS attacks.

1. You said that you got to level 29 before. Was that on the free version or did you originally purchase the game? Either way, you are good to go without having to spend anymore money to enjoy a lot of enjoyable content. If you are going to be very busy and money is tight, I would suggest just enjoying the version you currently have and wait until the next expansion comes out as it will likely include the full base-game and HoT.
2. If time grinding is an issue, no worries, getting exotic gear which is almost as good as the top tier gear (ascended) does not take long at all (a couple weeks of casual play once you know what you are doing) so you will not feel horribly under-powered next to other players who may have more time to play and have ascended gear (intelligent players will respect you more for your skill than your gear).
3. Aside from buying the game, there is no need to spend anymore money as the GemStore only contains vanity and convenience items. In other words, no need to spend “$180 a year just to play”. You will be just as competitive if you spend $0 as if you were to spend $1000 dollars on bling.
4. All maps are populated so you will never feel like you are playing an MMO alone.
5. The game is beautifully designed so just exploring it can be amazing.
6. The biggest concern in my opinion is the risk of getting addicted to another MMO if your life is already hectic.

Yeah, I am not on TC but they are definitely not the same server we fought several months ago. I dont know what happened to them but I assume the same thing that happened to my server….a lot of highly active commanders, players, and wvw guilds departed with no one stepping into their shoes. Result? Both TC and SoS have fallen substantially on the server leaderboard.

If you still need help, I can give you a hand with this. I dont have a mes there but I have done it before. I just dont know when I will be on exactly (busy schedule). You can “friend” me and then just whisper me anytime you see me on if you wish.

I would be happy to help out with The Bitter Cold story part if you would like. I am not sure I will be on today but definitely tomorrow if you are around.

The trick is to lure the boss close to the larva and then kill the larva when the boss is beside it. When the larva dies, it will do a lot of damage to the boss. Once you kill one group of larva, lure the boss to the next group of larva.

In case you have not looked at this already, you can find a lot of helpful tips from Dulfy’s website: http://dulfy.net/2016/11/22/gw2-a-crack-in-the-ice-achievements-guide/

1. Using the boost would not effect your ability to explore or do the story in any way other than to make killing mobs easier. Maps do scale slightly but you will still find things easier as an 80 than if you are at the same level as the map or story.
2. I would strongly recommend saving the boost for later. You will learn the game better if you level up your first character the normal way. I personally used the boost on a class that I wanted to have at 80 but did not enjoy playing (and thus did not what to spend time leveling normally).
3. I main a DH and find it very fun to play but rarely find any reason to use the long bow. If using a long bow is something that you are keen to do, you might want to consider a ranger. But the key to having fun is: play what you want, how to want.

If changing race will help you enjoy playing your characters (and the game) more, go for it! Don’t let soulbound exotics stop you. Getting exotic gear might seem onerous to a new player with limited resources and time, but it is really not that hard or time-consuming to get. Once you hit level 80, it only takes a couple weeks of (very casual play) running CoF p1/p2 each day and doing your 3 dailies for the 2 gold coins to get enough tokens and money to purchase all your exotic gear from the dungeon NPC and TP. And seriously, two weeks to get gear that is nearly as good as “end-game gear” is nothing for an MMO.

I have personally deleted two fully geared characters just to change their race and have no regrets. Just remember to remove or salvage everything that is soulbound before deleting it.

I prefer to play with guildies too so I can sympathize.

My suggestions would be to:

1. Make sure they are using buffs/boosts to maximize their exp gain (like the one from the Guild Hall).
2. Make sure they are focusing on the most important masteries to get around in HoT – basic flying skills, poison, bouncy mushrooms, advance flying skill. The rest are just bonus.
3. Have a Mesmer in the group to portal those that need it to get around. With a Mesmer, masteries become even less important.
4. The Dragon Stand meta is (and I assume still is) a great place to gain HoT exp to level masteries fast. Even if your guildies have not finished with the other HoT maps, just run through to Dragon Stand and do that with them for good exp and group fun and then return to the other maps at a later time.

- Anet sense of humour
- Play to win, not pay to win
- Beautiful design
- HoT maps (maps so intricate that its actually possible to get lost….love it!)
- Past April Fool’s Day pranks (wish they would bring that back but to many gamers apparently have no sense of humour judging from all the rage the jokes invoked)
- All the hidden places that are there for the dedicated explorer to discover
- Different game modes so there is something for everyone
- All classes are are playable for any PvE content so a player can use whatever they enjoy most
- There is always something to do
- Minimal power creep
- Not having to farm/grind/spend massive amounts of real life money to achieve top tier gear like in most other MMOs thus freeing players to focus on simply enjoying the content
- Since most things are available through the TP, players are free to do whatever they enjoy doing to make money and just buy whatever they need. This greatly (if not completely) eliminates the need to farm or grind like in other MMOs
- And most importantly, Quaggans

Raises hand too!

Consequence of dying. Works perfectly fine. No change needed.

NA too.

I will likely be on this weekend at various times. I am not very good at that jp either but would be happy to help out if I can (no compensation required, I play for the fun-of-it).

Whisper me if you see me on, I will probably forget lol.

Well, I have 10 characters that I play (one of each class and an extra guard cuz they are just so awesome). And 10 characters is a lot less than most people are playing that I talk to. Soooo, 2 characters is certainly not over doing it. Also, every race has multiple story lines to choose from so there is some variation with the leveling process.

However, if time management is an issue for you, I would recommend picking a “weight” class rather than a profession. That is to say, pick either heavy, medium, or light classes to play. Reason being, ascended gear (top tier gear) can be shared by characters of the same weight class. This can significantly reduce the cost and time of gearing your characters. For example, a warrior, guard, and rev can all share one set of gear (just swap the gear around based on whatever you feel like playing at the time). Obviously, it can be a nuisance having to swap gear, but its a good way to save a lot of time and money if these are going to be an issue for you.

I am confused as to what the problem is. Groups only merge if someone in the party chooses to merge them. If the others in the party do not want to merge they can leave to make their own group or you can kick them. If you only want to run with exp people, state so in the LFG. If you only want a run with relaxed, chill people, just say that everyone is welcome in the LFG.

In other words, the problem is not with the system but with how people are using it. Just state in the LFG what type of people you want to run with. And if someone crashes your party with different expectations than what was advertised, kick them.

The reason why so few people run dungeons is that the content is old and the rewards are not as attractive as other options.

Mavis.1463:

Elden Arnaas.4870:

Has anyone had an Anet employee in any group actually going up the hill? I think that they need to take a look at how their solution impacted the intended leather farm. And especially the high Sage Event at the top. They’ve added a significant amount of difficulty to legitimate play in the area.
<edit: clarification>

Arenanet employees playing their own game. Nice joke.

ANet employees play the game all the time. You must be new not to have seen them everywhere. You must also have no idea how a MMO is created and maintained.

01. The price of the expansion was typical for any major online game expansion.

02. The amount of content added was more than worthy of the name of being an expansion. People often just say, “oh, there are only 4 new maps,” while ignoring all the numerous changes to all the game modes, to the professions, and to the very nature of the overall game structure. People also fail to take into consideration all the events, adventures, and things to do within each map as well as the “quality” of the content that was added. The amount of work that went into the map designs was unbelievable but perhaps it takes a little knowledge of game design and coding to appreciate that.

03. The story did not feel rushed to me, but then I tend to pace myself with gaming. I don’t play 8+ hours a day, and when I am on, I vary my gaming activities so that I don’t “rush” getting things done. In fact, I still have an achievement left to do for the final story. I think its more of an issue of people rushing through the content as opposed to the content rushing people through it. But hey, I would love to have more story as well.

04. The map design was simply incredible. These are the most complex, beautifully designed, and entertaining maps I have ever seen in an MMO. Imaging, a massive map where it is entirely possible to get lost! Loved it!

06. The masses complain that the maps are too easy, so Anet makes something more challenging, and the masses complain that its too hard. People will QQ regardless of what the issue is. The HoT maps were not “too hard”, they are just a little more challenging in that one actually has to pay attention to what one is doing, and go in prepared with the proper gear both of which are reasonable expectations. The maps did not kill the casualness of GW2 in any way. You could however make an argument that raids have introduced exclusionary content to the game.

07. I assume that you are referring to dungeons. As a dungeon lover, this affected me greatly, and I was certainly not happy about it, but with the power creep, Anet’s move to do this was entirely understandable on multiple levels though they did replace most of the “nerf” to rewards so not really much of an issue either.

HoT introduced a lot of changes, and I can understand that change is difficult for some people, but the way people reacted to it was …covfefe?

Anyways, I loved the HoT maps so I definitely hope to see more of the same type of beautiful, complex designs that offer challenging exploration and numerous events and activities around every corner.

There are plenty of “rewards” for higher level content, you are just selectively choosing not to acknowledge them for whatever reason. Perhaps you do not place “value” in the rewards that are available but that is down to you.

What you are actually asking for, as others have already pointed out, is for Anet to implement power-creep into the game with a gear-tread mill which would just ruin the game. You only need to look at virtually every other MMO to find this (go play an Asian MMO if you really need power creep to feel rewarded). Power-creep is just a sneaky way to make gamers play the same content endlessly, or, alternatively, force them to spend a ridiculous amount of real life money for in-game currency to stay competitive with those living in their parents’ basement playing 14+ hours a day.

One of the great things about GW2 is that the gear tread mill is so small. This allows gamers to focus more on “doing what they want” without begin forced to grind something endlessly just to stay competitive with the rest of the player-base. GW2 is not perfect, but it is definitely one of the best MMO’s around.

I was going to suggest joining our guild as we have a lot of new players and do quite a bit together like map completion but unfortunately we are NA.

So I will just say this: You were a great 80’s game, thanks for the memories Shinobi

I don’t think you will find any rp that is exclusive to quaggans but there are well-established rp guilds and locations around Tyria where rp’ers hangout. I would suggest you start by building a rp network for yourself by moving to the TC server, find some good rp guilds to join, and talk with other rp’s to find out where all the rp action is.

As someone who rp’s a quaggan in most dungeon runs, there definitely needs to be more quaggan rp action lol

And lol at pic

CAA.9653:

Make all three and share gear between them. Ascended stuff is account bound.

^This,

If you like “soldier” professions, there is no harm in trying all three, especially as they can all share their “end-game” gear. Just make 1 ascended set of armor/weapons and have them share it based on whatever you feel like playing at the time.

Some people may use the dsp meter simply to work on their own skill development (in which case there is no need for a party-wide dps meter), and certainly elitism was present before Anet gave the green light for the use of such third party dps meters. However, the OP is absolutely right in implying that dps meters exacerbate, rather than help, the problem of elitist behaviour. They only contribute to creating a more exclusionary, toxic community. It is definitely disappointing to see Anet shift its position on these issues :/

Certainly there is much that Anet could do to help increase the attraction and enjoyment of WvW, however, all the blame can not be placed on their shoulder’s for the current state of WvW. Indeed, I find that the biggest problem with WvW is self-inflicted by the players themselves.

Every time I am in WvW I see at least one person complaint – “server is dead, time to move to [insert top tier server here],” because our server loses so often, and cant put up a decent fight. This attitude just ensures that some servers will always face-roll their opponents. The result of which is, boring game-play for the winners and frustration for the losers who eventually just leave.

The way to keep WvW fun and challenging for EVERYONE is for the people on the high population, highly-skilled servers to switch to the struggling servers. Yet it always seems to work the other way round with people bailing the servers that are struggling to jump on a winning server, thus perpetuating the biggest problem with WvW…a lack of fun, entertaining, competitive fights.

I just joined a new start-up guild a few months ago and it is going well so if starting a new guild is something that you are excited about and really want to try, then you should go for it. However, you really need to be prepared for a few things like……

- You will need to spend a lot of effort recruiting people because the community is not as active as it once was and people are typically looking for guilds that can help them with stuff like raids rather than new, start-up guilds.
- Up-grading a guild hall is very expensive, and much of the cost and effort will fall on your shoulders as the guild leader. How deep are your pockets?
- You will need to be in-game a lot to rep the guild, to help people, and to create an environment that “feels” active. People will often bail on a guild that “feels” dead or dying.
- You are up against a lot of competition. There are always new guilds popping-up (or old guilds restructuring) that are trying to recruit those new players joining the game.

……anyways, best of luck whatever you decide.

The Grove and Caledon Forest. My first character was Silvari so these maps were the first places I visited. I don’t go to either much but when I do, it always feels like returning home.

Once again you guys put on a super fun event for an important cause. A big thanks to all the organizers and volunteers! I had a great time with all of you and my guildies that came out in support of MS research. The entire GW2 community owes you a debt of gratitude for all you do in-game as well as out side of it.

Cheers!

Looking forward to the weekend

Thanks to everyone who has helped with organizing this event!

Welcome to the game!

Both ranger and necro are perfect choices as starting classes as they have personal “tanks” (pets and minions) to help keep you alive as well as the option of using some decent range weapons for kiting enemies.

If you are looking for a guild, try checking out the “Looking for…..” sub-forum which is where a lot of people go to advertise their guilds. You can also try finding a guild using map chat. Just mention that you are new with a few details about what you are looking for in a guild. Odds are you will get at least a few replies from people offering you a “home” in their guild. You might even like to check out the guild I currently belong to, if only to see if its a match for what you are looking for: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/Aw-NA-PvX-Casual-Join-Aurene-Wardens/first#post6579418

Anyways, good luck.

If time and money are of no concern to you then yeah, you might want to make a few armour sets that are more specialized for specific game modes. However, if time and money management is something you need to consider then I would fully agree with Fluffball and keep your celestial armour as it is definitely the most well-rounded build….and celestial is a “good-fit” for Guardian and Ele which you identify as 2 of your main classes. Also, you are already doing exactly what I would have suggested which is to use the celestial armour as a solid, well-rounded foundation for your build and then mixing and matching your ascended trinkets based on your needs.

Combatter.5123:

I currently have a single set of celestial ascended armour and then I use Berserker weapons and trinkets for power builds and condition dmg-based weapons and trinkets for condition builds.

^
Perfect

Ascended trinkets are so easy to get now with all the new maps (on top of fractals and guild commendations) that its makes more sense to just swap-out your trinket sets based on your current needs than to mess around with your armour, especially when celestial is such a pain to make.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with experimenting with some exotic sets to see if there is another option you might like. Most exotic armour is cheap and easy to get as well and its not a big loss in stats from ascended armour.

Lastly, to answer your question above, I would strongly recommend staying away from fully offensive stats for playing wvw. You definitely want a balance between damage output and protection stats. For example, you might want to get some celestial trinkets for your guardian to go with the celestial armour (that is actually one of the current meta builds!). Marauders is also a good choice (that is what I use on my ranger as a back-liner pew-pew-pewing) but how much toughness and vit you will want will depend on your class, role, build, and playing ability.

Just a suggestion but, rather than picking a class, maybe pick an armour class – heavy, medium, or light. That way you can still have 3 characters to enjoy for a bit of diversity without getting too swamped with having to level and equip too many characters with your limited gaming time.

The reason for picking an armour class is that they can all share the same ascended armour and most of the same ascended weapons. This will really cut down on the financial and time costs of leveling all the craft professions and equipping characters of different armour classes. You will just need one set of ascended gear and can just swap it to which ever character you feel like playing at any given time. Its not an ideal way to min-max your characters, but it is an ideal way to play if you are severely limited on time and just want to have some fun experiencing the game.

I am guessing you are not level 5 yet (as Fluffball mentions). However, it may be helpful to read the wiki page on ranger pets to give you an overall understanding of pets in general. Good luck.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pet

You can not go into the HoT maps with the same mentality that you do with the core game. As others have said (and as you have discovered for yourself) everything is much harder in the HoT maps. Just slow down, pay greater attention to what is going on around you, get a set of level 80 exotic gear before you start, and if possible, do the maps with a friend.

The design of the HoT maps are simply amazing! If you are up for a challenge, they are definitely worth the time to explore. Also, don’t worry if you die a lot. When the HoT maps first came out, they were completely littered with dead bodies EVERYWHERE. It was hilarious. You are not alone in thinking that the maps would be a “walk in the park” like it is with the core game. And if you need help with anything, just let others know in the map chat. You are likely to find others in the same boat as yourself trying to get things done. You can even whisper me anytime if you wanted. I am always happy to help out with stuff in the HoT maps, if I am free.

I love Guardian. Its been my main character for years now. I find it a lot of fun to play and it can carry a struggling party better than any other class because of its versatility with skills and utilities (imo). However, everyone will probably tell you to go with warrior because of its higher sustained dps which is generally preferred for raids and high level fractals as people doing that type of content generally do not need to be carried and just want to get things done as fast as possible. Regardless, either class is equally capable of doing any of the pve/wvw content in GW2, and you will not have to worry about getting kicked for bringing either one – unless the party is attempting a speed record or filled with jerks.

If you enjoy the game in general, odds are you will just end up leveling both of them anyways like the rest of us lol. And the nice thing is, they are both heavy classes so they can just share the same set of ascended armor as ascended gear does not get soulbound to a character like the lower armor types do.

What Benjamin said.

There is no debate over whether dsp meters are a “positive or negative thing,” for a MMO. DPS meters always create a more toxic gaming community. People already have a right to play with whoever they want kamedin, a dps meter will not change that but it will lead to real-life arguments, resentment, in-group fighting, party kicks, party dropping, and a more widespread elitism mentality that will exclude more and more people from just having fun in a video game. Anyone that thinks an MMO needs a dps meter on other players needs a real-life reality check to remind them that this is just a video game.

OMG that is awesome. I will have to give that a try sometime. I seriously wish they would make a combat tonic for Quaggans like they did for Kodan.

Fluffball.8307:

1) Why are you running dungeons? They are completely obsolete content that is almost 100% not supported by anet anymore. Endgame is not dungeons.

I’m not saying don’t run them — I do — but why are you doing it?

2) If it’s purely for money you need to do a lot of different paths and not just 1 or 2.

I am assuming he is asking about dungeons because he wants to use dungeon tokens to purchase Berserker gear which is still a good/cheap/relatively fast way for one to get exotic zerker gear for a player with limited funds and time. I suggested CoF p1 and p2 as it is the most efficient use of time in terms of path speed and minimizing frustration with running with people unfamiliar with dungeon mechanics if he is pugging. Assuming he is playing on a casual basis with a life outside of GW2, this is the most efficient use of his gaming time but if he has lots of time to play GW2 then certainly there are more dungeons/paths he could do, as well as, and many other options to getting zerk gear.

What I would suggest is:

Experiment with different gear stats using exotic which you can get relatively cheap using the TP/karma/dungeon tokens/badges of honor. And, pick ascended gear stats that are most useful for doing stuff where it is most beneficial like high level fractals, raids, or for wvw if you are a hard core wvw’er.

Run CoF p1 and p2 daily. You can do p3 too if you have the time but its a bit longer and can be frustrating if people are unaware of the mechanics.

Happy holidays to everyone at Anet from me as well. Thanks for another great year of entertainment!

Last year I suffered multiple back injuries resulting in sciatica-like pain that incapacitated me to the point where I could not even stand at times and was only able to sleep maybe 1 to 2 hours a night at the most for months at a time. Obviously, It was the physio-therapy that got me better, but it was GW2 that got me through the excruciating pain each day and night so yeah, I owe a big thanks to GW2 as well

Obviously Blackgate is one of the more popular servers so its not always easy to get in but not impossible. Several of my guildies actually transferred there not too long ago (though I absolutely refused to do so myself lol). Point being, if a person is patient and keeps trying, its definitely possible to get on that server. However, a simpler course of action would be, if he can’t get into Blackgate, you could just transfer to the server he chooses such as one that is still highly active but not currently full. Blackgate is not the only option out there.

I would love to see more playable races, and yeah, Quaggan is at the top of my list in that regard.

omg, yeah, I remember that event too from the early days where ice elementals would spawn all around the town and just outside of it along the road leading into the town. I had forgotten about that. Never occurred to me that it was gone…….though a LOT of things have changed or been removed from the game over the years, especially from the low level maps.

Dungeons:

Anet have made it clear that dungeons are not a priority for them at this time. They are not expanding or really maintaining them, and in fact took heavy measures to discourage players from continuing to play dungeons by nerfing rewards for running dungeon paths and making it much more lucrative to do other things like meta events or farming chests in Silver Wastes. Because of this, it can be hard now to find parties to run dungeons…hard, but not impossible if you are patient. I have run thousands of dungeons, almost all with pugs, and I could literally count the number of bad experiences on just one hand. In other words, most people in GW2 running dungeons are just there, like you are, to have fun and complete achievements. It is very rare that a party is going to give you attitude or a hard time. The trick though is to avoid idiots that think its more important to run a dungeon fast than it is to treat others with respect and understanding (the wording in the LFG messages are usually a good indicator of such people). Also, dungeons are so easy now that no one really cares what kind of gear you bring (unless they are going for a speed record) or what your skill level might be (as long as you are not getting 1-shot at every encounter). The only time people will get frustrated at you is if you DON’T know what you are doing. Fortunately, you can avoid this by doing 2 things. First, watch a YouTube video of the dungeon you are planning to run. Many of the dungeons have puzzles that you must be familiar with to open gates, kill bosses, ext. And secondly, just be honest with people and tell them its your first time. That way they can help explain things for you.

Fractals:

You can go do fractals 1-19 with no worries. They are short, easy, and require no agony resistance. Just follow the group, do what they do, and you will be fine.

Raids:

Go get some experience with dungeons and fractals before thinking of doing raids. Raids are the hardest content available and require you to have good gear and good skills. You MUST know how to play your class or you will definitely get kicked. Best to go with friends or your guild to learn raids.

ChrizZcE.5981:

give us a reason to come back to the zones. As far as PVE content all I do is AB multiloot and I´m sick of it. I want to explore Tyria, but I feel like I´m actually losing gold by doing anything other than ML. Find a way to make other zones relevant again.

Well, lets see……

- Current Events
- World Bosses
- Leveling new characters
- Numerous collections
- Dailies
- Meta events
- Map completion
- World completion
- Personal Story
- Living Story
- RP
- Dungeons
- Guild Missions
- A seemingly endless array of achievement points to earn scattered all over the Tyria

…..are just some of the many, many reasons Anet already provides to encourage players to return to the older maps.

Frankly, I read the title of your thread and my first thought was, do we even play the same game? LOL. Anet provides players with more reasons to return to older maps than any other MMO I have played. They do a great job in this respect. However, if you have some actual suggestions to offer on what more they could do rather than just write a QQ post it would be helpful.

By the way, I think I found your problem right here: “all I do is AB multiloot and I´m sick of it.” Dude, its a video game, if you don’t enjoy it, why are you doing it? :/

I have never done AB multiloot, not even once, and yet, despite my casual play schedule, I have still managed to equip most of my 9 characters (one of each class) in ascended and legendary gear just doing what I enjoy over time.

Yup, I have also dealt with their customer support on multiple occasions, and they are amazing.

Quaggans
Beautiful graphics
Huge world to explore
Endless things to do
Quaggans
Minimal power creep
Level playing field for players in pvp
Frequent release of new content
Social gaming
Quaggans
Buy-to-play
MInimal farming/grinding required, just do what you enjoy and buy what you need
Asura characters
Anet sense of humor
Quaggans
April Fool’s Day pranks (wish they would still do new ones)
All the secret nooks and crannies to find
Gliding
Dungeons
Quaggans

GW2 has done a great job controlling for power creep so your gear is likely still fine as long as you are using exotic gear and grab some ascended trinkets both of which quite easy to acquire. Your pve gear still does not matter with pvp as you simply select an amulet for your stats when you enter the pvp arena.

The one instance where GW2 has not managed power creep in the players interests has been to tie the elite specs to the HoT expansion. Obviously this was done to encourage players to buy the expansion but it puts all those without the expansion at a disadvantage. You can still master any pve content without HoT but those players with elite specs definitely have a noticeable advantage over those without elite specs in player versus player game modes.

You could still have a lot of fun in wvw, you just might want to stick with a party/squad/zerg where you can get and give support to one another. I take my druid into wvw periodically and I usually end up playing in exactly the same way as I did before elite specs, using just my ranger skills/utilities.