Guild Wars 2

As a self proclaimed casual player (very few achievements, erratic schedule, hardly any farming done), this is what I believe is the issue:

Over three years in Tyria, people fell into a farming pattern that was easy, efficient and fast. You pretty much needed gold to get anything you wanted, and farming it happened at “on demand” content such as dungeons. So people got all their shinies essentially by having no roadblocks whatsoever. Open world content is also (with some exceptions) extremely easy, even things like Orr. As a result the zerker-meta appeared, where you stacked attack attributes, stacked on each other, pressed 1111 and won while half asleep. And they could no-life it for as much as they wanted, and 2 days later they’d have their reward.

Fast forward to HoT and finally people are starting to see some resistance. They need to play the actual game content to get rewards, tied to specific currencies. More things are now account bound, meaning you have to earn them instead of converting gems or farming 1 specific place (CoF1) for gold and buying them outright, hence all the complaints about “time-gates” and “grinds”. People are actually complaining they aren’t done with the content 1-2 months into the expansion, so they can get back to their familiar farming patterns (which ironically many of them are now defunkt, hence even more cries for “ruining my favorite content”).
The content is harder, so you actually have to think about your build, or (god forbid!) your defenses and survival. And people look at the rewards at the end, and they feel compelled to get them no matter what. Newsflash: If you feel that way, you are probably less casual than you think.

To be honest, I love it. Going into a map and having to adapt to the environment, makes me feel like I am in a living world, instead of a themepark. HoT is the right direction towards building a persistant world, instead of a series of activities in a carnival. The carnival is still there (old world), but now we have something other than sheer tedium and mindless famring. But in the new content, the world is moving in its own pace and it’s your option to join in on not (i.e. timed metas). Could they have done a better job in providing variety? Sure, but this is a decent start.

If nothing else, HoT is the most Anet-like content they’ve produced in years. Their motto was all about a “living world”, right? Well, we got it.

I’m in exactly the same spot as you, mostly soloing and occasionally doing some group content. I’m running a S/F – Hammer build which I find is pretty versatile. Occasionally in dungeons I might swap out one weapon for a scepter. This what I’m running, bear in mind the gear is still pretty incomplete:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUMQNAsdSlYgKCXGSKEf4ESmCRCBteQQAk/gpQjgPA-jgyAYLioRiAAVYRjJwiox2GKiGreBTXmUlrgs9WQ2bosKFQEjBA-e

I’m sure a lot of people will argue that Knights armor is bad, but for me this is a sweet spot between survivability while running solo and damage dealing in a group. Since you already have a set of Berserkers armor, stick to that. I don’t go for Scholar runes because they cost an arm and a leg and besides with 14k health taking just 1 hit drops me below 90% health. And in open world events, with lag, fps drops and a clusterf#@! of spell effects, you WILL get hit.

While in groups I change Signet of Judgement to whatever else is needed, usually Wall of Reflection or Stand your Ground. Aslo if I have to go a little tankier, I usually change Empowering might with Writ of Persistance, for permanent Protection to the group. Practice your blinds/dodges while roaming Orr, especially against veterans/champions.

If you can time your blinds/Aegis applications/dodges well enough to be at 100% health at all times, then by all means go for full zerker (armor/trinkets) + scholar. I’m definitely not at that point, yet.

It works in WvW, but I highly suggest you pick runes/jewels that add some offensive stats, unless you’re specifically gong towards a bunker build.