Returning after about a year

I haven't played in a long while but coming back now. I own HoT but not the latest xpac. How are things in the game now? I was mainly a PvPer/WvW and Necro/Mesmer main. What is there to do if you don't own the new xpac? How is the pvp scene doing?

wvw is still who spams mostaoesfastest winsspvp might be alittle bit different as some classes (esp. mesmer) just got bigger "balance" changesoverall the powercreep is still bad so if you are in to fps one or twoshooting people you will like it otherwise not so much

WvW, not much changed...yet.They made the announcement to ditch worlds and have a rebalance once every 8 weeks. This is now in development. It sounds scary, but reading what they are doing sounds pretty good (look it up).PvP is going through s harsh time. The latest xpack brought some strong power specs. It was not well balanced, we are currently going through the drama following the nerfs. We are still waiting how these really behave in the wild, but beyond the drama it seems to be pretty good.

Welcome back!

Since you didn't ask and nobody's mentioned it...Living World Season 3 happened. You probably missed unlocking those episodes for your account. That is 6 maps with stat-selectable ascended trickets that you can buy for map currency and unbound magic (season-wide currency). Since you have HoT, you can get into them as soon as you buy the season. Living World Season 4 Episode 1 is live right now, and by logging in you unlock it for your account. Good news - unlocking it means it is free for you. Bad news - you have to buy PoF to play Season 4 (just like you have to have HoT for Season 3).

Gliding is a thing in WvW now, and is pretty dang nice...except when you forget you're on a toon that hasn't unlocked that skill and you jump off a cliff.... (if I had a dollar for everytime I've done that....).

PoF brought mounts to the world. Not to WvW, but to PvE. And they are as much a game changer for PvE as gliding was when it was added to the core maps. I was skeptical of the wisdom, and the need, for adding mounts to the game. Anet disabused me of that notion with the free-preview weekend of PoF.

Competitive WvW and pvp is a mess, but just playing pvp/WvW casually for fun is fine. (but competitive is fun for some people, and that part is a mess right now). On pve side of things, PoF was well worth the low price it charges. Very good value for my money personally.

some top cool things bout PoF for me:new elite specs, especially sniper rifle thief, and tome guardian.mounts: fast mount, high jump mount, flying mount, fast water travel mount.new open world maps that feel relaxing similar to core maps instead the ptsd inducing HoT maps, I do miss the awesome jungle metas thou.

WvW got legendary gear. Welcome to the grind!!!

@wanya.1697 said:wvw is still who spams mostaoesfastest winsoverall the powercreep is still bad so if you are in to fps one or twoshooting people you will like it otherwise not so much

If you think just spamming aoes quickly wins in wvw, you aren't running with/against decent players. Powercreep in pvp doesn't seem terrible, not been 1-2 shot by anyone in ranked or unranked.