Just returned to the game, and here are my observations

[Avatara.1042]

So coming back to GW2 after a few years gone, and there are a some things I have observed (world PvE, late PoF onward):

 

- The new writing, environments, and zone interactions are amazing.  Whomever wrote the NPC chatter needs a raise.

- There are necros afking (botting?) in random corners in every zone.  What is up with that?

- There are a lot more guardians, necros, and engineers than I remember, and a lot less elementalists, warriors and thieves.

- People riding dragons are flying all over the place, while I swap between multiple mounts.

- Staff on my Elementalist does a lot less damage than it used to.

- The new condition Weaver builds are murder on my hand and keyboard.

- Blish has a very powerful arm.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Welcome return. 

If you'd like an overview of everything released in your absence, you can check out this site:  https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

[Strider Pj.2193]

Welcome back.  
pulls out popcorn

-Story, I’ll let other comment

-the necros are standing farming.  Multiple threads on this….  (Thus the popcorn)

-Ele’s warriors and thieves have been nerfed pretty hard, especially ele staff which is Essentially non functional unless you can MS a huge mob

-the ‘dragons’ are called sky scales.  Essentially a legendary mount.

-most of the weaver builds have taken piano playing ele to a whole next level.

[Avatara.1042]

Standing farming?  How do they not get afk booted?

Balance in this game was always...extremely slow.  Sad to see that that has not changed and that staff is dead.

[Strider Pj.2193]

46 minutes ago, Avatara.1042 said:

Standing farming?  How do they not get afk booted?

 

To answer that, I would suggest a forum search for AFK farming or AFK botting.

 

Its been over discussed…. 
 

 

[Rasimir.6239]

53 minutes ago, Avatara.1042 said:

Standing farming?  How do they not get afk booted?

Because they don't afk. They stand in one spot (most likely doing stuff on another monitor at the time) and re-summon their minions every couple of minutes. The minions do the rest of the "work".

 

It's unfortunate, but they've found their way to game the system. They're technically not doing anything that's not allowed (as long as they re-summon their minions manually ... once they use a script, we're getting into the topic of botting, which is quite different). The consolation is that their "gain" is fairly low compared to players actively playing the game.

[Gibson.4036]

I, like you, took several years off and then returned. I mained a D/D Ele from launch, but came back to find every Ele build I’ve tried to either be outdone by another profession, or require way more work with a much smaller margin for error for the same results as other professions.

As to thief, at least in open world, I really enjoy both daredevil (survivability and cleave) and deadeye (fast, single target destruction).

Don’t let the skyscales throw you, nor the description of them as a legendary mount discourage you. A recent release of living world achievements has made them even easier to get. They are only legendary in relation to the ease with which you can get the other mounts.
 

I haven’t managed a single legendary anything, nor even ascended armor, but I have gotten the skyscale. My son, who plays 2-4 hours a week, almost has his done.

People who own skyscales use the rest of the mounts still, because they do some things better than the skyscale. People who use the skyscale exclusively do it mostly out of inertia because it’s easier than using a different mount each situation.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[Avatara.1042]

Cheers all, for the responses.