Is it worth returning in 2019 after years?

[Abhi.9051]

To set the context, I bought the game around 2013 (maybe 2012) and played it for around 2 years. I left soon after the "ascended gear" system was implemented. I used to play mostly by myself; I am an Indian on a French server. I grinded enough to get the Citadel of Flame heavy armor set before I left, I was enticed with it. It was the usual stuff. I was looking for legendary gear but that required a lot of things I just didn't want to do, like world completion. It was far easier to buy it (it was Dawn or Sunrise/Twilight that was 100 gold back then...I think it was the latter). Now, after a long time, I downloaded the game again. I got a bunch of mails and gifts in my in-game email. Having returned after such a long time I was just experimenting with them...the dyes, skins and stuff. I mistakenly tried on a few skins and now I don't have transmutation charges to revert. But I am thinking whether to return to the game and download the expansions. I found a lot of new stuff. I used most of my saved hero points on the new training window/system. Still, I am in a dilemma. Any thoughts are welcome. (I am a level 80 guardian. I am not sure if I will be playing regularly...work and stuff. I play PVE.)

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Yes, it's well worth it. As it is to buy the xpac (Path of Fire - you'll get the Heath of Thorns for free when you buy PoF).You'll get new ways to play, tons of stuff to do and really fun additions (Glider, Masteries, Mounts). Not to mention maps are far beyond what you get in core version.

If you're from early GW2 then most likely you'll remember horrors like condi builds being shit because 25 condi cap stack on bosses etc. Nightmares such as this are long gone, slowly but surely they removed or upgraded various stuff that was dragging game experience down.

Right now it's better then ever - tons of new maps, tons of viable ways to build your character, and true to GW2 your old gear is not outdated and behind. Exotics are fine for all content save maybe raid and fractal speedruns. Ascended and Legendary have only 5% stronger stats and trump exotics via utility rather then sheer power.

So yeah, hop it, jungle and desert is great!

[Rubius.9280]

Did you find the story engaging and do you want to see more of it? If so, worth coming back - lots of great stuff there. (Just note, you do have to buy it.) There were some great twists and turns through both expansions and the living world series.

In my opinion, if you want to play the game casually and have a friend or two to play it with, you can have a lot of fun catching up on content, doing meta events, following story, etc.

If you want to play the game more hardcore and get into either end-game raiding, World Versus World, or sPvP, perhaps reconsider as these areas are unfortunately not really getting the same level of attention they once did. There were significant layoffs at the developer earlier this year, so they are likely doing the best they can with a very limited team.

Legendaries are fun to make and imo a good goal if you want something to work towards. It is worth noting that they're arguably worse / less convenient now than at any point in the game previously, with the limitations of the new build templates system. (Especially legendary armor.) They have posted they are looking into this on the official feedback thread, so it might change next year.

Hope this helps!

[Randulf.7614]

Ascended was release in 2013 - the game has changed much since then. There is certainly and enormous amount of enjoyment to be had in the content since then even if you just dip in and out

[Abhi.9051]

Thanks, guys. I am planning to get myself familiar over this week and if I like it, buy the expansions. I loved the story mode and, as I said, I am not into PVP or WVW. But I like the way it is going, getting back. The best part about the game is that it lets you play in any way you want. So, would love to check out the new content.

[Abhi.9051]

I left so far back that I have to get myself acquainted with the fighting mechanism and all. I have never done a fractal. And only a few jumping challenges. I used to grind a lot for gold and gear that I could experiment with in the mystic forge. Let's see. Thank you for the replies.

[Torzini.1523]

Despite some unignorable setbacks (see especially: the build template and monetization fiasco), I'm having more fun on GW2 than ever. Doing any open world content is very fun with mounts, especially the pseudo-flying ones, griffon and skyscale. Story quality has risen noticeably since the earliest LW seasons, and it remains fun to explore each new zone as it is released. I still keep myself entertained with making legendaries and playing with buddies, as well.

In the end, 'worth it' is subjective from user to user, but there is no denying that there is a lot of new content since the old days that is worth at least a look. :)

[Jimbru.6014]

Yes, it's worth coming back. There's plenty to do, plenty of good people. Just ignore all the negativity in the forums and PVP chat and you'll be fine.

[JUN YANG.4328]

it definitely worth to come back. I had a 3 yrs break. had been back around half yr now. still enjoy a lot. go and get the expansion. you will feel like a brand new game.after you get the expansion. do the first story mode before you head to and other stuff. you need the raptor mount to travel. it make yourself so much easier.

todays gw2 is not much about PVP and WvW. its more event, meta,story, achievement etc i think you will like a lot.dont got for the legendary. i think is crazy these days and really hard to achieve. we got everything in legendary, amor, runes, ring etc even the weapon had second gen.
for myself i still only craft the first gen legendary weapon. is easier.

for class now it had elite spec ( is more like sub class)it make the class totally different play style.you can become a zerker "dragonhunter" with (PPF gear) or support "firebrand" with (PTV gear)and for a new system you can swap any OCC time between gear and skill. by 3,4 click its really handy :)

[Dante.1508]

Yes and no..

I returned after 4 years and yes it possible but its a hard slog on one character, but if you have 18 like i do.. Its pretty much a money gurgling nightmare.. That said yes it has fun times but on a whole the new content is way over tooled and obsessive on meta, so if that is the kinda content you love go for it, if you like to enjoy an mmo more solo you may find it over your head so to speak.. i did.

A large issue is a lot of the content has been done to death by customers so getting help in teamed things outside of meta is incredibly hard as no one wants to do it.

One thing i have learnt from my returning experience is this will be my last mmorpg, as they are nothing like the were in the early 2000's the fun has literally been sucked out of them at least for me.

[JUN YANG.4328]

thats true. specially with dungon. no one willing to do dungeon these days. if lucky you will find a team can do AC,CM will you in an hours. but is so rare to had people to run COF, TA, COE. and no one going to go with arch, SE , HOTW. (at lease i havent seen one)

most players will only doing their own thing. :(

[DutchRiders.2871]

Gw2 is not worth comming back to. You get about 30 min of story every 2 months. The aggressive monitezation also is bad on your wallet.

[T G.7496]

@DutchRiders.2871 said:Gw2 is not worth comming back to. You get about 30 min of story every 2 months. The aggressive monitezation also is bad on your wallet.

I mean, angry as I am about the templates BS (and I am, very) this comment is simply not true.There is a tremendous amount of content for returning players to enjoy, and the monetisation is only bad if you get your wallet out, which I won't now.

[Abhi.9051]

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts. It definitely sounds interesting. I have been looking at the mounts and gliders and those look nice. The mounts are a faster way to travel too, I guess. I will get myself a little familiarized with the game and then proceed to buy the expansion packs; they are not that expensive.

However, could anyone please expand on the topic of "aggressive monetization", something DutchRiders.2871 mentioned? Back then you did not need to buy anything if you did not want to. Of course, you could buy fancy stuff and black lion chest keys (wish I had some of those left) with money, but you could also get along pretty well without buying stuff. And I think there is the option to transfer gold to gems now. So, that must be helpful.

I also used to research stuff like crazy on the net. There are so many ways to build a character and so many things to do. It was quite immersive.

[Anen.1742]

@JUN YANG.4328 said:thats true. specially with dungon. no one willing to do dungeon these days. if lucky you will find a team can do AC,CM will you in an hours. but is so rare to had people to run COF, TA, COE. and no one going to go with arch, SE , HOTW. (at lease i havent seen one)

most players will only doing their own thing. :(

If you are not willing to create a lfg, then sure dungeons are dead. But if you create a lfg, it will pretty much always fill in minutes. I have finish Dungeoneer last month and had no trouble finding people for any of the dungeons. Be willing to explain to unexperienced people, and runs will mostly be smooth.

So yeah, if you wait passively then the game is not worth it. But if you are being active, this game is excellent.

[Vayne.8563]

@"Abhi.9051" said:Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts. It definitely sounds interesting. I have been looking at the mounts and gliders and those look nice. The mounts are a faster way to travel too, I guess. I will get myself a little familiarized with the game and then proceed to buy the expansion packs; they are not that expensive.

However, could anyone please expand on the topic of "aggressive monetization", something DutchRiders.2871 mentioned? Back then you did not need to buy anything if you did not want to. Of course, you could buy fancy stuff and black lion chest keys (wish I had some of those left) with money, but you could also get along pretty well without buying stuff. And I think there is the option to transfer gold to gems now. So, that must be helpful.

I also used to research stuff like crazy on the net. There are so many ways to build a character and so many things to do. It was quite immersive.

You still don't need to buy anything if you don't want too. It hasn't changed as much as people make it out to have changed. The biggest thing is that you only have limited slots for build templates and have to buy more per character. Most people don't have more than 3 builds per character anyone so it's not that big a deal. Other than that, it's stuff like mount skins, which are completely optional, glider skins, weapon skins and convenience items.

[DutchRiders.2871]

@"Abhi.9051" said:Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts. It definitely sounds interesting. I have been looking at the mounts and gliders and those look nice. The mounts are a faster way to travel too, I guess. I will get myself a little familiarized with the game and then proceed to buy the expansion packs; they are not that expensive.

However, could anyone please expand on the topic of "aggressive monetization", something DutchRiders.2871 mentioned? Back then you did not need to buy anything if you did not want to. Of course, you could buy fancy stuff and black lion chest keys (wish I had some of those left) with money, but you could also get along pretty well without buying stuff. And I think there is the option to transfer gold to gems now. So, that must be helpful.

I also used to research stuff like crazy on the net. There are so many ways to build a character and so many things to do. It was quite immersive.

1 garden plots2 build templates3 RNG skins that can cost you alot. Praying on people that are weak to the gamble.

4 The end game in gw2 is skins and they all in the gemstore. They hardly release any flashy skins in game.

This game is at the end of its life cycle. I would not want to get invested into it. But if you wanna play a single player game and enjoy the story yeah you should go for it.

[ZDragon.3046]

IF you have missed alot of content then short answer is yes. Any content thats been updated or that you have not done you will likely find super enjoyable

Only people who play daily and have exhausted all the content will tell you that this game is overall not good by being super picky about niche things that frustrate them.

It really depends on the content you like or liked doing. If you are in it for the story and end game pve you will have plenty to do.Pvp has not changed much which is the sad part and wvw is more or less the same + a mount now.

I think if you have had a few years away from the game you could find the pve stuff enjoyable.

[DutchRiders.2871]

@ZDragon.3046 said:IF you have missed alot of content then short answer is yes. Any content thats been updated or that you have not done you will likely find super enjoyable

Only people who play daily and have exhausted all the content will tell you that this game is overall not good by being super picky about niche things that frustrate them.

It really depends on the content you like or liked doing. If you are in it for the story and end game pve you will have plenty to do.Pvp has not changed much which is the sad part and wvw is more or less the same + a mount now.

I think if you have had a few years away from the game you could find the pve stuff enjoyable.

If you like to do the story and new maps ( auto attack maps and press F) it's fine. For anyone else it's terrible and that's not a niche thing.

-Swiss in pvp taking years

• alliances wvw years
• easy raid once every 9 months
• fractal is taking more then 300 days now
• no new dungeons whatsoever

[ugrakarma.9416]

just playing Living World Season 2 and catch up the content there(like luminescent armor) is a LOT of a things to do. then HoT, LS3, POF...

[ZDragon.3046]

@DutchRiders.2871 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:IF you have missed alot of content then short answer is yes. Any content thats been updated or that you have not done you will likely find super enjoyable

Only people who play daily and have exhausted all the content will tell you that this game is overall not good by being super picky about niche things that frustrate them.

It really depends on the content you like or liked doing. If you are in it for the story and end game pve you will have plenty to do.Pvp has not changed much which is the sad part and wvw is more or less the same + a mount now.

I think if you have had a few years away from the game you could find the pve stuff enjoyable.

If you like to do the story and new maps ( auto attack maps and press F) it's fine. For anyone else it's terrible and that's not a niche thing.

Exaggeration at its finest ^

-Swiss in pvp taking yearsforget swiss, swiss is the least of pvp problems just different pvp modes being supported and balance split from pve taking years

• alliances wvw yearsehhhh
• easy raid once every 9 monthsThis is exaggerated it was about ever 6 months and if you think all of them are easy you might want to consider a different game that might be more challenging for you lol.
• fractal is taking more then 300 days nowIm still wondering whats up with this I assume they have pulled people off frac and raid teams to build strikes.
• no new dungeons whatsoeverThis wont be a thing because fractals replaced them and scale in difficulty much better while allowing the insertion of lore both past and possible future, though it would be nice is not a must or requirement

[DutchRiders.2871]

Denial in its finest. Thank you for highlighting that pvp/wvw suffer massive balance issues to this date. About the raid thingie, these are the release dates after w3:

W3= June 14, 2016W4= February 8, 2017 (9 months)w5= November 28, 2017 (10 Months)w6= September 18, 2018 (10 Months)w7= June 11, 2019 ( 9 Months)

Fractals are not a good replacement for dungeons, they are a lazy way of implementing new content and they fail to do that now for 300 days. Also the raids typically get cleared by casual groups on day 1, with w5 being the exception. I dont have to consider a different game I left this game for reasons listed. Which is why I would never recommend this game to anyone that does not like the story.

[ZDragon.3046]

@DutchRiders.2871 said:Denial in its finest. Thank you for highlighting that pvp/wvw suffer massive balance issues to this date. About the raid thingie, these are the release dates after w3:

My initial post did say pvp and wvw had not changed much but you missed this by trying to discredit my opinions in a fruitless argument.

Im also not going to sit here and argue with you my post was for the OP. There is no reason and no sense in trying to argue, i gave my honest opinion about how i see things and thats fine if you don't agree then thats on you but don sit here and argue with me you all ready gave him your thoughts and input.You wont change my mind as I will continue to play daily so there is no reason to try and spread your negative experience so hard make your post and be done. Dont try to discredit my or other peoples opinions on how i see the game just because you see it differently.

I cant even understand the idea of trying so hard to keep someone from coming back to try the game its fine to share your negative thoughts but to go the extra mile seems like a bit much.

If you want to give him more of your own personal opinions then do that in your own post and leave it up to him/ her to choose if they want to play.Have a good day.

[DutchRiders.2871]

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@DutchRiders.2871 said:Denial in its finest. Thank you for highlighting that pvp/wvw suffer massive balance issues to this date. About the raid thingie, these are the release dates after w3:

My initial post did say pvp and wvw had not changed much but you missed this by trying to discredit my opinions in a fruitless argument.

Im also not going to sit here and argue with you my post was for the OP. There is no reason and no sense in trying to argue, i gave my honest opinion about how i see things and thats fine if you don't agree then thats on you but don sit here and argue with me you all ready gave him your thoughts and input you wont change my mind as I will continue to play daily. Dont try to discredit my opinions on how i see the game just because you see it differently.

If you want to give him more of your own personal opinions then do that in your own post.Have a good day.

If you do not like to debate, maybe forums are not the right place? Similar to the advice you gave me about gw and challenge. Anyways I think we both agree to some extent, if you enjoy story/ LS maps, the new updates and old content will definitely be value. However for a complete picture I think it is in the OPs best interest if I highlight the situation outside of story/maps and hence I mention the gemstore/pvp/wvw/instanced content. These aspects of the game typically do not get mentioned by alot of players.

[ZDragon.3046]

@DutchRiders.2871 said:

@ZDragon.3046 said:

@DutchRiders.2871 said:Denial in its finest. Thank you for highlighting that pvp/wvw suffer massive balance issues to this date. About the raid thingie, these are the release dates after w3:

My initial post did say pvp and wvw had not changed much but you missed this by trying to discredit my opinions in a fruitless argument.

Im also not going to sit here and argue with you my post was for the OP. There is no reason and no sense in trying to argue, i gave my honest opinion about how i see things and thats fine if you don't agree then thats on you but don sit here and argue with me you all ready gave him your thoughts and input you wont change my mind as I will continue to play daily. Dont try to discredit my opinions on how i see the game just because you see it differently.

If you want to give him more of your own personal opinions then do that in your own post.Have a good day.

If you do not like to debate, maybe forums are not the right place? Similar to the advice you gave me about gw and challenge. Anyways I think we both agree to some extent, if you enjoy story/ LS maps, the new updates and old content will definitely be value. However for a complete picture I think it is in the OPs best interest if I highlight the situation outside of story/maps and hence I mention the gemstore/pvp/wvw/instanced content. These aspects of the game typically do not get mentioned by alot of players.

This is not a topic for debating.Other subject matters sure but when its a OP asking for an opinion like this not so much you leave your opinion and thats it.ITs up to the OP to read all of the individual post and then choose he will read both the good and the bad there is no reason for you to go over the top to discredit another persons opinions.