Returning Player - Current State of the Game?

[Nitweed.1543]

I'm a returning to try guild wars 2 after not having played for a good few years. The last time I played was a few months before heart of thorns came out, and even then I didn't play that much. I've been playing other games, including world of warcraft, on and off, and have been put off from the game because there is no longer a sense of my character ever being "complete", classes have been being streamlined and (over)simplified for the past two expansions, and PvP, especially open world PvP, has become entirely unenjoyable for me.

With that said, while I download the game again, I'd like to get ask, how is the game doing overall? By that I mean in terms of active player-base, profession balance, enjoyable content, and such. Is the game very grindy? How much time do I have to spend building my character before it is "complete"? (At level cap and wearing the most powerful gear.)

I Prefer PvP, and I'm looking to play a necromancer, because I like the theme. I like to learn and improve my gameplay as I play, because I find a joy in that, and every now and again to experiment with my profession and try interesting builds. With that said, I greatly prefer to play classes that have a lot of depth (i.e. even at high skill levels, there's room to learn and improve, lots of skill interactions/complexity) and are not necessarily easy to get the hang of at first. Therefore, I also ask, is the current profession design in guild wars 2 sufficiently in-depth that I'd be able to enjoy the game in this way? Is the necromancer a good choice for a player like me?

EDIT: One more question: Do I need to purchase either or both of the expansions for my character to be on par, in terms of power, with other characters in PvP?

[alceste.8712]

GW2 is an extremely active game. Base Necro is okay in pvp, but the Necro elites are just better. Imho, the Necro elites are two of the best designed elites in the game. In regards to complexity, Necros are middle of the road. Condition based Engineers are usually considered the most complex due to the sheer number of kits and switches you need to do.

[Veprovina.4876]

If you perfer PvP, make a new character and done, it's complete. You can't bring anything from PvE with you into PvP and everyone is max level there with standardized gear. The only thing you can do is change your build and put some runes in your weapons and armor.