Haven't played since 2016, should I jump back in?

[Glenn Goldenrod.9471]

How's the state of play these days? I switched over to World of Warcraft only recently and it's pretty fun, but I'm getting nostalgic for GW2 again. I had initially stopped because the game got too hard, found finding the right armor set a chore, and couldn't even survive a dungeon in the endgame content. What's it like these days?

[Ashantara.8731]

Pretty much the same.

Content-wise, check this page: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release

P.S. You couldn't even survive a Dungeon? Did you go in alone? It's group content. :)

[Randulf.7614]

It’s exactly the same as it was in the terms you are defining. Arguably Path of Fire is more solo friendly with the best mount system in any mmo, but the higher difficulty beyond core remains and more stat sets existed.

Ultimately it is the same game as 4-5 years ago with the addition of mounts which have been a huge QoL improvement and obviously a lot more content

[Luthan.5236]

Keep in mind that World of Warcraft is much harder, grindier - and a lot less newbie-friendly than GW2. If you are somewhat successful in WoW ... dungeons in GW2 should not be a problem. (Though they are not played a lot anymore I think. Other group content is more interesting nowadays.)

Keep in mind though that those 2 games follow a totally different core philosophy that the developers had in mind: WoW's main selling point is a "gear treadmil": You have to repeate the same dungeons/raids over and over to grind gear that the next raid needs.

In GW2 basically most of the content can be done with cheap (not expensive/hard to farm) exotic gear and some average build. But this is mainly for open world content and other stuff. (There is lots of stuff you can do solo. And exploring and jumping puzzles and achievements, etc.) There exists group content like raids and stuff. But this isn't the main focus of GW2. (And the good gropus there might expect you to grind some good ascended gear at least and use some "meta" builds. But the grind surely is much less than in WoW. Cause you do not have some treadmill and can go to all the different raids once you have set up your char with ascended gear and a build.)

[Solanum.6983]

I think now is the perfect time to get back into the game, The current season is ending this month and the expansion shouldn't be too far behind. Depending where you left off you can get caught back up just in time to continue into End of Dragons.I didn't play back in 2016 but I find the game very solo friendly. Maybe try out some classes and builds until you find one that's right for you.As for gear, Ascended Trinkets are very easy to get by farming Living world maps especially Borja marches. Armors and weapons might take a bit longer but there's no rush, exotics can be bought on TP and work just fine until you get what you need.

[Joote.4081]

I'm what you might call a casual player and I find some of the later content and LW seasons very frustrating. Not hard but more like the game loves to play dirty tricks on you. But if you wanted one excuse to come back it would have to be mounts. Mounts are the cherry on top, the diamond in the rough. the silver lining in the cloud. They compensate for some of the very frustrating game play.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

@Glenn Goldenrod.9471 said:How's the state of play these days? I switched over to World of Warcraft only recently and it's pretty fun, but I'm getting nostalgic for GW2 again. I had initially stopped because the game got too hard, found finding the right armor set a chore, and couldn't even survive a dungeon in the endgame content. What's it like these days?

A lot of the content has been baked and tweaked over the years, but some of it is still a good challenge. There are a lot of guides for building out your character depending on what profession and content you want to play as well. Perhaps best is that most days there are Commanders and Mentors all over Tyria leading events and the like for you to connect with and get what you want done as well.

I would suggest to start slow, make a new character, explore the world again, enjoy the content at your own pace. A lot of players rush to 80 and 'end game' and get frustrated or burned out really fast as they kinda miss the forest for the trees.