Farming isn't anti-Guild Wars. Required, mandatory grind is anti-Guild Wars.
You really can run the whole game with just rare/yellow items fine. The compulsion and need to upgrade to exotic items or have a vanity set are not forced.
Like in Rift, for example, you DO need to grind/farm to progress. To some degree you even have to grind XP for weeks to have some parity due to the AA system ala EQ/AOC. By design that game has massive brick walls that can only be overcome by meeting X, Y or Z threshold.
That's a required grind. And it's bullshit.