Typical WoW vs GW2 Questions

[Gray_Matter]

if you change builds you likely need an entirely new set of gear.

It's possible to change the stats of ascended gear. Exotics are different but they are much easier to acquire.

Optimizing your DPS often ends up just being a matter of pressing buttons when they come off cooldown with no other nuance. The most complicated professions in the game are merely the ones with the longest sequence of inputs in their rotation. There's no concept of procs or synergies or resource management

It's not so simple.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo

The Engineer rotation is really complex which is why I choose a much simpler one that does around 90%-95% of the DPS. There are some simpler rotations but that almost always comes at a DPS loss. Then there are things like dodges becoming part of your rotation for thiefs. GW2 can be very easy to play but if you want to max things out then you will end up with a more complex rotation. I'm pretty sure that goes for most MMO's.

[Squiggit]

It's possible to change the stats of ascended gear. Exotics are different but they are much easier to acquire.

Sort of true, but stat swapping ascended gear is a decidedly nontrivial expense for new players and while exotics in general are easy to acquire, specific affixes can be a huge pain.

Viper Exotic is expensive enough you might as well not even bother and go straight for ascended and Condi builds are going to lose a lot of power if you're lacking expertise. You can get by with some cheaper prefixes, but it's definitely a big loss. Support builds are even worse off, with basically no budget alternatives to minstrel/commander/harrier/etc.

On its own these aren't the end of the world (unless you're a new player interested in chronotanking or something), but it's worth emphasizing because it makes build swapping a lot harder than in many of its contemporaries, WoW included. Long-term GW2 has no gear grind, but in the short term getting yourself kitted out can be nightmarish unless you're okay with just zerker stuff.

It's not so simple.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo

The Engineer rotation is really complex which is why I choose a much simpler one that does around 90%-95% of the DPS. There are some simpler rotations but that almost always comes at a DPS loss. Then there are things like dodges becoming part of your rotation for thiefs. GW2 can be very easy to play but if you want to max things out then you will end up with a more complex rotation. I'm pretty sure that goes for most MMO's.

No, it's not quite that simple but it does have some serious issues when it comes to nuance and interaction. The engineer rotation for instance is pretty convoluted, but it's still primarily a matter of cycling through kits to keep your strongest abilities on cooldown. Engi is kind of an outlier here too, with no other class having as much to work with other than maybe a couple Ele builds (I don't play Ele enough to really know though).

Thief is even worse, with their resource system generally making it optimal to just auto attack while weaving in your strongest skill and occasionally popping utilities. I'd go as far to call the initiative system a total mess when it comes to group PvE but that's really another topic entirely.

As far as I know, this is only true for first generation of legendary weapons.

First gen legendaries are the only ones you can buy outright from the TP, but the gen '2.5' legendaries rely pretty heavily on material sinks more than anything else as a gate, which means you can sort of buy your way into them. The first few gen 2 legendaries had more involved collections but they did away with those after a while.

It would also cost over 300 for even a cheap one if using cash

Not quite that bad. Bolt is 2580 gold which is ~$112 dollars right now according to gw2efficiency. Most of the other Gen1 legendaries are around there.

[Svifnymr]

First gen legendaries are the only ones you can buy outright from the TP, but the gen '2.5' legendaries rely pretty heavily on material sinks more than anything else as a gate, which means you can sort of buy your way into them. The first few gen 2 legendaries had more involved collections but they did away with those after a while.

Yeah, I'm doing Save the Queen, not even sure I'll do the legendary. The sheer volume of wood/mithril is just stupid. There's no challenge or interest, just "gather more wood/ mithril or just buy it on TP". I've made the other two exotics, have 48 of the 100 shards for Save the Queen. Each shard is 30 mithril & 20 Elder + a curio which is 35 tier 4 mat and 15 mithril and 10 elder. Exotics were 30 and 60 shards. Legendary is another 100 shards I think?

So yeah, you can't buy the legendary, but a big expense of it is the 13,050 mithril and 8,700 elder wood and tier 4 (or maybe it's 5) mats.