What's preventing you from coming back to/playing Guild Wars 2?

[FrostyButt]

On ranger, shortbow is 100% viable in endgame on Soulbeast. I've used it in experienced raid groups all the time. Longbow is used on power Soulbeast builds. You won't see the builds listed first on the various build sites for a number of reasons/more to guide players into learning "proper gameplay mechanics" than certain builds being better than others. Its just how ranger has been treated for years now.

If you light pet classes, guessing you do since you've played ranger, mechanist is definitely a good choice. Engineer is known for being complex but Mechanist shifts a lot of that complexity onto your robot. Boosting engi is a good call, core engi is a pain to level so youre not missing out on anything but a headache.

Gotcha. I just assumed it was melee only specialization. A lot of websites and youtube videos I watch seem to love putting Rangers in C-F tier when ranking the classes. I don't really plan on going hard with GW2 since I'm pretty much invested in FF14 end-game stuff, and possibly will be invested in the new WoW expansion assuming it meets my criteria (respect players time). So thankfully GW2 is F2P and I can just play it as often or as little as I want.

[Celement]

For me it's how cash shop the game feels. I came back to it recently from launch curious to see what changed from a amazon promo. I logged into dozens of gifts and boosts and some interesting armor mogs but all of that weirdly killed my drive to get back into it.

I'm never a fan if games that sell cosmetics it cheapens the experience of hunting down unique items to me.

[NihilSustinet]

the flat gear progression kills it for me. once you are in full meta-stat ascended (or even exotic, the difference is marginal) gear, there really no reason to to anything else.. like.. at all.

[Edge-]

the flat gear progression kil.ls it for me. once you are in full meta-stat ascended (or even exotic, the difference in marginal) gear, there really no reason to to anything else.. like.. at all.

I mean, there is, just not for linear power progression. GW2 just isn't about pure linear gear progression. ESO takes a similar approach in not adding more powerful gear with each expansion/update, but rather expanding the number of stat combinations available to open up more potential builds.

Fine if that's not your thing, but there's plenty of reason to keep playing if you're not exclusively interested in linear gear progression.

[NihilSustinet]

I mean, there is, just not for linear power progression. GW2 just isn't about pure linear gear progression. ESO takes a similar approach in not adding more powerful gear with each expansion/update, but rather expanding the number of stat combinations available to open up more potential builds.

Fine if that's not your thing, but there's plenty of reason to keep playing if you're not exclusively interested in linear gear progression.

ok. thats also why i dont play ESO. the question was what keeps me from coming back. i answered it.

[Yaersulf]

Lack of OCE servers mainly.

[MsSideEye]

I remember buying it when it first came out, years and years ago, and the two major things that kept me from really getting too far in it was the fact that the class I was playing at the time was kinda buggy (I was playing the pet based class and i ran into a lot of issues that seemed like that should have been taking into account when the game released) and the fact that I was inform the best way to get anywhere in the game was to rotation around the first zone i was in to level up fast.

Now mind you, I played this back when I was still my WoW headed nature (Ignore everything, get to end game), so I can't say I would have stuck with it, but I've NO idea how much the game has changed or updated since then.

[Witchblade77]

you know I came back actualy for a bit, even bought path of fire. played through a whole bunch of it and then was reminded why I originally stopped playing. zone navigation combined with lengthy grinds for unlocks. early zones are decently pleasant so ever when I would run into traversal that was not the most fun for me, it wasn't enough to outweigh all the other fun I was having with pretty zones and the like. then.... I got to freaking ruins of Orr... and at some point I just couldn't take it anymore, not only that whole area is a pain to traverse, but its also ugly (and I understand, its meant to be ugly from the lore point, but it just compounded on general unpleasantness)

but... I finally caved, got path of fire in hopes that mounts would alleviate some of those issues I've been having. and for a while - they did. until I hit traversal and navigation issues again because I couldn't unlock my third mount without getting more mastery points and I couldn't figure out how to get to those mastery points and so I threw my hands up and left. again. and I'm not entirely sure if I'll be coming back this time. like... on one hand I've spend many an hour getting lost in this game. in a good immersive way. but on the other hand, I've spend many an hour getting lost in this game... in a bad, frustrating way and I've gotten to the point in my life where I'm no longer willing to accept that degree of frustration from a video game.

[thilicen]

The game engine. Bought EoD and got halfway into the campaign before I just gave it up. An RTX3080 PC that can run anything you throw at it at 80-100FPS on 1440p struggles to keep that crap at 30FPS on 1080.. As soon as there are around 10 active characters on screen the FPS hits are ridiculous.

[PACOX]

The game engine. Bought EoD and got halfway into the campaign before I just gave it up. An RTX3080 PC that can run anything you throw at it at 80-100FPS on 1440p struggles to keep that crap at 30FPS on 1080.. As soon as there are around 10 active characters on screen the FPS hits are ridiculous.

Did you have DX11 on? I've seen laptops with 1660s get a constant 60-90fps with most things on. We found out shadows are the most "expensive" in terms of fps. I think anything past low costs you 10-15 fps.

Some people set reflections to just terrain and sky (or just off) because you waste processing power rendering reflections on water you can't see (the maps are built on water and your GPU still renders reflections off it despite being hidden).

[Flame6]

I didn't find it fun at launch.

[Kumorii]

lack of interest.