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

[Uvania]

It was too unfamiliar compared to WoW for my taste, think i got to 40ish in level before quitting.

[PACOX]

See, i dont get this "too rng" argument. What does that even mean. Games like FFXIV offer both types of gameplay, for example.You can have procs who dont do a shitload of damage but speed up the rotation or resource generation. Make it so you cant pair it up with too much burst via traits etc. When normalized Procs just net you good sustained damage, most persons arent that opposed to it. There could be even small ways like Rage Builders who have a range of resource they can generate instead of a fixed value. That would keep me more engaged than the current way of "memorize this sequence of button presses. oh you did that? congrats, your done." i dont feel any sense of mastery or skill.

Other examples would be procs to boost a certain weapon skill which is otherwise mostly useless for damage.
The RPPM system from WoW showed that you can limit the forms of rng to tame levels and still have enough of it to spice things up.

When you say proc you mean stuff like 'X has a chance to activate on crit. When. X is up press Y'?

Those kind of pros are too rng for GW2. I'm not saying they are bad or anything but GW2s class and combat systems just are designed for that kind of game play.

Now if you mean specs where you're trying to manage/build a resource, maintain a trait/buff, prioritize your rotation around a trait/class mechanic, GW2 has those.

Holosmith (kind a bad example for PVE now) has a mechanic where you must manage your 'heat'. Heat damages you and alters your skills. One playstyle is to balance your heat leaves, never overheating, maintaining your buffed skills. Another is to overheat ASAP, damaging yourself but gaining insane bursts.

Berserker - You want to build rage as fast as possible and stay in berserk mode as long as possible to get off as many hits from your berserk skill as possible, while maintaining another trait. Priority based rotation

Revenant, any spec, any build is about resource management.

Mirage - a whole mess of stuff to watch and consider.

Actually there's only a few builds off the top of my head that aren't priority based.

The issue with GW2 is that you're not forced to take certain builds or punished for taking weird stuff in the open world. Only in raids, fractals, even story instances if you don't want to waste your time (pvp is a given) do you have to actually 'learn how to play'. But that applies to WoW and FFXIV to, except they give you a much smaller box to mess around with when it comes to traits and builds.

Every DPS in WoW is basically 4-5 buttons and a button you press when you get a proc, which they scream at you to press.

My condi Weaver's 'rotation' in GW2 is 15 skills off the top of my head, not considering the when, why's, and how's of when I use those skills.

Daredevil, 2 buttons because idk what Anet was thinking when they designed that spec.

Point is GW2s system might be deeper than you think it is. Maybe not. Could be its just not for you.

[Queen of Hamsters]

World of Warcraft still exists.
That + motion sickness (not sure if it'd be better now that I have a wide monitor and better setup) and having missed out on a lot of time limited rewards just deflates my motivation.

[Littleraven]

Time. I honestly think about this game from time to time and wanting to give it another go because I liked what I played years ago but I just don't have time. When I was younger I had so much more time to just dick around but the older I get the more responsibilities I have and the less time I have to play lol.

And the little free time I do have is allocated to other games and things outside of that.

[Svifnymr]

Point is GW2s system might be deeper than you think it is. Maybe not. Could be its just not for you.

I do miss the rhythm of some caster classes from WoW/ SWTOR, GW2 is nearly always a bit too hectic. That said, for melee stuff GW2 wins hands down IMO for feel. I do wish we had a GW2 based Star Wars MMO, since lightsabers would fit right into the system and the limited powers would lend itself well also, plus guns.

[Itori]

The combat just feels off, i feel like its just a giant aoe orgy and i cant enter a single fight without getting downed wondering wtf just hit me, call me a noob, i dun really care, maybe if they overhauled the combat and made it a little more interesting then it would be better.

[Vlaid]

I played it at release and it was ok for a month or so but it got dull fast. I didn't like the lack of the trinity design for PVE content either. Game felt a bit like every man for himself which doesn't really mesh well with community cooperation to achieve objectives in a MMO for me.

The combat was ok in small scale situations but after that everyone was just an AoE fest of nonsense.

[Nixl]

I generally have a lul where I stop playing and return to level a new character to max then simply stop.

I think the issue for me is goals mostly. At 80 I have no idea what I want to do, google the issue and I'm faced with content that at least seems far out of my reach time wise or I'm simply not interested in it. Also the fact that I've leveled 4-7 characters to max over the years probably also burns me out in terms of interest.

Here is to hoping that they make a new class with Dervish or Ritualist flavor. I'd be all over those.

[DesmondCreighton]

Nobody to erotic roleplay with.

[breadisfunny]

level scaling. i hate level scaling.

[bloodwulf]

I think i have attempted GW2 3-4 times over its life, never spent more than a weekend in it. Just did not like the game, felt empty and soulless to me. And i played GW1 for a very long time.

[Zmagoslav]

Despite GW2 incorporating some aspects i like (player character races, guardian class) we're 2 expansions in and it feels like it's just a poor spin-off to GW1.
I've spent a lot of time in the previous game and it usually stuck with me for months at a time; especially due to the accessability.
GW2; i only turn up once every expansion or living story episode for the story, and perhaps stick with it for a day or 2. Everything beyond a exotic gear-set feels just like a bother and the game feels empty and dead.

[faaramin]

I tried to play it and I played it for a while and I did not reach cap before I stopped.
I just find it repetitive but in dull way.

[NewportsDentarg]

World of Warcraft.

[Stacko]

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I'd have to say the games performance. Despite having a very high end PC, the game always feels like I'm playing it on a potato.

[leviathonlx]

I love the charr, the melee combat is great and I love the implementation of mounts but the lack of much to do outside grinding map currency makes it too boring for me. I also have never cared for the lack of a fully implemented trinity as I feel good dungeon/raid content requires that.

[Poppincaps]

Other games right now. I've got 3 MMOs in rotation: SWTOR, FFXIV, and Classic WoW. I'm probably not going to play too much FFXIV after I beat the new 5.1 MSQ but I've been playing SWTOR again and it kinda makes me want to do a few class stories, so I might mess around with that a bit. Plus I still need to get to 60 in Classic as I'm level 53. Plus I've got Outer Worlds to beat and then Pokemon and Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is coming out soon as well.

I played GW2 a bit and I found that I kinda hate every class I played except the Elementalist which is weird, because I normally don't like mages in games, but switching between elements and constantly having abilties to press is exciting. I wanna get into ESO and GW2 so I can play them whenever new content comes out so I'll probably be playing GW2 early 2020 before the next wave of games comes out.

[Powerogue]

The controls are very different from WoW's to a point where it took me quite a while to work out. The graphics are great but a little too great for my crappy graphics card (even WoW I've been having some trouble lately), and I just have no idea where I'd start, considering even back then before the first "expansion" I had no idea what I was doing post-level cap.

[Fencers]

This topic came to mind after reading a Reddit post about a recent Guild Wars 2 controversy. I did enjoy many aspects and played Guild Wars 2 for a good while. In retrospect, the reason I stopped playing the game (& don't play currently) is ultimately Guild Wars 2 felt shallow, exhausting and disconnected.

Despite the inherent problems in design and piles of shoddy quality games, MMORPGs are my favorite genre of video games. MMORPGs typically offer two things I enjoy greatly in video games; persistence and customization.

However, when playing Guild Wars 2 I did not feel my "character" was my own. I could dress the character in differing outfits, sure. But while appreciated, that alone wasn't the kind of customization I am strictly looking for in MMOs. I want character customization that reaches into the GAMEPLAY. That as an agent I am deciding to play this or that way and the choices I make matter to the gameplay experience.

My sister once said playing Guild Wars 2 was like, "Soloing alongside NPCs." The game was a disconnected and impersonal experience despite window dressing.

Having played many MMORPGs and working in the industry for an MMO publisher; I will also never agree so-called 'Action-Combat', flipping or rolling all around and hit-hit-dodge-hit battle design is intelligent for a genre intended to be played for long periods of time for years.

Many successful games that use similar fast-action or "Arcade-like" orientated design are very casual play friendly, hub-based and feature a lot of so-called 'drop-in/drop-out' elements. That style is frankly not the type of MMORPG I enjoy. Such design will forever be contra to what I consider good game design in the MMORPG genre.

Guild Wars 2 is the best game I never want to play.

[Mmid]

Well I can log in today and see that the gear I obtained 4 years ago is still my BiS. That alone is enough to not feel encouraged to play.

I know GW2 goes for the horizontal type of progression and that is completely fine but it’s just not my cup of tea.

Had a blast the first months when playing the game though. Real good new player experience.