Should i return to GW?

Hi all

Thinking of coming back to GW after nine months not playing. In the meantime got distracted by World of Warcraft. WoW has a huge problem and its an utter...simple lack of balance.

If people could answer a few short questions for me, to help me decide to return or not would be awesome.

1. What is the state of farming in GW at the moment? Is it still being nerfed over and over? Are there any good ways of reliably farming?

2. In terms of the more casual PvP what builds are popular? For example when i left GW Touch rangers were quite common.

3. Whats the general state of the game like? Is it well balanced? How active are the non GW:EN areas? How active as a whole?

4. What MAJOR gameplay changes/nerfs have been added?


thanks

1. 55 Farming still gets 30 or so K an hour, Casual mission or quest/explore playing in GWEN gets around 2k an hour

2. Not sure, not big on PvP

3. non GWEN areas are more active then GWEN itself and always will be, GWEN was somewhat a let down and can be finished in 1/4th of a day. (6 hours) Theres a decline in experienced players, but an income of newbs with only prophecies.

4. There was recently a /report feature added, I haven't seen 1 leacher in AB since xD

Well, to be accurate the /report and associated anti-leaver features were tested over last weekend and have been removed again temporarily, but they had quite an lasting impact nevertheless.

I find that farming will earn you less money than ever, where playing the game(missions/quests/dungeons) will earn you more then they used to.

If your looking to make a lot of money fast your going to be dissapointed, there are only a few means to do so and get boring really fast, unless thats just the kind of gameplay you like I guess....

GW has become a long term investment, quick to get to lvl 20 but long time to raise all your titles and aquire the rare skins you may wish to own.

Builds like Touch Rangers and Shadow Prison assassins are still relatively popular.

Stick with WoW for now we have loot scaling and someone has to gain a maxed title in oder to got to ToA.Favour doesn't work anymore.

we still get favor about every other hour tho, so favor really isn't a problem.

farming, i do the bergan hotspring run in Hard mode on my 55, works well, golds, gold, materials.

casualy pvp.. most popular.. umm its alot of things most recently i've seen alot of grenths grasp sins. SP sins still common, but not as much.. N/D MM's eh its the same/different. you can see anyhting in AB.. and thats my fav pvp so yeah.

gwen places.. every where is pretty popular, i was in THK earlier and there was 3 diff groups forming and about 20 others hangin around.

other than that, i say come back, try it out see if you like it still, don't ask us, just go do it for your self.

thanks for the replies

not like you'll be paying a monthly fee here anyways right? so what have you got to lose? coming from a wow-refugee.. GW>WoW any day. WoW has great things.. (jumping) but it's full of kids and childish mentality. The end game there blows and the PvP there is one big nerf after another. I've been much happier playing GW then I ever was playing WoW.

wait gw2 in my opinion.....

1. Crap.
2. Probably more crap. The usual things. Man makes build, man whines about build, Anet nerf build.
3. Barely active outside GW:EN. Even inside GW:EN, you'd be very lucky to find a PUG. (Not that you want one in those areas. One mistake and BOOM! All gone.)
4. We get to grind for reskins and PVP skills. One you'd like the concept of, good in theory and crap in practice: Summon Mursaat. It's fun to see people's reactions in Prophecies, but as for battle, it's terrible. Mesmers got a buff, ritualists got nerfs, monk PVE only skills got more nerfs, many are quitting, others are straggling along with a few friends and still enjoying it.

And the way I see it, if you really wanted to play GW for what it is, rather than what it was, you'd not have any problems playing it now.

1) Vanquishing in HM is very profitable. I started with 4 lockpicks, used them up, bought more, etc. I've vanquished only 10 areas and now could afford 25 lockpicks, and still have stuff to sell. Grind farming is probably more profitable, but at least I can work on vanquishing and cartography titles while I do this.

2) touch rangers still popular. I'm not sure what "nerfs" everyone is complaining about. It's been a while since they've done any sort of skill balance. Check the wiki or the gw website for a list of updates and changes. You will see that nothing has been seriously changed in a while.

3) Game is probably best balanced as it has ever been. Lots of people in all areas (except for out of the way places like ice tooth cave or lair of the forgotten).

4) Since you've been gone there has been a lot of changes, specifically the addition of HM and EotN. Adds a lot of content and stuff to do. I can't think of any MAJOR nerfs of the top of my head. There might have been one or two, but the best way to find out would be scan the updates. Then you can figure out if it was something you are used to using or not.

Overall, I am enjoying the game now more than ever. I have no problem H&H HM. I pugged recently to finish a protector title and it went great (it was a mission in the middle of the Proph campaign, too). If you are sick of WoW, I would suggest coming back. It won't cost you anything to try =).

You can still farm for ectos since they are not included in the loot scaling.
The skills are well balanced since they are not adding 2 new professions every 6 months anymore.

I say give it a try. I make decent money now with basic builds in old farming areas. Made almost 100K last week farming in hot springs. PvP balance is good, and I noticed more people in towns and outposts lately (not really forming pugs but there)

Don't let the negativity around this forum disuade you from trying. HM and EoTN are fun, then nerfs aren't anything you can't over come.

GL and hope you have fun