Storytelling: is there anything off the beaten path?

Hey howdy, gurus.

Thanks to everyone's advice, I'm trucking along nicely through campaigns and expansion's storylines, and I have a question.

I've been ignoring (for now) almost everything except the storytelling, cinematic-driven core of the campaigns, following that one singular thread per continent that weaves a nice little movie. This is my favourite presentation of an RPG, and I was wondering, are there any sidequests that ALSO tell stories in the same way? I know that there's a whole "winds of change" plotline to bridge into GW2, but does it exist entirely in quest text and NPC dialogue text, or is there visual storytelling?

Basically, before I set down to "grinding HOM", I want to see all I can see that isn't reading text alone, is there anything outside the primary thread of each continent/campaign in this vein?

Thanks in advance for all constructive replies

WiK and WoC have some visual storytelling to them, I can't remember to what extent though. By doing WiK you work towards opressor weapons for hom, so I don't see why you can't do both at the same time? Additionally both of them are a challenge and great fun.

Excellent! Good to know, looking forward to it!

If you're planning to do HoM, I'd suggest you start vanquish/cartographer soon as you
finish the mission lines.

Reason being that those two can take a long time and get a little tiresome. So finding
a side quest to work on along the way can be a nice surprise and a fun way to break up
the monotony.

In Prophecies there are 2 story arcs: what happens after you finish the game, ie. Titan invasion; and Surrow's Furnace explore more of a dwarven civil war storyline and introduces the original hooks for eye of the north expantion.

In Factions, I'm not sure if elite missions tell any interesting stories

In Nightfall, I'm not sure if DoA tells a compelling story.

Eye of the North is pretty much a collection of 3 chapters revolving around a main story and factions you're working with.

Side quests mostly explore different aspects of the zones and reinforce the main story line mostly.

Bonus Missions Pack contains 5 stories important to various campaigns and act as prequels.

GW: Beyond is a trilogy that wraps up Cantha and Tyrian storylines.