Let's try and answer the question

Should I play Guild Wars 2 in 2019?

My honest opinion is that you should play it

But let me try and explain my perspective on what I think influences this

First off, Guild Wars 2 has a free to play option which will allow you to play the core

version of the game

This only has a handful of limitations

You will only have access to eight of the classes and wont be able to play Revenant

You will also only have access to one map region

And that consists of Central Tyria

There are also some chat restrictions if you want to see all of them I will leave a link

down below in the description

You should bear in mind that this is basically an infinite trial

Free to play allows you to play the game to level 80 and access the core classes

You can play through the full original story and access the content that was made available

to players who first bought the game when it was originally released

If you buy the expansions, Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, you will unlock two whole

new regions. The Heart of Maguuma and the Crystal Desert and this will come with a plethora

of content to tackle

Here on the left we have the Heart of Maguuma maps which have a good amount of events in

them

And then here in the bottom right hand side of the map we have the Path of Fire Crystal

Desert maps

There are also events here but arguably not as fun

One big selling point about these maps is that they appear to be the largest in the

game

Or they feel like it

The expansions come with two whole new story lines, access to six raid wings, you gain

gliding from Heart of Thorns and Mounts from Path of Fire

The Mounts in Guild Wars 2 are definitely one of their best features they are not pointless

they have their own skills

You can also upgrade these skills via the mastery points system

This is something that you will continue to unlock throughout the expansions.

The expansions also unlock the class Revenant, this is something you would not have access

to in the Free to Play version

And finally, we have the Living World episodes, I will build on this later on, but the Living

World is an ongoing series that gets updated periodically

The way that I look at it, the game stops at level 80 until you buy the expansions

There is so much content in Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire you very easily run out of

things to do in the core game

That said, ArenaNet do release regular content for free

And sometimes there is a decent wait in-between

However, Guild Wars 2 does not charge a subscription service

and therefore I think it's viable for there to be a little bit of a wait in-between each

release.

That said, there are some semi-regular balance updates as well as a new raid wing approximately

once a year

and of course, their Living World Seasons.

Included in this, Is some Quality of Life items and Fashion item releases as well

These consist of mount skins, weapon skins, Infinite salvage kits, extra bag slots and

then different types of particle effect infinite tools

Those will make more sense once you've actually bought a good few amount of mining tools and

so forth

And the best part is that with the gold to gem conversion you don't have to spend another

penny on this game after you buy it

You can if you wish but arguably you can get everything you want just by playing the game

ArenaNet's prime target market is the gamer who does not want to be left behind and feel

that they need to grind for weeks just to achieve their goals

You are able to reach level 80 by playing any game mode you wish with the exception

to some free to play limitations

If you wish to do the standard method and just grind out heart completion, go for it

However, if you're a player vs player fanatic, you are able to go in at level 2 and just

start playing through your reward tracks

These tracks take your PvP experience and reward you with items periodically

You will occasionally be granted a Tome of Knowledge which is equal to one level gained

Upon usage of this item you will gain one character level

PvP in Guild Wars 2 is played in one... I mean two game modes.

These consist of Conquest and Stronghold

Not including World vs World

In Conquest, you fight for node ownership and play 5 vs 5

Essentially Capture-Point Deathmatch

And then there Stronghold, where you use supply to request NPCs who break down walls and eventually

kill the main NPC Lord.

Stronghold is due a rework and is not really the main PvP game of choice.

If you do choose this method to level up your character, you will be scaled up as an equal.

You will be at no deficit if you choose to be level 2, level 30 or level 79

Your amulet choices and rune choices, and skill choices are what determine your power

output and sustainability

Everything is auto-unlocked in instanced PvP

You could of course also unlock everything in World vs World.

However your gear, skills and attachments will not scale as well as it would if you

were full Ascended. You must still unlock your abilities via the Hero Panel in order

to use them in World vs World.

So this isn't quite the same as Structured PvP.

World vs World is essentially a massive Player vs Player vs Environment engagement.

Multiple servers group up against one another and fight for objectives on the map

Each server is allocated its own Borderlands to defend

And then those servers that are fighting against one another contest each other in the Eternal

Battlegrounds.

You can use siege equipment to both be offensive and defensive.

And there are player commanders who will try to organise these defensive and offensive

manoeuvres.

This is very large scale PvP.

Now lets move onto gear.

The gear ranges from basic to Legendary

Ascended and Legendary have the same stats and they are what you will be using for pretty

much your entire lifetime of Guild Wars 2.

Due to the lack of gear treadmill, your gear is almost always relevant.

The only reason that you might go for Legendary gear is so that you have a special particle

effect or because you would like the Quality of Life that is associated with them.

Legendary gear allows you to change the stat weights whenever you like just by double clicking

on the item and selecting what you'd like to change it to.

This means that you do not have to carry around multiple sets of gear.

The Legendary gear in Guild Wars 2 does require a little bit of a grind, however these are

completely optional and they are things that you choose to undertake yourself.

They're never forced upon you.

There is no reason to mindlessly grind anything you don't wish to. You can actually log off

for a few weeks, come back and you're still as relevant as you were before.

The stat ceiling is fixed, but your skill ceiling is up to you.

Now this is what I think is the main selling point of Guild Wars 2.

It was my favourite feature and it remains to be.

The combat is fluid, dynamic, responsive and allows for skilful play.

There are a number of combos in this game both field and finisher, and skill succession

combos.

You might be used to skill limitations in games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy

14, where each button press requires a global cooldown.

In Guild Wars 2, that's not the case. Some skills have instant usage and some skills

have cast times or action times.

After the animation is finished you are able to use your next ability, or use multiple

instant cast spells or actions simultaneously.

This is an example of a combo.

It's a relatively famous one known as the Backstab Steal combo.

Essentially what it shows is you going into stealth, activating an ability to travel and

then backstabbing.

Combos like this exist across all of the classes. And I think that this is a prime example of

how fluid the combat is.

Guild Wars 2 has a relatively easy to understand combat system.

All you need to do is get your head around the combo fields. That said, in PvP and even

in PvE, there are some benefits to using things like terrain.

In PvP for example, skill telegraphs and visuals, action-cancelling and kiting are keys to success.

So the limitations of the combat system aren't just the skills.

Your ability to interpret situations and react are paramount.

And outplaying your opponent isn't just via use of skills.

Action cancelling is a good way of making people use defensive cool downs.

Guild Wars 2 also has an evasion mechanic. This relies on an endurance bar and a slow

regeneration of that resource.

This evade mechanic makes you essentially immune to damage at the time of use, which

you are able to freely use in all areas of the game.

It's not as broken as it sounds but it can definitely lead to a very fast death if you

waste them.

This is true in PvP and PvE.

Guild Wars 2 has two different sets of damage. There's flat power damage and there's condition

damage that can stack in intensity.

Examples include, bleeding, burning, poison, confusion and torment.

And if you'd like to look at these they are available on the wiki. So, look at it this

way.

Your choice of gear, or amulet, will influence this damage. This is also applicable to things

like healing power. You can create hybrid builds, or just a generic condition or power

based build.

Your class trait lines will further enable you to customise your class.

Some of them prefer conditions and some prefer the power play.

Traits are essentially methods of creating synergy. You can determine your class behaviour

with a certain set of traits. For example, swapping an elite spec might open up a different

weapon set.

The thief can't usually use staff, but when it uses Daredevil, it gains access to this

weapon. And in turn, it gains access to new abilities.

As a reminder, the elite specialisations are found in the expansions.

If you're thinking about this from a PvE level, all you do is change your gear instead of

your amulet. It's exactly the same.

Now let's move onto boons. Boons are the buffs of Guild Wars 2.

Each one does something slightly different to benefit your combat.

This may consist of increased damage output, damage reduction, condition resistance, and

so on.

Some of these boons can stack in intensity.

And the same as before, here is a brief listing.

Again, I will provide the link in the description.

Your class may not always play the same style. The elite specialisations in the game can

completely change up your class' meta play.

Core guardian which is usually very offensive, gains options to become a very sustainable

support class when switching to the Firebrand elite spec.

You as the player determine the output of your class.

There is more customisation than people think.

Now moving on from some of the tangents, there are options for killing time in Guild Wars

2.

You can chase down achievements, do some collections, and grind out irrelevancies for the sake of

it.

You could play the trading post, you could farm your favourite skins, or you can just

grief people in PvP.

And of course there's always raids and fractal dungeons.

How is it so far for you?

If you are an ex-World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14, or whatever player, you may be

used to the item level grind, and constant desire to be relevant by farming drops which

may never come.

If this is something you love and need in your MMO of choice, Guild Wars 2 will not

offer you that.

Guild Wars 2 will always be played at your own pace.

If you wanna leave and come back when the Living World episodes release, go for it.

Some people play every single day, others don't. They make their own content.

They form communities, and play the game the way they want to.

The limitations of the raids in this game is that there is only a single tier of difficulty.

That said, there are objects called Challenge Motes which increase the difficulty of some

encounters, not all of them.

These add additional health and additional mechanics.

Raid bosses drop exclusive skins and achievements that can provide you with exclusive items.

That said, due to the lack of gear treadmill, all of the previous raid wings are still as

relevant as the most recent.

This means that none of the bosses actually become outdated.

They remain equally as difficult as they were the first time that you did them, and the

only thing that improves that is your experience with the bosses.

As previous mentioned, there are currently 6 raid wings with another one in development

hopefully coming in 2019.

So that means currently there are 22 encounters with 16 bosses.

The encounters count as actual raid engagements but they are not bosses in themselves.