I've been a guild wars fan since the first game, around the time Prophecies came out. I've played GW2 since the day of the release (I didn't bother with the beta because I wanted to play the finished product, not just bits and pieces, I'm weird like that), then dropped out right before Halloween, due to bots completely ruining the economy, but Anet really stepped up, so.. I'm back!
I love the combat, it's really exhilarating and dynamic, as opposed to a lot (if not all) other murmorpurgers. There's no 'holy trinity', which means no more standing around for half an hour to find someone that wants to play as a healer. Crucial to your survival are your healing skill, dodge and/or block abilities. Succeeding in battle relies more on actual skill and finesse, rather than who's numbers are the highest. The fact that they made the game so that every class can fulfill every role (within reason), without sacrificing differences between individual classes is nothing short of amazing.
There's also no more walls of text you have to read if you want to know what the fuck's going on, Arenanet makes the quests come to you. You could be having a nice stroll to enjoy the view and suddenly stumble upon 20 players trying to take down an enormous cave troll, or a lone player struggling to stay alive against a pack of seriously pissed off centaurs, that you can save in an epic moment of heroism, completing the quest with a nice bit of teamwork (or die horribly). This is the kind of dynamic action that murmorpurgers have been seriously lacking, and I'm not just talking about WoW here.
A lot of you say there's not much to do after you hit 80 and have completed your story. Now while this is true, you must know that this is Arenanet, this is how they work. They get their money from releasing expansion packs every now and then.
Prophecies got rather boring after you got the shiniest gear and completed all the quests, but then they released 3 expansions in the following 2 years. There are quite a few places on the world that aren't accessible yet, that have 'we will be using this in the future' written all over it. And what about the likely possibility of new races? (Offtopic question: Which race has the most potential to become playable? My money's on the Tengu). So what I'm saying here is, be patient! These are artists at work, new content will be there before you know it.
But to the ying must come the yang.. there are a few major gripes about this game that prevent me from doing a naked victory dance on top of a pile of burning WoW discs and sending the pictures to every forum dedicated to WoW ever.
First of all, the story. Or stories, but it still all comes down to beating up the mean dragons. It's completely generic and predictable, and being told in a rather lazy fashion, but I suppose you have to make sacrifices if you want such an expansive, living and breathing world full of dynamic events, with money not growing on trees and all.
Then there's the armor/weapon issues. From clipping monstrosities to a staff/shield/greatsword/rifle floating 3 inches from your back, strange discolorations and rather bland or downright ugly armor sets for the most part (my opinion, especially most of the dungeon sets), I really think this in dire need of improvement. I'm sure there will be many new armor sets in the future, and clipping/glitches can be fixed, but I'm not too sure about the 'floating' thing. Even some armor like masks and shoulder pieces seem to do this. And what's with majority of Charr armor not having tailholes!?
And finally: The arbitrary bullshit you have to deal with during some of the heart missions. Help feeding the cows and clean up graffiti? I know this is supposed to give you a feeling of building your name as hero of the people, but handing the same piece of meat from the same meatrack to the same hungry charr that is literally standing 3 meters from said meatrack until a bar is filled is just BUSYWORK. Do these needy motherfuckers want the dragons dead, or what?
Bottom line: Though the game is far from perfect, the mind-dazzling environments, dynamic & exciting combat, community and excellent replay value make sure you get your money's worth.
If you feel like teaming up some time, leave me an inbox message. My world is Kaineng, USA.