Horizontal progression. Everyone is on equal footing. All end-game gears are the same stats, except for “ascended” and “legendary” gear, which is small enough of an increase for endgame content to be playable without. This also means that you don’t have a reset every expansion, and the gear you have now will be usable forever.
Cosmetic focused. Everyone kills over transmogs in WoW, even though they’re on cartoon graphics from years ago. Guild Wars 2 was originally made with cosmetic end-game in mind, not as an afterthought. The graphics are high-end to make cosmetics shine even more shinier.
Free-to-play/buy-to-play. You only have to buy the expansion, which is usually just $15 on sale. With it, you get the previous expansion for free too. It’s never been easier to get into Guild Wars 2. Derp.
WoW:
Vertical progression. You have to constantly chase the carrot on the stick, only for your progress to be reset every expansion. On the other hand, it gives a good reason to do end-game content (to power up) instead of just hanging out in the lobby like in GW2.
Cartoony graphics. The game looked great and authentically fantasy-like before the graphics update. Now it looks like toys.
Sub fee. This guarantees goodies like not having to pay for quality of life items and also makes the servers run smoothly.
GW2 is a lot of fun actually, just in a different way. There are a number of things that GW2 does that I wish WoW would do (the Heart of Thorn map meta events were really fun, and their mounts are leaps and bounds more impressive from a systems perspective).
You missed some of the perks of GW2 in your breakdown that I’d love if we had in wow:
Meaningful crafting
Account-wide bank
Account-wide currencies
Legendary gear can be shared across characters so you can just play what you want once you earn/craft the gear
Their world pvp has fallen a good bit since the glory days, but it is also significantly better than anything wow offers.
But they don’t have gnomes, and WoW raids are just too good, so here I am.
The developers of Guild Wars do not seem to be willing to make decisions that upset their base player, ostensibly, or wanting to hinder something in favor of metrics rather than satisfaction.
GW2 may not be a perfect game but then, warcraft is also not being a reference right now.
Having played the Guild Wars franchise since Prophecies and WoW since Burning Crusade I can say that in my opinion these are the best two MMOs on the market in terms of content, care, quality, and artistry. Both have positives and negatives. GW2 has had alot more influence on MMOs than most people realize or acknowledge. That being said, WoW is my current mmo of choice.
Probably personal preference, I go between WoW & SWTOR , tried GW2 and ESO didn’t like either but some people really like them so idk personal preference.
I do, however, think ESO is in most cases a better game. Their professions are better, their leveling is better, their every single npc being well voice acted is amazeballs, their lore is better (in my opinion), I think their overall story/quest driven progression is better. Graphics I think is better, housing is top notch. I also like their buy to play model with the subscription giving decent bonuses that are worth it.
That said I think WoW excels in combat, classes, and end game raiding and dungeons.
I sub to both and play both, but WoW is my current focus while I level my vulpera. Once I’ve had my fill I’ll return to ESO until shadowlands.
Says who? WoW tokens exist, which means every gold piece has a real money value, which also means that repairing your armor, buying consumables to raid, crafting consumables from mats you farmed ALL cost actual money.
I tried ESO when it first launched and also recently after it had supposedly been updated and improved. I know there is a large fan base for that game but for me it felt so janky, awkward, unpolished, unfulfilling, and lacking features that I couldn’t get my head around why people like it. Thankfully, the CS was friendly and prompt. They refunded my purchase no questions asked.
I don’t like how GW2 plays as much, for instance I can’t be a healer and there’s nothing that matches the dungeon content. I went back to it to try it, but I didnt care for the combat or zones as much either. It could be better, but it isnt.
GW2 also has a lot more stuff on shop since it is free, which makes it the lesser choice for me. There is a conversion but its not that great. I also dont think their graphics are any better however I do like the dye system.
I love the way WoW is going graphically, its more catoony than other games, but still beautiful and can run on almost any internet/machine without too much issue.
GW2 kept me interested for a month when i tried it again, WoW has had me back a year.
They refunded me too super quick and friendly about it (Only tried it when it FIRST launched though bought some imperial edition)! And yeah I have nothing bad to say about ESO or GW2 they just weren’t for me, Warcraft 3 and kotor were my childhood games so idc what the consensus of wow or swtor is those are the two I have fun in!
As someone who mains heals, this was also my issue with gw2 for the longest time, but they do now have a “pure” healing class, with a few other specs/classes that can build as healers if they choose to.
ESO and GW2 are great games. Its just WoW has been around for ages and people are attached to it. Frankly speaking if WoW never existed for 15 years and was released today people would say its mid to bottom tier mmo.
