Finally on my way out with this game.
The mechanics and combat are great in theory, but mainly unnecessary and impractical when playing the game. While one could waste their time going through costly cooldowns and speccing for evades and other forms of damage output and mitigation for a fun fight, it's far more efficient to just pull a mob and stack on them against a wall or something of the like. Many creatures will limit the range of attacks to only melee when an entire team stays condensed and within melee range, making for a far easier fight. At this point a group can simply outheal the boss's damage and effectively 'tank n' spank' most champion/legendary mobs in the game without fail. The sad part is that not only is this method more efficient, but it is pretty much the only method anyone is ever willing to run or try. It has become the 'norm' in almost any organized dungeon you run and you will likely be kicked if you do not comply. Teams that for whatever reason can't win a fight through the stack method will often switch characters or outright leave a party as opposed to playing the game the way it was meant to be played.
Another major problem on the PvP end is the fact that classes are NOT IN ANY WAY BALANCED INDIVIDUALLY. Every, I repeat EVERY balance and approach to balancing a class is looked at from a team play 5v5 perspective. While that might sound great on paper, it has made for some incredibly overpowered, ridiculous playstyles that run rampant in both regular matches and duels alike. What's even worse is that the levels of difficulty for a class can change drastically depending on what someone specs into. If traits weren't bad enough, certain weapon sets for certain classes are just absolutely broken due to the fact that many melee weapons can be initiated and used without target. While that might sound cool, you have many people abusing animations and skills in a way that was almost certainly not intended. A warrior with a greatsword for example is one of the most mobile, tanky and high damage dealing classes in the entire game, out running and out damaging a thief while healing and holding aggro as well as any guardian. They can literally do whatever they want more or as effectively as other classes designed for fulfilling that role. What you get when you put all of this together is the fact that some classes are literally so much easier, straight forward and effective in the singular, overly simplistic gamemode that IS spvp, that certain classes are not only dominant in the spvp scene but they are literally almost all you see due to how broken and effective they are. THE WORST PART OF THIS IS THAT ALMOST EVERYONE DOES THIS. This means that you're going to have nothing but overly tanky high dps dealing bunker builds that are guaranteed to beat any team that isn't made of meta builds and classes. There aren't many competitive games i've played where builds speak as loudly as they do in this game. A bad player with an OP build can very easily beat a decent/good player with a build that isn't in the meta.
All in all, while GW2 seemed like a great game from the onset, their blatant pandering to the casual player crowd has killed or ruined almost every enjoyable aspect of it's gameplay. People not willing to put in time and effort into this game not only go unpunished for doing so, they are even rewarded for it in many ways. Bad player habits are encouraged through game mode mechanics (or lack thereof in many cases) in almost every instance you come across. I've stuck tough with this game for over 2 years now, but i've just about fully given up hope that it will ever reach a point that even comes close to matching the hype and expectations it had built up over the years.
