Sorry to see another player go. Even though I'm NA and I can't ever remember playing with you the few times I've been on EU, at the very least, I will miss your posts. Not all of them mind you, but generally speaking, most of the posts I'd read of yours have been quite civilized.
I quit for about 1 year. It was shortly after upkeep and heirlooms and retirement were introduced. The new system was implemented and everyone's levels were reset based on XP. I was level 35 before the big patch (Kesh and Miley were around the top with 40 or 41. Maybe 42 at the end.) and then knocked way back to level 28 or something. I didn't care for the idea of retiring since it took a whole friggin summer of nothing but cRPG to get to level 35 (the XP and gold system were WAY different back then. Anything more than 20k gold and you were filthy rich. 250k gold was all but unheard of!) I was ticked off by this change and vowed to get back to my luscious level 35 build. In between grinding on my main, I played my 2h alt and even retired a few times getting a MW Longsword and eventually found myself playing my alt character more than my main. But even that got tiring and I wanted my lvl 35 build knowing that if I just reached it, all these heirloomed gear fanatics would weep at my feet once more so I sold the Longsword and all my gear on my alt and gave the gold to my main and deleted my 2h alt (The_Doctor), not without immediate regret. Shortly after, my huscarl got a major nerf, and my lvl 35 build got a nerf that it wasn't worth going for it anymore. And with all the nerfs going around (the time of the great nerf war) and my clan (ATS) on the decline, I decided to heck with it and stopped playing, occasionally checking the website to read updates and see new gear posted.
After about a year, I got an urge. Not to play so much as to make maps.
Somehow I lucked out and managed to get my alt back. Now I am a regular player again with a clan (and no Ecko - that man is dangerous. I swear he's a politician IRL) and a gen 8 main character. I even broke out of my mold and went a different class for a couple of gens!