I like MMO's / RPG's with tons of loot, like WoW, Diablo, Everquest, DAoC, AC, Torchlight, Titan Quest....

Tons of variety! Tons of rarities like (blue, green, purple, orange, ect..)

Does Guild Wars 2 offer a "fun" loot system with a lot to find as drops, craft, or gain from bosses?

I played Guild Wars 1 at launch and I didn't like that loot system at all. Another poor loot system would be The Secret World online.

Please, someone enlighten me on loot in GW2!

There is a fair amount of loot, some of it is vendor trash, much of it is either gear or crafting materials (and gear can be broken down into crafting materials). I didn't see a lot of "fun" vendor trash items even when killing lots of humanoids.

All said I like the system very much, everyone gets their own loot (although it is not class specific), crafting materials can be instantly moved to your crafting materials shared bank slots, and looting is easy.

I haven't seen a drop higher than green (which is equal to WoW blue), and tough mobs don't seem to drop anything better than anything else.

My kingdom for an area loot key though!

/waves_hand  

"This is not the gear treadmill you're looking for...."

This game does have rare style items, but they're only for aesthetic reasons.  Like for example how there's a Legendary weapon that is a Unicorn Bow that shoots rainbows; it has the same stats as every single other LvL80 item, but it's the skin and look that makes it unique.

This game is not about gear stats or chasing the next raid for big loots.  It's about fun.  There's even "town cloths" which are again for nothing more than fun..that, and dance parties.

In GW2 it is common to get blue item drops from normal mobs.

Green items drops from normal mobs but are you encounter these item drops far less frequently.

Or one could visit the Mystic Forge, throw in a bunch of stuff and get better items. ArenaNet stated that there are very specific recipes for the Mystic Forge so that remains to be seen.

Epic level weapons could be obtained through crafting.

Legendary level weapons could also be obtained through crafting but require a fair bit of investment in time and in-game currency to accomplish.

However the said legendary and epic level weapons do not offer a significant advantage over other players with less "advanced" gear and are mostly cosmetic.

The loot system in GW2 does kinda follow the same rules as loot in GW1.. but.. it doesn't feel like the loot system in GW1 because it comes in faster and constantly across many more levels. There is a lot more variety as well, both in stats and in appearance. As you level it will seem just like any other game, you will find lots of loot and upgrade often. At endgame it's about tailoring that equipment to your build/playstyle and also about finding the things that you think look good (cosmetic).

All armor looks are more viable because of the dye system, you can make every piece look VERY different if you want to.

Concerning weapons, in GW1 and in most other games, you usually only use 1 or 2 weapons per class. In GW2 there are many more to choose from per class. Even if you arn't using a greatsword right now you'll still be keeping 1 or 2 in your inventory for when you do want to use one, and you will want to because they offer different skills. This means that there are more weapons you need to find and upgrade. 

 The quality of an item, if it's a weapon/armor piece/accessory, is determined by the thing(s) that is/are slotted into it and equipment does drop with upgrades already in the slot(s), so you do find loot with the following colors:

• grey
• white
• blue
• green
• yellow
• orange
• red
• purple

That order determines the quality. If an item has a slot then you can turn it into a different color by using the appropriate slottable item(s). You can turn a white item into a green, for example. I'm not sure if this applies to all quality levels as I have only tested it up to rare (yellow).

This color/quality system also applies to almost all other item types including crafting mats, bags etc. But their quality isn't determined by something slotted into them.

Listing all the loot you can find/buy goes something like this:

• Weapons
• Armor
• Underwater equipment
• Accessories (rings, earrings, cloak, etc.)
• Town clothing
• Items that go into equipment slots
• Junk items purely for selling to NPCs
• Salvagable items (to gain crafting mats)
• Salvage Kits
• Gathering tools
• Bags (increase space and there are different types bags e.g. one might autofill with any junk loot you pick up)
• Dyes
• Transmutation Stones (take the appearance from one item and the stats from another to make a new item)
• Normal crafting mats
• Rare crafting mats
• Gemstones (can be slotted for stats or used as crafting mats)
• Vanity items (miniatures (basically vanity pets), consumables that have novelty effects)
• Consumables/Boosts (healing, buffs, etc.)
• Mystic Chests (contain vanity items or other consumables e.g. boosts)
• Mystic keys to open mystic chests
• Legendary (Red) items: From bosses/dungeons, they arn't 'better' but they may have different or situational effects on them. The main thing they have is a unique look and can 'probably' be customized a bit (stat bonus wise) like other items.
• Mystic (purple) items: I have no idea how they are obtained but it's probably from some major endgame dungeons, zone wide events, extremely rare mobs or completing your personal story. They have nothing to do with mystic chests.
• ... and more