I wrote this in other thread but i feel like it's a quite correct review of how the beta weekends of GW2 went for me...

Wall of text incoming.

TLDR version. Try the game like it's something new, it's just too different.

This game as a natural learning curve.

People that are playing it exactly the same way that they did all the other 20 something MMOs they played before this will just not get into the groove.

I felt like this at the start.

The game forces you to explore, to try new things, to actually read and find interesting NPCs, if you don't care about your surroundings you'll simply not play the game.

My 1st hour in GW2 was very frustrating, i kept trying to grind "quests", i kept trying got get a "rotation", i kept trying to "look for the fast way", and then i simply quit, i logged off and came back one hour latter thinking to myself that this is a new game and we will treat it like it is my first MMO.

And guess what?

Much better, i started exploring in PVE, starting events on my own and following the NPCs, it felt awesome that for once the NPCs treated my charachter like someone that matters, i impacted the world and changed the areas i played on.

Then i started a meta event, and the fact that i had to learn my own way to do it made it very sattisfying...jumping puzzles, hidden caves, veteran and champion mobs that were hidden and that i had to find a way to beat by learning to weapon swap, dodge, know when to use what abilities and how to use them to the best of their power....

I was hooked.

The combat seemed simplistic, but in the end it's much harder then most MMOs, you don't have everything at your disposal at all times, you need to plan a build and know what and when you have to use your abilities, the same class with 2 different weapons is basically 2 different classes.

So i jumped into The Mists and did a simple warrior build and went to PVP, and guess what, i did it like i would have done any other MMO, and i was frustrated.

Why couldn't i have a fear effect and berserker while keeping my other utilities? Why should i change weapons, i mean i love maces, i wanted to spam mace attacks! Another hour break.

Came back, redid my setup, and it hit me again, almost no 2 warriors will be the same, people can theorycraft but a riffle / mace warrior is not the same as a longbow / Sword-Sword warrior, so i thought about this and engineered a riffle / 2handsword spec.

Jumped into pvp and started noticing what my adversaries were doing, i was such a fool, why would i spam maces if i can save skills like hamstring to kite an enemy that as only melee weapons? Why should i try to a berserker against guardians with shields, why was i playing this game like it's a traditional trinity game?

Styles make fights and teamwork is the most important thing in GW2 pvp, and i was hooked to pvp.

WvWvW was the same, from lost to found, learning what to do, why to do it and specially what i like doing makes a huge difference.

GW2 is a different experience, it's a mix of great ideas, feels like Skyrim PVE, LoL on rage steroids in battleground pvp and has as unique view in Realm vs Realm pvp.

And i think this is the problem for alot of people, because the game feels very very familiar, but at the same time it's so different it makes you unconfortable.