Nah yeah the story content gets much better after vanilla/core much like FFXIV. Also finding a class that works for you can make or break things. That said the community is very helpful in easing players into it because there's a lot to learn

Very diff type of MMO, have to unlearn XIV to a point

Ive also decided I want to get a legendary armor piece from each content type available (Eklasia from fractal and the WvW coat were the start, so this will mean sPvP, SotO, and Raids are left. I suppose the aquabreather too eventually)

Gonna fight people in sPvP for pants next.

Im only missing 160 Ecto and Gift of Exploration btw (Meteorlogicus)

Getting the skyscale will make the map completion MUCH faster

People cannot HELP themselves I swear

Last time, *take your time* there's 13 years of content in there especially past 80. Don't feel the need to push yourself to rush through things especially since your gear isn't gonna be outclassed in a patch. You're allowed to take breaks if you need to ✨

The game CAN be lightly min-maxy but in a way that's reasonable I'd say. You wouldn't use weapons that just apply DOTs on a crit build y'know? The rest is more of a Materia kind of optimization

Oh and every class can play every role to some degree. There IS a Trinity but it's an unconventional one (Crit DPS/Dot DPS, DPS but also buffing, and healer which also tanks)

Pick the flavor/class fantasy you want and have fun from there.

Of those options, GW2

You'd be surprised how much FFXIV took inspiration from it (and GW2 still does better imo)

Very alt friendly, PvP is actually designed (and WvW is a chill CASUAL PvP mode), you don't HAVE to raid or roulette spam as your endgame experience, and gear is mostly evergreen