It actually has the highest uptime of any MMORPG out there. Even patches do not turn off the servers! There is near zero downtime for maintenance required.
If a patch comes during your gameplay you will see a notification (eg. "A new build was released. Your game will restart in X hours") and you still have hours before your game is forcibly restarted to download the patch.
They created something called Microservices. GW2 is a huge construct of 80+ types of microservices that can be restarted individually.
They gave a big talk about it at GDC (Game Development Conference) that you can watch. (Or you can just scroll a bit through its presentation and see it for yourself[ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com].)

They are not just skins with the same movement speed as in oldschool MMORPGs. They are completely different from each other. This mount system is the best you will ever witness in any MMORPG. Period. No surprise Blizzard took some notes of them for their game.

Jump down a cliff, pull out your Glider and use updrafts to gain height. Let go of your Glider and go on your Griffon - mid-air. Go into dive mode and do flaps to gain speed. Jump from your Griffon - mid-air - and go on your Dragon, grab a wall with said Dragon, push yourself off the wall to climb it.
The game wants you to become a freaking trapist artist with the amount of different traversal methods. Races and time-trials with leaderboards exist, too. Or you can cruise around on your ship (Skiffs) to go fishing (or also race).
The movement will get better and better the further you progress. You get your first mount at level 10. You can begin mastering the unique capabilities of your Mounts, Glider and Skiff at level 80.

You can farm gold in-game by doing stuff and trade them in for the premium currency at changing rates. If you want a nice skin for premium currency you can just trade in gold for it. You can even unlock living story episodes for gold if you don't want to spend money. Episodes are fairly cheap, too.

You cannot achieve perfect balance but having less skill combinations means it is easier to balance. Build-crafting exists in the form of traits and utility skills.

World VS. World (VS. World) - or WvW for short - is the best Server VS. Server of any MMORPG out there. Some players I met state that they specifically stayed in GW2 just because the WvW was better than in any other MMORPG.

There are a lot of players that are also developers creating tools for the game.
For example: Overlays such as BlishHUD[www.blishhud.com] integrate seamless making it look like its part of the actual game. Thanks to the official memory shared file third-party-apps have access to avatar and camera positionals allowing the projection of 3D objects into the game without breaking any Terms of Service! BlishHUD in particular is also my favorite since its
a framework giving people the ability to create tools with the same UI design as the game. All of which become accessible through a library in BlishHUD itself!

You can take a break and still be as strong as before! GW2 is about horizontal progression. This means you unlock stuff for your account. You level fishing, skiffing, your mounts, leadership, gliding. This "second" leveling system unlocks once you reach 80 in the regular level system. And since this system goes beyond level 400 there is always something todo! The regular level which caps at 80 is always scaled down appropriately so that old content stays relevant and fun. And for those that cannot live without grinding armor: There are legendary armor parts, trinkets and weapons which unlock the ability to change their stat combination to any other on the whim with the nice side-effect of people looking at you like you are king or queen.

The Sylvari are a plant-based species (dubbed: the salad folk) have actual tree sap veins that glow in the dark in a color of your choosing! Their hair and skin is made of leafs (or shrooms) and roots grow along the surface.
The Charr are large, savage, feline creatures that run on all four paws! When you draw your weapon as a Charr they will begin to walk on two feet although their feline spine isn't made for it. It looks and feels like you are playing an advanced feline species!
The Asura are the base dwellers of this game with very large ears. They say the bigger your ears the higher your intellect. Playing as one tiny Asura will make your character do cool flips when casting. An Asura will climb the top of a Staff and balance on it to pre-cast boons.

The base game is already extremely beautiful, but just wait until you see the expansion continents where ArenaNet added new systems to make the game a feast for the eyes. The choice of graphics-style makes this game age very slowly which is an additional plus.

Even amongst other gaming communities GW2 is known for having a friendly community. That's what has been sticking with people the most.

Yep.😎

At least they listened and you are now able to buy them in a bundle.

The Looking-For-Group is a social place where you can advertise your group with a single message. It's based on Do-It-Yourself. You'll be forced to communicate to form groups.

The first true end boss when reaching level 80 has very oudated mechanics. Thankfully, the story just continues to improve after that.

This game does not have exclamation mark filler quests. You also don't have a new max armor every expansion. This confuses oldschool players who spend decades in such a system. These cannot be undone in a few minutes. Be patient.