So help me out here guys. I love yet hate this game. I really want to get into it, as there is a lot of cool things that I really do like about it, but there are some major things I just cannot get over. Every zone so far feels the same, and every "heart hub" feels the same "kill x of y, and pick up any of z item on the ground" grind for 5 - 10 minutes, then talk to npc, see their worthless rep gear, and move on to next area. I have a level 27 Sword Pistol Thief and 23 GS Warrior. The world and combat animations just feel "chinsey" if that makes sense. I tried WvWvW once for like 5 minutes, got smoked by some red named NPC, assuming this was another player, and then I logged off.
What the heck can I do to get more enjoyment out of this game? I've done some of my story quests and those are alright I guess but nothing amazing. I see all this cool armor and weapons and assume some is from dungeons which are coming up, but are these even going to be fun? Right now I am still wearing the same looking armor that I was wearing at like level 3. Same looking weapons too. And I have like no stealth as a thief. I am hoping I will get this at some point. The best way for me to sum it up is it always feels like there is going to be something really cool right around the corner, whether it's new item, new cool area, maybe some new weapon/armor model, etc, but it never actually happens. There is never a payoff. Maybe it's the want for familiarity but in all honesty all it is making me want to do is go play WoW.
Thieves don't stealth forever like in WoW: they have an utility (Shadwo refuge) they can blast or leap into into smoke fields, or use dagger #5, they are all short duration stealths. Sword pistol uses no stealth at all, but it's very good for levelling.
Warrior is strong, but boring, stick to the thief imo and use a shortbow as swap weapon, it's amazing.
Buy at least green weapons, buy sigils for them (sigil of bloodlust, sigil of fire for example are quite good for levelling).
Levelling: when you start doing shit wow-style, you will get bored of gw2 right away, consider it like a trip in an area where you just go exploring, kill everything that moves, do dynamic events. Karma gear and relative vendors are fairly useless, you can pretty much ignore most of them and get gear on the trading post, green if you have spare silvers, blue if you don't. Buy power/precision trinkets and power/vitality armor (or toughness, but for thief I'd go vitality). Use your signet as your heal if you play Sword/Pistol, learn to interrupt opponents with sword #3, or just drop pistol #5 every few seconds to be unkillable even by 3 or 4 opponents.
Don't play the game on rail, you can always go back and finish zones later, you are downlevelled to the area specific level range. Look out for jumping puzzles, kill champions if you can, even if with a thief is not easy at all (don't do those fucking boring champ trains, just don't or you'll uninstall the game in 10 minutes flat).
In a few levels, when you have more points to spend, try out a dagger/dagger condition spec and use death blossom and caltrops: it's a ton of fun and will teach you a few things about timing.
GW2 is a game of timing. Learn to master sword/dagger for example and you overcome very strong opponents. Learn to use dodge and relate effects (in your traits), try out different weapon setups, like S/D, P/D or D/P or even P/P for shit and giggles.
Armor: medium armor sucks for a bunch of levels, mostly trench coats, but later on it has some good ones. Newbie armor in general is fairly lackluster, except light one maybe.
It's a great game, play it for what it is.