Has the skill system gotten any variety?

[panzerkampfwag0n]

I remember playing this in 2012...there was basically just a handful of cookie cutter builds and no room for customization or variety. Has it gotten any better?

In Guild Wars 1 there were an infinite number of builds you could run based on the number of skills available.

[SinisterSlay]

Better than it was. Not comparable to GW1.

[Jin-]

Lots of variety and i mean tons of variety compared to other MMORPGs but not like in GW1.

[ebaG-gamma]

I agree with both previous commenters.

The viability of condition-damage-based builds has increased dramatically. The addition of three elite-specializations per profession, each with a new weapon, and two more weapons on top of that and various other things have improved the variety a lot.

I always say that it is better to come at GW2 with a fresh perspective. Don't try to find other games in this one. This includes Guild Wars 1. If you can't get over the fact that GW2 or any other MMO doesn't let you build with the thousands of skills that GW1 let you pick from, you'll not ever be happy with anything else.

If you, however, get into the weeds of Guild Wars 2's systems, you'll find that the buildcraft is very deep.

[BumFight]

same ♥♥♥♥, if you want variety try pvp pve is still just taking damage modifiers game plays like it did 4 years ago

[RotherHans]

He played it 12 years ago and compared to then the build variety has exploded just from the added 27 elite specs.
But yeah,
if all you do is look up the standard cookie cutter build on the usual sites then run your rotation like a trained monkey,
nothing much changed there.

[ebaG-gamma]

Yeah, what RotherHans said, but not even the "4 years ago" is true.

Since then, we got End of Dragons (EoD feature list)[wiki.guildwars2.com], which brought another elite specialization for each profession, namely
Willbender guardian, Vindicator revenant, Bladesworn warrior, Mechanist engineer, Untamed ranger, Specter thief, Catalyst elementalist, Virtuoso mesmer, and Harbinger necromancer.

Secrets of the Obscure (SotO feature list)[wiki.guildwars2.com] brought
Weaponmaster Training[wiki.guildwars2.com], which unlocks all weapons previously exclusive to elite specializations for the whole profession,
and Relics[wiki.guildwars2.com] as a new equipment type which grants many of the original 6/6 rune effects and added many new effects. (You'll probably receive some Relic Chests on level ≥ 60 characters, that let you select from Conditions, Power, Support, and Survival relics, when you log back in.)
Later, in the SotO release cycle, each profession got Expanded Weapon Proficiency[http//Expanded+Weapon+Proficiency], specifically

• Guardian: Pistol (main and off hand)
  
• Revenant: Scepter (main hand)
  
• Warrior: Staff
  
• Engineer: Short bow
  
• Ranger: Mace (main and off hand)
  
• Thief: Axe (main hand)
  
• Elementalist: Pistol (main hand)
  
• Mesmer: Rifle
  
• Necromancer: Sword (main and off hand)

… and with Janthir Wilds[wiki.guildwars2.com], each profession gained the ability to use spears[wiki.guildwars2.com] on land.
You may want to dismiss all of that, but saying that nothing has changed for 4 years just isn't true.

Originalmente postado por panzerkampfwag0n:

there was basically just a handful of cookie cutter builds and no room for customization or variety.

There is nothing stopping you from coming up with interesting combinations of weapons, slot skills, traits and relics. As RotherHans has alluded to, just gobbling up what build websites regurgitate is missing out on the vast majority of interesting builds you could come up with yourself.

And it's not just the build variety that has improved theoretically and in practice, more importantly – in my opinion – the content has gotten a lot more interesting. Compared to the current state of the game, enemy/encounter design, map design etc., the base game really is a snooze fest. It's well suited for more casual players to learn the ropes, but it's hardly ever challenging unless you deliberately seek out those challenges. Compare this to the open worlds of Heart of Thorns and beyond, where even random mobs keep you on your toes, the multitude of fractals, strike missions and raids that have been added since, meta events that span entire maps … these, more than anything are plenty reasons to check back. I expect expansion sales around Black Friday (end of November) as they have happened in previous years. The best opinion is still the one you have formed yourself from first-hand experience.