tldr; I've been feeling bogged down with the recent changes to the game and could use some inspiration. Any suggestions to help me find some new magic and whimsy in the game to make it feel less like a chore since the SoTO updates?

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I'm a PvE player. I dabble with fractals and strike missions, but mostly enjoy traversing the beautiful maps and looking for the quirky fun side quests and story lines. I'm always at the festivals. I have a home instance full of cats. I'm always thrilled when I hear about the guild that plays music putting on a show. I very much play for the thrill of the game and have zero interest in striving to be the best of anything in game. This is one of the things I've always loved about GW2: that I don't have to make this game my life. I can just log in when I have a few minutes and have some fun!

I really want to love the most recent changes and expansion, but I just don't. First, I just have no interest in the current relics. I built out my two most used characters with mad king and privateer runes. Now that all the fun, whimsical rune sets have been completely squashed I'm missing the bird minions both those sets came with with nothing to replace them. It seems like such a little thing, but those silly animations always made me giggle and now my characters just feel generic. I also just earned my skyscale 2 months ago, so the focus on them makes the expansion feel like homework. "Hey, you know that optional thing you spent 8 months earning? Well now it's mandatory and if you want the new skin for it you'll have to earn it all over again. Enjoy!" I'm sure it's not as bad for those who have had their skyscale for a while. For me though, this combined with quests that mostly boil down to "repeat X activity X times. Now do that again," feels tedious even with the fun tomes of lore sprinkled along the way.

Any advice for finding the fun with these changes and new expansion? What recent improvements are making you happy?