I wouldn't recommend GW2 at all, combat is incredibly floaty and the updates (apart from the April Fools) have been pretty dull, most of the time you seem to be waiting around for them to start.
Yeah, the leveling experience was spotty for me. Great for the first 20 levels, dragged for 20 levels, picked up again until level 60 and then just dragged until 80 thanks to the terrible high level zones.
The combat is also really lame and in need of drastic changes, it tries to skirt the ground of a non targeted combat system without proper hitboxes. Not to mention the terrible state dungeons were in when I was leveling, they've gotten slightly better (mostly changes to prevent people taking the easiest path to reward), but it's still mostly a clusterfuck if you aren't doing fractals.
That's another philosophy I don't really enjoy: how arena net's guide to balancing things, whether it be economy or class balance, is to nerf good or interesting things into the ground.
