As someone whose only real MMO's have been GW2 and TSW, there are a few things I can say, largely on the differences

As opposed to GW2, where almost everything is account based, virtually nothing in GW2 is account based, it's character based, because... You're given total freedom in your build, unlike GW2, you can wield any 2 (of 9) weapons at once, and you're not locked into anything. You can obtain every ability in the game, and you can save entire builds (including gear and weapons). Your clothes are entirely separate from armor, the "armor" is just talismans that you don't see so you don't even need to worry about anything like transmutation charges, you can just change clothes whenever (weapons are trickier). GW2 tries to put players in the same maps, TSW tries to do the opposite and spread players out (although it's easy to look for people to play with if you want). To contrast GW2's complete lack of quests, the quests in this game are amazing, almost all of them are pretty unique and frequently challenging (especially investigation missions), even the occasional standard "go here and kill things" quests usually have some sort of twist. Also, there's a ton of lore, there are literally objects you interact with in the environment that give you more lore, and it logs it away so you can read it whenever you want. The combat isn't nearly as smooth as GW2, but I personally think it's more fun and rewarding, even against common enemies. A couple other things: The game is pretty small, there are only 9 zones, and they're packed with stuff, but still, a far smaller map than GW2. Content is also fairly slow to come out, but when it does, it's great. (On a minor note, this game lets you get story achievements on your first time through a mission, and clearly alerts you if you screw up, which is nice). The environment and writing are fantastic and unique. Despite the fact that it's in our world, and has familar monsters (zombies, vampires, etc) they're presented very differently from anywhere else, and this dives into a ton of folklore mythology and adapts it in a way that's recognizable and natural, but also unique and creative, and it also adds a lot of its own mythology. It has seasonal events, but they're very much in the spirit of the game (for example, Christmas 2012 had an "End of Days" event for the supposed end of the world, 2013 had Krampus stuff)

Overall, I'd say it's a little rough around the edges, and not as smooth or pretty as GW2, but I think the storytelling and world are absolutely fantastic, and all of the Issues (with the possible exception of #8) are worth buying (and the sidestories are pretty good, but not quite as compelling).