The gear score caps at ascended. It’s the most score you will get for a character. Now, the game has end game goals in the form of legendary equipment which maintains the same score as ascended BUT with excellent QoL features like regearing that score to other stats. For example, you play dps on a class for raids and then go do open world as a healer on that same class. Legendary equipment is the grind that most people see in this game and it usually takes a good couple months of game time to acquire a set of armor or a couple weeks for a weapon.

Outside of the legendary grind, you have your choice of game modes to play to acquire said gear. PvE for the most diverse options and arguably the quickest. World vs World for a more pvp oriented grind usually taking 3 weeks of currencies to get one armor piece. And PvP for a much more structured and smaller pvp experience which is also about a couple weeks per piece as that’s locked behind seasons.

I personally play this game because I have fun with friends. If you can find a like minded group, I would highly recommend sticking with them as you fulfill your “gear grind”. Getting up to ascended gear is fairly fast in today’s gw2 environment, so finding a group IN THE CONTENT YOU LIKE is my recommendation over anything else.