Worm is a lot more regularly intense than Ward is; Taylor is the queen of escalation and the narrative reflects that, never really giving her (or the reader) time to breathe. Meanwhile Ward's protagonist actively tries to take time off, de-escalate, be mindful, and it does affect the pacing. There's slightly fewer action scenes, but they're just as good, if not better in some cases.

As far as I remember, Dragon shows up a few times but isn't as important as in Worm. Panacea does appear, with a pretty important, controversial, and spoileriffic role in the story.

The Endbringers don't come back in for a while, but they do show up and they do end up being pretty important. If you enjoyed Leviathan's and Behemoth's fights, you will absolutely adore pretty much the entire back half of Ward's action.

Ward's side characters also shine a lot more than Worm's, in my opinion, and I think it's because the author just had more experience writing by the time he did Ward. Rain is probably my favorite protagonist cape in the series, for example.

To me, aHiT always felt like Sunshine 2: No FLUDD. Hat Kid controls just like Mario without the fancy flips

I've amassed a decent collection over the last few years, anything I think'll make my friends laugh in the groupchat. Don't have music or apps on my phone so it's as good a place as any to store em too

Good luck

Here's a present

Definitely a Worm adaptation with the author, Wildbow, completely at the helm