Guild Wars 2

So I have been thinking about this for a while now to see if I could work out a decent system for this idea and this is what I have come up with (please note that some things would need to be changed for balance reasons but that can be easily done). Okay, so what I am thinking is this: remove signets from the game as utilities and make them a separate section for a buff choice.

How it works:
You remove the option to take a signet as a utility skill and instead create another 3-slot bar on a character that is dedicated to signets. Meaning every character can equip 3 signets with a permanently passive effect/buff. For example, a thief could equip their utilities as “shadow refuge”, “black powder”, and “shadowstep” and then take their three signets as the precision buff, the movement speed buff and the power buff. The signets are not able to be activated so they just keep the buffs they have equipped as a way to give them an edge in an area they want to be stronger in. Basically, I would think it could promote build diversity by not only giving players more build options through choosing the utilities they want to be able to use but they also now have separate selections of buffs that they need to choose from to create their build.

Balancing:
Of course some signets would have to be altered to prevent them from becoming op. a few suggestions include:
Healing signet and signet of the wild- change to 200-300 hp/sec depending on what the devs see as reasonable and no scaling with healing power.
Signet of undeath (or whatever the one whose active transfers condis to your foe is)- maybe transfer a condi to a foe every 10 sec or something like that. Just kinda depends on how anet wants to do balancing.
then I figured it would be best to leave the stat buff signets as they are and of course some other signets would have to be reworked plus engi would need some signets added to be able to equip or maybe some sort of alternative, depends on what anet thinks would work best with the class.

How it would fit in (unlocking)
This would be a rather easy thing to implement as you could have signets be unlocked at levels 5, 15, and 25. I picked those levels because then up until level 30 you are getting a new unlock every 5 levels which makes it more motivational and a lot easier for players to get into leveling because after 30 they are earning traits so it will be like you are always looking to unlock the next thing in your leveling process. And another bonus is the vacancy for signet buffing traits and signets as utilites would leave room for anet to add in more skills and traits. Everyone is happy

Conclusion:
So now that I have explained my thoughts on this and why I think that way I would really appreciate some feedback from players out there. Do you think it’s a good system suggestion? Do you agree with my balance changes? If not, what do you think would work better? Please keep all criticism constructive and please be sure to communicate clearly why you think that way in order to promote healthy discussion and a potential thing for the balance team to look into doing one day. Thank you for any and all contributions you give And if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will answer as soon as I can.

Problem #1: I have no idea what balance issue this change is even trying to fix.
Problem #2: I have no idea how this would do anything btu give players free stats which would just make already OP classes worse.

You want real balance? Nerf the ever living [censored] out of guardians and warriors so the other classes aren’t carried (ala GWEN) and ignored (ala MERT).

This would change nothing for the better, if anything it has the potential to make things worse.

The way I see it, part of the balance issue is lack of diversity which allows there to be a “meta” build for each class and builds that counter each meta. The metas are seen as op and unbalanced and then when someone makes a good counter its automatically seen as unbalanced and op. By allowing more build customization and decreasing the chance of everyone running the same build as eachother you decrease the chance of a meta build appearing which basically eliminates half the challenge of “balancing” the game. (I use "" around balancing because its really purely subjective) And I guess I don’t see how this is making things worse so if you guys could elaborate on how it would make things worse I would appreciate the insight so I can take that into consideration when I look into future discussions about this topic.

Signets as a mechanic are fine, but the Passives and Actives are poorly balanced towards one another and need to be tweaked.
Example, Signet of the Locust:
Active: Steal health from 5 nearby foes. Useless, weak.
Passive: 25% movement speed. Useful. Never activate it!
Giving it a stunbreak, or even Stability on activation would actually make it worth using, as it’s passive is already useful.

You get diversity by making all Traits, Skills and Weapons worth using.
In one word: Balance.
(Which, btw, is the name of this forum section!)

The systems don’t need to be more complicated than they already are.
The traits, skills and weapons simply need to be more equal as opposed to there being a few traits/skills you absolutely NEED to survive, and then a bunch of awful ones you never wanna take.

Also I’m not entirely sure if you understand what meta means, no offense!
Metagaming means using knowledge from outside the game.

Example:
You’ve read on the internet that many people run build X and that due to some of it’s shortcomings build Y counters it.
You decide to run build Y based on this information, to counter build X.

This is metagaming!
A meta build is simply a strong, proven build created to fulfill a role, or possibly even simply to counter an another build despite being weak otherwise.

Having meta builds is not a bad thing, quite the opposite…
You want there to be tons and tons of them.

Look at all the build orders Starcraft has, where you try to counter what your opponent is doing!
Or look at Hearthstone, how decks constantly evolve and change by what decks are currently popular.

I dunno much about sports but I’ve heard that even football teams “metagame”, they figure out opposing team’s weaknesses and strengths, try to find ways to combat them without being too weak in other areas of the game.

Now of course, if the game turns into a complete rock, paper, scissors where a skilled player can’t beat a much worse player simply due to the builds they picked then that’s not necessarily good, either.

Isn’t what the OP suggesting exactly what traits do?

LastDay, I want to make it clear I am using the term “meta” as it is used in build/game discussions, not by its dictionary definition so half of that post was completely irrelevant and while I understand that yes you could just balance signets so people take them along, why not give them more options for things to use? If someone is stuck trying to get their stats up to snuff or trying to get extra movement speed why should it have to take up their skill bar therefore eliminating their skill possibilities because they want to be able to have some extra stat points. This idea, even if you disagree with it (which is totally fine as we are humans and we do that sometimes) is a way of addressing those situations. It also takes care of anets supposed “lack of build diversity” by now freeing up people skill slots for different skills that would normally have to be taken up by a signet because they need their build to be competitive. Now, while I do think you have a valid point, I disagree that just making signets have other active effects is not the way to go Why not just make them a passive buff in a separate slot you can choose from because most of the actives are crap anyway?

Oh and as for the no offense, none taken. I did say I wanted constructive criticism and debate so thank you

and what I am suggesting is what traits probably SHOULD do but most of them are not very good so they don’t really accomplish that. This is just another way to potentially help with that.