Guild Wars 2

Being a player who has started playing from launch, spend the first 6 months of the game only doing sPvP (on every profession) and highest leaderboard rank at one time was top 10 on team arenas. I spent enough time in PvE to earn 2 legendaries, these are my thoughts on the new traits.

Elementalist – I feel like Elementalist got some powerful traits with the exception of Lightning Rod
Blinding Ashes – Not too powerful seems like a passive defense mechanism since it would be a little hard to place a well timed burn and hope the CD is down.
Lightning Rod – It might be just me but I think this is weak, I don’t feel like Elementalists have a huge number of interrupts to take advantage of this.
Stone Heart – This feels strong. I can see builds appearing based around sitting in earth and just being a real pain in the kitten bunker. Not sure how I feel about it until I see it in action.
Aquatic Benevolence – This feels strong. Again I need to see this in action to get a proper view on how strong it really is.
Elemental Contingency – These boons make sense for the attunement receiving them. Is interesting and cant wait to see it in practice.

Engineer – I feel like engi’s traits were too turret-centric and not fixing the issue of elixir-centric condi removal
Synaptic Overload – This feels like it should be in firearms. (Firearms has traits for Rifle and Flamethrower which both have knock-backs.)
Bunker Down – This feels like it should be in Explosives. (Explosives is all about bombs, mines, and well… explosives…)
Fortified Turrets – This is interesting but doesn’t do anything for actually keeping the turret out to be a turret. If I took this I would still use it for a blast finisher after 4s.
Experimental Turrets – Honestly was really dissapointed with this, I can never see taking this over HGH, Automated Response, or even Cleaning Formula (which isn’t even Grandmaster). This trait is fairly bad. Every time I try and play a turret build (that doesn’t revolve around destructing them) they die really quick in PvE and PvP.
Gadgeteer – I am fairly excited about this as a trait. Has great synergy.

Guardian – As I see Guardians are already powerful. these traits are cool for making new interesting builds
Amplified Wrath – This seems good but needs a higher % increase to be worthy of grandmaster IMO. It makes burning worth a kitten as a mostly power oriented profession.
Radiant Retaliation – Honestly this threw me off. I see how you are trying to create build diversity but I feel like this is going to flop. I feel like this could be something different.
Communal Defenses – I think this is pretty cool group utility and will be nice for overall reducing group damage.
Force of Will – A guardian with high…er health… Will be interesting to see this in action… They already live forever with super low health!
Purity of body – 15% endurance regeneration feels really really low. Vigor is 100% and most traits that provide passive endurance regen is 50%.

Mesmer – Wow mesmer got some really interesting traits here not excited to go up against a mesmer at all
Power Block – Good god I am not looking forward to going against a daze mesmer. This is super strong to lock out someone of their heal or even elite skill this long.
Triumphant Distortion – This feels… weak? I can see it as a moment to rest/recup in a group fight but that’s about it. Or dominate AOE pulls in PvE.
Bountiful Disillusionment – This looks really good and will provide some interesting build diversity.
Disruptor’s Sustianment – Daze bunkers are going to be cool.
Maim the Disillusioned – Nothing much to say about this.

Necromancer – Was a little confused by these traits they are so defensive
Parasitic Contagion – This feels like a Curses trait… I can’t see a heavy condi user this deep in Spite. And as a power user with ‘some’ condi I wouldn’t see this as worth it.
Path of Corruption – At first this sounded really weak but the more I looked at it the stronger it sounds… I guess it really depends on what the boons are getting turned into.
Unholy Sanctuary – This is interesting, not sure if it is going to be popular but seems good.
Unholy Martyr – Some group utility for a necro. I am just sad that it has to be deep in this tree. Also sad that it half a clone of a current sigil they have.
Renewing Blast – This is going to have to heal for a hefty amount for people to take it. Line heal skill directed at targeted enemy. (Or you could drop target and aim at allies). It is interesting for sure.

Ranger – Interesting traits added here
Read the Wind – This trait is weird. I usually take pierce and range when using longbow. And now taking this forces you to choose range and not take pierce. I think this should be rolled together with range and a new master tier trait should be created.
Strider’s Defense : I do not like the idea of an RNG block while auto attacking my life away with sword. Just feels too random and I can see a lot of: “Wow I lost cause my ________ was RNG blocked… GG Anet.”
Poison Master – Something increasing PSN damage. This is interesting.
Survival of the Fittest – I am happy to see some condi removal love here as well as survival love.
Invigorating Bond – Not sure how I feel about this… it might be too strong depending on how it works out.

Thief – I don’t think this is going to INCREASE build diversity that much
Revealed Training – Sounds interesting would like to see if thieves end up taking this and actually changing up their builds.
Invigorating Precision – Interested to see this coupled with healing signet. Would like to see further balancing on this if it is too strong.
Resilience of Shadows – I like this because it makes going in stealth feel more secure. Will be interesting to see this compete with Shadow’s Rejuv.
Assassin’s Equilibrium – Doesn’t sound useful. Usually I am not getting CC’d the second I leave stealth.
_ Bewildering Ambush_ – This makes for an interesting trait.

Warrior – These all seem fairly solid with the exception of the last one
Burst Precision – This is super strong, allows the warrior to stack non crit stats while still landing huge burst skills.
Dual Wield Agility – 10% doesn’t sound like much but 10% faster actions = 10% more damage if it works out the way I am thinking it will.
Rousing Resilience – This unfortunately requires you to get stunned… but will be amazing when you actually get that 1000 armor. I can see this needing some type of rework.
Phalanx Strength – So much group might!
Brawler’s Recovery – This is the worst grandmaster trait added. Rethink this to be a blind immunity for 1-2s or rework to something different all together. Blind removal is the same thing as auto attacking. (And the example you gave of swapping to evic, If you are in a blind field you are still going to be blinded before evic does its damage.)