Guild Wars 2

After seeing how customizable/intricate some trait lines/talent trees other mmo’s have been using why don’t we add in another degree of options in that aspect of gw2.

I’m talking about an extra something something for specializing your class.

Here’s a few examples that came to mind.

Ranger – Every adept major trait gives a solid boost to their pet be it condition duration, extra crit, more healing etc.

What if taking all of those traits also gave you a “hidden” perk to unlock and find out through extensive customization?

So in this case these combination of traits unlocks a PERK which turns your pet into an Elite pet or Exotic subspecies of that particular pet (Think Garm).

Of course this balances out since you are limited to having to put so many points into the adept tree but if this is how you want to specialize why not let players try it out and see if they like it?

It doesn’t have to be limited to only major traits.

Another example of the ability to spec 15 points into wilderness survival to get protection on dodge. There is also a Nature magic trait that also provides protection in the major adept tree. Having both of these traits unlocks… 10% extra duration to protection A.K.A. a reward for stacking them.

This can apply to weapon specialization for the ranger. Stacking as many (long) bow traits nets you the ability to get the buffs that are applied to your pet (so a reverse fortifying bond) to help their dmg and cater to the bearbow playstyle that is looked down upon.

Of course there will be min/max dmg boosts that can take some figuring out but perhaps this can be seen as another set of attachments to help solidify or otherwise reward very defined playstyles.

Of course you won’t be pigeonholed into picking the highest dmg combination since these combination simply opens up a new style/aspect of your class to take advantage of.

Granted all my examples were that of the ranger but many classes could make use of this. Necros and elementalists come to mind and I’m sure you can think of other possible synergies within classes.

What do you think?

In general a good idea, but adding a new layer of complex mechanics over the already existing ones will make balancing unachievable in forever.
Your basic idea is already achieved by going down a trait line and choosing a grandmaster trait. Maybe we just have too many points and can skill just too many traits to make really unique roles. Then again, that is the reason for a lot of build versatility as you can take two grandmaster roles + a minor. Even those grandmaster roles are just one of three.

Maybe give some more power to the passive effects of each trait line to push people more into a specific role/playstyle of that line. But then again, there will be people who like it the way with stats defined by armor for a general setup like offense and defense, traits defining your favourtie playstyle and skills defined by necessaty of current situation.