Guild Wars 2

One of this month’s changes in the Engineer Explosives trait line (Explosive Powder:
This trait now functions with detonating turrets.) highlights a problem with the way our traits are laid out. We have some bloating in certain lines and Explosives is one of our biggest offenders currently—specifically at the Master and Grandmaster tiers.

For example, if you’re running the bomb kit with grenade kit (a popular and effective option) you have to decide between Explosive Powder, and Short Fuse due to Grenadier at the GM tier being necessary to bolster grenade damage post 30% dmg nerf.

If you’re running a turret build and want Accelerant-packed Turrets, but you would also like to use Bomb Kit or Grenade Kit, you have to make even harder choices. Short Fuse is considered a must in a Bomb build and some Grenade builds given the fast pace of most fights. Now a Turret focused build with Bombs or Grenades has to choose between Explosive Powder or Short Fuse. If Explosive Powder is chosen, then they have to forgo Short Fuse because the only way to benefit fully from Explosive Powder is to select Accelerant-packed Turrets because without it, turret detonation does no damage.

The Adept tier is a non issue because there are currently two desirable traits: Incendiary Powder and Forceful Explosives. One is used mainly in direct damage (rifle or pistol) builds, and the other is used in Bomb or Grenade builds.

So you can see at the two higher tiers there is bloating. I know that a turret user doesn’t have to take all of the traits that affect turrets, but in my opinion, they should be able to and get a decent benefit from it. As it stands, the traits are spread out too much (more so now) and offer little benefit.

This makes talk of build diversity come across as disingenuous.

Is the intent to force players to make hard choices? If so, please make those choices matter. Currently—at least for the Engineer—trait selection is more focused on avoiding useless or broken traits than choosing ones that make our builds more effective or engaging.

Suggestion: Consolidate traits such as Forceful Explosives and Explosive Powder. Consider making some weak traits baseline for the skills they affect (Accelerant-packed Turrets)

Thanks for reading.

While making builds for both the engineer and the necromancer I have encountered quite a bit of bloat. For example, Necromancer Marks are sub-par unless you have the skills for them. This requires

20 points in Spite for Spiteful Marks
20 points in Death Magic for Greater Marks and Staff Mastery
20 points in Soul Reaping for Soul Marks

And that leaves no points for condition damage, given that the main offense of marks comes form mark of blood. Ultimately to make a functioning build, you end up having to sacrifice certain staff traits for things that are more necessary and easier to build around.

However I digress: a lot of the trait bloat comes from the different kits that the engineer uses. A lot of these kits have their functions spread about different trees, making effectively using these kits require large investment. The problem arises when you take into consideration that most engineers, to be truly effective, use 2 or even 3 kits. Most kits can’t be used without traits, either, since those kits are balanced on those powerful traits thus making them necessary to function properly (coughgrenadiercough wheezejuggernauthack). This severely limits build possibilities with kits, since you’ll end up neglecting something so much that it isn’t very useful.