Guild Wars 2

One of the things I loved about the original GW was how easy it was to experiment with different playstyles. For those of you that didn’t play the original, you had attributes (sort of like trait lines) that you could change, for free, in any outpost. The vast majority of zones were connected to outposts, and you were always moved to an outpost when you disconnected. You could even easily save builds and swap between them. My main was usually a hexes necro, but if I wanted to do something different for fun or to handle a particular challenge, I could do that easily. Did I feel like minion mastering that day? Is a condition heavy build a better way to succeed in this zone? No problem, just change my attributes before heading out. I found that it added a lot of longevity to the game for me, because the experimentation was fun, and it was easy to switch to another playstyle if I got bored.

In GW2, though, I can’t do that, and it’s a major disappointment. While I can fiddle with the individual traits I’ve chosen, trying out a completely new build requires hauling myself to one of the few locations with trainers (paying in either time or coin), talking to the trainer and paying, then hauling myself back to where I intended to play (again, paying in either time or coin). Furthermore, there’s no way in game to save my previous build, should I want to swap back to it later. You might say that remembering one build shouldn’t be a problem, but what if it’s been a while? Furthermore, this makes it much more difficult to try out multiple builds. Keeping one build in your head is different from keeping four.

While I wish that we could respec for free whenever we’re out of combat, it seems that ANet doesn’t want to go that route. So here are my suggestions, keeping that in mind:

• More profession trainers. Changing my trait point allocation should be as easy as repairing my armor: a small trek is usually required, I pay my coin, and that’s it. Stick profession trainers near most or all of the armor repair NPCs (except perhaps the ones in dungeons, if you don’t want people changing builds mid-dungeon), and it would go a long way towards making the game respec friendly.

• Allow builds to be saved and easily retrieved, much like in GW1, where you could load them with just a click. Swapping to a build that simply has different traits should be something that can be done for free at any time (like it is now), while accessing builds with different trait point allocations should require visiting a trainer.

I know GW1 was originally much less respec friendly at the beginning, so I’m very much hoping this game goes the same route.

Do you want to test your builds? Use the Heart of the mist zone, you can freely experiment anything.

Clearly, they want you to stick with that build instead of respeccing every single minute.

runeblade.7514:

Do you want to test your builds? Use the Heart of the mist zone, you can freely experiment anything.

Clearly, they want you to stick with that build instead of respeccing every single minute.

Testing PVE builds don’t work too well in PVP

runeblade.7514:

Do you want to test your builds? Use the Heart of the mist zone, you can freely experiment anything.

Clearly, they want you to stick with that build instead of respeccing every single minute.

As has been pointed out, testing in the Heart of the Mists isn’t the same as playing PvE.

Additionally, I think pushing us to stick with one build is a mistake. I find it fun to mix things up and try something different (not to mention the fact that I’d really like to be able to swap to a more support oriented build for dungeons). For a game that usually tries to remove impediments to fun by breaking MMO conventions, making it so hard to respec seems out of place. I don’t see any particular upsides to locking us into one build like this, particularly since GW1 had incredibly easy respeccing and I’m not aware of it causing issues.

Big quote for you!
In the first period GW had the same mechanics, and the change of that approach makes GW great! The possibility to change/test different builds was winning under all points of view!
In GW2 we have a less quantity of skills (the absence of secondary professions reduces drastically this number), so the depth of the pg flexibility is connected directly to the traits, that can deeply influences the use of our avatars and our fun! So the possibility to respec the traits easily and save the build is essential to totally appreciate this awesome game and live the experience of “build” our PGs in the most diverse ways!
I can’t understand why they have chosen to follow this idea and de facto limit the possibility to use the class selected! The trinity? The trinity is far far away from GW2 and the traits respec doesn’t affect this at all!!

Please change the traits use!

Miri Fala.5813:

While I wish that we could respec for free whenever we’re out of combat, it seems that ANet doesn’t want to go that route. So here are my suggestions, keeping that in mind:

• More profession trainers. Changing my trait point allocation should be as easy as repairing my armor: a small trek is usually required, I pay my coin, and that’s it. Stick profession trainers near most or all of the armor repair NPCs (except perhaps the ones in dungeons, if you don’t want people changing builds mid-dungeon), and it would go a long way towards making the game respec friendly.

• Allow builds to be saved and easily retrieved, much like in GW1, where you could load them with just a click. Swapping to a build that simply has different traits should be something that can be done for free at any time (like it is now), while accessing builds with different trait point allocations should require visiting a trainer.

I was all prepared to disagree with you by pointing out that, at level 80, respeccing costs so little I barely think about it, but then you made these extremely reasonable suggestions, so now I have to agree with you.

My only problem with the respec system is that class trainers are so few and far between. There should be at least one in every zone, if you ask me.

It is not my intention to thread-jack and I hope it doesn’t seem to be so, but, since I have a suggestion that is also related to trait re-specialisation, I’d like to slip in the small suggestion that we have confirm and undo options added to the trait menu.

Currently, if, while one is allocating their trait points, a mistake is made there is no option to undo and correct your choice without having to fully re-specialise and also pay a fee. I think that having an option to confirm and/or alter your choice before it becomes active would reduce the need for unnecessary trips to the profession trainer.

Edit: Just to add that I agree with your OP and that I really like the idea to have saved builds.