Guild Wars 2

I apologize for the length of this, but I happen to be a wordy poster.

The tl;dr version: consider swapping traits to other tiers to account for their power instead of completely and quickly revamping them (i.e. kit refinement).

This has to do with the changes to kit refinement and why other avenues of balancing it do not appear to have been considered. Whether or not the nature of the changes are good or not is a discussion that is already being had all over the engineer forums and is not intended to come over here (although I can not be responsible for the comments of others).

The impression I have generally had is that the development team attempts to make incremental changes in order to not introduce changes that have drastic unintended consequences. Being a software developer myself, I know why this is a good methodology.

In regards to this, I felt the changes to kit refinement in the last update were a bit odd with regards to this development strategy. Every ability bears no semblance to what they used to be, and the global cooldown introduced in the last update was made twice as restrictive.

It strikes me as very unlikely that this could have been reasonably tested and given serious consideration in regards to balance. If it had been in the works for some time then perhaps my concerns are not valid, but I will assume that this is not the case since the global cooldown was originally applied in the previous update. In addition, there is clear evidence that the new kit refinement abilities are copy-paste rehashes of existing abilities, which means they could have been implemented much quicker (for instance, the character will sometimes shout “Slick Shoes!” when activating the glue on the elixir gun).

Regardless, I feel that the team is not utilizing an avenue of trait balancing that they have had available to them all along. Specifically, I am referring to trait tiers. I recall a statement made by a developer when this was introduced back in BWE2 whereby they described that the best builds were always 30 in one trait line and 10 in all the others. This allowed players to pick the best traits in each line and still specialize in whatever kind of trait line bonuses they wanted. As such, the traits that were “better” were moved up to the higher tiers, meaning players would have to invest more to get more.

In regard to kit refinement, this is an adept tier trait. By definition, it should be less valuable or useful than traits in the master or grandmaster tier, at least in a general, non-situational sense. However, I believe that most players and probably most of the development team regard it (or at least used to regard it) as one of the most powerful traits in the Tools trait line. In particular, it enabled the 100nades-style builds and doubled the healing power offered by the elixir gun.

As such, would it not have made more sense to adjust the tier that this trait resided in? Let us look at some of the higher tier traits that should, by definition, be generally more useful than kit refinement:

1. Packaged Stimulants – This trait likely saw some neglect due to the bugs it had, but I have also never seen anyone use this trait. The most common way to use the medkit is to drop your dispensibles while moving forward. This allows you to instantly pick them up to gain their desired effect. The ability to ground target the dispensibles completely destroys this tactic. Additionally, there does not appear to be much use in tossing these dispesnibles because you are slowing down your use of them while ground targetting and it is not a feasible method of providing aid to an ally in mid-fight. More to the point, taking this trait means not taking another trait like kit refinement, which has a wider variety of applications. Does packaged stimulants really need to be in the master tier when kit refinement is in the adept tier?

2. Scope – Ignoring the fact that this trait is still bugged and provides utterly no effect, it is supposed to provide a reasonable benefit. However, it is done at great cost. You are essentially gaining an unreliable and (at best) modest boost to DPS by deliberately immobilizing yourself. Any attempt to avoid an enemy attack or reposition yourself completely nullifies the effects of this trait, and GW2 is a game in which movement is exceptionally important. Perhaps a greater effect can be had in PvE, but it will not be a drastic one. Furthermore, you will forfeit another trait, such as kit refinement, which can easily (or at least could have) provided you benefits equatable to scope without the restrictions. Does scope really need to be in the master tier when kit refinement is in the adept tier?

3. Leg Mods – This is very similar to the Warrior’s Sprint trait that warriors have access to, which is an adept tier trait. This is often not considered to be a strong trait, particularly because the +10% movement speed bonus is easily overwritten by swiftness, which is a boon that engineers have readily available access to. The movement speed bonus is also not that significant, and most other professions have +25% passive speed increase traits or skills that would easily overcome the +10% boost that engineers get. The only real application for this trait is in a build that lacks swiftness and that cannot take advantage of the speedy kits trait (an adept trait in the same line as leg mods) More to the point, taking this trait means not taking another trait such as kit refinement. Does leg mods really need to be in the master tier when kit refinement is in the adept tier?

The trait tiers facilitate the existence of powerful traits because it applies a restriction to them. It is ok if a trait is powerful because you should have to invest further into the trait line in order to be able to access it. In regards to kit refinement, I see the changes to the abilities in part a reaction to it being too good for an adept tier trait. As such, why is it being completely redesigned instead of being bumped up the tier list? I believe that the above three master tier traits I listed above are nowhere near comparable to the usefulness of kit refinement (or at least formal usefulness), which has always been stuck in the adept tier.

If there are concerns for a trait like kit refinement being too powerful, I think the development team should consider swapping it to the master or grandmaster tiers. This strikes me as a much simpler fix, because drastic redesigns of a trait would not need to be considered since placing it at a higher tier would already counterbalance its power.

I am not saying that no adjustment needed to be made to the kit refinement abilities, but I think this strikes me as a very sudden, drastic, knee-jerk type reaction that may not accomplish the primary goal of balancing the trait to begin with. Instead of completely neutering something that is strong so that it conforms with the tier it is in, it should be bumped up in tiers and the less powerful traits should come down. I am a firm believer that weaker things should always be buffed before stronger stuff is nerfed, and swapping trait tiers like this seems (at least to me) a much more convenient and possibly more effective way of accomplishing this.

I’m not asking that the changes to kit refinement be completely reversed or anything like that. However, if this aspect of balancing is not currently being considered, and I have not observed that it is, I believe it should be.

Thank you for reading.

Don’t forget Adrenal Implant, a Grandmaster Major trait that has the same effect as a Ranger Adept Minor trait.
Probably could have stood to make that an Adept and KR a Grandmaster.