Guild Wars 2

This is just a suggestion and I would love to hear what you guys think, I feel like the weapon specific traits (e.g 5% extra damage with swords or 20% recharge time off of shields) Are a bad idea, I feel like they pigeon-hole you into only using certain weapons and taking away the effectiveness of others, for example as a zeal guardian If im using a greatsword then great, if im using a mace and shield then not so much, but why shouldn’t mace and shield be viable for a zeal guardian? I feel like these traits are not very inventive and also reduce how you can play your class, obviously you don’t have to pick them but I feel like they give very specific advantages to weapons in certain trait trees and reduce the way you can play really

Id prefer it if traits focused on doing things that would work with all weapons, such as improving burning damage or removing boons with spells, anyone else feel this way?

sooooo….you don’t want right hand strength? making a crit/tough guardian is pretty viable to me in comparison to the cookie cutter tough/heal gs guard.

take your pick! more options than you think…

OP is dead-on. These traits do the exact same thing that the old attribute system did- force you to only use certain weapons and ignore others.

kiba.2768:

sooooo….you don’t want right hand strength? making a crit/tough guardian is pretty viable to me in comparison to the cookie cutter tough/heal gs guard.

take your pick! more options than you think…

But thats exactly my point, there shouldnt be any specific builds for right handed weapons or staffs or anything, you should be able to make a tough healing build without getting tied down to a specific weapon

If you’re already pursuing a particular stat line, then the weapon that’s traited will already be relevant to that stat, so why wouldn’t you want to beef it up?

gurugeorge.9857:

If you’re already pursuing a particular stat line, then the weapon that’s traited will already be relevant to that stat, so why wouldn’t you want to beef it up?

This is totally incorrect, your stat lines from traits do not effect particular weapons, you can be a DPS guardian with a staff or a tanking guardian with a scepter and shield, if you improve power via traits it improves power for all weapons and not just one or two of them, so all weapons should be aviable in all builds

Hopefully OP realizes you can change major traits as easily as you change which weapons you’re using.

Dyranos.2406:

gurugeorge.9857:

If you’re already pursuing a particular stat line, then the weapon that’s traited will already be relevant to that stat, so why wouldn’t you want to beef it up?

This is totally incorrect, your stat lines from traits do not effect particular weapons, you can be a DPS guardian with a staff or a tanking guardian with a scepter and shield, if you improve power via traits it improves power for all weapons and not just one or two of them, so all weapons should be aviable in all builds

You’re misunderstanding. What about major traits that increase bleed damage when not all of your weapons have bleeds? What about taking the condition trait line when some of your weapons have substantially stronger condition damage? Get rid of all of these, too?

soulcakeduck.7036:

Hopefully OP realizes you can change major traits as easily as you change which weapons you’re using.

I think the point is you’re playing at a disadvantage if you don’t use the weapon traits and the corresponding weapon.

Dyranos.2406:

gurugeorge.9857:

If you’re already pursuing a particular stat line, then the weapon that’s traited will already be relevant to that stat, so why wouldn’t you want to beef it up?

This is totally incorrect, your stat lines from traits do not effect particular weapons, you can be a DPS guardian with a staff or a tanking guardian with a scepter and shield, if you improve power via traits it improves power for all weapons and not just one or two of them, so all weapons should be aviable in all builds

The weapons are designed around certain functionality – you will notice that different weapons are traited in different lines. That’s a clue about the kinds of effects a weapon in a given line maximises, and its place in that line reflects the kinds of effects it maximizes. (Notice also that the weapon traits are fairly deep in the lines.)

So yes, you can certainly use weapons other than the ones in that line, but the playstyle a weapon in a particular line encourages will be one that takes most advantage of that line. If you’re a min-maxer, this will be what you min-max around.

@Mougen
Not always the case. Sometimes those traits are just arbitrarily thrown into a line that has nothing to do with the weapon. And in fact, it is a bit like saying swords are meant to be used this way, and bows that way.