Guild Wars 2

I’d like to talk about the trait system and its effect on character diversity. I don’t think the current system is doing anyone a favor. Players are extremely and arbitrarily limited on how they can play, and the developers can’t get a very clear picture on which traits are too powerful or not powerful enough. Here is my proposed solution.

1. Attributes
The first step is to separate attributes (power, perception, etc.) from trait lines. Why? Well, speaking as a Ranger, the Marksman trait line is pretty bad. I want those bonuses to power, but not at the expense of wasting 3 minor and 3 major traits. So I pick up Wilderness Survival instead, even though I have no use for the toughness it gives. This discourages players’ preferred play styles needlessly. Going even deeper, there are some players who want (again, using the example of the Ranger) the pet attribute bonuses, but don’t want the increase to healing power. So each attribute should be assigned points individually, instead of grouped in twos.

2. Minor Traits
There are some very useless minor traits available for the Ranger (Opening Shot in the Marksman tree being the obvious example). I doubt this class is alone. But players will take these minor traits anyway, simply to get to the major ones. This causes a problem for the developers: they can’t tell whether people are taking the minor traits because they want them, or because they need them in order to get other, better traits. Once again, this also needlessly limits player choice. So I propose that the trait lines be eliminated entirely, and every minor trait be made equally available. Players can then choose a minor trait every 10 levels (starting at level 15).

3. Major Traits
Similar to minor traits, I think these should be choosable at will. Players would obtain one every 10 levels (starting at level 20). This would bring the benefits of increased game balance and freedom.

Closing Thoughts
You might be thinking that these changes would drastically unbalance the game, or lead to “cookie-cutter” builds. If properly implemented, I do not believe that will be the case. There will always be niche builds (as Guild Wars 1 proved). There might be some temporary balance issues at first, due to players being able to choose more appealing traits. But in the long run, it would actually make the game more balanced. The developers would be able to see clearly which traits were favored by the majority of players, and which were continuously passed up.

I fully support this line of reasoning. One attribute point every level, starting at 11, one minor every 10, starting at 15, one major every 10, starting at 20. This would truly allow for a greater degree of build customization without forcing certain stat combinations. For example, I main a necromancer. The fact that I need to go into the death magic line for toughness and staff traits, thus forcing me to get minion master minor traits, even though I’m condition build, is more than a little off.

Actually, thinking on it, you should get two attribute points per level. One for primary attributes (vitality, toughness, power, etc.), one for secondary (condition damage, healing power, etc.).

It’s been a month, but I’d actually like to bump this to the top. I was planning to make a thread almost identical to this suggestion.

Perhaps have an option to either have the lines (for people who don’t want to spend forever on their builds) or to turn the lines off. For example, I can think of no reason why Mesmers who want to make a power build are given traits for Greatsword but not Sword or Pistol, for example. There’s no reason to force this kind of separation.