Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars has always functioned on the basis that fewer skill lead to more strategic play — every button counts much more when you only have 10~ skills to utilize.

Unfortunately, damage is split between condition/power resulting in many weapon skills losing functionality based on which path you take. For instance, Death Blossom is completely useless to a Thief built around power. Similarly, the direct damage weapons (Guardian Hammer for instance) give very little utility for condition builds.

My suggestion is to incorporate traits that alter the functionality of these skills. For instance, “Dagger Training” (IX Deadly Arts) could read “Dagger damage is increased by 5%. Death Blossom no longer bleeds, but deals 150% more damage.”

These niche traits would help create diverse builds that increase the viability of weapon sets for different builds.

Alternatively, weapon skills could have their own toggle (much like switching utility skills) where you can swap out one version of Death Blossom for another (condition <—> power).

Comments/additional suggestions are welcome.