So far the combat, quest and events system and the gameplay in general is a blast, i simply love it! The improvement of the traits system compared to the first game is also a great addition but there is 3 things that are holding the game back compared to GW1, the skill bar…
In GW1 we had 8 skills slots, basically you could fit whatever you wanted in it but with certain restrictions; could equip weapon based skills only if you had that weapon equiped (duh!) and 1 elite skill at a time, the rest however was up to you, hell if you wanted to go full utility or spell and not equip any weapon specific skills (mostly casters did so) you could!
So how is Gw2 doing? i would say hes around 44,4% right on the money which includes the 3 utilities and the elite by giving us the possibility to change them anytime, anywhere without restrictions ( out of combat of course).
However GW2 is wrong on around 55,6% with the weapons skills, these can only be changed by switching the actual weapon… I personally think sometime skill are absolutly useless for a certain build and having the option to switch it for something more fitting would be nice. For example feast on corruption skill#3 on scepter is doing damage based on the target’s conditions, it is nice but in a Necromancer condition build i would rather replace it with mark of blood for example, its a AoE bleed that also grant regeneration if your in and it fit better a condition build than feast of corruption but yet again this is personnal choice.
Maybe this is setting the bar too high but taking a greatsword and giving 3 regular attack skills, whatever you do you could only pick one and they would always go to skill #1, from there you add another 12 skills. These ones would be placed anywhere on the bar and such giving your own personalise casting bar by choosing what skill is going in and also keybind them to your own taste. The same concept would apply to main hand and off hand weapons but offhands skills could be placed in the main hand and vice versa, personalisation!
The second thing i think GW2 is lacking from it ancestor is the skill templates, these allowed you to save a build ( skills and traits) and equip it at will for free at the condition you are in a city our outpost, the limit was the disk capacity of your harddrive. Now GW2 wouldnt need that much but having 2 or 3 would be fine and allow you to pack more roles then simply be full dps or full tank, you could switch role if needed without spending several minutes just remaping your traits. Since there are only few cities compared to GW1, this feathure could be waypoint related (non dungeon wp), click on the waypoint your standing next to and simply choose template, switch armor, jewels and weapons and TADA! You just changed your role in a matter of seconds!
N.B. Also Anet this system would encourage people to have more armors and so players might need more transmutation crystals, profit no?
Third and last thing Gw2 is behind GW1 is the hybrid class system, in the first game you could either go pure Elementalist or Warrior if you wanted to but you also had the possibility to go hyrbrid and mix 2 classes like being and Elementalist mixed with a Warrior. This was allowing Elementalist to use the Warriors offensive/defensive stances or even grant it the use of sword skills and such, this would also allow more weapons for your class, Elementalist with martial weapons anyone?.
The only restriction to that system was the class specific trait line, for example a warrior going for elemetalist in second wouldnt have access to arcane or if he was going necromancer he would’nt have Soul reaping trait line but he would have acces to the rest, Warrior minion master why not!
This particular element however would require some major tweaking for certain classes, i specially have elementalist on mind since they are really spinning around the 4 elements but on the other hand going elementalist using daggers and having thief as secondary i would replace my skill #2 ( on all elements) with hearth seeker, this is simply an example so dont burn me on this one.
So to warp this up ( if this get too long, i might be a nominee for the nobel prize literature) Gw2 is an awesome game but it dropped element of gameplay that made it so much fun couple years ago and getting those features back would litteraly open a vast new ocean of possibilities for gameplay customization to player’s personality and role play specialy coupled with the present trait system.
Let me know what you think about all this, this is just a idea and a couple of opinions here so this is not a rant in any ways, lets just be clear on that.
P.S. Sorry if i made mistakes or didnt use proper english, it is not my first language so please go easy on me with this