Guild Wars 2

Just what the title says – our stats shouldn’t be tied to traits or gear.

Gear should, IMO, be all about looks (Horizontal progression) and its damage reduction.

Traits shouldn’t be tied as directly to stats either. The current setup of the trait selection menu is fine, just remove the stat increase from them.

Lastly, we have stats – these should be on a separate menu, and be something that the player has control of themselves.

This would, IMO, open up far more gameplay diversity than we have right now. No more utility skills/weapons that aren’t useable because you can’t get the stats you need while taking the traits to compliment your build.

Anywho, that’s as far as my mind has taken this without coffee – discuss?

how is anet supposed to create a typical vertical progression game with that suggestion?

the traits are tied to stats as a way to curb power creep and to balance/normalize builds as well as giving the traits a certain ‘base stat’ tied to them. the very same reason armor, weapons, and trinkets are setup with ‘stat sets’. this what creates diversity and still allows a way to maintain/monitor balance. if you want to take full survival traits, then you can’t run 100% maximized offensive stats and, likewise, if you want to take full offensive traits you can’t run 100% maximized defensive stats. most of the trait lines even have 1 or 2 mixed traits i.e. offensive oriented traits in defensive trait lines and vice versa. a huge part of maintaining a good system of build diversity AND balance is the fact that to get something you have to lose something. so ‘the best build’ is up to the imagination, preference of the person’s playstyle and choosing what is important to them and what other things they are willing to give up. this keeps classes from becoming too stale to the point where there is one maximum offensive build and one maximum defensive build per profession. an HGH Engi cant run a 100% maximized zerker build just as a Dhuumfire condition necro cannot run a 100% defensive bunker build. part of realistic balance is keeping ‘all or none’ builds out of the mix and making sure that every build has some kind of weakness. either of the builds i mentioned would be a nightmare in pvp and just imagine 14 more just like them if each class had a single maximized offensive and defensive build. it sounds good in theory to just be able to dream up any build you want with any combination of weapons, stats, and traits but if you want to keep any practical sense of balance in the game it’s just not a realistic system and given the already dominate ‘zerker warrior only’ mindset we so so much in the dungeon community, this proposition would, in no way, encourage build diversity the way you’re proposing that it would. tbh it would only destroy build diversity.

and Anet is not supposed to create a ‘typical’ vertical progression system as has been the tradition of the franchise (though arguements abound, that’s a seperate forum)

How is ‘damage reduction’ not a stat?…