Guild Wars 2

Don’t get me wrong, I like it, it’s about time, and it’s part of the reason I might come back to play this game in April, but the decision is leaving me confused.

With the coming feature build, you’ll be able to respec your traits anywhere in the world without returning to a profession trainer. To make the deal even sweeter, you won’t ever have to pay to reset your traits! We think the cost hinders experimentation and takes away from the fun of experimenting with builds in PvE, so we’re removing it entirely.

You were given this exact reason by the playerbase before the beta weekends even started; pretty much verbatim. There are plenty of other things you have recently changed, and seem to be changing with the feature pack that were criticized in the same way when the game was still young. Can we count on this new philosophy to mean that you are taking player feedback into account more than before? I’d really love for that to be the case.

That doesn’t even make sense anyway. Too cost prohibitive? Really? It costs around 10 silver to WP in, change and WP out.

I agree, it’s just another thing they should have had from the beginning. They are finally adding it and, hopefully, as you said, it’s a sign of good changes to come.

I think it’s less the cost (although it IS restrictive for less affluent players), and more the limited and restricted amount of places you can go to refund trait points

Mungrul.9358:

I think it’s less the cost (although it IS restrictive for less affluent players), and more the limited and restricted amount of places you can go to refund trait points

I realize that, but that’s not what anet is saying. They say it’s cost prohibitive. Say what?

Mungrul.9358:

I think it’s less the cost (although it IS restrictive for less affluent players), and more the limited and restricted amount of places you can go to refund trait points

Newer players with less access to in-game funds were hit the hardest; the very people who should be experimenting the most were the least able to. For those with more money, it was simply an arbitrary time sink.

This sort of system never made the slightest bit of sense, and Anet even had a model that worked very well in GW1. Everything was instanced, but you could freely change your trait point allocation when at an outpost.

This lack of consistency (though in this instance I guess it finally worked out) is bothersome and confusing. That it took a year and a half for this change to finally come to pass when the system benefited literally nobody in its original form doesn’t set up a good track record.

I don’t mean to detract from the fact that Anet seems to have realized that arbitrary limitations aren’t good for an engaging experience. I think this is a fantastic change and they seem to be putting a lot of work into the core functionality of the game; I just don’t understand the thought process behind this.

cranked.3812:

That doesn’t even make sense anyway. Too cost prohibitive? Really? It costs around 10 silver to WP in, change and WP out.

I agree, it’s just another thing they should have had from the beginning. They are finally adding it and, hopefully, as you said, it’s a sign of good changes to come.

The important part of this change is Not that it is free, although for new characters… free is better than a small fee, since a small fee adds up in time. Free means that they can change builds to see the effects of trait changes 10…20….30…times a day and it will not add up in costs. even at 10 silver per change, that adds up for some. Not all players earn 30 gold an hour.

The Important part is, that Now… we can change builds as often as we wish, wherever we wish… without visiting a trainer. " Are you in the very middle of a Dungeon? Did you notice the encounters would rock more if you used two hand sword? Ok, then change your traits in the very middle of the dungeon as long as you are out of combat… so that you can take the " two hand mastery" trait…. or maybe the " great sword adds to power..and 20 % recharge reduction on greatsword skills"

This was something that we had on gw1… except we could ONLY do it in towns. Now we can do it…. wherever.

Some of us are OCD when it comes to builds.. and yes for some of us, that can be Indecisive at times, it is Nice to know we can change our build from 5 points In one trait , to … taking those out, and putting those 5 points somewhere else the very next fight.

All it means is…everyone can experiment unlimited number of times a day On their build to find a Build they happen to enjoy.

Now all we need is for them to properly balance the traits so we can reduce.( i know we will never totally eliminate) the number of cookie cutter builds, and I will be ecstatic :-)

PS: The term cost is not only about the price paid in cash. WPing to the Trainer…. is a cost…whether small or large it is still a cost. The time it takes to both get to a trainer… and then get back to where you were….is also a cost. It is a time cost, and if you are TP ing back and forth, a Money cost. Small or large still a cost. And while running back and forth may provide many oppurtunities to earn cash along the way, along with drops… and oppurtunities to mine, chop wood…harvest… Kill random mobs and maybe get random loot. EVEN if all those give you something worthwhile it is still a TIME cost.

If all you look at is the Money cost then yes, there is very little cost…but… Cost is not limited to cash spent…Time spent is also a cost.

Lastly… Wherever you happened to be, doing whatever you happened to be doing…. the fact that you had to WP to the trainer… and then WP back, meant that you were not simply continuing what you were doing. You had to stop doing something that 1. earned you cash, and 2. earned you FUN…. to do something you might consider not fun, and tedious at best…" WP to trainer…. wp back."

And the time NOT having fun is ALSO a cost.

When Looked at THAT way, yes… the costs were restrictive…for some.

I don’t think you can read anything into the change except that they wanted to make the change. The rationale may be the same as what people were saying 18 months ago, but I think it would be a mistake to say “they are finally listening”

Most likely, there were reasons that they did it the other way and those reasons have been mitigated or otherwise gone away.

I suspect the real reason is that the “gold sink” that was trait resets became so minimal in comparison that with the TP gold sink that they could get rid of it.

Some rewards are also being nerfed. So this could be a distraction. But instead of saying…
“there’s too much gold flowing into the economy, so we are nerfing champ bags. We know this is upsetting so we’re going to distract with by removing trait reset costs”

instead they say

“Great news, We realize we were wrong and were stiffing creativity, so we’ve decided to remove trait reset costs, of course this will cause an imbalance so we need to nerf a few rewards”

Not saying this was what happened or not, but the message does not always reflect the motive.

TooBz.3065:

I don’t think you can read anything into the change except that they wanted to make the change. The rationale may be the same as what people were saying 18 months ago, but I think it would be a mistake to say “they are finally listening”

Most likely, there were reasons that they did it the other way and those reasons have been mitigated or otherwise gone away.

I suspect the real reason is that the “gold sink” that was trait resets became so minimal in comparison that with the TP gold sink that they could get rid of it.

Some rewards are also being nerfed. So this could be a distraction. But instead of saying…
“there’s too much gold flowing into the economy, so we are nerfing champ bags. We know this is upsetting so we’re going to distract with by removing trait reset costs”

instead they say

“Great news, We realize we were wrong and were stiffing creativity, so we’ve decided to remove trait reset costs, of course this will cause an imbalance so we need to nerf a few rewards”

Not saying this was what happened or not, but the message does not always reflect the motive.

Champ Bags needed to be nerfed. The Champion Train was Not Playing the game as the developers Intended. That change would have gone Into effect regardless of whether the trait changes were free or reduced or increased.

One change is not dependant on the other.

I logged In after a time away from the game, and the moment I heard and understood what " where is the Champion train?" meant…. I KNEW that was gonna be nerfed.

Anyone that ever thought the Champion Train was a good idea had their head in the sand… So no… free trait reset is not a " distraction" from the Champ train nerf.

it’s simply them realizing that yes, they were earning quite a Bit from the TP, and that there were sufficient Money sinks In the game that they could afford to go back to what players enjoyed about Gw1. Abilty to change traits at any outpost, except here we can do it anywhere at any time as Long as we are out of combat.

Maybe the reason new players will have a chance to experiment is that so many players have reached level 80, and have finally found a good build they use 95 % of the time, that the revenue from trait changes dried up..so they said " may as well get rid of it entire.y."

Whatever the Motives and however long the changes took to be implemented the changes are good ones. And I for one rather applaud them for making them, that be upset that " it took so long" or.." I distrust the reasons."