Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

soo…. I’ve returned to GW2 today after a few months break and got pretty confused with the new build and hero points system. I have 8 lvl 80s, with every trait unlocked and gathered around 300+/- skill points in total. When I logged in today someone already explained me the stat changes and why we don’t get any stat bonus for trait lines anymore, but there’s something else I still don’t understand.

The trait lines aka specialisations are…. locked again? I would need to spend hero points (what’s this, where do I get them?) to unlock the traits it seems. Someone wrote sth about 65 needed points to unlock a compelte class. Does that mean I can’t play all my lvl 80 characters with almost the same builds I used before; at least until I unlock the traits… again? And if this is the case, are there good ways to farm Hero Points? I was very dissapointed when I logged in with my mesmer today and my mantra build was completely shattered (pun unintended), I can’t use any mantra traits right now before I buy them.

Did I understand it wrong or is it really like that? ._. Unlocking traits with every character sounds not very promising…

Vileste.7148:

Ok, so the points I see on my mesmer for example are “only” for my mesmer and not account-wide points?

Yeah, they’re character-bound.

At level 80, you’ll have enough Hero Points to unlock all of your utility skills and traits, meaning you’ll have access to everything to create your build.

Whether or not you’ll be able to play the exact same build as before because of the changes to how traits work is a different thing.

Ok, so the points I see on my mesmer for example are “only” for my mesmer and not account-wide points?

You are my hero <3 Thanks for answering so fast!
Im soo relieved right now.

Each char has it’s own hero points. These are gained by leveling and by doing hero challenges (the old skill point challenges) and are used to unlock skills and traits.

Your skill points from skill point scrolls were turned into Spirit Shards. These are account wide and are used to buy items for use in the mystic forge.

You can forget the 65 points. They changed it so being 80 gives you all skills. Your builds should remain substantially the same, with a few things you can’t do now (I’ve heard that Mesmer Clone Factory is nixed) and some things you can.

Open your Hero Panel. In the top left click on the Training button. You will get a circle of skills or traits in the main window that progresses clockwise. Clicking on the left side with the bars under Skills and Traits will select which circle to look at (eg Mesmer Mantras for skills or Dueling for traits).

Because you are 80, you can train up everything. Fast way: Click on the last square in the circle, agree to spend the points, and it fills it all in. Slow way: Click on them one at a time in sequence. Or, as I did, mouse over each one to see what they do that is different; the round ones are the minor traits you will automatically get, the square ones are in sets of three where you must choose just one.

Once you’ve unlocked everything click on the Build tab just above Training. You will have three trait lines available. Clicking on the big (circle? Octagon?) on the left lets you pick any of the five lines to put in that slot. Maybe it’s a right click, I don’t recall, but definitely you click on that and then pick one of the 5 little symbols (mouseover tells you the name). For skills you are unlocking utilities by filling in the circles.

At that point you go through and pick from your square icon traits, Adept, Master, and Grandmaster. You can swap them around as fast as you can click new squares.

Because there are not build templates, I added my builds to my little Word cheat sheet on important info I keep about alts, eg Donari is currently Trickery 121, Shadow Arts 121, Acrobatics 333 (I’m not a theorycrafter and it’s likely a crap build but it’s how I play him). That means he has Trickery with the top Adept, middle Master, and top Grandmaster trait open.

It did take a while to do all that for 14 80’s, but that was due to my taking time to review each and every trait and to try to give each of my three mesmers, two guardians, etc a unique build while still giving the falling damage trait to every alt.

I hope that helps. Short version: You have full unlock of everything, you just have to click the boxes. And once Elite specs come, you will need to have done Hero Challenges in the world to get the Hero Points to unlock the new spec (or whatever the WvW equivalent may turn out to be, if they decide not to compel PvE play by pure WvWers to get their unlocks).

@Donari
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Yeah, I’m switching a bit confused right now between the different lines to find the traits I used before my break from the game. I just wished I would have done screenshots back then^^’

Since many things got switched, have different names or are merged with additional bonuses, your idea with a Word document is pretty helpful. I definitively have to make one tomorrow (its 11pm here) and write every line + traits together to get an overview of all the possibilities and combinations.

Good to know how to get Hero Points in the future too :D

Here is a sample of the notes I keep, same format for each alt, some with additional comments about RP pet names and the like:

Donari Mal di Bette May 21 1298 — Aug 25 – Priory – Skritt – PS done – Trickery 121, Shadow Arts 121, Acrobatics 333 – 6 20’s + 1 invis 18 – sp 189/189 DONE

So I have name, IC birthday, game birthday, Order, race studied, what step of the PS they are on, their main build, their bags, and how many skill challenges they’ve got (Donari has world completion, so he has more than the 189). I suppose I could add in crafting disciplines if I had problems remembering which alt knew what. With the trait change coming I made sure I had a list of my trait distributions so I could try to replicate them in the new system (boring, but easier than trying to learn all new ways of playing each alt).

Then I also have a Word document listing each alt’s preferred dye scheme for each outfit they might wear, and another much older one with which alt has which town clothes and toys and permanent gathering tools.

Because the game doesn’t let you look things up like that in game >< I am very happy this game hasn’t got mods that need constant updating but I do miss my WoW “Altoholic” mod where I could mouse over something and see how many of it each alt had.