Guild Wars 2

How do you feel about these changes?

The new trait system.
I don’t care for it much. It’s just making us work harder for something we’re already working hard for.

The new system of unlocking things by level.
This is both good and bad.
Good that we don’t have to just constantly retrain different weapon skills if we switch to a weapon we haven’t used with the class, but yet bad that we have to level to certain levels before we can even use that slot. I mean the weapon slots.

Also why do we have to unlock our downed skills by certain level now? These changes are just really weird to me and i just want to know why they’ve been implemented.

New trait system is terrible. If anything, it’s worse on new players. How can they learn about the trait system if they don’t have any traits to use lol? Old way allowed experimentation.

Other changes are annoying and when I eventually make my necro (already have the other 7), I will bypass the NPE with the level 20 scroll and some tomes.

If I had the power to reverse one of the changes, it would be the new trait system.

I really like all the changes and think it’s improved the game for new and veteran players alike.
I’m a Guild Wars Veteran and I approve these changes ;-)

As far as unlocking skill slots, I believe GW2 is in the middle of the curve as far as all MMO’s go. All weapon skills by level 10? All non_Elite Utilities by 19 (sooner than before NPE, both in level — 20 saw the third utility unlock — and time, as you get from 1-10 faster than before)? Elite unlocked at 31? Different MMO’s unlock at different rates, some sooner, some later. The last skill slot in Wildstar, for example, unlocks around level 30, 60% of the game’s 50 levels, and since levels take longer to achieve, it takes more time spent leveling to get to L30 in WS than it takes to get to 31 in GW2.

A potential weakness in GW2’s skill acquisition system is gating acquisition of skill points to later in the leveling process. Players who want to unlock certain skills ASAP can be constrained to pursue skill challenges rather than just exploring the game world. For example, to unlock a Tier 3 utility takes 5 points to get enough Tier 1 skills to move on, 15 to get enough Tier 2 skills, and 6 to get the skill you want. To get 26 skill points via leveling under NPE, one needs to get to L44. Under the old system, you’d get those 26 points via leveling by L30. To get those 26 points by L30, you’d have to hit 18 skill challenges, roughly 3 zones worth. 3 zones by level 30 is certainly doable, maybe even light by a zone. However, under the old system, players would have 26 + (4 zones x 6 skill points) = 50, allowing acquisition of a Tier 3 and leaving enough points to get a couple of elites.

Sure, you could run around to all the starter and 15-25 zones and get more than 24 skill points via challenges, but you’d be over-leveled for those zones, Always being down-leveled can make an easy game even easier.

So, unlocking slots is not really what’s being pushed back by NPE, it’s being able to get certain skills. Now, couple this with the further back-loading of customization in the new trait allocations and you have substantially more customization at higher levels than you did before, while removing customization options from the lower levels.

What the reallocation has done is to remove some of the sense of progression from the first half of the leveling curve and putting it into the second half. I get that providing leveling benefits at higher levels might be good for when one passes through those levels. However, removing them from the first half can create a sense of lack in those who experienced the older system. I doubt new players are going to feel the same thing, because they have no personal experience of the old system.

As to me personally, if I could change either the traits or all of the other leveling benefit adjustments, I’d change the traits.

Well i also found that you don’t start with your aquatic gear anymore either. Idk when you get them now but you don’t have it from the start