Guild Wars 2

I like what I see here. The Grandmaster trait for warrior sounds awesome.

Cinnamon Goddess.3869:

Wall of Gurble Garble

Do you use AoE Loot? I use that and Auto-Loot, no stops/slowdowns on speed clears.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Everything looks amazing, I’m super excited for all this stuff to go live.

Out of curiosity, would you like to say anything about the ranger GM trait? It seems very underwhelming, especially considering the traits it’s competing against.

Why is the feature pack coming during WvW season 2? Wouldn’t that disrupt the tournament as people figure out a: how the new trait system works, and b: how to get the new trait for the build they want. Wouldn’t it be better to delay WvW season 2 to sometime in may, now?

It looks like good changes to me. Although, I am glad that I have no need to create any new characters as I’d hate to have to level any more alts.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Karl and I will be doing a Ready Up livestream tomorrow going over all of the new traits. =)

Excellent.

This. Sounds. Awesome. This is exactly the kind of progression I want to see in the game. Going out in the world and exploring as much as possible instead of just getting to level 80 as fast as possible. And it also facilitates experiments with builds. By the way, great marketing to post the titles of the blog posts already.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Phadde.7362:

This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! ! !
I’ve wanted something like this for a long time and now that it’s finally coming, you managed to make it This kitten Good!

Such a refreshment! There are a ton of things like these that should be looked over, and it really feels like we (literally) have to wait ~2 years to see them change.
Might actually be my favorite patch of all time!

Thank you! This is the side of ANet that should never be turned away from us!

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Thanks for the updates! Really excited about these changes!

Could you please also address concerns regarding early leveling difficulties for new players (especially for classes like Ele and Mesmers) since important defensive traits are now only obtainable starting at level 30 rather than at level 15?

I just hope the new free and everywhere trait refund will not create situations in which builds get changed on-the-fly during instance runs.

Read the Wind is awesome (and I say this not only, because I literally kept suggesting its reintroduction here)

It will make Rangers that play with the bows alot quicke,r it will increase their DPS as they weill be able to hit their targets alot faster with that trait.
This trait will make it also alot harder for fleeing foes to flee from your attacks by outranging your attacks before the hits kill your target.

It makes it harder also for players to time the right moment of dodging, if the arrows fly with double of the speed, than normal.

The trait is absolutely not underwhelming, its awesome and something that the ranger really needed to become a truly unparalleded archer compared to the Warrior using a long bow, or comparecto a Thief using the shortbow and it was one of the rangers most iconic GW1 skills, that we just needed to get back into GW2 for nostalgias’s reasons gg (could the German name of the trait get please translated to somethign that fits alot better in the context of translation, like “Lese den Wind”, instead of “Wind lesen” puppy eyes, thank you ^^)

However, if that trait would need to have any kind of improvevements, then it’d suggest, that trait should add to the opening strike the effec,t that the opening strike will always be unblockable and ignores Aegis plus givign the opening strike a damage boost.

Celestina.2894:

Only in GW2 will people complain about being given multiple ways to unlock things.

Too many options and something loses all of its value. A little bit of challenge and effort can improve gameplay a lot (this is backed up by scientific test on behavior vs effort), even if now you think that it won’t. Look at the trading post in Diablo 3, which trivialized and hurt many facets of the game and is now removed.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Fluffball.8307:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Everything looks amazing, I’m super excited for all this stuff to go live.

Out of curiosity, would you like to say anything about the ranger GM trait? It seems very underwhelming, especially considering the traits it’s competing against.

Karl and I will be doing a Ready Up livestream tomorrow going over all of the new traits. =)

So rangers can still be utterly disappointed until tomorrow, and most likely after. I mean lets be honest if what it says now is all it does then it is a QoL change and should not be put behind a trait point wall.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Glenstorm.4059:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Phadde.7362:

This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! ! !
I’ve wanted something like this for a long time and now that it’s finally coming, you managed to make it This kitten Good!

Such a refreshment! There are a ton of things like these that should be looked over, and it really feels like we (literally) have to wait ~2 years to see them change.
Might actually be my favorite patch of all time!

Thank you! This is the side of ANet that should never be turned away from us!

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Thanks for the updates! Really excited about these changes!

Could you please also address concerns regarding early leveling difficulties for new players (especially for classes like Ele and Mesmers) since important defensive traits are now only obtainable starting at level 30 rather than at level 15?

We have done some tuning on monster stats pre-80 to account for players having less traits, and stats from traits. We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.

Sounds good to me! Thanks again!

I have to say, I have very mixed feelings about this update.

Pros:

• 5-point jumps instead of 1 point jumps. Since this really is a system of 5 points already, this totally does make sense, making it easier to spend and reallocate points.

• Reallocate anywhere for free. While I really don’t want to change my traits constantly, because that seems like too much hassle and would leave me constantly confused as to what effects I can use, it’s still a nice option to have. I just hope that they don’t design content expecting that I’ll be changing my traits around to adapt to it.

• More GM traits. More traits are always fun.

Cons:

• Later trait availability. Many classes are barely playable without certain traits (cough Mesmer cough), and pushing back when traits start filtering in will push back when they’ll be playable. I could barely stand my Mesmer until I hit level 40, now as I understand it I wouldn’t be able to use those traits until 60+? Fix this, restore the trait progression to begin at level 11-15.

• Unlockable traits. I don’t like jumping through specific hoops. I don’t like having to do content I don’t want to earn specific rewards that I do want. It’s nice that you can buy them for cash on the trainers, but I don’t think that’s a good solution. If the trainer cost is triflingly low, then there’s no point to the unlocks, you could just buy all the ones you’d want and never buy the ones you don’t. If the cost is reasonably high, then that just mean the TP tycoons will be able to buy all the skills they want, while all the other players will have to do it the hard way. I could only support this element if they also correct the economic imbalances of the trading post.

• The more GM traits, but no more Adept/Master traits. More traits is good, but you can typically only slot 2-3 GM traits at a time, and even doing that means limiting your other trait choices. Having 5 new GM traits means always having 5 GM traits you can’t slot at any given time. I would much prefer having more Adept and Master traits available, allowing you to slot more of these new traits at once, and without having to focus on maxing out individual lines.

Needs:

• If they are adding in the ability to swap traits around on the fly like this, then they also definitely need the ability to “store” trait builds, so that you can swap between several builds at a button press, rather than having to move the points around and swap out the abilities individually. If they allow you to swap traits then you’ll be expected to swap traits, and doing so manually each time is just tedious.

Seems like 2014 really is going to be a good year for the game.

Not a bad change to traits, I approve.

Just do not stop, the more traits the better.

CrossedHorse.4261:

Healix.5819:

They have to give an alternative method. They can’t force people into doing dungeon, PvP, hard solo content, etc. It would only cause even more problems. In a system where everyone is meant to be at relatively the same power, not offering an alternative would simply be unfair.

For example, imagine having the best trait locked behind Liadri without offering an alternative.

This. It will only cause people to say they are now forced to play in a way they don’t want to play.

I am wary about this, and I am waiting to see how it works, but I’ll be really annoyed if each trait cost anything near even 1g. It only costs a few gold now to unlock the whole of the grandmaster tier, so paying a lot more than that per trait? No thanks. But, making people complete dungeons etc … well, that does sort of go against the “play you want to play” philosophy they spout (and I really don’t like to use this term lightly as I think it gets abused a lot). I would think eventually, I could see a lot of people just “not being bothered” and walking away, which I don’t want to happen.

Well they have to make it so that the cost is somewhere equal to the other method so I definitely seeing it being slightly expensive. Otherwise nobody at all would do the exploring option if they were 50s-1g a piece. And it still is play how you want even with this added in because you can purchase it with gold. Gold is made by doing anything in the game. Just my 2cents

Seras.5702:

Well it can’t be too expensive or first time players are gonna be outa luck.

Who wants to play a game that heavily restricts your access to your traits as well as skills? It seems the new trait system is going to make it awful for first timers. No traits till level 30?! No grandmasters till level cap??

Ohh those look like good traits. I’d like to experiment with them and see which make a better build. Oops, can’t afford to buy them so I can’t experiment. Guess I’ll have to stab in the dark. Uhh…that one.

Makes it hard for levelers to experiment and try stuff out, really get a feel for traits and synergy and their class as a whole until they hit 80 and buy everything.

Yes but, the devs mentioned in a different blog for china that they were going to make stat boosts a lot different as well. Instead of boosting an insignificant amount per level they would be doing a large boost every certain amount of levels so that you could really appreciate and see the boost. This might go hand in hand with this trait concept in order to help you out at earlier levels although I could be completely wrong.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Glenstorm.4059:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Phadde.7362:

This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! ! !
I’ve wanted something like this for a long time and now that it’s finally coming, you managed to make it This kitten Good!

Such a refreshment! There are a ton of things like these that should be looked over, and it really feels like we (literally) have to wait ~2 years to see them change.
Might actually be my favorite patch of all time!

Thank you! This is the side of ANet that should never be turned away from us!

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Thanks for the updates! Really excited about these changes!

Could you please also address concerns regarding early leveling difficulties for new players (especially for classes like Ele and Mesmers) since important defensive traits are now only obtainable starting at level 30 rather than at level 15?

We have done some tuning on monster stats pre-80 to account for players having less traits, and stats from traits. We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.

These are really sad news.
A downscaled character is already extremely powerful when compared with those monsters. If they’re going to become even weaker, there’s going to be no point in downscaling at all (and 90% or so of the open world is actually pre-80).
I honestly think it would have been much better to somehow rework the downscaling (for example disabling any trait that shouldn’t be available at the effective level, which shouldn’t be a problem with trait reset being free and available on the fly), even if that would have make the open world slightly more challenging.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Glenstorm.4059:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Phadde.7362:

This is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! ! !
I’ve wanted something like this for a long time and now that it’s finally coming, you managed to make it This kitten Good!

Such a refreshment! There are a ton of things like these that should be looked over, and it really feels like we (literally) have to wait ~2 years to see them change.
Might actually be my favorite patch of all time!

Thank you! This is the side of ANet that should never be turned away from us!

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Thanks for the updates! Really excited about these changes!

Could you please also address concerns regarding early leveling difficulties for new players (especially for classes like Ele and Mesmers) since important defensive traits are now only obtainable starting at level 30 rather than at level 15?

We have done some tuning on monster stats pre-80 to account for players having less traits, and stats from traits. We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.

Simpler = boring.

You’re going to bore new players to death so that they abandon the game before reaching 80.

Look at PoE’s skill tree. While I personally found it unnecessarily complex (especially since most of the paths were basic stats anyway, giving a greater illusion of complexity and depth that wasn’t actually there), people swear up and down by it. They love it. Because it makes them feel like they have an insane amount of options for customization.

If anything, you should be expanding the depth and complexity of the trait system, not simplifying it.

Right now, it feels like there is so little customization available in GW2. Every choice amounts to donning a uniform (Zerker, Assassin, Valkyrie) – and there’s always a ‘best choice’ when it comes to traiting for that particular uniform. In GW2 this goes beyond just FOTM builds – both traits and gear in this game are so streamlined that there is little wiggle room for players to tweak their builds the way they WANT to.

You need to double the amount of traits, at minimum, and provide greater creative control over them.

Yes, this will be a balance nightmare. But it’s worth it in the end. Give players more options.

You are doing the opposite – once again dumbing down your game because you think it will appeal to casual gamers.

We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.

These are YOUR words. Keep things simpler for new players. Translation: we think it will appeal to casual players more.

Here’s the wake up call: it won’t. Players want more choices, not less. This is because it’s a point of pride when you can wrangle a build out of what’s available that is very difficult for others to deal with. It’s a creative thing.

We want more than to just have you guys hand us your pre-ordained uniforms to wear – Berserker, Apothecary, Assassin – we want to CREATE our own uniforms, our own custom builds.

We want creative control over our characters.

Look at what Diablo 3 did recently – they added additional customization options above and beyond what was already there. They ADDED complexity to their system.

You need to do the same.

Yes, it will cause balance issues. But that’s ok. I’m pretty sure the majority of players would prefer an unbalanced, but interesting game, over a balanced, but utterly boring game.

Unlocking traits through content is a great idea though.

I’d even remove the option to buy them from vendors.

A decent step on the right path, but half-baked without easily switched gear stats.

Cush.4063:

snip…

Well they have to make it so that the cost is somewhere equal to the other method so I definitely seeing it being slightly expensive. Otherwise nobody at all would do the exploring option if they were 50s-1g a piece. And it still is play how you want even with this added in because you can purchase it with gold. Gold is made by doing anything in the game. Just my 2cents

I don’t know about that. I’d still rather go out and do something specific than spend (waste in my opinion, since I’m frugal/hoarder) gold on it. I’m sure I’m not alone. Even if it was as “cheap” as you say. (There are also people that don’t have a lot of gold, so they can’t just exclude them as well)

when will we see all the other GM traits?

“We ignore what is broken, and fix what isn’t.” ~ GW2 staff

How many months has Phantasmal Warden been broken? That aside, I really feel bad for any new players (for a variety of reasons) who start playing after this patch goes into effect. No traits until level 30. Oh what “fun” that will be. You guys already have a hard enough time getting new people to stick with classes until level 11. (Btw, the current trait system is not rocket science, nor have I ever met someone that took more than 5 minutes to fully understand it)

For me, this is the final straw, I’m done with GW2. But seriously, good job getting my money. I was one of those fools that bought the game for full price. A shame, because this game really did have potential. I hope future MMORPGs will adapt a similar system in the future. (preferably where DPS wasn’t the only role worth taking)

If i leave GW2 it wont be for this long i just want to try out ESO and see whats in there for me. I still like how GW2 is playing but the lack of new content (other then scarlet wich i didnt even bother to start) is boring me so ill come around when some more is in there.

Wait so… Players WERE going to be technically weaker overall so ANet tweaks the monsters to make everything balanced again (or atleast the same as before) and some people still see this as making the WHOLE game easier when it’s just restoring the current balance we have in difficulty that was offset by the change? =/

Darmikau.9413:

Ohoni.6057:

I don’t like having to do content I don’t want to earn specific rewards that I do want

You probably shouldn’t be playing MMOs, or video games in general.

Helpful.

We have done some tuning on monster stats pre-80 to account for players having less traits, and stats from traits. We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.
.
.
.

In other words, we are upending the game for Asian customers (we’ve seen other developers do this for that exact same reason), disrupting WvW Tournament, and (optimistically) introducing (only) months of new bugs. All timed to coincide with competitive releases.

Curious to see how this all rolls out.

-Accept/tolerate/vote with feet? Nothing is off the table

I do have some concerns about having to wait until level 30 to play with traits.

It’s about kitten time! Experimentation was what gave GW1 its longevity.

Sounds like a pretty solid change to me. Can any dev elaborate on “Players also have the option of buying these traits from a guide.” Its great you are giving lazy, rich players to just buy the traits but how much are they going to cost? Will we buy them with skill points or gold?

Roy Cronacher.1576:

We have done some tuning on monster stats pre-80 to account for players having less traits, and stats from traits. We wanted to push back traits to give characters more meaningful progression up to 80 and keep things simpler for a new player to learn over time.

I really hope this include a massive nerf to certain champs (if not all) like the Krait Witch or Horace. Those are extremely hard to kill even with a lvl 80 in full ascended gear.
Not to mention the Blood Witch or similar champs impossible to kill without either a big group or a small party of extremely good players.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Fluffball.8307:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I’m glad you are excited, and we are too. This is just the first taste of stuff coming in the build. There will be many more blogs. =)

Everything looks amazing, I’m super excited for all this stuff to go live.

Out of curiosity, would you like to say anything about the ranger GM trait? It seems very underwhelming, especially considering the traits it’s competing against.

Karl and I will be doing a Ready Up livestream tomorrow going over all of the new traits. =)

I like the new system and I am interested in learning more of the traits to find out what’s ultimately available. I love what you are doing with some of them which will definitely help with problems some classes have experienced such as the Ranger Long Bow speed issues as well as healing problems for Thiefs.

I, however, have 1 concern regarding pets (specifically turrets but it’s a global issue). The shield thing is a good idea because it will make turret engineers viable for boss fights who use ranged attacks, however, I have to wonder will anything else be done to ensure that the turrets will have a proper viability. We’ve seen the steps of increasing health multiple times, increasing their defense ratings, but has that helped at all? I’m still seeing reports of turrets being instakilled by AOEs to this day in the forums. Until the weakness of all pets (including turrets) is addressed I can totally see turret shields going down after 4 seconds then instantly being destroyed in one hit with an extended cooldown time making the engineer useless for a long duration until they are back up again in PVE.

X The Manimal.5293:

Wait so… Players WERE going to be technically weaker overall so ANet tweaks the monsters to make everything balanced again (or atleast the same as before) and some people still see this as making the WHOLE game easier when it’s just restoring the current balance we have in difficulty that was offset by the change? =/

It restores the balance for characters playing on their natural level zones.
For downscaled level 80 characters, however, everything would become easier (and IMHO they’re already a lot more powerful than they should).

While I have to agree that most of this looks great, I am concerned about not gaining traits until level 30 and then only one every 6 levels. I like to feel I have gained something when I go up a level, it makes me wonder why they don’t just put in a level squish and change the max level to 16 or something and give us an advance every level. With out the appearance of some gain, a trait to chose or a new skill to try out, gaining a level starts to seem pointless, playing WoW MoP has already taught me that. It also doesn’t say if our current level 80s will keep their traits or if we will have to spend the points again, desperately trying to remember just what we had put where.

I guess it is time to start keeping all those instant level 20 scrolls that you get in birthday boxes as it certainly looks like the first few levels are going to be more of a drag than before.

the one thing i really don’t like is that lvl 30 is now the only moment when the game actually starts to get interesting, it’s already a pain to get to lvl 30 and now even the traits are pushed back to the holy lvl 30.

daimasei.4091:

I really hope this include a massive nerf to certain champs (if not all) like the Krait Witch or Horace. Those are extremely hard to kill even with a lvl 80 in full ascended gear.
Not to mention the Blood Witch or similar champs impossible to kill without either a big group or a small party of extremely good players.

First of all, every champ in the open world is soloable. Second, you’ll be able to retrait instantly and for free to get ready for a specific fight, so it should be no worries. You could even just facetank everything, since almost no enemies can heal themselves.

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Two things about low level characters:

1. You are sub-30 for about 4 hours unless you are intentionally avoiding things that give XP.

So new players should just buy gold for gems so that they can craft to 30 before starting to actually play the game ?

No, new players should play the game normally and be level 30 in around 4 hours by doing events/renown hearts.

Early leveling is incredibly fast.

How in the world do you make 30 levels with exploring and hearts in 4 hours ? You must confuse 30 with 3 somehow, since this is simply impossible. Doing 2 level in an hour is already really fast .. normal is something like 1 level per hour.

If a person don’t understand the mechanics of the game to the point he/she will only play with hearts, they won’t understand traits before 30.

I’m very excited about this. I felt of the major gold sinks, trait reallocation was the least effective one. Now we can experiment more freely and change builds for different situations rather than trying to find a one size fits all trait set up.

nGumball.1283:

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Beldin.5498:

mtpelion.4562:

Two things about low level characters:

1. You are sub-30 for about 4 hours unless you are intentionally avoiding things that give XP.

So new players should just buy gold for gems so that they can craft to 30 before starting to actually play the game ?

No, new players should play the game normally and be level 30 in around 4 hours by doing events/renown hearts.

Early leveling is incredibly fast.

How in the world do you make 30 levels with exploring and hearts in 4 hours ? You must confuse 30 with 3 somehow, since this is simply impossible. Doing 2 level in an hour is already really fast .. normal is something like 1 level per hour.

If a person don’t understand the mechanics of the game to the point he/she will only play with hearts, they won’t understand traits before 30.

Have to agree here I spent ALOT of money trying to figure them out in the beginning because I didn’t see the whole picture yet and at the time the online calculators were terrible they didn’t even keep up with trait tooltips.

It might make it a bit easier for people. If they are actually balancing the mobs in the lower zones (pre 30) to make up for the fact that people won’t have traits that’s awesome too because it means they won’t experience the problems I had as an engineer. At a certain point of the game, despite gear, it was like the mobs had entirely too many hitpoints or something or my skills suddenly weren’t doing proper damage when I leveled. They’ve not fixed this aspect because I continue to read player comments where they suddenly stop playing their engineer half way because this kind of thing is happening.

Fluffball.8307:

First of all, every champ in the open world is soloable. Second, you’ll be able to retrait instantly and for free to get ready for a specific fight, so it should be no worries. You could even just facetank everything, since almost no enemies can heal themselves.

First of all, pics or didn’t happen (just kidding, for me is “show me in-game or didn’t happen”). Second, what are you going to retrait? I’m speaking of starting zones so you aren’t going to have nothing to retrait (no trait until lvl 30, remember?).

Mirta.5029:

I agree so much with this! Leveling has been made pointlessly grindy. I just texted my boyfriend saying that “if you want to level do it before April 15th” and he just responded with being put off from the game now. And well so am I. Yes I have a lot of level 80s. Yes, I like reseting traits on the fly. However the damage done to the leveling experience is so huge that I don’t really feel like playing anymore. This game does not need grinding. At all.

We don’t know how this, combined with what else they are doing, will affect leveling. So going right out and saying they are damaging the leveling experience is premature.

Vargamonth.2047:

X The Manimal.5293:

Wait so… Players WERE going to be technically weaker overall so ANet tweaks the monsters to make everything balanced again (or atleast the same as before) and some people still see this as making the WHOLE game easier when it’s just restoring the current balance we have in difficulty that was offset by the change? =/

It restores the balance for characters playing on their natural level zones.
For downscaled level 80 characters, however, everything would become easier (and IMHO they’re already a lot more powerful than they should).

If downscaled players aren’t stronger than players of the right level for the zone, what’s the point of leveling?

daimasei.4091:

Fluffball.8307:

First of all, every champ in the open world is soloable. Second, you’ll be able to retrait instantly and for free to get ready for a specific fight, so it should be no worries. You could even just facetank everything, since almost no enemies can heal themselves.

First of all, pics or didn’t happen (just kidding, for me is “show me in-game or didn’t happen”). Second, what are you going to retrait? I’m speaking of starting zones so you aren’t going to have nothing to retrait (no trait until lvl 30, remember?).

I play a berserker ranger main, so it would be extremely boring for me to show you how I solo champs. I have all the classes up to level 80 though, so I know they all have their ways of doing it. Necros just sit there and life siphon things to death while watching Who’s Line is it Anyway?

I doubt they would make you kill difficult champs as a level 15 to get trait points, or did I miss something? I’m picturing something like pushing one of the Queensdale centaur chains. Free the captured farmers sort of stuff. Later on it might be completing AC story mode. We’ll find out soon enough.

Fluffball.8307:

daimasei.4091:

I really hope this include a massive nerf to certain champs (if not all) like the Krait Witch or Horace. Those are extremely hard to kill even with a lvl 80 in full ascended gear.
Not to mention the Blood Witch or similar champs impossible to kill without either a big group or a small party of extremely good players.

First of all, every champ in the open world is soloable. Second, you’ll be able to retrait instantly and for free to get ready for a specific fight, so it should be no worries. You could even just facetank everything, since almost no enemies can heal themselves.

Solo the champ risen knight in malchor’s leap. Then try to pretend anyone can do that, if a miracle occurs, and you beat him.

Seriously… you’re that concerned about traits while leveling up or traits being locked? How many of you in this thread have not made it to level 80 yet? How many of you haven’t created a character yet?

I have 8 80s, but I know what it took to get them there, and I feel that if I were just starting out I would HATE not having access to traits along the way. I think it’s bad for the game’s future to be driving away new players like that.