Guild Wars 2

Jareth.4813:

I’m sure it’s coming, but not seeing any mention of save-able trait builds was a little disappointing.

This, but I doubt its coming in this update in fact I would think it won;t come until the next feature patch which is what, another 6 months.

Generally this is encouraging to hear. Build experimentation never seemed to be overly encouraged in GW2 due to several factors that conspired together (cost, going to trainers, ascended gear grind etc). I ended up finding one build on each of my characters and never straying from it. This sounds like ArenaNet wants to change that but if that is their goal:

For the love of Dwayna let us save our trait builds!

It’s great to hear that they’ve gotten rid of that bad mechanic of costing money to re-assign your trait points, but they really, really need to create a system like GW1 where you could create a build, save it then load the build again.

It would be best if the builds included gear too, but unless they make Ascended a lot easier for everyone to get (instead of the current, still incredibly tedious gear grind) everyone will just be sticking with Berserker Ascended sets.

But even then, it would still be incredibly helpful to have the ability to save and load trait builds and encourage more experimentation. The GW1 system was really nice because people could post numerical codes that allowed other people to load the specific builds with a simple Cut and Paste.

And while I don’t like being forced to spend money to open traits, I am very glad to hear they have made it an option for people who might not want to do certain content to get a particular trait. That was something I truly disliked in GW1 where you had to fight a particularly annoying boss only because you just wanted the darn skill they offered. I didn’t enjoy the ‘challenge’ because that’s not why I was doing it, I was doing it so I could try out a new build that needed the bloody skill. Giving players another way to get these traits will further help build experimentation IMO.

Overall I think these changes will get me to play around more with builds than I have previously been doing in the game.

And I want to say I am very intrigued by the titles of the upcoming blog posts. Looking for Group? Facilitating Friendly Play? Hmmmm, color me interested.

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.

heh

Tuning on monster stats, huh? You evil, evil kittens, you.

I can just see the patch note now. “All Champions in zones at level 25 or lower are now Elite bosses as part of the rebalance.”

This change looks like it intended to screw players who play multiple characters, i have a main for PvE and WvW, if this is some of grind or money grab for you to add an item in the cash shop then it’s time i think about finding a new game..

I’m simply glad that almost all the chars i want to play are level 80. I suppose my poor Mesmer and Thief won’t be able to get there, as the traits i got from level 30 – 50 were the ones that meant the most for me, making them more FUN and EFFECTIVE for crying out loud…

With the new system you simply tell me that i’ll have to WAIT for even MORE levels before i can get my hands on the traits i ALREADY have unlocked, especially the ones i got after hitting 60.

I suppose you’ll force me to spend countless hours leveling them up before you upload the kitten nerf, which considering that i’m a busy person, won’t be enough to get my final duo up to 80.

Seriously, i would love to get my hands on new content/skills/traits for my chars, but the way you’re doing it, is completely wrong in my book..

Keep the ALREADY simple trait system, and simply add the new traits for us to unlock via exploration. Can also make them buy-able as you say! It’s just, that, simple. They’re meant for the Grandmaster Tier anyway, so we would be GLAD to engage in exploration / fighting to acquire them!

You’re making the system more “simple” for whom, i wonder? I’m here since the beta, and it took me about 10 minutes to figure it out, and yes, i’m not proud of it, as other people understood it even quicker than i did. So unless you plan to enlist 2 year-old kids in the GW2 roster, this whole change is void and unnecessary.

P.S.
I hope your claim that existing chars will have the current traits unlocked stands, cause if it doesn’t, i’m not sure i’ll be able to continue playing the game, especially after all the effort i’ve put into getting my builds the way i want them.

Becka Williams.4978:

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?

It’s supposed to be no more than a learning process. The game is meant to not have end-game at all (even if many people, myself included, would disagree) and downscaling is supposed to prevent the content from becoming trivial and obsolete.
If lvl80 characters were supposed to be that powerful, then they should never have used such a high level cap and/or make almost every zone (even most dungeons) sub-80.

I just wanted to say… Love you ANet! Finally! I was waiting for something like this since begining! Just… just… Keep up good work!

Sound like good changes but I dunno I’m hoping for something bigger from the feature patch vis a vis fun.

I appreciate the way this was laid out. The information is very clear and well put together. Lovely site design, and a wonderfully straightforward release schedule. Cool cool cool.

I’m disappointed that we still can’t save our builds. Very disappointed.

I hope we’ll be refunded for all the gold we spent on training manuals. Sorry but 10+ gold is nothing for me to scoff at.

And no traits until level 30..? That does not sound like a fun low leveling experience to me. Combat only starts getting fun when you get your traits up there. I’ll have to reserve judgement until I see how the pre-80 monsters get their rebalance. But I now have a fire lit under me to level the rest of my alts as quickly as possible. Getting to level 60 and having grandmaster traits gave me a fantastic freedom to experiment with builds and weapons before I felt like I had to “know” at level 80. Maybe this feeling will be spread more evenly over the entire leveling experience..? This will take some adjusting to mentally.

I like the idea of finding major traits as you explore, the way you would capture elite skills from random named bosses in GW1. I REALLY love that. That’s absolutely a step in a more fun direction.

Quite a mixed bag.

ETA: Also, I don’t think the new trait point system is more simple. If anything it sounds more complicated to explain. And the way traits were refunded with each book means that if you learned that a 14/11 build was not as effective, you could change it with no fuss. It’ll be even easier in this “no pay to refund” system, so I’m not sure why it was even necessary. I don’t know a single friend I’ve introduced to this game (3) who have had a problem realizing it was in their best interests to go in increments of five but -shrug-

I feel quite positive about the changes, albeit with some reservations about the delay in getting to the traits. I’m at 12 80’s now, and nearly 40 on my 3rd Mesmer, because I always want to have someone I’m leveling in order to get that feeling of progress. So far I’ve managed different weapon/trait builds for each one … anyway! Question: You didn’t say pre-existing 80’s get all traits unlocked, you said pre-existing characters. So my new Mesmer, assuming he doesn’t hit 80 by Apr 15, does he get all traits, or just some? How does this work for characters created before Apr 15 but not yet 80 as of the patch?

Since Anet tried to sell the item that allow you to restat anywhere you want.
I dont see any problem with that “new” system.
Even if, personaly i think we should only be allowed to restat ONLY in zone considered as “safe zone” like all city, all start WvW place, outpost in pve.. etc.

Adding news traits… well, i’am ok.
But… there is already plenty of totaly useless traits that should be reworked

IMHO traits like 20% faster reload, increase a bit the AoE size, increase weapon range a bit.. etc
Are totaly pointless and should already be the default setting of the various skills.
Like that we could concentrate trait usage for adding various effect ( like getting a buff, of adding a condition effect.. or whatever else )
It would already add diversity

Also, ONLY grand master… -_-" ? how many build only have something like 20/20/0/10/20… ( that’s just a totaly random exemple ) and never use Grand master traits….

Collecting the news traits via quest – activity like in GW1 = NO
In GW1 we where collecting “SKILLS” not TRAITS !

When i recognize you can, eventualy go into the right direction

• do not make the traits acquisition via activity or so.
• Add news weapons kills / utilities skills / elites skills, and in this case YES make them as reward for various activity like in GW1, in this case i would be OK !
• you add a way to VERY easyly restat – retrait… DO NOT FORGET THE GEAR.
  You are forcing us the hunt down gear stat for a build, its long and boring to get gear stat..
  I made a suggestion about that here
  https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Gear-and-stat-acquisition/first#post3759274
  do not forget that either for a good possibilities of various build because the gear stat is nearly more important than traits…

Love it love it love it.
I was so in attracted to how we experimented and planned tactics all the time with GW1’s attribute (and skill) system. For me; the trait system in GW2 totally destroyed that aspect. Not that it is particulary expensive to reset your traits, but it just isn’t very convenient – and therefore not very fun to experiment.

With this patch, being able to swap around as I want, when I want – I can finally see myself experimenting again with different combinations! Just great!

Love it! <3

The new trait system is to be a more complicated one for more options. It is a huge change for the better. All the complaints about pre-level-30 traits sound too cheesy for me becasue players usually don’t understand anything about the game until level 80.

I have a couple questions if the devs would be kind enough to answer.

1. Currently we can put lower level traits in a higher level slot such as adept traits in the master slot or master in grandmaster, but we can’t put grandmaster in master slots. I’ve noticed several times that traits that would benefit me are all stacked at the higher tiers while the lower tiers don’t have what I want. Can we start putting higher level traits in the next tier down? Grandmaster in master and master in adept? I think this issue will become even more pronounced with additional grandmaster traits.

2. Are additional adept and master tier traits being worked on? I love that we’re getting additional Grandmaster traits, but I think not doing additional adept and master traits really hinders any potential new builds.

3. Has any consideration been given to changing, or allowing players to change the minor traits? Some fit my play style, others seem counter to it and some I would rather forsake than use. I think a little variance in the minor traits could go a long way.

As a whole I think the changes mentioned are good and I’m looking forward to them. I have concerns about some of it but I need to wait and play with it before I decide what to think about those. And thank you for the work.

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.

Huh. I’ve never seen anyone solo Jormag. Or Tequatl.

EDIT: Oh, and for someone who asked about being compensated for gold spent on manuals, I suspect that the compensation is not having to unlock/buy unlocks of the new traits on our existing characters.

Wow I just read through the new traits they are introducing.
I must say I am impressed.
Thank you Anet. Thank you.

nGumball.1283:

The new trait system is to be a more complicated one for more options. It is a huge change for the better. All the complaints about pre-level-30 traits sound too cheesy for me becasue players usually don’t understand anything about the game until level 80.

Uhhh….I understood the game at level 10. It isn’t that complicated and on the scale of complicated MMO progression systems it’s probably a 2. The worst part of leveling in GW2 is that you have almost no feeling of progression. I don’t quite know how they managed it between the trait system and utility unlocks but there was no real feeling of progression. Now things will be even worse as it’s only utilities up to 30.

Classes need a full rework if they want to start doing this stuff. There are TONS of traits, utility skills, and elite skills that are just pure grade-A garbage that could be redone to further flesh out and diversify classes. Instead they are going to pile more traits on a crumbling foundation. They need to rip the foundation down and rebuild it instead of plastering over it and building on it.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is a good gold sink… and who said anything about 1g?

I suspect the new high end grandmaster traits will be minimum 100g each.

If it were 100 gold, I think a lot of us would walk away from the game right away. Horizontal progression would become insane VERTICAL P2W progression. It would be outrageous alt hate too! Especially right in the middle of Season 2 of WvW. 100g takes weeks to earn. It would be /game.

Bleeping flippers and dungeon runners ruining the game.

Great! They’re finally doing what they promised us back in 2010/2011? Trait hunting? Nice.

Distaste.4801:

nGumball.1283:

The new trait system is to be a more complicated one for more options. It is a huge change for the better. All the complaints about pre-level-30 traits sound too cheesy for me becasue players usually don’t understand anything about the game until level 80.

Uhhh….I understood the game at level 10. It isn’t that complicated and on the scale of complicated MMO progression systems it’s probably a 2. The worst part of leveling in GW2 is that you have almost no feeling of progression. I don’t quite know how they managed it between the trait system and utility unlocks but there was no real feeling of progression. Now things will be even worse as it’s only utilities up to 30.

Classes need a full rework if they want to start doing this stuff. There are TONS of traits, utility skills, and elite skills that are just pure grade-A garbage that could be redone to further flesh out and diversify classes. Instead they are going to pile more traits on a crumbling foundation. They need to rip the foundation down and rebuild it instead of plastering over it and building on it.

You gotta have another mentality when leveling up in GW2 cause it is more about exploring the world, progressing in connection you have with it. Also, it should be the opposite, the following is gonna make leveling up rewading as you gonna be introduced and have the capability to use new systems. Therefore progression will be more appearent.

The reason there is no progression is the same why everything is opened from the start. You can’t have both together.

How about the ability to use any lower level skill in any slot, so you can use any skill in the grand master slot?

goldenwing.8473:

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.

We have to have faith in the team…

…that have neither been able to break the meta nor balance/fix the classes for a year and a half yet want to add even more to (un)balance with additional complexity? Somehow I don’t share your rather optimistic view of how badly this can all go wrong.

I guess this means I can’t play 14/14/14/14/14 celestial builds anymore, darn.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

ipan.4356:

Unlocking traits through content is a great idea though.

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

While we think going out into the world to unlock traits is a cool reward for completing specific content, we wanted to have an alternative option in case that wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. There are many different kinds of players. =)

Changes appreciated. Thanks for the huge efforts.

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Read his last comment. You can still buy them from vendors.

Smells like Maplestory’s skill system.

:(

/shrug.

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Skill (trait) hunting is faaar more interesting than grinding renown heart tasks. I think gw2’s map completion is pretty boring too, but this change will make it more interesting.

Regardless, it’s still “optional” in the sense that you can just buy those new traits, with the money that you would make from other stuff you enjoy doing.

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Just stop playing please if you can’t even read the announcement about the changes …

Roy Cronacher.1576:

ipan.4356:

Unlocking traits through content is a great idea though.

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

While we think going out into the world to unlock traits is a cool reward for completing specific content, we wanted to have an alternative option in case that wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. There are many different kinds of players. =)

While I understand that, perhaps not make it gold. If its gold I wouldn’t be surprised if a vast majority of players will just buy it and it wont do much for horizontal progression to them. Perhaps making it a mix of things. Like 5 gold, 5 laurels, and 10 skill points.

I’m just worried it will end up like so much of the rest of the game and being gold driven. Many things in the game lost their appeal to some players as endgame items because of how easily they are bought on the TP. Players like to differentiate themselves from others and show off their accomplishments. If someone can farm a champion train a few times and get 1 gold and purchase the grandmaster trait as apposed to going out and kill a specific boss, it may not do much for the games horizontal progression.

If the gold cost isn’t that much in respect to endgame players, it may not be vaule as much. As with Guild Wars 1 owning a skill from a hard boss not only showed the player was skilled, but also showed how much he played in the game. I know a few players I’ve talked to recently compared your games endgame to pre 2.0 loot in diablo 3. Basically the TP is the main focus on endgame and it has caused gold to become the main endgame for players. The ones I talked to believed it was bad and that players are in the same situation as diablo 3. Low drop rates, not feeling rewarded, and sitting on the TP more than anything.

DeWolfe.2174:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is a good gold sink… and who said anything about 1g?

I suspect the new high end grandmaster traits will be minimum 100g each.

If it were 100 gold, I think a lot of us would walk away from the game right away. Horizontal progression would become insane VERTICAL P2W progression. It would be outrageous alt hate too! Especially right in the middle of Season 2 of WvW. 100g takes weeks to earn. It would be /game.

Bleeping flippers and dungeon runners ruining the game.

I like how people are uneducated about the term P2W. You have to try games that don’t allow you to get content if you don’t pay because it is exclusive and you either have to rob money or be rich.

Lambent.6375:

Smells like Maplestory’s skill system.

:(

/shrug.

Smells like GW1’s elite skill hunting or Final Fantasy’s blue magic hunting.

Free resets, more traits, ability to earn or simply buy off a new trait, and no more running to a trainer so I have to buy a book.
I’m pleased by these changes and it does remind me of how GW1 worked with their skills. I applaud ANet on making this possible. You are going forward in a cool direction while keeping older touches alive.

Different people have different opinions basically. While some want to get everything easily there have been tons of threads about more progression and things to actually do instead of buying everything with gold.

nGumball.1283:

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Read his last comment. You can still buy them from vendors.

I did not mention that on purpose: adding the possibility to buy traits is clearly a manouvre to suck up in-game money from players in order to influence the in-game economy. I bet that every major adept trait will cost 10 silver each; every major master trait will cost 1 gold each and every major grandmaster trait will cost 2 gold each at least. I hope Anet will surprise me in a positive way.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Donari.5237:

I feel quite positive about the changes, albeit with some reservations about the delay in getting to the traits. I’m at 12 80’s now, and nearly 40 on my 3rd Mesmer, because I always want to have someone I’m leveling in order to get that feeling of progress. So far I’ve managed different weapon/trait builds for each one … anyway! Question: You didn’t say pre-existing 80’s get all traits unlocked, you said pre-existing characters. So my new Mesmer, assuming he doesn’t hit 80 by Apr 15, does he get all traits, or just some? How does this work for characters created before Apr 15 but not yet 80 as of the patch?

Any character that was created before the feature pack build will be grandfathered into the system; meaning that they will have traits 1 through 12 of each line unlocked. The new 13 traits will need to be unlocked by everyone. Any character created after the build will be required to unlock all of their traits via content or purchasing trait guides.

Everyone in PvP will have access to traits 1 through 12, even on new characters. New traits will be initially locked in PvP and require an unlock similar to when we added the new healing skills. Once a trait is unlocked it is unlocked for all game modes. Hope that clears it up a bit.

Thank you so much, was really wondering about this!

Dave Pare.2069:

nGumball.1283:

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Read his last comment. You can still buy them from vendors.

I did not mention that on purpose: adding the possibility to buy traits is clearly a manouvre to suck up in-game money from players in order to influence the in-game economy. I bet that every major adept trait will cost 10 silver each; every major master trait will cost 1 gold each and every major grandmaster trait will cost 2 gold each at least. I hope Anet will surprise me in a positive way.

Well, personally I am liking the change because firstly it adds far more depth to the game mechanics and an update to explore. However, the way of how you obtain them make the progress more complicated and therefore rewarding. At the end of the day, no game will ever please everyone and while some want moreo this, others want more of that.

You can’t miss what you never had, and there is soooo much more to guild wars 2 than traits.

There is, but traits really make or break a lot of the features of the game. There are tons of abilities that are practically worthless until you slot in a trait that completely changes how they work. I just can’t imagine the 10-30 experience not being a total drag without having traits to juggle, and even the 30-60 region sucking without access to adept and master level traits to that point.

New players might not know what they’re missing, but they would still be missing it. The only difference is that instead of thinking “I really hate my level 25 character because he doesn’t have access to Expeditious Dodger and Power of Inertia,” they would instead just be thinking “I hate my level 25 character, and I’m not really sure why.”

I also have a level 18 spare Thief that I’m leveling, and sure I have 8 “boost to 20” scrolls and several level boosting scrolls, and could afford to pick up more, I don’t particularly want to “cheat” him to 80, I want to level him up the normal way, but I want it to be fun while I do, and I can’t imagine the leveling experience being fun without access to basic traits.

I have to admit I agree that the push from 40/60 to 60/80 is too much, but I don’t think it’s the end of the world/massive drawback that people in this thread are making it out to be. It’s unfortunate, but mostly irrelevant.

But if everyone agrees that this is a bad thing, why not return it to its previous state? It’s not like this change is at all necessary.

The timing and pacing of this rollout is a transparently obvious attempt to divert attention from the impending release of another major combat MMO. That other game won’t be for everyone. GW2 is doing this too late to keep me here, when a LOT of this could have been released long ago. They simply held these features back so they could use them to try and keep the citizens of Tyria from emigrating to Tamriel. Too bad I already bought my ticket.

You know what would be even cooler?

If every major trait changed a skill and it’s animation in a fundamental way – like D3’s skill runes.

nGumball.1283:

Dave Pare.2069:

nGumball.1283:

Dave Pare.2069:

I’m really worried about this “unlock traits by running around and doing stuff” thing, I found map completion boring as hell but at least it was an optional content; unlocking traits will not be optional at all, it will force me to do something I may find horrible and annoying and that’s not what a game is designed for.
I will wait to actually see what people will have to do to unlock traits, I hope it will be fast enough otherwise I will seriuosly consider to stop playing PvE and WvW; I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking like that.

Read his last comment. You can still buy them from vendors.

I did not mention that on purpose: adding the possibility to buy traits is clearly a manouvre to suck up in-game money from players in order to influence the in-game economy. I bet that every major adept trait will cost 10 silver each; every major master trait will cost 1 gold each and every major grandmaster trait will cost 2 gold each at least. I hope Anet will surprise me in a positive way.

Well, personally I am liking the change because firstly it adds far more depth to the game mechanics and an update to explore. However, the way of how you obtain them make the progress more complicated and therefore rewarding. At the end of the day, no game will ever please everyone and while some want moreo this, others want more of that.

good point, I see your opinion about this change: I’m just concerned about how much time it would actually take to build up a charachter, I hope that it would not be too much time consuming or too expensive, especially for casual players who don’t have much time to play or hundreds of gold at their disposal

I love this, I just wish that this system was on the low level characters I still haven’t leveled yet to motivate myself. x) Looks like I’ll have to buy a new character slot!

Thank you for bringing these little gems from GW1 back, keep it up! Looking forward to the next blog posts!

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Donari.5237:

I feel quite positive about the changes, albeit with some reservations about the delay in getting to the traits. I’m at 12 80’s now, and nearly 40 on my 3rd Mesmer, because I always want to have someone I’m leveling in order to get that feeling of progress. So far I’ve managed different weapon/trait builds for each one … anyway! Question: You didn’t say pre-existing 80’s get all traits unlocked, you said pre-existing characters. So my new Mesmer, assuming he doesn’t hit 80 by Apr 15, does he get all traits, or just some? How does this work for characters created before Apr 15 but not yet 80 as of the patch?

Any character that was created before the feature pack build will be grandfathered into the system; meaning that they will have traits 1 through 12 of each line unlocked. The new 13 traits will need to be unlocked by everyone. Any character created after the build will be required to unlock all of their traits via content or purchasing trait guides.

Everyone in PvP will have access to traits 1 through 12, even on new characters. New traits will be initially locked in PvP and require an unlock similar to when we added the new healing skills. Once a trait is unlocked it is unlocked for all game modes. Hope that clears it up a bit.

Thank you so much, was really wondering about this!

This is so wonderful, thank you for the response Roy (and all devs, really). Wow, okay, I’m unreservedly excited now. The new major trait system sounds AMAZING. <3 Praise the six, I love this franchise so much.

Are we going to get option to save and use Trait tooltips?

Save:
Berserker, healer or tank traits and just use them with specific items.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is a good gold sink… and who said anything about 1g?

I suspect the new high end grandmaster traits will be minimum 100g each.

Based on what?

The example grandmaster trait unlock that appears in their screenshot required opening the Promenade in Arah. I have gone with a small group of guildies and done that without a problem within minutes. Charging 100g for this would be clearly ridiculous. Gold sinks only work if you can get people to sink the gold.

kimeekat.2548:

This is so wonderful, thank you for the response Roy (and all devs, really). Wow, okay, I’m unreservedly excited now. The new major trait system sounds AMAZING. <3 Praise the six, I love this franchise so much.

I agree with everything you said! …except, “Praise the Six”… now that is just kitten blasphemy!
Praise the true five! (and the devs of course)

It’s all about the gold and it will remain that way for as long as people are allowed to sell gems for gold. I suspect ANet makes most of their bank these days from plain old gold selling.

As I see it:

For new players the early levels of the game were pretty engaging. The scenery, learning the game play, unlocking weapon skills, learning utility skills, exploring, and so on seem likely to keep things interesting even with traits held off until level 30.

For a veteran looking to level an alt he may find the points mentioned in my reference to new players sufficient to keep him interested, or he may opt to instant level to 20 at which point he is ten levels away from traits, much as he would have been in the current system.

Overall I see the change as positive.