Guild Wars 2

I’ll be honest… these look like quality of life improvements and some increases to build variation. I don’t see anything that extends the life of the game, or provides more content to keep the community entertained.

There’s a lot of hype in the blog posts. It feels like a bit of a sell job on how awesome it’s going to be.

I hope I’m wrong and it introduces months of new play…

I see the new patches more of an introduction to new content. These are patches to tweak game mechanics or add others, content however is needed for the mechanics to be used.

ArenaNet have had a huge part of it’s team working on projects yet to be announced. Perhaps we will hear about it soon

This patch isn’t meant to provide new content though, it that sense.

All in all, I’d say trait hunting is a ‘feature’, since it doesn’t exist in the game currently, and doesn’t so much as improve the player’s QoL (i.e. allowing to reset traits anywhere) as adds a new system to the game that can be built upon.

No. Paid open beta Phase 2 is about to start.

At least with the traits, it seems that they are trying on one hand make it more casual friendly while also giving the more hard core player goals by making higher end traits things need to unlock in content, the skill based reward argument.

I like that they are looking at some of the systems in the game and are redesigning them. Sometimes what looks good on paper to a few designers turns out to be “dumb” once people outside their little band looks at it and points out the obvious flaws (ie 5 points to unlock a trait line vs 1 point but have points be rewarded less frequently).

I’m curious to hear about the other design decisions they’ve decided to reconsider and revamp.

Having trait points to assign frequently has been something that new players really enjoy and look forward to. Also, lower end content will be more difficult, and therefore less enjoyable, without any traits till 30.

Well due to the lack of an in-game tutorial I didn’t even notice traits on my first character until I was in my 20s. And I was still sporting blues until I was in my 50s because I detest soulbound anything. I didn’t want to spend my little amount of coin I had on items that I couldn’t sell when I replaced them.

I never looked forward to trait points, after all if it takes 5 to unlock a trait line, why get “excited” over getting a trait point every level.

They have several trait tutorials now, so confusion isn’t an issue any longer.

In-game? Where? A YouTube video doesn’t cut it for me.

OP I think you are confusing “feature patch” for “content patch.”

I just leveled a character and got several pop-up tutorials all throughout levels 1-20, including ones that explained the (already ridiculously easy to understand) trait points system.

It seems cool that they are doing something with the traits, but i would really like to see a load saved traits mechanic implemented. Been wanting that for ever.

Gonna need to role a new character then. Thanks CL.

Celtic Lady.3729:

They have several trait tutorials now, so confusion isn’t an issue any longer.

If you needed your hand held to figure out this games trait system you’re either brand new to games or you’re completely helpless.

Needless to say they’re dumbing it down even further.

Not to mention you’re going to have to buy traits which is just kittened.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Celtic Lady.3729:

They have several trait tutorials now, so confusion isn’t an issue any longer.

If you needed your hand held to figure out this games trait system you’re either brand new to games or you’re completely helpless.

Needless to say they’re dumbing it down even further.

Not to mention you’re going to have to buy traits which is just kittened.

Not a single player will “…have to buy traits…”
You may have misread.

OP, they’ve just had content patches every two weeks for three weeks. Now they stopped doing content to provide a feature only patch. The main thing that separates that from a content patch is that it doesn’t have content.

This patch intentionally doesn’t have content. Anet has also introduced a new dragon, which will obviously be the center of the next living story. The dragon is in a new zone.

So because this patch doesn’t have content means very little over all. Particularly because many of these changes are long overdue.

Also many of these changes were requested by fans through the CDI, which should prove that Anet is at least attempting to listen to us.

I’m not sure one pop-up when you first can assign a Trait point can be considered several trait tutorials, but…

I think withholding judgment until after the new design has been implemented for a bit may be more constructive. And remember, someone new to the game won’t have all the experiences of those who have played for a long time, nor the biases toward the Trait system. It is difficult to miss something you never had, or imagined.