Guild Wars 2

I’d just like to say that I think the new trait system is great and it’s made me want to make a new character, even though I’ve got 6 80s already.

I think that giving players a reason to explore the world via this new trait system is great. It creates a sense of character progression and achievement. Unlocking every trait on a character is no longer just “get to 80”. You have to work for it now, which is awesome.

I also think that moving the trait system up to level 30 is awesome. Level 10 was probably a bit too soon and players didn’t get a chance to understand the mechanics of the game yet anyway. Pushing it to 30 gives them that opportunity to focus on Weapon and Utility skills first.

My only issue with the new trait system is that it doesn’t feel varied enough. I know that several of my guildies were talking about “that ship in Orr” to get a GM trait. We were all talking about different classes. I’d like to see more varied placing of traits for classes and more unique ways to acquire them.

For example, several Earth traits for Elementalist might require you to mine a specific amount of Ores in a particular area or a Necromancer Death Magic trait might require you to raise a particular minion at a graveyard. Make the location and activity relevant to the trait and profession. Make it fun and interesting. There’s definitely a lot of potential here.

I sincerely hope that AC will be made easier… I couldn’t complete it on a Mesmer with traits, how am I supposed to be able to do that without any now?

the profession trainer in the divinity’s reach VIP area isn’t working properly instead of selling you the trait books it gives you only one option and that is to pay 70c to reset your traits.

Even though i prefer lesser numbers on my trait window, I’m not a fan of the new trait system either, and i find it rather weird and unnecessary to have to start unlocking them from level 30. I simply don’t see the point. As for having to buy or “hunt” the major ones? That’s simply ridiculous.

The game simply has too many levels to begin with. It used to be a struggle even with an instant level 20 experience scroll to get stuff going.. Now, it’s a struggle until level 66, and then your character gets a whack of power! 2 trait points (A.K.A 10 with the old system), as if he’s been thrown into the air using a Charr cow catapult! (I Believe i can fly!!).

I had the chance to play the game a tad with a non level 80 character (Mesmer), and to Anet’s defense, the map felt a tad easier to battle around (No, i wasn’t in Queensdale, i was playing Timberline Falls). So i suspect the “nerf” of the creatures exists.

Either way, starting to earn traits from lower levels like we used to, would be a nice idea. And of course, keep the ones prior to the XIII ones unlocked even for the new players, they won’t be happy to have to buy them to be effective.

I’m not happy to have to buy the new ones either, but that’s a whole different story, as i won’t miss what i never had.

This patch has been really awesome for the most part, but the trait change is definitely an exception. This change has greatly lowered the effectiveness and the variety of lower level characters and put an even bigger gap between low levels and ‘true’ level 80’s.

My level 50 Necro went from being able to level pretty easily to being greatly handicapped and has turned the leveling process into a real struggle. I honestly hope Anet sees the error in this and changes this part of the update.

Everything else was so great and done so well, and this part was just so wrong. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with the trait system the way it was. I really hope this changes soon.

When I first read about the big game patch a few weeks ago, I was stoked. A wardrobe system that allowed us to use unlocked skins, combine our dye pools, and unlock new traits.

Well… the traits were a bit of a downer. And by a bit, I mean a lot.

I don’t wish to sound like a broken record, but it’s a pain to level up a new character now. I used to love getting that new trait point every level and place it where I want (micromanaging is something that a lot of gamers can do, after all). I could see the change in my character’s ability; small as it was, it was still noticeable, and it felt like I was making progress every level.

And now… I have to wait until level 30 to even consider tweaking my character. And only after every 5 or 6 levels (I don’t care anymore) can I make my adjustments.

I see very little improvement while leveling. Sure, the mobs are a bit easier to deal with to handle the situation, but it’s a huge turn-off. I’ve been leveling a recently created elementalist, and it’s taking FOREVER to see the fruits of my labor. I’ve been tempted several times tonight to just delete her and forget all about playing an elementalist. It doesn’t help that they don’t really come off as powerful until at least 20 “old” trait points in a single tree. That’s, what, 4 “new” trait points? Not only do I have to unlock some of these traits, I have to fight through mobs with staggered improvements.

Staggered, not continuous. Players love continuous improvements.

This update is not a continuous improvement. It is a staggered downgrade to what needed very little adjustment.

Please roll back the trait system. Out of all the updates you have done, this is by far the worst I have seen in any MMO. I can’t see any positives to this system because it is completely engulfed by all the negativity.

I vehemently disagree with the opposition to the new trait system.

Allow me to wax philosophical for a moment. We’re all here because we want to play the game. Guild Wars is fun. We all bought it, tried it, liked it, and now keep coming back for more. If I were to examine each of the enjoyable experiences I had playing this game and ranked them, I’d say my favorite was getting my first level 80 character. It felt like a huge accomplishment, and it opened up a ton of fun stuff in the game that I hadn’t been able to do until then.

But over time, the leveling got boring. I’m now sitting on several level 80s, and I have to admit that after the first, getting each one to max was a pain. Just recently it took me a little over six days to start a new elementalist and propel myself to 80. It felt like there was “no point” to playing without a level 80.

I don’t think that’s the way the game is supposed to be played. I think it’s supposed to be an experience. We’re supposed to invest a lot of time and effort into our characters, and truly come to care about them. Although I am not usually a roleplayer, I think that community has the right idea; by taking an active interest in your character as an individual with a story rather than just a tool to power through fractals and dungeons for better loot, the process becomes fun.

It’s a bit of a cheesy old adage, but the enjoyment should be focused on the process rather than the destination. And I think this was Anet’s idea when designing the new system.

Taking all that into consideration and moving on to the actual gameplay mechanics…

I love the new trait system. In fact, my biggest problem with it is that we are able to purchase the traits at all. I think questing for traits is fantastic. It forces us to put effort into making our characters be who we want them to be.

Yes, the system can be more punishing for lower level characters. But I think that’s okay. The zerk lovers community here has a habit of telling players who don’t run zerk because they’re more fragile that they need to get better at the game. Well, now lower level characters don’t get almost immediate trait buffs to help them. Therefore, they’ll get more practice at getting better.

Additionally, this game is called Guild Wars. A major “point” of the game is to party up with your buddies and run together. But outside of dungeons and occasionally fractals, I don’t see many people do this. But now, if the difficulty levels of mapping and stories and such are harder, then players might actually take a more communal approach to the game.

Tl;DR just have fun playing the game. Don’t turn cash to coin and buy your way to exotic/ascended gear and traits, ignoring the fun of truly earning them all yourself in the process. And by all means, play with other players more.

mexay.3902:

Unlocking every trait on a character is no longer just “get to 80”. You have to work for it now, which is awesome.

I have to disagree – a game shouldn’t be ‘work’, and grinding through ‘work’ to get to the fun parts isn’t what most of us bought the game for and isn’t what the game is supposed to be about:

Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto

GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun

Darth Llama.9217:

This patch has been really awesome for the most part, but the trait change is definitely an exception. This change has greatly lowered the effectiveness and the variety of lower level characters and put an even bigger gap between low levels and ‘true’ level 80’s.

My level 50 Necro went from being able to level pretty easily to being greatly handicapped and has turned the leveling process into a real struggle. I honestly hope Anet sees the error in this and changes this part of the update.

Everything else was so great and done so well, and this part was just so wrong. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with the trait system the way it was. I really hope this changes soon.

Yeah overall the patch is pretty nice. Totally digging the 2 sigils on 2h weapons…been needing that for awhile – GS and Hammer FTW!

Other than being disappointed from the start (pre-patch) for being charged to customize my characters with those dumb transmutation stones…the same system carries over…I already ranted over this on the wardrobe forum…I think it should be completely free…

For the Trait system….THANK YOU for making it on the fly change…now I can switch from my tanky/healing builds to straight zerker while roamin about in PVE/WVW.

BUT!!!!!!! I think it needs to go back to where we get trait points every level. It wasn’t difficult at all to allocate points at all…not sure why ANET thinks it is difficult…for those that do there is an amazing thing call GOOGLE or YOUTUBE. And next to that, and mentioned by most others, leveling up to 80 is going to be a pain in the butt…those +10 attributes go a long way in early levels.

BUT!!!!!! I am also thinking on the other point of view….harder….sorta….gameplay at early levels is complementing team/party play with the more difficult events. Group events will actually require a group at earlier levels it seems. I guess this is okay for most since most are in active guilds (I would assume this). If not in active guilds, I would assume that traits that require events would be more active, and finding a party shouldn’t be that hard. And in the end all the traveling around will work towards world completion.

BUT!!!!!! back to my main point, I still think it should go back to the old system, though stick with the new system where we can switch traits on the fly…when out of combat.

So yeah…thanks ANET for some parts of the April 2014 patch. I am looking forward to y’all patching/making this better by listening to your player base…QUIT RESTRICTING US TO USING BLACK LION!!! MAKE COOL EXCLUSIVE SKINS!!!!!!!! MAKE WARDROBE FREE!!!!!! GO BACK TO THE OLD TRAIT SYSTEM BUT KEEP IT FREE – - – FREE IS GOOD!!!!!! NOT LIKE WE ALL PAID $40 – $60 FOR THIS GAME ALREADY!!!!! $100ish FOR THE COLLECTORS EDITION….RYTLOCK FIGURINE FTW!!!! THX!!!

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

mexay.3902:

Unlocking every trait on a character is no longer just “get to 80”. You have to work for it now, which is awesome.

I have to disagree – a game shouldn’t be ‘work’, and grinding through ‘work’ to get to the fun parts isn’t what most of us bought the game for and isn’t what the game is supposed to be about:

Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto

GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun

Its not work if you got the gems…err dinero to spend on gems…then transfer it to gold…LULZ!!!

And by the way, don’t grind in this game…prob get kicked for a week or so for botting…even though you’re not…..

Carzor Stelatis.9435:

I have to disagree – a game shouldn’t be ‘work’, and grinding through ‘work’ to get to the fun parts isn’t what most of us bought the game for and isn’t what the game is supposed to be about:

I can agree with that. Had* to fight Karka Queen and Risen Priest of Grenth to unlock some of my ele’s new traits. I hate southsun events in general, and grenth is one of the worst temple fights due to the amount of running after death. I feel bad for any new character who has to do those events to unlock even more traits…

*Yes, I know about the book unlocks.

I don’t mind unlocking the traits too much but it would be nice if they were account bound being as its the same events for every class. For a new player just starting the game if you want to have one of each class expect to spend a lot of time fully unlocking all the traits and stuff.

Whom did you Anet employees talk with or ever decide these changes would make the game better. Especially with out the megaserver game wide. I had sent you opinions about helping this not to occur. Basically, this is the same nerf/change that killed WoW for millions of players. So, basically, another game wasted, both in time and life you will never get back to go out and get killed in Orr on 3 of my level 80s’ within the 1st 10 min. No one is there to clear statues, I have gone from 2k hits to 500-900 and get trampled by every mob which has 3 or more friends, which in such areas before this patch, were just ridiculous to begin with. Poisoned, brambles, fire, etc on top of the skills the mobs have, which mostly they can knock you around and stun you every 10 seconds, and or cripple you for a full min, you can basically forget completing those areas now.

The UI is looks a bit different, but is the same theory that Blizzard ruined WoW with. Beta trial for existing players would have been better than this. It’s a bold statement just as Blizzard did, we don’t care what our players think, and here it is, like it or not. It is not helping areas that are under populated, the 70 – 80 zones and has basically killed progression in those areas with alts. You might as well just erased those areas for everyone who doesn’t have the gold or the equipment to even survive travelling through the area, let alone try to get materials to upgrade equipment. When does gear score come out? Basically this is what has happened here only you didn’t lock out players for not having the gear to get through areas. Did you just wish to make this like Diablo 3 where you must use the gem store to buy gold to equip your characters off the Trading Post.

Some things are ok, and can be adapted, but nerfing all my characters from 30 to 50 percent in unacceptable. Solo play died today. I will not play a game where its required to be in a big guild, or other-means just to get through a zone. It was fine the way it was.

Cause and effect are 2 separate issues, and this is the issue. Your cause to think you would be making your game better, you just caused more issues for your players.

Blizzard ruined WoW? That’s news to me since I still play. You might want to mention that as you level in WoW you learn skills in addition to getting a talent point every 15 levels, whereas here you unlock all your weapon skills very quickly. They basically rolled all of the straight stat/dmg increases into your chosen specialization, which was welcome since I never found spending a talent point on +2% damage or +10 of a stat very compelling.

Also, Diablo 3 no longer has any sort of AH.

Blair.3796:

It felt like there was “no point” to playing without a level 80.

For me, this feeling has intensified, not decreased. Many of my build ideas revolve around grandmaster traits. Those traits are now inaccessible unless I go all the way to the level cap. So I can’t really enjoy the builds for new alts I make.

That aside, I’m not convinced this new trait learning system is good or not. It sounds good on paper, but I can’t really say it’s good in practice. My sole experience so far was, at best, mixed with some traits being painless to unlock, and others being painful to unlock.

Simple-more grind, nerfed players, buffed boss, Solo completly ruined, the game was not made better with this patch.
-R.I.P. GW2

Is Anet kidding with this trait “revamp?” i got onto my level 30 ranger and lost all the power from my vitality and my survival skills don’t have the lower cooldowns. why in the world did anet think “lets nerf everyone but especially lower levels!” i have zero sense of progression now. why lower the power of lower level mobs? how about you don’t kitten up traits? then i was in map chat in gendarren fields asking about the trait changes and the response i got was “WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE LEVEL 80!” “YOU NEED TO GRIND MORE!” “OH YEAH THIS CHANGE EFFECTS THE 1% OF PEOPLE WHO ARE LOW LEVEL” to the point that i literally had to turn off map chat cause i was being yelled at like i this was some how my fault and i messed up the traits.

I wouldn’t know what they have changed or whatever since the mess they created late in Lich King and before Mists of Pandora. D3 either, because what and how they treated their players at that time, I will never go back or purchase anything from Blizzard again. That’s the whole point, why spend so much time leveling and gearing toons just for the company to decide, we don’t like this, so here you go, deal with it. And, the only expansion that they got right was Burning Crusades. After that, they just handed out mounts, made it super easy, then when Atv took over, it was just way to gone. Making a night elf on that game and having to grind and run/quest in the starting areas would drain your soul, literally. But after LK they gave out buffs because no one could play their class right because you could get mounts etc at 20 instead of 40. I guess that’s what I am getting at. Only in this instance its reversed. I understand the need of experience playing your class, but to penalize new players, and old in this patch is just too much too quick. No time to adjust. Not all of us just as in wow would use a dps meter and hit a dummy for 10 hours and post a detailed difference in before and after, although I have seen people post it above. It has its good points, but the nerf and I guess non change in the higher levels for solo playing was not looked at. And D3 not having a online AH, that’s a good thing. I understand your points and agree as well. Level adjustment was a reason to make characters more balanced, now its a disadvantage, especially if your character isn’t 80. Go to Orr or Straights in all blues and you will die, a lot. I guess jack of all trades, pro in none is the hurt of this. Just spending gold to add character slots, leveling professions to 500 and then, the next day, instant 50% reduction in output damage fighting mobs that can lock you down or fear until your dead, isn’t fun. Brutes especially and Plaguebinders, jeez, I couldn’t imagine trying to level a character in those zones right now.

MastaNeenja.1537:

So i went from having 3 major traits on a lvl 40 character to 1 major trait … what?

One thing that I don’t think has been emphasised is the effect of taking low level characters into WvW. If its taking away half the health of some low level characters then no-one will be able to afford to take one into WvW until 80.

Got my character to level 10 in WvW (just using that, nothing else), was surprised to find out it was level 30. On the downside, 20 more levels without traits. On the bright side, 28.5K ele HP OP!

I really love the IDEA behind the new trait system. I’ve missed Guild Wars 1 style skill hunting and character progression.

I’m afraid I don’t like the implementation at all.
4/5 of my traits are tied to world bosses/events. Jade Quarry has finished Gates of Arah, Grenth, Lyssa, and Karka Queen isn’t due to spawn until I’m in bed.

What am I supposed to do, pray I can find another server? God forbid I try this when Megaserver is implemented for Orr. I don’t know if I’ll ever do Karka Queen because the timing is really hard for me.

The Orrian pirate ship one was great. A bit easy, but I like the idea behind it. The timed events? Not so much…

I feel the traits should be solo-able (even if it’s hard!), or at least something I can do on my own time with friends as opposed to waiting for the stars to align and for me to be on the server at the right time.

ALL my chars,all maxed have had their traits set to zero.WHY? WTF is wrong with the muppets in charge of this kitten.I now HAVE to do an event I may not want to,or spend gold unlocking traits that I’d already got.This is not the way to have fun.ANET you kittened me up.Thanks for nothing!

I started playing after the sale, and I found the game to be very enjoyable because my character grew more powerful each level due to the trait system.
Because of this, I played a lot of world vs world and edge of the mists. I reached level 47 pre-patch, and I was really enjoying these game modes because I could actually make a difference in a fight, and hold my own against actual level 80s one on one.

Now it feels like the game will be a grind, at level 47 post patch I’m nearly as useless as I was at level 15 pre-patch. If I had started playing under the new trait system, I probably would have given up after a few days. It feels like there is no reward to levelling until you hit level 30. There’s no sense of gratification.
Getting to max level feels like it will be a huge grind, just like every other mmo.

I haven´t seen it in action yet, but that warrior GM trait giving 1000 toughness after stun apparently seems a tiny bit over the top for pvp.

Dr Zoidberg.2046:

The trait UI screen is very clunky. There is a confirmation box if you want to invest multiple points in a line but not if you use the +/- arrows. Selecting a trait then having to move over to the side of the UI every time you want to replace a trait or select the adept/master/grandmaster of that tier is annoying. The dropdown box was much more efficient. I select where I want to put the points and my cursor is still right where I go to select the trait that I want.

100% this. There was really no reason to remove the right-mouse dropdown box … with it gone, traiting is noticeably more tedious.

Want to try out a condi guard in pvp with all the new traits? Well, you just can’t because your char is not even close to 80 (can’t go to orr), and for unlocking them via the merchant, you need just too many skill points.

Suggestion 1: Account-Wide Trait-Unlock:
You only have to do the challenge once OR buy the traits once to unlock them for every character ever created.

Suggestion 2: Reduce the amount of skill points necessary to unlock the newest gm traits.

Suggestion 3: Like every other trait, the GM traits should be available from the start in pvp too.

First of all: Great patch. Some things I’ll need to get used to. Others are fantastic from the beginning.

I’m not yet sure about the new traits, some I believe are great other, depending on classes, maybe not so.

What really bugs me though is – as others posted allready – that you removed the right-mouse drop down when traiting.

My trait lines are now completely messed up and I seem to be no longer able to recreate the build I actually had- this is on my Mesmer, I haven’t checked any of my 4 other 80’s yet because I am too scared.
never mind my 5 characters under 80

btw the UI is utterly confusing and you can no longer at a glance see where the traits are that you need.

I had to retrait 4 times before I realized I can’t actually make my build anymore.
Then I logged out- build still unfinished

I thought they said that “all existing characters created before this feature pack will have all previously existing major traits unlocked”, and now I find that I still have to go through this whole expensive process for all my lower level characters.

I refuse to pay that much for the trait guides – does anyone have a full list of which events give you which traits?

Darth Llama.9217:

This patch has been really awesome for the most part, but the trait change is definitely an exception. This change has greatly lowered the effectiveness and the variety of lower level characters and put an even bigger gap between low levels and ‘true’ level 80’s.

My level 50 Necro went from being able to level pretty easily to being greatly handicapped and has turned the leveling process into a real struggle. I honestly hope Anet sees the error in this and changes this part of the update.

Everything else was so great and done so well, and this part was just so wrong. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with the trait system the way it was. I really hope this changes soon.

Would make sense to rework on map events and quests EXP if its that hard now, on the other side Tyria is full of events btw and WvW gives a very good amount of exp.
U made me want to try this new lvl system update

Personality Traits http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personality

Where are they? They no longer appear anywhere on the Hero UI.

I had a charming thief yesterday, and an unpredictable mesmer. There’s no mention of the removal of these in the patch notes that I can find.

how to unlock traits should have more options – with this events is a horrible thing

i stand now for hours in cursed shore and wait for arah grenth and lyssa and nothing happend

only grenth – i went there and killed grenth AND NOTHING – after this, someone say this grenth event have to fail cause it is defending and we have to attack

just WTF

how we are supoused to know when we have to be there?

there should have been options for PVP players like do some from this new reward tracks for a gm trait or for WVWers somthing like take 10 camps for traits or get a keep or whatever….

but ONLY this event thing is horrible when you guys dont give us the time when it start

Hunting for skills as we did in GW1 was something that was asked for I think during the horizontal progression talks in one of the CDIs so I appreciate that the devs have tried to do something like that with the needing to unlock the new traits. Unfortunately I feel the activities they are making us do to unlock said traits aren’t great. In GW1, we had to find a specific boss (though there were usually several bosses that we could get the skill from so we had choice) and kill it in order to get a specific elite skill. As far as I know this was soloable. But here in GW2 they want us to kill world bosses… and pain in the kitten ones like Grenth… and this is after they removed our ability to be able to know when temple events were running.

These traits to unlock should have been locked behind personal skill challenges like skill points. Find a certain mob in the open world and kill it. I was lucky to get Grenth done on one character last night, but oh dear was it horrid with SO many people there also trying to get it. It was a very unfun start to this patch.

Well, it seems like now’s the best time to quit the game ^^
I put my hopes in Everquest Next!

Got to do Karka Queen for one of them…can’t be much more lame than that…

Wow, I’m seeing a LOT of negative feedback on the new trait system, and no comments from the developers, which concerns me.

I think, in theory, the idea of going around the world, exploring and finding events to do to earn trait points is a great idea, and I was really looking forward to it. As I’ve read through the posts here, I’m seeing a lot of the same complaints: “such and such a boss is a pain”, “no one was there”, etc. And this is a valid complaint. With the previous event timer system, it was possible to track when the bosses would spawn, and/or, trigger the events by doing the pre-events. And this was great, because it meant, for example, that Lyssa, or Grenth, or whoever, could spawn many times throughout a 24 hour period. And at least 2 or 3 times during the day, there would be a zerg-train to go kill the various bosses, much like in Queensdale.

I haven’t been doing much pve the last few days, but I’m not sure how the timer changes have affected things. I went to Karka Queen, did the pre-event, but since the queen only spawns at the specific times it’s listed, this makes it not only less interesting, but much more difficult if, as with at least one person in this thread, you can’t make it to any of the previously schedules events. While having some predictability is nice, (why I love gw2bear.com), having a set schedule of when a boss is going to appear seems artificial and makes doing any of the pre-event, apparently, completely pointless.

However, this thread is about traits. And as I’ve noticed, a lot of people are really upset about the new trait system. Again, failing to notice any feedback from the developers. As I said above, I like the “idea” in theory. I have not had any opportunity to explore this system yet, but my personal complaint is something else entirely.

I noticed that when I went to do some spvp, my character looked exactly the same as he did in the regular pve world. To some, this was a welcome change. I did not welcome this change. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. More importantly, however, was that my traits were no longer “my spvp traits”. Nor were they my pve traits. They were some other random mish mass of traits. I didn’t notice this in my first couple matches, I just couldn’t figure out why I was sucking so badly, until I looked at my trait panel and was unpleasantly surprised. Even more unpleasantness arrived when I went back to the pve world and found that my traits had all, once again, been reset. Meaning that every single time I go to pvp, I have to reset my traits to pvp traits. Then when I go back to pve I have to once again reset my traits to pve traits.

This may seem like a minor issue, but I have 6 level 80 toons, and I can’t remember what triats I’ve set up for each of them, which is why I loved the fact that spvp was a completely separate system from pve. I went to pvp, my toon was just as I had left him, (or her), when last I was in spvp. And when I went back to pve, it was as if I’d never left.

I don’t know if this is a bug, or if it was intended, but I, and I know many others, would really appreciate it if this was corrected so that one’s spvp set up was kept separate from the pve/wvw setup, and they stayed that way, without having to completely reset my traits and such every single time I go from pve to pvp and vice versa.

not happy with my ranger at all now guys, they were already troublesome to play and even have people booting you from parties for the crime for being a ranger because their not seen as the “best DPS” in the game, now with this update its even worse. ._. we have gone from being slightly useful to glorified pet owners with a fancy useless weapon. thanks for making us MORE useless in PVE if levelling up wasn’t already tiresome enough now its MORE girding and More like WoW and all the other stale MMOs out there you have taken what was grate and made it rubbish.

As the Thief is my main I will only comment on the Thief’s traits.

While the traits themselves are ok, I am very disappointed to see 3 of the 5 traits based around stealth. Haven’t we got enough stealth tricks already?! Is the Thief really just a one trick pony to you devs?

I really feel the Thief needs more options for evasion and especially support builds. We have got too much stealth options now. Please reconsider and rethink some of these traits and please stop focusing all your efforts on stealth.

We don’t want more power, we just want more options (beyond stealth).

My suggestion would be to keep Resilience of Shadows (as that is supportive) and change Assassin’s Equilibrium and Revealed Training to something that doesn’t rely on stealth.

At the end of the day, they are new traits and I thank you for adding them, but I would have been a lot happier if they were not mostly stealth oriented.

This is the part of the update I’m not enjoying. Pushing traits back to 30 is a mistake. It’s a giant step backwards for any mid-level player and demoralizing.

And imagine my dismay when my level 76 Mesmer suddenly can’t use the GM trait she’s been using for a week. Gated until 80. Another step backward.

For a player with a single main toon, this update is fine. Gives the player 5 new challenges and then boom new traits. But for someone like me with tons of alts at 80 and below, it’s a lot of work just to get the <80’s back to where they were Monday, and repetitive to unlock the new GMs on my 80’s.

This update discourages power leveling alts. I have a couple of alts that don’t have any map completion in Orr because it’s always been dead. And others with very little map completion throughout Tyria. Now to level an alt you have to either run the challenges all over the map or pay ridiculous prices for traits. I was hoping the prices would be lower so you didn’t feel obligated to run the challenges. Now it’s a must or you’ll be broke. Actually, due to the SP cost on top of the gold, a new player HAS TO run the challenges because he’ll never have the extra SP laying around to buy them. Either that or run with no utilities.

My wife and I play this from time to time to relax after a tough day. Prior to patch, she started a new mesmer and was having fun with the character. She made it to level 19 with that character before the patch. After the patch, she was frustrated and aggravated. She says she did not have as much fun and could tell a definite difference that she was missing the few trait points she had at that point. Unfortunately, now she isn’t sure how much she wants to play since most of her characters are less than level 80 (others level 50 – 65).

The only thing that bothered me about traits so far has been how the trait called Bunker Down replaces Modified Ammunition which harms DPS overall for builds on engineers using condition damage. That 2% per condition on the enemy for many of us was making quite a bit of difference on damage output.

This system is similar to the system in GW1. I would think the GW1 fans would appreciate it, I guess not.

goodbugs.5409:

My wife and I play this from time to time to relax after a tough day. Prior to patch, she started a new mesmer and was having fun with the character. She made it to level 19 with that character before the patch. After the patch, she was frustrated and aggravated. She says she did not have as much fun and could tell a definite difference that she was missing the few trait points she had at that point. Unfortunately, now she isn’t sure how much she wants to play since most of her characters are less than level 80 (others level 50 – 65).

It means that weapons, armor, and trinkets are important now – before you could run around with armor below your level and get away with it. Now it is like GW2, where until you hit max level, your armor needs to be adjusted.

Was looking through the unlocks for the new GM traits. Why is a limited-time ‘mega boss’ (Karka Queen) one of these?

All the others I can get behind (Grenth, Lyssa, etc) because they respawn regularly and its more likely over time that you’ll find people doing them. But placing this particular boss in the rotation can be a problem, for the same reasons discussed in the Global Timer thread.

I am otherwise lukewarm to this new system. Fiddling with my necromancer’s traits, I realized I may be able to pull some points back from a full x/x/30/30/x used in minion mancer. I instead added to damage and conditions (semi-hybrid), will have to see how this pans out. As for my one non-80 character, she’s designed to explore Personal Story steps I had not seen previously for the races. Sylvari and Asura are done as of now, working on Norn atm, its been a nice side diversion at least…

That reminds me – were the L11-L30 Personal Story steps also adjusted to take the lack of traits into account? Nothing in the notes about that…

Editing to add: OK, as of 4/17 evening patch, you’ve added the Defense events for Grenth and Lyssa to count toward their unlocks. Thank you, that helps with the Megaserver combination to some degree. Now if you can just move that one trait off Karka Queen (or demote her to Mid-Level boss), I’m much happier about the new GM traits.

Dusty Moon.4382:

This system is similar to the system in GW1. I would think the GW1 fans would appreciate it, I guess not.

No it’s not.

In GW1, you hunted a boss for an elite skill. You had henchmen and heroes and could solo the bosses no problems. And you could go get it whenever you wanted. The boss was always there. No waiting for other players, no fail timer to have to beat, you could do it when you wanted at your own pace.

In GW2, you have to do the massive scale world events to get a trait. Not a skill, a trait. Grenth? Karka Queen? Yeah. You have to rely on other players to not mess things up just so YOU can get a new trait. And it’s all on timers as well. So you can’t do it whenever you want, you have to deal with boss timers before you can even get a chance to get your new trait.

And over time, after players have got the trait, and no one is doing those events anymore, good luck getting your trait with no one to help.

So yeah. It’s nothing like it was in GW1.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Dusty Moon.4382:

This system is similar to the system in GW1. I would think the GW1 fans would appreciate it, I guess not.

No it’s not.

In GW1, you hunted a boss for an elite skill. You had henchmen and heroes and could solo the bosses no problems. And you could go get it whenever you wanted. The boss was always there. No waiting for other players, no fail timer to have to beat, you could do it when you wanted at your own pace.

In GW2, you have to do the massive scale world events to get a trait. Not a skill, a trait. Grenth? Karka Queen? Yeah. You have to rely on other players to not mess things up just so YOU can get a new trait. And it’s all on timers as well. So you can’t do it whenever you want, you have to deal with boss timers before you can even get a chance to get your new trait.

And over time, after players have got the trait, and no one is doing those events anymore, good luck getting your trait with no one to help.

So yeah. It’s nothing like it was in GW1.

Yes it is.

‘Similar’ is the word used by Dusty Moon. Dusty didn’t say it was ‘exactly like.’

It is most certainly similar in that you have to go out into the open world to do something to get the trait. Just as you had to do in GW1 to get an elite skill. The similarity may end there, but saying it is ‘nothing like it was in GW1’ is wrong.

Also, these traits can be purchased if you can’t get the event to happen because of the situation you described, then buy it. You don’t need luck to get it.

Is it really that hard to level without traits?
I’m one of those players that never really touched traits but I level decently by just exploring the maps and doing events.

The only thing that bother me is losing all of my points for a measly 5 points but I guess that’s the way it is with the new system shrugs

As part of this approach to making traits more approachable, we’ve pushed back the level at which the different trait tiers unlock for new characters in order to better pace the early game experience and to add more meaningful character progression from levels 30 to 80. Starting with this feature pack, new characters will unlock the adept tier at level 30, the master tier at level 60, and the grandmaster tier at level 80.

Hmm, I can understand the confusion… Tbh, I just won’t run dungeons with my not 80s because the stat difference is even larger. Oh well.

edit: I like the system, its just a year and a half too late

A moderator locked my question about Personality traits and sent me here. But I’m not talking about these traits. I’m talking about Personality
Where did Charm, Dignity and Ferocity go? In character creation, you choose if you are charming, dignified or ferocious. “Trouble may follow me, but I use my _ to overcome it.” Those stats are gone from my Hero page. Not that it really matters, cuz they never made a difference in-game anyway.

(sorry to post here but the moderator told me to)

I just started a few weeks ago ankitten ow a lvl 30 warrior. I just was feeling I figured out some things and now I feel like I just got shafted. Doubt I will play anymore.