Guild Wars 2

Have you all seen this?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait_guide

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I can’t believe what they’ve locked traits behind during the whole leveling process.

Multiple story modes, multiple events around the world, multiple world events (some that have no schedule such as the fire shaman and dredge commissar) all the temples and the best:

Complete the Obsidian Sanctum jumping puzzle.

You have got to be kitten kidding me ANet devs.

I am not a casual player or a solo player but I find that list terrible. Personal character progression should NOT be locked behind unsoloable things!

And seriously: how on earth are we supposed to know when these events are up considering the megaservers and the removal of API?? Most maps I’ve been mapping into in Orr have had all temples and Arah open. How am I supposed to know my server is making a Balthazar attempt when I’m no longer being put on maps with primarily my server?

I’m sorry that this is worded so strongly, but this is just an absolute mess and I honestly can’t believe how you thought this would be good for the majority of your players. Yes, people enjoyed skill hunting in GW1 but it could all be done solo. That’s the type of system you should have emulated and put in place: personal skill challenges that could be done whenever the player chose to do so.

I suppose maybe this is yet another push for players to use up their gold in order to try to make them buy gems and convert to gold and completely drain them of skill points.

Lothirieth.3408:

Have you all seen this?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait_guide

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I can’t believe what they’ve locked traits behind during the whole leveling process.

Multiple story modes, multiple events around the world, multiple world events (some that have no schedule such as the fire shaman and dredge commissar) all the temples and the best:

Complete the Obsidian Sanctum jumping puzzle.

You have got to be kitten kidding me ANet devs.

I am not a casual player or a solo player but I find that list terrible. Personal character progression should NOT be locked behind unsoloable things!

And seriously: how on earth are we supposed to know when these events are up considering the megaservers and the removal of API?? Most maps I’ve been mapping into in Orr have had all temples and Arah open. How am I supposed to know my server is making a Balthazar attempt when I’m no longer being put on maps with primarily my server?

I’m sorry that this is worded so strongly, but this is just an absolute mess and I honestly can’t believe how you thought this would be good for the majority of your players. Yes, people enjoyed skill hunting in GW1 but it could all be done solo. That’s the type of system you should have emulated and put in place: personal skill challenges that could be done whenever the player chose to do so.

I suppose maybe this is yet another push for players to use up their gold in order to try to make them buy gems and convert to gold and completely drain them of skill points.

to be honest, its not that bad, it probably gives actual players a real direction and purpose while playing. Might be a little heavy handed on alts though. I’ld probably give it a shot, but all my slots are full, and none of the professions feel so great that i would want to level another one, execpt one free slot i use to delete and remake. Dont feel like farming 80 gold or giving anet 10 bucks right now. Maybe when/if they release some new content/jobs.

I think some of these should have multiple options for completion though. And probably some should have had unique or themed quests according to the profession you are playing. Thats probably more work than they are willing to commit to though.

Literally everyone on here thinks the push back of traits to 30 is a bad idea. No matter what everyone thinks of the new traits, their acquisition, the challenges, the costs, the balance, the bugs….everyone hate the push back to 30. I’d really love a dev response because simply saying “we want to make progression for new players easier and simpler” is not holding water for me. Or any of us apparently. Heck, even new players are more confused now since they’re logging on and have a mere fraction of what they did before.

phys.7689:

I think some of these should have multiple options for completion though. And probably some should have had unique or themed quests according to the profession you are playing. Thats probably more work than they are willing to commit to though.

That would have been better imo.

Guardian ones need a re-vamp

come on.

The old system with the ability to change all traits around when not engaged in an event/battle is all I needed/wanted. This (like the megas) is just poorely concieved and implemented.

Seras.5702:

Literally everyone on here thinks the push back of traits to 30 is a bad idea. No matter what everyone thinks of the new traits, their acquisition, the challenges, the costs, the balance, the bugs….everyone hate the push back to 30. I’d really love a dev response because simply saying “we want to make progression for new players easier and simpler” is not holding water for me. Or any of us apparently. Heck, even new players are more confused now since they’re logging on and have a mere fraction of what they did before.

pretty simple, they want to make it feel sucky to level up, so people appreciate being max level more. This change is inspired by China release, which has longer grinds per level, and plans to make more money off things like experience scrolls, VIP bonus exps, etc.

Problem is, it really isnt a good idea for players over here. If they wanted to incentivize getting to higher levels, they should have done something like add improved animations to certain skills, etc. Built better max level game goals, etc.

Give 5%crit heals to warrior and guardian,you can make lot more fun stuff with that than the boring traits they got..

Oh and another thing, why do traits have to cost gold and skill points? And so much…
It didn’t cost quite as much before this…

And having to unlock them via events wouldn’t be so bad if the grandmaster trait events weren’t nearly impossible to do for most,
do to having to get the trait during offense and not getting them on defense, even though you killed the same mob, etc.

Waiting around for something to respawn and that might even be impossible to get on certain servers, just to get a trait, is just disgusting.

some of the events required for traits are pretty bad,

like doing arah story mode on every charachter? why would they want to highlight that when it was one of the biggest letdowns, and most embarrasing story finishing boss fights i ve seen in a game.

alls i can say is fireworks and a dragon, don’t encourage players to see this.

Sephrye.1628:

Oh and another thing, why do traits have to cost gold and skill points? And so much…
It didn’t cost quite as much before this…

And having to unlock them via events wouldn’t be so bad if the grandmaster trait events weren’t nearly impossible to do for most,
do to having to get the trait during offense and not getting them on defense, even though you killed the same mob, etc.

Waiting around for something to respawn and that might even be impossible to get on certain servers, just to get a trait, is just disgusting.

there are no servers anymore. the megaserver system is taking over all your base

phys.7689:

Sephrye.1628:

Oh and another thing, why do traits have to cost gold and skill points? And so much…
It didn’t cost quite as much before this…

And having to unlock them via events wouldn’t be so bad if the grandmaster trait events weren’t nearly impossible to do for most,
do to having to get the trait during offense and not getting them on defense, even though you killed the same mob, etc.

Waiting around for something to respawn and that might even be impossible to get on certain servers, just to get a trait, is just disgusting.

there are no servers anymore. the megaserver system is taking over all your base

Yeah, I know but it still puts you in a random server, and most of those servers are so populated (sometimes with people who can’t speak english), that it makes those events impossible

Colin did an interview with MMORPG’s David North recently. Here is a quote:

“..That’s one thing we know we’ll be doing going forward, and that is to continue to collaborate with the community about what works and what doesn’t work and to enable us to continue to pioneer in this space..”

“..Ultimately we make the decision on how we move forward, but players spend a lot of time in the world, and therefore it’s amazing to hear their feedback and be able to move on it so quickly.”

I haven’t seen one response that addresses the concerns in this thread, or the rest of the feedback. Not one. Lip service versus the reality of actual practice. Gotta love the glowy feel-good interviews for the masses to put on a rosy image.

For myself, I came back to the game a month ago to roll up a couple of new characters in preparation for the next installment of the Living Story. I found the first chapter to be shaky and lackluster (to be honest), but hey, I chalked it up to growing pains. I was excited to be back in my old stomping grounds, and really looking forward to seeing what this season would bring to the game.

Then this patch hit and they completely overhauled the Traits.

Now, I have been following the forums since before launch, and I simply do not recall reading anywhere where the community was clamoring for this degree of change. Yes, new and better Traits and Elites have always been fodder for discussion. But, waiting until almost halfway through the game to begin traiting at level 30? And not being able to access GM traits until level 80?

It is a very unneeded nerf to the leveling progression. This is not an improvement. This does not make the game better. Nothing was wrong with the old system.

I came back to the game to enjoy my two new low level characters. I have to tell you, this does not make anything about leveling a low level Mesmer and Engineer enjoyable, better, or easier, or whatever selling points were tossed at us to swallow this bitter pill. It is discouraging and annoying.

I’ll tell you what this change did do for me. This morning I ordered and installed a new game from one of your competitors. I’d much rather invest in a company with a proven history of listening and visibly acting on feedback, than ignoring the community (there is a strong history of that here) when they react to stupendously perplexing game changes like this.

Is it some kind of sick joke that Anet has put these new grandmasters behind Temple bosses now that there new mega server has kittened them up and there is no way to organise an attack on one and you have to rely on the 1 in a million chance that you go there while a random bunch of people are half way through it?

Parked my Mesmer outside of Lyssa and have been logging in constantly since the patch came out and its always uncontested.

Although I bought the game 2 years ago, I have been playing it actively for about a month and I enjoyed it but with this patch you have taken all my sense of achievement away from me. Giving me 3 traits for 46 levels of work is nothing but demotivating. That means 1 trait for every 12 levels and that means I can get 2 more before I reach l. 80.
No wonder you boast about the fact that players will feel their character gets stronger with every trait since they come so rarely. So far the progression felt smooth – you have put a stop to that. Congratulations! Great work!

Illysharia.7286:

Colin did an interview with MMORPG’s David North recently. Here is a quote:

“..That’s one thing we know we’ll be doing going forward, and that is to continue to collaborate with the community about what works and what doesn’t work and to enable us to continue to pioneer in this space..”

“..Ultimately we make the decision on how we move forward, but players spend a lot of time in the world, and therefore it’s amazing to hear their feedback and be able to move on it so quickly.”

I haven’t seen one response that addresses the concerns in this thread, or the rest of the feedback. Not one. Lip service versus the reality of actual practice. Gotta love the glowy feel-good interviews for the masses to put on a rosy image.

For myself, I came back to the game a month ago to roll up a couple of new characters in preparation for the next installment of the Living Story. I found the first chapter to be shaky and lackluster (to be honest), but hey, I chalked it up to growing pains. I was excited to be back in my old stomping grounds, and really looking forward to seeing what this season would bring to the game.

Then this patch hit and they completely overhauled the Traits.

Now, I have been following the forums since before launch, and I simply do not recall reading anywhere where the community was clamoring for this degree of change. Yes, new and better Traits and Elites have always been fodder for discussion. But, waiting until almost halfway through the game to begin traiting at level 30? And not being able to access GM traits until level 80?

It is a very unneeded nerf to the leveling progression. This is not an improvement. This does not make the game better. Nothing was wrong with the old system.

I came back to the game to enjoy my two new low level characters. I have to tell you, this does not make anything about leveling a low level Mesmer and Engineer enjoyable, better, or easier, or whatever selling points were tossed at us to swallow this bitter pill. It is discouraging and annoying.

I’ll tell you what this change did do for me. This morning I ordered and installed a new game from one of your competitors. I’d much rather invest in a company with a proven history of listening and visibly acting on feedback, than ignoring the community (there is a strong history of that here) when they react to stupendously perplexing game changes like this.

Well said!.
I know if they don’t change this major fail, I won’t be spending anymore $$ on this game or any game from this company.

Colin says a lot of things and you must learn to take them all with a grain of salt.

I don’t know, but I think the trait changes were made to slow down characters in the beginning, and to slow down gold making to make the gem store more profitable. The game is about to open and China and I think they would rather have people BUY expansion slots rather than have them zip around earning in game gold for gems. Faster the character, the faster they earn gold – its that simple. The new trait system throttled that back 33% for a lot of classes in the first 60 levels. I’ve a hunch game development will always be guided by the gem store.

Wow you have to unlock all the triats now? Looking t the ways to do it and so long any ideas of making a new alt.

Tough luck new players you are screwed and will never have a full powered character unless.

Flytrap.8075:

Colin says a lot of things and you must learn to take them all with a grain of salt.

To be clear, I hate the trait change and will probably play a lot less. Thats probably good for me. I got the game at a reduced price during the Christmas sale and got a few months of play before THIS. I can’t complain too much – it was $30 well spent.

Seras.5702:

Literally everyone on here thinks the push back of traits to 30 is a bad idea. No matter what everyone thinks of the new traits, their acquisition, the challenges, the costs, the balance, the bugs….everyone hate the push back to 30. I’d really love a dev response because simply saying “we want to make progression for new players easier and simpler” is not holding water for me. Or any of us apparently. Heck, even new players are more confused now since they’re logging on and have a mere fraction of what they did before.

I don’t hate the Pushback, in fact I think it’s an awesome idea Myself. I just wish they had launched it Like this from the get go. Trust me if they had , No one would be caring because it would Just be " the way the game is." Not." a nerf!!!"

This is my first post ever on the gw2 forums, and I wouldn’t write unless someone really kittened up something good.
PLEASE GIVE GUARDIANS PROPER VIGOR AGAIN

Sephrye.1628:

And having to unlock them via events wouldn’t be so bad if the grandmaster trait events weren’t nearly impossible to do for most,

…

Waiting around for something to respawn and that might even be impossible to get on certain servers, just to get a trait, is just disgusting.

I managed to get the Karka Queen on two alts in two days. That doesn’t sound impossible to me at all, since I did it 2 out of 2 times. Once with a mesmer, and once with a thief.

So maybe if instead of assuming " it’s impossible." you re-evaluate your gameplay you may have better luck.

Mistdemon.9806:

ArenaNet: Please rollback this change!

Totally agree with Mistdemon (and other comments along the same lines).

Why is it that when it comes to anything ‘software’, developers are constantly ‘fixin’ what ain’t broken’.

Why is that? Why can’t they ever seem to leave anything good alone?

Am I missing something here?

People are complaining because Anet has added a reason to get people together doing events AND given them a way to buy the traits (with gold and skill points) if they don’t want to do the events?

While I may be disappointed with most of the Thief traits and I do not agree with the rate at which you unlock traits (I feel you should have unlocked all your trait points before reaching level 80), I do think this new method of acquiring traits is a good one and I hope they add more such acquisition.

Nerelith.7360:

I managed to get the Karka Queen on two alts in two days. That doesn’t sound impossible to me at all, since I did it 2 out of 2 times. Once with a mesmer, and once with a thief.

So maybe if instead of assuming " it’s impossible." you re-evaluate your gameplay you may have better luck.

One quite large fact you’re missing: the karka queen is a scheduled world boss. Temple events and Arah gates are not.

So I’m afraid your post isn’t at all helpful.

Rin.1046:

Am I missing something here?

People are complaining because Anet has added a reason to get people together doing events AND given them a way to buy the traits (with gold and skill points) if they don’t want to do the events?

While I may be disappointed with most of the Thief traits and I do not agree with the rate at which you unlock traits (I feel you should have unlocked all your trait points before reaching level 80), I do think this new method of acquiring traits is a good one and I hope they add more such acquisition.

the idea is really good, the execution not so much.
they should have had options
one is story mode arah, i looked forward to never ever having to do that one again. The ending is pretty depressing.

not to mention doing story mode arah means doing every other story, many of which are repeats, that were the worst parts of the story.

good ideas, poorly implemented welcome to the new gw2 beta test. except their roll out speeds have gone from once a week for fixes and adjustments to once every 3 months.

Lets break that down a bit – you think its a good idea to have traits unlockable by doing events that once done are unavailable until someone fails the event on purpose. With servers now merged so the area has 24/7 coverage and uptime. Welcome to trollville – enjoy your stay.

On my 80s the new system seems fine. A reason to do some open world stuff sounds fun. On my alts it is punishing and completely broken. There is no reason to back load trait acquisition. It should be spread more evenly across the levels.

The best example of the problem is on my level40 engineer. Before the patch I had a master trait and 2 adept traits. now I have one adept trait? That is a huge nerf and does nothing to make the game better.

Worse still on engineer the specific traits I lost are Huge gameplay changers. See Juggernaut and Speedy Kits.

Lothirieth.3408:

Nerelith.7360:

I managed to get the Karka Queen on two alts in two days. That doesn’t sound impossible to me at all, since I did it 2 out of 2 times. Once with a mesmer, and once with a thief.

So maybe if instead of assuming " it’s impossible." you re-evaluate your gameplay you may have better luck.

One quite large fact you’re missing: the karka queen is a scheduled world boss. Temple events and Arah gates are not.

So I’m afraid your post isn’t at all helpful.

Not to mention that you don’t get the trait for the defensive event, only offensive event, which no one does apparently anymore with the new megaserver.
(since you know, you have to let the monsters completely retake those places, before doing the event,
kinda hard when everyone’s defending, do to high population, and some not speaking english)

So yes.
Impossible for most.

Treebeard The Swift.9620:

Lets break that down a bit – you think its a good idea to have traits unlockable by doing events that once done are unavailable until someone fails the event on purpose. With servers now merged so the area has 24/7 coverage and uptime. Welcome to trollville – enjoy your stay.

as i said, the execution is not good.
the idea is play the game and do things to unlock traits
the execution is do bad things that we havent actually tested or worked out the kinks of, or things that tend to suck.

like placing everyone into events that scale extremely poorly at high numbers of players
or events that require fail conditions, at the same time you roll out a megaserver that decreases the chances of fail case ever occuring, and make it fairly impossible to track without sitting around in zone waiting.

Lothirieth.3408:

Nerelith.7360:

I managed to get the Karka Queen on two alts in two days. That doesn’t sound impossible to me at all, since I did it 2 out of 2 times. Once with a mesmer, and once with a thief.

So maybe if instead of assuming " it’s impossible." you re-evaluate your gameplay you may have better luck.

One quite large fact you’re missing: the karka queen is a scheduled world boss. Temple events and Arah gates are not.

So I’m afraid your post isn’t at all helpful.

So you wait around for a few hours, big flippin whoop, I am sure there is enough to keep you occupied….in Orr. Sorry, but I don’t think it is useless at all, you said they were " almost impossible." I am saying they aren’t. besides there are many options for unlocking traits. if you cannot do the events, just break open the piggy bank, and use your gold and skill points.

Next time please let us gain traits from activities like the Queen’s Gauntlet or defeating bosses that can be soloed in the open world like these.
Nothing epic in obtaining them doing some random zergfest.

Nerelith.7360:

Seras.5702:

Literally everyone on here thinks the push back of traits to 30 is a bad idea. No matter what everyone thinks of the new traits, their acquisition, the challenges, the costs, the balance, the bugs….everyone hate the push back to 30. I’d really love a dev response because simply saying “we want to make progression for new players easier and simpler” is not holding water for me. Or any of us apparently. Heck, even new players are more confused now since they’re logging on and have a mere fraction of what they did before.

I don’t hate the Pushback, in fact I think it’s an awesome idea Myself. I just wish they had launched it Like this from the get go. Trust me if they had , No one would be caring because it would Just be " the way the game is." Not." a nerf!!!"

Why, though? What is it that you think that the pushback accomplishes?

Nerelith.7360:

Lothirieth.3408:

Nerelith.7360:

I managed to get the Karka Queen on two alts in two days. That doesn’t sound impossible to me at all, since I did it 2 out of 2 times. Once with a mesmer, and once with a thief.

So maybe if instead of assuming " it’s impossible." you re-evaluate your gameplay you may have better luck.

One quite large fact you’re missing: the karka queen is a scheduled world boss. Temple events and Arah gates are not.

So I’m afraid your post isn’t at all helpful.

So you wait around for a few hours, big flippin whoop, I am sure there is enough to keep you occupied….in Orr. Sorry, but I don’t think it is useless at all, you said they were " almost impossible." I am saying they aren’t. besides there are many options for unlocking traits. if you cannot do the events, just break open the piggy bank, and use your gold and skill points.

It’s not about ‘just doing the events’, you have to Fail them to do the correct ones, in a chain.
If you’re on a high population server, like with the megaserver, that becomes impossible.
I don’t know how to say it simpler.

It should be doable in pve without spending gold, otherwise there’s no point to their new system.

So a group of us were sat around outside Lyssa’s Temple waiting for the defense event to come up so we can ignore it so it will fail and we can try the event to get the trait we one (great design Anet) while laughing about how stupid this is.

Defense event starts and a handful of people decide to troll and do the defense event so now we can’t try to get the trait for another 2 hours. Of course we can’t report them for trolling or anything because they are just playing by the rules of the game while we were just sat around waiting to jump through the stupid hoops Anet put infront of us so we can be competitive in PvP and WvW.

In short, new trait system should be taught in classes as an example of how not to design a game.

On Trait Aquisition:

I like the foundation of having a progression method for Traits, rather than simply spending 2g and having them all unlocked.

However, looking at the list, I feel more thought should have gone into where you get the Traits.

For example, Champion Rhendak the Crazed is an Elementalist. Why would he have traits for the other professions?

I can understand why they did it though (to increase traffic and incentivise that particular piece of content, instead of excluding 6 – 7 of the 8 professions).

On Trait UI:

The confirmation box when you click on a Major or Minor trait is pointless, given how it could easily be corrected.

I like how they’re now listed with the names though. IMO, it’s much more friendlier when trying to find a specific Trait.

On Trait Points Every 6 Levels, Starting at 30:

Although it doesn’t bother me personally, I can see where people are coming from, especially those in the middle of levelling.

I honestly don’t see what’s so exciting about getting +10 to a stat every level but will agree that a 30 level gap is going too far. Like I said either cut level cap to 40 and refund skill points for each level people had above that or let people choose trait lines from level one and “bake in” the relevant stats from the start.

I really hope Anet doesn’t ever assume the opinions on the forum represent the general opinion. I’m sure there is a huge selection bias.

Anyway, if this is the place for feedback on the trait system, I wanted to say I absolutely love it so far. The panel UI is better than the little pop-up menus for trait selection, and the coloring of the traits to show which tier they belong to is a nice touch. As I think most people on the forums agree, the ability to freely switch traits anywhere in the world is a game-changer in the most positive sense.

The surprise winner for me was the reduction in total points and removal of the “in-between” points. I usually don’t see myself as the sort of player who would benefit from simplification so at first I thought this change was directed at others, not me. But I am pleasantly surprised to say that this is a huge improvement and I can really feel the difference. I find that I can just much more easily see and select the traits without all the interference of micromanaging so many points. It’s made the whole experience more intuitive and more enjoyable.

So, thank you Anet for a job well done on the new trait system!

sorry phys – was talking to rin but i type slow ^^

TheDaiBish.9735:

I like how they’re now listed with the names though. IMO, it’s much more friendlier when trying to find a specific Trait.

This, too, is great. One of my (very minor) gripes about the game since launch has been that the Roman numeral traits are so “nameless” seeming. Making the names more visible is a big step toward breathing life into the traits.

What I really want to see is a graphic icon for each one though…

Traits, loving it, the UI, the unlock mechanic, everything…I have just one question:

How soon can we see this with skills?
//Portable Corpse

I would like to add my two cents about the new trait system….but I can’t or I would be banned. Anet, please explain why you do stuff like this to systems that DO NOT need fixed.

shogei.8015:

Overall I think the update was fantastic. The ability to add and remove trait points on the fly will help tremendously.

That said, I don’t care for the changes to the trait UI. I liked the little drop-down arrow on each of the traits. It made it much quicker and easier to find what I wanted. I think having the locked skills appear in the list to the left and the unlocked appearing in the drop-down would work much better.

Totally agree. The old UI was much better and more intuitive.

Levetty.1279:

So a group of us were sat around outside Lyssa’s Temple waiting for the defense event to come up so we can ignore it so it will fail and we can try the event to get the trait we one (great design Anet) while laughing about how stupid this is.,..

In short, new trait system should be taught in classes as an example of how not to design a game.

So… Temple event doesn’t spawn on demand, therefore bad Trait design?

Sounds like you’ve got an event/Megaserver issue at best, not a trait issue.
//Portable Corpse

The trait system change imo is one of my least favorite things from this update since it nerfs low level characters too much and introduces too much grind. I’ll touch upon the traits themselves and the UI. The access to traits should be restored to the way they previously worked. Fix it like this

At lvl 15 players gain access to traits and 1 point to spend. Every 5 levels there after they gain 1 additional point to spend. At lvl 40 they can start spending in master traits and at lvl 60 they can start spending at grandmaster traits.

Change the trait master as such too:
Players at lvl 20 can spend 10 silver to unlock all Adept level traits. At lvl 40 they can unlock master traits for 1 gold, and at lvl 60 grandmaster traits for 3 gold. GM13 traits can stay as they are.

New traits:
Most of them are garbage for the work involved to get them. Each new trait should be reworked to be useful in a build if it is not already. The most useless traits are cooldown gated traits. I can go through a list of traits later tonight. I’ll tell you I wasn’t thrilled after reading through the list of them.

• No cooldown gated traits (even 10 seconds) on grandmaster level. Cooldown gated traits are unreliable especially on classes with heavy AOE or cleaving. This is ok for low level traits but not 20 skill point grandmaster traits. If the trait itself needs some nerfing in power then give it that. Cooldowns ruin traits.

Trait UI: Somehow this was made worse than what was there before. Pro tip: when you improve a UI you should not end up increasing the number of clicks it takes to select a trait or force the player to move their mouse to the other side of the window to select a trait. The previous trait UI had this done right with the way it displayed the traits as buttons above the slot you picked. Now I have 4 clicks to choose a grandmaster trait and I have to bounce across the screen:

• first click to select the grandmaster slot.
• second click to confirm that yes I want to spend up that far (even after you added the ability to subtract traits… you don’t need this confirmation anymore).
• Third click to pick the slot AGAIN
• 4th click to choose the trait out of the list on the left. I might have to scroll the list too.

The 4×3 pad of traits that I used before was miles ahead of this design. If you get rid of the confirmation at least now that its redundant it would be an improvement.

Overall grade: D

TL;DR My opinion grades for trait change
New traits: C- : too much lackluster and too much pet class warrior Phalanx Strength trait. Really all the warrior traits are too awesome compared to the others. No ranger help either and they need it.
Nerfed my uplevels: F : Never nerf the uplevels. These players are still trying to find out if they want to play GW2 and guess what… you just sent them all to ESO by nerfing them.
Trait UI: C: A good ui flows in one direction. This UI doesn’t flow it bounces.
Trait grinding: D : the previous version was better. Don’t introduce grind where it is unnecessary.

TheHoboJoe.2873:

I really don’t like this change. This takes away alot of the fun every time you level up. It’s cool to reach a new level and see “ooh, a new point to spend” making getting to the next level exciting. Now all that matters is every six levels. I’d rather have some modification to the skill point system, the trait system was fine. Not to mention it makes it feel like I have no control over how my character turns out early level, which is really important for people who just started playing.

Yes, that nicely hits two of the things I dislike about the compacted costs and the shuffle up to 30 as well. a) Gaining a level used to be an event; now it’s simply bookkeeping. b) And for the first half of the game or more, my character’s going to be essentially identical with every other one of the same profession using the same weapons.

To which I’d add: c) being able to start stacking a little power, or toughness, or whatever from level 11 made a big difference to the playability of just about every character I’ve had. Right now my only sub-80 (I have 13 level 80s, which tells you a lot about what parts of the game I play most) is a level 29 Ele. She hits hard, but truth to tell she’s a glass cannon when it comes to, say, skill-point fights. Prior to the patch, she had 100 point of toughness to offset that. Now? Just as well there’s no longer a cost for repairs – because she’s been talking to the repair guys one heck of a lot for the last couple of days. And, no, she’s undoubtedly not an “optimum” PvE levelling build. So what? She shouldn’t (and, previously, didn’t) need to be; she’s just a spec I was experimenting with, and having fun with – and wanted to carry on that way. Apparently, that doesn’t count.

Oh, and…: d) I’d point out that, far from giving us the freedom to explore new specs at will, the need to go farm traits is likely to mean that (for new characters, at least) people have to decide on specs early, work out what they need to do to get them, and stick to plan if they’re to get the traits they want when they want them. Change your mind about which Major trait you want to add next? Tough – you can’t until (say) you spend another totally pointless evening getting 100% completion on that zone you’ve never even been into. And that will be the case even at level 80 – can’t respec unless you go “earn” the traits you want**. Frankly, I can see a lot of people not bothering – and, far from a flexible, player-friendly system encouraging diversity, it sounds like a recipe for even more cookie-cutter level 80s to me.

**I’m ignoring the ability to pay for such things as a rather crass and blatant mechanism for tempting more people into spending real money – which I have little doubt, given the China launch and the presumable wave of new players, is partly behind these changes.

Edit

ANet, you have GOT to be joking!

Just checked out what my Ele needs to do to get the traits I was planning for her. Apparently, to get “Windborne Dagger” (Arcana trait VI), she needs to “Earn 100% completion in Frostgorge Sound”. So let’s be clear about what that means – to get an “Adept” trait, that she could in theory unlock at level 36 (and could previously have used at level 20!) – she has to fully complete a level 70-80 zone?!?. Either this is coldly calculated to make sure people buy the traits, or it’s downright malicious, or someone really hasn’t done their job and thought this through.

Am I the only one wondering why they used traits to get people out in the world rather skills, preferably new ones. Why go and fix something that wasn’t broken. If they would have worked on creating new skills and added them to world events and then removed the cost respect traits I am pretty sure everyone would be kittening ecstatic. Leave the old manuals for level 20, 40, and 60 unlocks and just add any new traits to the list. They could have added an npc near each event where players could buy the new skills just like in GW1 to replace the gold sink they tried with traits. It just seems like the more obvious way to do things but then again it makes the game more like gw1 and they sure the hell can’t have any of that.

I’m among those who likes the new trait unlock system. I enjoy leveling and I like the idea of having to work for my traits. Alts and those who don’t want to work for on trait acquisition have the purchase option. Deferred gratification is more satisfying for me.

However, I agree some of the ways you unlock them seem unfortunate. For example, I’ll forgo a trait rather than set foot in Arah again. Did it once, on my first toon, and I will never go there again. Not even if you fill it with gold and scantily dressed hunks. Tying a trait to an event failure seems odd, as well.

By contrast, the trait point acquisition curve is just awful, IMO. No points until 30 and then one point every six levels feels terrible.

It isn’t so much a question of whether it makes a significant difference in game play, but that it is a huge hit to the perception of increasing character power. I enjoy leveling because I enjoy watching my character grow and expand her skill set. Now, a new level is a huge yawn. Instead of a fun journey to level cap, now it feels like a slog, with new shinies few and far between. You shouldn’t go more than 2-3 levels with nothing to show for it, IMO.

The other concern I have about the new point acquisition curve is that I have leveled a couple professions that didn’t come into their own until 40-60 because it wasn’t until then that you had enough points to reach some gameplay changing traits, like dodge-on-clone for my mesmer.

Now, that pivot point is pushed out even further, perhaps all the way to 80 in some cases. That is not a good way to encourage players to stick with a profession or the game.