Guild Wars 2

I have 0 motivation to start a new character even though i had been thinking I wanted one, because I like to enjoy the slow buildup to the max level and with this system in place I can’t really play the class until I pay for everything. I have so many tomes of knowledge I can instantly get the character to 80, gear it, etc. with gold. But where is the fun in that? Better than my character being only half functional, but still no enjoyment in what I bought this game for and used to enjoy the most.

Getting a chest and an on screen pop up every few levels isnt going to change that.

eyestrain.3056:

I have 0 motivation to start a new character even though i had been thinking I wanted one, because I like to enjoy the slow buildup to the max level and with this system in place I can’t really play the class until I pay for everything. I have so many tomes of knowledge I can instantly get the character to 80, gear it, etc. with gold. But where is the fun in that? Better than my character being only half functional, but still no enjoyment in what I bought this game for and used to enjoy the most.

Getting a chest and an on screen pop up every few levels isnt going to change that.

Yeah, I was baffled when I first saw that GW2 had those instant level to 20 scrolls…it just has never been a good idea for games that have leveled zones. DAoC discovered that over a decade ago when it allowed people to /level their alts to level 20.

Like you, I enjoyed the previous leveling process of progression, it was gradual but rewarding and still allowed the player to start experimenting. This has largely been taken away by the new trait system and the hurdles tied to trait acquisition are woefully out of sync with my idea of fun.

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Do people honestly believe tweeking the new trait system would be better then reverting to the old one? You know, the one that was actually enjoyable! Someday someone will give me the true reason this was changed.

No, I do not believe my suggestions are actually better than just reverting.

However I feel we have to meet the Dev team half-way since too much time and effort was put into this change for them to just throw the whole thing out. I’m not a tech person, but I’ve been led to believe that it’s not just as simple as “flip a switch and go backwards”.

Plus the old system wasn’t accomplishing what the designers wanted – using situationally dependent builds and tying in a feeling of progression that the players has requested.

For these reasons I’m almost 100% certain they won’t do a rollback nk matter how much we beg.

felessan.9587:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Do people honestly believe tweeking the new trait system would be better then reverting to the old one? You know, the one that was actually enjoyable! Someday someone will give me the true reason this was changed.

No, I do not believe my suggestions are actually better than just reverting.

However I feel we have to meet the Dev team half-way since too much time and effort was put into this change for them to just throw the whole thing out. I’m not a tech person, but I’ve been led to believe that it’s not just as simple as “flip a switch and go backwards”.

Plus the old system wasn’t accomplishing what the designers wanted – using situationally dependent builds and tying in a feeling of progression that the players has requested.

For these reasons I’m almost 100% certain they won’t do a rollback nk matter how much we beg.

All the effort was put into creating a new game for china and giving it the same name as the US/EU game. Now they are just slowly bringing us to the same state. There is nothing for them to code its all done already. You are correct, they will not do a roll back but they won’t meet halfway either. They are going to make this game exactly like China’s version. Its just like what SOE did with the combat upgrade. Funny thing will be when they realize its not working like SOE did and then they go and do an NGE, rather than go back to what made the game great at launch.

I see these servers lasting a lot longer than SWG’s though. As they have China to subsidize them and the megaserver to keep the zones populated.

oh yeah and to stay on topic, new trait system is bad and the guy who came up with it should get canned. Or at least hazed, lots of wet willies, tittie twisters, and wedgies

I am extremely disappointed by this change. It makes adjusting to the level cap even more difficult. It adds another, unnecessary layer to grind out before you can start running dungeons with any group.

The trait capture is fine. There are people who want that and now they have it.

Whats is completely ridiculous is the price of traits for those who NEVER wanted this change to happen.

So while they covered one grop they completely screwed the other group.

Reduce price for traits at trainers considerably (75% or more) AND remove skill points costs.

Its especially BAD for NEW players. Its extermely amusing hearing talk about better “new game experience” when thers system like this in place.

Anyone following the info regarding this latest patch might want to make note of how severely this game is being watered down since i think it directly correlates to how much this trait system will not be altered.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Anyone following the info regarding this latest patch might want to make note of how severely this game is being watered down since i think it directly correlates to how much this trait system will not be altered.

Yeah, I would say this is an accurate statement. They are making skill slot unlocks closer to the trait unlock system, in addition to level locking a variety of mechanics and features. Basically, they are porting and merging things from the Chinese client and calling it a feature pack. This is the future of GW2, plain and simple.

bump blah yadda /15

Some of the unlocks got changed in this patch. Small steps! Fewer personal story unlocks.

Only downside is Source of Orr is still a Grandmaster unlock, and now it’s a REAL slog-fest to get there with no other rewards before it.

EVERYTHING is now going to be a slog fest. i was willing to concede certain things about the trait changes because it made me refocus more on skills and learning those better. Now? Even skills are gated horribly and the changes to the 1-15 areas are laughably sad.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

EVERYTHING is now going to be a slog fest. i was willing to concede certain things about the trait changes because it made me refocus more on skills and learning those better. Now? Even skills are gated horribly and the changes to the 1-15 areas are laughably sad.

Agreed. The new level gating isn’t going to help much at all.

Yesterday, I deleted all my alts, leaving only my level 80 Necromancer on my account. None of my alts (had one for every profession) was over level 45, the lowest was 21.

I was hoping to start fresh with one new character in the game, I must admit the reports of further idiotification of the game system may have ruined my plans.

I was hoping leveling from 1 to 80 would be more rewarding (aka fun) now than it was post-April.

I will still give it a try, but ANet appears to be tone deaf judging on the trend they are pursuing. Treating players like numbers and judging them on “surveys” …their data pool is poisoned.

Well my norn ranger has been level 80 for a while now and I have 4 traits unlocked. I’m mapping Lornar’s Pass now so hey, I’ll have 5 soon (4 adept and one master -wooot!!)! I wonder how many more months of WORK I will have to do to get an actual build?

And they completely ignored most of the trait requirements we complained about.

Overgrown grub, befriending hylek and ogres in Eternal Battlegrounds, and several time gated temple bosses are still required for trait obtaining.

As is 100% mapping of Lornar’s pAss.

[Guild Wars 2] 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

This is straight from the manifesto.

As you rework the trait system, please keep this in mind. We don’t want to spend hours preparing to have fun. We want to be able to experiment and try new things with our builds. The current system doesn’t allow for this freedom without a major time or currency sink.

Please, by all means, teach the new players, but ease up a bit. Give them a little more at a time (such as unlocking all the skills in a tier of a trait line at once), and really ease up on the vets who know what they’re doing (make the unlocks account-bound).

Let us spend more time having fun, and less time preparing to have fun.

Cross.6437:

[Guild Wars 2] 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

This is straight from the manifesto.

As you rework the trait system, please keep this in mind. We don’t want to spend hours preparing to have fun. We want to be able to experiment and try new things with our builds. The current system doesn’t allow for this freedom without a major time or currency sink.

Please, by all means, teach the new players, but ease up a bit. Give them a little more at a time (such as unlocking all the skills in a tier of a trait line at once), and really ease up on the vets who know what they’re doing (make the unlocks account-bound).

Let us spend more time having fun, and less time preparing to have fun.

Please!!

People that you listened them in this topic (!) are very grateful to you.

Cross.6437:

[Guild Wars 2] 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

This is straight from the manifesto.

As you rework the trait system, please keep this in mind. We don’t want to spend hours preparing to have fun. We want to be able to experiment and try new things with our builds. The current system doesn’t allow for this freedom without a major time or currency sink.

Please, by all means, teach the new players, but ease up a bit. Give them a little more at a time (such as unlocking all the skills in a tier of a trait line at once), and really ease up on the vets who know what they’re doing (make the unlocks account-bound).

Let us spend more time having fun, and less time preparing to have fun.

They really need to take it a step further in a different direction with elastic traits in gear and a new system of obtaining sigils and runes with their ever inflating prices in the AH new players don’t stand a chance! If they eliminated the gold cost on traits, made gear elastic, made sigils and runes obtainable with karma, then we’d really see a system that didn’t punish experimentation in builds.

It wouldn’t be a bad system if I didn’t have to wait till level 30 to unlock the first trait point. Leveling already feels like a chore as it is. It’d be nice if it was brought down to level 15 and stopped at level 65 rather than wait till 30 and end at 80.

I hope that with all of the complaints that have flooded in about levelling since the feature patch, that the biggest and worst change to new characters won’t be forgotten…

Mister zeeRo.8561:

is tomorrow’s update going to change anything about this ?

Only made things much much worse.

CrashTestAuto.9108:

I hope that with all of the complaints that have flooded in about levelling since the feature patch, that the biggest and worst change to new characters won’t be forgotten…

With the handful of trait changes in this last patch I can’t imagine this being more than a time game for the devs. Give a few things here and there and hope enough time goes by that no one cares to push or additional changes.

After my first experiences with the new system began a couple weeks ago, I decided to hold off commenting on the system until this latest feature patch, in hopes that there would be some improvements. And, to be fair, there were! Some of the more egregious traits were moved to marginally more plausible unlocks. Bravo!

Unfortunately, many, many more bad trait unlocks remain. Others have covered the issue in-depth, but there are still a lot of traits that require frustratingly specific or difficult tasks to unlock. For Grandmaster traits, that’s fine. Similar to elite skills in GW1, you have to go out of your way for a specific, powerful ability. Really, that’s not so bad, and in fact I quite like it. But for adept traits, the most basic things? It’s completely unreasonable. Give us easy unlocks for easy skills. Let us complete objectives our own way by giving us multiple paths to unlock a particular trait.

As it is, the system is just frustrating. It has so much potential. Just try to bring it out.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

With the handful of trait changes in this last patch I can’t imagine this being more than a time game for the devs. Give a few things here and there and hope enough time goes by that no one cares to push or additional changes.

I hope that isn’t the case… this isn’t something that will go away. People will be reminded about how awful this is every single time they make a new character. Given how many strikingly easy fixes are available (account unlocks/ full revert/ unlock adept and master etc.) it also won’t ever seem like something too difficult, or too late, to fix.

This isn’t something people will learn to live with. Every new alt will be duller than the last, as we’ve already unlocked all of the traits before. It’s just an invitation for people to move on to other games.

I got back to GW2 in April 2014, after a year or so break. At that point, I had 4 80s, all with full PVE world discovery. So yeah, I dare say I’ve been there, done that, several times over. When I found out what they’d done to the trait system, I instantly hated it with a passion.

So if I wanted to experiment with what traits worked for me and what traits didn’t, I would have to redo specific events, some of which I hate with a passion, again and again? Or I would have to pay quite a lot to get them from a vendor? That’s just horrible game design. Not everyone is in-game rich, especially your casual gamer who, incidentally, would also be most likely to miss out on the required kills and events, due to time constraints and people yelling at them to fail the event so they can get more loot…

Seriously, restore the old system, it was way more fun playing that way.

Galphar.3901:

Actually, I’d say 80% of the vets now just don’t roll anymore alts and either are focusing on their characters from before April and this screw-up or have just left the game altogether. I know I have 2 post April update alts that got to 36 and just stopped because of this. I may try to finish them IF they fix this debacle otherwise they’ll just be extra storage for my main who only logs in for the new LS(which is a few hrs every 2-4 weeks).

That’s pretty much what I’m doing. I have a few Pre-April characters that I’ll still play, but the Guardian and Warrior I made to test out the feature pack I have let fall by the wayside. Got the guardian to L49 and did not earn a single trait organically. Bought three Adept traits, then realized that I had just spent 150% of what I would have previously spent to get ALL of the Master traits, and I had just flushed some skill points away. And then I logged out of him and have devoted no playtime to either character since. I won’t actually play with them because getting to 80 and doing the tedious work to unlock basic game features isn’t fun. It’s be one thing if these were bonus traits you could work for, but all this time and money for basic traits?

The April patch ensured that I will never make another alt. The September patch has convinced me that putting money into this game is a bad idea. I won’t by purchasing any more gems with the current state of the game.

It’s a sad thing to say but I’ve had more fun on the forums here in the last few weeks than I would have had in-game.

Galphar.3901:

It’s a sad thing to say but I’ve had more fun on the forums here in the last few weeks than I would have had in-game.

I was just thinking the same thing.

Got home from work and logged onto forum instead of game. An hour later and I’m still here.

Maybe they can start a forum gem store and sell different colored fonts and such.

Bellizare.5816:

Galphar.3901:

It’s a sad thing to say but I’ve had more fun on the forums here in the last few weeks than I would have had in-game.

I was just thinking the same thing.

Got home from work and logged onto forum instead of game. An hour later and I’m still here.

Maybe they can start a forum gem store and sell different colored fonts and such.

Same here! Lulz

Haha, that sounds like something we absolutely need!

Wow. This new release did one thing positive (for Anet). It buried this thread down to page #3. No one is complaining about Traits now! Nosiree!

felessan.9587:

Some of the unlocks got changed in this patch. Small steps! Fewer personal story unlocks.

Only downside is Source of Orr is still a Grandmaster unlock, and now it’s a REAL slog-fest to get there with no other rewards before it.

These changes are actually worse. Now you’ll have to do three extra things for traits (two events + opening one chest) and still do the personal story to get the other traits.

Meanwhile, the Branded Devourer Queen event chain, which I haven’t been able to do because it always seems to be stuck in a bugged pre-event, is still required for a trait.

level gating. trait grind.

discouraging old players to make alts.

Players: “And anyway, that’s why we feel the current trait system does not work and negatively impacts the game”

Anet: “So what you’re saying is that the early to midgame leveling experience is dull. . .”

Players: “Well yes, that’s one—”

Anet: “—And you want us to redistribute some things to fill in that content. . . 8D”

Players: “Anet, no. Stop”

Anet: “It’s too late”

Players: “No!”

Anet: “It’s already happening”

Fixing what isn’t broken by dramatically overcompensating and/or missing the mark of what is actually needed or wanted? Yeah this is pretty classic anet tbh.

See if you can guess who represents the players and who represents ANet…

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

A suggestion that should be both easy and feasible for a temp fix – maybe permanent fix:

What about putting a Karma vendor in LA, that sells Scrolls of Knowledge for 150 or so Karma each? It would provide a Karma sink, it would provide easy access to Skill Points for those who need them to BUY the traits so difficult to get, and would, I believe, be easy to code into the system. Scrolls of Knowledge are already account bound, so that isn’t an issue, Karma is more available than skill points (about as easy to get as gold, and used a lot less), and would help introduce newer players to the Karma system in an easy way – if they needed/wanted it.

How about they do like the Skill unlock packs like in GW1? That was a nice feature for returning players who hadn’t hit up all the new content in the expansions. I would rather just buy a basic trait pack (not even talking grandmaster here) off the gem store that would allow me to experiment with builds when playing a new character like I could as I leveled up when the game was first released.

I don’t know why builds became such an evil thing that was not supposed to be attempted before 80.

There is still hope. They said at https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/4#post4396936 :

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

Luisgolas.7046:

There is still hope. They said at https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Misconceptions-regarding-Level-gating/page/4#post4396936 :

- Finally, I want to add that a few things (hello traits!) are things that can be improved for players who make multiple alts, we’re aware of this, and though company policy prevents us from discussing what’s in development: I can say we know Gw2 can be an even better game for people who love making alts in the long run, more info: when it’s ready™.

Problem is that it’s taking way too long. They should have done something much earlier considering the valid points brought up shortly after the trait change. They’ve dropped the ball on this ‘til now. They’re simply running the risk of people leaving for good before they fix this. No, I’m not suggesting that rushing anything is good. I’m simply stating that the fix should have begun WAY before now.

radioAspen.6829:

Players: “And anyway, that’s why we feel the current trait system does not work and negatively impacts the game”

Anet: “So what you’re saying is that the early to midgame leveling experience is dull. . .”

Players: “Well yes, that’s one—”

Anet: “—And you want us to redistribute some things to fill in that content. . . 8D”

Players: “Anet, no. Stop”

Anet: “It’s too late”

Players: “No!”

Anet: “It’s already happening”

Fixing what isn’t broken by dramatically overcompensating and/or missing the mark of what is actually needed or wanted? Yeah this is pretty classic anet tbh.

“It’s already happening!” — lol

After Chris came out and mention the rampant bugs in this patch, I’m inclined to believe that they’re going to fix the “alt” experience. I’m willing to step back into the benefit of the doubt on this one.

However, this post still made me giggle.

I stopped leveling alts with the introduction of this trait system; for me it is anti-fun. New leveling system holds no appeal for me either, but the traits system was a killer for fun. Liked the old system, have no interest in the new one, and lost my enthusiasm for the game. I have 7 80’s so I can play them, but I feel the game is going in direction I personally dislike, and I have been playing less.

eyestrain.3056:

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

Please note: you get to fight the grenth priest during the defense. Which then unlocks the trait. And since defending is WAY easier than attacking (especially if the zerg keeps failing the attack), I really do not know why you are complaining.

Broom.2561:

eyestrain.3056:

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

Please note: you get to fight the grenth priest during the defense. Which then unlocks the trait. And since defending is WAY easier than attacking (especially if the zerg keeps failing the attack), I really do not know why you are complaining.

Didn’t know about this, for one. It’s good to know there’s another option (too bad I wasted all that time) but also keep in mind if I had been doing the defense event I’d be screwing over the whole map that was hungry for the assault event. There were others besides me who had been waiting a long time, either for trait unlock or the loot farm.

There’s still a real issue with players getting in each other’s way due to conflict of interests.

sirian.4981:

Or newbie has to kill the Overgrown Grub, but that takes a group and nobody is willing to help him. Instead he gets angry messages that he is hurting the WvW effort(which he might very well be, because killing the grub does nothing for the war effort).

There WOULD be people doing the Overgrown grub event, mark my words if it was a trait you absolutely needed for a staple warrior or guardian build…. (and of course you didn’t have the ability to just up and buy it with cash.)

If killing the grub was the only way to get said VIP traits, I guarantee you there would be loads of people doing it each day.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

sirian.4981:

Or newbie has to kill the Overgrown Grub, but that takes a group and nobody is willing to help him. Instead he gets angry messages that he is hurting the WvW effort(which he might very well be, because killing the grub does nothing for the war effort).

There WOULD be people doing the Overgrown grub event, mark my words if it was a trait you absolutely needed for a staple warrior or guardian build…. (and of course you didn’t have the ability to just up and buy it with cash.)

If killing the grub was the only way to get said VIP traits, I guarantee you there would be loads of people doing it each day.

I guarantee they would not. People who WvW (NOT EotM) are there to score points for their server. They aren’t there to fight the stupid grub. It’s in a terrible location. It’s incredibly tough and hard to kill. No one…and i mean NO ONE wants to do it. I don’t care what you get out of it.

I’ve recently recommended this game to a few friends and was very interested in playing actively again. I’m now ashamed to have recommended this game to my friends what with the new trait changes that have been introduced and have apologized to them all, although I must admit as they joined after the trait changes they have don’t get what the big deal is.

Now there are many changes I’d like to see in the game to really entice me but I am a realist and understand an MMO can never completely cater to one player’s particular tastes.

However, I felt that the trait system was not broken and therefore did not need fixing. Not accessing traits until level 30 is my biggest gripe with the system. I love to run Alts and not accessing traits until level 30 really kills any aspect of customization and individuality for low level characters. I don’t care that the mobs in the world have been adjusted to compensate, it just isn’t as interesting and I personally won’t be returning to the game until the system is reverted back to its former self or a reasonable middle ground is found between the two.

I know I’m probably not going to be noticed in this thread as it is very long and filled with anger (justifiably, I might add) but I will still add my own opinions on the various changes this system has brought and how they can be improved.

No Traits until level 30
I’ll probably be repeating myself here, but I feel not earning any traits at all until level 30 (And not even being able to view them; if I am correct; is even worse) is a boring as hell. Up until Level 30, every member of a profession is completely mechanically identical. Sure, people will use different weapon sets and utilities but there is still actually no difference between the characters at all; they can swap out weapon sets and utility skills at any time and perform the exact same as each other (Discounting different equipment of course, but those aren’t actually part of the character) and to making my character feel unique in an MMO has always been very important to me. Two of my alts; a Sylvari Ranger and a Norn Necromancer; are still under level 30 and I now know they are the exact same as every other Ranger and Necromancer out there (Discounting racial skills of course, but ArenaNet themselves state they don’t intend for people to really use those) Overall, this is a major deal breaker for me getting back into the game.

Traits must be unlocked by doing various activities
From what I’ve heard ArenaNet implemented this in order to encourage players to explore the world and experience all the content. I somewhat agree with this mindset, the execution is incredibly poor, having you to put in ridiculous amounts of effort for a single trait (I’m referring about the map completion ones in particular) which often cannot be done until a much higher level than the trait theoretically should be available and going completely against the “Play your way” philosophy in that it completely and utterly forces you to do a particular kind of content which you may not be interested in. I myself enjoy PvE and Dungeons a lot, only occasionally dipping into Spvp and WvW. I don’t want to have to play WvW for Traits I need. This also does not encourage any kind of balance between professions and/or builds. Lets take two warriors, both have a trait that is central to their build. One unlocks this trait by completing a personal story mission, the other by 100%ing a map. Or lets take a Warrior and a Guardian. One might have a trait that requires 100%ing a map that is completely useless, while to the other it is vital to their build. Is this fair, making certain builds harder to achieve by making the requirements for traits vastly different?
I have two ideas on how this could be improved. Firstly is just reset the system to how it was before, with traits automatically unlocked when you reach the tier.
Secondly is an idea I actually like a little more as it promotes the idea of actually doing stuff in order to increase your power, the same way Utility Skills are unlocked with Skill Points.
In short, I think Traits should be unlocked with Skill Points just like Utilities are. As long as you have enough Skill Points, you can unlock any Trait you desire of that tier. Allow players to spend SP to unlock a trait as soon as they enter that tier, even if they don’t actually have enough trait points to equip it yet. In order to encourage a little bit of experimentation, employ a similar mechanic to unlocking utilities in that you must unlock so many traits of one tier in that particular trait line before unlocking the next. I think unlocking half of the traits in a tier before you can reach the next tier in that trait line is fair enough. Something like this:
Adept: Traits cost 3 Points, unlock 3 traits to unlock Master tier.
Master: Traits cost 6 Points, unlock 2 traits to unlock GrandMaster Tier.
GrandMaster: Traits cost 15 Points.
I haven’t put any real thought into the numbers so they may be off, but this system would have the benefit of making the players actually do something to unlock their traits with the benefit it doesn’t have to be incredibly specific kitten can be earned in both PvE and WvW (And Spvp doesn’t matter, traits already unlocked yo). A slight flaw under comparison against the original system is you may end up not being able to afford any traits when you have enough trait points to equip one, but as with Utilities careful planning ahead will mean that you should always be able to afford a new trait just before you equip it and when you hit Level 80 and starting gaining SP with every “level up” you’ll eventually amass enough points to unlock all the traits.

You can now completely re-assign your Traits anytime out of combat
I feel like this change is not being discussed much and most will probably approve of it, though I feel strongly against it.
I should probably say that of course this would only really be an issue if traits become more accessible again under one of the two ideas I mentioned above, whereas traits are currently hard to unlock and players only tend to get the ones they really need. But if traits are made more accessible again as they should be, I feel the following would be a huge problem:
The first is that although I feel customization and individuality is a huge part of MMOs, you need to have some level of commitment to it. If you’re going to customize your character, at least stand by your choices and adapt your strategy to each fight. I know ArenaNet wants to encourage trying out all kinds of builds and experimentation; this was already incredibly easy and convenient to do, as traits could be reset for free at every profession trainer. All you had to do was visit a city and your traits could easily be reset there. Now Traits can be reset anywhere outside of combat there is no feeling of purpose to what you do.

eyestrain.3056:

Broom.2561:

eyestrain.3056:

I find it relevant to post in this thread again now that I have been waiting for about two hours, just sitting and waiting for a chance to do the grenth priest fight to unlock a grandmaster trait. The timer between gaining and losing the temple again to restart the chain of events is too long. Especially while there are people defending the temple each time. I don’t know how to check when to come back for the events so I’m just sitting here waiting, doing nothing, alt tabbing… hard to believe i’m playing a game. gg

Please note: you get to fight the grenth priest during the defense. Which then unlocks the trait. And since defending is WAY easier than attacking (especially if the zerg keeps failing the attack), I really do not know why you are complaining.

Didn’t know about this, for one. It’s good to know there’s another option (too bad I wasted all that time) but also keep in mind if I had been doing the defense event I’d be screwing over the whole map that was hungry for the assault event. There were others besides me who had been waiting a long time, either for trait unlock or the loot farm.

There’s still a real issue with players getting in each other’s way due to conflict of interests.

The defense event is an entirely valid event that was put in there for a reason. It tells a story in the big fight against zhaitan, which is just as important to the game storyline as the assault event. The only reason ‘the rest of the map’ insists on letting it fail is because they think they get more loot that way. Which is, frankly, just about the worst reason out there.

Personally I do not care one bit for the attitude. I’ve had people in my guild who had 30 minutes a day to play. I would NEVER advise them to wait until the zerg said it was OK. The zerg hangs in the zone for hours at a time, they can wait their turn or do other loot events, like Plinx. If you need the trait, go ahead and do whichever comes up first. If you want your daily temple chest, same.

-remove trait unlock
-done

really, that’s all they need to do yet they keep on pulling the same string over and over again, if they want it closer to GW1 then make it like that but don’t give us basic MMO crap.