How would you react if your favorite trait completely stopped working…
EDIT: With the upcoming Specializations:
“As you can see, traits have been merged, moved, and culled, and new ones have been created, but it lets us introduce more skillful traits and more meaningful trait choices that are going to really change how you play. Although some traits are being removed, we’re doing our best to preserve as many of the current builds as we can.”
And how would you react if your favorite trait just broke one day and was still completely broken…
1 Week later?
1 Month later?
6 Months later?
1 Year later?
… and it had never received as much as a single anet comment acknowledging the problem.
As far as I’m concerned, most do so little I probably wouldn’t even notice.
There was an update, long ago, that removed all the traits I had selected on my warrior. Took me a long time to see the difference and check it out. She was a little weaker but it wasn’t a big difference.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
As far as I’m concerned, most do so little I probably wouldn’t even notice.
There was an update, long ago, that removed all the traits I had selected on my warrior. Took me a long time to see the difference and check it out. She was a little weaker but it wasn’t a big difference.
If you choose generic traits (+5% damage), then sure it won’t have much impact on your playstyle and might be hard to notice, but there are plenty of traits that change how you play. Without those traits, you can’t play that way anymore. Some Builds do not work without specific traits.
When Unholy Sanctuary was partially bugged recently it was fixed very fast. People ran to the forum reporting that they were dying unexpectedly. when death shroud failed to pop. Unexpected immediate death is kinda easy to notice.
I’m talking about traits in general. One of the main reasons I was attracted to GW2 was the build-craft aspect because I enjoy trying out new builds. Part of that is trying out lesser-used traits or traits that are quickly dismissed, to try and find new possibilities.
You a guardian? The only trait I can think of that flat out does absolutely nothing is the Guardian’s Kindled Zeal trait.
Since you mention Guardians I need to correct you. Kindled Zeal is a fully functional trait that most people consider not worth taking because of Amplified Wrath. Radiant Retaliation on the other hand is a completly non-functional Guardian grandmaster trait that hasn’t worked in 6 months.
I’d be annoyed, my favorite trait is the one that gives my Warrior (and to a lesser extent, Engineer) a speed increase so I can equip more useful runes… Of course I opted for the traveler runes on my main warrior because I wanted to use a bow and just swapping to my bow and forgetting to swap back was annoying because of the decrease in speed. My other warrior is melee only.
Why ask here. Go over to the Mesmer or Necromancer forums. They have that problem a lot. Most usually just pick a trait that works and hope for the best.
Since you mention Guardians I need to correct you. Kindled Zeal is a fully functional trait that most people consider not worth taking because of Amplified Wrath. Radiant Retaliation on the other hand is a completly non-functional Guardian grandmaster trait that hasn’t worked in 6 months.
Yep that’s the one I meant, Radiant Retaliation, I was in the right ballpark though, mostly…ish, both condi-traits at least. :P
As far as I’m concerned, most do so little I probably wouldn’t even notice.
There was an update, long ago, that removed all the traits I had selected on my warrior. Took me a long time to see the difference and check it out. She was a little weaker but it wasn’t a big difference.
I noticed I wasn’t one shotting everything in Queensdale on my level 80 ranger and I had to go fix that immediately.
^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.
As far as I’m concerned, most do so little I probably wouldn’t even notice.
There was an update, long ago, that removed all the traits I had selected on my warrior. Took me a long time to see the difference and check it out. She was a little weaker but it wasn’t a big difference.
I’d probably react like this as well. I play my guardian most times, so the only real trait I would notice missing was VoJ blinding my targets (if you’re talking about Minor Traits as well as major ones).
As far as I’m concerned, most do so little I probably wouldn’t even notice.
There was an update, long ago, that removed all the traits I had selected on my warrior. Took me a long time to see the difference and check it out. She was a little weaker but it wasn’t a big difference.
If you choose generic traits (+5% damage), then sure it won’t have much impact on your playstyle and might be hard to notice, but there are plenty of traits that change how you play. Without those traits, you can’t play that way anymore. Some Builds do not work without specific traits.
When Unholy Sanctuary was partially bugged recently it was fixed very fast. People ran to the forum reporting that they were dying unexpectedly. when death shroud failed to pop. Unexpected immediate death is kinda easy to notice.
Oh yah. But I bet I’m like most of the casual players that don’t get specific builds that they carefully worked out. For my chars I looked at how likely I would die while playing and then either chose pure beserker or chose a mix of vitality and healing. Once I chose the trait lines I picked out whatever traits were available that weren’t too awful or useless. If I needed to make adjustments I again chose a trait line to bolster the stats I wanted and chose wherever traits were the best.
This means, except for a trait that gives a speed boost, I’m not too particular about what trait I chose. It needs to be in the right trait line and hopefully not irrelevant but other than that, /shrug.
I would bet this is pretty common among the casual players and us casuals are legion.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
How much you care about traits may fall into what kind of gamer you are.
During a talk, Richard Garfield (game designer Magic the Gathering) divided game players into two groups: Honers and Innovators. Honers want the best results and will use the proven builds to get them. They will adopt the strategy proven most successful and try to hone it to its most perfect usage. Honers play to win and are not happy with any failure. Honers want to perfect known situations. If a really important trait broke… they would probably switch to a different profession while the first one is broken.
Innovators on the other hand want to explore the big strategic ideas offered by the game. They are the ones who get excited by concepts and possibilities and working things out. Innovators are driven less by success, and more by the process of developing. When their build works they are happy, if it fails, it leads to more tinkering. For the innovators, the choices that other people scoff at or call worthless may be the key to an interesting new tactic.
I bet there did a third sizable group, the casual. They chose a build from a site or slap one together as best they can. If a trait is broken they don’t switch to another profession, they chose another trait and go on with it.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
That would likely be Speedy Kits for my engi. 1 week later, id start coming here getting a bit annoyed for not having gotten a reply yet to the bug i posted here day 1.
1 month later id likely be upset at Anet for ignoring such a critical and obvious bug in the (probably two) releases since the bug appeared.
6 minths to a year later id probably just be running about with med kit and elixir B again while annoyedly grovelling about it every now and then at Anet.
How much you care about traits may fall into what kind of gamer you are.
During a talk, Richard Garfield (game designer Magic the Gathering) divided game players into two groups: Honers and Innovators. Honers want the best results and will use the proven builds to get them. They will adopt the strategy proven most successful and try to hone it to its most perfect usage. Honers play to win and are not happy with any failure. Honers want to perfect known situations. If a really important trait broke… they would probably switch to a different profession while the first one is broken.
Innovators on the other hand want to explore the big strategic ideas offered by the game. They are the ones who get excited by concepts and possibilities and working things out. Innovators are driven less by success, and more by the process of developing. When their build works they are happy, if it fails, it leads to more tinkering. For the innovators, the choices that other people scoff at or call worthless may be the key to an interesting new tactic.
“Most games are owned by the honer.”
Yeah but that’s Magic. MMOs have a third group.
They are the people who WANT to be innovators, but don’t actually put effort toward innovating.
They:
Cannot tell you even a fraction of their skills or traits off the tops of their heads
Do not know what is available to them
Refuse to accept the meta as a baseline, even when they are under performing
Complain on the forums that their class is underpowered or that the meta is essentially cheating
Will not take advice from anyone because they want to do it themselves
Don’t actually do it themselves
Get mad when PuGs discriminate against them
Will not change their build or strategy because they think they already struck gold and the game should conform to their playstyle
Often have opinions against normal things like [farming] so strong that they’ll never try it once or twice
Read in the update notes about a small nerf to a skill/method and drop it like it was removed entirely
Want us to believe, despite all this, that they are the nice/good people
^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.
The traits aren’t really that strong. After awhile I noticed that the level 80 mobs were taking a few seconds longer to kill, but it wasn’t a huge difference.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
It’s traits we are talking about. Traits are an integral part of any build. “aren’t really that strong”? What? Sorry but WHAT?
He’s saying that traits aren’t that big of a deal, and I happen to agree with him.
A good player with no traits equipped at all would still own a bad player with the best trait set up possible. They really don’t make that big of a difference.
They make a lot of things much easier, sure, but without traits people would still be able to complete all content without issue. I forget to even equip traits on most of my alts, that’s how unnoticeable it is.
Hm if my favorite trait stopped working….and anet never stated whether it was a bug or not….
I’d probably be bummed for a bit, then mildly peeved, and then I would sigh, figure it got the Smiter’s Boon treatment and find something else. After all, its not like nothing else works and it “has” to be that trait. (if I even noticed to begin with lol I guess I’m just more laid back about my build?)
Don’t look at me like that. Whatever you’ve heard, it’s probably not true.
I would notice. I use piercing arrows on my ranger and you would definately notice if that quit working (although it might take me a few days because i would doubt my ability to line up enemies). I would likely just swap to spotter and would likely not swap back until well after they fixed it.
Habitual Warrior-Ranger
Gates Of Madness
Jewelcrafting to 500!
Broken for weeks… you assume they are working on it.
Broken for more than a month… you figure it must just be a low-priority but they will get to it eventually.
Broken for a few months… you figure they forgot about it, or consider it a very low priority.
Broken for half a year… you start to suspect that breaking it was intentional or the fix for it will involve more than just returning it the way it was.
Broken for a year… it becomes like Bigfoot… you don’t ever expect to see it show up and would be really surprised if it did.
Broken for 2 years… you can impress all the youngin’s with your tales of yore and ye olden times… you have a dim memory of how things used to be, long, long, ago.
Broken for 2 years… you can impress all the youngin’s with your tales of yore and ye olden times… you have a dim memory of how things used to be, long, long, ago.
Not a trait, but broken since release – ranger sword AA. You get to regale the forums with the progression of responses from Anet.
Players: Sword auto roots you in place so that you can’t dodge. Anet: No, it doesn’t. Players: Here’s video proof it does, indeed, root you in place. Anet: Well, it’s not supposed to. We’ll get that fixed. Players: Any progress on sword auto? Anet: We’re working on a solution. Players: How’s that sword auto fix coming? Anet: It’s fixed! Players: Sword auto still roots you in place! Anet: But, AQUAMAN patch! Players: Sword auto is still broken guys…. Anet: We’ll work on a proper fix. Players: How’s that sword auto fix coming? Anet: The rooting is a feature, not a bug.
Broken for 2 years… you can impress all the youngin’s with your tales of yore and ye olden times… you have a dim memory of how things used to be, long, long, ago.
Not a trait, but broken since release – ranger sword AA. You get to regale the forums with the progression of responses from Anet.
Players: Sword auto roots you in place so that you can’t dodge. Anet: No, it doesn’t. Players: Here’s video proof it does, indeed, root you in place. Anet: Well, it’s not supposed to. We’ll get that fixed. Players: Any progress on sword auto? Anet: We’re working on a solution. Players: How’s that sword auto fix coming? Anet: It’s fixed! Players: Sword auto still roots you in place! Anet: But, AQUAMAN patch! Players: Sword auto is still broken guys…. Anet: We’ll work on a proper fix. Players: How’s that sword auto fix coming? Anet: The rooting is a feature, not a bug.
Oh stop it!
You’re making me cry.
^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.
“As you can see, traits have been merged, moved, and culled, and new ones have been created, but it lets us introduce more skillful traits and more meaningful trait choices that are going to really change how you play. Although some traits are being removed, we’re doing our best to preserve as many of the current builds as we can.”
Can we PLEASE get Radiant Retaliation fixed before it gets culled with the specializations??
How about instead of hamstringing them by constantly complaining about make this, that, and the other backwards compatible, and give me a refund for this or that, and blah blah blah… this community for once focuses on improving the whole game. I mean if they do this right you could have more than one favorite build… but not if they can’t actually focus on doing it right.
For those who wouldn’t notice if their favorite trait quit working or don’t even know what traits you have chosen you must not be playing a mesmer. Hopefully Anet won’t skrew up mesmer any more than they have.
How much you care about traits may fall into what kind of gamer you are.
During a talk, Richard Garfield (game designer Magic the Gathering) divided game players into two groups: Honers and Innovators. Honers want the best results and will use the proven builds to get them. They will adopt the strategy proven most successful and try to hone it to its most perfect usage. Honers play to win and are not happy with any failure. Honers want to perfect known situations. If a really important trait broke… they would probably switch to a different profession while the first one is broken.
Innovators on the other hand want to explore the big strategic ideas offered by the game. They are the ones who get excited by concepts and possibilities and working things out. Innovators are driven less by success, and more by the process of developing. When their build works they are happy, if it fails, it leads to more tinkering. For the innovators, the choices that other people scoff at or call worthless may be the key to an interesting new tactic.
They are the people who WANT to be innovators, but don’t actually put effort toward innovating.
They:
Cannot tell you even a fraction of their skills or traits off the tops of their heads
Do not know what is available to them
Refuse to accept the meta as a baseline, even when they are under performing
Complain on the forums that their class is underpowered or that the meta is essentially cheating
Will not take advice from anyone because they want to do it themselves
Don’t actually do it themselves
Get mad when PuGs discriminate against them
Will not change their build or strategy because they think they already struck gold and the game should conform to their playstyle
Often have opinions against normal things like [farming] so strong that they’ll never try it once or twice
Read in the update notes about a small nerf to a skill/method and drop it like it was removed entirely
Want us to believe, despite all this, that they are the nice/good people
And this too.
Resident Disgruntled, Coffee-drinking Charr.
Zarin Mistcloak(THF) Valkyrie Mistblade(WAR) Kossori Mistwalker(REV) Durendal Mistward(GRD)
I used to think (build op, pls nerf) like you, but then I took a nerf to the knee.
