First of all, I’m sorry for my bad English.
As most of you already know, about two months ago a new trait system was implemented which caused a lot of discontent amongst players. I for one liked the idea of ‘earning traits’ when I first read about it, but I have to admit that I am not happy about the way it turned out :/ so I’ll get straight to the point and explain details later, I think a very good fix would look like this:
- Make all Adept Traits (I – VI) instantly available as soon as you reach level 36
- Make all Master Traits (VII – X) easier to obtain
- Leave all Grandmaster Traits (XI-XIII) just the way they are, or maybe even make them a little harder to obtain
And here’s why I think that this would solve a lot of problems:
The most important part of my idea is making the Adept Traits instantly available. Right now, if you are new to Guild Wars or just created a new character, you reach level 30, unlock the trait system – and you gain next to nothing from it, because when reaching level 36, where you can technically choose traits for your major trait slot for the first time, you’re lucky if you’ll have three or four traits that you can use at that time. And if you’re very lucky you’ll even have one that you want to use. The whole trait situation feels bad, especially to new players. Now if you get a big amount of unlocked skills instead, you’ll have something to work with, and you’re encouraged to think about how to build your character later on.
Master Traits should be easier to obtain. Right now there’s too many not-well-thought-out requirements like ‘earn 100% completion in Lornar’s Pass’. Out of all the maps out there, why would anyone want to explore Lornar’s Pass 100% on each and every one of his/her characters? Unlocking methods like these are way too fixed. My suggestion is, you could for example make all the VII-traits mapbound. That means: Upon completing any map (except for the cities) you get to choose which of the five VII-traits you want to unlock. As soon as you complete any other map, you can choose any of the four remaining ones. This way people have more than one fixed way to unlock one fixed skill. They can explore any map they desire, and can unlock one of a variety of traits. You can also transfer this principle on other things like dungeons (Story Mode), Personal Story, etc. . Example:
- VII-traits: mapbound (one trait for each map you complete)
- VIII-traits: dungeonbound (one trait for each Story Mode you complete in a dungeon)
- IX-traits: personal-story-bound (one trait for each major step in Personal Story level 36 onward (joining the Vigil/Order/Priory, assisting the Quaggan/Hylek/…, retaking Claw Island, facing your fear after you tell the Pale Tree about it, cleansing Orr))
- X-traits: world-boss-bound (one trait for defeating one of the ‘lesser’ world bosses each: Shadow Behemoth, The Shatterer, Modniir Ulgoth, Fire Elemental, Megadestroyer, … (‘lesser’ means not Tequatl, Wurm or Temples))
[These are just some examples, there’s a lot of other possibilities, too, like jumping-puzzle-bound and so on.]
Many people like the ‘easy to learn, hard to master’-principle in games. I’d transfer this to the traits in a form of ‘easy to get into, hard to complete’. You have all the Adept Traits, you unlock a big amount of Master Traits along the way or get the ones you’re looking for with not too much work, thus you’ll have about 80% of all traits easily accessible and get a real feeling for the progress you make. With all these traits you can really personalize and specialize your build, you can create a solid and well-working build on your character. And to bring it to perfection – you’ll aim to unlock the Grandmaster Traits with your high-level-character. Unlike Master Traits, it’s totally okay for Grandmaster Traits to be hard to earn and specific, so you have to meet certain requirements to unlock a certain trait (not a choice of five like i suggested for Master Traits), so basically they can stay the way they are now. You may even make them harder to earn – conquer a certain temple (we already have that), defeat Tequatl/Wurm, finish a certain explo mode path in a certain dungeon, … . You’ll have to work towards these, and even if earning them will depend a lot on other player’s effort, I’m sure earning them will still feel very rewarding.