Guild Wars 2

I always wonder what happened to that so called trait that Colin used to talk about in those videos where “You trait your skill and now your melee axe becomes a ranged throwable axe” or something like that. (The only one that kind of represents this is the ranger trait to throw traps at locations instead of them being placed under your feet, of which I know about)

Whenever I thought of traits that is what I thought it was going to turn out as. Something that would wildly change an ability. A little similiar to how runes worked in Diablo 3, it would great a unique new effect for your skill.

Instead most of it is some kind of stat booster like 5% damage on _ or inflict extra condition (which feels kinda bland too) and not something like “You’re whirling axe skill will now cause knockback on foes you hit”. I guess it was probably bad to have high hopes for such a change when I heard about the traits from those videos (no idea which one) as well as playing Diablo 3 prior to Guild Wars 2.

Would have been nice if it were similiar to Diablo 3’s rune on skill system, where it would actually slightly change the appearance of your skill. Then you would actually be able to notice when someone uses it, which would also tie into the visual aspect that Arenanet talked about where they wanted spectators to be able to visually see what is going on in fights. Whereas both warriors using whirling axe and they both look the same except one applies another condition (just making that up), it just feels very bland.

In fact, there are many changes like this though they are more General changes over specific ability changes.

I remember the thief having a trait that lets him blind nearby foes EVERYTIME he stealths, that may look wrong at first, but blinding a mass of people every 3 seconds on just blinding your target in a 1v1 will surely give you an advantage.

It doesn’t feel the same way as DIII did with the change of skills, but remember also how every single barbarians were exact clones in that game because some skills were shinier than others for X reason leaving other skills in the dust.
The runes were the same by the way, only some runes were good making people pick them over others that might seem useless.

I think that the trait system is very good, I’ve seen myself disappointed at first but managed to pick it up and I really like it now. Even though I see very specific trait that NEEDS to be picked up for survival in both PvP and PvE.

I suggest you open an internet builder or even log into the Mist to play with your favorite character and try to build different trait build. I promise you’ll see some very interesting trait and you will change your weapons accordingly.

I hope this helps.

even though those traits don´t cause dramatic visible effects, the things you mention have a HUGE impact on character builds and individual playstyle.s Just look at the guardian condition possibilites e.g. You just cannot toss “x skills now cause y condition” aside as marginal as you do. Things like that are game changers in the hands of people who actually put a lot of thought into their builds.

There’s so much of the basic ability traits we have now that aren’t working right. I just don’t think they have the talent to get something more elaborate, make it work, and make it balanced. It would be difficult.

Necro wells can be traited for ground targeting, same as ranger traps.

And various additional effects like health stealing can be put on necro skills.

digiowl.9620:

Necro wells can be traited for ground targeting, same as ranger traps.

And various additional effects like health stealing can be put on necro skills.

Targetable wells is what I figured all the traits would be like. VERY noticeable changes that allow you to play differently. Too bad most of them are VERY minor stat improvements that don’t change anything unless you’re staring at the combat log. Many don’t even work at all, no matter what the description says. Some you don’t even want or can’t use unless you play a VERY specific way. Bad synergy.

Most of my exp is with the Necro, which has FUBAR trees.

Well there is also the traitable pierce on Death Shroud Life Blast, and i think the Engineer Pistol 1 skill can be similarly traited to Pierce (as well as explosive engineer potions iirc). So there are some in there, but most seem to be percentage and condition fillers. Could be they found radical traits to be a pain to balance in time.