Guild Wars 2

phys.7689:

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

To add to this, it also kills the “play how you want” philosophy.
My builds may not be ‘optimal’ but I play them, I find them fun.

If I can’t play how I want and enjoy, I won’t be playing at all. I most certainly won’t be encouraging others to either.

phys.7689:

ronpierce.2760:

Nike.2631:

ronpierce.2760:

In addition, out of those MASSIVE amounts of “set ups” we already manage to narrow it down to 1-2 with a couple slight variations. If the new set up is handled properly, it will allow more personal preference choices, and the most exciting part about locked adept/master tiers is that it forces people to make harder decisions.

Ah. yes, well, serving the groupthink over all other player types is one goal they are accomplishing in spades.

The people who think there’s only 1-2 way to have fun with a class will still think that after this change – they gain or lose nothing. It’s the other players that are getting their options maimed.

The groupthink? Seems pretty common for people to be complaining right now. The key is setting up the game for a better future. Sometimes you have to give up something for something better. You will be alright, I promise. There will be new ways to play, and if you found a way you enjoyed before, I’m sure you will after HOT without having 2 points in some random off-tree. You’re exaggerating how much this is going to “kill” all of your precious builds.

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

as for giving up something to get something.
You are right in theory, but anet has a habit of making these systems that are supposed to allow them to do so much, so easily, that never happens.

the weapon skill system was supposed to allow them to introduce new weapons really easily. in 3 years, we are finally getting one new weapon per class.

the initial trait system was supposed to make it easy to add a new traitline/traits
in 3 years we get one new line, and overall trait number gets shaved.

Guild missions were supposed to be easy to add to, and how many new guild missions did they add?

basically many of the changes to make it easy to add to/fix, never really add much/fix to anything in practice.

Sure, there will always be variability with how much and how well the Devs pull it off, but that doesn’t make the system innately wrong. It has potential, and thats all that can be said either direction at the moment, but its certainly interesting and will definitely help with balancing the game.

And like I said, as for builds, its very rare people use 5 trees (not that it NEVER happens), or so on, but having some change isn’t innately bad. Especially when it causes players to have to make hard decisions. If people are missing taking two things at once, that should be considered a good thing. That means (finally) there felt like a real trade off, where as right now, many builds tend to fall into a certain (generally obvious) casting.

In the end, I’m confident people will be happy and find things they think are interesting in the new system, and for the most part, I’m sure many builds won’t change as much as people are thinking.

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

ronpierce.2760:

Nike.2631:

ronpierce.2760:

In addition, out of those MASSIVE amounts of “set ups” we already manage to narrow it down to 1-2 with a couple slight variations. If the new set up is handled properly, it will allow more personal preference choices, and the most exciting part about locked adept/master tiers is that it forces people to make harder decisions.

Ah. yes, well, serving the groupthink over all other player types is one goal they are accomplishing in spades.

The people who think there’s only 1-2 way to have fun with a class will still think that after this change – they gain or lose nothing. It’s the other players that are getting their options maimed.

The groupthink? Seems pretty common for people to be complaining right now. The key is setting up the game for a better future. Sometimes you have to give up something for something better. You will be alright, I promise. There will be new ways to play, and if you found a way you enjoyed before, I’m sure you will after HOT without having 2 points in some random off-tree. You’re exaggerating how much this is going to “kill” all of your precious builds.

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

as for giving up something to get something.
You are right in theory, but anet has a habit of making these systems that are supposed to allow them to do so much, so easily, that never happens.

the weapon skill system was supposed to allow them to introduce new weapons really easily. in 3 years, we are finally getting one new weapon per class.

the initial trait system was supposed to make it easy to add a new traitline/traits
in 3 years we get one new line, and overall trait number gets shaved.

Guild missions were supposed to be easy to add to, and how many new guild missions did they add?

basically many of the changes to make it easy to add to/fix, never really add much/fix to anything in practice.

Sure, there will always be variability with how much and how well the Devs pull it off, but that doesn’t make the system innately wrong. It has potential, and thats all that can be said either direction at the moment, but its certainly interesting and will definitely help with balancing the game.

And like I said, as for builds, its very rare people use 5 trees (not that it NEVER happens), or so on, but having some change isn’t innately bad. Especially when it causes players to have to make hard decisions. If people are missing taking two things at once, that should be considered a good thing. That means (finally) there felt like a real trade off, where as right now, many builds tend to fall into a certain (generally obvious) casting.

In the end, I’m confident people will be happy and find things they think are interesting in the new system, and for the most part, I’m sure many builds won’t change as much as people are thinking.

why are you only bringing up 5 trees, you can use 4 trees either now, which was in fact really common.

I have a question!

I want to know if necromancer will be looked at it’s PvE side, it’s undoubtedly the worst class for PvE (to the point of other players refusing to play with necromancers in dungeons and fractals, which isn’t really fun when considering myself a dungeon player), so I’m curious if this one time we’ll get a balance strictly for PvE.

*by mistake I posted this in wvw thread before, sorry

Q: Will underwater builds ever have a place of it’s own in the new trait system.

This of course is a question for the future of underwater combat, which you guys have not forgotten.

Nike.2631:

The people who think there’s only 1-2 way to have fun with a class will still think that after this change – they gain or lose nothing. It’s the other players that are getting their options maimed.

I think this kind of paradigm favors players who didn’t really enjoy GW1.

Does ArenaNet believe that the best way to profit in the future is to abandon the fanbase that made GW2 possible?

After all, the strict build restrictions of GW2 are diametrically opposed to the build freedom of GW1.

How do these changes support the “what is your story” promise we all bought into before GW2 launch and the infamous Manifesto?

Is having to rework builds that use more than 3 trait lines promoting players creating their own stories and fun within the game, or is it simply limiting players to compensate for the lack of imagination and vision of developers on staff?

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you may have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you make have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

If a good chunk of GM traits weren’t garbage or broken I would agree with you, but there’s a reason people are also upset about not being able to slot Adept or Master tier traits in the new system. Because alot of GM traits aren’t appealing or good for their build whilst the rest of the tree is.

Talonblaze.3175:

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you make have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

If a good chunk of GM traits weren’t garbage or broken I would agree with you, but there’s a reason people are also upset about not being able to slot Adept or Master tier traits in the new system. Because alot of GM traits aren’t appealing or good for their build whilst the rest of the tree is.

They are doing some big passes and I’m sure more will come with time as metas start to settle. Rejecting something based on expected failures doesn’t help promote positive change, we will just have to hope for the best, and if it turns out bad, at least the system is interesting and usable, they will just have to do their jobs at making corrections.

ronpierce.2760:

They are doing some big passes and I’m sure more will come with time as metas start to settle. Rejecting something based on expected failures doesn’t help promote positive change, we will just have to hope for the best, and if it turns out bad, at least the system is interesting and usable, they will just have to do their jobs at making corrections.

Anet’s track record is what’s promoting this negative attitude. They haven’t done much to reinforce it recently. I was stoked for HOT until this announcement came into play, coming from a guy with 18 characters with 3k+ hours.
All it reads is NPE v2. That doesn’t sit well with me.

How soon will there be more than one elite specialization to choose from per profession?
Will we have to wait more than a year to see that happen or will they begin to be rolled in within a few months?

Play how you want…. Yea my kitten …

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you may have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

FWIW, ommv. For me, not all of the GM traits are that great, or even better than some master or even adept traits. My take is that the trait tiers did not do a good job of representing an increase in effectiveness. Some adept traits are more central to my builds than either M or GM traits. I’ve routinely slotted lower tier traits in higher tier slots. That option will also be removed.

I’m not upset about it. I tend to prefer opportunity costs that make me think in games. The new system has lessened the costs in two senses (18 points rather than 14; fewer options) and increased it in one (must pick 1 from a list of 3). However, don’t pretend that options will not be removed, because they will be — or that GM traits have been the centerpieces of builds the way that highest tier traits used to be in the big MMO down the block, or elite skills were in GW.

Are racial skills going away?

What will happen with tomes of knowledge? The current ones will give either a level or a skillpoint (through gaining a level at 80).

I currently have a LOT of them from PvP. If I don’t plan on using them to level up a character, should I use them for the skillpoint now to get the mystic forge items when the switch happens?

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you may have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

You don’t have to, “break all possible functionality,” to reduce the fun in something. Something can retain some functionality while becoming less interesting and less fun, as seems to be the case (to me) with this new system.

With the increased(-again) emphasis on gear choice for stats, will you be taking another look at the drop rate and/or lower crafting requirements for Fine Crafting Materials?

Old thread, but the majority of my concerns are still valid: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/crafting/Fine-Material-Crafting-Revamp-please

Talonblaze.3175:

phys.7689:

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

To add to this, it also kills the “play how you want” philosophy.
My builds may not be ‘optimal’ but I play them, I find them fun.

If I can’t play how I want and enjoy, I won’t be playing at all. I most certainly won’t be encouraging others to either.

That’s great until they start making actually hard content where your massively underperforming, but “fun” build cannot function and you’re denied the ability to play it. Especially when most of the new content being added to the game starts to function this way.

They can’t fix the issue with there being no challenging high end PvE without making it easier to know how to fix a bad build, because you’ll just bounce off the content and not have any sense of how to adjust. You’re basically asking them to permanently hobble the game so that you can have bad builds; what they need to do is support multiple diverse playstyles in each profession so that there’s something you’ll enjoy that doesn’t suck while also being able to make content that’s challenging with the assumption of a certain baseline of non-sucky build. The current system results in way too large of a delta between worst builds and best builds and if that’s not brought down a lot of other necessary system and content changes get really hard to do.

bargamer.1762:

With the increased(-again) emphasis on gear choice for stats, will you be taking another look at the drop rate and/or lower crafting requirements for Fine Crafting Materials?

Old thread, but the majority of my concerns are still valid: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/crafting/Fine-Material-Crafting-Revamp-please

Isn’t this kind of covered by the changes to map rewards that were discussed along side the precursor crafting reveal?

Eolirin.1830:

Talonblaze.3175:

phys.7689:

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

To add to this, it also kills the “play how you want” philosophy.
My builds may not be ‘optimal’ but I play them, I find them fun.

If I can’t play how I want and enjoy, I won’t be playing at all. I most certainly won’t be encouraging others to either.

That’s great until they start making actually hard content where your massively underperforming, but “fun” build cannot function and you’re denied the ability to play it

The whole point of the ability to adjust builds on the fly is having the option to adjust your build to the content you are playing. One does not need to remove the ability to create non optimized fun builds in order to provide content that requires a more focused build.

Ashen.2907:

Eolirin.1830:

Talonblaze.3175:

phys.7689:

if you werent playing a meta build, there is a very high chance your build will die.

To add to this, it also kills the “play how you want” philosophy.
My builds may not be ‘optimal’ but I play them, I find them fun.

If I can’t play how I want and enjoy, I won’t be playing at all. I most certainly won’t be encouraging others to either.

That’s great until they start making actually hard content where your massively underperforming, but “fun” build cannot function and you’re denied the ability to play it

The whole point of the ability to adjust builds on the fly is having the option to adjust your build to the content you are playing. One does not need to remove the ability to create non optimized fun builds in order to provide content that requires a more focused build.

Being able to adjust a build does jack all when the combinatorial space you need to navigate is full of trap builds that’ll suck and there’s no way to tell whether your new choices are good or bad except to die a lot, and then end up with yet another trap build on the next go round. Smaller decision trees are better at signaling and are far easier to navigate.

Also, keep in mind that the trait merging is effectively reducing the number of major traits you need vs what we currently have, that we’re getting two more major traits, some things that are currently traits are being turned into general skill features, that there’s a decoupling of stats from trait lines, and there’s a general rebalance to everything, including moving some major traits to minor traits. It changes pretty much everything about assumptions you work under in the current system, and a number of those changes should make it easier to mix and match weird things that you currently can’t.

So even with these changes there is plenty of room for non-optimal fun builds in the new system. There’s just much less space for completely useless and broken builds. The delta between best and worst comes down a lot and each trait line’s “purpose” is tightened up and more clearly signaled. The end result of all of this, especially over time as balance is easier to do with the simpler system, should result in more viable builds, not fewer.

And please, don’t try to apply the way current builds are set up to the new system as if you can just drop in what you currently do to the new system; so much is changing that you just can’t do that. What you need to look at, and you won’t be able to until we get our hands on it, is what you can actually create with the new system, and not what you could create if you had the new system and exactly the same traits we do currently. Some builds will definitely be gone, but new builds will be created, and others will be changed in big or small ways.

That the total number of combinations of traits has gone from a stupidly huge number to another much smaller but still stupidly huge number, or that the number of lines you can pick has gone from 5 to 3, or that you can’t put an adept trait into a master trait slot doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is if the underlying playstyles people are using are still adequately represented and whether more viable options open up for each profession than currently exist. We can’t really know that yet, but given what’s been shown of the Water line, there’s not a ton of reason to be panicking about it right now.

Ordered from most to least important for me:

1) How will Miyani be selling her skill point related products when Specializations come in? (Depending on how previous sentence is answered) Will the base legendary receipes be affected in any way?

2) Does the change from the Trait System to Specializations offer significant balance improvements to sPvP?

3) I noticed Racial skills weren’t included in the elementalist image for the Profession Reward Track. Will racial skills get their own track eventually or do we get those skills by default?

4) Is this new crafting material account bound and what will it mainly serve for? Receipes for the new legendaries? New ascended armor/weapons? (No more excess Bloodstone-like mats please)

5) Are Hero Challenges mainly skill point challenges & channel points found in Tyria but under a different name for clarity, or something more?

My question is since skill points will no longer be in the game and are being changed to heros challenges how will getting the mats for legendary crafting will work with the mystic mats that will be replacing this in this new system ?

I just want to say that while I have concerns about the annihilation of 99% of our diversity, THIS IS A GOOD AND COGENT POST:

Eolirin.1830:

Being able to adjust a build does jack all when the combinatorial space you need to navigate is full of trap builds that’ll suck and there’s no way to tell whether your new choices are good or bad except to die a lot, and then end up with yet another trap build on the next go round. Smaller decision trees are better at signaling and are far easier to navigate.

Also, keep in mind that the trait merging is effectively reducing the number of major traits you need vs what we currently have, that we’re getting two more major traits, some things that are currently traits are being turned into general skill features, that there’s a decoupling of stats from trait lines, and there’s a general rebalance to everything, including moving some major traits to minor traits. It changes pretty much everything about assumptions you work under in the current system, and a number of those changes should make it easier to mix and match weird things that you currently can’t.

So even with these changes there is plenty of room for non-optimal fun builds in the new system. There’s just much less space for completely useless and broken builds. The delta between best and worst comes down a lot and each trait line’s “purpose” is tightened up and more clearly signaled. The end result of all of this, especially over time as balance is easier to do with the simpler system, should result in more viable builds, not fewer.

And please, don’t try to apply the way current builds are set up to the new system as if you can just drop in what you currently do to the new system; so much is changing that you just can’t do that. What you need to look at, and you won’t be able to until we get our hands on it, is what you can actually create with the new system, and not what you could create if you had the new system and exactly the same traits we do currently. Some builds will definitely be gone, but new builds will be created, and others will be changed in big or small ways.

That the total number of combinations of traits has gone from a stupidly huge number to another much smaller but still stupidly huge number, or that the number of lines you can pick has gone from 5 to 3, or that you can’t put an adept trait into a master trait slot doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is if the underlying playstyles people are using are still adequately represented and whether more viable options open up for each profession than currently exist. We can’t really know that yet, but given what’s been shown of the Water line, there’s not a ton of reason to be panicking about it right now.

And I agree completely – the math doesn’t lie about the degree to which we are losing flexibility, but it’s not cause to panic. I would have liked to see the current system improved upon, rather than what amounts to scrapping it entirely and keeping most of the bits we’re fond of. But it can work out.

I’m looking forward to more info tomorrow. And I’m formulating some small suggestions that might improve on the new framework rather than clinging to the old one.

See, I would have thought having three grandmaster traits instead of one or maybe two would promote more diverse builds because your build can do more than one thing at once. Instead of cobbling together a build that only works thanks to crazy synergy, you’re dropping in chunks of build that are all individually viable, but this crazy thing happens when you combine this trait with that trait.

Take flamethrower engineers, for instance: they absolutely have to have Juggernaut to even be worth running. Imagine if, just by taking one specialisation, flamethrower was viable. Imagine how many more build choices would open up if every specialisation made a chunk of skills viable.

Anyway! Question for Ready Up: skill points will no longer be earned from level ups and earning XP. Does this mean that the open-ended levelling system is going away entirely? What happens to XP when you’ve filled out all your masteries?

So this means us who already have unlocked all slot skills (key 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0) that needed skillpoints to unlock will have to restart with these new hero challenges? Sit and grind hero points on each character to get what we already had unlocked? Run around do the hero challenges on each character? Sure we will get some hero points as we are lvl 80 but we need more to get them all again. Also (if I understand correctly) slot skills will be tied to a specific specialization track so we will have to grind the whole track maybe to get that one slot skill we might want?

1) what about CONDITION DURATION and BOON DURATION in our current trait lines?

2) Ranger traits are right now epicly useless compared to those of other classes. If you remove the stats from trait lines..what’ s will be left to rangers?
You should rework all rangers traits becouse they very unbalanced and i bet a ranger won’ t have a chance to survive or to be usefull in any party.

Another thought/quesion(s)? ANet (you) specify (or not specify) “Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material”. In one sentence you say “materials” plural. In other sentence you say “that same crafting material” singular. As if Mystic Forge crafting materials will be turned into just 1 type that might need various amount depending on what recipe it’s used in.

If it will not be that and we will still have a bunch of different mystic forge materials like now, will we be able to chose which materials we will get for our old skillpoints, scrolls and such or will it be random? Lets say someone who might NOT want A Legendary Weapon (as I for example find most of them ugly/silly and also I don’t want silly steps wherever I go) might still get a random material needed for Legendary and no choice at all? Then be stuck with an account bound material that is useless to them?

I have 15 lvl 80’s 9 with 100% Map some are nearing 3 year old and were grandfathered into everything, but I do miss some XIII’s, some are complete, some are just iunlocked for the specific build.

Will I need to grind those points for 15 characters? Do you think I would like it? 15 lvl 80’s, 9 with full map?

Or will I get everything insta unlocked for 15 characters? I have 350 skill scrolls I can ghet all classes unlocked fully? Should I do so?

Will we still have the useless racial based skills? Or are you going to use/change them to do something usefuill now. Charrs “Battle Roar” could have been a second FGJ instead it its a useless skill, for many if not all classes. Likewise for -all- other skills. Only asura have 2 I like, both still way underpowered.

What is going to happen to the Condition Duration and Boon Duration from the trait lines?

I understand Power, Vitality and the other primary stats are having their base values increased from 926 to 1000 and the stats on gear is being increased, but these don’t offer Condition Duration or Boon Duration outside of Giver’s gear.

A single character who’s done a fair amount of the hero challenges should be able to unlock all of the core specializations, skills, and traits.

1. What’s a “fair amount”? 20% map completion? 50%? 75%?

I’m not too excited by the idea that if I want grandmaster trait X, I have to slog through a kerjillion hero challenges to build up the trait line to that point. Sequential unlocks are not what I’m looking for. In the current system, if I want a grandmaster trait it’s just 10 or 20 skill points (assuming I don’t want to unlock it by the associated activity). Will I have to do more hero challenges than that to unlock grandmaster traits?

2. How will partially unlocked characters work with the new system?

I have some characters that have all skills and traits unlocked. I have several others that are missing traits simply because I didn’t have any use for them in the builds I was running. If my character has only unlocked one adept and one master and one grandmaster trait, how will that look in overall progress? Will I lose the access to that grandmaster trait until I go complete more hero challenges?

3. Can my established characters still help my alts unlock traits?

Currently, if I have an excess of skill points on my necromancer (for example) and I want to make a new necromancer, my old one can buy several account bound trait books. Poof, new necromancer has traits unlocked without needing to spend their own skill points.

4. Considering that the removal of stats from trait lines could significantly alter our desired armor/weapons, will we be able to change the gear we have without having to buy it all again?

When magic find was removed from armor/weapons, we were given the one-time ability to choose the new stats (unless I’m misremembering, which is possible due to the fact that I have the memory of a turnip). Is something similar planned for the trait overhaul? As it stands, my berserker gear is useful in many situations — but sometimes I invest points into trait lines that provide extra defense stats (vitality, toughness, healing). If those stats aren’t tied to the trait lines any more, I might want to change out my berserker armor/weapons to be a bit more tanky. Not at all thrilled by the idea of potentially replacing all of the gear on all of my characters.

I’d ask about the excess skill point conversion, but that’s been asked a few times already. I will mention that I have no desire for mystic forge related materials.

1. Are Hero Points account bound? If I acquire Hero Points on one character, can I use those on another character?

2. Are Specialization unlocks Character or Account Bound? If I have two Guardians, do I only have to unlock the Specializations on one of them or do I have to unlock them on both?

Phalanax Warrior has chance to rise and become one hell big monster in pve. When I look at his current traits and think about gs focused warrior with full Strength, Arms and Tactics my heart beats faster as I am man who used to main this class and would love to see potential shenanigans.

My question is: how you see Phalanax Warrior reinterpretation in new trait system. I just hope that traits shifting won’t make him a thrash because I really prefer teamsupporting-might-giving-greatsword-Jesus over pure faceroll dps.

4. Considering that the removal of stats from trait lines could significantly alter our desired armor/weapons, will we be able to change the gear we have without having to buy it all again?

When magic find was removed from armor/weapons, we were given the one-time ability to choose the new stats (unless I’m misremembering, which is possible due to the fact that I have the memory of a turnip). Is something similar planned for the trait overhaul? As it stands, my berserker gear is useful in many situations — but sometimes I invest points into trait lines that provide extra defense stats (vitality, toughness, healing). If those stats aren’t tied to the trait lines any more, I might want to change out my berserker armor/weapons to be a bit more tanky. Not at all thrilled by the idea of potentially replacing all of the gear on all of my characters.
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So much this!

Many characters have almost full berserker sets with the help of traits giving toughness/healing power.. now i have to swap gear for getting these stats more but the problem is that allot of stat combinations are just not great!

I mist options like:

Power(main stat)/prec/tough
Power(main stat)/tough/Ferocity

now you are FORCED into:

Power/prec/tough(main stat)
Power/tough(main stat)//Ferocity

Why not take the stat combinations we have now in the game but let US choice the main stat!

Question: conversion of skill points into hero points/mystic forge material on existing characters.

a) Ele with full world completion, ~500 unspent skill points, and fully unlocked utilities. She has spent a few hundred skill points over the years on materials for ascended crafting and mystic forge recipies. How many hero points and how many mf points will she have after conversion?

• hero points equal to the total level-up plus skill challenges she did plus mf points equal to currently unspent skill points?
• hero points equal to the skill points needed to unlock all her utility skills plus mf points equal to currently unspent skill points? if so, how can she gain more hero points should she need them for elite specs or similar?
• hero points equal to the total level-up plus skill challenges she did plus mf points equal to currently unspent skill points minus skill challenges she did?

b) ranger with full world completion but no unspent skill points (again spent on forge and crafting). How many points will he get?

• hero points equal to the total level-up plus skill challenges he did plus mf points equal to currently unspent skill points?
• hero points equal to the total level-up plus skill challenges he did, but no mf points since he doesn’t have unspent skill points?
• hero points equal to the total level-up plus skill challenges he did but negative mf points since he already spent the extra skill points from challenges?
• hero points equal to the skill points needed to unlock all his utility skills, but no mf points? if so, how can he gain more hero points, since he already did all skill challenges?

c) mesmer with all utilities unlocked from skill point scrolls but no skill challenges done. How many points will she get?

• hero points equal to the level-up points she had gotten so far plus mf points equal to the additional skill points spent on unlocking utilities?
• hero points equal to the level-up points she had gotten so far but no points for additionally unlocked utilities?
• hero points equal to the skill points needed to unlock all utilities (in effect making more hero points available to her than to other characters) but no/negative mf points?

Is there any way you are figuring current trait unlocks into the conversion, accounting for the fact that a number of unlocked traits across the player base were bought from profession trainers for skill points (and gold)?

Phille.7684:

So this means us who already have unlocked all slot skills (key 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0) that needed skillpoints to unlock will have to restart with these new hero challenges? Sit and grind hero points on each character to get what we already had unlocked? Run around do the hero challenges on each character? Sure we will get some hero points as we are lvl 80 but we need more to get them all again. Also (if I understand correctly) slot skills will be tied to a specific specialization track so we will have to grind the whole track maybe to get that one slot skill we might want?

To clarify a bit more what I mean, as there are so many terms. Skills (comes with weapon on keys 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), slotskills (keys 6, 7. 8, 9 and 0), traits, core specialization, specilizations etc that I’m even confused what to call what.

I read/interpret the blog and picture example as we do need to re"earn" SLOT SKILLS as it looks like slot skills are also unlocked with specialization tracks/lines which means using Hero Points (since old skillpoints won’t excist).

Weaponskills (key 1, 2, 3,4 and 5) comes with the weapon just as now I take it.

HOWEVER I can’t see from ANet’s example that you unlock slot skills (key 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0) outside the specialization tracks/lines. I could be wrong BUT If you would, that would also mean you sacrifice/use hero points on slot skills instead of on specializations tracks/lines.

Considering that hero points are limited/fixed on maps, a finite currency (only x amount available) so you can only get a capped/max number of hero points on any character, would mean you couldn’t unlock much if use hero points both for specialization tracks/lines as well as slot skills.

It could be that we who have unlocked certain slot skills might get to keep them but how will that work in new system as some slot skills we have unlocked now might be further into a specialization track and we might not have the lower slot skills in that track unlocked. If so one specilialization track could be locked in the lower levels but have the slot skill further in unlocked just because we had it unlocked already? That would probably be hard to implement and confusing.

How is the armor stat change going to effect celestial armor stats, at current I have a full set of ascended celestial gear so I could use the trait stats to tune my build to a specific way of performing. If traits and stats become unlinked how will that effect the viability of celestial armor builds?

Question: a lot of us ask about boon duration and condition duration due to the change of traits stat, and what about class specific stats , like DS pool of necro , attunament recharge rate of ele and shatter recharge rate of mesmer , that are really importat for these class?

Question: what’s the reasoning behind the shifting towards a more graphic heavy UI? I’ve been noticing this direction, and not only in the 2 screens from the new specializations UI. In my opinion, it’s not really a good choice, but what do I know, so I’m asking To me it’s preferable a clean, functional UI like the one attached, over one this big, with lots of images and icons that maybe I don’t recognize at first glance. It doesn’t seem to me this brings us any closer to build templates, but makes it even harder. You can’t even name traits by number (like II – VI – XI now).

Nike.2631:

Josh Davis.6015:

Hi all,

I’ll be pulling your questions out of Twitch chat, this forum post, and posts all over the forums and having our design team address them.

First the math:

• Right now a single trait line take to 6 points has 418 possible arrangements of traits. Ignoring anything other than 6/6/2 set-ups (and there are many other combinations that have well regarded examples) that gives 31,450,320 traits combinations per class.

• The new system allows a total of 27 arrangements per line. If you like two adept level traits, tough, you can’t have them. Ever. Being locked to exactly 6/6/6 means there is a total of 10 possible unique line combinations bringing the total number of trait set-ups per class to 196,830 (27^3×10). Add another 196,830 for each elite line they introduce.

• At HoT launch including the one elite spec-line per class we are going to drop down to one-eightieth (1/80 or 1.25%) of our current range of choices.

This is not subject to discussion. This is math. Almost 99% of all potential Build Diversity will be annihilated (and I’ve hedged heavily in favor of the new system by ignoring 6/4/2/2 builds and other non-standard but fun/effective set-ups).

Now THE QUESTION:

Was getting rid of bad choices really worth wiping out 99% of all choices?

Nice numbers. Consider also this: just by picking something very basic as a playstyle, (for example, condi build or not) drastically reduces your options.

• If you’re not a condi build, then the trait that increases bleed duration is worthless to you. 27 options in that trait line goes to 18.
• If you are a condi build, then the trait that increases bleed duration is a must-have. 27 options in that line goes to 9!

Think about all those traits that you’d never consider using. Think about all those traits that are not even an option because they’re bugged.

Also, every dev mistake or misstep in creating or implementing traits will have huge negative impact on build diversity, particularly with balance updates coming at best twice a year.

Of course these issues exist currently in the game, but there’s so much more flexibility right now: with the ability to use lower tier traits in a higher tier, the problem is greatly dimished.

I mean seriously, 9 choices in that line just because you chose to play condi?

skullmount.1758:

If skill points are going away, how are we going to get the items from the Mystic forge attendants? Or are those changing to require something other than skill points?

Miyani will probably want the skill point crafting material that will be released.

Question: Why do I have to be a healer just because I want my Ele to be good with cantrips? Cantrips have nothing to do with heals, but trying to get their reduced cooldown trait means I get saddled with all healing-oriented minor traits. Look at the three Water Magic minor traits: Heal, heal, and oh, more heals.

Soothing Mist: You and nearby allies regenerate health while you are attuned to water.
Healing Ripple: Heal nearby allies when attuning to water.
Aquatic Benevolence: Healing done to allies is increased. (25%)

Invictus.1503:

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Since people will most likely ask most questions I have in mind, I will ask the silliest:

Will Elite specializations get their own “profession” icon?

I would be happy to see other icons, to really separate the main profession and the elite specializations

That is answered here:
http://www.tentonhammer.com/news/guild-wars-2/guild-wars-2-heart-thorns-specializations-and-jon-peters-qa

Spoiler…the answer is yes

Didn’t see this interview! Thanks a lot!

(And I’m really happy ^^)

No further questions, your Honor.

Nike.2631:

Question: Why do I have to be a healer just because I want my Ele to be good with cantrips? Cantrips have nothing to do with heals, but trying to get their reduced cooldown trait means I have to take a healing-oriented adept trait, because even with three choices there’s no variety. Look at the three Water Magic Adept traits: Heal, heal, and oh, more heals.

Soothing Mist: You and nearby allies regenerate health while you are attuned to water.
Healing Ripple: Heal nearby allies when attuning to water.
Aquatic Benevolence: Healing done to allies is increased. (25%)

those are non selectable.
the selectable adepts are different.

In unlocking the traits for each reward track, did you guys think about a particular order for traits to unlock? For example, first “defense” traits, then “mixed” traits, then “offense” traits?
I say that because some traits work as “training wheels” for people learning to play the game (like the Ele “Earth’s Embrace”, that works to alert new players when their health is dropping too low). I think it would be more didactic if those traits unlocked first on the reward track, so people can have a learning experience before going “full zerg because it’s the meta”.

phys.7689:

Nike.2631:

Question: Why do I have to be a healer just because I want my Ele to be good with cantrips? Cantrips have nothing to do with heals, but trying to get their reduced cooldown trait means I have to take a healing-oriented adept trait, because even with three choices there’s no variety. Look at the three Water Magic Adept traits: Heal, heal, and oh, more heals.

Soothing Mist: You and nearby allies regenerate health while you are attuned to water.
Healing Ripple: Heal nearby allies when attuning to water.
Aquatic Benevolence: Healing done to allies is increased. (25%)

those are non selectable.
the selectable adepts are different.

Ah. Thanks . That’s simultaneously better and worse. I’m still stuck with a buttload of healing effects just because I wanted cantrips-cooldown, but there is some variety in the adept and grandmaster tier.

I’ll refine the question.

ronpierce.2760:

phys.7689:

Snip

If you run in 4 trees right now you’d be, what, 4/4/4/2/0? I refuse to believe losing 2 points in some tree somehow breaks all possible functionality of a build that can’t be made up for by having 6/6/6 instead. I don’t know of any builds that specific. And while, sure you lose out on some cool builds your way, you’re also gaining the opportunity to make 3 Grandmaster trait builds which was never before possible, which opens up a lot of exciting options. Generally speaking, GMs are more game changing than adept traits you may have spread over 4-5 trait lines.

Just an example
I run my mes as 0 4 4 3 3.It is not a meta build but it is the build I like to play.As of the new xpak this build will be destroyed and all I will be able to run is meta shatter builds.
Grandmaster Mes traits are really garbage when compared to some of the adept and master ones.
This,along with the removal of stats from trait lines and the armor changes,have the potential to completely destroy the game for me.
Adding more stats to armor is not horizontal progression.It is as vertical as it gets.
I can’t really say until I try the new system out myself,but I won’t be buying the xpak until I’ve tried it and made up my mind.
Bad move from Anet….3 years in the game,they only talked about adding 1 more specialization per class,when in fact what they are doing is rebuilding the class system from the ground up.
This could be a different game for all I’m concerned.
I’m really tired of this with GW2.
Every now and then core systems of the game are being completely changed.
I’ve never seen devs discrediting their previous work like GW2 devs do.

Q: HoT day one, I log. Do I have a pool.of heros points to spend OR do I have all the current traits that I have unlocked still unlocked?

Anet are you not afraid that doing this complete overhaul + another profession + specializations will make the game very hard to balance (more then now)?

And as a result, won’t certain trait be very huge targets for nerf, yet they’ve been a global accepted part of a profession (player base wise) and thus will remove a core part of a profession as a result of the balance problem/nerf hunger that comes after it?

For instance Cantrip boosting traits have been merged. That means a third (minor) can be chosen, the frost aura (and regeneration giving trait) in combo with full cantrip traits, I can see possible (not conclusive though) as overpowered combo, especially with Cleansing water. So I repeat the question: Will powerfull combo’s be more allowed then before because there’s more counters/builds then before, or will the non stop nerf hammer (making the game more boring/stale – especially in wvw/pve) Arise again form the dephts?

It seems that the traitlines that boost only one stat, but then a profession corresponding mechanic (always bottom trait line in UI), will considered a specialization on it’s own? It surely will be ‘competing’ with the new specializations in giving the profesisons a new mechanic/special boost. The thing that I wonder is, will you be able to max both these traitlines, and thus superboost two profession mechanics, or will you only be able to spend 1 of these traitlines, and must spend then traits on rest (for example ‘the rest’ in elementalist terms means: Fire, Air, Water Earth. Arcane + sword related new specialization theme trait line = master traitlines? Two specializations?

If the answer is no and traits are 100% free to spend, won’t it be to tempting to just choose Arcane + new traitline to boost the Base of profession superhard, and ignore minor traits with minor impact that are currently in Fire/Air/Earth traitlines?

How much Traits will you Delete? On what will you base the choice to delete traits? Can players start Threads to discuss with ones to keep/delete, and maybe as a solution how to merge them without making them overpowered, rather then leaving all the decision power in Anet hands? In other words, will suggestions of players make it to the Anet Oval office, and more importantly will they be read/listened to?
(fyi in the past i felt this lacking. Anet learned to lissen in a lot of situations – Thanks Gaile!!! – but Balance is a huge problem imo, suggestions are not taken correctly into account imo yet for balance. That being Said Grouche is doing a good job lately I think – up for review still).

That’s it for now, i’ll Edit post if I have more questions.