Guild Wars 2

1. What exactly is happening to SP’s? Should I buy SP items now or wait until later?

2. What is happening with condition duration? The vast majority of it currently comes from trait lines, where is it being moved to?

3. Will HoT fix traits or just merge them? I find that most of my Necro’s traits and utilities don’t actually work.

Question: What is the point of minor traits if they’re “always included” in the trait line? They should just be removed from the tree and converted to trait line effects.

I’m sort of torn about the Trait change. Some of my builds use minor traits in the adept slot because they are more useful to me or the build or if the adept traits are simply not good. Now, the new system seems to force you into taking exactly 1 minor, adept and grandmaster each.

Question: Did you go through all builds looking for those edgecases already or should I accept that most of my builds won’t work in the future already? And if so, why would you in general strip the game of diversity in the form of possible builds?

As I see it currently those trait changes make characters easier to balance but essentially push classes towards metabuilds even more. A good example would be the rangef or elementalist. Those rely on a big variety of traits to choose from depending on the situation – I would hate to see them having a 0815 standardbuild in the future.

Question:

Why not add some choice to minor traits like that of major traits – specifically to those like that of the ele?
Ie. In gw1 – an ele could camp in a specific element with no downside.
Why not have some minor traits we could select to enable such things?
Same thing could to with taking out pets for rangers – make it a minor in beast mastery

Thank you,

-Phyrak

Well… now we know why Revenants only had 9 traits in each line and were limited to three trait lines during the beta event. That was in fact ALL of their traits for each of those lines.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_revenant_traits

1) Many asked this but I will repeat it, will we be able to use Adept traits in Master / Grandmaster slots and Master traits in Grandmaster slots? If the answer is NO, WHY?

2) I noticed on the Water Magic traits, fall damage reduction was missing. What will happen with fall damage reduction traits?

So, the way I read the blogs was that to get the Specialization trait line you have to give up another trait line so that at any one time you only have 3 trait lines you have access to. Is my understanding correct?

I also read into the Jon Peters interview that the Specializations are more geared towards Control and Support. Is that true of all Specializations? Because if so I’ll just stick to my DPS builds on everything (except my support guardian).

What exactly is happening regarding skill points… I mean I have an almost full stack of them in my bank right now.

The way it seems is you want hero points to be a finite currency per character, so if I spend my skill points on a character that doesn’t yet have all traits (but has all skills) and let them sit as accumulated skill points on that character what will happen to them vs holding on to this stack until the changes go live.

Also, there has been some seriously mixed messaging regarding which part of these changes are HoT exclusive and which will be share with the base game (aside from the obvious bit about elite specializations).

Regarding this mixed messaging, and I quote, “We were told specifically these were features to come in preparation for Heart of Thorns.” So what is the actual official statement on this.

Also, what about racial skills… will they also be subject to being assigned a skill type as the other typeless skills do, or do they perhaps get a type of their own (this would suck, no need to make them even weaker, that said racial skills need a pass of some description because some of them are far more utilitary or plain stronger than the rest… yes take root I am looking at you and then I glance towards my power suit.)

Are the traits changes for core specialisations gonna be released before HoT?

Wooden patatoes is heavily hinting that it will be. Apparently someone from your staff told him they would be.

If it’s true can we get a confirmation?

Grak Steelwall.1230:

Are the traits changes for core specialisations gonna be released before HoT?

Wooden patatoes is heavily hinting that it will be. Apparently someone from your staff told him they would be.

If it’s true can we get a confirmation?

they said the ama will go over every thing.
“This also means we’ll be going over every single trait in their current iteration in our development environment”

Thought up another, more rhetorical one. Do you think that after almost 3 years that is it a wise move to totally recreate a system (some would say for a second time) many of us have used and understood for years?
Also will this change make it easier or harder to design future content for us the players and if not easier, why bother?

Tommyknocker.6089:

Thought up another, more rhetorical one. Do you think that after almost 3 years that is it a wise move to totally recreate a system (some would say for a second time) many of us have used and understood for years?
Also will this change make it easier or harder to design future content for us the players and if not easier, why bother?

they said they think it will be easier to create new elite specializations now.

Tommyknocker.6089:

Thought up another, more rhetorical one. Do you think that after almost 3 years that is it a wise move to totally recreate a system (some would say for a second time) many of us have used and understood for years?
Also will this change make it easier or harder to design future content for us the players and if not easier, why bother?

It is a simpler system, although veterans may not like it completely, they will quickly get use to it. Since it is simpler, there will likely be less of a learning curve for newer players, putting them on par with veterans quicker. It will allow easier balancing because it does have some inherent limitations (can’t combine two “master” traits in a single line now). Finally, it allows for easier integration of new traits as they will just add a trait line, and since those lines will likely be in the form of an Elite Specialization line it is even easier to balance since multiple elites cannot be combined.

So, it seems like a complete win/win from a developer stance. They just have to weather a few months of veteran player complaints (and during that time, many other veterans will help them defend the system too). By this time next year, only the nostalgic people will remember or care about what we have as our current system.

phys.7689:

…snip
they said they think it will be easier to create new elite specializations now.

I was thinking more broadly than just the skills and utilities. I was more focused upon new content as in new dungeons, bosses, fractals, open world content etc. as these are generally things that may require certain builds. As an example I have to carry a few different sets of gear in order to do different content, so what I am asking in this example is will this new system reduce the clutter in my inventory. There are many other ways that moving to a new system could benefit us the players, but if it makes content truly easier to implement, and in return giving us QOL then it is a good move, but if not, then my question is why bother making us get back on the hamster wheel as we did in the NPE.

I am deeply concerned about how the Hero Point system will affect WvW-centric players.

Since Hero Points will exclusively be attainable through what is known at the moment as Skill Challenges, and the lack of those Skill Challenges in WvW will force many to play PVE to get all their skills and traits back, will WvW offer appropriate methods of gaining hero points at a comparable pace and difficulty as PvE will offer??, because this is a pretty critical point for people that have no interest whatsoever in playing PvE.

Hello, thanks for interesting blog post. Here are my questions in no particular order.

1) Are you open to the idea of changing major trait choice back to resemble current system, where you can choose 3 adept traits?
I believe this option allows for far more meaningful choice, because rather than choosing from 3 grandmaster traits you can choose to whether have a grandmaster trait at all, which is much more satisfying.

2) What is the purpose behind small trait/major trait alternation in the specialisation track? In my opinion this is a remnant of a current system that the new design can live without.

So instead of this alternation you can have two lines in the specialisation “brick”- one of minor traits, and one of major trait slots. This way you can have more or even less than exactly 3 minor traits (which can be usefull to provide more fullfilling experience with unlocking more things for new players) and all passive non-choosable bonuses will be clearly seen on the page of specialisation.

3) Since you have returned to the idea of “not more than one elite X” in the case of specialisations, are you open to the idea of giving players option to pick regular utility skill instead of elite skill?

I believe this will allow for far more meaningful choice of skill set, since rather than choosing what elite skill to have we will have in addition more impactful choice of whether to have elite skill at all.

Invictus.1503:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Thought up another, more rhetorical one. Do you think that after almost 3 years that is it a wise move to totally recreate a system (some would say for a second time) many of us have used and understood for years?
Also will this change make it easier or harder to design future content for us the players and if not easier, why bother?

It is a simpler system, although veterans may not like it completely, they will quickly get use to it. Since it is simpler, there will likely be less of a learning curve for newer players, putting them on par with veterans quicker. It will allow easier balancing because it does have some inherent limitations (can’t combine two “master” traits in a single line now). Finally, it allows for easier integration of new traits as they will just add a trait line, and since those lines will likely be in the form of an Elite Specialization line it is even easier to balance since multiple elites cannot be combined.

So, it seems like a complete win/win from a developer stance. They just have to weather a few months of veteran player complaints (and during that time, many other veterans will help them defend the system too). By this time next year, only the nostalgic people will remember or care about what we have as our current system.

it wont be the end of the world, but if you had an off the road build, there is a high chance that it will dissapear.

most of my alts were just for fun, and had those type of builds. Just for fun builds will die. there isnt room for both with only 3 choices per teir and only 3 lines

RapidSausage.4620:

I am deeply concerned about how the Hero Point system will affect WvW-centric players.

Since Hero Points will exclusively be attainable through what is known at the moment as Skill Challenges, and the lack of those Skill Challenges in WvW will force many to play PVE to get all their skills and traits back, will WvW offer appropriate methods of gaining hero points at a comparable pace and difficulty as PvE will offer??, because this is a pretty critical point for people that have no interest whatsoever in playing PvE.

They have added an AMA thread in the WvW forum section:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Ready-Up-4-24-Specializations-AMA/first#post4999434

It would appear that you are not alone in your concerns, I would also like to know.

Question 1: Am I correct in understanding that, if I want an existing character to be as prepared for the change as possible, I should hit all of the skill points that show up on the map that I can? And these will translate to Hero Points for them to spend?

Question 2: Does this system make it easier for people with alts to get them up to speed, or do they have to claim the hero points all over again for themselves? If it makes it easier, how?

Question 3: Can Elite Specializations be accessed before level 80? If so, does it require a level 80 of the same class to unlock it first (as per Question 2)?

Question 4: Will racial skills be unlocked at specific levels now? If not, then how?

Question 5: How many Hero Points will it take to complete a single track?

phys.7689:

Invictus.1503:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Thought up another, more rhetorical one. Do you think that after almost 3 years that is it a wise move to totally recreate a system (some would say for a second time) many of us have used and understood for years?
Also will this change make it easier or harder to design future content for us the players and if not easier, why bother?

It is a simpler system, although veterans may not like it completely, they will quickly get use to it. Since it is simpler, there will likely be less of a learning curve for newer players, putting them on par with veterans quicker. It will allow easier balancing because it does have some inherent limitations (can’t combine two “master” traits in a single line now). Finally, it allows for easier integration of new traits as they will just add a trait line, and since those lines will likely be in the form of an Elite Specialization line it is even easier to balance since multiple elites cannot be combined.

So, it seems like a complete win/win from a developer stance. They just have to weather a few months of veteran player complaints (and during that time, many other veterans will help them defend the system too). By this time next year, only the nostalgic people will remember or care about what we have as our current system.

it wont be the end of the world, but if you had an off the road build, there is a high chance that it will dissapear.

most of my alts were just for fun, and had those type of builds. Just for fun builds will die. there isnt room for both with only 3 choices per teir and only 3 lines

And you have no idea how much this saddens me. I love nothing better than designing builds for specific purposes and have, it’s true, woken up at 3 in the morning after thinking up ways to make X work with Y and then trying it out on GW2SKILLS.NET.

Time will tell with the AMA this afternoon, but if the new system is dumbed down to much I may just as well be a <insert X class> clone.

Guys, can we perhaps move the discussion of implications of the changes to another thread and keep this one focused on lists of questions for the AMA? It’s going to be hard for the AMA people to catch some of the questions in the last couple of pages since they’re surrounded by debate about build diversity.

Hello, thanks for the AMA and all the information.
What I liked about the current trait acquisition, is that you have to go into the world to earn them. My question is focused on how we, as players, acquire core specializations and elite specializations:

When HoT is live, will be have some incentive to go into the world and unlock the specializations in some way, rather than checking a box to activate the track?

For example: I imagined that for acquiring your class specialization, you’d have to interact with npc’s to do open world challenges or having to complete personal instances where they learn you how to use a new weapons, before we can invest points into the specialization.
Since there was nothing about this on information given to us earlier this week. Will the acquisition of core and elite specializations tie into the experience of character progression in a way that we are encouraged to challenge ourself?

Donari.5237:

Guys, can we perhaps move the discussion of implications of the changes to another thread and keep this one focused on lists of questions for the AMA? It’s going to be hard for the AMA people to catch some of the questions in the last couple of pages since they’re surrounded by debate about build diversity.

To be fair, build diversity IS a topic they should be asked about.
Especially since its one of the major selling points in GW2.
Your build is what also set you apart from people of the same profession.
Your traits (if you chose to do so) made you unique, different and changed how you played compared to others.
It’s one of the reasons making multiple characters isn’t stagnant and boring, because you could practically always try something new and make something unique.

They should be asked about it, sure — but these posts haven’t been asking questions, they’ve been stating opinions.

Kingroad, interesting question. They’d have to balance it far better than they did the current trait unlocks, so it is organic and easy to get to where one does the challenge to unlock the line.

But if there is a world-action-unlock component, will that be required of established characters? This brings us back to the question of just what will be grandfathered in. A clear statement on that will help immensely, because many of us have a lot of alts to work on to put in our preferred status for the changeover.

Corollary: When do you anticipate making this change? How much time will we have to go skill challenge gathering or skill scroll converting, assuming your other answers make it clear what the pros and cons are of holding onto the skill scrolls?

One more from me.

Question 6: Looking at the picture of the Water Magic track, it appears that each skill type is on a track of its own. Is this correct, and we have to do separate tracks to get our skills?

How will the loss of Boon Duration and Condition Duration be accounted for? There currently are not very good options for those stats in gear compared to every other stat in the game.

Are the Devs looking into quirkier builds that span 4 or 5 trait lines for specific traits to try to still have them available in 3 specializations? For example in PvE I run a Gaurdian that took every single trait available that gives or boosts retaliation. This build spans 4 trait lines and in some cases takes 2 adept traits. Will this type of build still work when restricted to 3 specializations and we are unable to take 2 adepts?

With this new specialization system are Devs taking this opportunity to look at builds they seem to want in the game, but are generally considered “UP”. For example, I love the idea of a venom thieves. The current problem is that not only do you find yourself taking only venom skills but you have to sink a ton of traits to make it work and it still comes up short and are rather defenseless compared to thieves with lots of stealth abilities. The 3rd grandmaster will certainly help, but will you have to commit to 2 specializations just to make it work?

I’m sure it’s been asked already, but here’s another person who wants to know what will happen to racial skills in the changes. Please can this get answered in the show at some point?

My Question

The concern has been expressed before that Elite Specializations will stifle choice by having capabilities that render any core profession as outclassed—essentially that there would be no reason not to pick up an Elite Specialization. These concerns had, to my recollection, been rebuffed. Now that we can see what the intent for Specializations is at the present iteration, my question is as follows:

How are you going to achieve parity between Elite Specializations and Core Specializations when the advantages are clearly stacked in favor of one over the other?

Both have the same opportunity cost, but one allots the player a set of traits while the other allots the player a set of traits, the availability of a new set of weapon skills, a new set of utility skills, and a new heal skill. Are they supposed to be equivalent, or are Elite Specializations supposed to be a no-brainer?

Question 7: Will it be possible to double up on a Specialization? Example: An Elementalist going Water/Water/Arcane? While I strongly suspect the answer is “No”, I feel it’s worth getting it clarified.

Palador.2170:

Question 7: Will it be possible to double up on a Specialization? Example: An Elementalist going Water/Water/Arcane? While I strongly suspect the answer is “No”, I feel it’s worth getting it clarified.

If that was actually an option, that could open up some interesting build combinations.
Sadly, doubt it, but still a cool idea!

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

Like others I am a bit concerned with build diversity, in a couple ways.

Part 1:
Decoupling stats from traits seems like a good idea on paper, but in spvp and WvW there are quite a few builds that rely on those stats from traits to create effective hybrids. Considering that spvp stat diversity is the most extremely limited in the game at present because everything is in the amulet now, how does Anet plan on dealing with this? Will we see a return of the “gem” component of the amulet? As far as WvW goes, changing a few pieces of ascended gear is likely to be extremely expensive, upwards of several hundred gold per character, just to get back to where we are now. That isn’t going to make WvW players happy.

Part 2:
Again, many people regularly use double Adept or Double Master traits in builds, or situationally. This seems like it will not be possible in the new system. The only way that I can think of to cover this is if those commonly used Adept/Master traits are the ones that will now become baseline.

Part 3:

I am also concerned about the skill point conversion. Are we going to get something like “crystalized experience” that replaces all other skill points, whether on scrolls or currently on characters? If so, is this finally going to go into the wallet where it belongs? I definitely would prefer to have a choice over what I got from my (large) stockpile of skill points.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

most logical guess, fall damage will be tied to some core mastery. The special effects other than reduction will probably disapear

From looking at the screenshot which was in the specializations part one primer i can see a tab with a sword, does this mean we will get more weapon skills and even get to choose which weapon skills we equip?

i also am a little skeptical about the new unlocking method. on the surface it looks great compared to the “go kill so and so” or “find the treasure hidden under the sea in brisban wildlands” type stuff. on the surface, you pick a specialization (trait line) and then spend points to unlock the traits IN ORDER. for a lot of my alts, i didn’t bother earning any traits that i didn’t plan on using in the build. for example, my dual wield warrior has unlocked exactly 9 traits. 7 of them were intentional, as they were for the build. the other two happened to be rewards for content that i did. my point, is that for that warrior, i bought 1 adept major, 1 master major, and one grandmaster major trait for each of two lines. i didn’t get all 13 traits for each of those lines. under the new system, it appears, that if i want the grandmaster traits, i have to unlock ALL the adept and ALL the master traits first, THEN i can unlock the GM traits. ugh. i could be mistaken, but that’s the impression i get from the screenshot.

my Q is: if i already have certain specific traits unlocked for my dual wield warrior, will those specific traits be grandfathered in to the new system, or will i have to unlock all the traits in order, (ie unlock trait 1, then trait 2, then trait 3, etc) for each specialization all over again, instead of having my already unlocked traits available when HoT launches?

Eolirin.1830:

Are racial skills going away?

I hope not, I enjoy my seed turrets.

phys.7689:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

most logical guess, fall damage will be tied to some core mastery. The special effects other than reduction will probably disapear

I like the idea of moving fall damage traits to a mastery line. I hate having to keep switching to/from my fall damage trait when I want to cliff jump.

Question:
In your “Specializations, Part Two: Reward Tracks and Elite Specializations” post, you show an image for “Profession Reward Tracks” with a circle for Water Magic for the Elementalist. My impression is that you have to traverse the entire circle to get the skills/traits you want. My question is, is this true? If so, that means I am forced to spend my finite Hero Points on skills/traits I don’t want, just to get the ones I want.

khani.4786:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

[…]

I like the idea of moving fall damage traits to a mastery line. I hate having to keep switching to/from my fall damage trait when I want to cliff jump.

Thing is, IIRC, masteries will only work in PvE, and fall damage reduction is also useful in WvW. That would be a shame to have it only in PvE, I think.

Let’s turn that into a question for today’s stream: Will damage reduction traits be removed completely? Or do you intend to move it to another system or have it in another form?

My questions:
- When this system kicks in, will existing characters get hero points depending on their level and the number of skill challenges they already cleared? Or will we have to clear skill challenges again to earn enough hero points to unlock everything?

- You said the skill points we have in excess will be turned into crafting materials for the mystic forge. Will we be able to choose which materials we will get, so we don’t end up with materials we have no use for?

- How will we able to buy crafting materials from Miyani or upgrade siege weapons without skill points?

- What will happen to scrolls of knowledge? Will they turn into crafting materials as well?

Thanks for doing this AMA and for the work you put in for this expansion pack. I’ll definitely be watching PoI on Twitch today, so good luck!

Questions:

• So we can no longer select a trait from a lower tier in place of one from a higher tier?
• Are there any plans on allowing specializations to select multiple traits from the same tier? Aka 2 Master traits versus 1 Master/1 Grandmaster.
• Are there any plans to allow players to select varying traits for the minor traits?
• Is there any consideration to allow players to select a trait from lower tier to replace the fixed minor traits?
• How do you see this system being easier for players with multiple characters? Are hero points account bound?
• Are players forced into using the same specializations if they have 2 characters of the same class?
• Can a player achieve enough hero points to unlock all specializations even if they can have only 3 active?
• For people that were using more than 3 trait lines, are there any options available to them?
• Players will be limited in the number of specialization until they are level 80 at which time they can only employ 3 at a time?
• If Hero Points are limited, does this means some options will never be available to an account or a character? Can Hero Point be re-traited?
• Where are the secondary effects of a trait line going? Example Condition Duration , Boon Duration? Or are these moving to armors as well?
• Is the new crafting material that is replacing skill points something that will be stored in the wallet or at least in a location that is not limited in space requirements?

Thanks!

New question:
I am a player who likes to tinker with builds and also enjoys a bit of self-harm. So, I run with a 2-3-3-3-3 mesmer build who dies every time a friendly NPC sneezes near him.
Will I be able to run with my suicide mesmer build on the new system?
If not, I WILL LEAVE THE GAME FOREVER AND NEVER LOOK BACK GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD!

Devs: We’ll miss you!

Me: But you don’t have to lose me, all you have to do is leave me with my self-harm mesmer build and…

Devs: We won’t really miss you.

Me: Ok then .

Will the new healing, utility, and elite skills synergize with the new Elite Specialization trait line to the point that when selecting the Elite Specialization, we will almost always want to select the new skills in our 6-10 slots? Or will the existing utility skills still be viable with the Elite Specialization?

Question:

Will we finally get a build system that I can clicka button and it instantly puts on my traits/skills where I have programmed them to be? Build Rememberer… I forget what it’s commonly called.

That’d be spiffy.

DDCarvalho.2071:

New question:
I am a player who likes to tinker with builds and also enjoys a bit of self-harm. So, I run with a 2-3-3-3-3 mesmer build who dies every time a friendly NPC sneezes near him.
Will I be able to run with my suicide mesmer build on the new system?
If not, I WILL LEAVE THE GAME FOREVER AND NEVER LOOK BACK GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD!

Devs: We’ll miss you!

Me: But you don’t have to lose me, all you have to do is leave me with my self-harm mesmer build and…

Devs: We won’t really miss you.

Me: Ok then .

LOL! I too can’t help but see this as being worse than the N.P.E. changes. The majority of my builds do not use GM traits but, multiple minor and major ones. I also rarely max out lines but spend points across multiple ones.

As someone with several accounts and over 40 characters, I’m concerned how much these potential changes may fubar everything I’ve built since launch.

Also a big one is, superior siege creation without skill points.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Question:

Will we finally get a build system that I can clicka button and it instantly puts on my traits/skills where I have programmed them to be? Build Rememberer… I forget what it’s commonly called.

That’d be spiffy.

Build templates

phys.7689:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

most logical guess, fall damage will be tied to some core mastery. The special effects other than reduction will probably disapear

Take this info as you will, but Revenant beta tests showed to have a Fall reduction trait option. This information might now be out of date.

phys.7689:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Q: Will the fall damage trait be removed and implemented into each class as a basic class feature?

most logical guess, fall damage will be tied to some core mastery. The special effects other than reduction will probably disapear

A Warrior without Death from Above available is choc full of fail. Bad Dev’s, bad….

DeWolfe.2174:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Question:

Will we finally get a build system that I can clicka button and it instantly puts on my traits/skills where I have programmed them to be? Build Rememberer… I forget what it’s commonly called.

That’d be spiffy.

Build templates

Yes. That. Build Templates. That’s what we’re going to need and have needed for quite some time.

Just under 30 minutes until the AMA begins! I hope they’re still taking questions; if so, if you have new ones you may want to put them in now.

A simple version of the hero point concerns:

What percentage of skill/hero challenges in the world is a level 80 character going to need to complete to fully unlock all build options (including the elite specialization)?

A ballpark percentage is fine, I just want to know if it’s going to be on the order of 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%.

Engineer Questions:
1. Some traits for the engineer such as deployable turrets (allowing you to ground target turret positions), -33% dmg reduction for turrets and +% dmg and range on turrets are in different trait lines at the moment. Will this and similarly dispersed but related traits be all consolidated into one trait line?

2. Can some of the ways that the engineer is being made more viable, specifically to front line roles, in WvW be discussed?

3. Engineers are very good at controlling an area and manipulating the flow of battles, will we see an engineer elite skill that could be influential in WvW group fights with this kind of focus?