Guild Wars 2

Hello there, I’m Gerbilforce and I’m a forum lurker. I do not post much, if at all, but I realized that no one has suggested this feature/idea/concept/thingamawhatzit. Now, I hate gear grinds, but also love them, and hate them, and love them (it’s an abusive relationship), so I was thinking, why not drop in a little extra progression to make up for what we don’t have?
The idea would be that, once a character reaches 80, they may work towards a new set of traits aligned in a little web or path of some kind. These traits would be PVE only and mirror those little WvWvW thingamawhatzits that are unlocked as one progresses in WvWvW. They would encompass such unique things as increased movement speed, or increased damage (tiny increases), or new abilities. A general line of post 80 traits, a class line, and even a race line could be designed all rather simply, all they need to do is rehash some of the old code for the traits.
The way this little post 80 bar of traity goodness could increase is by dumping either skill points into it, or doing stuff in the world, or maybe from items that drop every now and then. It should be a slow slog to get it up to max and it should get harder and harder to pump points into it. But, it would give the vertical players something to do, something that can be perceived as meaningful, when, in reality, the weight of each post 80 trait is rather minimal on the character as a whole, so as to keep the horizontals happy. Plus, the system should allow every play style to advance it equally, so no worries in that regard.
Now, I know this flies in the face of that whole “endgame is all game” thingy, but, bear with me, we need something meaningful and weighty and statty at the end, not everyone can live on roleplaying and fluff and shiny armors alone. I personally unlocked my favorite set on my main at level 40, so I’ve got nothing left to do besides hang around and roleplay. It just isn’t enough, sometimes, especially with what seems like the sparseness of open world RPers these days.
Thoughts, suggestions, concerns?
Squeak.

Gerbilforce.4758:

1. (tiny increases)
2. something that can be perceived as meaningful
3. we need something meaningful and weighty and statty

Thoughts, suggestions, concerns?

Yeah, I don’t think that #1 goes with #’s 2 and 3. See the complaints about Ascended Armor not being worth the expense.

That said, I believe that the 3rd GM traits introduced in the April Feature Patch were meant to be a test bed for whether additional traits could serve as an endgame pursuit. The reactions I’ve seen is that a few are mandatory (Phalanx) while the rest are useless.

Getting people to buy into lengthy pursuits that provide minimal benefit is a hard task, and once you make the increase “weighty and meaningful” the non-pursuers get up in arms. Good luck finding a balance.