Trap skills in GW2 have always felt more like generic aoe skills, and now Anet is planning to put a delay on when they activate, making them more difficult to land in combat.
Using traps in the middle of combat has always felt way out of place to me. In GW1 traps were something that took a full 5+ seconds to plant, and then there was an activation delay (iirc) and the effect was devastating compared to the fizzle that GW2 traps have. In GW1 you had to plant traps ahead of time before combat in a place that made sense, like a choke point or an objective. They actually behaved like real traps. You couldn’t see them.
Now I’m not suggesting we make traps OP invisible nuclear bomb things, but I think traps should be tweaked to be a little stronger in their debilitating effects (such as cripple, chill, poison, CC, boon strip, etc). And to bring them back to a context consistent with ambushing, or blocking traffic, we should bring back the longer cast time. Maybe 3 seconds? 3-5ish. This would make it clear that these are meant to be applied outside of combat as a means of map control, rather than in-combat generic “fire and forget” aoe skills. There should be some tactics involved, yes?
To help make them less OP there could be a subtle trip wire. Something small and hard to notice if you are busy checking your inventory while running, but easy enough to spot if you pay attention.
Additionally they might consider deactivating a trap if you unequip it from your utility bar after planting it, just to avoid making them this extra thing that has no consequences to the user.