Guild Wars 2

As someone who has been playing since Early Access and logged far more time in the game than I care to admit, it has certainly been a ride watching ANet change things up in anticipation of new features and other things. Someone in my party today in Fractals asked us what our least favorite change was. That got me thinking.

A few have been great, like the #13 grandmasters being added in way back, and a few slightly silly — like unlocking traits — but of every change had been pretty good for the most part. There are others I simply don’t agree with, but I think my biggest gripe remains in the new Specialization system.

While I don’t expect anyone to put stats back into trait lines, I would like to propose a new system of unlocking trait slots that progresses with your character again, as well as providing a vastly greater level of build diversity.

The Basics
Upon completing your introductory mission, you gain access to the Build tab. This shows your current unlocks and your build. The changes are as follows:

• At 1st level, you have access to Adept traits and can slot one Minor and one Major trait.
• At 5th level, and every ten levels thereafter, you unlock another Minor slot, to a maximum of 9 slots at Lv. 75.
• At 10th level, and every ten levels thereafter, you unlock another Major slot, to a maximum of 9 slots at Lv. 80.
• Additionally, at the 80th level, you acquire the “Elite” slot, which allows you to activate an Elite / Specialization / Prestige (whatever you wish to call it), granting access to new weapons, skills, and traits.
• Traits can be freely slotted so long as they are available; by default, this means that as you ascend through the ranks — Adept from 1 to 20, Master from 25 to 50, Grandmaster from 55 to 80 — and acquire access to new traits, you can change them out without be locked into a trait-line.
• An Elite Specialization can be slotted into the final gilded box at the end, expanding your access and changing your profession’s mechanics, icon, and name.

Diagram of Progression
1: 1 Major, 1 Minor, ADEPT
5: 1 major, 2 minor
10: 2 major, 2 minor
15: 2 major, 3 minor
20: 3 major, 3 minor
25: 3 major, 4 minor, MASTER
30: 4 major, 4 minor
35: 4 major, 5 minor
40: 5 major, 5 minor
45: 5 major, 6 minor
50: 6 major, 6 minor
55: 6 major, 7 minor, GRANDMASTER
60: 7 major, 7 minor
65: 7 major, 8 minor
70: 8 major, 8 minor
75: 8 major, 9 minor
80: 9 major, 9 minor, ELITE

(Continued in next post …)

Good for Players
Build diversity and choice. Above all else, this new system would allow players to take exactly the traits they want, how they want (within specific limitations), but otherwise operate exactly as the current system. The two key differences are the ability to freely select traits independent of their current trait lines, and that Elites no longer require the use of the third line.

Greater build diversity also means that meta builds specifically tailored through the more limited Specialization system can be subverted.

Elite Specs are “Free”
Instead of having to slot the last Specialization line (the gold one) to your Elite, you can still use all of your trait lines similarly to how you could in the Pre-2015 system! Moreover, because Elites get their own unique slot, they don’t actually count against you.

Min-maxing Remains a Compromise
Sure you’ll be able to get rid of a bunch of minor (or major) traits you aren’t enthused with, or be able to use your Elite Spec’s weapons and skills without needing to take its traits (or vice versa), but doing so is a trade-off. Current specializations, like their trait-lines before them, are tailored to particular needs and styles of play. Eliminating some can undermine a character despite the seeming appeal of boosting a very niche aspect — such as focusing on Illusion and Phantasm use on a Mesmer to the detriment of their utility and potential.

Works with the Existing System
With how traits, skills, and other things are presently unlocked via the Training tab and Hero Points, this system works with it by allowing a player to dabble across more domains without feeling restricted to a particular one to maximize it — due to the current slow progression of Specializations. Instead, with a new slot unlocked every five levels, players can naturally progress through their chosen trait lines or train others as they explore and conquer in Tyria.

It works out to the same 9 major and 9 minor traits currently available, so there’s no change aside from vastly greater diversity, which has been on a downturn for some time since Specializations went live in Sept. 2015.

More Sense of Growth and Progression
This has the added bonus of providing more immediate goals and a sense of growth that is lacking in the current leveling system. You get a new slot every 5 levels, and two free ones for simply playing. This lets players experiment and grow accustomed to the system without having it dumped in their laps at Lv.21 — and then again at 45 and 71, which is arguably a huge amount of time to wait. When I made my Mesmer, I was seriously frustrated by how awkward it was to be exploring Mount Maelstrom and Orr without my final trait line, only to then experience a third awkward power shift when I then had it fully unlocked (blame lots of map completion).

The new system will grant players short-term goals they can build toward and gives them even more reason to level up and enjoy all the various events, activities, and other modes of play.

This is already their overhauled trait system. It won’t be changing again, I guarantee it.

This could be abused though and people would just take the 3 most powerful traits in each tier instead of being forced to choose between 1 or the other like they are (theoretically, if the traitlines were better balanced this would work better) supposed to do now.

I would rather ANet do something like the following:

• Remove major traits from elite spec lines and incorporate some of those removed effects into the minor traits (the defining ones, not all of them). In essence this should make the minor traits change how you play without directly buffing you too much.

• Add in a 4th traitline slot just for elite specs. No trait options, you just choose which elite spec to slot in and you get everything.

With proper balancing, this would turn elite specs into a true specialization. They would give you a new weapon, new skills, and change how your class is played without taking up a trait slot. It would be a bit more power creep (though that would be easier to control for Anet by not having to worry about which traits people might be using, they would just have to balance the 3 minor traits in each elite spec) sure, but it would also free players up to have much more build variety overall.

They introduced tiers in traits and utility skills back in August 2012. The reasoning, as I remember it, is because people were cherry picking the best ones at low levels. They said people doing that limited build diversity.