Guild Wars 2

Is it just me, or does some of the brand new traits that were added to the game a few months ago, seem very useless and out of place (both in terms of location in the tier, as well as the class)?

What’s your thoughts on this?

The meta deems them not worthy. The meta controls all.

They vary greatly. Some of them see a lot of use. Others might as well not exist. Other still have high potential, but due to quirks, just aren’t usable, even though they are quite strong.

For examples of each category, I’ll use the Necro traits that got added.

1. Path of Corruption. This trait gets used a lot in WvW and PvP. Additional boon corruption on a short cooldown is a powerful thing.

2. Parasitic Contagion, Unholy Martyr. These traits are incredibly underwhelming. Parasitic Contagion, for example, is outdone by mango pie in all but the best circumstances. Unholy Martyr pulls conditions too slowly to be useful and, to make matters worse, caps arguably the worst trait line in the entire game.

3. Unholy Sanctuary and Renewing Blast. Unholy Sanctuary is a strong trait, but being in the line that does not have Healing Power limits its usefulness, as well as the fact it can’t be stacked with any other source of healing. Renewing Blast, while not affecting the Necromancer himself, offers the highest sustained healing in the entire game, easily reaching 1k healing/second. However, due to how difficult it is to line up to get those massive heals, this trait never sees use.

Depends on the profession. Fairly sure Warriors got multiple traits that made it into the meta one way or another, as did Rangers.

Mesmers got a massive kick in the teeth, because almost all of the additions managed to look cool enough to inspire mountains of QQ calling for nerfs despite being of little actual use.