Guild Wars 2

Is there anything ArenaNet could add or change to tempt you into creating a new character?

I currently have only three characters. My plan was two characters per campaign (Tyria, Elona, and Cantha) with a third that runs all three.

However, posts in the Cantha thread on this board make it sound like NCSoft said no to a return to Cantha and with five elder dragons running around it will likely be a long time before we see Elona again.

With the current status of the game there is no good reason for me to create a 4th and 5th character.

However, if ArenaNet where to:

1. Give us access to Elona complete with a new starting zone and return of the Paragon and Devish classes,

2. Let us use our alternate characters as mercenaries while running dungeons,

3. Add dual-classing to Guild Wars 2,

I’d likely add new characters.

What about you? What would get you to create new characters?

new race,profession

Personally I’m stockpiling experience scrolls until I can power level a character up to the point I get the epic utility skill unlocked.

New heavy profession would get me to make a new character, and then shudder at finally seeing the horror of the new trait system first hand.

I’d be hard-pressed to try any new class or race given the current leveling system. But I might be tempted if they added ritualist or something similar.

But, even so, I suspect only a return to the original leveling system, or something closer to it, would be the only fix.

A new race/class though I’m currently leveling up a ranger and the leveling process isn’t bad except for the trait unlocks—that sucks and will cost a lot of gold. All I do to level him up is EOTM which does not unlock a lot of traits.

I do like getting something every level and as far as weapon skills, personal story unlocks—I really don’t care about those. The trait unlocks really burn me though as I don’t want to run around and do that content again. I don’t like it when games “make” me do something or else it’s all your gold, or no soup for you.

Either that or offer trait unlock alternatives for EOTM and WvW where most alts tend to be. There is a point where most players stop PVE and dangling a trait isn’t going to work.

I make 80s all the time… 3 x engineers, 3 x Necros, 2x warriors and 2 x guardians and a few singles.

Leveling is pretty decent for the most part.

A new plate class would be good:)

The removal of the NPE.

I’m dead serious.

Rangelost.4857:

The removal of the NPE.

I’m dead serious.

Ditto, that and new race/profession

Revert the trait system to the original.

4thing the trait system rework. I play games to have fun, and repeating content that I may or may not like for the nth time to unlock a game feature is not fun.

Account wide trait unlocks would work with the current system instead of having to unlock by character. Or making most of the unlocks easy and something that’s part of natural play at the targeted level. But the current system is a waste of time or money.

Kentaine.4692:

New heavy profession would get me to make a new character, and then shudder at finally seeing the horror of the new trait system first hand.

wanna prepare for it that it doesnt hurt that much anymore? Take an apple, smash a window, take the shards, stick em into the apple, eat the apple. You only gonna find the trait system moderate annoying then.

But jokes aside.. and back to the question.

What would get me to level an alt? The need to have a heavy for the armor that most likely comes with the next patch, most likely i gonna make a guardian cause i got none so far, but i gonna wait cause that armor does look pretty “weird”…maybe it does hint a new heavy class, so or so.. the armor alone encourages me to do this one last time.

I don’t know now. I bought a spare character slot over a year ago when they went on sale for any new profession/race. But the trait thing is really making me think twice. My others are fully traited so I can switch builds easily at will. Knowing how much of a struggle in time, skill points, or gold it would take to get the same is a major, major disincentive.

I’d say either new race/profession, or reversion of the traits system. I used to make new alts all the time, I always had someone I was leveling at least via the dailies. But I decided to test the new system and made a male asura necromancer (I hadn’t done male asura yet, and wanted to see the alternate future PS). It may be because I’m really not into RPing asura (I can’t do really good science babble), but I have felt little joy in playing him even though I have had some RP scenes to inject interest. I look at what I have to do to get my desired traits and it’s just not doable — like level 80 content to get a level 60 trait. Or the WvW JP — yeah no. I flat out bought my fall damage trait, but I’m not pleased at using up all my skill points getting traits while I’m still getting utilities.

So I’ve just stopped on him. Now and then he gets the XP scrolls out of the new dailies, but I don’t see much future in him nor have I interest in making another alt under the new system. The only reason he’s 60 is I got him 20 levels in the Mad King’s Labyrinth.

I have 13 80’s, guess that’s it for me for a good while.

I’m currently levelling two new characters, my first warrior and a 2nd guardian. The NPE gets a lot of grief, but frankly it really isn’t much of an issue and the rewards can include some nice items.

I haven’t hit the reported issues with the trait system yet, the warrior has grandfathered traits from the old system and the guardian has only just gotten to the point where traits are available, but has already unlocked a trait from doing events while levelling.

I also have confidence that the devs will take another pass at the traits system, as I like the idea of hunting traits in the open world, but characters should have enough traits available (or easily accessible) while levelling to have some choices on build. I’m okay with specific builds requiring you to unlock a few traits, and this is a great mechanism for adding new traits, but there should be some core traits that don’t need to be unlocked IMO.

Rangelost.4857:

The removal of the NPE.

I’m dead serious.

This. And until this, making a new character with the serious intention of actually playing it will get so much of my Nope that if Nope were a tangible substance, they’d be able to fill all the empty spaces in the galaxy with it.

There would be so much Nope that physics itself would break down, universal constants would fail and the sheer mass of all the Nope would collectively destabilize time itself, resulting in theoretical anomalies and paradoxes of unimaginable immensity.

I couldn’t give a crap less about the little rewards at every level-up. They made unlocking traits the most tedious list of chores I’ve ever seen any game system in any MMO in the history of ever just up and turned into one day, after it’d been very not-tedious for quite some time.

A new character? Reverting or reworking the trait system.

naiasonod.9265:

Rangelost.4857:

The removal of the NPE.

I’m dead serious.

This. And until this, making a new character with the serious intention of actually playing it will get so much of my Nope that if Nope were a tangible substance, they’d be able to fill all the empty spaces in the galaxy with it.

There would be so much Nope that physics itself would break down, universal constants would fail and the sheer mass of all the Nope would collectively destabilize time itself, resulting in theoretical anomalies and paradoxes of unimaginable immensity.

I couldn’t give a crap less about the little rewards at every level-up. They made unlocking traits the most tedious list of chores I’ve ever seen any game system in any MMO in the history of ever just up and turned into one day, after it’d been very not-tedious for quite some time.

The trait rework wasn’t part of the NPE, it came earlier in the April patch.

its kind of lumped together for most people because its part of that process

A complete overhaul of the trait system. I’d roll a new profession, as well, but probably only long enough to see how it plays. And I’m certainly not buying any new character slots until the traits are fixed.

Fixing trait acquisition.

Allowing upscaling in PvE would be nice for veterans of this game, especially since it was something GW2 was originally supposed to feature. Maybe if you get 100% zone completion, all alts can get upscaled in that particular zone.

They’d have to seriously rework the trait acquisition system and the NPE, before I would even consider making another alt. Even all the XP scrolls, etc… that we get from dailies are not enough. There would still be the (IMO very broken) trait acquisition system to deal with.

Reverting the trait system would be a good start.

Either a new race, profession or new faces and hairstyles, which i don’t know why they stopped making new faces and hairstyles because they allow for so much more unique characters. Oh and if they increased the amount of options for players body and race subjective things like horns, or skin patterns i would love that soooo much, but hey this is Anet so we will probably never get it. As of right now i already have 4 asuran 2 sylvaris and 1 of the each other race. Actually if Anet made the character slots cheap as chips than i would buy more as well although i wouldn’t play them.

X T D.6458:

new race,profession

This.

. . . probably achievements. Or new (seriously new) starter content.

I’m just waiting for a character slot sale.

Revert the trait system to what it was before but allow us to still change traits on the fly, remove the nonsense NPE and we have a deal.

I honestly don’t think Anet will reverse the trait acquisition system. I’d be happy if they improved it…but it would have to be a significant improvement.

Vayne.8563:

I honestly don’t think Anet will reverse the trait acquisition system. I’d be happy if they improved it…but it would have to be a significant improvement.

I don’t either but I still think it would be the best choice. They have been repeatedly using the excuse of things being too complicated/difficult for newer players to nuke a lot of the things that a huge amount of people like[d] and I’m sick of it.

There were problems with traits in the past, of course, but there’s pretty much nothing good about the new system other than that we can change them wherever we please.

If the trait system was too complicated before, then implementing a proper tutorial for them would’ve sufficed.

Change for the sake of change isn’t good change.

New race/profession…….I have 9 level 80’s already.

I have nine 80s, one of which I created a month ago, and I’m currently leveling a tenth (which I plan on leaving at 50 so I can get lower level mats).

I didn’t have any problems with the NPE and would gladly level another one. I might try leveling another ele, since I found I learned a lot about my mesmer by leveling a second.

when the profession/weapon balance gets fixed
and they make the trait system more difficult
ouch.. see what i did there?

Purple Miku.7032:

Vayne.8563:

I honestly don’t think Anet will reverse the trait acquisition system. I’d be happy if they improved it…but it would have to be a significant improvement.

I don’t either but I still think it would be the best choice. They have been repeatedly using the excuse of things being too complicated/difficult for newer players to nuke a lot of the things that a huge amount of people like[d] and I’m sick of it.

There were problems with traits in the past, of course, but there’s pretty much nothing good about the new system other than that we can change them wherever we please.

If the trait system was too complicated before, then implementing a proper tutorial for them would’ve sufficed.

Change for the sake of change isn’t good change.

I don’t believe that the change was just for the sake of change. There was reasoning behind it.

One of the consistent complaints since launch is that as you’re leveling you feel no real sense of advancement. Getting to 80 isn’t even special.

So they moved unlocking that last tier of traits to 80. They tried to create a feeling that you’re actually working to unlock stuff. It was badly implemented, but it wasn’t a change just to change things.

It was a change to act on the leveling complaints.

I dont mind the concept of the trait acquisition, it just really needs major tweaking. Too many bugged events that need to be changed, and seriously overgrown grub for a grandmaster trait seriously??? Nobody ever does that even when blue in EB. Wouldnt hurt if they made it account wide as well, or so you dont have to unlock all those many traits on each new toon. Maybe lower fees. Ehh its just a mess atm.

Character slots go on sale.

My hope is hinged on that statement Colin made about something they’re working on that will help out people who have a lot of alts. I hope we don’t have too long to wait, considering that the trait update was April 15th. That’s a long time to go with something that affects the game so negatively for so many.

Im guessing the next features patch, assuming there is one, will have something about it, maybe in a couple months :/

I have seven, all except engi, so it doesn’t take much. But I haven’t really gotten on with ele because it’s too twitch for my slow old fingers to do it justice, and people say engi is similar. So maybe it’ll happen at the next sale, maybe not.

Things that would increase the chances…
- Reports that engi has become less fingers, more brains (not to suggest that there’s anything dumb about it now)
- Yes, a trait rework. I’ve only unlocked the bare minimum of traits on my four post-April characters, still haven’t got RHS on the Guardian who made 80 months ago. One day this is going to haunt me.
- I can live with NPE since I have a couple of level to 20 scrolls which gets past the daft stuff like no vistas.
- If I collect some more +1 level scrolls from daily login, that’ll help.
- A new profession would have my attention.

Short of a instant level 80 scroll that also grants + 500g + 500 Sp or unlocks all traits ..

thats with no changes to the NPE or trait system…

Even with a new profession or race i don’t think i could struggle through the labors of leveling and hunting down all the traits just to test and see what is or isnt viable or completely useless and broken or bugged…

I did create new characters lately.

In another MMO though.

Make more? I just deleted 6!

Actually, I did make another, saw the lack of traits I had at level 20, and realised that I was only going to make this Engineer exactly the same as my others, so deleted it.

But what would make me make another?

1. reversion of the trait system, or making the acquisition tasks suitable to their tier level
2. a new profession (don’t care about races)
3. restriction of Ascended to Exotic stats or elevation of exotic to Ascended. Maybe if there was a way to transmute exotic to Ascended at maybe 5 transmutes per change…

I make new temporary characters all the time.

But I’m probably not going to make a new permanent character until they add a new race or profession I want to play. I have 5 already – one of each race and all different professions. The one’s I’m not currently playing are ones I’ve tried and never really got into.

The trait system doesn’t bother me, it’s not great but I can see what they tried to do – before that was added lots of people kept saying they wanted something like the skill acquision in GW1 where you had to complete quests or find specific NPCs to unlock new skills. I guess it’s not actually what GW2 players wanted after all.

Ascended armor also doesn’t bother me because I’ve never been that worried about having the absolute best stats, especially since the whole game is balanced around exotics. I made an ascended coat for my main because I liked the skin but other than that I’ve just got rings and the odd accessory so far.

Trait acquisition needs to be more to my tastes and it should be possible to do dailies on low level alts again. In other words, I’ll probably never create a new character because I can’t see them backtrack on both issues.

Many new skills/weapons/traits for every current class, new classes, new races.

Revert the trait system. In fact I would have bought at least two new character slots last time they were on sale (Black Friday I think it was) if it hadn’t been for that.

Well probably only when my engi get access to more weapons and I will need some extra exploration gifts.

From most to less important:

New classes.
New skills.
New weapon combinations.
New campaigns.
Varieties in gameplay (aka “no forced meta”).
New races and stories.

Danikat.8537:

I make new temporary characters all the time.

But I’m probably not going to make a new permanent character until they add a new race or profession I want to play. I have 5 already – one of each race and all different professions. The one’s I’m not currently playing are ones I’ve tried and never really got into.

The trait system doesn’t bother me, it’s not great but I can see what they tried to do – before that was added lots of people kept saying they wanted something like the skill acquision in GW1 where you had to complete quests or find specific NPCs to unlock new skills. I guess it’s not actually what GW2 players wanted after all.

Ascended armor also doesn’t bother me because I’ve never been that worried about having the absolute best stats, especially since the whole game is balanced around exotics. I made an ascended coat for my main because I liked the skin but other than that I’ve just got rings and the odd accessory so far.

You nailed it right on the head without seeing it mate.
People wouldent be against the trait hunting if it was for NEW traits but what they did was butcher the old ones and lock most of them down ( making new players have less choice) instead of adding new ones for everyone to unlock.

Still have only unlocked the karka one on all my 7 80s but thats becouse im lazy

Nothing would tempt me, leveling turned grind, skills now have to be bought or unlocked per char and the last thing i want to do is pve for levels.

i’d rather use the 350 ish tomes to level, rob one of the kids in LA and buy my traits.

but it will never happen because i maxed my chars maxed the game and maxed out endgame.

iow only thing to achieve is legendaries, and we all know that won’t ever happen unless you buy your gold.

so.. Meh.. got better things to do, like complaining on the forum.