Guild Wars 2

A hot topic in this game is the lack of diversity on builds. Almost everyone goes for bezerkerstats and it is considered the most optimum stats.

The reason in my opinion is the lack of defined roles.
Within the trinity you had very clear roles. You where a healer, a tank, DPS or a specialist (e.g. conditions or CC). In GW2 we need to do all those roles and we need to do them in one build. The most effective build is bezerker.

I don’t want to bring the trinity back, but I would like to see the diversity back and the promotion of roles.

Many bezerker builds get the protection and survivabillity from the traitstats and traiteffects.

My solution would be to revamp the whole system and trait effects and what they do. The first step is to remove them from the hero’s panel and also remove the training manuals. instead the stats are added to the armor stats. So instead of getting 300 power from your traits your armor gets boosted by 50 power each (or maybe distribute a bit better to get more from your chest and less from your headgear, but a total of 300). however, you only get this if you use armor with power as primary item
If your armor uses power as the secundary stat it will be a total of 200, and the third stat will be worth 100.

The total amount of stats will be the same, but going beserker will mean you go fully beserker. Depending on the stats, the armor will also recieve a boost. This is a boost equal to the current static trait effect and depends on the class (e.g. Zealot’s speed if you equip a primary power armor piece on a guardian)

runes will work as normal.

All armor will get an extra slot called a ‘traitslot’
The skilltrainers will get replace with trait-traders.
They will sell you traits. and get smart in reading your gear and advising you. The traits they sell are numbered I-II-II-IV-………….-XI-XII. If you are a guardian, and you put trait V on armor with toughness as a primary it will result in the trait Purity (now the toughness trait (valor) V for guardians). If you put it on armor with power as primary it will result in Shattered Aegis (now the power trait (Zeal) V for guardians).

This change should be combined with a rebalance of foes and a rebalance of those traits. Many more traits should have an effect that will also be granted to up to 5 allies.

What does this mean. If running a dungeon with people with only bezerker gear you still do awesome damage, but you will have big trouble to survive and make it to the end. However, bringing e.g. an ele with one Knights armorpiece with trait III (Earth’s Embrace) will result in an ele that will give automaticly armor of earth to all party members who’s health drops below 50%. This will not be enough to save the party, but as you know, each party member can bring an armorpiece that has a different stat then beserker and bring something to the team that helps in surviving. Or you could bring one person with armor and traits that contrate on surviving.

I think this would be a decent solution to bring diversity in builds back to the game.

Why? This would only REMOVE diversity.
Right now I have a very tight tank dedicated fully to support with cleric gear and 0 0 10 30 30.
Your suggestion would remove all the power I need for my main source of damage (retaliation).
It would also be left with a kittenty amount of toughness compared to what I have right now.
I would instead be given tons of vitality which I simply do not want.

In definitive, my condition cleansing, regenerating retaliatory tank would turn into a useless condition sponge which would die to crits and power.

Pleurodesed.7625:

Why? This would only REMOVE diversity.
Right now I have a very tight tank dedicated fully to support with cleric gear and 0 0 10 30 30.
Your suggestion would remove all the power I need for my main source of damage (retaliation).
It would also be left with a kittenty amount of toughness compared to what I have right now.
I would instead be given tons of vitality which I simply do not want.

In definitive, my condition cleansing, regenerating retaliatory tank would turn into a useless condition sponge which would die to crits and power.

You do know that you have 6 gearpieces, and not all have to be Clerics. You can still combine, but now through your gear.

mercury ranique.2170:

You do know that you have 6 gearpieces, and not all have to be Clerics. You can still combine, but now through your gear.

According to your post, though, you would have to select your gear based on what Traits you want. Not what stats support them. This lack of flexibility renders a great many options entirely useless.

There is some interesting ideas to what you presented here. But really, at that point you are going to have to make some fundamental chances to every aspect of the game. It would be the end of the game, as players have never responded well to having an MMO suddenly turned into a different game on them.

I understand what you are saying bout drastic changes. But there is also a lot of complaining bout the current way it is and a big call for changes. I know Anet for a long time. If the nerf off bezerker is not going to work, they will nerf it further and further.

In my proposal you keep full bezerker as a viable build for in a group, but not for every member of the group. Yes it requires people to review their current build. But I think from time to time that is a good thing anyways. But in my opinion it would add more dimension to the game. I loved in GW1 that before doing a task, you needed to communicate with your group. Two ritualist? ok, make sure you don’t have same spirits. Who is going to heal?? Hey, I think we have too less DPS, can anyone change?? It makes a pug (or any dungeon group) more fun instead of seeing an advert on the lfg: ‘p1, zerker only, need mesmer’ and thats all communication to the team. It is not challenging and imo just lame.

This will require people to talk to eachother. And I’m talking bout dungeons but it also goes for WvW (do we have enough ele’s with this special trait in the zerg?? can anyone change). Or for Tequatl (any mesmer with the trait that enhances portal distance so we can portal from the zerg to the megalaser??).

Also I think that a gaming community is more ressiliant then you think. I remember from GW1 that builds and meta changed big timer with every new campaign. Also the introduction off 7 heroes in you party, was widely critised and debated but people adapted quickly and came up with some awesome teambuilds.

I’m not really sure how big the “call for changes” is, to be honest. There are a few people agitating on the forums, I’ll give you that — but it’s nowhere near the numbers that protested Ascended gear.

As to your proposal. First, max armor does not have a primary, secondary and tertiary stat. It has a primary and two secondaries. Ergo, your proposal would result in an allocation (for full soldier, say) of 300 to Power, and 200 each to Toughness and Vitality. This build would get three traits from the profession’s power line and two each from the Toughness and Vitality line. This would limit the player’s choice, providing less build versatility than is currently available.

Currently, that soldier-wearing player may have allocated 30 each to T and V, nothing to P and the extra 10 to the profession’s signature line. By your proposal, if that player wanted the GM trait from the toughness line, he’d have to wear Knight’s, Cavalier, Settler’s or Giver’s, thus pigeon-holing him into trait lines he did not want. Also, by your proposal, he could not get the GM trait from two lines, which is an option now — because Armor has only one primary attribute.

Signature traits would also have to be revamped completely. The profession’s signature mechanic is not represented on armor at all. On some professions, the other half of that line is Boon Duration, which is only represented on Winter and Giver’s armor. Denying players the option to choose traits from the signature line, and to buff their profession mechanic, is not a good idea if you’re trying to promote versatility.

You’d also have the issue of what to do with professions that have two armor stats in one trait line (e.g., Ranger with Precision and Ferocity in the same trait line). Do those people get rooked out of a trait choice or two? Obviously, that would be imbalanced, so further adjustments would have to be made to your plan and/or to trait lines.

Your solution would limit build choices. Tying one build option (traits) to another (armor stats) has to limit choice. This is because one can currently choose trait lines that have nothing to do with one’s choice of armor.