Guild Wars 2

1) You need to have the Elite Specialization equipped to use the corresponding weapon(Dragonhunter to use Longbow).
2) Due to this, you are forced to take the 3 Minor traits in that Elite Spec line(Dragonhunter) if you want to use said weapon(Longbow).
3) The Dragonhunter Minor trait Pure of Sight is badly designed.
“Deal bonus damage to enemies beyond the range threshold.”

I am going to explain in much details, so please bear with me(or skip to tl;dr at the bottom).

Now for the explanations, I will give you an example of how to badly design a Minor trait, then compare it to Pure of Sight to show that it fits that same category.

Hypothetically, let’s take a random Elite Spec that gets Hammer.
Let’s say the dev designs a Minor trait(Hammer Mastery) that reduces the recharge of Hammer skills by 20%.
What does this mean?
1. Everyone who wants to equip a Hammer must take the Elite Spec.
2. It follows that everyone is also forced to take Hammer Mastery trait by taking the Elite Spec, because it is Minor.
3. This means that every Hammer skill automatically gets 20% less recharge, it is impossible to actually equip a Hammer without you NOT having the 20% less recharge(This means that nobody will even know what the original recharge times were on the Hammer skills, it is always on).

Do you see what happened here? Maybe not yet. Let me make it clear then:
The dev deliberately designs the new Hammer skills with 20% more recharge than normal. Then they just slap in a Minor trait in that trait line that cancels this out by making the Hammer recharge 20% faster.
This is extremely lazy design. They just create an artificial problem, then create the solution to it. This is as bad as if the Elite Spec was made with 1 less Minor trait.

Compare this to someone borrowing $50 from you, then giving it back to you on your birthday, saying they gave you $50 as your birthday present.

Pure of Sight suffers from the exact same syndrome. The dev deliberately designed the Longbow with 10% less damage just so they could invent a non-creative Minor trait that adds 10% more damage to compensate. To add insult to injury, it only works on foes that are further than 600 range from you. The result is as if the Dragonhunter was designed with 1 less Minor trait in the first place.

Now, if Pure of Sight was a Major trait, then I would have no complaints, because it is my choice whether I take the trait or not.
Or if I could equip a Longbow without the Dragonhunter Minor traits, it would also be a “choice” whether to take this trait line or not with my Longbow.
The fact is that neither is the case and I am forced to take such a trait if I want a Longbow. This makes Pure of Sight a trait that was designed just to be filler.

tl;dr: The Minor trait Pure of Sight is an uncreative rip-off. The dev deliberately designed the Longbow with 10% less damage than normal, then slapped in this Minor trait just so they can say they gave us a Minor trait. If you want to use a Longbow, it is as if you were given 1 less Minor trait in the first place.

1. Design an Elite spec weapon that is supposed to cleave(hit 3 targets).
2. Make the Elite spec weapon not cleave(hit 1 target).
3. Design a Elite spec Minor trait that makes said weapon cleave.
4. There you go, now the Elite spec weapon always cleaves and devs dont have to spend their time being creative and designing a new Minor trait, they just filled a blank spot.

I am hoping this Minor trait gets changed to something else, and no other Elite spec for other profession actually get the same treatment just “so that the devs can release HoT faster”.

The trait works at range. its designed to encourage the long range play-style that the dragonhunter should encapsulate. Its not poor design, its great design as it rewards playing to the strength of the specialization.

You don’t have to be at that range to benefit from the longbows skills or abilities, it just makes a difference when you play to its strengths. Theres a reason its minor and theres no choice in the matter. The minor traits of all classes and specializations tend to focus on one aspect; this ones the longbow ranged guardian.

You are reminded that you do not automatically have all minor traits upon equipping a specialisation, only those that you have unlocked with hero points.