Guild Wars 2

The relevant blog post can be found at: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/

From my first read-through three issues immediately cropped up: removal of traitline stat bonuses, (apparent) siloing of traits, and (Necromancer specific) ground-targeting wells.

Removal of Traitline Stat Bonuses
First off let me say that I don’t hate this idea as such, however what I do hate is the proposed implementation. Please, please don’t transfer stat gains to armour, by all means give us a UI attached to Specialisation with sliders (or whatever) to manage our stats but lumping them all (or the majority) into armour sets will actually reduce the ways in which we can tinker with our builds … and that would be a terrible shame.

Siloing Traits
From the blog post it looked as though adept traits could only be placed in adept slots, master in master slots, and grandmaster in grandmaster slots. On a couple of characters I have the current equivalent of putting an adept in my adept slot, another adept in my master slot, and a grandmaster in my grandmaster slot; will this be possible under the new system? If it won’t be possible then, again, we’re actually having flexibility taken away from our builds … and that is a bad thing.

Ground-Targeting Wells
Please, I beg of you, do not make this obligatory. Having a trait that allows me to ground target my wells is just perfect for me because I can ignore it. If you make ground-targeting compulsory then chances are that I’ll be changing my entire build, and not for any good or positive reason. I’m sure that it’s incredibly useful to have ranged wells, however it’s not useful to me.

Please let us choose the way we want to play this great game, don’t shoe-horn us into a way of playing or building our characters that you think will be better. We’re all different, and sometimes what we enjoy playing isn’t necessarily the most optimal build or stat combination.

Honestly, it’s about time we had sweeping changes to the meta. As for specific concerns, I’d wait to see how it plays out before jumping to conclusions.

binidj.5734:

If you make ground-targeting compulsory then chances are that I’ll be changing my entire build, and not for any good or positive reason. I’m sure that it’s incredibly useful to have ranged wells, however it’s not useful to me.

Wat. You still can cast well under your feet. How is this going to change anything?

Rashy.4165:

Honestly, it’s about time we had sweeping changes to the meta. As for specific concerns, I’d wait to see how it plays out before jumping to conclusions.

Yeah now instead of berserker 6/6/x/x/x we will have berserker fire/air/x/x/x

I do not mind the stats being removed from traitlines ,

BUT I do wonder how condition duration will be implemented, or boon duration or other small often passed by attributes…

I play a elementalist with 6/2/2/2/2: just tell me how I’m goint to build a comparable build now… I mostly use the minor traits….

I think I’m going to make a list of builds and check how many are limited by a maximum of 3 traitlines… Well here it is:

war 1 (PvE) 2/6/0/4/2 (sinister) or (WvW) 0/6/5/0/3 (rabid/sinister)
war 2 (Dungeons) 4/4/0/6/0 or 0/5/0/6/3 or 6/5/0/0/3 (zerk 3x)
war 3 (All-round) 2/2/6/0/4 (zerk or pvt) or (PvE) 0/0/6/6/2 (zealot/zerk)
grd 1 (WvW) 0/0/4/6/4 (clerics/nomad)
grd 2 (PvE/Dunegons) 3/0/4/6/1 (zealot/zerk) 3/5/0/4/1 (zerk)
rng 1 (All-round) 6/6/2/0/0 ((soldiers)/zerk)
rng 2 (All-round) 4/6/4/0/0 (sinister)
rng 3 (WvW) 0/6/6/2/0 (rabid)
thf 1 (PvE) 4/3/0/3/4 (zerk)
ele 1 (Dungeons) 6/2/2/2/2 (zerk or CELESTIAL??)
ele 2 (PvE/Dungeons) 0/2/0/6/6 (zealot/zerk)
nec 1 (All-round) 2/4/4/0/4 (sinister) or 6/2/0/0/6 (zerk)
nec 2 (All-round) 3/2/5/4/0 (zealot)
nec 3 (WvW) 0/6/4/0/4 (rabid) or 3/0/5/6/0 (clerics)
msm 1 (WvW) 0/5/6/0/3 (rabid or sinister)

The choice to drop a grandmaster trait so you can take a minor/master trait seems strange but this does sometimes ()well often) allow for more versatility, also some grandmaster traits are utter garbage. in some cased the same can be said for masters traits…

Don’t like it at all, reducing the options is always a no no for me. Hope it does not affect me that much, but we’ll have to play first to give a veredict.

Yeah! At least we can see different types of zerker, this 6/6/x/x/x crap was long overdue. +1 Anet

…at least one profession’s elite specialization will be a full set of six shouts.

Warrior’s specialization = Paragon?

Valento.9852:

Yeah! At least we can see different types of zerker, this 6/6/x/x/x crap was long overdue. +1 Anet

It’s not going to change, now you will be fully locked into the trait lines which give the most damage multipliers. You will be fully locked into 3 trait lines instead of being able to deviate a little and go 4/6/0/2/2 for example. Now if you need a certain minor trait for something, you either can’t pick it because you have to give up too much from a different trait line or get a flat out worse set of traits just to get that minor thing.

I’ll wait till I see everything before judging, but I’m a little worried to say the least. I can see the good sides though, and it’s good that some of the current issues are getting fixed.

EDIT:
On a different note and this needs to be said, thank you so much for showing something we can at least somewhat work with arenanet. I’m genuinely happy we get to see some updates of the actual game instead of just cosmetic stuff or recaps of things we already know.

I don’t really have any negative feelings one way or another so far. But there is still a lot we don’t know. Maybe tomorrow on twitch they will give some new juicy bits. But I am glad they are finally talking about specializations.

How does a trait that removes a condition every time you evade an attack sound?

OP as all kitten, thats how.

Otherwise, I dont care much until I see the whole picture. There are a few… alarming… notes in it. Maybe I didnt understand it correctly, but the “hero points” sounds an awfull lot like a limited wvw skillpoint system, ie you allocate it once and then you are kittened if you want to change it.

Which would go against the very idea of why I love GW2, the freedom to build whatever.

But I didnt read into the details.

I’ll be sorely disappointed if the necromancer got all those shouts. I mean, yes, we lack support, but we are not Trahearne. We aren’t meant to lead/give commands… It’d be the REALLY cheap way out.

Some of the changes I like.
Some of the changes I hate.

Can’t be specific since I don’t know how most of the changes really affects the game yet. Giving feedback within an hour of the article being posted doesn’t make sense. We should at least wait until after the stream on Friday to see how it affects whatever predetermined example Anet uses.

Uhm…base stats will be raised from 926 to 1000, gear will be made stronger, half of the profession attribute will be baseline and the other half with go with a trait line.

…where are the other secondary attributes going, though?
Condition damage, healing power, ferocity, boon duration, condition duration.
Especially the last two – since they don’t even have proper related gear.

Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material.

What Material?

Don’t like one thing -only one elite specialization per class at HoT launch/ and
I don’t like “holy archer” type specs for my guard (give me “Monk/friar” pls)

Roseblood.6793:

I’ll be sorely disappointed if the necromancer got all those shouts. I mean, yes, we lack support, but we are not Trahearne. We aren’t meant to lead/give commands… It’d be the REALLY cheap way out.

I wouldn’t worry. Necromancers aren’t very fond of shouting.

Well I only briefly skimmed it, but it looks interesting enough. Would love to see them in action though before saying yay nor nay. Now on to the inevitable complaint threads!

Sephas.8793:

Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material.

What Material?

i hope said material (likely something new) goes into the material collection tab.

looks like i’ll have to do some rebuilding when this expansion comes out, but thats fine too.

“Hero Points will be limited, and they’ll be earned strictly through what are currently called skill challenges (these will become known as hero challenges) and leveling up. A level 80 character that’s done none of the hero challenges should be able to unlock more than enough skills, specializations, and traits to make several unique full builds. A single character who’s done a fair amount of the hero challenges should be able to unlock all of the core specializations, skills, and traits. PvP players won’t have to worry about unlocking anything, as all skills and traits will be automatically unlocked upon entering the Heart of the Mists.”

So, this doesn’t mention level 80 characters with 100% world completion. Will those characters get all of the hero points they’d have? I know Anet is usually really good about retroactive rewards, but the wording here leaves something to be desired. :s

I’m looking forward to see how this is implemented and plays out over all, though.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

Sephas.8793:

Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material.

What Material?

i hope said material (likely something new) goes into the material collection tab.

looks like i’ll have to do some rebuilding when this expansion comes out.

I already can see 2 bank tabs filled with this new material.

I’m not seeing ANY problem with this actually. In fact this looks exactly like what I was expecting from what Jon was saying before. I don’t use ground targeting anyway I use the wells and seals and zones pretty much just below my position so this works out well.

The thing they should do next is make conditions not available to a single class until they have unlocked conditions in a max level line. That way it will help the conditions builds as well as everyone won’t have those anymore unless you’ve specialized in conditions.

Also Mortar as a kit is actually one of the best things I’ve read all day! WOOT an engineer change for the positive!

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Gobble D Goop.4081:

Sephas.8793:

Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material.

What Material?

i hope said material (likely something new) goes into the material collection tab.

looks like i’ll have to do some rebuilding when this expansion comes out.

I already can see 2 bank tabs filled with this new material.

sounds like the way to get them is from old skill points and from current methods to get them. Guess ill spend skill points so i wont have an unmanageable number of these materials

none.9681:

…at least one profession’s elite specialization will be a full set of six shouts.

Warrior’s specialization = Paragon?

If that were the case, the base warrior would be losing 4 shouts, or the specialization would only be gaining the heal shout and elite shout. They said each specialization was getting 6 new skills. I take this to mean that they are giving shouts to one of the 6 classes that doesn’t have them already. Maybe the Revenant specialization will be Paragon…and he’ll be able to channel Kormir or Morgahn

I fear by limiting choice to 3 trait lines, build diversity will actually get worse. What i love about this game is the freedom to switch builds on the fly to try new tactics and ideas. Oversimplying killed a previous game i used to play. I hope it doesnt do this here.

Theorycrafting will eventually show one or two top builds for each profession and you will see these everywhere in the game. Cookie cutter toons everywhere.

I hope im proved wrong.

binidj.5734:

Siloing Traits
From the blog post it looked as though adept traits could only be placed in adept slots, master in master slots, and grandmaster in grandmaster slots. On a couple of characters I have the current equivalent of putting an adept in my adept slot, another adept in my master slot, and a grandmaster in my grandmaster slot; will this be possible under the new system?

That’s a very good question and I do hope that you will be able to use lower tier traits in higher tier slots. Otherwise this will be far too limiting. I am already a bit worried about only being able to use three traitlines at the same time, but if the trait choices themselves get further limitations, that would take a lot of creativiy and fun out of buildcrafting.

binidj.5734:

Ground-Targeting Wells
Please, I beg of you, do not make this obligatory.

I am in the same boat here, I don’t like the ground targetting trait because in the heat of combat with tons of effects going off and my screen half filled with fire, lightining, twilight swinging norns and charr etc… I find the targeting symbol hard to see and often place them in the wrong spot by accident. Also when ground targeting, especially when not in wide open terrain, it’s sometimes easy to accidently place the target on a spot on the floor that is not viable for targetting, while if you use the default target on self, you can just use it anywhere and it will automatically place the well where you stand. Please give us the option to choose! Either through traits or through the option menu or in any other feasible way, I don’t mind how but I would be very unhappy if was forced to ground target wells for Necromancers, or Walls for Guardians, etc… :\

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

If you hover your mouse cursor over your skill bar or hp orb all ground targeted skills will cast right under you. Same if you just click on the skill.

This will help, and let me be clear, LONG TERM* build diversity and more importantly than that, balance through the game. They are right now being FORCED to take a look at and cut or redesign triats falling behind. This will lead to better balance handles and eventually better diversity as things are tweaked to be more about choice rather than must-haves. And really, this game sort of needs this. As it stands we have a LOT of pseudo choices and most classes end up boiled down to 1 or 2 builds and that’s about it. The diversity “nerf” comes with better balance possibilities and the possibility of more preference based choices rather than just mandatory traits.

I am really happy with the separation of traits from the stats though…I will make a water ele capable of dps….just you wait!!! you will all see!!!!

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

Vorch.1807:

Don’t like one thing -only one elite specialization per class at HoT launch/ and
I don’t like “holy archer” type specs for my guard (give me “Monk/friar” pls)

staff, mace/focus? that’s kinda monkish, then put on that outfit that looks like a robe and you’re done

It looks like my ranger won’t be able to use Spotter and Piercing Arrows at the same time seeing as how they’re both Master Traits. Hopefully this isn’t the case…

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

You realize that you just showed me multiple builds you use that only incorporate 3 trait lines right? In all of those builds you have two 0s…

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

umm, all 5 of your builds utilizes only 3 trait lines. We get 3 full trait lines. So… what’s the problem?

jonG.8369:

It looks like my ranger won’t be able to use Spotter and Piercing Arrows at the same time seeing as how they’re both Master Traits. Hopefully this isn’t the case…

They could make piercing arrows a natural mechanic like they did ground targeting for wells…

Got to say I agree with the OP.

I just read Specializations, Part One and Part Two. It sounds pretty horrific.

Firstly, I will admit it give me a huge headache and I am not sure I understand it all.

But, I get the impression they are dumbing down the trait system even more, making stats even more ridged and lessening our ability to vary them, introducing lots of new forms of grinding (reward tracks). Also, ultimately the rewards, skills, we get are no better then we have now and in some cases worse, dumbed down.

Also, this was the bit I am not sure on, are some of our present level 80 traits being stripped away from us? I get the impression Anet wants us to re earn traits we already got.

Really, sounds terrible…

Nate.3927:

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

umm, all 5 of your builds utilizes only 3 trait lines. We get 3 full trait lines. So… what’s the problem?

OK correct me if im wrong but i can only choose 3 trait lines or can i swap the 3 trait lines for other 3 trait lines at any time? What im saying if im forced to choose Defense, Tactics and Discipline. Can i switch them the next day for Strength, Defense and Discipline for my other build? Or am i stuck with my first 3 choices forever?

Spartacus.3192:

Nate.3927:

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

umm, all 5 of your builds utilizes only 3 trait lines. We get 3 full trait lines. So… what’s the problem?

OK correct me if im wrong but i can only choose 3 trait lines or can i swap the 3 trait lines for other 3 trait lines at any time? What im saying if im forced to choose Defense, Tactics and Discipline. Can i switch them the next day for Strength, Defense and Discipline for my other build? Or am i stuck with my first 3 choices forever?

You can respec specializations just like you can do traits now. You are not locked in.

Weyrd.2794:

Spartacus.3192:

Nate.3927:

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

umm, all 5 of your builds utilizes only 3 trait lines. We get 3 full trait lines. So… what’s the problem?

OK correct me if im wrong but i can only choose 3 trait lines or can i swap the 3 trait lines for other 3 trait lines at any time? What im saying if im forced to choose Defense, Tactics and Discipline. Can i switch them the next day for Strength, Defense and Discipline for my other build? Or am i stuck with my first 3 choices forever?

You can respec specializations just like you can do traits now. You are not locked in.

Oh ok in that case forget what i wrote. Thanks

Meglobob.8620:

Got to say I agree with the OP.

I just read Specializations, Part One and Part Two. It sounds pretty horrific.

Firstly, I will admit it give me a huge headache and I am not sure I understand it all.

But, I get the impression they are dumbing down the trait system even more, making stats even more ridged and lessening our ability to vary them, introducing lots of new forms of grinding (reward tracks). Also, ultimately the rewards, skills, we get are no better then we have now and in some cases worse, dumbed down.

Also, this was the bit I am not sure on, are some of our present level 80 traits being stripped away from us? I get the impression Anet wants us to re earn traits we already got.

Really, sounds terrible…

I agree that they are streamlining things. But stats are not more rigid. In fact in some ways they are now more flexible since they are no longer linked to traits. I mentioned this in another thread, but there is nothing preventing you from mixing and matching armor/trinket pieces with differing stats. Maybe you’re used to having full zerk armor, then traiting into toughness and vitality for extra survivability. Well now you can simply switch out some of the zerk armor with knights and some with valk and you get the exact same thing.

You’ll have to play around with it for sure and perhaps the final result won’t have the same exact stat distribution that you currently have, but it’ll be close to it.

As for the 1st point of shifting stats to the armor…If you want to modify your stats, simply change your armor. They have almost every stat combination now and they keep adding new insignias with new content (i.e. zealots, settlers, sinister, nomads, etc). You don’t have to have wear a full set of the same insignia. I think this change will actually be a buff, because some of the traits that I would like to increase aren’t on the same line. For example, I like to build a Healing Power/Condition Necro. In order to get condition damage I have to go down the spite or curses lines which those traits don’t align with my play style. Now I can say…build my Shaman (Vit, Heal, Condi) armor then get traits from Death and Soul Reaping… without sacrificing my stats.

Roseblood.6793:

I’ll be sorely disappointed if the necromancer got all those shouts.

I was thinking quite the opposite. I love Necromancer, but it’s definitely lacking group support, so a set of shouts with things like AoE stability, might, fury, conditon cleanses, or similar stuff, together with a hopefully melee cleaving Greatsword and (dare I hope) possibly even a decent blast finisher and/or fire field could do wonders in terms of getting rid of the “Necromancers are bad in dungeons” stigma.

Nate.3927:

Meglobob.8620:

Got to say I agree with the OP.

I just read Specializations, Part One and Part Two. It sounds pretty horrific.

Firstly, I will admit it give me a huge headache and I am not sure I understand it all.

But, I get the impression they are dumbing down the trait system even more, making stats even more ridged and lessening our ability to vary them, introducing lots of new forms of grinding (reward tracks). Also, ultimately the rewards, skills, we get are no better then we have now and in some cases worse, dumbed down.

Also, this was the bit I am not sure on, are some of our present level 80 traits being stripped away from us? I get the impression Anet wants us to re earn traits we already got.

Really, sounds terrible…

I agree that they are streamlining things. But stats are not more rigid. In fact in some ways they are now more flexible since they are no longer linked to traits. I mentioned this in another thread, but there is nothing preventing you from mixing and matching armor/trinket pieces with differing stats. Maybe you’re used to having full zerk armor, then traiting into toughness and vitality for extra survivability. Well now you can simply switch out some of the zerk armor with knights and some with valk and you get the exact same thing.

Stop agreeing with me on everything and posting slightly before me…it’s causing it to look like i’m copying you…

Funny how people for the longest of times have been complaining that they want to progress their characters in a horizontal, meaningful way. Now Anet gives them a system to do so, by playing your character and unlocking new abilities and traits, and people call it grinding and content locking.

Anyways, this probably won’t limit diversity. If anything it will make choices more important because those three lines you pick have a drastic effect on how your build will turn out. Meaning you don’t want to just randomly dip 2-3 points in every trait line. I know for some this is a limit on diversity but to compensate we are getting more meaningful choices and to be truthful, we aren’t being gutted in terms of variety of builds because we can still pick three trait lines. It would be gutted if we were forced to only pick one. Most builds only use three trait lines anyway, so there is no major change. People are just overreacting. Just wait until it comes out or you get to play around with it, then voice your concerns.

In case anyone is confused, you MUST pick 3 trait lines when you use your class. HOWEVER you are not locked into those three trait lines. You can swap any of them whenever you want out of combat.

Spartacus.3192:

Nate.3927:

Spartacus.3192:

Crey.5263:

Look the thing that I loved about gw1 was the 1000s of skills available to my character…but I eventually grew up and realized that you still only use a small set of these skills. The people who are going to complain about losing access to those two trait lines, need to go back and really look at their builds and see that the overwhelming majority of the time, they are going to have two trait lines that they weren’t using anyways. or if they were it was for some negligible minor trait… especially since (using the water ele traits that have been revealed as a example) the traits seem to be getting better and doing more.

Im afraid i disagree.

I have 5 builds that i like to use for different scenarios on my warrior as follows and for when im just bored with one.

6,0,4,0,4 (shin’s build) for WvW
2,0,6,0,6 (TDM legendary 3.0) for WvW
0,0,6,2,6 (leg specialist GS/hammer) for WvW
0,5,0,6,3 (Phalanx Strength) for dungeons
0,5,6,0,3 (forceful GS) for Silverwastes.

As you can i see i go 6 deep in every trait line except ARMS (i go 5) . If im forced to only be able to spec into 3 trait lines im going to get bored real quick.

umm, all 5 of your builds utilizes only 3 trait lines. We get 3 full trait lines. So… what’s the problem?

OK correct me if im wrong but i can only choose 3 trait lines or can i swap the 3 trait lines for other 3 trait lines at any time? What im saying if im forced to choose Defense, Tactics and Discipline. Can i switch them the next day for Strength, Defense and Discipline for my other build? Or am i stuck with my first 3 choices forever?

You’ve never been locked in before, except when you’re in combat. It would be no different than it is currently, where you can refund your traits and put them in another set of lines if you want.

Zelkovan.2630:

Now Anet gives them a system to do so, by playing your character and unlocking new abilities and traits, and people call it grinding and content locking.

It would probably help if they didn’t keep finding ways to lock content we already had access to. They should have learned from the first trait rework.

It’s okay to add new things and give us a hunt to get them. But don’t lock out old things with much more difficult gating and don’t replace them and make us earn their replacement all over again.

Crey.5263:

jonG.8369:

It looks like my ranger won’t be able to use Spotter and Piercing Arrows at the same time seeing as how they’re both Master Traits. Hopefully this isn’t the case…

They could make piercing arrows a natural mechanic like they did ground targeting for wells…

that would be awesome

Valento.9852:

Yeah! At least we can see different types of zerker, this 6/6/x/x/x crap was long overdue. +1 Anet

Did you read the same blog post as I?

We get 3 lines, and 9 major traits. It means all builds are going to be 6/6/6.

Edit: Or are you just referring to the fact that not everything will be pumped into the first two trait lines? Because that was more done for traits than stats. So it’s somewhat reasonable to assume those 2 trait lines are still going to be chosen, unless the traits are going to be changed that much.

I am a bit apprehensive. There are a lot of builds out there that go into more than 3 trait lines. But perhaps the movement of traits and redesign will make new builds that were better than those. We’ll see.

Dawdler.8521:

How does a trait that removes a condition every time you evade an attack sound?

OP as all kitten, thats how.

It probably has an ICD, otherwise a mesmer under pressure basically has a full condition cleanse every 12 seconds, on top of whatever other evades they use.

In one word : disappointed.
In more word : Like said by the OP, it seem even more restrictive than the current system. At the same time there are tons of question that follow this announcement like :

- Will we be stuck to use only 3 traitline?
- How do we feed this reward tracks? (this is absolutely oblivious. xp? skill points?)
- How many point can we use?
- Does trait and skill are linked? Like : I’m an Elementalist specialized in fire magic, air magic and signet. (reducing even more our build freedom)
… etc.