Guild Wars 2

In the proposed revised trait system I think there are three particular types of traits that might be more well served being treated as basic (as opposed to HOT) masteries instead:

Falling Damage Mitigation Traits -> Falling Grace Mastery: These traits are really useful and only used in very limited circumstances (in jumping puzzles or very occasionally in PvE exploration, and in jumping off cliffs in WvW) but otherwise aren’t used. Personally I think this is mostly an exploration-type trait/skill more like the hang gliding and jumping pads masteries will be in HOT. Maximizing (mastering?) this mastery should get the character the same effects that the proposed revised traits would do now with maybe a few steps (at 25-50-75%) of lesser effects to ramp up to it.

Reviving Others Traits -> Field Medic Mastery: Again, these are very situation traits – almost never taken in PvE (but possibly more popular in WvW or PvP?). The traits clearly support cooperative game play but most players would rather take any other trait that helps keep them on their feet than take one of these traits. The theory being (of course) that you can spend all the time in the world rezzing others once all the bad guys are dead. Turning these traits into masteries will actually make it more likely players will take the time in the midst of an event to rally or rez others. A positive side effect of this would be fewer event “death spirals” where players start falling like dominoes because either some of them are downed or defeated trying to rez others or from a relentless implosion because to fewer and fewer players are trying to complete the event. As with the above suggested trait->mastery conversion, this one should also have steps leading to the top tier which would be the equivalent of the current trait.

Downed State Traits -> “Tis but a scratch” Mastery (ok maybe call it something else like “It’s just a flesh wound” Mastery: These are traits that people just don’t take because the point of traits is keep your character from being downed. Nearly any other trait is an inherently superior choice. Its worth noting that in some of the newer content like Silverwastes, being downed is often just a quick prelude to being defeated since the mob AI seems to have been improved to focus on a downed character and finish them off, so it can be serious challenge to rally once downed. If this is prelude to HOT content this might me a popular mastery than might be expected. If there are PvP balance concerns here this might only be a PvE/WvW mastery(?). As with the others there would be steps up prior to full mastery, and full mastery which would equal the current trait.

Grandfathering accounts might or might not be necessary. If its felt that it would be necessary ANet could easily use achievements and or account stats to provide for a certain amount account-wide progress in each mastery depending on what account and/or character data is available:
Falling Damage Data: Jumping Puzzle completions, diving achievements, number of deaths due to falling damage.
Reviving Characters: Amount healed on self or others, old reviver daily points, number of others revived.
Downed State: Number of deaths, number of successful rallies.

Except all masteries (including non-HoT masteries) are only available to owners of HoT so this doesn’t work.

This is a very good idea if it could be implemented into the base game (pve or wvw masteries) and obviously adapted so as not to be too powerful or too weak in different situations.

Diovid.9506:

Except all masteries (including non-HoT masteries) are only available to owners of HoT so this doesn’t work.

They may want to reconsider that.

It sounds like they intend to use Masteries from this point forward. Having a few in the base game to introduce the idea to new players would be a good call. It would make it easier to sell them on the idea of new masteries from expansions if they know how they work.

Very much yes. I find the fall damage reduction essential to my playstyle, but I hate having to switch it out for combat all the time. So I underperform because I enjoy the fall damage traits. I would prefer traits/specializations to be all about combat. The things you listed are only tangentially related to combat so making the masteries makes much more sense.

It is a matter of fact that those traits are rarely taken in comparison to all the other available traits.
It would do good to the game to make a few mastery lines(the Pact Tyria ones from the beta , i.e. fractals mastery line) baseline to the main game even for those that won’t own HoT(or any other expansion that will add more masteries) seeing that those affect the open world and not just expansion areas.
That way Anet can implement those mostly unusable traits(and possible other options) and make them something more of a reward of playing the game(as in masterng the “art of falling” or learning to treat wounds better)

The fall traits could be combined into masteries. The others are too strong in PvP, so should probably be combined into better traits.

I totally agree with OP