Traits – Adept, Master, Grandmaster? What do these trait categories mean now?
Old Trait Lines
With the changes coming in due to Heart of Thorns with the redesign of traits, I got to wondering about these old trait classification tiers. The trait tiers currently operate as trait gating. What I mean is;
- Adept – Only Adept major traits can be slotted into this slot.
- Master – Adept & Master traits only.
- Grandmaster – All traits can be slotted here (Adept, Master & Grandmaster).
You can have either 3 Adept or 1 Adept & 2 Master or 1 Adept, 1 Master & 1 Grandmaster in a trait line at most. The tiers were there to gate the more powerful traits and limit how many of these higher tier traits you could equip. At most due to trait points you could only equip;
- 2 Grandmaster, 2 Master & 3 Adept
- 4 Master & 3 Adept
- 7 Adept
With combination in between these extremes. Also please note you had access to all 5 trait lines to allocate these trait points between.
Having these combination also provided 7 minor traits as well. But at the expense of 1 Major you could increase this to 8 minor traits. But this is all changing with the introduction of Specializations.
New Specialization System
Now we select 3 specializations out of the 5 core specializations & 1 elite specialization with more specializations to come in the future. But again we can only select 3 specialization out of a total of 6. Also;
- At each trait tier we have 3 options that are mutually exclusive to one another.
- And each trait tiers choices are mutually exclusive as well.
This changes the whole ideology behind trait tiers for me when comparing the old system to the new specializations system. Now for me Major Traits should have a larger impact on your gameplay;
- Either greatly enhancing a gameplay focus.
- Or chance the way you would use your skills.
With this thought I feel Major Traits should have a power level on par with upper level Master traits & Grandmaster traits.
I no longer feel the old Adept tier traits acceptable for major traits as they were in the new Specialization system. And this comes about because of the mutually exclusive nature of the new system.
What do other’s think should be an acceptable power level/design for a Major trait with regards to the new specialization system?
Edit: to improve format to better highlight when talking about the old & new trait systems.