Guild Wars 2

So I see two reasons to buy a gm tome for traits:
1 – to get a 3rd trait in a trait line
2 – to get a specific trait at the gm level

Are there other reasons?

and which professions get the best value for the 2 gold price?

I personally would get your grandmaster tome at level 80 when you have the sufficient gold for them... getting them early isent really needed bud. Sp u can get unlimited amount so u eventually will learn all those skills in your tiers... but my advice is get it when you need it not before.

3 – to get the bonuses (Attributes) for that trait line (IE: Elementalist Fire Magic = +Power/Cond Duration)

Sorry, I don’t understand the last question.

If you like what the grandmaster has to offer your character than there’s no “best value” as it’s all relative to the player’s personal opinion and choice.

while I do agree buying it straight away isn’t always the best idea, not buying it a all is much worse.

Everyone can benefit from the 100 extra attribute from maxing a line and most the end line trait abilities and grandmaster level trait options tend to be stronger.

Not sure who gets the biggest boost from there final traits but everyone gets some, its why almost every build tends to utilize grandmaster trait lines.

Thanks for adding point 3 Biofringe – very important.
2nd question was looking for opinions on how good each profs tome is.
Just wanted to see what people thought.
Maybe a better question – is there any profession that absolutely needs the gm traits to, say, do well in dungeons?

mattbnh.9247:

is there any profession that absolutely needs the gm traits to, say, do well in dungeons?

No.

While there are several really awesome traits that could be gained it always, always comes down to player skill.

Having said that, chances are if you compare the top two traits (the ones unlocked by the gm book) in any given line you’ll find at least one that is so much better than any lower tier traits. Therefore, it’s more than likely that it’s in your best interest to buy the book for that one trait as opposed to skipping it and settling for something else.

Hope that makes sense.

EDIT: It should be noted that it also comes down to player perspective in so much that a given trait might be awesome in one build but not another for the same character type. So, one man’s treasure is another man’s trash.

An example would be Warrior – Defense – Merciless Hammer

If you don’t use a hammer it’s useless but if you do then it’s priceless.

I don’t think there is any that absolutely NEED them persay but it definitely makes a big difference.

Heck I bet you could get away without any traits at all, you just would be much weaker than anyone else and missing out a lot of extra’s for a couple of gold.

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential. i wonder how many people actually ask this question for their character….

applekwisp.2139:

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential in my group. i wonder how many people actual ask this question for their character….

I agree completely with everything you typed and I was about to say something similar.

same, if your thinking of not buying then yes its needed most definitley.

As a warrior there is no way i would go into a dungeion without my elite skill warbanner.

Not about not buying it. More a question of when, mostly about non-80s.
I have a lot of characters, and I have the gold. It was more a question of who benefits most, given that you can’t max every trait line. I haven’t seen that much trait discussion (not that I have read every post).

if you check out any of the profession forums trait builds are posted all the time and they all of course assume that you have full access to traits. maybe find the character that you enjoy the most and purchase the tome on that one?

i personally bought the tomes immediately when they became available

Jezath.7395:

same, if your thinking of not buying then yes its needed most definitley.

As a warrior there is no way i would go into a dungeion without my elite skill warbanner.

Isn’t the battle standard gained from skill points and not from traits?

Anyway, for me, grandmaster book is only for me if I plan to put more than 20 points into a specific trait.

Also, buy the basic manual from TP, it’s always cheaper than 10 silver. The other two, always buy from the vendor, it’s always cheaper than the TP.

BioFringe.7945:

3 – to get the bonuses (Attributes) for that trait line (IE: Elementalist Fire Magic = +Power/Cond Duration)

This is very important. The grandmaster traits that become available may or may not appeal to you, same with the chance to add extra traits to your set-up – but at max level you really, really should get the third trait book in order to boost your basic attributes.

Put it this way, your two gold is going towards 100 extra power, or toughness, or whatever you choose – and that’s a hundred points you can move around when necessary. That’s a big difference in your potency. Don’t just disregard it.

applekwisp.2139:

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential. i wonder how many people actually ask this question for their character….

Well, not every build has to grandmaster a line, and if you don’t want to waste the gold on it at the time for your build, then so be it. If at some point you need to redo the build and grandmaster it then go buy the tome, it’s not rocket science. No need to flip out over someone not buying the silly book. I know for several of my characters I didn’t buy a grandmaster book, because honestly I had no need to, my build did not require me to grandmaster a line. One day I might want a new build that does use it, and if so, I’ll go buy the book. Traits are not what determines the majority of your stats, gear is.

Necro – jk…
Buy it when you can and need it. It’s pointless to not buy it even if the traits are pointless for your class because you get the stat bonuses that go along with it.

Here’s a question, OP…if you trait well, with extra traits, you can either survive better or kill things faster. How long will it take you, under those circumstances to make back the 2g the book costs in the first place?

I mean if you have to pay for armor repair and teleporting if you die, or if you’re killing faster getting drops in a shorter amount of time.

In my experience, particularly at max level, 2 gold just isn’t enough to worry about.

I plan to get them for all my permenant characters sooner or later. The way I look at it I’m either spending gold to improve my characters or on something I want but don’t really need (aka everything else, but in my case specifically minis) so improving my characters should be my first priority.

I might not get them right away. My main just hit level 60 but I don’t have 2 gold right now and will probably wait until I know how I want to assign the trait points so I don’t need to respec for a while after getting the tome.

But the only time I don’t buy trait manuals is when I make a tempoary character to try something out, like other personal story choices. If I know I’m going to delete them relatively soon it’s not worth it.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

applekwisp.2139:

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential. i wonder how many people actually ask this question for their character….

Well, not every build has to grandmaster a line, and if you don’t want to waste the gold on it at the time for your build, then so be it. If at some point you need to redo the build and grandmaster it then go buy the tome, it’s not rocket science. No need to flip out over someone not buying the silly book. I know for several of my characters I didn’t buy a grandmaster book, because honestly I had no need to, my build did not require me to grandmaster a line. One day I might want a new build that does use it, and if so, I’ll go buy the book. Traits are not what determines the majority of your stats, gear is.

I have never seen an effective build for any of my 80’s that doesn’t involve a grandmaster trait. It might exist, but it’s certainly not as effective, at least in my own experience.

LithePanther.5027:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

applekwisp.2139:

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential. i wonder how many people actually ask this question for their character….

Well, not every build has to grandmaster a line, and if you don’t want to waste the gold on it at the time for your build, then so be it. If at some point you need to redo the build and grandmaster it then go buy the tome, it’s not rocket science. No need to flip out over someone not buying the silly book. I know for several of my characters I didn’t buy a grandmaster book, because honestly I had no need to, my build did not require me to grandmaster a line. One day I might want a new build that does use it, and if so, I’ll go buy the book. Traits are not what determines the majority of your stats, gear is.

I have never seen an effective build for any of my 80’s that doesn’t involve a grandmaster trait. It might exist, but it’s certainly not as effective, at least in my own experience.

There are a ton of very useable and strong builds for engi, necro, ele, guardian, and prob many others that don’t use grandmaster. I looked up GW2 builds on google and found most of them in about 3 mins, some of them I already use.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

LithePanther.5027:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

applekwisp.2139:

it’s frightening to me that someone is even considering to not purchase the tome. if money is your concern, you will have more than enough money just through normal play. i personally wouldn’t want someone in my party who doesn’t have their full trait or bonus stats potential. i wonder how many people actually ask this question for their character….

Well, not every build has to grandmaster a line, and if you don’t want to waste the gold on it at the time for your build, then so be it. If at some point you need to redo the build and grandmaster it then go buy the tome, it’s not rocket science. No need to flip out over someone not buying the silly book. I know for several of my characters I didn’t buy a grandmaster book, because honestly I had no need to, my build did not require me to grandmaster a line. One day I might want a new build that does use it, and if so, I’ll go buy the book. Traits are not what determines the majority of your stats, gear is.

I have never seen an effective build for any of my 80’s that doesn’t involve a grandmaster trait. It might exist, but it’s certainly not as effective, at least in my own experience.

There are a ton of very useable and strong builds for engi, necro, ele, guardian, and prob many others that don’t use grandmaster. I looked up GW2 builds on google and found most of them in about 3 mins, some of them I already use.

I don’t dispute that they exist, but I guarantee you that any build not using grandmaster is outclassed by a build using grandmaster, except maybe in the case of builds that try and focus on specific niches or some such thing like that.

You do realize that going from master to grandmaster is only like 100 points right? That is not a massive gain, and one you probably wouldn’t notice otherwise if you didn’t have a tier of traits outlining it for you. I have tried it both ways in some builds and I used to always make sure I had at least 1 line grandmastered but it holed me up into a very very narrow and boring collection of builds. Once I stopped caring so much about maxing that one line and focused more on the trait skills themselves and how they worked with my build, I became so much more synergized and powerful, not to mention opened up for many more diverse builds. If you feel you absolutely must run grandmaster all the time, more power to ya. But don’t go around spouting things you don’t understand.

100 points can be significant, if your a condition build thats 10 more damage per tick of a bleed for instance (or 250 damage a second at full stacks) and thats just from bleeds.

Can books be re-used?

A friend who played way back at the start told me that at that time you could buy a book you’d already used to get a cheap reset; does that still work?

@Kraggy:
If you want to reset your trait points, do NOT buy a new book.
Just talk to the profession trainer, and pay a small level-based fee (maximum 3s50c at level 80) to have all your trait points reimbursed, so you can choose a new trait build.

Oh, really? The way described it, the ‘normal’ method ‘respeccing’ (to use a term I know) cost more than the cheap book.

Thanks for correcting me.

To respec, just talk to the profession trainer, and choose the dialogue option that does not open their shop. You will get a another dialogue box to confirm the expenditure, and after you confirm, your trait points are all freed up.

It works just like the armor repair NPCs, really.

IceBlink.4317:

Jezath.7395:

same, if your thinking of not buying then yes its needed most definitley.

As a warrior there is no way i would go into a dungeion without my elite skill warbanner.

Isn’t the battle standard gained from skill points and not from traits?

Anyway, for me, grandmaster book is only for me if I plan to put more than 20 points into a specific trait.

Also, buy the basic manual from TP, it’s always cheaper than 10 silver. The other two, always buy from the vendor, it’s always cheaper than the TP.

yeah its skill points but thiose dont unlock until you get the grandmaster book either. I dident realise he was focusing on traits, but i would get the book as soon as you can use the traits it corresponds to then.

It also gives you a free reset so its handy in that way also.