So with these changes you wont be able to create a new character, test things out and delete it without losing time/money.
How is that good?
If a new player is having issues countering a specific build, they wont have the option to simply “try it out” for themselves anymore.
How is that good?
It was cool to have the option to delete your character, mess around with their appearance and their name and still play your favorite build. Now, this wont be the case anymore.
How is that good?
Unless of course you purchase the gem store items… aha! I think we are getting to the crux of the matter.
The real reason behind unlocks!
drumroll
Gem Store
…
I wont lie. I love this game. It’s literally the only game I play. But this is frustrating. Super frustrating.
Trait/Skill unlocks being soul bound is definitely a big issue here. I missed this, because I don’t need to reroll and have always thought the added healing skills too weak to use.
Sylvari Elementalist – Mystree Duskbloom (Lv 80)
Norn Guardian – Aurora Lustyr (Lv 80)
Mia A Shadows Glow – Human Thief (Lv 80)
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I’m sure you will think of other data to check, but make sure to get the total number of rerolls per x time, the total number of accounts that reroll per x time, and it might be worth while to check these numbers during PvP’s peak month each year since live as well.
Sylvari Elementalist – Mystree Duskbloom (Lv 80)
Norn Guardian – Aurora Lustyr (Lv 80)
Mia A Shadows Glow – Human Thief (Lv 80)
Trait/Skill unlocks being soul bound is definitely a big issue here. I missed this, because I don’t need to reroll and have always thought the added healing skills too weak to use.
I watched much of the twitch feed but I admit I don’t understand this issue or what these changes do
When someone uses the word ‘Meta’, a kitten dies. Don’t do it.
Lets c… As someone who has rerolled hundreds if not over a thousand times and xfered from Eu to NA and back…. skill point on skills/dyes disappearing/and now trait unlocks and other crap… Thanks for no longer allowing me to swap anything.
Sigh.
Do you guys think anything through b4 released?
C why the community should be aware of any change B4 you start working on it?
Lol
Team Radioactive
Crysis, Lil Damage, Ovi, Jindavikk, Guard
Causing cancer all day.
Trait/Skill unlocks being soul bound is definitely a big issue here. I missed this, because I don’t need to reroll and have always thought the added healing skills too weak to use.
I watched much of the twitch feed but I admit I don’t understand this issue or what these changes do
To clarify the OP, basically it was communicated that PvP character unlocks (such as skills and traits i.e. the 25 skill point healing skills and the new grandmaster traits)will be the equivalent of Soulbound.
Soulbound means character bound, so if you delete and reroll your character your unlock progress is deleted and restarted.
Ideally for a PvP reroller (someone who delete’s one of their character slots and recreates so they can play any profession in PvP) these would be account bound, because they have already done the work to unlock these things to be competitive with the rest of the playerbase.
Account bound means they are available for any character on the player’s account. Sorry if that’s all too basic, just wanted to make sure everything was understood.
Sylvari Elementalist – Mystree Duskbloom (Lv 80)
Norn Guardian – Aurora Lustyr (Lv 80)
Mia A Shadows Glow – Human Thief (Lv 80)
Wouldn’t skill/equipment templates solve this problem?
Not really, in GW1 you could have the template, but if you didn’t have the skill unlocked account bound; you would load a partially complete build. They should just make the unlock account bound in pvp.
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I have 12 alts for PvP if it tells you anything. :/
I’m just curious and pardon me if I don’t understand something, but why do you need so many alts just for PvP? If the premise was to be able to try out the different professions and skills to better yourself as a player, why would you need more than 1 of any particular profession?
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
It’s not uncommon for the more serious PvPers to have multiple alts of the same class for fast switching to certain builds. For example I have two for my Elementalist and would probably have 4 or more if the class was viable.
This is one of the reasons that new traits unlocks not being account wide is such a large issue. If given the option to store and fast switch trait builds this would solve a lot of the problems.
I retoll all the time, even just to change race/looks, which is impossible in wvw/pve, and exactly why I loved the gw2 pvp, you have everything frim the very start. Also, it would e nice if trait unlocks were account bound in pvp.
There’s your data, now go fix it :D
Maybe trait unlocks can somehow be integrated in the new reward system? A bit like Zenith skins with achievements. “when you reach X treshold, gain a choice of a trait”. I think the reward system isn’t 15 april, so that won’t work just yet, but maybe for future traits?
New Rainbow Guild – An open-minded guild exclusively for Transgender people! Warning:link may contain traces of awesome. Lyssa’s Grimoire – a guide every Mesmer should read.
Sorry, I don’t get this point. What has the gem store to do with unlocks? Or is this just forum paranoia?
~MRA
You can change your appearance for 800 gems :D
New Rainbow Guild – An open-minded guild exclusively for Transgender people! Warning:link may contain traces of awesome. Lyssa’s Grimoire – a guide every Mesmer should read.
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I would imagine it would come out to be fairly high.
I have over 1000 hours played on 3 different characters in pvp alone. And I already know there are players with more than that, across with more classes.
“You’re either a Noob or a Pro your entire life, that’s life”
IGN – Kinjax // World – Anvil Rock
IGN – InTheseDays // World – Anvil Rock
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I like the idea of unlockable skills, but please, make it account bound!
You have to consider this:
A LOT of good players actually have 2 characters of the same class for pvp, why?
You go to the solo/team arena, you see that your build is not right for the matchup, so you quicly swap to another character (same class, different build) so that you can be more usefull for your team.
This are the kind of things that the community DO NOT want to be deleted, please talk about it with the devs before make the patch live.
Champion magus, 4 builds i use
R.I.P. my beloved Meh-Mer, the most hated class by ANET itself.
Winner of the first HxH 1v1 tournament! WOOT!
When I heard the unlocks were character bound, I facepalmed.
Did they really forget everything about GW1 ? Or even at the beginning, were “everything will be unlocked in PvP so everybody stays equal” ?
The unlocking per se is OK as it gives some sort of progression in PvP, but unlocking needs to be account-wide in PvP or it simply does not achieve its goal.
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I’m sure high-end competitive players have their ‘main’ toon, then alts they use to test out various builds.
But you’re no longer gearing sPvP for those people, instead gearing it for people that play all game modes equally (i.e. your typical player who rolls warrior). So why should it matter?
They should make trait unlocking account bound not soul bound, thus once you have unlocked them on 1 character, even if you delete and create a new character you still have access to all unlocked traits.
You could separate it out so it is account bound in sPvP and soulbound in PvE & WvW. So you don’t lose the ‘explore the world of Tyria’ part in PvE.
The ’’’new spells’’’ will be unlocked in the future ’’’PvP Season Leagues’’’ (when you enter the maps) and the custom maps created by the Custom Arena Starter Kit ?
In that way : a) everyone is even in PvP ,
b) ppl will have to buy the new spells between the Seasons brakes if they wish to play or try an other format in the meanwhile
and c) ppl from EU can buy a new account and participate in the NA community tournament , without the need to unlock everything ?
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
Tbh, I’m not sure wha exactly your tasks within the Game Developement are.
But please (PLEASE!!!) don’t tell me, that the issue was NOT regarded when making those changes.
I suppose, the guys making the traits etc. worked months on this stuff. So, within this time, nobody might have come up with this issue? I mean, it was probably already mentioned from the player side, when the new heals came out.
And now, where you are announcing this stuff and players come up with a hundreds of OBVIOUS complaints, you guys will “look at the data”?
WTF have you done all the time before?
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I don’t usually reroll, but I have 9 character slots so I will need to unlock the same things twice.
Besides there are already systems in place to discourage rerolling such as the birthday gifts, dye unlocks, and exclusive appearances from the total makeover kits.
If anything this will only discourage (pvp) players from buying more than 8 character slots as now they will need to unlock things for combat multiple times. They should be account bound in spvp while remaining soulbound for pve since I think pve’er like doing the same thing multiple times.
Build Templates would fix the issue with trait’s rerolling. It wouldn’t do anything to different character appearances, so if someone wants to swap their race to asura to take advantage of its size, they would have to restart, but it would fix the former issue at the very least.
Unfortunately, nothing yet seems to imply that build templates are ready to come in this feature, and even the devs aren’t hyping up the possibility of that for the patch.
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
Let me put things into perspective for you Justin. Mesmer rerolling has already been nerfed for me. I have yet to use any of the new heals outside of Litany of Wrath since Guardian is my main character.
It has been a non-issue for all the other professions because all the heals suck outside of the new Mesmer heal… hence the nerf to Mesmer rerolling.
This change will only compound the issue for me. Which really makes me sad as I am the epitome of PvP loyalist.
I would rather they spent the time implementing a really good character template system though. To be fair I got 9 slots on 2 accounts (18) though so arenanet already has my money.
I play a lot of PvE as well as PvP so I don’t re-roll because of PvE. If I only played PvP though I would re-roll a ton because what is the use of the locker and also, because re-rolling is one of the perks of being a PvP only player.
One of two things should happen in the patch with choice #1 being preferable:
1.) PvP Traits should just be unlocked. Period. End of story. You don’t have a philosophy shift and not honestly explain to the players why you did so. At least if you honestly explain to players why the change was made, you communicated it to us and whether or not we agree is a moot point. Honest communication sans PR spin goes a long way in assuaging certain issues in all things.
2.) If #1 can’t be changed and is set in stone then you make a system for PvP players to unlock said traits in PvP and once the traits are unlocked, they are unlocked on the account permanently.
Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall
I have over 30 characters. Would I be able to get a refund on those as well as all the gems I purchased? I’ll gladly just trim down to 8 professions at this point, I’m not planning on unlocking skills across multiple characters of the same profession.
On the bright side, much like the heals, most of those grand master traits are horrible and don’t even compete (outside of 4 or so) with the current GM traits.
Just have everything unlocked period in pvp (in terms of trait/skills)….. how on god’s green earth is that hard to comprehend????
For crying out loud, just add a poll in the heart of mists or poll the spvp community forums and ask players how they want it…I can’t believe the amount of neglect the community gets, seriously listen to feedback…. the players are the ones playing the game and if the majority of them don’t like the “locked traits” feature, why would you put in the game?
I just don’t understand what on earth the point is….why try to “change” something that isn’t broke?
Even if you don’t reroll, a skill or trait you have learned once with any character should be unlocked for the account, so all other characters in PvP will get it unlocked when they enter PvP for no additional cost, so if you have more than one character of the same profession you don’t need to keep track of which had which skills or unlocking the same skill over and over with each character, and can just switch to any character of that profession before the match starts.
This would of course help those that use one character slot for PvP, as any skill they unlock with any character will be still unlocked if they delete a character and make another one in the future.
This also worked well in GW1. One didn’t have to buy many slots for PvP characters, they could just have one or two for that, and make new characters when needed, and any unlocked skills will be in their skill panel, and any unlocked gear and upgrades will be still available in the PvP gear panel.
As always, unlocks are better.
SUGGEST-A-TRON says:
PAY—ONCE—UNLOCKS—ARE—ALWAYS—BETTER.
No exceptions!
As an altoholic, I feel your pain. I’ll need to take a look at the data tomorrow, find out just how common re-rolling is for PvPers.
I have 12 alts for PvP if it tells you anything. :/
I’m just curious and pardon me if I don’t understand something, but why do you need so many alts just for PvP? If the premise was to be able to try out the different professions and skills to better yourself as a player, why would you need more than 1 of any particular profession?
Multiple builds across classes so that I can hotswap depending on my enemies prior to a tPvP match.
I’m just curious and pardon me if I don’t understand something, but why do you need so many alts just for PvP? If the premise was to be able to try out the different professions and skills to better yourself as a player, why would you need more than 1 of any particular profession?
It doesn’t even have to be for PvP. A player may have multiple characters for roleplaying, or to see diffrent personal stories, or just because they like multiple looks. With unlocks per character in PvP instead per account, the more characters you have, the harder is to keep track which character has which trait and skills unlocked when they do go to PvP.
SUGGEST-A-TRON says:
PAY—ONCE—UNLOCKS—ARE—ALWAYS—BETTER.
No exceptions!
Just have everything unlocked period in pvp (in terms of trait/skills)….. how on god’s green earth is that hard to comprehend????
For crying out loud, just add a poll in the heart of mists or poll the spvp community forums and ask players how they want it…I can’t believe the amount of neglect the community gets, seriously listen to feedback…. the players are the ones playing the game and if the majority of them don’t like the “locked traits” feature, why would you put in the game?
I just don’t understand what on earth the point is….why try to “change” something that isn’t broke?
These trait unlocks should be account bound (Like GW1) or at least significantly cheaper to unlock a second time (1/10 of original value).
While character bound progression may be important for some players, it’s important to notice a good number of players do not like doing the same progression over and over for every single one of their characters.
The explanation that we have a trait unlock system is so that new players don’t get confused does NOT hold water when you make it soulbound. Why is it if you have a second character of a profession or if you’re PVP re-rolling and ALREADY unlocked those traits you’re forced to unlock those traits again? Did that player somehow get brain damage and forgotten how to play his profession?
It’s been said over and over again, the only reason for it to be soulbound is to sell character slots.
My personal thougths:
You have to understand that Anet concern and Player concern are not the same.
1) Anet: how to make money
2) Player: how to have fun playing the game
To have 1) you need to provide buyable content. Easiest way is to encourage player coming to the cash shop on already existing content.
- Gems to manage always more important list of objects in your inventory
- Gems to manage additional character slots encouraged on making pvp more grindy and charcter deletion a real pain.
In other words the strategy is to make the game grindy and character development costly.
Balance not fixed can be a strategy to push hard players on specific classes. Once a the new grindy stuff is in place it can be intersting for Anet to change the meta and push to other professions.
To get 2) you need new content and good balance. New content is expensive. Good balance will not push player to re-roll on new character slots.
So when will we have a good balance ? : never.
When the meta will change ?: once all grindy stuff is in place. Let’s hope that everything will be in place in April.
There is a good news for pvp however. Pvp will now represent a financial interest.
Note: there is another way to make money: e-sports but this is not at the good level for Gw2 today. Grinding is the B plan.
