Guild Wars 2

My suggestion: Make traitlines separate from stat allocations.

So for example you could take whatever traits you wanted from the traitlines and pair it with whatever stats you wants which would total 4 300 or 30% stats and 2 100 or 10% stats.

Yes, this would cause imbalance in the game initially. Although I’m pretty sure we’ve already noticed the game is imbalanced anyway.

My reasoning behind the change:

1. Having stats tied to traitlines makes balancing the traitlines harder/more complicated. It’s kind of like trying to conduct an experiment with multiple variables = it doesn’t work that well.

2. Many builds are forced to waste stats to get the traits they want, for example: the condi damage from Trickery in the standard 10/30/0/0/30. This change would allow every build to be optimized at least statistically for the purpose it is supposed to serve.

3. More options = better balance in the long run. Many classes right now are pidgeonholed due to the fact that they are forced to take certain traits and build around the complimentary statlines they are given. (For example, no power ranger builds are viable because ranger is forced into a 300 condi damage/toughness line to get their only good condi removal).

4. PvP needs more stat customization. For realz, the amulet/tiny gem system isn’t cutting it. This would make it so that if you wants to take a valks amulet, but needed extra vit, you could just plunk 300 vit into your build.

Q/A

1. Wouldn’t this cause power creep? YES. Initially things would have to be rebalanced, like D/P thief now being able to take toughness or vitality instead of condi damage.

2. Why do more options equal better balance? Being able to flip 1400 total points/percent of stats around would open up dozens of builds and also turn the tables on a lot of meta builds which are only meta because they synergize well with the current stat allocations.

3. Why would separating stats from traitlines make balancing easier? Simply put, combining stats with traitlines makes some traits worthless and some traits overpowered due to whatever synergy there is between the stats and the traitline itself. If you have a trait pertaining to an offensive weapon in a defensive traitline, that trait is underwhelming compared to an offensive weapon trait in an offensive line.

You thought condi bunkers were bad before? Now with better stats! 30% condi duration, 300 condi damage, 300 vit, and 300 toughness! Full zerk set up not do 8k crits like you wanted? Not anymore! 8k crits for everyone!

No. Sorry, but that is a terrible idea.

Some time ago I wanted to suggest the same thing, but after deeper thinking I realized this idea is very bad.

For example: utility you receive from 30 trickery is very high, but you pay for it with much lower damage output, and less passive defense.

Allocating stats within trait lines in fact improved balance, and encourages build diversity. If you need more damage, then drop 30 trickery and get 30 deadly arts. That would give you passively +23% damage increase from power and exposed weakness grandmaster trait, which has almost 100% uptime.

Yes, this would cause imbalance in the game initially. Although I’m pretty sure we’ve already noticed the game is imbalanced anyway. - Worst argument I have ever read on this forum.

If anything, I wish that stats were weighted higher to traits than they are to gear compared to the present.

Actually, that was how the game worked in earlier betas. They had a reason to change it.