Guild Wars 2

As I have played numerous classes for a very long time, I noticed that the traitlines themselves are limiting/ killing build diversity.

Here are some examples:

Mesmer Inspiration Line

• This is such a required traitline for condition removal. Mender’s Purity and Restorative Illusions. Yes you can take null field or Cleanse Mantra but we gotta remember, Any decent mesmer MUST run portal. So 2 slots left. 1 Will be left for a Stun Breaker. and the other should be a condition removal. Cleanse Mantra is Very Clunky to use, Null field is such a long CD and the condition Removal is not instant. You can still get condi bombed.

Solution: Make condition removal be located on weapon sets like Ele Earth Focus 4 so You are not pigeonholed into running Inspiration

Necromancer Soul Reaping Line

• Another Required trait line especially if you want to take Staff. With all the blocks present in the game (revs, mesmers, etc) You just have to take this trait, leaving the other 2 impossible to pick. Another Biggie on this trait is vital persistence. Since Death Shroud is the Necro’s mechanic, again you have to take this trait because necros lack damage mitigation, If you don’t, Death Shroud will just melt stupidly fast leaving you vulnerable.

Solution: Make the Unblockable Marks Baseline, I believe this is not OP since as I’ve said there is just too much blocks in the game and few reliable unblockable attacks. OR Make GS Better so not everyone is shoehorned into playing Staff. For Vital Persistence, might as well make an innate 10% damage reduction when in death shroud, then nerf the trait.

Ranger Wilderness Survival Line

• This is the most face palm trait lines of all. 2 Condition Removal traits competing for a GM Spot.

Solution: Fuse Emphatic Bond with Invigorating Bond
Your pet takes 2 conditions off of you every 10 seconds and converts them to boons onto itself. Your pets’ F2 heals allies. Radius 360. Cooldown 15 seconds

I believe the boon conversion synergizes really well with Nature Magic and it does not kill the pet. Having the switch from WS to NM will offer more choices to the ranger instead of going WS where 2 of our condition removal traits share spots as a GM trait. Nature Magic is also the support line, Fusing EB with IB makes IB a decent pick over protective ward.

Warrior Discipline Line

• This has been stated many times that fast hands be made baseline which I completely agree. Honestly that’s not all, The condition clear on swapping is the very good which is bolsters warrior’s defenses against condis, So far we only have Cleansing Ire for that WHICH NEEDS A BURST SKILL TO HIT. Adrenaline on Swap is also huge on this one. Another required trait line.

Solution: Make Fast Hands Baseline. Introduce Sigil of Cleansing to PvP. Or Make Condition Cleanse sources on weapon sets like Ele Earth Focus 4. Spread out Adrenaline Sources on weapon Sets make them more reliable (Mace 2 Block grants adrenaline, but only If you don’t block an attack, how reliable is that?)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Cleansing

These are pretty much REQUIRED trait lines in pvp, and in a sense decides if a build is viable or not. Again this is bad design and limits build diversity.

The toxicity is getting to me… Developers are too busy working on GW3 using a dx10 engine for release in 2020 when we have dx14.

Developers need to actively look at a better solution to balance, most notably with core trait lines and weapon sets. Anets track record shows that they believe the answer to be in the future of the game. Rather than setting future projects aside to correct serious issues that are a “now” problem, they fumble ahead.

I honestly appreciate your effort to put forth balance suggestions like myself and many others have done in the past few months, but gone are the golden times of the HoT beta in which we had a direct line of communication/influence.

I stress the fact that as a player and part of the community, we do not always have the correct answers, but anet is literally throwing away free game design suggestions through their lack of communication.

This game and combat system have such huge potential, but the majority of it seems to be spoiled by both the community and organization of anet itself.

What we should all be suggesting right now is that during these quarterly balance updates, developers take the time to reach out to the community like they did during the HoT beta. It will only lead to a more constructive environment for everyone.

I agree that on certain classes, specific traitlines are pretty redundant in what they do, while those things are absent in others. You’ve already pointed out some examples, here’s my take on the IMHO worst ones:

Mesmer
Inspiration condition-removal or dealing with conditions through resistance: Menders Purity, Restorative Illusions and Temporal Enchanter (Medic’s Feedback which is directly linked to it). So 4 traits dedicated to dealing with condi’s in one traitline, while all the others combined don’t even have that much.

Warrior:
Almost all defensive traits are in either the aptly named “defense” traitline, or in tactics. Counting all defensive traits (power defense, anti-condition, healing etc.),

- Defenses has about 9 (depending on what exactly you count as defensive, I counted the vigor/stability of Last stand as well)
- Tactics has 5
- Strength 2 // Arms 0 // Discipline 3 (2 being awful) // Berserker 2 (Dead or Alive arguably awful)

Just switch around some of the traits. I don’t even mind if there are instances of traits existing in multiple traitlines, it’s better to have useful options twice on multiple traitlines than to have more diverse traits, but half of them are never gonna be used.