Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed a pattern lately…

Everyone uses the same Traits.

Everyone uses the same Runes.

Everyone uses the same Sigils.

Everyone uses the same Skills.

Can we please have a SIGIL/Rune and Skill Revamp/trait please?

I’m really tired of everyone being the same.

One Example:
Why are pistols not fixed after the year, it should have the SAME speed as ranger’s short bow.

*Why are things like physical skills, venoms, thief traps so bad?"

“Why are underused traits not revamped? You have data, take what people don’t use and give it some frosting!”

git gud

Or play an Engineer. We’re all different.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Sigil of Blood was actually a good Sigil?

Superior Sigil of Blood
30% Chance on Critical: Steal Health (This effect cannot trigger more than three times every 1 second.) This adds Opportunity Cost! So if people blob up together I get to heal more! [Maybe])

Additionally gives your weapon a leech effect when it procs!

Cool! Now I know when it procs because it has a cool unique effect! And its fun to use now because it actually does something significant like the other sigils do!

The effect could just be a slight green weapon glow. Something as simple as that. Don’t say that’d clutter anything, because then you’d have to remove forge weapons since they glow too!

I would suggest just making the weapon briefly “flash” red, nothing super extreme that could possibly blind you, and/or maybe make a little “lifeleech” ball fly from the target to you, like the very subtle green orb necro’s get when stuff dies around them.

Subtle little things just to let you know it’s working is always nice.

But to make it easier either just make the weapon briefly flash a color or have a little “symbol” flash on it, like the symbol of the sigil.

Here’s a very crude example.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Sure, but then would you see it? And if there is a different effect for each sigil (or rune set), then don’t you need to make them more distinct than just a slight green weapon glow so you can tell them apart?

No,

The effect should CHANGE the weapon’s actual melee trail. You know when you swing your weapon and you get that boring white trail? Say you had a sigil like this, you added it, and now the trail is different! You didn’t add any new effects to the game, just made one look cooler.

It should make the melee trail purple/red or a leeching type effect. It should not be a particle effect but a .swh? (Is that whakittens called.) that way it just replaces an effect already there.

But could you see that trail on, say, little asura hopping around?

I honestly think we should at least have 1 viable build for each class first. But problem is there is few tournies going on to even see builds that pros are using.
I wish there was league with 20 or 30 teams and we had like 15 games every week. This would help balance team. They could gather more data of what is really used or what is underused.
But from limited resources it seems right now mesmer and ele need some love. Other 6 classes we see much more usage.

So in my opinion, ele and mesmer need defined role and one build that is viable. Some major buffs like necros got.
Necros maybe need slight nerf, problem is I find them so much fun to play. I wish we could buff all classes to necro level.
And ranger is so boringly easy. Its not only problem that pro teams use them, but they are so effective on lower level too. You don’t need almost any skill to make it work. So I hope for some kind of rework here, and make ranger more complex and rewarding.

Don’t you know when it procs because you see green healing numbers already?

Isnt it possible like the boon and condition UI, to have a sigil proc UI symbol implented instead of more cluttering on the screen?

Duncanmix.5238:

But from limited resources it seems right now mesmer and ele need some love. Other 6 classes we see much more usage.

I still think this is due to the playerbase being months behind in terms of adjusting comps. Mesmers and eles are strong against melee, melee is strong against condis, condis are strong against mesmers…. and eles who never use cooldowns defensively if they can be used offensively.

Now that people have seen that warriors and double melee are undeniably viable, they’ll start running it, and that means mesmers and eles will see more success in turn.

Some tuning so that condis don’t destroy mesmers so hard, warriors don’t destroy condi classes so hard, and mesmers/eles don’t destroy melee so hard is all that is needed.

However, you have to take that with a caveat. I actually have no idea how the new warrior fares against mesmers and eles, I’m basing that matchup on the old meta, where mesmers and eles straight dominated them, and thus warriors never saw much play.

Also, I’m not talking 1v1 here, I’m talking about impact on a match.

Daecollo.9578:

JonathanSharp.7094:

Sure, but then would you see it? And if there is a different effect for each sigil (or rune set), then don’t you need to make them more distinct than just a slight green weapon glow so you can tell them apart?

No,

The effect should CHANGE the weapon’s actual melee trail. You know when you swing your weapon and you get that boring white trail? Say you had a sigil like this, you added it, and now the trail is different! You didn’t add any new effects to the game, just made one look cooler.

It should make the melee trail purple/red or a leeching type effect. It should not be a particle effect but a .swh? (Is that whakittens called.) that way it just replaces an effect already there.

So you still have time to observe a weapon’s trail before you realize that OMGWTF is that an 8 sec stun or just a normal 7 sec one? skill is coming at you?

Then realizing it was just an auto-attack.

But you used your only stun breaker.

Mammoth.1975:

Duncanmix.5238:

But from limited resources it seems right now mesmer and ele need some love. Other 6 classes we see much more usage.

I still think this is due to the playerbase being months behind in terms of adjusting comps. Mesmers and eles are strong against melee, melee is strong against condis, condis are strong against mesmers…. and eles who never use cooldowns defensively if they can be used offensively.

Now that people have seen that warriors and double melee are undeniably viable, they’ll start running it, and that means mesmers and eles will see more success in turn.

Some tuning so that condis don’t destroy mesmers so hard, warriors don’t destroy condi classes so hard, and mesmers/eles don’t destroy melee so hard is all that is needed.

However, you have to take that with a caveat. I actually have no idea how the new warrior fares against mesmers and eles, I’m basing that matchup on the old meta, where mesmers and eles straight dominated them, and thus warriors never saw much play.

Also, I’m not talking 1v1 here, I’m talking about impact on a match.

1vs1 is very important since many warriors nowadays are used as far point assault more than teamfighting at least from my experience
I dont know what fares well against something that regen that much,is tanky, can stun 4 sec every 10 sec and also crit everything for the duration and deal huge number of damage.Mesm might have a chance with their great kiting abilities if they run with defencive utilities but eles im sure cant win with the old valks setups.
Reason is low damage and thus pressure while warrior eats 1 by 1 your defences on a very fast rate.You need DAMAGE !!

JonathanSharp.7094:

Sure, but then would you see it? And if there is a different effect for each sigil (or rune set), then don’t you need to make them more distinct than just a slight green weapon glow so you can tell them apart?

Sure you would, the same way you see forged weapon’s glow. They’re quite obvious when someone carries them.

Most other sigils already have effects; air, fire, water, etc.

There’s really no good reason for someone to be 1v1 for any great length of time at backpoint imo. Support your bunkers, stop spamming far. 2v1 the warrior then snowball them while they’re down a man. Stun warriors are amazingly kittenty at 1v2s, because most of their 1v1 power comes from disabling you if you try to do anything but kite. Can’t disable 2 players = kited, soon dead warrior.

If it’s really a problem though, you just have to figure out a backbunker that can 1v1 warriors instead of assuming that there’s only one backbunker. I mean by now we have seen at least 3 professions that have seen regular play on home point, there are almost definitely more that are viable.

It’s the effect on teamfights that I’d be more concerned about. The warriors role in teams when ele/mes ruled the meta for like 9 months due to a lack of any real counter to them used to be ‘ooo yeah goin in for the burst, ohkitten shieldblock throwrock vengeance respawn’. I’m not at all sure that’s the case with the new warriors.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Daecollo.9578:

FOR EXAMPLE:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Sigil of Blood was actually a good Sigil?

Superior Sigil of Blood
30% Chance on Critical: Steal Health (This effect cannot trigger more than three times every 1 second.) This adds Opportunity Cost! So if people blob up together I get to heal more! [Maybe])

Additionally gives your weapon a leech effect when it procs!

Cool! Now I know when it procs because it has a cool unique effect! And its fun to use now because it actually does something significant like the other sigils do!

Agreed on the sigil needing a little oomf.

As to the effect: Yes, I agree it would be nice to know when it goes off. But, the other side of this is that it would add another effect into the game, which can clutter the screen. If we had a unique effect for all sigils/runes, it would create a lot more effects….which again, makes things hard to read.

I do like your idea though!

The leech effect (a very short version of life siphon) is quite simple though. It’s not like a chaos storm or a Lightning field that just covers the area.

some suggestion for a better variety:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Suggestion-for-sPvP-EQ

Maybe a little out of topic but shouldn’t there be indication on cooldown of runes and sigils? If something is about to be exectued, we would want it to be used as efficiently as possible.
Second – wouldn’t it be a good idea to actually let us CHOOSE if we wanna use for example: Rune of the Rata Sum.
If the runes proc and the radiation field should appear, we may hold it for more suitable opportunity and release it as we please. Then the cooldown starts.
All this could increase variety in builds because it would make many runes and sigils a lot more useful imo.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Daecollo.9578:

FOR EXAMPLE:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Sigil of Blood was actually a good Sigil?

Superior Sigil of Blood
30% Chance on Critical: Steal Health (This effect cannot trigger more than three times every 1 second.) This adds Opportunity Cost! So if people blob up together I get to heal more! [Maybe])

Additionally gives your weapon a leech effect when it procs!

Cool! Now I know when it procs because it has a cool unique effect! And its fun to use now because it actually does something significant like the other sigils do!

Agreed on the sigil needing a little oomf.

As to the effect: Yes, I agree it would be nice to know when it goes off. But, the other side of this is that it would add another effect into the game, which can clutter the screen. If we had a unique effect for all sigils/runes, it would create a lot more effects….which again, makes things hard to read.

I do like your idea though!

Dont think about effects only that way Jonathan! You can have a boon-like indicator of sigil of blood, you could have the user’s screen border slighty painted in bloodred, like games do when you have very low health!

These effects are not as toxic because others players dont see them!

Or you can just turn the player colour red, indicating proc, like the box of fun dyeing method works!

One other way is: SOUND EFFECTs!

Makes it loud enough so we know something just popped.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Sure, but then would you see it? And if there is a different effect for each sigil (or rune set), then don’t you need to make them more distinct than just a slight green weapon glow so you can tell them apart?

What do you think about free allocation of traits (minor and major)? A lot of folks want this to happen because it would significantly increase build variety per class for pve, pvp, wvw. I don’t know if you guys consider your Trait trees any good but i personally hate them because we’re locked to X skills if we want Y skill at 20 trait points.

Traits are fine as they are.

In fact in Guild Wars 2 Build variety is almost the same as in Guild Wars 1.

In Guild Wars 1 you had your auto attack and a few must have skills on every class. The “trait”-system was far minor. So you basically had those 8 skills, from which you had to take like 4 for every build. (for example rezz, apply poison and interrupts on ranger).
In Guild Wars 2 the skills which are “must haves” are already allocated in the Weapons (meaning in the weapon skills). I understand that decision and I think it’s a good one.

Then you have a heal skills and 3 utilities (+ an elite). Here is where the problem starts in my opinion.

From those 3 healskills with each class there is one that is the best. Then one that is usefull for “special”-builds and one that is just kitten.

If we talk about Utilities it’s the same. There are so many useless utilities, and there still lies huge potential in the game. For example:
- shouts on ranger
- Sigils on Elementalist and Conjure Weapons
- Turrets on Engineer (imo failed experiment. Dont deal enough support or dmg)
- Sigils, Spiritweapons on guardian (consecrations also not that usefull..)
Only to name a few.
If you really look at it seriously you have about 5-7 useful utilities per class if i overestimate.

Same goes with Elite skills (sadly). You could say that each class has one usefull Eliteskill (talking about spvp). Or just one that is best compared to others. It would be so interesting if every elite was as useful as others. (for example elixir and mortar are a joke compared to supply crate.)

So to enhance build variety it’s really a question of balance. I could also see that future updates could bring replacable weaponskills. For example if you take a Greatsword you have the autoatack and then not 4 set skills but a skillpool of 6 greatswordskills which you can use.

But everything is a question of balance here.

Django.5923:

Traits are fine as they are.

In fact in Guild Wars 2 Build variety is almost the same as in Guild Wars 1.

C’mon now…

PS: free allocation of traits would only result in everyone picking the best traits and thus build variety would only increase if there are no “best” traits and they were really balanced! But this isn’t the case I suppose. So everyone would just pick the same traits probably.

I would like to see a separation of the attributes and the traits. So that I’m not forced into traits which I don’t like because my build needs more power.

So:

Separate Trait tree with traits. And then an attribute distribution system like in guild wars 1

Nuka Cola.8520:

Django.5923:

Traits are fine as they are.

In fact in Guild Wars 2 Build variety is almost the same as in Guild Wars 1.

C’mon now…

I know it sounds strange. But think about it.

Sure in Guild Wars 1 you could make many more builds. But if you looked at the meta and the builds which were really good and everyone played. There wasn’t very much more variety.
If you look at GvG every class had about 2 Builds with little tweaks in skills and runes.

I think a free allocation of traits would bring much more problems… Maybe a free allocation but still with Minor Major and Adept. So that people don’t only take XII traits.

Yes, everyone would be picking up the best traits but where is the problem in that? Right now you ‘may’ be forced to take stuff that isn’t very good or not needed because there’s nothing else you want in that tree. If we had free allocation of traits, we would be taking EXACTLY what you need/want and those traits no one uses could get an overhaul from devs because, well, they’re useless. I really don’t understand how could anyone deny this… its not like im asking this to be done for myself but everyone in the game. Build variety per class is below pathetic level when compared to gw1, just sayin.

I see your point. It would be better to be able to pick what you need without question. But it wouldn’t increase build variety in huge amounts.

Think about it. Now build X needs trait 1,2,3,4,5 (maybe 1-3 are useless.. but it needs 4 and 5 and thus the other also). Then after free allocation build X needs other traits a,b,c,d,e which are better for the build. But it’s still the same amount of traits and you are still somehow forced to pick them.

I can imagine that variety would increase alittle. But I already see people crying because you have to take always those 9 traits if you play on condition dmg.

Don’t get me wrong. I would like to pick the best traits and I don’t think it would be something bad for a change. But I don’t see it as the solution to increase build variety.

In my opinion variety comes from better balancing. If they would allow free allocation of traits then they would need to balance all the traits first. Like you said too many useless ones.

I could imagine it (increased build variety) working if:

- Skills which are useless get to be useful
- Traits which are useless get to be useful
- Trait trees wouldnt’ force you in them just because of the attributes (power, precision..) —> separate attribut and traittrees
- Somewhat free allocation of traits. But in my opinion it would still need a minor, major etc. system somehow. Because if you put all the current traits in the same pool you would have to tune down the strong ones, tune up the bad ones so that they are all mediocre (and I like better traits or traits which are just strong like “elite” traits).

why not just have every third hit goes off instead of 33%?

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

why not just have every third hit goes off instead of 33%?

this, please shave down the insane passive RNG that is in this game. Its invisible to players, especially those watching as you have pointed out yourself. So its not enjoyable for either player.

Django.5923:

I see your point. It would be better to be able to pick what you need without question. But it wouldn’t increase build variety in huge amounts.

Think about it. Now build X needs trait 1,2,3,4,5 (maybe 1-3 are useless.. but it needs 4 and 5 and thus the other also). Then after free allocation build X needs other traits a,b,c,d,e which are better for the build. But it’s still the same amount of traits and you are still somehow forced to pick them.

I can imagine that variety would increase alittle. But I already see people crying because you have to take always those 9 traits if you play on condition dmg.

Don’t get me wrong. I would like to pick the best traits and I don’t think it would be something bad for a change. But I don’t see it as the solution to increase build variety.

In my opinion variety comes from better balancing. If they would allow free allocation of traits then they would need to balance all the traits first. Like you said too many useless ones.

I could imagine it (increased build variety) working if:

- Skills which are useless get to be useful
- Traits which are useless get to be useful
- Trait trees wouldnt’ force you in them just because of the attributes (power, precision..) —> separate attribut and traittrees
- Somewhat free allocation of traits. But in my opinion it would still need a minor, major etc. system somehow. Because if you put all the current traits in the same pool you would have to tune down the strong ones, tune up the bad ones so that they are all mediocre (and I like better traits or traits which are just strong like “elite” traits).

In the end it would give more build variety, and would make the game WAY more fun and refreshing. Playing GW1 casually I had a ton of fun just constantly making builds, even if they weren’t the best.

But remember on release they rearranged some traits because they didn’t want people “cherry picking” the best traits? Well that wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t so many crappy traits for us to dig through to find the best traits. Make every trait desirable then all of a sudden it’s not “easy” to just fill up trait slots like it is now, there’s very few times where I have to struggle with “do I want this one or this one ugh this is tough” because it’s usually just “oh there’s 1 good trait here and 5 crappy ones”.

Yeah it depends on the build you’re going for but still, there’s a lot of trash traits to dig through still lol.

I personally think it’s more fun when everyone has a ton of variety even if there is some OP things, it’s sorta like DotA, everyone is OP in their own way so it becomes “balanced” in a way, and there’s way more variety so it’s fun. And in the end if something is way too broken they can swoop in and finely tune it so it’s put in it’s place.

I know it won’t happen, but I can dream.

As a ranger I’m very envious of Warriors and Engi’s they can play every roll in the game effectively. Bunker, Far point attacker, Burst, Condition, I wish more classes could do that.

Daecollo.9578:

I’ve noticed a pattern lately…

Everyone uses the same Traits.

Everyone uses the same Runes.

Everyone uses the same Sigils.

Everyone uses the same Skills.

Can we please have a SIGIL/Rune and Skill Revamp/trait please?

I’m really tired of everyone being the same.

One Example:
Why are pistols not fixed after the year, it should have the SAME speed as ranger’s short bow.

*Why are things like physical skills, venoms, thief traps so bad?"

“Why are underused traits not revamped? You have data, take what people don’t use and give it some frosting!”

Most people are casual, awful players who can’t think for themselves. So they run with what works, no matter how cowardly it is.

Mindroach.6149:

Most people are casual, awful players who can’t think for themselves. So they run with what works, no matter how cowardly it is.

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/

Daecollo.9578:

I’ve noticed a pattern lately…

Everyone uses the same Traits.

Everyone uses the same Runes.

Everyone uses the same Sigils.

Everyone uses the same Skills.

Can we please have a SIGIL/Rune and Skill Revamp/trait please?

I’m really tired of everyone being the same.

One Example:
Why are pistols not fixed after the year, it should have the SAME speed as ranger’s short bow.

*Why are things like physical skills, venoms, thief traps so bad?"

“Why are underused traits not revamped? You have data, take what people don’t use and give it some frosting!”

Not everyone. I run a build that no one else runs (or possibly has similar too). Ele 20 15 10 15 10 S/F zerker. Only seen 1 other S/F ele and only seen 1 Staff ele (my friend) in my pvp travels.

I have tried making nontraditional builds and some of them are quite viable in certain places. Even this thief build works well against mesmers, minion necros, spirit rangers as long as it is used more as a point defender and not an assaulter (something very different from what you may expect from thieves) in 1 v 1 or 2v2 situations :http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAoa6YlcmaPXeS6E/5EB3Dny0m6p4rjVTBNlJA-TwAAzCuIgR5jzHzMyZswMqYFwOgpIA

At the same time, I do hope that the trait system will create opportunities for creativity. I am very satisfied that developers differentiated traits by ranks (1,2,3) as some traits are clearly superior to others. It also helped new players get acquainted with the game. Now, as players are maturing (or maybe at least from them reaching a certain pvp level such as 10 or 20), a person could gain more flexibility. For example, letting a person place a rank 1 trait from any trait line. Specifically, if you are going into the power train line for a thief (because you want power and/or condition duration), and you place 10 points in the trait line and therefore unlock the first choosable trait, you would be able to choose traits that are currently held in other traits lines (such as condition damage line) as well as the 6 traits that currently belong to the power line. This would make the game more complex, but it gives a lot of possibilities for developers and players. Developers would know which traits are not chosen (or chosen too often) and maybe act on it. Now developers also know that some traits are hardly used, but it is harder to know if they are not chosen because the trait itself is inferior or is it because it is inferior for that specific trait line. Players could gain a lot of freedom and seek to make their own, more personal builds.

Of course, such changes are difficult and demanding but they might be worth considering again for the future.

Part of this is the homogeneity of meta. Once people see top players using a spec effectively it tends to become fairly common spec. And at any particular time in the game certain specs are going to be more common (like having a lot of condition clear if condition meta is heavy).

Nuka Cola.8520:

Yes, everyone would be picking up the best traits but where is the problem in that? Right now you ‘may’ be forced to take stuff that isn’t very good or not needed because there’s nothing else you want in that tree. If we had free allocation of traits, we would be taking EXACTLY what you need/want and those traits no one uses could get an overhaul from devs because, well, they’re useless. I really don’t understand how could anyone deny this… its not like im asking this to be done for myself but everyone in the game. Build variety per class is below pathetic level when compared to gw1, just sayin.

Free trait allocation was possible in early beta, and it was unbalanced as kitten.

Imagine if you could take, on an elementalist, fresh air as a 10 point trait, or evasive arcana, or whatever.
Or dhuumfire for a necro
Or illusionary persona on mesmer
Or empathic bond on ranger
And the list could go on.

Shar.3402:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Yes, everyone would be picking up the best traits but where is the problem in that? Right now you ‘may’ be forced to take stuff that isn’t very good or not needed because there’s nothing else you want in that tree. If we had free allocation of traits, we would be taking EXACTLY what you need/want and those traits no one uses could get an overhaul from devs because, well, they’re useless. I really don’t understand how could anyone deny this… its not like im asking this to be done for myself but everyone in the game. Build variety per class is below pathetic level when compared to gw1, just sayin.

Free trait allocation was possible in early beta, and it was unbalanced as kitten.

Imagine if you could take, on an elementalist, fresh air as a 10 point trait, or evasive arcana, or whatever.
Or dhuumfire for a necro
Or illusionary persona on mesmer
Or empathic bond on ranger
And the list could go on.

No is one asking to be able to slot t3 traits in t1 slots which is how it was in beta…..

We’re asking to be able to slot ANYt3 traits in ANY t3 slot and vice versa for everything else.

Then it just becomes the stats you want when picking a trait tree.

GW 1 build variety centred around a choice different ‘active’ skills. An exercise of hard balancing between utility and damage because you simply didn’t have the same skills when you changed your 8 slots. There was also cross pollination between classes with secondaries. For theses reasons different builds were incredibly distinct. Both in how they played and what the hell they looked like.

Build variety in GW2 centres around ambiguous stuff like passive effects and ‘gear’ choices, and then beefier stuff like weapon selection.

In my opinion, it’s not an inherently bad idea. It’s pretty cool for the most part. However putting most of your ‘variety’ in passive effects just appears to be the poorer of the two choices. The former is simply purer lacks unnecessary detail. GW2 is almost verbose…

Quantifying an opposing players passive effects verges on being obtuse. It’s far less immediate, and ultimately less rewarding than the hard divide of X player brought Y skill.

Trying to fake out a warriors Bulls Strike while running a flag, or baiting interrupts while trying to RoF (Reversal of Fortune) a spike, or top people up with LoD (Light of Deliverance), is just better than trying to work out if someone’s ‘passive’ ICD is up or not…

I am hoping we get some build variety soon…

Just wondering… But why not just have either:

A- An effect on Sigil proc that’s awesome and epic and huge that only you could see from your screen.

Or

B- Give Sigil procs its own alert on the lines of “Retaliation” or “Block” that simply broadcasts to everyone in a simple text which Sigil has activated..

Or

C- Both.

….?

I hope this gets looked at!

We really need more sigils…

I am glad this thread was mentioned!

JonathanSharp.7094:

Daecollo.9578:

FOR EXAMPLE:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Sigil of Blood was actually a good Sigil?

Superior Sigil of Blood
30% Chance on Critical: Steal Health (This effect cannot trigger more than three times every 1 second.) This adds Opportunity Cost! So if people blob up together I get to heal more! [Maybe])

Additionally gives your weapon a leech effect when it procs!

Cool! Now I know when it procs because it has a cool unique effect! And its fun to use now because it actually does something significant like the other sigils do!

Agreed on the sigil needing a little oomf.

As to the effect: Yes, I agree it would be nice to know when it goes off. But, the other side of this is that it would add another effect into the game, which can clutter the screen. If we had a unique effect for all sigils/runes, it would create a lot more effects….which again, makes things hard to read.

I do like your idea though!

As if that extra effect would matter a flying kitten when you have say asuras with the size of a mouse, super explosive finsihers and all kind of other crap.

Daecollo.9578:

I’ve noticed a pattern lately…

Everyone uses the same Traits.

Everyone uses the same Runes.

Everyone uses the same Sigils.

Everyone uses the same Skills.

The choice of traits, runes and sigils is a simple decision problem. Decision problems have an optimal solution. In every competitive game the professionals play the optimal strategies, else they wouldn’t play at the top. In League of Legends you can choose between hundreds of item combinations, yet top players only play a few. Every hero has an optimal item build, an optimal build order and an optimal order to level the skills, with slight varations depending the match and opponents. The first GuildWars provided a great diversity of builds at the first glance. In GvG and HA, however, there were only few optimal builds for every class. During my days in GvG, every top guild ran the same warrior build: Eviscerate.

The convergence of builds and strategies, for the lack of a better word, is a law of nature. The phenomenon is not limited to video games, you can observe in every competitive game, may it be chess or soccer.

This game is dictated by how the developers balance it, the entire meta revolves around the lastest patch. There is only one gamemode and a limited set of proven strategies.

Trial and error have unveiled which builds work and which don’t. There will never be true build diversity when certain runes, sigils and traits are so obviously superior to others. And only balancing patches bring any form of change.

Do you really think someone will discover a build that no one has thought to try since release? Or will decent players just read the patch notes and adopt what is plainly overpowered this time around?

Stof.9584:

This game is dictated by how the developers balance it, the entire meta revolves around the lastest patch. There is only one gamemode and a limited set of proven strategies.

Trial and error have unveiled which builds work and which don’t. There will never be true build diversity when certain runes, sigils and traits are so obviously superior to others. And only balancing patches bring any form of change.

Do you really think someone will discover a build that no one has thought to try since release? Or will decent players just read the patch notes and adopt what is plainly overpowered this time around?

If you make it where you can choose secondary skills and 5/15/25 specs, then the meta will be so confused and there will be so many specs there may not even be a best spec.

Daecollo.9578:

I’ve noticed a pattern lately…

Everyone uses the same Traits.

Everyone uses the same Runes.

Everyone uses the same Sigils.

Everyone uses the same Skills.

I partly blame the amulets and rigid stat selection. You can’t make an offensive power build with toughness, so you have to have defensive cooldowns. If you don’t have strong ones, that blocks the build from ever working.

The condition-heavy meta is also partly to blame. Anti-condition traits and abilities are limited compared to counters to power builds, which limits what you can run.

What limits a lot of runes is their 6-piece bonus being awful or their 4-piece bonus being an unreliable or useless proc (5% chance to get 1 stack of might when hit, really?). Or in the case of Rune of Strength, the 6-piece bonus doesn’t work. If the numbers were tweaked slightly, you could probably make another 5 rune sets instantly viable.

Knote.2904:

No is one asking to be able to slot t3 traits in t1 slots which is how it was in beta…..

We’re asking to be able to slot ANYt3 traits in ANY t3 slot and vice versa for everything else.

Then it just becomes the stats you want when picking a trait tree.

Yes. There’s never been enough real choice or build depth in this game. I think the fixed weapon and elite skill slots are the real culprit though – the usability of a weapon is entirely pre-determined by the set of skills it has. I feel each weapon needs to have a pool of skills to choose from. These could even be intrinsic to the weapon instead of the class, eg: 2-3 greatsword skills that any class that can equip a GS can choose to slot.

In general I also think traits are too weak and/or too narrowly defined.

Allowing utilities in the elite slot would be another substantial improvement in build depth for minimal development cost.