Guild Wars 2

Which class has the worst Minor Traits?

(5/15/25)

Necromancer, hands down.
None of them has a real use, except for Last Gasp.

Only minor I can think of that is absolute garbage for thief is Last Refuge.

Ranger; Opening Strike, Marksmanship; 5/15 (one is for player, the next for pet).
Instinctual Bond, Beastmastery; 5

jcbroe.4329:

Ranger; Opening Strike, Marksmanship; 5/15 (one is for player, the next for pet).
Instinctual Bond, Beastmastery; 5

I think he meant minor traits in general.
Ranger has some great minor traits.

Also, Opening Strike is underrated.
30 in Marksmanship with a longbow means 15 stacks of vulnerability almost permanently. That’s a 15% damage boost.

I dare you to find an useful minor trait for Necromancer that isn’t Last Gasp.

I’d say last refuge is the worst, it’s the only trait that can actually get you killed.

jcbroe.4329:

Ranger; Opening Strike, Marksmanship; 5/15 (one is for player, the next for pet).
Instinctual Bond, Beastmastery; 5

Instincual bond isn’t that bad, it’s useful for getting some quick cc’s off with the wolf.

sorrow.2364:

Necromancer, hands down.
None of them has a real use, except for Last Gasp.

I don’t know what you on about but I love Gluttony, Target the weak, Barbed Precision, Furious Demise, and Protection of the Horde. You won’t miss them until they are gone.

In PvE, Parasitic Bond really good as well.

Mesmer vengeful images. Since the kittened nerf to that trait it is worthless.
However yeah last refuge is kinda the absolute worst I can think of ever.

sorrow.2364:

jcbroe.4329:

Ranger; Opening Strike, Marksmanship; 5/15 (one is for player, the next for pet).
Instinctual Bond, Beastmastery; 5

I think he meant minor traits in general.
Ranger has some great minor traits.

Also, Opening Strike is underrated.
30 in Marksmanship with a longbow means 15 stacks of vulnerability almost permanently. That’s a 15% damage boost.

I dare you to find an useful minor trait for Necromancer that isn’t Last Gasp.

That’s one Grandmaster Trait making an entire traitline almost usable by 1 weapon. Without it, with both traits, its 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds 1 time, in an entire fight.

Agreed, I rushed reading the topic, and it’s supposed to be the overall class, so no, ranger doesn’t have the very worst.

But reading between the lines a little, every single class can say that they have the worst minor traits, and to some degree, it’s an accurate statement for every class, which indicates maybe that minor traits in general need some reworking.

It’s just not worth arguing which class is worse lol. I have 6 different classes and they all feel like they have about an equal amount of minors that just suck kitten (generalizing, it obviously isn’t true if we draw up a spreadsheet).

Warrior Vitality Line…

Stick and Move (3% Damage bonus on a 25 trait!)
Versatile Power (1 Stack of Might on a 25 trait.. lol.)

Dirame.8521:

sorrow.2364:

Necromancer, hands down.
None of them has a real use, except for Last Gasp.

I don’t know what you on about but I love Gluttony, Target the weak, Barbed Precision, Furious Demise, and Protection of the Horde. You won’t miss them until they are gone.

In PvE, Parasitic Bond really good as well.

Gluttony is worthless.
Most skills don’t hit the 1% LF mark, so its effect is unnoticeable in most cases. Only when gaining 10% LF it has some effect, but it is still an 1% LF gain.

Target the Weak is a damage booster in a condition traitline. You need 5 conditions on a target to gain a damage bonus equal to what other profession gain with less requirements (Bleeding only on warrior, any condition on Thief and Guardian, etc) and power oriented weapon sets aren’t capable to inflict more than 3 conditions, not even reliably.

Barbed Precision has always been kinda worthless. It’s 1 stack of bleeding for 2 seconds, probably with an internal cooldown. That means that it doesn’t even synergize with wells/locust/ghastly claws.

Furious Demise was once useful. Now there is Deathly Perception, making that trait not that worth picking anymore.

Protection of the Horde is underpowered. You can have a maximum of 7 minions (including Jagged Horror), which means 140 extra toughness. It doesn’t even match the toughness bonus Guardians give to themselves and the whole team via Strength in Numbers without the need to keep up your whole minion army.

EoNxBoNx.9213:

Only minor I can think of that is absolute garbage for thief is Last Refuge.

Winner. I can’t think of any other trait that gets so much hate and most of the times, kills you rather than save your bum…

Barbed precision is incredible good. If you can’t see that you gotta learn it better. It kicks kitten with Rabid build. And no it doesn’t have internal cooldown. It’s 2 sec bleed that very often proc. In good condition build that’s 2x 130 (at least, without might/corruption stacks) bleed damage. Just for triggering this effect ONCE. You can trigger it very often with scepter. with heavy duration bleed increase, it can become 3 secs i think. Or it became 2 because of heavy duration increase. Either way, it increases your damage a lot more then you think, or compared to other minor traits.

Thick Skin, Reviver’s Might, Versatile Power.

Could’ve changed these to something else instead of zerk stance.

While Elementalist has some great minor traits, I would like to put as down as having some of the WORST minor traits.

Lingering Attunements, Flame Barrier, Zepyhr’s Speed, Enduring Damage, Bountiful Power, and Arcane Precision

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Barbed precision is incredible good. If you can’t see that you gotta learn it better. It kicks kitten with Rabid build. And no it doesn’t have internal cooldown. It’s 2 sec bleed that very often proc. In good condition build that’s 2x 130 (at least, without might/corruption stacks) bleed damage. Just for triggering this effect ONCE. You can trigger it very often with scepter. with heavy duration bleed increase, it can become 3 secs i think. Or it became 2 because of heavy duration increase. Either way, it increases your damage a lot more then you think, or compared to other minor traits.

It has an internal cooldown.
Try it with Ghastly Claws, which has 8 hits.
That means that the average of bleeds per cast you are supposed to get considered the 66% proc rate should be 5-6. However, you barely apply two bleeds per cast, which makes sense only if Barbed Precision has a 1-sec internal cooldown.

evasive powder keg up explosives for engis is one of the few that actually does more harm than good. It does half the damage of a normal bomb and randomly procs indenciary and breaks stealth too kittening much.

I’ve killed people with it in power builds, but for every time I’ve killed someone I’ve lost incendiary or broke stealth 10 times.

Warrior:
Strength 5 are completly useless Strength 25 are weak due cost
Defence 5 are very weak, near useless.
Vitality 5, 15 and 25… All useless
Discipline 25 need buff.

lol strength 5 is awesome

JETWING.2759:

Warrior:
Strength 5 are completly useless Strength 25 are weak due cost
Defence 5 are very weak, near useless.
Vitality 5, 15 and 25… All useless
Discipline 25 need buff.

Yep Yep! LOL

25 Strength = 3% Extra Damage temporary.

Useless minor traits line for Guardian: Valor line.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Valor

The three traits are more or less useless:
- Virtue of Courage is recharged when you rally : a “downed” trait. Nuff’ said.
- Gain might when you block attacks: you really don’t have that many blocks as a guardian.
- Gain aegis when your health reaches 50%: so you basically gain a random chance to block a useful attack but a more likely chance to block an auto attack. CD 90s.

The minors on this trait line are so bad… And they have a “mediocre” synergy with each other and with the major traits on the line as well.

Flamfloz.6732:

Useless minor traits line for Guardian: Valor line.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Valor

The three traits are more or less useless:
- Virtue of Courage is recharged when you rally : a “downed” trait. Nuff’ said.
- Gain might when you block attacks: you really don’t have that many blocks as a guardian.
- Gain aegis when your health reaches 50%: so you basically gain a random chance to block a useful attack but a more likely chance to block an auto attack. CD 90s.

The minors on this trait line are so bad… And they have a “mediocre” synergy with each other and with the major traits on the line as well.

Aegis, Shelter.

sorrow.2364:

It has an internal cooldown.
Try it with Ghastly Claws, which has 8 hits.
That means that the average of bleeds per cast you are supposed to get considered the 66% proc rate should be 5-6. However, you barely apply two bleeds per cast, which makes sense only if Barbed Precision has a 1-sec internal cooldown.

You seem to overlook that it is a 66% chance ON CRIT. not just a 66% proc chance.
Axe#2 has a duration of 2 seconds, so with an internal cooldown of 1 second i shouldnt be able to get more than 2-3 bleeds with it.
That being said, when i tested this with high precision(87%) and Axe#2, i got 5-6 bleedstacks pretty often, so theres probably no cooldown. and if there is, it is A LOT lower than 1 second.

Gluttony is also not bad. It doesnt matter what the actual LF-numbers of skills are, 10% more LF means 10% more LF. it’s okay for a minor adept trait and not even close to being the worst in game.

My vote goes to:
-Parasitic bond:
On-Kill-traits are usually crap. they help you snowballing or when youve already won. completely useless in 1vs1s or bossfights without adds. i want something reliable instead.

-Protection of the horde:
probably the only minor trait that is bound to specific utilities. which is awful. and the effect is, as previously stated by a lot of ppl, is pretty low too.

-Warrior’s Might-on-ress-trait (dont know the name)

RashanDale.3609:

You seem to overlook that it is a 66% chance ON CRIT. not just a 66% proc chance.
Axe#2 has a duration of 2 seconds, so with an internal cooldown of 1 second i shouldnt be able to get more than 2-3 bleeds with it.
That being said, when i tested this with high precision(87%) and Axe#2, i got 5-6 bleedstacks pretty often, so theres probably no cooldown. and if there is, it is A LOT lower than 1 second.

Gluttony is also not bad. It doesnt matter what the actual LF-numbers of skills are, 10% more LF means 10% more LF. it’s okay for a minor adept trait and not even close to being the worst in game.

My vote goes to:
-Parasitic bond:
On-Kill-traits are usually crap. they help you snowballing or when youve already won. completely useless in 1vs1s or bossfights without adds. i want something reliable instead.

-Protection of the horde:
probably the only minor trait that is bound to specific utilities. which is awful. and the effect is, as previously stated by a lot of ppl, is pretty low too.

-Warrior’s Might-on-ress-trait (dont know the name)

This topic isn’t about which minor trait is the worse, but which profession has the worse minor traits set and Necromancer is arguably the winner. Most of minor traits are useless or weak to the point of being unnoticeable.

I know that Gluttony and Barbed Precision aren’t the worse traits in the game, but they aren’t either that good.

Necro
Siphoned power
“Gain might when hit under 25% health”
1 stack might , 5s duration just before you die. So many uses.

Reanimator
Unless you play a minion bomber , this is only good for reaching closer to the 5 man aoe cap.

Full of Life
5 sec of rege when you reach 90% of your health, sounds good right?(30 sec cd)

Gluttony
It has been boosted! Now it multiplies your LF regeneration by an extra 0.1 !

In general most minor traits that give 5% dmg boosts are bad and situational.

Warrior Tactics Tree:
5 – Gain 5 extra toughness per level while reviving.
15 – Increases revive speed by 10%.
25 – Grant might to nearby allies when you revive someone. (1 stack for 12 seconds)

Flamfloz.6732:

Useless minor traits line for Guardian: Valor line.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Valor

The three traits are more or less useless:
- Virtue of Courage is recharged when you rally : a “downed” trait. Nuff’ said.
- Gain might when you block attacks: you really don’t have that many blocks as a guardian.
- Gain aegis when your health reaches 50%: so you basically gain a random chance to block a useful attack but a more likely chance to block an auto attack. CD 90s.

The minors on this trait line are so bad… And they have a “mediocre” synergy with each other and with the major traits on the line as well.

I fail to see how gaining Aegis after you rally is a bad thing. Also if you’re traited with Indomitable Courage or Shielded Mind this is extremely useful.

Also Guardians have a plethora of blocks. Shelter, the many ways of applying Aegis, Shield of Wrath, and Protector’s Strike. You can get double digit might stacks from Shelter alone.

Valorous Defense synergies well with Might of the Protector, Wrathful Spirit, Shattered Aegis, Unscathed Contender, and Pure of Heart.

For the most part Guards have some of the best minor traits. Only one I find underwhelming is Zealot’s Speed. I mean it’s called speed, so you think you would drop the symbol of swiftness not wrath.

1 stack of might upon reviving someone to nearby players. For 25 points. Warrior. Lol. Most 25 point traits either give a strait up 10% damage increase or some form of getting 5+ stacks of might.

Harbinger.8637:

Flamfloz.6732:

Useless minor traits line for Guardian: Valor line.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Valor

The three traits are more or less useless:
- Virtue of Courage is recharged when you rally : a “downed” trait. Nuff’ said.
- Gain might when you block attacks: you really don’t have that many blocks as a guardian.
- Gain aegis when your health reaches 50%: so you basically gain a random chance to block a useful attack but a more likely chance to block an auto attack. CD 90s.

The minors on this trait line are so bad… And they have a “mediocre” synergy with each other and with the major traits on the line as well.

I fail to see how gaining Aegis after you rally is a bad thing. Also if you’re traited with Indomitable Courage or Shielded Mind this is extremely useful.

Also Guardians have a plethora of blocks. Shelter, the many ways of applying Aegis, Shield of Wrath, and Protector’s Strike. You can get double digit might stacks from Shelter alone.

Valorous Defense synergies well with Might of the Protector, Wrathful Spirit, Shattered Aegis, Unscathed Contender, and Pure of Heart.

For the most part Guards have some of the best minor traits. Only one I find underwhelming is Zealot’s Speed. I mean it’s called speed, so you think you would drop the symbol of swiftness not wrath.

Well having Aegis is never a bad thing as such, but in truth there is still a good chance that you are going to block an auto-attack with it so it feels a bit underwhelming (especially if you have been downed by a group of players – which is likely).

As for the rest, it is true that guardian CAN get a plethora of blocks if they choose to (but don’t have them necessarily), and when you are going for a DPS/meditation/healing signet build then this entire set of minor traits in the Valor line becomes mostly useless – but it is true these traits can be useful if you are going bunker and look for the traits that synergize with it.

Ranger Wilderness Survival-

-Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
-You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.

Nugget.8031:

Ranger Wilderness Survival-

-Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
-You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.

The first one is nowhere near useless, its bathasz.
As for the second one protection could be 3 seconds and it would be great, now its just a bit underwhelming.

Nugget.8031:

Ranger Wilderness Survival-

-Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
-You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.

rofl

If you’re not playing a stealth-intense build Last Refuge is far from useless.

There are few traits in the game as bad as Reserve Mines .

The Mines do nigh on no damage, scatter randomly, and are highly visible so opponents just skirt around them anyway – not that they need to do so in the first place.

Seriously. I don’t think it is possible to find anything worse.

It also procs Confusion damage on you if you are afflicted with Confusion. So that 25% HP can quickly snowball you to 0% HP.

Daecollo.9578:

Warrior Vitality Line…

Stick and Move (3% Damage bonus on a 25 trait!)
Versatile Power (1 Stack of Might on a 25 trait.. lol.)

Gosh, it must be so awful stacking % damage with your sigil or getting a free stack of might every 5 seconds.

natsos.3692:

Nugget.8031:

Ranger Wilderness Survival-

-Increases endurance regeneration by 50%.
-You and your pet gain 2 seconds of protection when you dodge roll.

The first one is nowhere near useless, its bathasz.
As for the second one protection could be 3 seconds and it would be great, now its just a bit underwhelming.

It’s only underwhelming because the protection applies as you start dodging and not when you finish, in an attempt to more efficiently give your pet damage reduction. However, your pet would really end up getting the same mitigation either way.

Last Refuge is certainly the most annoying one, though depens on your build.

I retract my previous statement reserve mines=terri bad

Death from above. Reduce falling damage/damage foes you land on.

Leuca.5732:

It’s only underwhelming because the protection applies as you start dodging and not when you finish, in an attempt to more efficiently give your pet damage reduction. However, your pet would really end up getting the same mitigation either way.

I agree, this is pretty much what I had in mind.
2 seconds would be great if it was at the end of the dodge, but if it is going to start with the dodge then it has to be 3.