Guild Wars 2

Is it just me or is there less diversity… I love the whole stat change that’s good, but why can’t I place a master trait instead of a grandmaster trait for example….and why perma lock 3 primary trait lines and basically nerf most hybrid builds ? I’ve been playing this game for a long time and I know a lot of people would agree that while taking stats away makes build diversity better, why take away everything else ?

Just a thought,

Dev

I’m a new GW2 player which also makes me the target market for selling HoT to. I am unique in the fact that I got to taste both the old and the new build as a new player.

Truth be told the old was more dynamic, appealing, with better balance. I’m not sure why they changed it other than they thought dumming it down made it more marketable, which is often not the case.

Yes, there’s a lot less build diversity. There’s significantly less combinations of traits that could be done now that you are restricted to 3 trait lines and each line has 9 total traits. I believe that the main reason for this trait update is to make it easier to balance.

Radian.2478:

Yes, there’s a lot less build diversity. There’s significantly less combinations of traits that could be done now that you are restricted to 3 trait lines and each line has 9 total traits. I believe that the main reason for this trait update is to make it easier to balance.

Yes, easier to balance; however this is wvw…or pve I guess. Not PvP, and that is why I do not agree. MMO’s should be about very in-depth customization etc… Not everyone running the same thing. I would hope anyways, I have so many hours on both GW2 and GW1 and I don’t like the direction Anet is heading with this.

I will give it to the designer of the new trait panel. Its interesting with the 3 stacked choices in a given trait line and how they can connect with a string of light. graphically the icons are a little bland. But other than that the work on it wasn’t bad. I just think the other build was more interesting as a player.

I miss having four trait lines to use and having choices that were meaningful.

DevJD.5483:

Yes, easier to balance; however this is wvw…or pve I guess. Not PvP, and that is why I do not agree. MMO’s should be about very in-depth customization etc… Not everyone running the same thing. I would hope anyways, I have so many hours on both GW2 and GW1 and I don’t like the direction Anet is heading with this.

Uhm, first of all, this game is about both PvE/WvW and PvP.

Everyone (who cared about meta builds) were running the same thing before the patch. Just because there were more options doesn’t mean they were good/useful. So far it seems there are more viable builds since this change. Sometimes less is more.

Frankly it depends on the profession. For example, the build diversity on my mesmer was clearly improved: on a power shatter build only, I can choose to run PU for more stealth, stab on shatter, the new illusion line for a bit more burst, or Inspiration for the nice support. Even in domination, I’m constantly switching between Power Block and Mental Torment, and between the quickness on interrupt and the boon strip. Heck, I can even choose to NOT run DE thanks to the new Inspiration GM!

On my engineer also, every trait line has its strengths, and with the new Inventions line, I don’t feel obligated to ALWAYS take the swiftness on kit/vigor on swiftness combo.

The only profession I played since the patch with less build diversity would be thief. But I think that’s just a side effect of the exaggerated burst everyone is delivering.

Hard to know since game values are more than broken…reason some specs are impossible to play…

Yes I have to agree. Changes did not increase build diversity. Reversed it instead.

Depends. Some classes it worked very well on like guardian, elementalist, and mesmer. I feel I can pick any line and there are useful traits through out to choose from.

But other’s like engi and thief (ranger I think) feel pigeon holed into specific builds, have decreased diversity (even if say thief got stronger). I think they just need more work.

Overall I like the system, they just need to add more variety or something into some of the lines.

Mightybird.6034:

Depends. Some classes it worked very well on like guardian, elementalist, and mesmer. I feel I can pick any line and there are useful traits through out to choose from.

But other’s like engi and thief (ranger I think) feel pigeon holed into specific builds, have decreased diversity (even if say thief got stronger). I think they just need more work.

Overall I like the system, they just need to add more variety or something into some of the lines.

I’m not sure about the others you mentions but Guardian has several specials not working correctly and one has been disabled by development because it was melting gates in WvW.

In many ways, yes, but at the same time, it’s opened up some combinations of traitlines, for me at least. No more Shadow Art/hidden Killer Thieves, because you don’t get passive Health/Init regen as easily.

Sadly I notice next to no build diversity at all amongst mesmers, it’s all the blurred frenzy/shatter build… every mes, every time without any exception. When one spec is so prevalent that it outclasses anything and everything else it’s not really balanced. But next to nothing is balanced anymore so yea

Well ele can go power or condition dmg now before it was just power with the realty odd ball condition dmg builds. Seems more build diversity then there was before. I am not sure what you want for build diversity WvW tends to play to the lowest demonstrator becuse there are no “rules” like you would see in spvp or even pve.

for guardian. all it needs is to kill with fire… anything outside that or meditation builds not working or is leeching from teammates..

I hear the specialization huggers say that taking away choice was supposed to help balancing. It has never been this unbalanced in the 3 years i have played!