Re-design the trait system
I don’t even want to think of the nightmare an Engineer would be if he could have all the specific grandmaster traits he actually wanted for only 10 points spent.
this is how it originally was during the closed beta events and the open BWEs. it was glorious, but, the problem is, most of the builds coming out during BWE1 were builds that did things like 10/10/20/20/10 or something and simply cherry-picked all the best traits. i did it to awesome effect on my mesmer and guardian during the BWE then they changed it (for the best) and there was an uproar of QQ.
anyone that understood how games worked realize that change was for the best. it made you choose: do you want the trait or the extra stats?
@ OP: the trait system, as is, is fine. the issue is the traits that we have aren’t up to snuff. there are a lot of useful ones, but then, there’s just as many… not.
Yes, allowing all traits available in any of the line’s slots (if I was interpreting that correctly) doesn’t really solve the problem Elementalist has…heck, most of the traits in Air I think are rather lackluster but just being able to cherry pick all the good ones just ignores the bad ones.
I like the choices that you have to settle with, I just wish they were all a bit more balanced and polished specifically so that, as a specialist in Fire or Air or whatever, you’d want and can swap between ALL the traits you have depending what utilities and weapons you left town with because they’re all viable.
I sort of do that now, as a 0/30/0/30/10 but that’s mainly to swap out my cantrip focused traits with glyph focused ones when I swap tactics/weapons. Technically I don’t have to because of how minimal it changes the set up and because of dumb bugs (seriously, the faster charging cantrip trait needs to work for Mist Form).
Huh, I find that the worst attunement traits to be in fire, almost never specing into it. Sure, both fire and air has an immense percentage of traits that are barely useful like (Grounded) gaining 20% damage boost when opponents are knocked down or stunned, which are outshined by a few of the other traits that always come in handy, like reducing CD by 20% on attunement or utility skills. Fire and air lack a variety of useful skills.
I tend to go 20-30 air to gain crit damage/chance and reduce CD on air skills as they are good for mobility and a useful attunement to swap into, I only switch between Zephyr’s Boon, Quick Glyphs, Bolt to the Heart, Aeromancer’s Alacrity and Tempest’s Defense (T.D. not much, as you can often get stunned etc. from a range, and it will trigger without being of any real use to you. Why does it have to trigger on knockback anyway?).
In fire.. well, since I stopped putting traits into it, because rampager’s necklace/jewel and might boons can do the trick, I ditch it entirely now (except on a cantrip build), not looking back. The trait used being Spell Slinger. Fire’s Embrace and Pyromancer’s Alactrity being fine traits as well.
I hope Anet will look into the traits, auto cast spells (some are fine btw), the time to hit opponents with certain skills (like Dragon’s Tooth, Churning Earth and Ice Spike), cast time, CDs of some of the skills and the bugs, like the notorius RTL. If they just would tell us whether or not they are looking into the matter, or things aren’t going to change, it would be very comforting. But I digress. Hopefully I didn’t stray too much.
Elementalists are really hard to define in that they have been given the ability to fill in different roles during combat. I guess you can say they are a versatile class. That being said however, I believe it’s there biggest downfall. They are the “jack of all trades but master of none”.
This issue can go on for ages but I want to focus on one aspect in particular that could actually help an elementalist define their role a bit more easily.…and that is — to re-design the trait system.
At the moment, the trait system is fairly restrictive. You only have access to a certain amount of traits in a line depending on which trait slot you are assigning a trait to.
Now as far as I’m aware, traits are there to compliment your gameplay or help define your role a little better. Now that’s all good until you meet Mr Elementalist. Their versatility is countered by the restrictions within the trait system.My suggestion is simple…
Enable ALL traits within a line to be available in all 3 trait slots
This in turn may call for changes in the power/utility a trait provides in its current state, but it will make it a heck of a lot easier to define and build your elementalist.
This could be a system unique to Elementalist due to their complex makeup or a system that could be adapted to all other classes.—
One other thing I would like to mention is to have a secondary weapon slot for the Elementalist. ONLY this time, it is disabled during fights so you are unable to swap but at least if you feel the need to change outside of battle, it is only one click away. The convenience of it would be nice.
What do you guys think?
u just ton’t know how to play ele & how to pick ele traits, well thats how i see it, cause i have seen meany ho are good & strong & not jack of all trades but master of none, u can be jack of all trades but master of none if u chose, its ur, choice but u can be master at something if u chose to!!! so my point is that trait system is OK
but there is 1 problem, like with some classes u ton’t need precision u need con dam, then precision goes to waste, like with necromancer, he has precision & con kittenogether so u cant build it as u want, at least not 100% as u want, that’s why i find necromancer hardest to build, i have 5 chars, 2 are lvl 20+, lvl 28 ele & lvl 30 ranger, my highest lvl’s
(edited by Sugram.3106)
“simply cherry-picked all the best traits” – nvmvoidrays
This calls for BALANCING. Another issue all together.
If there are redundant traits within the game… remove them or you could do the more logical thing and rework them, tweak them in any way to bring them up to par.
I don’t think removing traits at earlier levels is the answer… more of a bandaid approach rather than finding a more solid fix that gives players ‘options’ rather than imposing more ‘restrictions’ on how to customise/build your character.
“but there is 1 problem, like with some classes u ton’t need precision u need con dam, then precision goes to waste, like with necromancer, he has precision” – Sugram
I wasn’t referring to stats in my post at all. I was actually looking at the elementalists mechanics.
I guess my suggestion is reasonable seeing as full blown discussions only really occur where there are disagreements.
I think there should be another trial period where traits are accessed in all 3 trait slots of a line.
I guess my suggestion is reasonable seeing as full blown discussions only really occur where there are disagreements.
I think there should be another trial period where traits are accessed in all 3 trait slots of a line.
You didn’t really read the arguments as to why they don’t allow for that, did you? Just because some traits may not appeal to you personally, there’s no denying that some trait combinations would cause imbalances. There are problem traits, sure, but allowing players to just pick anything won’t fix those traits. And more options means more problems, something ArenaNet clearly wants to avoid seeing as how they’re handling GW2 compared to GW1.
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.