Guild Wars 2

Underused, underpowered, underappreciated, slept on. Know of any Traits that just don’t seem to get much attention at all?

Recently I’ve been experimenting with builds and trying out traits that no one seems to talk about, or include in any builds. Here are a few:

• Protector’s Impact: I had a lot of fun with this one while exploring, running Jumping Puzzles or finding Vistas. Protector’s Impact can save a life on a botched jump, or enable you to fall distances that would insta-kill anyone else, therefore opening up shortcuts.

• Perfect Inscriptions: Does anyone use this with a heavy condition removal build? Perfect Inscriptions + Purity + Signet of Resolve means three conditions cured every ten second “cycle”. I haven’t seen much mention of it, but I imagine it could prove useful in anti-condition setups.

• Protective Reviver: I’ve actually been seeing a great return on this trait. We haven’t talked about it at any length—I rarely see it included in a build, for example. But I think that’s because you don’t generally build for Protective Reviver. This trait grants you and your target ten seconds of Aegis, Protection and Regeneration after successfully reviving them from dead or downed. Downed state does happen; when it happens, two revivers usually bring you up in a matter of seconds. Aegis will almost certainly cover your retreat or keep you from being punished following a revive, and 10 seconds of Prot + Regen for what is essentially a 3-4 second revive seems like an excellent deal. I’ve used it often in random Dungeon runs as well as Dynamic Events.

That’s the nice thing about the Trait system: Your build isn’t set in stone; it’s fluid. This allows you to temporarily turn on underused or highly situational traits provided you anticipate the situation. Protector’s Impact while exploring, for example.

How about you guys? Do you have any traits you overlook? Experimented with anything new lately?

I’d actually like to make a “revive-focused” build in WvWvW with runes of Mercy and Protective Reviver and the other revive-trait. Maybe take Signet of Mercy as well.

I actually run with Protective reviver and protectors impact most of the time.

Infact, I put points into Zeal purely to get the latter. Although there are other trait lines that I could really benefit from maxing out, I find I miss it when it’s not there ( mostly because I misjudge the safe jumping height and end up in a squishy mess ). The only downside is that it agros mobs when protection pops too close.

As you said, Reviver is really nice for dungeons and WvW, helping you get out of harms way (or quickly back into the action), and I prefer it to the rather short-lived bubble trait. ( pretty sure the downed player appreciates the buff too )

Since I run a build that focuses on…well the focus… I also like Blind Exposure which stacks vulnerability on blind. ( can work really nicely when combined with Virtue of Courage traits )

I use Protective Reviver for dungeons and love it. It’s very useful for reviving someone who’s downed in a bad spot.