Guild Wars 2

In the new trait system, three traits will be pitted against each other for a spot in our builds. When the traits appeal to different builds, the decision isn’t usually too difficult as long as you know what you want.
When two traits apply to the same builds, opportunity costs arise, and people begin to figure out which one does the job better, which means one trait gets neglected even though it isn’t bad. A great example of this is the arcana line for eles, where elemental attunement and evasive arcana are put against each other. Both are great on the same spec, but when forced to make a choice, the stronger of the two traits will almost always win.
In the curses line for necro, this is made even worse: all three traits compete for a spot on the same build. Lingering Curses gives significant buffs to scepter, a staple of condi builds. Parasitic contagion gives healing for condition damage, which would also be great on a condi build. Terror makes fear deal damage, and it is also great on condi builds. Now, not only will the strongest of the traits win, but there is also no option for a non-condition spec in a system where someone is forced to take the grandmaster if they want a trait in the curses line.
The solution to this would be to clean out weak traits and either broaden the gap between existing traits or create new traits that are more diverse. A good place to look at for condensing traits would be the master and grandmaster minors, which are both weaker than the adept minor. The adept traits chilling darkness and weakening shroud could be moved to the master and grandmaster minors, creating a gap for the other traits to trickle down and fill. For example, now banshee’s wail and path of corruption could move down to the adept slots and terror or lingering curse could be moved to master along with parasitic contagion. Since the only consistent source of fear with scepter equipped is spectral wall (also reaper’s protection and corrupt boon on stability), it would not be too powerful while being mixed with terror. Of course, if this is still too powerful, lingering curse could be left as it is and not receive the buff it would otherwise get. Ultimately, this creates more space for new diverse grandmasters that don’t fall victim to opportunity cost and which provide options for non-condi specs.

tl;dr Create more diverse curses grandmasters that don’t all compete for a spot on the same build.

Over all sounds great, but with the way traits are changing, having to choose between banshee and PoC, is pretty awful, since they’re both rather useful, and on power or condi builds.

I really wanted to try chilling darkness with power necro but that means I am stuck with nothing to take for the grandmaster :/

Assuming Lingering Curses with its HoT buff will work the same as the axe damage trait with regards to Death Shroud (apply its effects while in Death Shroud as long as you were using the weapon outside of DS) – and the wording makes me think it will – I think Terror and Lingering Curses would be too strong if allowed to be run in the same build, especially if Path of Corruption was moved to Adept.

That said, I agree with the general point of this thread, at least when it comes to the major grandmaster traits. Two traits catering to the same build type (power/condi) is fine in my opinion as long as they are different enough and balanced enough for one not to be considered objectively better, and I think Terror and Lingering Curses pass on that criteria. I don’t like having all three be condition based choices though, since it like you said forces non-condi builds to take a condi major grandmaster if they want to invest in the line at all.

I think a solution would be to design a new power based GM for Curses, let it take Parasitic Contagion’s place, and move PC elsewhere (Blood Magic springs to mind; they are redesigning that anyway, it currently lacks a properly condi based GM, and as a lifesteal type thing I guess it kind of fits).