Guild Wars 2

We all know that traps are getting reworked.

My suggestion is just make them like kits, so we can still have 2 slots for either a stunbreaker or anything we want.

Now theres no drawback in building around traps.

This would also add a certain level of skill.

Thoughts?

ive been thinking about traps a lot. and mostly, I agree with you. traps lack utility and survivability in their current state, while the damage and CD’s are fine.

this can go two ways. if they truly want there to be “trappers”, meaning a ranger who is fully slotted with 3 traps, then yes they absolutely need a secondary function – boons, stun breaks, a stealth mechanic, etc.

if traps are to be supplementary, i.e. something we do on the side, then it might be sufficient if we synergize with other abilities:

- 3 wilderness utilities: TU, LR and Entangle
- two traps
- Shortbow, axe/dagger
- 0/6/6/0/6: Quickdraw, traited traps and traited SB; rabid stats

^this way, we get survivability and utility through our pets and weapons. 3 evades, Beastly Warden, and a few condi wipes through Wilderness. im not sure if a build like this would give us enough survivability, which is why im reserving my opinion until they show us what they have planned for traps. but in general, i also think traps need a secondary function. i think trap specialists really need one more source of short stealth on a medium cooldown, and this would thematically make a lot of sense.

Just a thought, how can you get Quickdraw and Traited SB? they both share the same spot in GM.

I would prefer a 6 sec unreavealed by triggering a trap. But I think traps are good in there current state, because they are really strong and cool for roaming with trapper runes. I think if they will get stronger, that will be a nerf for trapper runes. Or they need a buff, that don’t synergize with the trapper runes to get imbalance.

StickerHappy.8052:

Just a thought, how can you get Quickdraw and Traited SB? they both share the same spot in GM.

Peters mentioned SB trait will move to adept or master at least. we should be able to get all 3, and I think it will be important to.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

I would prefer a 6 sec unreavealed by triggering a trap. But I think traps are good in there current state, because they are really strong and cool for roaming with trapper runes. I think if they will get stronger, that will be a nerf for trapper runes. Or they need a buff, that don’t synergize with the trapper runes to get imbalance.

well I was hoping theyd incorporate that mechanic into the specialization! it’s pretty intuitive.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

I would prefer a 6 sec unreavealed by triggering a trap. But I think traps are good in there current state, because they are really strong and cool for roaming with trapper runes. I think if they will get stronger, that will be a nerf for trapper runes. Or they need a buff, that don’t synergize with the trapper runes to get imbalance.

But you are just talking about WvW. Making them like a kit would offer more for a ranger since you can slot signets of whatever you want to boost your own game play.
All Im saying is from a PvP perspective because we dont have trapper runes there, even if we did it would be counter-intuitive on holding a point.

What would be nice is manual detonation of traps and the removal of automatic triggering (except with Trapper’s Defense). Then, have a trait that makes triggering a trap a stun breaker when disabled with an internal cooldown.

In the new specializations, they could lodge the stun break feature with Trapper’s Defense (if it isn’t merged). Would be golden.

I’ve never liked this idea because I don’t think it works for Rangers.

Engineers are built to use kits. It’s what they do, and so they don’t rely on their weapon skills. They have a toolkit to give them some survivability and utility when using their kits.

Rangers don’t have that.. we need our weapon skills, not least for survivability. I don’t think it would play well and frankly I don’t think having 2 utility slots would make up for losing our weapon skills constantly to use traps.

Cufufalating.8479:

I’ve never liked this idea because I don’t think it works for Rangers.

Engineers are built to use kits. It’s what they do, and so they don’t rely on their weapon skills. They have a toolkit to give them some survivability and utility when using their kits.

Rangers don’t have that.. we need our weapon skills, not least for survivability. I don’t think it would play well and frankly I don’t think having 2 utility slots would make up for losing our weapon skills constantly to use traps.

What do you mean losing our weapon skills? An engie on bomb kit wouldn’t stay the whole time on bomb kit am i right? Why would you?

Compare it to the trap scenario now.

2 traps and 1 stun breaker is > 2 free utilities and getting all traps bundles in a kit? is that what youre saying?

PS: I only made kit as a reference. It could also be called bundles, traps, or whatever you want. Rangers too should access to traps in the wild. I mean duh,, you are a ranger? And wilderness survival is also one of the themes of the class?

I know you don’t have the kit on all the time, but it does still replace your weapons a significate portion of the time which for a Ranger is a much bigger deal. It also encourages people to equip the the kit, spam all the traps and them unequip it to get back to their weapons, which is a terrible design.

It doesn’t suit us, it’s not how we are designed to work.

Cufufalating.8479:

I know you don’t have the kit on all the time, but it does still replace your weapons a significate portion of the time which for a Ranger is a much bigger deal. It also encourages people to equip the the kit, spam all the traps and them unequip it to get back to their weapons, which is a terrible design.

It doesn’t suit us, it’s not how we are designed to work.

So what do you suggest then?

@WonderousWall:
I too have been thinking for a while that it would be awesome to have a second activation on our traps so that we could at least leverage their combo fields against more ranged opponents that are harder to get to run into the traps to trigger them.

It would also help Rangers be useful with the Might stacking common in PvE as we’d have an on-demand fire field.

The only problem I see with it is that this could prevent us from doing what we do now where we throw down a trap and the cooldown is done before the trap is triggered; allowing us to immediately hit them with the trap a second time after they’ve triggered the first.

then we are agreed! traps would work best with an optional activation action which would give us a secondary effect. stun break, an on-demand combo field, etc. hope devs are taking notes

I’m not sure how I feel about the stunbreak … my intuition tells me that would be a bit weird. I’d have a stunbreak, unless they ran over the trap before I could use the secondary?

That said, it would be nice to be able to fill up on traps and still have ways to handle stunbreaking/cleansing.

I guess the alternative is instead of adding a stun break to Trapper’s Defense, there can be a trait that allows traps to interrupt foes (in some way) when activated to work defensively when you are disabled.

One issue is that if your opponent(s) are not within the trap area, you’re screwed when manually activating them. However, this adds a bit of play with guessing where the Ranger’s traps are and avoiding those areas for the enemy and staying on point or positioning back to a trap on ours to prevent bursts or disable them.

Let me be clear … I still want the traps to trigger when an opponent runs over them.

At the same time, I’d like to be able to trigger them myself when I think the opponent is not going to and I can still gain some advantage from the trap’s fields.

Fire Trap and Frost Traps are great examples of this as I can still shoot projectiles them through, leap through them, blast in them, etc. to still benefit from them despite my opponent playing smart and avoiding running over them. They aren’t as useful as they’d be if my opponent ran over them on top of this, but they are not being completely negated.

Sebrent.3625:

Let me be clear … I still want the traps to trigger when an opponent runs over them.

That’s fine, but the automatic trigger needs to be refined. One issue is when a Ranger wants the trap to trigger on an entire mob but only the one out in front gets the full effect. Personally, I’d like to see an automatic trigger radius of 90 while allowing for manual detonation.

Good suggestions guys. But the thing is this still does not solve the problem of traps as a whole. Running full traps will leave you ineffecient, no stun breakers, etc.

Any suggestions for that problem?

@StickerHappy:
Honestly, no real clue how to achieve that other than simply taking one non-trap utility that provides a stunbreak and a heal that can cleanse conditions.

Any ideas I’ve had on how to do those with a trap just seem weird from a realistic standpoint or from a game mechanics standpoint. I’m all for some good options, but they have to feel right intuitively :-/

That said, I could see myself rocking a Shortbow / Axe + Dagger build with Healing Stream or Troll Unguent (traited for cleanse), 2 traps, and Lightning Reflexes with an Entangle to top it all off.

Sebrent.3625:

@StickerHappy:
Honestly, no real clue how to achieve that other than simply taking one non-trap utility that provides a stunbreak and a heal that can cleanse conditions.

Any ideas I’ve had on how to do those with a trap just seem weird from a realistic standpoint or from a game mechanics standpoint. I’m all for some good options, but they have to feel right intuitively :-/

That said, I could see myself rocking a Shortbow / Axe + Dagger build with Healing Stream or Troll Unguent (traited for cleanse), 2 traps, and Lightning Reflexes with an Entangle to top it all off.

Im guessing you are talking about Healing Spring right? So..I think the only category it will be are traps, Because we have shouts, survival, spirits on our heal skills now, traps is the only one missing.

At the same time, I wonder what kind of rework they are doing for traps aside from the activation time. I bet it they will be stronger to compensate for that.

Whatya think?

StickerHappy.8052:

Good suggestions guys. But the thing is this still does not solve the problem of traps as a whole. Running full traps will leave you ineffecient, no stun breakers, etc.

Any suggestions for that problem?

None, really. Unless they expand on traits and allow one similar to Trapper’s Respite for Thieves. Possibly tweak it to lay down a trap when using a Survival skill since 2 of them are already stun breakers, Lightning Reflex being the one most taken.

Would save on taking ONE trap at least.

I would love to see all the traps incorporated into a kit. It makes sense to me that if you wanted to set actual traps, you would be carrying the tools and materials to do it in a kit and while you are setting up said traps, you wouldn’t be able to use your SB with both hands at the same time.

I think if they incorporated all the traps (plus a 5th one that KDs) into a trap kit and it functioned exactly the same as engineer kits, it would be fantastic. You would have 5 traps and the ability to still take two utility skills like LR/SoS. We would have no other kits, so therefore no traits that affect them.
Not having the weapon skills while using the traps is no drama in my mind, you can set 5 traps in a couple of seconds (or just one) then swap back to your weapon set as you please. You can swap instantly between so its not a big problem, its just 1 key away.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I would love to see all the traps incorporated into a kit. It makes sense to me that if you wanted to set actual traps, you would be carrying the tools and materials to do it in a kit and while you are setting up said traps, you wouldn’t be able to use your SB with both hands at the same time.

I think if they incorporated all the traps (plus a 5th one that KDs) into a trap kit and it functioned exactly the same as engineer kits, it would be fantastic. You would have 5 traps and the ability to still take two utility skills like LR/SoS. We would have no other kits, so therefore no traits that affect them.
Not having the weapon skills while using the traps is no drama in my mind, you can set 5 traps in a couple of seconds (or just one) then swap back to your weapon set as you please. You can swap instantly between so its not a big problem, its just 1 key away.

Exactly this! I am surprised why would anyone say that they will spend most of the time spamming traps.

Would you play that way? I guess not. Even a half decent player will eat you in pvp if you play like that.

I also don’t know how people underestimate those 2 free utility slots you get, This will also increase build diversity/survivability/team support of trappers.

+1 to you heim!

I once saw a photoshop where someone replaced SB 2-5 with traps instead. I would support that.

Are traps becoming ground targeted as baseline? also in my dreams traps would be F1-F4 skills for all rangers and pets would be temporary summoned allies in some form.

Manekk.6981:

Are traps becoming ground targeted as baseline? also in my dreams traps would be F1-F4 skills for all rangers and pets would be temporary summoned allies in some form.

Yes ground targeted baseline

I really hope traps to feel like traps.. Now its like i am carrying a bag of snakes and i throw them at my foes with my poison trap.. Something like a fire bomb with my fire trap..
Trap as far as i know its a device for ambushing foes.. You put a trap somewhere while you hide and waiting for your pray to step in. When they are trapped you attack.. Sometimes traps are put in a wide area and they have a kind of alarm when someone steps in..
Also i hate the fact that they dont give you any utility.. My foe just stepped in a trap. How can he just clear the cond and nuke me like nothing happened..?
Maybe anet developers must start hunting or something…

We will have to see as they specifically said they didn’t want traps to be like ‘spells’ or ‘grenades’. So how (beyond as ’triggering/rigging/set up time after cast) they will do this to their own satisfaction is something we can only speculated on. It will likely to be a shared mechanic with thief (and anyone else saddled with traps as an added mechanic) I am not feeling optimistic on this as experience has shown not to set the bar very high. It seem like change for the sake of change.

How much would people complain if they wanted to add a reload time to the firearms weapons to keep them from ‘feeling’ like bows?

How long will this arming time be for traps? do we have any info on that? I’m thinking in combination with trapper runes this might be great or terrible if it’s too short it means only frost trap is the secure stealth but if it’s long enough it would open the shorter cd traps as better options that also do good damage when they finally trigger.

StickerHappy.8052:

Sebrent.3625:

@StickerHappy:
Honestly, no real clue how to achieve that other than simply taking one non-trap utility that provides a stunbreak and a heal that can cleanse conditions.

Any ideas I’ve had on how to do those with a trap just seem weird from a realistic standpoint or from a game mechanics standpoint. I’m all for some good options, but they have to feel right intuitively :-/

That said, I could see myself rocking a Shortbow / Axe + Dagger build with Healing Stream or Troll Unguent (traited for cleanse), 2 traps, and Lightning Reflexes with an Entangle to top it all off.

Im guessing you are talking about Healing Spring right? So..I think the only category it will be are traps, Because we have shouts, survival, spirits on our heal skills now, traps is the only one missing.

At the same time, I wonder what kind of rework they are doing for traps aside from the activation time. I bet it they will be stronger to compensate for that.

Whatya think?

I was actually just talking about my bar looking something like:
Troll Unguent, Trap #1, Trap #2, Lightning Reflexes, Entangle and taking Wilderness Knowledge so that the non-trap abilities gave me condi-cleanse and LR acted as my one stunbreak.

I’m not sold on Healing Spring being a trap. Not sure I think it makes perfect sense nor if I like the concept … will have to wait and see on that one.

I do think they’ll likely make traps more powerful given that the trigger time will make them harder to use.