Guild Wars 2

Ok, I think I was a bit kitten Arenanet at first . After looking at all the new traits and hearing that we will not have to rely on traitlines for stats so much anymore, I am loving some of the new traits.

Let’s decompose the updates:

Trickery
Ok so this line is looking really strong right now.

Lead Attacks: This now makes steal recharge 15% faster !! Welcome to even more steals. I personally love this as I use sleight of hand and am looking forward to around 17-18 second steals

Flaking strikes: now gives haste instead of 5% increase damage. Not sure what the stun break in this would be used for because you have to attack them in order to gain haste and it is also on a 60 second cooldown. Still better than before

Trickster: Loving the update, now acrobatics thieves, especially with withdraw have a little more access to removing conditions.

New trait – Pressure striking: I think this is a fantastic trait that applies 3 stacks of torment for 8 1/2 seconds for each interrupt, on no cool down.

Grand masters are the same, still love sleight of hand

Acrobatics:

New feline grace is still pretty good, especially when combined with other skills and boon increase

Endless stamina seems solid, improving dodging yet again

So now in adept we have Fleet shadow, vigorous recovery and pain response. ALl the same except for the vigor change.

Master:
New trait – Guarded initiation – Gain resistance when striking an enemy while your health is full. Seems very sub par. Useless unless you can open quickly and even then, very average.

New trait – Swindler’s Equilibrium, successfully evading an attack while wielding a sword recharges steal by a static Amount – seems legit, can not say enough about it yet because I have not delved into its potential combos yet

Hard to catch – FINALLY LOVE THIS SKILL YAYAYAYAYA
30 second cooldown, stunbreak and endurance refilled. I will take this trait as it is strong although I do not know how reliable it is. Have to try it out first.

Grandmaster:

QUick pockets – useless useless anc useless, why did they keep it
Acrobatics had useless grandmasters and still does

Assassin’s reward – still crap

New trait – Don’t stop – Periodically evade projectile attacks while under the effects of swiftness, 5 second cooldown. Do not know how I feel about this and do not know enough yet to see how it will work.

So, basically the only downside to this line is the grand masters, which are complete crap.

Acrobatics should have something like Flashing Bladesfrom guild wars 1 or shadow form from guild wars 1, that would be very very good.

Something like
Flashing Blades: 30% chance to successfully evade an attack – deal damage to the enemy you evaded.

Shadow Arts: My favorite trait line:
Minor traits:
Blinding powder – sighh………. ………
This was the one time anet could have changed it, but not today. I feel like they can not admit to being wrong for 2 years so we are stuck with it

Meld with shadows – always loved it
Hidden assassin replaced by Resiliance of shadows: At first I was extremely annoyed because I loved that trait but new stat changes incoming so hopefully will not be too bad and it seems really good now. SO now we have stealth effects that you apply reduce incoming attack damage by 50%

Major Traits:

Adept:
merciful ambush – Never liked it and useless

Concealed defeat – Create a smoke screen when downed. Deception abilities recharge 20% faster. Now with Hide in Shadow’s being a deception it seems really strong, however, with Shadow’s Embrace in the same line, I and I do not think anyone else will take it over that

Shadow’s Embrace – all day, everyday !!

Master: Shadow Protector: Ehh

Descent of Shadows – Love it, Can now get stealth off steal and falling damage. If we trait mug, I hope that mug will trigger first but if it does not I will be taking the new needle trap.

Leeching Venoms – … … gay haha

Grandmaster:

Cloaked in Shadow- shame this skill is now in grandmaster, but I think I can make do with Blinding Powder

Shadow’ Rejuvenation:
Best, favourite, love, oh my, love it

This is my favourite skill in the game and it now regenerates my initiative.

Venemous Aura – I do not like it and never have but I can not judge.

Critical strikes – not going into it because I am lazy and do not care about this line

Deadly arts:
Minor: Serpent’s Touch
Stealing inflicts poison. Your attacks while downed inflict poison. I like it and always have used it because Poison is really strong
Lotus poison – same
Exposed weakness – same

Adept: Dagger Training – dagger damage is increased to poisoned foes
Mug – same, I am sure people will always use this
Needle trap – new trait – Trap: Set a trap that immobilizes and poisons foes when triggered
Applies immobilize, poison, 3 bleeding and 5 vulnerability
Drops when you use a healing skill. I personally love this trait and think it is awesome

Master:
Resourceful trapper:
Stealing reduces cooldown of currently recharging trapts by 10 seconds.
pft gay
Panic strike: now a master and this trait is good
Revealed training: – yeah… let’s just leave that there

Grandmaster
Potent Poison – Increased poison duration by 33% and icnreased damage by 50%. I personally love this and made consider taking it for my P/D build because it seems like great sustain, especially combined with needle trap.

Improvisation – again, another trait that I like.
You can use stolen items twice. One random category is immediately recharged when you steal.
If you trait to trickery and have a 17-18-21 1/2 second steal, you are going to be able to have a higher chance of recharging skills. Also with the new changes to stolen skills, removing the damage portions and changing them, this could be really strong. I am going to have to play test to decide between these for my P/D condition build.

Executioner – same trait but now in grandmaster for deadly arts

Thanks for reading and post your thoughts but right now, liking the changes

way too many threads on this. you didn’t cover anything that hasn’t been already