Guild Wars 2

If we take a look back now after playing for so long are there any traits you guys feel seemed good but after playing the build/class trying it out for a while you feel the trait isn’t as good anymore.

Some that come to my mind are Pain Response, Vigor on Heal, Caltrops on dodge

Pain response- Sounds good on paper but then its on 45 sec cooldown and if you don’t have any bleeding or burning or poison its wasted. Also dps is so swift and damage comes so fast that I feel like out of stealth regen isnt very good for our class.

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

Caltrops on dodge- Meh I think the best type of traits are ones that are always useful like might on dodge>caltrops on dodge. If your fighting range caltrops do nothing for you. I think cals need to be on the ground longer they could get rid of the bleed just keep a decent length cripple and I would take it. Right now I think its a waste definitely not better than thrill of the crime.

I have to disagree about the caltrops on dodge, I personally love that trait because I am running a condition d/d thief 0/0/20/20/30 build. That 1 extra stack of bleed is meh, but the true beauty of that trait combined with might on dodge and minor trait of swiftness on dodge does the following:

1. Cripple a mob for a few secs, which combined with…
2. Swiftness on dodge allows you to run to the mob, who are no longer mobile, and spam DB or drop the actual caltrop slot skill, and combine that with…
3. Might on dodge, your bleed damage does a little more damage thanks to the might buff.

Pretty neat set of synergy, and my build is just coming together so maybe I will run into problems later on but for the time being, this synergy is working out beautifully for me.

oZii.2864:

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

You could take both, really. If you pair it with withdraw, which is itself a dodge, the chain dodging is exceptional, and you have nearly 2/3rds uptime on vigor from your heal alone.

Softspoken.2410:

oZii.2864:

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

You could take both, really. If you pair it with withdraw, which is itself a dodge, the chain dodging is exceptional, and you have nearly 2/3rds uptime on vigor from your heal alone.

Exactly what I’ve been doing lately. Makes thief pretty survivable in dungeon runs.

Maugetarr.6823:

Softspoken.2410:

oZii.2864:

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

You could take both, really. If you pair it with withdraw, which is itself a dodge, the chain dodging is exceptional, and you have nearly 2/3rds uptime on vigor from your heal alone.

Exactly what I’ve been doing lately. Makes thief pretty survivable in dungeon runs.

Now add also rune of the adventurer (if you dont mind to lose some dmg) and you get 2 more dodges from withdraw (if you put 15 points in acro) together with vigor which are again alot of dodges.

Others have already pointed out the usefulness of vigor on heal so I won’t repeat them.

Pain response is actually a very handy “burst” condition removal for 45s cooldown.
Against condition heavy builds it completely negates their openers since it removes the 3 major damaging conditions.

The regen is a very nice bonus too, especially if you’re heavily specced into healing power like me. In fact it tends to be more efficient than assassin’s reward since the heal proc’d by that trait is limited by initiative regen, which gives it a maximum of somewhere around 3.5k heal over 45s with default ini regen rates. The 2.5k from the 10s regen + condition dmg mitigation on this trait compares favorably if you put it into perspective.

oZii.2864:

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

Because it requires giving up major trait elsewhere. Shadow Arts has many good major traits that are hard to leave out, Embrace, Rejuvenation, Infusion, Cloak and Protector, to name a few. Critical Strikes only obviously good major traits is are the GM traits Executioner and Hidden Killer

I didn’t specify that this is more from a wvw perspective.

Is why I was saying caltrops on dodge isn’t something I wouldn’t take over thrill of the crime or bountiful theft.

frans.8092:

oZii.2864:

Vigor on heal- I think is good if you don’t have 15 points in acro but why not just take the extra 5 points to get feline grace?

Because it requires giving up major trait elsewhere. Shadow Arts has many good major traits that are hard to leave out, Embrace, Rejuvenation, Infusion, Cloak and Protector, to name a few. Critical Strikes only obviously good major traits is are the GM traits Executioner and Hidden Killer

0/20/30/20/0 in knights/zerker is a lot of fun and doesn’t require HK or executioner.