Black Hole Traits
Thick skin :-P
Adrenline when you get hit.
There are some traits that are very important to warrior almost class defining.
I call these traits “Black Holes”, because wherever you put them people will go after them.
A whole trait line would be picked for just one of these & if you make one a major trait the other 2 neighboring traits will simply Die.
Fast Hands is one of those, well i guess we should be thankful its still a Minor trait, so it doesn’t destroy the other 2 traits.
Cleansing Ire is too, not only will make you pick a whole trait line but will also destroy the other 2 neighboring traits.
And Warrior’s Sprint, imagine if this was in Arms trait line !! the horror, i guess we should be thankful for it sharing the same line as Fast Hands.
What do you think ?
Should some of these traits be Baseline ? or maybe changed to Minor traits ?
Take a close look and you’ll find out that Brawler Defense becomes a major trait and it’s also in the fast-hand line. With the new implantation of Brawler Defense, Cleansing Ire may not be absolute mandatory for Warrior. However, I believe most Warriors in PVP/ WVW will still pick that traitline due to how much they buff “Last Stance”, and how good is spike armor. (Free retaliation 50% up-time without sacrificing anything)
Warrior will then freely pick one offensive trait line as their last pick and here’s your new uber meta Warrior. Now they’ll have even better cleansing ability, more dps thanks to trait merge and new damage modifying traits, and more durable defense.
(edited by Toxsa.2701)
Thick skin :-P
Adrenline when you get hit.
dat “itchy skin” :P
Honestly, gaining adrenaline when you get hit as baseline would open up so many posibilities for warrior. The main reason CI is so mandatory is because it covers two essential parts of warrior; adrenaline build up and condition cleansing. If one of the two would not be a problem, the other would be easier to substitute (Brawler’s Recovery, Signet of Stamina, Sigils, Zerk Stance, etc.).
As it stands now, you must take CI just to cover both, as you don’t have enough trait points to spend elsewhere and be able to get a similar result.
CI in the new layout could be moved to GM, Dogged March to Master and Sundering Mace to Adept. This would force a decision between CI and Defy Pain, Dogged March and Last Stand, and Sundering Mace should never be a GM trait to begin with, as even in Adept it has not been worth taking.
To respond to the first post, I don’t think Warrior’s Sprint should be baseline. Warriors have plenty other viable options to get a speed increase, although I myself prefer WS strongly. This is also because of the mandatory Fast Hands, and the fact that WS is in the same traitline.
On melee specs, Dogged March is IMO mandatory. This kills the Shield trait, which is actually very strong (in the new layout). The fact that they added the reflect to the shield trait further cripples the Mace Shield GS build, as you can no longer spec 6 in Defense to get both (II, V and IX). And you definitely need Dogged March or you will get kited too easy.
Other then these traits, none are mandatory. Some skills are though, Healing Signet being the most obvious example. Other heals are not viable currently. But instead of buffing them, they will buff them and nerf Healing Signet, so who knows what we will slot after the patch.
I also feel a warrior needs stability, but we have a few options there (dolyak, balanced, last stand, rampage), so there is not 1 mandatory skill.
tl;dr: CI, Healing Signet and Dogged March are extremely important right now, one could say mandatory. But the only trait that outside of PvE is absolutely mandatory IMO is Fast Hands.
Hulk Roaming Montages/Build Vids
I always rage but never quit.
Hi,
Honestly, as much as I love these 3 traits, I believe that giving them for free to warriors would be too nice. Generally speaking, if all classes were to receive freely their most used traits, then builds would become too trivial to make and use, and players would have too solid a base to work with (IMHO a build should be the implementation of a specific idea, where one cannot have everything).
Fast Hands is probably the closest to your idea of Black Hole. This is probably why it is already a minor trait, and if classes were to receive Black Hole traits, this would be the ideal candidate. Not having it in a build does feel weird; but is it really impossible? While I haven’t investigated the subject much, I wouldn’t be definite and state that a warrior build not having Fast Hands is trash.
Cleansing Ire is actually badly designed, in that it merges two orthogonal features: adrenaline building and condition cleansing. To be made a minor trait, it would have to be split, with only the adrenaline-building part being eligible. Whether it’s about adrenaline building or conditions management, warriors have other available options – and can also rely on external synergistic support for their conditions (like shatter mesmers do in PvP).
Warrior’s Sprint is nice, and it’s being merged with Mobile Strikes, which makes it even nicer. However, warriors could make the choice to rely on swiftness (either through weapons, utilities or traits), or could run with the Traveler’s Runes, like mesmers / guardians do. To me, this is not as much as a Black Hole trait, as a preference for warriors enjoying a particular gameplay (the violent sort, to which I happily belong).
Regards.
I agree with Elegie that Warrior’s Spring is nice, but it’s not needed.
For example, warhorn builds can use “Charge!” to effectively supersede the benefits of Warrior’s Sprint (charge 33% vs trait 25%). This opens up the option to take another useful Discipline adept skills like Signet Mastery.
Banners can also be used for speed buffing, albeit in a more clunky manner (cast banner → pickup banner → activate skill #3 or #4). It would be nice to have the option to summon to hand instead of ground so we could immediately activate the run skills, but that’s a different issue entirely.