Guild Wars 2

This change has been live for more than two months, it has reached 26 pages and (to my knowledge) it never went farther than page 2 in the boards.

I think it can be said beyond any doubt that the new trait system is universally disliked (to put it mildly). What makes it worse is the lack of reaction from Anet.

Did the devs even tell us WHY they came up with the unlocking system in the first place?

Emperor.1360:

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I can only speak of my experience with one class but so far following this guide has helped me.

Before I read it I was leveling my Engineer the way the forums described as one of the most efficient way : by letting enemies come at me and spamming bomb kit. It was working well enough in most situation, but it wasn’t really fun, so after reaching level 30 I set my engineer aside and went back to my level 80 ranger.

Then I read this guide and though “okay, let’s try it his way”. So I took my engineer, dropped the rifle for two pistols, dropped the bomb kit and whatever the other two skills were and equipped elixir B, flamethrower (because I wanted to have it) and after some testing when for Elixir gun to complement it all. It took a bit to get used to but I became a lot better than with bombs, I killed more, I died less and lo and behold : I was having fun! I still am by the way.

I’m sure that for high level content, some builds will be way more efficient than others, but if you can play and have fun with a build than only you appreciate, why the hell not?

I find that having a passive movement speed boosts is helpful in open-world leveling. See this page for a list of skills/traits that can do that.

Other than that, the only advice I can give you is to play a class you enjoy playing. You could have the most op class in the game, if you don’t like its playstyle your grinding is gonna be boring quickly.

If you haven’t already, check this great sticky. I’ve been enjoying the game immensely more since I started following it.

While I think reducing the number of trait points was a good idea (was anyone putting like 13 or 27 points in trait line?), like many people I don’t like the new unlock trait system. For two reasons.

One, as a player who’s soon gonna reach lvl 30 with my engineer, I have better things to do than go to the other side of Kryta to defeat mobs to unlock traits that interest me. Not to mention that at least one trait requires me to capture a location inside a WvW map, which is unacceptable. WvW and PvP should NEVER be a prerequisite for anything since some people want nothing to do with that. If Anet plans to make GW2 a PvP oriented game I’d like them to let us know so I can free some space on my hard-drive.

Two, traits are supposed to be core profession improvements that help us survive / support / kill. As such they are invaluable tools for every player whatever their play-style and their level. Traits (like any sort of skill or “expertise” in any MMORPG I’ve played) are a means to an end, yet this new unlock system turned traits into rewards, which are an end in themselves.

Maybe these points have already been made but it won’t hurt to make sure Anet gets the message.