Guild Wars 2

Any news on when we’ll get a CDI for this?

Traits must be unlocked by doing various activities
From what I’ve heard ArenaNet implemented this in order to encourage players to explore the world and experience all the content. I somewhat agree with this mindset, the execution is incredibly poor, having you to put in ridiculous amounts of effort for a single trait (I’m referring about the map completion ones in particular) which often cannot be done until a much higher level than the trait theoretically should be available and going completely against the “Play your way” philosophy in that it completely and utterly forces you to do a particular kind of content which you may not be interested in. I myself enjoy PvE and Dungeons a lot, only occasionally dipping into Spvp and WvW. I don’t want to have to play WvW for Traits I need. This also does not encourage any kind of balance between professions and/or builds. Lets take two warriors, both have a trait that is central to their build. One unlocks this trait by completing a personal story mission, the other by 100%ing a map. Or lets take a Warrior and a Guardian. One might have a trait that requires 100%ing a map that is completely useless, while to the other it is vital to their build. Is this fair, making certain builds harder to achieve by making the requirements for traits vastly different?
I have two ideas on how this could be improved. Firstly is just reset the system to how it was before, with traits automatically unlocked when you reach the tier.
Secondly is an idea I actually like a little more as it promotes the idea of actually doing stuff in order to increase your power, the same way Utility Skills are unlocked with Skill Points.
In short, I think Traits should be unlocked with Skill Points just like Utilities are. As long as you have enough Skill Points, you can unlock any Trait you desire of that tier. Allow players to spend SP to unlock a trait as soon as they enter that tier, even if they don’t actually have enough trait points to equip it yet. In order to encourage a little bit of experimentation, employ a similar mechanic to unlocking utilities in that you must unlock so many traits of one tier in that particular trait line before unlocking the next. I think unlocking half of the traits in a tier before you can reach the next tier in that trait line is fair enough. Something like this:
Adept: Traits cost 3 Points, unlock 3 traits to unlock Master tier.
Master: Traits cost 6 Points, unlock 2 traits to unlock GrandMaster Tier.
GrandMaster: Traits cost 15 Points.
I haven’t put any real thought into the numbers so they may be off, but this system would have the benefit of making the players actually do something to unlock their traits with the benefit it doesn’t have to be incredibly specific kitten can be earned in both PvE and WvW (And Spvp doesn’t matter, traits already unlocked yo). A slight flaw under comparison against the original system is you may end up not being able to afford any traits when you have enough trait points to equip one, but as with Utilities careful planning ahead will mean that you should always be able to afford a new trait just before you equip it and when you hit Level 80 and starting gaining SP with every “level up” you’ll eventually amass enough points to unlock all the traits.

You can now completely re-assign your Traits anytime out of combat
I feel like this change is not being discussed much and most will probably approve of it, though I feel strongly against it.
I should probably say that of course this would only really be an issue if traits become more accessible again under one of the two ideas I mentioned above, whereas traits are currently hard to unlock and players only tend to get the ones they really need. But if traits are made more accessible again as they should be, I feel the following would be a huge problem:
The first is that although I feel customization and individuality is a huge part of MMOs, you need to have some level of commitment to it. If you’re going to customize your character, at least stand by your choices and adapt your strategy to each fight. I know ArenaNet wants to encourage trying out all kinds of builds and experimentation; this was already incredibly easy and convenient to do, as traits could be reset for free at every profession trainer. All you had to do was visit a city and your traits could easily be reset there. Now Traits can be reset anywhere outside of combat there is no feeling of purpose to what you do.

I’ve recently recommended this game to a few friends and was very interested in playing actively again. I’m now ashamed to have recommended this game to my friends what with the new trait changes that have been introduced and have apologized to them all, although I must admit as they joined after the trait changes they have don’t get what the big deal is.

Now there are many changes I’d like to see in the game to really entice me but I am a realist and understand an MMO can never completely cater to one player’s particular tastes.

However, I felt that the trait system was not broken and therefore did not need fixing. Not accessing traits until level 30 is my biggest gripe with the system. I love to run Alts and not accessing traits until level 30 really kills any aspect of customization and individuality for low level characters. I don’t care that the mobs in the world have been adjusted to compensate, it just isn’t as interesting and I personally won’t be returning to the game until the system is reverted back to its former self or a reasonable middle ground is found between the two.

I know I’m probably not going to be noticed in this thread as it is very long and filled with anger (justifiably, I might add) but I will still add my own opinions on the various changes this system has brought and how they can be improved.

No Traits until level 30
I’ll probably be repeating myself here, but I feel not earning any traits at all until level 30 (And not even being able to view them; if I am correct; is even worse) is a boring as hell. Up until Level 30, every member of a profession is completely mechanically identical. Sure, people will use different weapon sets and utilities but there is still actually no difference between the characters at all; they can swap out weapon sets and utility skills at any time and perform the exact same as each other (Discounting different equipment of course, but those aren’t actually part of the character) and to making my character feel unique in an MMO has always been very important to me. Two of my alts; a Sylvari Ranger and a Norn Necromancer; are still under level 30 and I now know they are the exact same as every other Ranger and Necromancer out there (Discounting racial skills of course, but ArenaNet themselves state they don’t intend for people to really use those) Overall, this is a major deal breaker for me getting back into the game.

This is @TearsOFHeaven, in case someone else responds to him whilst I type this.

7/10. Quite nice looking, but reminds me a little too much of Logan Thackery, and he just looks like a typical fantasy character.

Anyhow, Here’s my Guardian, apologies for low quality but I play GW2 on quite low settings.

Here is my Human Guardian, raised amongst the nobles. I’ve tried to capture a very smug looking photo of him too XD

Hello there. First of all I’d like to say my main is a lvl 71 Guardian and I am no where near achieving the following goals I am about to mention, but I think this is something that may be really helpful for people with similar goals. (Also I am a brittish user, so forgive my use of “Armour” & “Colour” as opposed to “Armor” or “Color”)

I love the dungeons in this game and have nearly gotten all the pieces to my Ascalonian Catacombs Armour set, even though I have to wait a few levels before getting to equip it.

It is my goal to unlock all dungeon armour sets, and also all three tiers of cultural armour for every character I play. I currently play two characters but will create more after achieving my goals with these characters.

Now, let’s do a bit of maths. At two characters it is my current aim to unlock eleven full sets of armour for each character (Eight dungeon armour, three cultural)

See the problem? Currently, I have no where near that amount of space to store all the armour I’m not using, but would like to keep for commemorative purposes. My bank cannot accommodate anywhere near enough pieces, keeping them all in my inventory would really hurt my income of loot when I’m doing WVW or just exploring the world, and I feel it would be just unfair to use the guild bank to store MY stuff.

I’ve asked in /Map and /Guild chat many times if there is a way to storage equipment in this way. Every-time, I’ve been told their isn’t.

Now, apologies if this in game somewhere and I’ve just missed it (in that case ignore my stupid thread.)

My proposal is some form of equipment storage that works similar to crafting materials collection. Although I do not think you should be allowed to deposit all Armour in there the same way as you do crafting materials. I think the best access to this would be via the crafting stations or a specific NPC. ( Maybe even a kind of trophy collection in your Home Instance, would be something to make the area more desirable)

In my mind this works in a way similar to collections categorize crafting materials. All pieces of equipment are put into one of three main categories: Dungeon, Cultural & Crafted.

Obviously the first two categories are for Dungeon and Cultural armour, whereas crafted is for specific craft-able armour sets (Gladiator, Crusader, Valkyrie ETC)

Then each category splits each piece into a series of sub-categories.
So lets imagine in the Dungeon category the first sub-category is Ascalonian Catacombs, which splits into the following Categories: Light Armour, Medium Armour, Heavy Armour, Weapons.

Each armour category has 6 slots, one for each piece of equipment, whereas in weapons their are 19 slots for each weapon category. (One-handed weapons can stack upto two in each slot, for dual wield weapons such as daggers and axes.)

Repeat this process across all dungeons and we have a way to catalogue all our pieces of equipment from dungeons when we are not using them.

Cultural uses a similar system.

The main categories would be for each race, then the subcategories for that would be the weapons and each of the armour classes, which are then split into the three tiers of equipment, all in all allowing a way to store every possible piece of cultural equipment in the game, if you should wish to obtain that many.

Finally, the Crafted collection would simply be for storing named crafted armour sets and weapons that are at least rare. This list would descend in the crafting level required to make the equipment. So for heavy Armour it would start at Gladiator, and work its way down for the armour pieces which are rare (If I’m correct in thinking how crafting works, essentially any piece made with a purchased recipe sheet would be allowed to deposited in the equipment collection.)

Each slot has three statuses.
1. Not Obtained – The graphic icon for the piece is shown here but is in grayscale, showing you have not obtained that piece of equipment yet.
2. Stored – the piece of equipment is being stored in this slot right now and its appearance is the usual graphic icon it would normally have,
3. Not currently stored – This shows you have previously stored in the piece of equipment here and have owned it, but is not currently being stored for whatever reason (Such as you’re using it or would like to sell/salvage it) The icon is a faded version of the usual appearance, with the colours being a lot less vibrant.

This system allows for a kind of Equipment Pokedex which would allow obsessive equipment hoarders like me a place to store their equipment which they are not using. Maybe a small Gem purchase would be required to have access to the equipment storage, but after that those players are free to store all their equipment to their hearts content.

Thank you for reading all of this, and if they are any flaws or missing design details in this idea feel free to let me know and I will most likely swiftly edit or respond to this.
:)

Kaizer:
The name makes me think of either a thief or ranger, probably human.

Edit: It would be incredibly easy to guess my race/profession by looking through my posts, so try not to do that and give yourself a challenge, eh?

I choose Clawspur as my partner and have been amused from some of his dialogue but reading everyone’s love for Dinky makes me wish I picked him :/

The GW2 wiki entry on tengu reads as:

“The tengu are an isolationist avian race that reside primarily within the Dominion of Winds. They have a few small settlements outside the Dominion in order to both trade with and observe other races. They currently remain neutral in all conflicts and are deciding which other races shall be their allies and who their foes.

Other than in and around the Dominion of Winds, it has been said that some tengu reside within the Maguuma Jungle.

They also appear to possess lost knowledge of the Elder Dragons, though the extent of this is unknown beyond the Elder Dragons having risen in the past. However, some tengu believe that the dragons have not yet made their move and what’s seen is only the beginning. "

The fact that Tengu are currently seeking which race they wish to be allies with, have knowledge on the elder dragons and were originally going to be a playable race anyway all but confirms them as the first expansion race in my opinion. All the frame work for personal choices are there (Choose which clan you are a member of) and they’d fit in quite well.

I already have ideas for making a Raven-looking Warrior Tengu. Hope you give them black feathers.
I’d also love to see A Tengu in Destiny’s Edge, not sure what profession though,

Currently going with a build that utilizes spirit weapons, burning and virtues (offensive build with added support, I don’t like to confine myself to one role) and I’m having a lot of fun and despite no defensive traits I’m quite survivable. Loving the guardian.

My Charr Engineer Rustbane earned his name as a cub, due to his ability to fix and customize machines which is exceptional even by Charr standards. Due to his father being an Honourless Gladium, he had to find his own place in society and had nothing given to him.

He respects all three Warbands and had a hard time deciding which band he would swear his loyalty to, but eventually came to the conclusion that the Iron Legion was the mightiest.
The Blood Legion need not die on the field should they have the right weaponry.

The Ash Legion claim stealth is the greatest weapon, but what great way is there to deceive the foe then force them to face an army with weapons that are evolving at such a rapid rate the opponents must re-learn their foes every battle?

The Iron Legion are paving the way to the future, and Rustbane intends to be at the forefront of a glorious new age of iron.

My Charr Engineer is simply called “Rustbane” as I thought it was a cool name and fits with a lot of Charr naming conventions I’ve seen.

Now for my Human Guardian, who never knew his true parents but was adopted to Nobility and raised happily. Having defeated a great stone elemental and earning himself the title “Hero Of Shaemoor” a party is thrown in his honour and I meet Lord Faren for the first time, who is quickly kidnapped and leaves me having to rescue him. Now I really like Lord Faren, he’s cheesy and pompous but his dialogue is very entertaining but I am confused that when we discover that the bandits are holding captives in a nearby cavern and decide we must intervene, despite Lord Faren being portrayed as pretty much useless in the last mission, he decides to join me and take on the same bandits that dragged him away kicking and screaming. Discovering there that the bandits are gaining assistance from someone high up and leaving me to find out who, Lord Faren then seems to disappear for a portion of the plot. Eventually discovering Minister Zamus as the culprit, I am given the choice to investigate his house or attend a social gathering to eavesdrop. I choose to investigate his house and after finding some evidence take him to trial. On arriving at this mission I’m excited as I believe that this mission will be about clever use of words and evidence to prove Zamus guilty and I thought I’d be given a lot of choices, but the trail quickly descends into “Trail By Combat” and I am given the choice of who shall be my second in this duel. These choices seem rather pitiful, seeing as I can choose between:

Lord Faren, Who apparently has gone through a lot of mental training seeing as he’s gone from being helplessly dragged away by bandits to willing to fight a nine foot Norn warrior.

Countess Anise, a noble who up until this point I wasn’t even aware that she could fight.

Or lastly, Logan Thackerary, former member of the legendry guild Destiny’s Edge, fought against the dragons beside some of the world’s finest warriors and is also captain of The Seraph guard.

This entire choice seemed very bias as there is no logical reason my character would pick Faren or Anise, I was tempted to pick one of those just to see what happened but in trying to make decisions through my characters eyes I had to pick Logan because he is without a doubt the most suitable partner in combat.

Having won the duel, I receive a letter for “The Hero Of Shaemoor”. The Charr storylines linked together very well in my opinion, but having this letter only mention my battle at Shaemoor and seemingly unaware of any my of exploits for the last 8 levels really breaks the illusion that this my own ongoing story and that I’m not just being dragged out of one plot arc and into another. The only choice I get in this entire plot is HOW i wish to assault a base of White Mantle devouts, with stealth or pure aggression. As always, I choose to undergo a full frontal assault. After winning this battle, I then discover the last known site of my parents alive and visit to find their gravestones, which have loving messages to me written on them. This was a very satisfying end to the storyline, but the story arc up to that point did not really impress me. After that I proceed to go into the same story arcs as all humans and eventually join the Vigil and get the same quests as all Vigil characters, so I won’t really go into detail with them.

The Charr Storylines are better simply because the first had a clear villian for me to despise and eventually overcome, the second felt like it was giving me the choice on which Legion i should implement my technology with whereas the human storyline never really asked WHAT i want to do, only HOW should I do it. Do I eavesdrop at a party or investigate a house? Do I use stealth or aggression to attack the white mantle?
As mentioned on the start of this rather large post, I really respect the Arenanet and especially the writers and don’t believe that I could do any better but it really feels the Charr personal story got a lot more attention then the humans…

I am currently at college studying Creative Media and next year I intend to go to university to study Games Development and hopefully have a career within this industry and right now I am torn between developing my skills as a writer or an artist. I don’t mean to suck up to the Arenanet team, but some of the writing and dialogue in this game has inspired me recently and made me think about different writing styles.

To get myself more on topic, I agree with this threads author to an extent. I’ve only seen a decent portion of three personal stories, two charr and one human.

The First I saw was when I was watching my friend play the game as a Charr Necromancer. He picked Blood Legion and a Honourless Gladium as his father, with Euryale as his sparring partner. The story saw him disgraced for getting his warband killed and repeatedly being insulted by his commander Steelbane until he got the opportunity to prove himself in the arena and eventually having a duel with Steelbane. As he found himself getting the upper hand over Steelbane, Steelbane surrendered and he was given the choice to kill him or let him live. Being a no second chances kind of guy, he decided to end his former commanders life, only for Steelbane to decide he’s not going down without a fight and knock down the poor Necromancer and send him into the Downed state in a matter of seconds. What ensued was tense and epic; the rest of the fight played out with my friend on all the floor hanging on for dear life, somehow managing to drain 1/2 of Steelbane’s HP without being defeated and just managing to defeat him. To this day, this was the greatest moment of personal stories in this game, as it was a duel with a hated authority figure that was won by the skin of his teeth. His then rewarded for his success and promoted to Legionnaire, and set the task of rebuilding his warband. After this I haven’t seen much of this storyline.

When I created my Charr Engineer I chose Iron Legion and honourless gladium, with Clawspur as my partner. Despite having the same result as my friend and having my entire warband wiped, I am praised highly and promoted to legionnaire instantly and already have plans for a new weapon to counter the ghost probelm. From the get go my personal story is a lot more positive and feels different. I recruit an engineer into my warband and perfect my weapon, and am then given the choice to use it with Blood Legion or Ash Legion technology. From the testing, I preferred the Blood Legions use of the technology by far, but as always I ask my friend Clawspur for his opinion, who prefers Ash Legion. Due to my respect for him (he has some amazing dialogue in my opinion) I choose Ash Legion despite my own opinions. We coordinate an attack on the ghosts, all goes well and I find myself another member for my warband. In this storyline, I am yet to advance further.

As a guardian I always make sure to help out with my virtues, although I can’t say I do this effectively as my preferred tactic is hit all three F keys at once when they recharge and I’m in a group, although yesterday’s dungeon run did have me thinking more tactically about it.

Yesterday I did my first dungeon in Ascalon Catacombs with a pickup group and I had a lot of fun.

I can honestly say the different opponents I fought felt quite varied, sometimes simply because of the enviroment. Fighting Ascalon Mesmers & Elemenalists in an open space feels very different to fighting them on a bridge or in a corridor.
The boss fights also felt varied. I apologize of being unable to remember their names, but the Full-on AOE assault from the Necromancer felt very different from fighting the Ranger, who’s switching between ranged and melee combat had our group switching tactics just as we were getting comfortable. Then were The Lovers, which had our party attempting to split pure damage on one whilst maintaining crowd control on the other, in an attempt to destroy one quickly whilst keeping the other at a distance.

I do have a minor complaint: I do think the dungeon would have been practically impossible for an entire party attempting at the advertised level of 30, I was the only level 30 in the party with my allies levels ranging between 39 to 80 and although they do get down-leveled I felt that their extra traits and Armour made a huge difference whereas an entire party at level 30 could simply not do it.
That said, I have not attempted it with an entire party at level 30 so I may be wrong on that.

I do still completely completely agree with the author of this Thread, DO NOT NERF DUNGEONS