Guild Wars 2

Unspecified.9142:

Based on what was said in the stream the arming time is the time from laying down the trap until it is ready for activation.

In that case putting all the damage and condition would be really hard to balance. Either one trap wouldn’t do enough damage to be viable on its own, or three traps stacked would be to powerful. Can’t really have an instakill on the first one to trigger without giving him any warning at all.

The different purposes of traps as either ambush/fight initiator or area denial also require a little bit different setups. Maybe a trait to change between the two would be good. Something like the standart version is what Heimskarl said, and the trait would add a delay to the damage, reduce the time of the trap being active after activation, but increasing the damage. More risk, more reward.

That would not change anything regarding the concerns for PvE though.
(And regarding PvP I might be assuming to much, as I am not much of a PvP-player.)

What exactly is the arming time? Is it time from laying down until it is ready for activation, or the time from activation (maybe including an animation) until detonation?

Especially if it is the latter maybe a change from a DoT to an instant AoE would be good. It would reward players able to strategically place the traps and lure enemies into it and the delay between activation and detonation would allow the laggards in a group of PvE mobs to get into the detonation area.
In PvP an observant player may be able to evade the damage based on the activation animation, but a good ranger could provide a distraction and/or place the traps in unexpected locations.
I don’t know exactly how to balance the damage though. High enough to be really rewarding and giving a real advantage in a fight if used as an initiator for an ambush, but not high enough to instantly kill groups in a lay and forget kinda playstyle by multiple Rangers.