so my first ever post on the forums….wish it could have been on a happier note.
I’ve got a main and all my alts to 80 so I thought I wouldn’t be affected by the negative aspects of the whole trait system. Even if there were any it would have mostly been minor issues. The trait system itself isn’t bad in my situation, no need to struggle my way to 80 again, my love to try different builds and alter them from time to time is simplified and finally some new traits added to increase build diversity!
Now my issue here is that due to me focusing mainly on leveling 8 characters, none are fully equipped with ascended gear and I have yet to even start on a Legendary. This therefore means I am a tight bugger and needs to save all my pennies and skill points for my future shinies! This in-turn forces me to go gain the new Grand Master traits through the standard way, which I don’t have a problem with. The problem is the certain quests that are the chosen method of acquisition, namely the Arah wizard and Grenth priest one (1st and 2nd trait tree respectively).
I have spent about 4-5 hours today in the cursed shore and didn’t get any new traits. After succeeding my first ‘defend Arah gate’ event, nobody received the trait, so I waited for the next one, ready to inform people of the previous attempt. Yet no one seems to be able to read, which I then waited on the next one in hope of a successful fail but to no avail. During all this, I had not seen Grenth flip once, it was my first time in cursed shores but really?! There was no event, contested or fail at all…which finally made me place this new trait system into a negative light. Making these traits reliant on slow spawning, low populated, group events is a mistake! Especially if it requires the failure of events to gain access to the meta. Ok fair enough that it is reliant on the player base at the time, but why can’t I get my trait relying on my strength.
Even the Karka Queen trait acquisition quest is a better option due to it being a more popular quest and not requiring the area to be cleared of a status or control. Though a minor gripe for me is that the quest timing for me is 11.30pm, 5pm and 2am meaning I can only do it during the weekends. But not really a problem since it’s still possible and doesn’t wastes my time.
The other 2 traits wasn’t so hard. A chest with only vets and lots of mobs was very fun to find and get to with a friend and the Lyssa temple I was lucky enough to get it spawning as soon as I got there(though I expect it wont be so easy the next time).
Overall I like new traits, being able to change whenever, but hate some of the methods on getting them and the costs of getting it(obviously it’s a way to discourage straight up buying but the harder quests leave you stuck between a rock and a hard place). I really wanted to like this new trait system, but being unable to get the new traits means I might aswell be running the old system. Unless you feel like running vitality based trait trees (the chest acquisition method) on all your characters.