Guild Wars 2

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

There are new crafting recipes, but the components for those will come from the rewards gained by playing any holiday content.

This is definitely good news, but I’m a little unsure what you mean. Are you trying to say there will be:
A) Completely new resources added that will be used as mats for every holiday event from now on, or we will use the holiday resources added in Holloween (i.e. candy corn, chattering skull, etc.), or C) holiday events will from now on use the standard GW2 mats?

Electro.4173:

None of the timed content starts until Saturday

Well, the Grove event starts Saturday, but according to the Wintersday schedule, the mini-games and wonderland will already be available Friday, though not sure what time.
So I’m thinking Thursday.

I only have one concern/gripe with the GW2 version of Wintersday.

The GW1 Wintersday revolved around the battle between Grenth and Dwayna, god and goddess of death and life. Now, this is pretty smart because it’s reflective of the world. The end of winter and beginning of spring, the end of the Season of the Colossus and the beginning of the Season of the Zephyr, moreover, winter also represents the death of plant life and spring the rebirth. Just as seasons, nature, and the calender ended (died) one cycle, so another came to life.
It’s a pretty smart concept and coincided with our Christmas while still being fresh and creative.

My concern is that GW1’s entirely unique view on something typical has been replaced with something not so new. In GW2 Wintersday is about a toymaker going across Tyria, spreading joy and cheer. Not to mention handing out presents to all the children of the world.

That is my gripe. ANet had something so inventive to build upon and rather than being innovative, instead we now have something utterly generic. A very interesting event in the world of Tyria has been replaced with an overly familiar concept that mirrors our world far too acurately.

Therein lies my disappointment

Siphaed.9235:

What do you mean, “killing things”?

List of non-killing activities:

-Snowball fights.

-Jumping Puzzle.

-Music Bell Choir.

-Initial toy drops from Tixx.

The only thing that includes/requires killing from what’s been revealed is the Toypocalypse, which is just fixing a bunch of broken toys (by breaking them!).

Yes! Thank you. I was about to post this myself. Where will the killing be at? The only things I know that we’ll be fighting are the rampaging toys. Beating the snot out of angry toys doesn’t exactly fall into the category of murder, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be insane amounts of fun.

Haishao.6851:

Can someone upload the trailer on youtube?
Video never worked since launch for me on gw2 website.

There you go.

AXEL.8362:

No, some portion of the whole event (like "you can still do the jumping puzzle!)wont cut it.

O_o
What? The airship will appear above each city and remain there for exactly one day. This isn’t an event that only happens at 10am and that’s it, this event spans the entirety of a day, from 10am until 10am.

But they do last the entire day. It’s from 10am until 10am the next day.

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

The Wintersday event web page has been updated with a full schedule of all events taking place: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/december-2012/

Awesome, thanks Regina.

Yeah, it starts in a few days. There’s been no info on the holiday event, and no mention of the other changes included in the massive patch. By the way, when will we be downloading the patch?

Either the developers are really hard at work, or they’re patiently waiting to drop another huge change (like the ascended bomb) on us. XD

TabMorte.5297:

I imagine we’ll get a bit more information on Mon/Tues next week and probably teasers dropped between then and Friday.

It’s a really long event, I imagine keeping it going for 3 weeks going to eat up most of their allotment of attention to it.

I don’t mind the Wintersday goodies, that can be revealed at the last minute. What I would like to know is a bit more on the world additions and changes themselves. So far the developers have gotten quite good at dropping bombshells just before changes hit. I just think it would be a lot better if they eased the public into their plans, rather than using the bombshell tactic.

Usually we receive in depth information on an upcoming event a week or so before it’s launched. I’m guessing the patch will drop Monday, and some of the added benefits (like balance changes, for instance) will take effect at that time.

Just wondering when we’ll be receiving some information. To tell the truth, I have nervous knot in the pit of my stomach. Half of it is due to excitement, the other half is attributed to anxious uncertainty. After Lost Shores, can I really be blamed. I really want this update to go down as smooth as possible.

Since Lost Shores people have been asking for some transparency, and the State of the Game stream and AMA has done a lot of good. However, the Wintersday page was added a week ago with a two paragraph teaser that doesn’t actually reveal anything.
Now I don’t want to rush anything, or sound like I’m trying to force anyone’s hand, but it would be nice to have some form of communication as to what sort of content updates the game will be receiving.

lothefallen.7081:

Really, blame it on the combat and skill system though. With the lack of roles, homogenized specialization of builds, traits, skill…what could you expect but a boss with LoZ fight mechanics….?

Actually, a lack of trinity should make the combat better, because being a healer, and standing in the corner pressing 4,4,4,4,5,4,4,4,4,5,4,4,4,5,6,4,4… is sooo exciting.

This game has roles, also each profession should represent it’s own role. Pigeonholing your class into one of three roles really makes for limiting and uninspired play. What GW2 should focus on is pushing the professions to be unique and add to the party in their own way. For instance, a warrior’s banner or a guardian’s spirit weapons should represent GW2’s “roles” to an extent. Having a profession use their profession trademarks should be what makes party combat insanely unique and enticing.

Firstly, NcSoft didn’t design the game, ArenaNet did. So you’re better off asking them.
Secondly, as Bluestone pointed out, using caps and calling out the devs is a good way to get an infraction and getting your thread deleted.
Lastly, guild halls are on the way. It’s actually not currently in development, but I would guess we’ll be seeing them mid to late next year.

Sky.7610:

Theres plently of players that will end up enjoying the game and thus spend $ on it in the form of gems but these players never play the game because they are on the fences and don’t want to risk $60.

The game’s price will drop as time pass, and after the first expansion is released, then it will probably cost next to nothing. Then people can definitely pick it up and see how the game feels, and if they like it, spend money on further content.

Who knows, after a certain amount of expansions the core game may become free after all. As for now, let’s not give more people an excuse to clog the servers and lag the game down, just so they can have a look. Keep the people who really want to play it while the servers are being upgraded for further players and content.

AerictheBoss.9172:

This seems like something for the future, I’d really like to see them finish fixing all the bugs and broken things in the game.

Of course, that’s definitely priority above all else.
But if player housing is added, I hope it’s something decent and well thought out. Or else they might as well leave it and concentrate on other content.

Today I spent some thought to what player housing could be like in GW2. When the thought of instanced homes struck me, I must say, it left a bland taste in my mouth.

When you have a home, surely you’d like to show it off. This had me thinking, what if the developers created some form of ‘city blocks’. These can be instanced, for practicality sake, but when you enter a block (or neighborhood) then a selection of houses are chosen, perhaps from your friends list or guild members. You’ll at least have your home surrounded by familiar faces.

If this wont work, then there should at least be a simple way for you to visit a friend’s home. There also needs to be an option for you to do something at someone else’s home, like leave a present, or a message. This can reward you with karma or an achievement, something like that.

There definitely needs to be incentives when it comes to a player’s home. If added, it shouldn’t just stand there, and mean nothing. There needs to be a reason why you’d want to have a home, to decorate it, and have it customizable to suit you. And there should be an easy way for players to interact with each other’s houses.

Sky.7610:

Azjenco.9425:

Sky.7610:

mrauls.6519:

I hope this never happens

and your reason?

In F2P models you need to pay for content as it’s released, and some parts of the game becomes blocked off until you buy it.

Would you be content to purchase Orr for 5000 gems, or be willing to participate in the Halloween event for 3000 gems? Maybe even have half the professions restricted for a certain amount of gems. I’d rather pay up front and then have the game supplied in ‘free’ increments, while the entire game is accessible.

When an expansion comes out, I’ll pay for that, but I’d prefer not to have section of the game become locked away behind a large dollar sign.

Where does one get the idea that’s the only way a F2P game can function? Why couldn’t ANet simply keep the way the gem store is and open the game up as f2p? I assure you that they would make waaay more money than they are now and don’t have to do what you said.

Sadly, that’s the path most F2P games go. A great deal of players wont use the gem shop. They’ll play the game, get the extent of enjoyment they want, and then move on. The point of the gem shop is the luxury items. If someone just plays around with the game to pass the time while waiting for the next best thing, the why would he want to spend money on the game.
This is the reason why F2P game need to gate content, to keep you interested just long enough to buy the next piece of the game. So why does GW2 need this? It’s working perfectly fine as it is.

Sky.7610:

mrauls.6519:

I hope this never happens

and your reason?

In F2P models you need to pay for content as it’s released, and some parts of the game becomes blocked off until you buy it.

Would you be content to purchase Orr for 5000 gems, or be willing to participate in the Halloween event for 3000 gems? Maybe even have half the professions restricted for a certain amount of gems. I’d rather pay up front and then have the game supplied in ‘free’ increments, while the entire game is accessible.

When an expansion comes out, I’ll pay for that, but I’d prefer not to have section of the game become locked away behind a large dollar sign.

Levetty.1279:

Kojiden.8405:

The halloween was pretty much a human event. This one is asura. I hope we get an event with Charr as the focal point.

A human event taking place in LA ran by an Asura.

King Thorn was human and the holiday consisted completely of human lore. No matter who ‘ran’ it, Halloween was a human event.

I bet you 1 gold he’s making all those toys with asuran tech. Now it might sound crazy, but that just might be it.

If not, can’t say I care. I am charr and have no need for children, nor do I have time for the crummy things in my busy schedule. I say let Tixx have them, especially those human whelps. Little mongrels are running all over the place and could use a good transmogrification…

I’ve been comparing the two options and I can’t seem to make up my mind. Placing gemstones in your armor pushes your attributes up far more than runes possibly can, the main attribute by 30 more with two extra attributes to boot, while a rune only focuses on one attribute.

On the one hand I really like the extra effects on some of the runes, but for some reason they look a bit underwhelming, seemingly more flavor than actual strength. Conversely gemstones builds your character’s attributes, which is where the majority of the strength in the game lies.

So I’m a bit torn between the two. I like the idea of what runes are going for, since they are the only items in the game with ‘flavor’ abilities, while gemstones have solid attribute building.

Which of the two do you prefer?

I’m on Aurora Glade. I only do dungeons during the morning or early afternoon, any later than that and the lag becomes unbearable. It use to be fine before the Lost Shores patch, somehow it messed everything up. It’s a real shame too because I use to do two or so dungeons in one night, and trying to get a dungeon group during the day isn’t an easy task.

Hope ANet can fix the bloody lag problem soon, and get to work on a decent LFG tool while they’re at it. Things certainly can’t go on like this…

With honey covered promises I lured my friends into the game when it launched. Of the eight of us I’m the only one still playing, and I doubt they’ll be coming around anytime soon.

Honestly, it sucks.

stof.9341:

Azjenco.9425:

Two places I missed though. Yeah, trinkets I kinda forgot about. I think some of mine are still rare or even masterwork. For some reason I don’t care a whole lot about them, but that doesn’t mean others feel the same, so yeah, my bad.

If you don’t care for your gear, why discuss with people that care?

This is how it should be like :
1 set of Exotics – Moderate play
2 sets of Exotics per chars with 3 chars – A lof of Play
1 Legendary – Dedicated play

This is how it is now :
Motivation to farm multiple sets and gear up alts to vary the experience : 0

Nice going, taking that completely out of context. Did I say I don’t care about gear? Nope, so thanks for making your own assumptions, because that always goes down well in a discussion. In fact, I tried to be civil, but you’re making it difficult if you’re going to be kittening rude.

I even said I collected an entire dungeon set, and I’m still refining my look. So remind me how I “don’t care for my gear”. Trinkets aren’t cosmetic, so to me they are secondary. Once I have my gear stats and look down, then I’ll start worrying about accessories.

And no, the points I gave and you replied to aren’t quite accurate as the game stands at the moment. Right now it’s more like:
Exotics – Moderate play
Exotics for three characters = 3x the amount of play for each character, and I fail to see how this is a problem if you’re going to play with your alts…
Ascended – Grinding/paying a lot
Legendary – Grinding even more/paying crap loads/decent amounts of luck

Very little about ascended items and legendary items promotes play, it’s far more geared towards grinding

stof.9341:

Azjenco.9425:

Pointing out the very hard to get exotics wont exactly win your case.

Why?

Because the problem a lot of people have with ascended gear is that it’s the next level on the power plateau. And getting there is a huge schlep. With exotics, you only need the easiest to find exotic items, no matter how ugly and undesirable you find it, because from there you just need to find the look you want.

Two places I missed though. Yeah, trinkets I kinda forgot about. I think some of mine are still rare or even masterwork. For some reason I don’t care a whole lot about them, but that doesn’t mean others feel the same, so yeah, my bad.

The other one is stat builds. For me this isn’t huge either, because I’m very flexible around my stats. I want my armor to be something specific, then I fine tune my traits. But again, that represents me, and not everyone.

I know exotics seem a huge schlep, and I’d like the game to have great variety to obtain those across the board, and then worry about looks.

Ascended gear should differentiate their way of acquisition, I think. There should be the one way to get exotics, which is the easier path of least resistance. And the ascended gear should have the deeper, more thorough way of acquiring your goal.

I really don’t mind having to play a lot to get what you want, I mean that’s what it’s all about. The more you play the more you’re rewarded. When it starts feeling like work (a grind) to get items, then the game is failing. This is what I think Chris was referring to last night. This is what they’re working towards, which is also why legendary items are getting a rework and a scavenger type of system.

This is what it should be like:
Exotics – Moderate play
Ascended – A lot of play
Legendary – Dedicated play
Play should never be replaced with work/grind/hassle/deep pockets.

stof.9341:

Azjenco.9425:

The time gap between exotics and legendaries mean that exotics now are easily obtained, and legendaries are supposed to take a very long time. Right now, there is nothing that takes a moderate amount of time and effort and feels worth getting.

Yes there is. Try the ultra rare expensive exotic weapon skins from Mystic forge. Try to get 3-4 full sets of different stat builds. Try to do the same with 2 alts.

Pointing out the very hard to get exotics isn’t exactly the best way to make your case.

Crafting an exotic is perhaps the easiest way, or acquiring those from the TP is perhaps even easier. 2-3 gold per piece, 6 pieces of gear, that’s about 12 to 18 gold, not too bad.
Or running a few dungeons each day, not too bad either, which is how I got my gear and that took me less than a week. Karma is perhaps the hardest, then again, you get karma when doing dungeons and from dailies. It takes around 46 karma jugs, along with the 10 you get for your monthly, it’ll take you less than a month to acquire. If you use a boost, even less.

For the end all gear, a week up to a month isn’t all that bad. From there it’s all cosmetics. Right now, ascended takes a whole lot more to get.

Illiander.8049:

Well, they’ve contradicted themselves in their answers already, so I don’t think I’ll believe anything they say:

4: Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression.

9: With regard to minimal Grind, how is going from 5 Ectos to 50 Ectos for a piece of gear minimal? 5 T6 items to 250 T6 items, minimal?
9: Good point Nacho. We are currently discussing these particular items and it is fair to say that we don’t want have such big hikes in requirements moving forward.

So they say that they want Ascended gear to be hard to get, but that they don’t want it to be hard to get. Right. Life of a PR mouthpiece I suppose.

Not to play devil’s advocate, but the answers are being taken out of context here.

The time gap between exotics and legendaries mean that exotics now are easily obtained, and legendaries are supposed to take a very long time. Right now, there is nothing that takes a moderate amount of time and effort and feels worth getting.

But as question nine states, as of now ascended gear doesn’t fill that gap efficiently. It’s far closer to the legendary grind than the exotic ease of attainability. They also seem to realize that dropping large difficult to find numbers on gear is a lousy way of to make something hard to obtain. Thus they are reworking ascended gear so it’s more of a challenge to get, a bit more of a challenge than exotics, while not making it a total grind, gold digging schlep like it is to get a legendary.

Romeo.4378:

Are you going to give Anet a second chance?

Yes I am.

The AMA was rather successful in my view. Chris hammered some large concerns out, and I find it hard to believe that even the most ardent ascended skeptics wouldn’t even be a bit hopeful after that.

It makes sense now that ascended will be distributed all over the game and is meant to be a horizontal progression item with a minor vertical element. Horizontal as in, attainable in my different flavors across the game with infusions fulfilling the hardcore player’s needs of improvement.
Exotics couldn’t fulfill that niche, so I’m prepared to observe how they implement this into the game in the coming months.

What also left me hopeful is the fact that he saw the issue in communication. There’s a large gap in what ANet is working on and what we know is happening behind the scenes. We need to be a part of the process and if they establish effective lines of communication with us, then the whole Lost Shores fiasco can be averted.

ANet was burned, and pain is the best teacher. So I doubt they’ll be making the same mistake again.

This is a response to the Bjarl bug:

When it is fixed, it will be in patch notes.

I am working on it right now actually..

That was a week ago…

The two questions I really wanted answered were never asked.

• PD5: Less and less people are interested in running story-modes, which is hurting new players. What plans are there to fix this? Increasing the replayability value for players who have already run it as an example?

• TF1: It’s been previously stated that old content will receive new updates as content is released. What are the plans for updating maps like Orr, where they are seen more of as an “annoyance” then a “challenge”?

This kinda sucks if you don’t have a reddit account and aren’t interested in opening one. Basically it excludes you from participating in an interactive meeting with the developers that’s supposed to be ‘open’ to the public…

[–]Samuraikitten86 463 points 1 hour ago*

EDIT: These questions came from the non-redditing official forums community, and are not solely one persons input. Take as much time as necessary to answer them, we’ll wait a week if we have to~

… What happened to half of the list? My question was part of the future updates section. Well, so much for my question getting an answer. :/

Aiobhan.9758:

Why did they choose an Anet employee who doesn’t have the communicative skills to answer these questions? Poor dear can barely string a sentence together. Although it does explain the overuse of PR-approved key phrase “moving forward” and how long it’s taking to reply.

If it takes 5 minutes to type a three line response, then either you’re thinking too hard, or need a course in typing. Either way, it’s frustrating for people waiting for answers to their burning questions on the game you’re creating, meanwhile taking forever to say how much you like Mario…

garraeth.3267:

Why are you ignoring the list of questions ‘Samuraikitten86’ compiled from the community and instead spending the short AMA time answering: “What games do you like to play besides Guild Wars 2?”

They know very well the community compiled that list. Hell, all they need to do is come here and see that we’re responsible for that list. And yet they’re evading it like a stink bomb ready to go off. Sad and disappointing.

Karizee.8076:

Azjenco.9425:

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

They have always used reddit for their AMA’s. Since before the game launched.

I know that, and it was crappy back then just as it’s crappy now.
I say again, there must be a better way to accomplish all this.

Perseus Ithikus.5483:

Shocking amount of time being taken between answers only for most of them to be generic PR replies.

Yeah, convenient;y choosing all the questions, to which the answers are either very obscure or just reiterations of what they’ve already told us.
Why not choose the question with answers that will be informative and new to us.

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

Ugh, why are there around 5 minutes between some of these questions? Is he trying to be super picky, or just desperate to waste time so the whole thing can be over as quick as possible…?

What I sort of dislike about these sort of Q&As is that a lot of the answers are along the lines of:
“We feel very strong about <insert topic> and have a lot of content changes and additions planned. You can expect to hear a lot on this soon.”
It sort of feels like a polite way to say: “We don’t want to talk about this.”

wildcode.5403:

So far he’s only answered 2 questions and both to do with the new content

Yup, and twice now they’ve said, ask one question at a time.
I freaking hate reddit. There has got to be a better, more efficient way to do this.

From what the patch notes stated and what is experienced in game, there definitely seems to be a problem. The drops are worse than before the patch, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

How many hours to go before it starts?

PR1: When can we expect this list of engi bugs to be fixed?
PR3: When can we expect [this list of necro bugs]((https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-bugs-compilation-NB44-NT18-NP7/first)) to be fixed?
PR4: When can we expect this list of elementalist bugs to be fixed?

Really?!?! Is anyone expecting any answer other than “We are working as fast and as hard as we can to get all bugs under wraps. You’ll be updated as soon as they’re fixed.” Or is anyone expecting exact dates and circumstances of what bugs are being worked on when?

What a waste of three questions and a serious waste of the little time they’re lending us… especially with question PR12 basically covering the issue.

I was really hoping for the armor skins, repair canisters, minis, or booster multipacks, or perhaps even banks slots, character slots, even the deluxe upgrade. But this was just disappointing. It felt like a ‘get rid of the junk nobody wants’ type of sale. And only three items a day… very, very disappointing.

Ronah.2869:

as long as we can use skills in towns, dynamic events in towns will be the best addition to them. Even under city dungeons can be great.

I think each of the racial cities could benefit from having a mini dungeon inside of them. That and each city should have at least one fun mini game, which is severely lacking at the moment.

• Revamping all of our existing dungeons (Story and Explorable versions) through rebalance and overhauled encounters.
• Adding new dungeons to the Fractal of the Mists.
• Adding more variation to creatures, enhancing our open world scaling system, as well as evolving many events and experiences across Tyria.
• Fixing and improving existing content throughout the game, and better tying it into the overall sense of player progression within Guild Wars 2.
• Building on the Southsun Cove’s persistent content.
• Adding new Guild content and Guild progression features.
• Continuing to build upon the story and adventures of Guild Wars 2.

This is all I can say. I’m very hopeful.

When will it start, exactly?

Leonard.2867:

I like some of your ideas about traits but I disagree with your infusion ideas. I used infusions as a model to implement gating, to help satisfy those who want that type of content. If your piggy backing of my infusion idea to set a difficulty of the rest of the world, then it defeats the purpose of a compromise. In my context, I think infusion, or any other method of gating, should only pertain to a specific dungeon or area.

Oh, alright, I see now.

Well, there are two things about infusions that bother me.

First thing is, agony kicks in around FotM level 10. When you reach level 10 and don’t have agony resist yet, then you’re out of luck, the game will cut you off from content. Although that’s not bad, per se, it’s just handled poorly. Because…

My second point is agony itself is poorly thought out. It doesn’t use actual game mechanics, the developers thought it was a good idea for agony to function in a way of: “Alright, we don’t want you here right now, so just take a bunch of damage”. As my idea specified, why don’t they implement it in a way where agony cause boss attacks to have more fatal effects on you, or even the environment can work against you, such as you trigger some traps that players with agony resist don’t

Basically, agony has the potential to be used in the game in very challenging ways, but instead the designers thought it be best to just use it as a damaging penalty system. As of now it’s a half kittenedly poor implementation of an idea that has far greater potential than the developers seem to realize.

Now, Infusions…
From what I explained, also think Infusions should represent something special, not just a method of ‘gating’ people in FotM, because it means nothing but instilling a number to make you feel good enough to compete in difficult content. Instead of just taking damage, why doesn’t agony rather allow enemy attacks to have dire effects.
Let’s say you have resistance, then a certain boss will deal normal damage to you with his swipe attack, while the person next to you without any resistance is dazed and poisoned. He can still try to dodge the attack, but the consequences in failure for him is much more dire than it is for you.

This will even allow a sense of challenge to those who wish to leave the resistance in order to make a fight more challenging for him/herself. While right now it just damages you, regardless of anything. There’s no deeper thought to it, other than just to tell you, “you’re not good enough, and we don’t want you here until you get the right stat”. That design is a bit lazy, don’t you think?

By what I suggested, agony can then even be used in other parts of the world, making many fights tougher for some characters, while more manageable to those who’ve taken the effort to counter it.

A mechanic like this can even be incorporated in many other ways. Like say, you make an infusion with agony resistance, while the secondary stat is something along the lines of: might stacking, which increases the amount of might can potentially gain from a skill, or condition blocker, where ticks you receive have the tick damage lessened, or boon fading, where if a boon expires you’ll heal a small bit, or even life counter, which depending on how little your life is, you’ll gain duration on your boons or decrease duration on conditions or it can even add a bit of agony resist.

The point of my extensive post is, numbers aren’t the only way to make players feel that their growing. And it certainly isn’t the best way to get players to plan efficient characters in fun and interesting ways. There could be a whole lot more to character progression than looking at your stats, and playing a math build game.

Traits that could work on weapons:
Off balance – Every fourth hit deals 25% extra damage.
First Blood – If this is the first damage your target takes, deal 50% extra damage and knock them down if its a critical hit.
Breakthrough – A critical hit will cause the next hit to bypass a third of the target’s armor.
Enforcer – When an enemy is downed, your next hit will cause weakness and vulnerability.
Fervent Strike – Deal 5% extra damage and another 5% for every additional enemy within 100 radius.
Parry (off hand weapon) – Have a 15% chance to block attacks, and deal 15% main hand weapon damage.
Culling – For every condition on you, gain 1% critical chance, and for every boon gain 2% critical damage.
Point Blank (ranged) – When an enemy stands in front of you, your attacks deal 10% extra damage and have a 33% chance to cause vulnerability.
Skin Deep – When a blow takes an enemy under 75% or 50% of his maximum health, inflict bleeding.
Rising Sun (Sunrise) – Deal burning to enemies adjacent to target.

Traits that could work on armor:
Brawler – When your movement becomes hampered, the next three attacks will be glancing blows.
Duress – If a single attack deals more than 20% of your maximum health, gain protection.
Craftsmanship – This armor piece can become damaged, but not broken.
Fast Metabolism – Whenever you are poisoned, burning, or bleeding, gain regeneration.
Spiked armor – A critical hit will return damage as if retaliation was active on the character, if it was active, 50% extra damage is returned.
Life Preservation – No longer suffer a downed penalty when revived and bandaging heals 25% faster.
Aggravation – When more than one foe is attacking you, gain 1 might as long as you are taking damage.
Extra Thick – 15% of critical hits will be considered normal hits.
Engraved Arcana – Every hit received adds 1 stack of arcana, when it reaches 10 stacks, deal damage to the damage dealer.
Iron Will – Every fifth hit you receive will remove a condition from you.

This is just a basic idea, it’ll be along the lines of traits, but should differ to many degrees. There should be something that differentiates weapon “traits” with that of your character’s traits. I just threw out random thoughts, but obviously the concept should be refined. Stats shouldn’t be removed from items, but it definitely shouldn’t be the end all to be all. Perhaps an item can have two or three stats and one or two traits. Items will thereby contain an interesting and fun factor, something that’ll make you look twice at it, and not just compare stat numbers.

What I find hard to believe is that people would greatly desire a system that grows into a numbers game. Where the only way you feel satisfied is if your current numbers are outdone by better numbers, because this opens way to an endless cycle. This basic premise just forgoes thoughtful and fun diversification, all in favor of a stepping ladder.

Let me explain the problem with vertical progression in this way. Let’s say there are three items you can go collect, two of equal stats, and one higher than those two. Who in their right minds would choose the lesser numbers? Basically the game is telling you the logical choice of progression, it’s sort of like the developers are point in that one direction and telling you “that is the right path”.

Here’s why someone would choose that path, the game needs to be balanced to remain a challenge, so high level content wont be set according to level, because you will be maxed, so the next logical step is to set difficulty according to the highest gear. This means that a person would logically try to stay up to date, because the game is tailor made for those geared correctly, which is why people despise the thought of stat gear in GW2. The game is supposed to be all about skill, and the difference between a character in rares, and another in exotics is already quite evident, now that gap will be expanding further.

I think pushing stats on gear is not all that innovative, it’s uninspiring, and a bit lazy on the designer’s part. There can be a lot more innovative designs made to gear, which promotes choice and fun factors. I mean, who wouldn’t want to pick up two pieces of gear, compare their traits and feel that excitement factor, because both pieces of gear contains cool designs, and you’d want to try out both items in play, just because both items feel good in a fun way.

I’ll throw some ideas out there, just to illustrate the point I’m trying to make. I’m not a designer, so I’ll go for wacky and fun over trying to focus on balance, so keep that in mind…