Guild Wars 2

Vincent Von Demetri.1450:

This is an absolutely unfair way to treat players who followed the original method put forth to dying your characters. I personally bought Abyss and Celestial on all my characters to ensure that they had the looks I wanted throughout the game. This cost me several hundred gold. To those of you who claim, oh you are only gaining by this… no, you aren’t. Consider the money sunk to get these dyes, everyone who spent gold on them couldnt spend that gold on other items they may have wanted. Maybe we should all just get legendaries too since that’s free and evereveryone wins! No harm no foul right? You’re all too ignorant and self centered… it’s okay because you are gaining something and “a few others” lose. It’s okay in that case right?

The simple solution is a 1 to 1. If a player has a duplicate. Return them a duplicate of the EXACT SAME type. This is simple business practice, and since gold in this game carries an equivalent real life monetary value, ANET is essentially extending a nice big middle finger to those that played by the rules. Shame on you ANET, very very very poor business practices with this company. Do what is ethical and right, something you seem to be doing less and less lately.

Thing is, you used those dyes, right? People who didn’t buy Abyss dyes for all their characters didn’t get to have Abyss on their characters, but you did. So that’s why you bought the dye, and you got the function out of the dye per character that you paid for.

Now there will be a change and there will be account bound dyes. But nothing for you has changed – you bought each dye at each time and weighed the cost and found it something you were willing to pay for unlocking the dye per character. And you got that. You got to use the Abyss dye on your characters. Now, if you make any more characters, you won’t have to buy Abyss again.

But because you got exactly the intended use out of the dyes you purchased, this doesn’t entitle you to a refund or another, free Abyss dye.

Bearlin.7238:

account bound WXP

Probably not, since it will be right in the middle of the WvW Season 2 Tournament. But, if it is, I will be VERY happy!

Donari.5237:

I’ve never asked for a refund on any gem purchase, not once, and I bet I count as one of the “whales” in the store. I’m likely to now, however, especially on my multiple town clothes that won’t even be useable for RP any more.

Now … what about the BLT Weapon Trader skins? I spent a lot of tickets on those, as well as gold on the TP on yet more skins, so I don’t know how they can say what I got from the gem store chests, but it would be lovely to get tickets back for double skins like my two Lovestruck Daggers and two Lovestruck Foci.

Re the BLT Weapon Trader skins, I would sell those on the TP. If they become account-wide unlockables too, people will want them more.

Korossive.7085:

CrossedHorse.4261:

But, as someone in Gen Disc pointed out, even if they don’t refund you any gems, the skins are useful for a free transmute.

LOL! only the transmute cost is almost nothing to that of the lost gem-skin cost

Did I say it was? I’m trying to look on the bright side here!

I have spent hundreds of pounds in the gem store, and a lot of that will have been on duplicate sets of armour and weapon skins, so I stand to lose a lot of that.

But am I still going to play the game even if I can’t get a refund? Yes. So ultimately, I sort of have to accept that with some grace. I always said before we had any confirmation of a wardrobe system in place that I’d be willing to eat the cost for a wardrobe system (though, admittedly, I had anticipated not having transmutation charges …)

So I’m one of those people who stockpile several skins that I like, weapons and armour. So I have three of each of the aetherblade sets, for instance. These currently are sitting unpacked in my bank as I hadn’t decided which alts to give them to. With the new patch, I actually only need to give three alts armour, one for each weight class and then the skins are permanently unlocked for any other alts (for a small transmutation charge fee).

So, that will leave me with 6 sets of unpacked, brand new armour that I don’t need. Am I demanding a refund? No. Because the way I see it, I can still use these armour sets – they’ll act like a free transmute – as they’re free to unlock the first time you use these to skin an armour set. So I save myself 6 lots of 6 tansmutation charges (that’s 36 charges) in the process.

Are these charges going to equal the cost of the armour sets? No, but the use of the wardrobe going forward may well do so. I am generally extremely happy and looking forward to the new changes to the wardrobe function and am willing to see how it pans out. So I am willing to eat the cost of items I previously bought, as I bought them not knowing we would have an account wardrobe (and I presume, at the time I bought them, neither did ANet – plans change).

However, should ANet implement a restriction, like if you have already unlocked a skin for your wardrobe but acquire a second of that skin in-game/via the gem store you are unable to use it except through the wardrobe (thereby paying transmutation charge fees), I shall indeed request a refund, as that will directly nullify any use of the items I bought. But I won’t demand one, and if they refuse, then, well, lesson learned.

tl;dr: in general, it would be nice for those of us who do have multiple sets of gem store skins to be able to have a refund (in gems or real money) from ANet, and I certainly see no harm in asking for one, we shouldn’t necessarily expect one, or blame ANet for not providing one. They are within their rights to not provide one. And, on the bright side, see these skins as a free transmute for one of your favourite looks.

I have a suggestion regarding the transmutation charges:

Right now, as I understand it, we can convert current transmutation crystals to an equal amount of transmutation charges, so 1 crystal = 1 charge.
In the case of transmutation stones, we can convert these to charges at the rate of 3:1, so 3 stones = 3 charges.

I understand why they’ve done this, as transmutation stones are worth less and therefore cost less and are easier to get than transmutation crystals in game at the moment.

However, I, and many others it seems, are concerned that changing the armour and weapon skins of characters below level 80 will, in the new system, treble in price, putting several people off the idea and potentially meaning people don’t even start experimenting with their look until level 80, which is a shame.

So, my suggestion is that when we take our transmutation stones to be converted to charges, we get the option either to accept the 3:1 ratio (and take a bit of a hit – which some people will be fine with) or pay in-game money (ie gold, no other currency) to upgrade these stones to equal value with crystals. That way, you can equalise the cost (so people don’t complain we get something for free that we don’t deserve, as will happen otherwise), or you can lose the cost and lose the benefit.

How would that seem?

So my suggs

Does transmuting a legedary skin soulbind the weapon to your character?

Only, since people can now transmute any weapon (of the same type as their legendary) to have a legendary skin, will we see “legendaries” going up for sale on the TP? Clearly, they wouldn’t sell at legedary prices as the description will remain the same (or am I wrong???) but can other people buy the “look”? That might be a little worrying.

I also love, love, LOVE that single use items will now be usable on any armor weight from the wardrobe! Scarlet’s Spaulders on my Ele, Engineer and Guardian from just one gem store purchase? YES! (Though, I actually bought 3 so …)

StinVec.3621:

CrossedHorse.4261:

Since we will be able to unlock skins across our entire account, this might be a dumb question, but if I, say unlock the skin on a female char, will the male equivalent version of this skin be available if I switch to a male char, or will I need to unlock for both males and females?

Just making doubly, doubly sure!

It’s just like grabbing an armor from the TP. No need to buy/unlock a gender-specific version. The armor appearance is automatic based on the gender it is equipped on/applied to as it is currently.

Awesome! Thanks – just wanted to make sure the good things I’m imagining right now really are going to happen!

Since we will be able to unlock skins across our entire account, this might be a dumb question, but if I, say unlock the skin on a female char, will the male equivalent version of this skin be available if I switch to a male char, or will I need to unlock for both males and females?

Just making doubly, doubly sure!

Sell them on the TP – they’ll probably rise in price a bit as people realise they can just buy the exact skin they want, avoid all RNG, and NEVER have to buy it again.

xerca.6135:

Curtis Johnson.8456:

Gibson.4036:

And then we need to burn a transmutation charge whenever we want to move from town clothes to a combat look. Not great for roleplayers.

There is no transmutation charge to change outfits or toggle it on and off.
Transmutation charges are for applying new skins to specific armor pieces, same as now.

Yes outfits are all or nothing.
Yes wearable in combat. There will be no non-combat equipment anymore, unless you count tonics.

Just to try and understand. As a roleplayer, right now I got three different coats in my inventory that I keep taking on and off for the different skins.
So if I were to switch between these three, can I still have three different coats in my inventory, or can I freely switch between these three skins on the same armour piece? Or is it there it will cost charges? Because I would be nice to be able to switch freely between skins, and not having to have 3 armours in my inventory.

It will cost you to put a different look on the SAME armour piece. So you still have to keep 3 pieces in your inventory. As do people who want to change stats, rather than looks.

It’s a good question – I stockpile skins of things I like, so I’ve got a few duplicates left.

It’s something I reckon ANet will keep quiet on for a bit, lol.

But, as someone in Gen Disc pointed out, even if they don’t refund you any gems, the skins are useful for a free transmute.

Levetty.1279:

Did anybody catch anything on whether back pieces are included in this as well?

Seems they are. They specifically mentioned the spinal blades back piece.

Seras.5702:

So do you think it’s a good idea to buy some of the more expensive dyes now so I’ll have em for all my toons or wait till after the patch? I’m thinking there will be a rush for dyes after the patch so prices will jump, and then an even bigger rise in prices since they will become less common. Thoughts? Buy now?

I’d buy now – I reckon dyes are only going to increase in value from now on, since they’re no longer dropping in the open world after the patch.

Krugan.7901:

Does that mean I have to pay to apply skins that were previously free like hom and SAB?

I’d imagine not for HOM skins or AP chest skins – they kind of work on their own system. At least, I’d hope not as that would be horrible.

Don’t know how the SAB skins work, so can’t say for them.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

FatalKiwi.6794:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I’m fairly sure when the patch goes live, you’ll be able to get a refund. This said, you may just want to keep them anyway, since you won’t need transmutation charges to put them on anything.

Well, I know the transmutation charges would be cheaper than the cost of the skin was, I’d be happy for a refund in gems for the duplicates. Either way it’s money I’ve already spent with ANET to be spent on something else in the Gem Store. They lose nothing this way.

It’s not like I’m saying “Hey give me my money back!” I just want to know if the items we’ve already, apparently mistakenly, stockpiled will be reimbursed for.

Oh no, I know. I’m just saying that if you don’t want to request a refund all is not lost. I am in the same boat, with 4 marjory daggers and 2 axes and 3 kasmeer staves…. I stockpile things like this myself. I won’t be requesting refunds, though, because looking at the “charges” deal, it looks to me like they will be the same cost as crystals and it could take 4+ charges to use the skin on another character.

You sound just like me! I stockpile every skin that I really like, including all the armor sets from the gem store (and I would have done the same with Marjory and Kasmeer’s weapon skins except I keep missing those).

You make a good point about keeping them for a “free” transmute, I hadn’t thought of that.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

CrossedHorse.4261:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

CrossedHorse.4261:

I am saving every spare penny I have to unleash in the gem store come patch day, lol! I can finally buy those darling quaggan hats!

Here’s also hoping I can cash in on all the extra weapon skins I’ve been hoarding, like the aetherized daggers etc … imagine people may be wanting to buy those from the TP for a permanent unlock …

I hadn’t even thought about that. I wonder if the skins for the BLTs become unlocked as well….

Imagine only needing to fight with rng the one time to get that torment skin unlocked for account use. Or zodiac. Or whatever the valentine’s day one was… There isn’t anything saying that these are to be excluded.

Ow, my head hurts.

I see no reason for them not to be – cruel blow if they didn’t make them unlocked as well!

Since they’re unlocking legendaries … I imagine all the BL ticket skins will be unlocked too (crosses fingers and toes).

I agree, I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t be either. After all, it sounds like the gemstore armor becomes an unlocked skin, they specifically call out Scarlet’s Spaulders in the blog as an example.

Still, just takes a minute to absorb. Ya know?

I feel ya!

And you’re right, they do specifically mention gem store skins (with the ref to the Spaulders). So if they do it for armours, they should do it for weapons – I mean, we still have to get chests for tickets to get any more that we want (or buy from TP). I don’t see that it hurts them in any way.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

CrossedHorse.4261:

I am saving every spare penny I have to unleash in the gem store come patch day, lol! I can finally buy those darling quaggan hats!

Here’s also hoping I can cash in on all the extra weapon skins I’ve been hoarding, like the aetherized daggers etc … imagine people may be wanting to buy those from the TP for a permanent unlock …

I hadn’t even thought about that. I wonder if the skins for the BLTs become unlocked as well….

Imagine only needing to fight with rng the one time to get that torment skin unlocked for account use. Or zodiac. Or whatever the valentine’s day one was… There isn’t anything saying that these are to be excluded.

Ow, my head hurts.

I see no reason for them not to be – cruel blow if they didn’t make them unlocked as well!

Since they’re unlocking legendaries … I imagine all the BL ticket skins will be unlocked too (crosses fingers and toes).

therealjaypo.1690:

As someone with many duplicate (mostly expensive :P) dyes across his 8 toons, I’m curious about this as well.

The dyes? No. You get an account wide unlock of the dye, and an unidentified dye per duplication. But they’ll probably be worth a bit on the TP by then.

I would like to know as well. I imagine, that provided they’re unpacked, ANet might give you a refund (that would be nice). But tbh, I’m kind of willing to eat the cost because going forward I have a better system in the wardrobe … guess we’ll wait and see. Suspect they’ll release info on this when the patch goes live in the patch notes.

I am saving every spare penny I have to unleash in the gem store come patch day, lol! I can finally buy those darling quaggan hats!

Here’s also hoping I can cash in on all the extra weapon skins I’ve been hoarding, like the aetherized daggers etc … imagine people may be wanting to buy those from the TP for a permanent unlock …

pswendel.8179:

sinzer.4018:

DiogoSilva.7089:

“If you already have the same dyes unlocked on multiple characters, when you log in on additional characters, you will receive one unidentified dye for each duplicate dye already unlocked on your account.”

This is in the paragraph right after the one you quoted.

Which while not clearly stating current unlocked dyes will become account bound this paragraph would make no sense without it.

Not buying Abyss for my alts has really paid off :p

It’s saying the opposite. If you had bought abyss on one of your alts you would get an account unlock.

I think he means he has it on his main but didn’t buy it again for his alts. So in this case, it’s paid off.

I’m really glad I’ve been sitting on a two whole bank tabs of dyes for ages now because I couldn’t decide which alt to give them to. Now, they can all have them, and I get bank space (and even more as I can get rid of duplicate armor sets because of the new wardrobe).

I think it also says that if you have dyes unlocked on a character you just log in with each character for that dye to be added to your account. Where you have unlocked two of the same dye on different characters, one dye goes to the account and you get an unidentified dye. That seems to cover all bases, unless I’ve missed something?

I am also a little confused … it seems I still need to carry around three or four sets of armor to keep the different stat options … is that right? The difference being I don’t need 4 lots of one armor type as well?

I imagine gem store. If you look at the picture of the new wardrobe in the blog, there’s a tag next to the transmutation cost saying “buy more”.

I like this new wardrobe. If I bought multiple sets of gem store skins, will I be refunded them, however? If this wardrobe delivers in the way I expect it to, I’ll eat the cost, but say I have one or two unused sets?

Ugh – why oh why do I always miss everything by 2 days!? Lol, seems I am cursed to be two days late to every sale I actually want to attend. Grr.

I guess I’ll keep praying that there’s an anniversary sale and Marjory’s weapon skins and Kasmeer’s staff skins will be back again.

It’s an interesting topic – it’s something that would be cool to have, but it’s really not something that I would consider important, or that I miss having. It’s one of those nice to have little touches, but I don’t feel like it really affects anything.

Yeah, it is a little annoying, since those Black Lion Keys aren’t exactly cheap and I didn’t really want the trait reset things going in the chests. I have over 50 to use. Oh well, if the other changes I really want (like PvE skin locker) come through in a satisfactory way, I’ll eat the cost. I would prefer a refund for the second or sometimes third sets of armour I bought though.

Yes … possibly.

This massive feature update will decide it for me, I think. I’m not keen on the changes to traits, but I like what they’re doing with the runes, sigils and the crit damage changes. So far, it’s 50/50. If the rumours about PvE clothes locker and account-bound dyes prove true, that’s another step in the right direction (if they do make skins unlockable and permanently available across accounts and they give me a refund on the extra skins I bought … even better, lol). I liked the last three/four installments of the LS better than before, and if WXP becomes account bound I’ll probably get more into that as well. So yes, overall, my response to the OP is yes.

If I put my “customisation freak” hat on, I’d say YES! To everything. The more the better.

If I take it off, however, and look at the game currently, I’m not sure what a new profession would add besides more class imbalance. If they fixed the imbalances we have now, then yes, I’d like to see a new class – preferably some kind of magic focused heavy armor class, just to balance out the numbers (I like symmetry).

New race? Well, yes, they’re always cool, but they don’t add anything. I’m not keen on Tengu, Kodan etc or any likely class they’d pick, so I am on the fence about this one.

Mesmer for PvP 1v1s, dungeons and being one of the more complicated classes to play (as opposed to, say, Warrior). Mesmers are capable of being truly devastating in 1v1s, but require you to know your profession and what you are doing with it to get there, so it sound like the perfect class for your specifications.

They are valued in groups because of Feedback, Null Field, Time Warp, Veil etc. They can cover a few of the areas Thieves do (like stealth), but also offer a little more group utility/support. They’re also good roamers in WvW (except for mobility – you do pretty much have to have a focus to equip on offhand for speed out of combat – though their in combat mobility is good) but I don’t think they contribute much special to a zerg or anything (no more than the majority of other professions, in any case).

I would like to add that you shouldn’t try and rush yourself. If you need to take the time to spend half an hour reading through all your skills and testing them on a target dummy to see how they work and what other skills they work with, then do that. You will only help yourself.

Don’t be put off by people who say they’ve levelled to 80 in less than a week, or people who complain how easy the game is. Everyone learns at their own pace – and better to learn slowly but properly than rush, not enjoy the journey and still be clueless at level 80.

OP, you’re not doing too badly! By the time I reached 80 with my first char I only had 4g to my name.

You are right in that there isn’t a huge amount you can buy with 40g right now, but what do you WANT to buy with it? If Scarlett’s Kiss/Rainbow is your goal, then that’s a good place to start – decide that you don’t want anything else, then keep an eye out for other good investments.

What I did, as a very casual player, who didn’t run dungeons, fractals etc on anything like a regular basis, was invest some money in gems, then converted to gold. I’m not talking a lot, literally just enough to get 24 gold (which really costs about £5 in real money), and I started from there. During the LS, there were various great items I invested in – for example the wind catcher backpieces from the Zephyr Sanctum LS. I literally farmed those fortune scraps to death to buy 2, and then bought another couple off the TP during the event for around 4g each. Now, they’re about 100g.

Yes, I had to sit on them for months for them to go up to that price (the highest I’ve seen them sell for is 117g), but I wasn’t in any hurry to buy things – you have to accept that as a casual player, nice items are a long-term goal, not an immediate purchase. Other LS also afforded chances at other items that are worth a lot of gold now, and eventually, without much effort, I actually now have ended up with about 700g.

My problem now is that even though there’s a lot of stuff I’d LIKE, there’s not a lot I’m willing to spend the money on, haha! But it does take some time to get started in this game, but when your money comes in, it comes in quickly. These past three LS patches have netted me about 100g total, playing extremely casually.

I think the way crit damage works and interacts with ferocity (similar to how precision and crit chance work) actually makes far more sense. A character running full Berserker will still have the highest DPS in the game, so their position doesn’t change, and I am hopeful that this change will increase the viability of some other builds. In general, I really don’t think that this change is bad at all.

They specifically say UN-EQUIP not swap. So swapping weapons will be fine, but un-equipping will lose you the stacks. This makes sense to me and seems fair enough – you don’t get any benefit or increase to stats from any other piece of gear when it’s just sitting in your inventory.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Loboling.5293:

More 80s and other higher level characters will be travelling around to accomplish tasks that are supposed to be fun for scaled players. (I’m referring mostly to the new trait hunt) They will do these “challenges” with impunity and get bored. If a max level player can just steamroll the content that he is forced to play, the game will get boring for all concerned.

The exact opposite for me. I still can’t make myself finish the leftover 30-40% of the map because doing hearts is boring. Being able to steamroll low-level maps with my ascended geared lvl 80 will actually make it more “fun” for me, because I can move back to the my definition of “fun” things faster.

The original map completion also served the purpose of learning your and opponents’ skills and tailoring builds, but since the game “failed” in it when it offered far more rewarding ways of leveling and learning to “quick-witted” players, getting map completion once the learning is done is actually boring.

I’m the same. I would just want to rush through things as quickly as possible to get it “out the way” and then get on with the things I do find fun.

Well the bit that makes a difference to the person already at 80 is the “earning” your trait point, rather than the increase in traits per tier (since overall, the effect is staying the same, just with 1 trait point being the equivalent to 5 of the current ones). So you will still get to experience that as you still need to go out to explore and do events to get the new grandmaster tier traits.

But I agree that maybe level 80s should have the option to restart their traits under the new system if they want. But this should be entirely optional, and for those who are satisfied with their build, they should be left unchanged, as ANet are saying they will.

Keep an eye out for the blog posts about the April 15th patch … there are hints that one might be on this topic.

Hi! Welcome to the game.

I am on Aurora Glade, and it’s pretty active. It’s very friendly, we have a good community and some really helpful people.

If you are really into WvW and want a good server, we’re probably not the best choice, though there are plenty of people in WvW if you just want to take it casually.

But otherwise, like Evans, I’ve not felt the urge to change server either.

It’s the readyup livestream as well today, so possibly they’ll wait to put up the next post until after that …

Edit: Oh, sorry, Healix, didn’t see you’d already said this!

CrossedHorse.4261:

So, with every trait line having 12 major traits to unlock, and every profession having 5 trait lines, that’s 480 traits to unlock across Tyria.

What I would be interested to see is if they actually tie each trait to an individual event/challenge, or if, say, all the traits from the first line (across all professions) are available from one.

So, to make it clearer, is it finishing the Balthazaar temple event gains you a Grandmaster trait, say trait XII, in the first trait line for your profession no matter what profession (so a Ranger and an Ele could both go and do the event and come away with that trait slot unlocked – though obviously it will be a different trait for each); or is it that if the Ranger wants trait XII in the first trait line he’ll have to go and finish the temple of Lyssa event because the temple of Balthazaar only awards trait XII in the first trait line for the Ele?

Hopefully that makes sense?

EDIT: Also, with the current system, you unlock 5 points and get a minor slot and then 10 and get a major … and you have to do this before progressing to the next tier. I’d like to know in the new system whether you still have to continue in this way – so, I unlock one trait point (taking me to the minor trait), but then do I have to go and unlock a major trait somewhere in the world (or buy it) in that trait line in order to get to the next minor? What if, in 6 levels, I haven’t gone and done that but now have a trait point? Will I have to go into another line to spend it, or wait until I can spend it on a trait I have unlocked?

It would make sense to do the latter in terms of progression, but if the latter is the way it will go, then the next tier (despite not being “locked” by us having to buy a book) is more effectively gated to us than previously because you still have to pay for a trait (in which case you still have to visit a vendor and buy a book), or you have to go and do some content. So just curious as to how this will work.

Play what you enjoy, and play what you are best at when it comes to dungeons (if you want to run those).

I’d rather be in a dungeon with a Necro playing to the best of his/her ability and having a good time, than with someone who simply chose a Ranger because on paper they’re more useful but they don’t really know what they’re doing. And vice versa.

I main a Necro, and I have a Ranger. Personally, I feel more solid atm in dungeons with my Necro over my Ranger because of the time I have spent on my Necro. I have a great guild who don’t care what builds you are running or how long a dungeon takes, but I’ve never felt like I couldn’t contribute meaningfully to a run on my Necro. I do on my Ranger but only because I haven’t yet got to that stage where I truly understand everything that profession is capable of.

In terms of just open-world exploration, Ranger has more mobility than Necro, but I find Necro mobility just fine. Ranger is, I think easier, though both are fairly straightforward. I play a melee Ranger, which offers far more active and “present” gameplay than a Ranger using Longbow, and I also usually melee Necro too, for the same reason (though chucking marks about with my staff is also AWESOME). So you might want to factor that in as well. If you do, bear in mind that Necro has no cleave, which can be a hindrance at times, and Ranger (who has most DPS with mainhand sword) gets rooted in place when using skill 1 on sword, which can be a pain for dodging and general strafing.

I agree with wolfpaq – choose a profession, any profession that you’re interested in playing, and find a friend. That’s easier said than done, as I played solo for a long time before finding the right guild or group of people to play with, and we rarely do things together anyway because of time zones. But, persevere because the game is better with friends, and also a friend can help you by offering advice and also keeping you alive long enough so that you get to learn your skills/profession etc.

There are lots of people willing to help out – I am constantly making new alts, for instance, and running them through early game to level them is always better with someone else. There are lots of people in similar situations who I am sure would be happy to spend time levelling with you. If you’re on an EU server and can guest, I’m on Aurora Glade and if you see me on I’d be very happy to go through some easy maps with you.

Meh, they just need to make it more interesting to be in the higher level zones. I like the downscaling and the way it works just fine. But I would like an incentive to move to higher level zones, as right now I don’t really have one.

So, with every trait line having 12 major traits to unlock, and every profession having 5 trait lines, that’s 480 traits to unlock across Tyria.

What I would be interested to see is if they actually tie each trait to an individual event/challenge, or if, say, all the traits from the first line (across all professions) are available from one.

So, to make it clearer, is it finishing the Balthazaar temple event gains you a Grandmaster trait, say trait XII, in the first trait line for your profession no matter what profession (so a Ranger and an Ele could both go and do the event and come away with that trait slot unlocked – though obviously it will be a different trait for each); or is it that if the Ranger wants trait XII in the first trait line he’ll have to go and finish the temple of Lyssa event because the temple of Balthazaar only awards trait XII in the first trait line for the Ele?

Hopefully that makes sense?

EDIT: Also, with the current system, you unlock 5 points and get a minor slot and then 10 and get a major … and you have to do this before progressing to the next tier. I’d like to know in the new system whether you still have to continue in this way – so, I unlock one trait point (taking me to the minor trait), but then do I have to go and unlock a major trait somewhere in the world (or buy it) in that trait line in order to get to the next minor? What if, in 6 levels, I haven’t gone and done that but now have a trait point? Will I have to go into another line to spend it, or wait until I can spend it on a trait I have unlocked?

It would make sense to do the latter in terms of progression, but if the latter is the way it will go, then the next tier (despite not being “locked” by us having to buy a book) is more effectively gated to us than previously because you still have to pay for a trait (in which case you still have to visit a vendor and buy a book), or you have to go and do some content. So just curious as to how this will work.

Dav.9152:

wookiee.4631:

Also, given that there’s the option to purchase major traits, who would want to hunt down traits in the world? Unless the prices are high, wouldn’t most people just choose to buy their stuff?

Actually, if it’s available to earn just by playing, I usually opt to obtain something that way and save my money for things that I can’t get myself. Unless it would take an abysmally long time to get (farming t6 crafting items?). I guess I’m just a very frugal player but I prefer to save rather than spend, even if the price is not super-high. Though if an immediate need arises and I have to have a trait NOW, then I’ll lay down the money.

Depends what content the particular trait I want is locked behind. I find it annoying because I don’t always know that I DO want the trait. Now, I can experiment, but experimentation will for me under this new system be gated behind events that I may not want to do. I don’t think it’s a good idea to place traits behind content not everyone can do – dungeons or WvW aren’t a good idea to me.

But, if these traits cost a lot of money, then I would feel like I HAD to go and find a group and run X dungeon just for the chance that it’s the trait I think works best for my build. If I change my mind then, well, that’s even more irritating. So, generally, this would be forcing people to play things they don’t want to, which is a big thing this game was advertised as being against.

Palador.2170:

Paulytnz.7619:

Tbh I am wondering if this is all in aid of a possible incoming increase to lvl cap, that would certainly explain some of this..

That … would explain everything.

[Edit] In fact, it bothered me that the “every 6 levels” for a trait point didn’t work out to end on level 80. But if you carry it a bit further, you’ll see that it does end nicely on level 90.

I really, really, really hope not. 80 levels is too much anyway, imo. I’d have been fine with 40 – I’m always bored by 40.

Healix.5819:

They have to give an alternative method. They can’t force people into doing dungeon, PvP, hard solo content, etc. It would only cause even more problems. In a system where everyone is meant to be at relatively the same power, not offering an alternative would simply be unfair.

For example, imagine having the best trait locked behind Liadri without offering an alternative.

This. It will only cause people to say they are now forced to play in a way they don’t want to play.

I am wary about this, and I am waiting to see how it works, but I’ll be really annoyed if each trait cost anything near even 1g. It only costs a few gold now to unlock the whole of the grandmaster tier, so paying a lot more than that per trait? No thanks. But, making people complete dungeons etc … well, that does sort of go against the “play you want to play” philosophy they spout (and I really don’t like to use this term lightly as I think it gets abused a lot). I would think eventually, I could see a lot of people just “not being bothered” and walking away, which I don’t want to happen.