Guild Wars 2

Yes, the orange circles are superior.

I think this is a troll thread. Even if it’s not, what I would’ve said has been said.

How about…no. Quit with the one-hit kills. Not challenging or fun. One Liadri is bad enough, we don’t need more.

Lies and deceit.

Well, I’m back. Apparently they altered some of the requirements/added new ones. I’m looking at the ones for the thief right now. I won’t bother the trait names, just what tiers the unlocks are for. Perhaps they have differing ones for professions now so it isn’t so generic, but I don’t feel like trying to find out right now.

Anyway…New/missed adept trait unlocks.

(No changes to master/grandmaster unlocks from what I can see.)

- Defeat Captain Jayne of the Jackdaws (Gendarran Fields), a dual pistol champion in an area with plenty of pirates to back him up. No thanks.

- Defeat Sharky the Destroyer (Harathi Hinterlands), a champion shark chilling out in a lake. Meh.

- Defeat the Blood Ooze, an obscure champion in Bloodtide Coast, where all those dead dredge are at. I was never able to figure out the way to that thing before, and this doesn’t motivate me to hunt it down at all. Yawn.

- Defeat the Champion Krait Witch of Nonmoa Lake in Timberline Falls. You know, that one that nobody ever fights because it constantly summons veterans to help it and spews AoE everywhere on the small space you have to fight it on. I’ll skip that, thank you.

- Defeat Gargantula. You remember, that annoying champion spider broodmother that can heal back to full 3 times in the whole fight? Yeah….not doing that.

- Defeat Lord Ignius the Eternal, a very hidden champion in Lornar’s Pass. Nope.

- Defeat the Champion Ice Wurm in Lornar’s Pass (that cave where Scarlets Lair used to be, might still be there, but I don’t know or care.). Eh…I might..except it’s got a bunch of other ice wurms around it, including a veteran or two. :/

So… at least the Frostgorge unlock might’ve gotten kicked out (as it should have). The new unlocks…are better…I guess… still probably just gonna hunt the easier ones and buy the ones I really want. Oh well.

MatthewMedina.5419:

Upscaling now does add significant complexity to China players, as their leveling curve and the points at which they unlock features and systems is completely different from the experience in NA/EU. The Labyrinthine Cliffs was absolutely designed with both territories in mind, and with those considerations, everything from the decorations to the content was geared towards providing a fun festival for everyone to enjoy.

So, the Pavilion’s loot/rewards were nerfed into the ground, the rune/sigil recipes from Queen’s Jubilee did not return, and Labyrinthine Cliffs, while being essentially the same since before, has little new things to offer (and also doesn’t even give a chance at the home crystal node like last time) and is more grindy than before for only some of the LS rewards from earlier.

A “fun festival for everyone to enjoy”? Please. Seems like you guys went for nearly the opposite. And succeeded.

The Pavilion is a empty husk of what it was before. The Zephyr Sanctum is little more than a glorified jumping puzzle in a mini-zone, with some useful merchants around, but not much else.

And you couldn’t have just had that change for their servers while upscaling those on the US/EU servers to 80 instead? … Speaking of which, which one of you decided it’d be a great idea to NOT bring back the rune/sigil recipes from the Queen’s Jubilee?

It’s like you wanted us to have no fun/worthwhile rewards in this. After the April 15th patch being a mixed bag and now this flop of a Living Story, I think I’m taking a break from buying Gem Cards.

Not there. They couldn’t be bothered to bring them back. Hurrah for more stupid decisions.

If this “event” was for China, then why bother bringing it here? If Lion’s Arch hadn’t been slightly rebuilt, they could’ve just left this release out completely and spared us the utter disappointment.

Sigh, the “prestige” argument again. “Forget them, I got mine!”

Apparently not. The only way to get it or the other recipes now is to buy Resplendent Watchwork bags and hope it comes out of one, if it even still can (the wiki says yes, but I have my doubts) And on top of that, it’s got less than 1% chance according to drop research.

Just. Frakking. Great. /sarcasm

I didn’t really care. Only thing I wanted was the recipes for the runes/sigils from the queen’s Jubilee release, and they couldn’t be bothered to even do that. Unless the Bazaar gives me another shot at those, it’s just as much of a waste as the Pavilion is now.

Also, blade shards for masterwork items or maybe better? Yeah…no. I’ll save them for more spinal packs, at least those are a guaranteed investment.

Well, well. A new loading art for Lion’s Arch. It’s okay. Reminds me of Orr a bit though.

And it would seem that they’ve gotten Lion’s Arch back up and running…somewhat. Still, looking forward to how they rearrange the city. Anyways, off to find Captain Kiel.

No vendors for the rune/sigil recipes from the original release. I was looking forward to that, if nothing else, and they couldn’t be bothered. They kept a vendor for those silly Sovereign skins and Queen’s Guantlet tickets (neither of which I care about), but not the recipes. Pitiful. And the rewards aren’t worth the effort at all from what I’ve read.

In the meantime, please make the rune recipes from the last time available again. That’s the one thing I wanted to go back for, and you couldn’t even do that. Shameful.

The runes aren’t even back. They couldn’t even do that right. The one thing I wanted, some of those rune recipes for my alts, and they couldn’t even do that right. They kept a vendor for those silly Sovereign weapons and the Gauntlet tickets, but recipes for the runes from the last time? Couldn’t be bothered.

Apparently they’re gone. And they couldn’t be bothered to make a replacement vendor for the rune/sigil recipes. Of course, the one thing I wanted from this, and they left it out. Go figure.

A mail, and a request. Ellen wants our help again. Why she can’t do this herself is beyond me, but hey, maybe there’ll be a chance at something good along the way…

Malthurius.6870:

My biggest issue with the new trait acquisition system is that they were lazy and added the exact same requirements for every profession. I expected cool things like “Find this book in a necromancers cave to learn this neromancer trait from him”. Instead we got generic things, mundane things like map completion, not even level appropriate. 100% frostgorge for an adept trait? Are you serious?

The trait missions should have been profession specific, soloable, level appropriate, and most of all, fun. I don’t even think any of them should have been attached to events; I came across a meta event that was bugged that prevented me from unlocking a trait I needed for my build.

I thought this was a call back to the old trait system they talked about in alpha. This was a rushed job. I like this concept of unlocking them, don’t get me wrong there. I only wish that the missions were unique and made to go places players would have otherwise ignored. Jumping puzzles, certain books, NPCs, points of interest, skill points, and maybe even reasonable kill goals like “kill x number of things with x weapon” would have been great. Champion Group Events, WvW Captures, Zone Completion, and dungeon completion were bad ideas. Story path missions are ‘meh’.

(Clapping to myself..)

This post sums up all my ranting in a nutshell. Thank you. While I went into detail (a little too much so perhaps), this post nicely says it in a few paragraphs. Hunting down these traits for each and every profession had so much potential for variety, and it’s such a letdown compared to what it could’ve been.

Anymras.5729:

This thread has actually made me far less interested in leveling new/low characters, because I’m not sure if I can stand having trait slots and almost no traits to put in them for thirty levels.

It honestly doesn’t seem like they thought this through at all.
And they said it would be ‘more approachable.’

Edit: Just got my Ranger (that I’d been intending to level to 80) to 30. Took a look at the traits myself. Yeah, that’s not going to happen – what was the thought process behind these choices?

As someone who like and plays this game when I can, I’m sorry I discouraged you like that. I still like this game, even after all this crap, because there are still things it does right. But this isn’t one of them. And maybe I’m just ranting on and on, but part of me hopes someone at ArenaNet might read this and think “Hmm, how can we fix this so players will like these changes more?”

But..that’s probably just the tiny optimist in me typing. Eh…so. Any more feedback? Now that I’ve ranted my fingers off at how these trait unlocks aren’t good, what of ways to improve it? I’ve seen a few up on this thread already, but I want to get some more feedback, so that hopefully a better solution to this trait issue can be made that works for as many as possible.

And now for grandmaster trait requirements! I went over the new ones in another topic…elsewhere, but I’ll do those again too. This should hopefully be one last big post, so no spam posting this time.

As before, using Guardian traits as our examples, from top tier line to bottom.

- Amplified Wrath: Defeat the Risen High Wizard at the Gates of Arah.

A world boss right off the bat. On top of it, one that is only guaranteed to appear when attacking the Gates, sometimes during the defense event, but not always, meaning most will just let the defense event fail, while some try to finish it to get the trait if the wizard’s around. This causes friction between players, as you might guess. No good…but then again, none of this was.

- Kindled Zeal: Defeat the Risen Priest of Balthazar.

Nearly the rest of these unlocks are in Orr, now that I think of it. I guess whatever creativity they had ran out at this point and they just said “Screw it, put the rest in Orr! Maybe one in Southsun Cove too..”

- Wrathful Spirits: Discover Death’s Anthem in the Cursed Shore.

Oh wow, not a world boss. I’m surprised. It’s the wrecked ship at the very southern end, so big it shows on the map once you get to it.

Second trait line now.

- Radiant Retaliation: Defeat the Risen Priest of Grenth.

Yawn.

- Perfect Inscriptions: Find the grand chest near Scholar Fryxx.

Some obscure mini-dungeon/puzzle in the Straits of Devastation. At least it wasn’t a world boss.

- Right-Handed Strength: Complete Crucible of Eternity story mode.

Still no Ascalonian Catacombs somehow. Seriously, even though it would make no sense at this point, I’m still curious why they didn’t include that dungeon as an trait unlock…

Anyway, third trait line.

- Communal Defenses: Defeat the Karka Queen.

Couldn’t forget Southsun Cove, could they?

- Monk’s Focus: Defeat the Risen Priest of Melandru.

That’s three of the temples so far. Gee, I wonder if they’ll use all of them?

- Altruistic Healing: Find the locked door to the forgotten stream.

The one that you can only open in The Source of Orr. Well, I think it’s that one.

Fourth trait line…

- Force of Will: Find the grand chest in the Ship of Sorrows. Self explanatory.

- Battle Presence: Defeat the Risen Priestess of Dwayna. ZzZzZz…

- Pure of Voice: Complete Honor of the Waves story mode.

If I’m not mistaken…that’s every dungeon save for Ascalonian Catacombs and the Ruined City of Arah. Rather odd that the first and the last dungeons got excluded so far…but we’ll see.

Final trait line, aren’t you all glad?

- Purity of Body: Defeat the corrupted priestess of Lyssa.

And that’s all the temples! Oh what fun, reading the map chat of people blasting those who choose to defend the temples instead of letting them fall for the next round, and those who defend to troll the people who do want to redo the chain.

Granted, play how you want and all that…but now the defense events have almost no reason to exist at this point, since the only reason to do them is if the priest/ess respawns during it, and even that doesn’t guarantee the trait unlock while retaking the temple does, and nets you better rewards….sigh.

- Shielded Mind: Complete the Ruined City of Arah’s story mode.

Wow. So Ascalonian Catacombs is the odd one out after all. That’s a shame.

- Permeating Wrath: Defeat the Overgrown Grub.

That one champion in the Eternal Battlegrounds that never gets fought, as far as I recall. Seriously, leave the grub alone! It’s minding it’s own business… Oh and WvW should not be part of trait unlocks. Just keeping that clear.

…Sigh. It’s over.

Sorry for the walls of text and semi-spam posting, but…I felt the new trait unlocks are just such an awful way to introduce traits to newer players, either making them go on tedious tasks that they would do for other reasons, or not at all, or spending quite a sum of gold to buy all the traits, forcing them to pick and choose since newer players won’t be as knowledgable on how to get gold quickly or skill points as fast.

I’m glad they allowed us to reset traits whenever outside of combat now. I’m glad they simplified the points to 1 for every 5 before that. But making the trait unlocks so tedious to unlock, or such a gold/skill point sink…is just wrong, and goes completely against what this game was supposed to be about. So is bumping up the required levels for the trait tiers…they were just fine before…ugh.

Naranek.3467:

Velektrian.5491:

I don’t mind Trait Unlocks that are like “Kill XX boss” when they are hidden away, it makes finding some traits fun.

As long as you can unlock those traits BEFORE 36.

A couple examples of good places for trait unlocks.

Queensdale, Beggars Burrow Mini Dungeon (Bad Neighboorhood)
Plains Of Ashford, Human’s Lament Mini Dungeon
Metrica Province, Old Oola Lab Mini Dungeon

These are great spots for Trait unlocks.
1. They are mini dungeons thus can still be solo’d
2. They are low level meaning you can EASILY go back if you feel like getting the trait
3. They are are hidden enough that it brings back Trait Hunting.

IMO, All traits should be tied to Mini Dungeons, Jumping Puzzles, and World Bosses. As long as everything can be unlocked before 36, which is when we really start designing our future build.

Okay, so that sounds perfectly reasonable. Why is it the ideas people come up with on the fly are so much better than the ones from the professionals?

Yes, the idea for putting them in level appropriate mini dungeons and jumping puzzles would’ve been far better…but they didn’t.

Well…I’m back for grandmaster traits..but a side story first.

Just a few minutes earlier, I happened upon a group going for the Forsaken Fortune to reach Fleshgrazer, so I figured I’d tag along. Apparently using the torches you need throughout the mini-dungeon don’t count as actually hitting the boss, because I did do some damage with that (though the group that was there killed it mostly) and still didn’t get the trait anyway for beating it, despite getting the achievement for going through the puzzle. So…it seems that the trait unlocks are not only ridiculous, they can be picky about if they want to unlock, which rubs the salt in the wound even more…

Welp, time to finish the master trait requirements!

Third row now.

- Writ of the Merciful: Complete “The Source of Orr” A level 80 mission for a Lv60 trait..go figure.

- Two-Handed Mastery: Defeat the dredge commissar (the meta-event one) in Dredgehaunt Cliffs…on one hand, it’s doable before Lv60. On the other hand, the commissar is not only a champion, but is surrounded by respawning dredge, if he doesn’t just summon more himself. Another zerg style event. Sigh…

- Empowering Might: Find the grand chest in Arundon Vale. Specifically, Magellan’s Memento, an obscure mini-dungeon in Frostgorge Sound(Lv70-80). Yay… :/

- Writ of Persistence: Find the chest in Verarium Delves (another obscure mini-dungeon, in Sparkfly Fen this time). Level appropriate at least..

And finally, the bottom master tier!

- Indomitable Courage: Defeat the Branded Devourer Queen ( a champion in Iron Marches)…meh.

- Absolute Resolution: Defeat Admiral Taidha Covington. Oh yay, another boss that requires a zerg to take out! Anyone who’s tried to fight her alone knows why this is stupid.

- Supreme Justice: Defeat the Infinity Coil Commander. Well…it’s doable solo, at least.

- Elite Focus: Defeat Vexa and her golem (in a mini dungeon in Fireheart Rise)…Oh my…an actually reasonable trait requirement? Besides it being rather obscure to find, Vexa’s lab at least is somewhat challenging without being too over the top (from what I recall from the one time I ran it… :/). It’s level appropriate, and soloable too. This is almost a perfect example of what the trait unlock requirements should’ve been like, instead of what most of them are….oh well.

And that’s it for master trait unlock requirements. On to grandmaster ones later…my fingers are tired..

Second trait line down, right below the top one:

- Powerful Blades: Complete the story mission “Forging the Pact”(Lv62). Meh.

- Inscribed Removal: Defeat the fire shaman and his minions. That tedious three-phase fire shaman? Who can also wreck you in a few hits on the last phase? No thanks.

- A Fire Inside: Find the grand chest in the Windy Cave (mini-dungeon in Lornar’s Pass). Okay. Oddly enough, this one is doable well before 60.

- Radiant Fire: Befriend the hylek camp in the Eternal Battlegrounds. Like the ogre one, doable as long as someone else doesn’t come over and just wreck you. And WvW is unkind to up-levels with few traits.

Third trait line now…

- Focused Mind: Complete the “Battle of Fort Trinity” story mission. A Lv70 mission for a Lv60 trait. Should’ve known they’d still try pulling the “unlock requiring a higher level than the trait itself” trick a few more times.

- Honorable Shield: Defeat the Vidius Flame Tribune (group event boss in Fireheart Rise). Level appropriate, but better get a group first..(it might be soloable, but I’ve never tried, so…)

- Glacial Heart: Complete Sorrow’s Embrace story mode. How has Ascalonian Catacombs NOT popped up yet?

- Mace of Justice: Befriend the dredge camp in the Eternal Battlegrounds…well that’s all three camps, so they can’t pull that anymore, can they?

Okay. Master Trait unlocks! (Lv60) Top trait line, then down from there.

Using Guardian traits as examples, but remember, the unlock requirements apply to the other professions’ trait lines/tiers as well (though a few unlocks may be switched between trait lines for some…not sure why they did that).

- Eternal Spirit: Defeat the Terror-Seven Krewe Leader (a champion Inquest underwater in Mount Malestrom) This one might be okay?… It’s almost level appropriate at least, and underwater champions aren’t as painful as land ones from what I recall…

- Scepter Power: Find the splendid chest in Rebel’s Seclusion ( a mini-dungeon in Fireheart Rise) I guess this one’s okay?.. Never been there, so I can’t say.

- Focus Mastery: Complete Citadel of Flame’s story mode. Another dungeon, yay.

- Zealous Blade: Befriend the ogre camp in the Eternal Battlegrounds. This one can be doable solo, provided enemy players don’t just kill you while you’re minding your own business…which is likely to happen. Have I mentioned that WvW objectives shouldn’t be involved for unlocking traits?

Right…I’m back. Anyways, let’s finish.

- Improved Spirit-Weapon Duration: 100% map completion for Sparkfly Fen. A Lv55-65 zone for a Lv36 trait. Yay. :/

- Retaliatory Subconscious: 100% map completion for Dredgehaunt Cliffs. Should’ve known they’d fit that map in somewhere.

- Consecrated Ground: Complete the story mission “Retribution” (Lv59). Maybe if you made the Personal Story rewards better, we might actually care to play it more, ArenaNet.

- Vengeful: Kill the Foulbear chieftain and her elite guards. Another world boss. At least this one’s level appropriate…yay? :/

- Unscathed Contender: Complete Caudecus’s Manor story mode. I am so surprised Ascalonian Catacombs hasn’t made this list. Then again, Caudecus’s Manor is tied with Honor of the Waves as the most boring/annoying dungeon in the game… in my opinion.

Well, that’s (nearly?)all the examples for the adept trait unlocks. On to Master trait examples. After the Frostgorge one though, I’m not sure how they could top the ridiculousness any further…beside having them all be in Orr.

Right…bottom adept tier line, then to master traits. Surely it can’t get worse, right?

- Master of Consecrations: 100% map completion for…are you serious…Frostgorge Sound?! They expect people to complete a level 70-80 zone (a.k.a. be frakking Lv80 yourself) to acquire a level 36 trait?! Really?!

No…no. No. No, no, no, no , no!

No one can defend this crappy unlock system. There is no way. Anyone who tries, I direct you to this. It’s now clear to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that whoever decide on these unlock requirements deliberately intended people to buy most of them, or was such a total moron that they couldn’t think of a way to make hunting these down fun and interesting, and just assigned it either to things that people do anyway for things besides the traits, or things that no one would bother with except for the traits! Seriously, I’m glad they at least included the option to buy them in case you didn’t have the time or motivation to hunt the traits down, but when you make such tedious and ridiculous requirements like “Go 100% this map!” or “Go beat up this world boss/castle that people will zerg anyway!” or “Go find this monster/chest hidden away that one one bothers with otherwise!”, you have screwed up big time! Big. Frakking. Time!!! Rraaaaaghhh! Kill. Maim. Destroy!

“….Oh phooey. Brother alt raged off, nya. He’ll be back. Eventually.”

“Sigh, I guess it’s up to me then. Go calm him down.”

Carighan.6758:

I don’t really think it’s weird to have adept-traits available from higher level tasks.

Good for you. Weird isn’t the term that comes to mind for me. More like annoying, stupid, badly planned, made just to make you buy them (which as I’ve shown, is quite a sink if you plan on getting a lot of them that way).

How is that weird? I mean it does make sense in a system like in GW2, where you don’t evolve past Adept traits. Why not reserve some for higher levels so even higher characters still unlock Adept traits for more variety in their slot loadouts?

So master and grandmaster traits don’t count as “evolving” past Adept traits?

And reserving some for higher levels doesn’t work when most of these “unlock tasks” involve tedious things like completing an entire map zone at nearly twice the level that you should’ve had access to the trait, or world bosses that demand an entire zerg to handle, or obscure objectives that no one would ever bother with otherwise. Seriously, all of the traits I’ve mentioned so far are just Lv36 ones. And expecting people to grind up to Lv60 (when master traits become available) to be able to even start going for some of them is just bad design. It won’t encourage me to go hunt them down, I’d just buy a few that I know for sure are good and just ignore the rest.

Right, where was I? Oh, adept/beginner traits, fourth row down (or second to last).

- Pure of Heart: 100% map completion for Mount Malestrom, another 60-70 zone, for a Lv36 trait. (A moment for a double facepalm is in order.)

- Resolute Healer: 100% map completion for Timberline Falls, a Lv50-60 zone right above Mount Malestrom. :/

- Protective Reviver: 100% map completion for Harathi Hinterlands. At least it’s sorta level appropriate?…

- Writ of Exaltation: Find the grand cheat in Provernic Crypt. A rare level appropriate requirement…although I think you may have to fight a champion to reach it, that’s still better compared to…well, most of the previously mentioned unlocks.

- Superior Aria: Capture Tytone Perch. Another Edge of the Mists, a.k.a. WvW objective. I’ve already typed why WvW shouldn’t be part of the trait unlocks twice.

- Wrathful Spirit: Complete the story mission “A Light in the Darkness” A Lv55 mission for a Lv36 trai—-wait, didn’t I do this one before?

- Back Fighting: Complete the story mission “A Light in the Darkness”. A level 55 story mission for a Lv36 trait…..what?

…So apparently they must switch a few of the unlocks around on different professions’ trait lines, I guess. (Unlike the new grandmaster traits, where they didn’t do that.) Well….go figure. Had to make this a tad more annoying. Well, I’ll just stick to the guardian then for the examples. I might have missed one after all, but I’ll get it eventually.

that baby stealing dingo.7216:

I honestly think that the new trait unlocks are Anet’s way to manage the economy (i.e., deal with inflation). My new necro was also surprised to find that the first trait he wanted to unlock was a dungeon some 5-10 levels higher than he was. It comes down to Anet wanting to control the economy, I think.

While I like the idea of questing to unlock traits, I am definitely not happy with how it has been implemented. Those of us who are not particularly good at making money are paying for the sins of those who are, which is kind of how the real world works

And the sad thing is, it doesn’t even work that well, since the ones with most of the money are the ones who’ve been around well before this change and thus already retain the traits they had unlocked previously. Which was nice, but the trait unlocks being like this for new players is just such an awful way to introduce traits. They just turned it into a bigger currency sink than it was before.

Right…I’m back. I was weary and lazy, but not anymore!

On a side note, I manage to level a guardian high enough (since the game won’t even let you look at the trait panel till Lv30, totally a nice change from before /sarcasm), and it turns out the requirements are exactly the same lined up among the traits in their descending order. :/

So, I’ll be using the guardian traits as my examples now, but keep in mind these apply to the other professions’ respective traits as well, so we all suffer.

Still on adept traits. Master ones are coming later.

- Retributive Armor: 100% map completion for Iron Marches. Once again, completing an entire Lv50-60 zone for a Lv36 trait. :/

- Purity: 100% map completion for Field of Ruin. Meh. At least this one’s sort of level appropriate…

- Strength in Numbers: Defeat Victurus the Shattered and his army. This one would be fitting(especially for this trait in particular), were it not in Iron Marches again, the Lv50-60 zone, for a Lv36 trait. So close, yet so far.

- Strength of the Fallen: Capture Stonegaze Spire. Woo, another Edge of the Mists objective! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: WvW is not the place to put trait unlocks at all. As it is now, WvW is no place for an up-leveled 80 without access to all of their traits. And making it an objective requiring siege and fighting a champion made for a zerg to fight just cements my disappointment that they went this route.

- Defender’s Flame: Complete the story mission “The Battle of Claw Island” A Lv50 story mission for a Lv36 trait. Sigh.

- Meditation Mastery: Defeat Fleshgrazer. It’s the hidden boss inside the Forsaken Halls puzzle in Dredgehaunt Cliffs(I had to look that up, as I never bothered to go in that annoying puzzle more than once). On one hand, it’s a veteran, so beating it solo shouldn’t be too bad…but it’s in an annoying puzzle. Oh, and the map is 40 -50. Again, missing the level appropriate mark. Seriously, out of all the bosses they have throughout Tyria, they couldn’t find some level appropriate ones for most of these traits?

Atherakhia.4086:

What’s silly is if you go with the purchase all skills and utilities approach, it costs something like 600 skill points to unlock everything. If you level to 80 and do map completion you barely have half the amount of skill points you need…

43 gold and 360 skill points to unlock every trait for every trait line. Add 226 skill points for all heal/utility skills, and that’s 586. Ouch. And that’s for just one character. It’s like whoever came up with these wanted us to run champion farming trains…ugh.

Muchacho.2390:

Yes, you needed a party for skill hunting in gw1. You always needed a party but you could use npcs or heros instead of actual players.

I like the system in gw1 more because you had to steal them from enemies and not by completing some random tasks and the ui didnt tell you where to find those mobs so unless you used the internet you had to find them for yourself.

Where the NPCs/heroes useful in that game? (Most of what I’ve read suggests they were better than the ones here, but I can’t say for certain.) Could you make them do certain skills when you need them to, or did they just act on their own?

And I must say, hunting down these traits from certain bosses like the Unseen Hunter or other tough (but soloable) enemies would make more sense and even be fun. Even binding the unlock requirements to some skill challenges would’ve been better than what it is right now.

And it continues.

- Practiced Tolerance: 100% map completion for Fireheart Rise, a Lv60-70 area, for another trait that should be obtainable at Lv36. Seriously?

-Pistol Mastery: 100% map completion for Bloodtide Coast. A lv45-55 zone for, again, a Lv36 trait. Not as stupid as the previous one, but still up there.

- Concealed Defeat: 100% map completion for Lornar’s Pass. I’m starting to see a pattern here…

- Side Strikes: Defeat Modniir Ulgoth and his minions. That’s the world boss of Harathi Hinterlands, by the way. Again, for a Lv36 trait you must fight a boss meant for a zerg. After the patch also made world bosses appear less often. Sigh…

- Signets of Power: Complete Twilight Arbor story mode. Once again, another requirement making you party up to accomplish it. Seriously, was GW1 skill hunting like this too? Cause if it was, it was better off gone.

-Furious Retaliation: Find the splendid chest in Earth’s Gap. Eh…ok. It’s doable before the level need for the trait, so that’s fine. Doesn’t seem bad…

And now the mundane realm calls…I’ll be back for more, eventually.

When I look at the new trait unlock requirements for all the adept and master traits, I feel like whoever decided on these either thought no one would bother with it and just buy them, or wanted people to just buy most of them.

Disclaimer: I’m using the thief traits as an example, but seeing as they kept the requirements all the same for the new grandmaster traits across the same trait lines across all professions, I’m certain it’s the same requirements across for the lesser traits as well if you line them up. I’ll find out later as I’m leveling up a few new characters.

- Sundering Strikes: Defeat Kol Skullsmasher, a champion giant from a level 42 event in Harathi Hinterlands. This would be an okay requirement…if said target wasn’t a champion hidden away in an area 6 to 9 levels higher than when you can get the trait.

- Potent Poison: 100% map completion in Blazeridge Steppes, a Lv40-50 area. Not so much an accomplishment, more like a chore. And once again, higher than the level you should have access to it.

- Venomous Strength: Defeat Rhendak the Crazed, a boss hidden away in the Flame Temple in Diessa Plateau. This one is actually doable well before the level the trait could be used. Unfortunately, said boss is at the end of an annoying puzzle (and is apparently scaled at Lv28 while you’re stuck at Lv26, meaning he can kill you easily)…meh.

- Mug: 100% map completion in Gendarran Fields. This one’s okay, I guess.

- Corrosive Traps: Capture Inferno’s Needle…..in Edge of the Mists. No. No, no, no. WvW objectives should NOT be part of the requirements. At least all the previously mentioned ones could be doable with effort and skill by yourself, now the answer is to party up with a zerg and hope they go there. Bad choice.

- Back Fighting: Complete the story mission “A Light in the Darkness”. A level 55 story mission for a Lv36 trait…..what?

To be continued…

Answer: No. The boost is minimal and barely noticeable from what I’ve read. Unless you’re going to run high-level Fractals or run a lot of WvW, there’s no need to go for ascended.

Nearly all of the nicer looking exotics from the forge are pseudo legendaries with the ridiculous amounts of material need to make them. And, it’s not like you can go farm up the materials thanks to ridiculous luck needed, or just buying everything to make it off the Trading Post (and with the cost of it all, one might as well just try buying the weapon itself). It’s just discouraging.

I want to craft this because it’ll match nicely with my mesmer. But then I see the recipe….

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Immobulus

I am at a loss as to how to get Giant Eyes quickly without farming gold to buy them, or spending the next year or so farming Orr. Piles of Crystalline Dust would also be nigh-impossible without salvaging from Globs of Ectoplasm as well..

Seriously, 250 Giant Eyes for that scepter….not only does that not make any sense for the weapon itself (it’s not Lidless Eye or some other undead-ish weapon that you’d expect Giant Eyes to be used for), it’s only from Heavy Moldy Bags (at less than 1% chance of being in a bag, if the drop research is accurate).

Right..pardon my complaining. I just get annoyed how they say there’s no grind (and to their credit, none of the grind is a required thing), but then make exotic Forge recipes like this requiring materials that you have no good way to obtain outside of using the Trade Post, since you can’t really farm thanks to diminished returns and RNG.

A Massive Headache.1879:

Liadri was one of the best things the game has ever introduced.

No, wrong. The account wallet, wardrobe system, unlimited gathering tools, and account-wide magic find are just a few things introduced that are far better than that boss.

Sure it wasn’t put out that well, over a pit of zerg so it did lag to heck, and the arena wasn’t quite tall enough so the camera fought against you as well; however, the gauntlet was amazing and heeps of fun, it wasn’t all just a dps race.

At least you acknowledged the camera and lag issues. However, it was mostly a DPS race due to one hit kill attacks rendering toughness and vitality a moot point, as well as there being a timer stressing one to kill the boss quickly.

It was great solo content that I wish there was more of. It introduced many of the games existing combat mechanics in a decent learnable way. Don’t get me wrong, doing the 8 orbs on liadri was a huge pain and pretty much a dps race, the satisfaction and cheer were great, and the money from all of them, even after the change, wasn’t bad

No. No, no , no. The queen’s gauntlet can stay as is, but no more cheap gimmicky one-hit kill bosses. There are too many as it is.

Would be nice to see more of them, they were certainly more interesting than a certain Invasive Weed the Living Story spent the most of a year on…

So cheap bugs equal more challenge for you eh?…yeah, you’re either a troll or just moronic.

Good question…stupid queen.

Bosses with cheap one hit kills are neither fun or needed for this game. Liadri is no exception. The first post speaks the truth.

No. No more. Bosses with cheap one-hit kills are not fun or needed in this game.

Perhaps..we’ll have to wait and see on that. Hopefully so however.

So far there doesn’t seem to be one. Either they forgot or hoped that we would. Miyani herself sells the Gift of Blades for each crafting profession that can craft it, but that’s the closest thing I can think of.

They still drop….very rarely. They seem “higher than exotic, but not quite precursor” rare.

Yeah…world boss events are where megaservers don’t perform well. Especially if the world boss/temple events get bugged. An option to choose a specific flow/overflow/district in a zone would be nice.

Aren’t all world bosses basically loot pinatas when you think about it? And no, let’s not make an already annoying boss more annoying.

I smell a troll, but just in case this is real…

No. Underwater combat/travel, despite its flaws, is still better left in the game than removed. And really, the only reason they managed to get rid of it in Spvp is because only one map utilized it there.

PvE/WvW is a whole different scenario. Underwater elements are present in most, if not quite all of those zones, and altering/removing that would not only be time consuming, but a waste of time better spent trying to improve it or something else.

I feel like threads like this have popped up before. Just leave it be. If people want to run the train, let them. At the same time, if other people want to fight the champions out of order, they can do that too (even if it is annoying sometimes). They may or may not be trolling (no way to know for certain unless they say it), but that’s not really worth getting all toxic over (they can’t stick around forever, can they?).

Then again…I almost never go to Queensdale outside of map completion, so maybe I’m too disconnected from this to understand it. Meh.