Guild Wars 2

Welcome to Anet’s gemstore. The fact that these things are tied to gems and not gold is no coincidence. I agree with you, but at the end of the day its not going to change.

Still need to get a precursor for that.

I’m one of the “never seen one in the wild” folks, so there’s that.

The price tag they try to stick on it will determine most for me whether or not I will invest in it. In short, if they try to stick the price of a full on game to this expansion then I will not take part in it as what they are delivering is not, in fact, a full on game.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Less tinfoil please. Gaile simply said that if you dont feel there’s enough information currently out for you to have a meaningfully contributing post, then feel free NOT to post. Simply put, it amounts to “stay on topic, or in the line of discussion, or dont post.”

And frankly, who cares if the thread drifts back as a result of no new information available? We wouldnt want a repeat of the first thread, would we? Complete bloat with little new info and contributions here and there.

No, actually I kind of DO want a repeat of that post at this point. Seriously getting tired of pointing out WHY there was so much bloat, but since it seems to need repeating AGAIN: The reason why there was so much vitriol and constant posting asking for information (pleading even), and so much repetition in that thread was because there was literally NO feedback from Anet for months on something that had more than enough feedback from the player base to warrant a proper response/discussion.

Instead of engaging a growing thread with new people coming in month after month with the same issues and suggestions Anet opted to first tell us that something new and simpler will be put into live in place of the current system and then some more silence then a closing of the thread and the creation of this one. Not because Anet was planning on actually finally discussing this new system they teased, but so we could FURTHER speculate on it in light of masteries and specializations. All in all we are still at square one, only this time we know that they are working on replacing the trait system. Oh wait. They actually told that to us MONTHS ago, about half way through that thread when they also said they’d be making small tweaks to the current system (which they barely did before seemingly forgetting about it). So right now we are still where we were months ago, except with a new thread that doesn’t show that many of us have been discussing this since last April, quite vehemently. But please, feel free to speculate with us. Just don’t justify staying silent. I car if this drops to page 4+ because it means its even easier for Anet to ignore.

@Aidan: If the goal was to simply simplify it in that way then they would have/should have done those changes a LOOOOOONG time ago. Fact is they didn’t. Fact is Colin said that the new simpler system was going to completely replace the current version on live. This means that they have something that will most likely mirror the new progression systems, but since they’ve not said much about how those systems will actually work nor any info about the trait system specifically we are left with talking about nothing of substance.

Galphar.3901:

Would you look at that. The New Traits thread has been buried on page 5. I guess their plan work.

At the end of the day the other post was just too visual and too big to ignore and it would adversely affect the work they are putting into promoting HoT.

That being said, the overall chilling effect starting the new thread and then promptly telling people that they could guess what might be coming but if they really didn’t feel like talking about it, then maybe they shouldn’t wasn’t lost on me either.

Still no real word on whats to come though in this respect or even if we would see it before or after HoT drops. So yeah. Keep speculating people.

Sorry, but you have to realize that until the trait issue is changed/fixed a lot of people are also staying out of obsidian because they don’t want to get ganked while trying to get a trait unlocked.

Play the way you want. I did the entire map opening and full PS completion on my charr guardian with mace/shield/torch and greatsword. I barely understood combo fields at the time and since I didn’t have my gaming mouse nor the inclination to try to play finger gymnastics on my keyboard I was a (((gasp))) clicker.

I did just fine, as will you.

You will develop the muscle memory as you go. Anyone losing their minds over your AP in either open world PvE or dungeons are not worth your time. Seriously.

(Also, zerker scepter/torch and staff is fun as all get out to play. Its also how a did some of the nastier parts of the first season of LS.)

Behellagh.1468:

Whatever “mesh” means.

Exactly my point.

I get that this new thread was supposed to somehow be a new place for communications and the like, but really as I stated earlier, there isn’t anything to discuss with no real info.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Frankly, gaile should change the thread title so people can get off of it and onto the topic at hand itself.

With all due respect Aidan, the topic at hand IS the traits system. Full stop. This thread was created after the original 10 month long 83 pages thread that was on this forum was closed/removed.

The topic has only ever been the traits system, except now we have been told something is coming and that’s it. No more info other than:

a) it was going to be simpler
b) it was replacing the current system on live
c) it is meant to mesh with the new progression systems (masteries, specializations, skills)

So from that, all we can do is speculate and do so through the lense of the mastery system since that is the only thing we’ve been given a small glimpse of, and even then the only info relevant to that is no more SP gain after 80 except from event drops, only available to spend mastery points if you buy the xpac, and a few of the mastery tracks.

Good luck!

Maybe I’ll pick up Destiny some more soon.

Well since they are completely re-doing traits “soon” this all might be moot.

SirWarriant.2319:

99% of pve content would be duel free, people would what be sitting outside of a fee cities sparring. I don’t see how that even remotely affects you doing world bosses or sitting there waiting for the LFG to pop up. There are multiple gladiator arenas in the game that just go to waste, why not open those up to duelling as sort of a mini game. Duelling kills time, it’s a fun way to mess around with your friends and fight some people without having to worry about people interrupting it and so on. Please elaborate on how a few people which would most likely be in one spot would hinder your pve or ruin the experience for you in anyway shape or form.

Its been said a million times before, but…

In an open world PvP server the option is that PvP is simply there, which means there is a greater than normal chance it won’t just be some guys trying to pass the time. It means griefing and ganking low level players “for fun”. If dueling was the option then there would be harassment in the way of request spamming or, if on a toggle, whisper taunting of individuals. About the only version of PvP in PvE i can get behind are those arena type areas like at the BC. Mark the area as a zone so when you cross into it, every player has their flag shifted to be an enemy and then let those people work out how they want to duel. People can stay atop and watch if they so choose and the world can keep turning.

Hell, I’d be willing to sign an NDA and be allowed access into an alpha testing server if that’s what it took. Seriously, I get the hassle of QA and of trying to meet deadlines set by people that don’t have the slightest clue what devs do, but you (Anet) have access to a fairly large pool of potential testers and one of the more thoughtfully engaging communities out there. We can be a resource if you actually leverage us in that way.

All I have to do is point at Obsidian Sanctum back when the game first started and how many PvE player flat out hated going in there only to be ganked by someone when they were trying to do the JP. It happens a lot less in there now, but it was a huge bone of contention a while ago for many people. Now imagine that happening in open world when someone is trying to get their bearings in say Queensdale and some level 80 comes along and wrecks some new player out of the blue or in the case od dueling systems, follows them around the map pinging them with duel requests.

Yeah. Fun times. :/

No, it doesn’t exist. for good reasons. That have been stated time and time again on many other posts. Anyone got that dead horse gif ready?

See, thats the problem for me. This is just feeling more and more like the precursor crafting nonsense and I already hate how that has turned out.

With all of the other things Anet has done (and not done) in aggregate, it leaves me feeling more apprehensive about any change the longer it goes without details and a heaping load of silence.

Its just a shame that for a game that gets so many other things right, that the few missteps they make can be so large as to almost completely negate those good things.

I have also find (with regard to the WvW stuff at least), that most enemy maps disregard players grabbing the southern most ruin and ganking guards, etc around there since the realize most people are just there doing dailies and tend to leave people alone.

Not to mention you will find a handful of others doing the same thing, which makes it go faster and lessens the possibility of getting ganked.

Sebastian.4610:

Lazaar.9123:

The precursor collections will not be easier, as they are precursors. In fact, this system is likely to be harder than grinding gold (which isn’t hard to beat).

Grinding gold is easy, they are handing out legendarys now because social casual gamers cry. They dont want to put the time in to earn what everybody else has. They want it now and without a challenge.

RNG is not, I repeat, NOT the same thing as being challenging. Since 2013 when they first said they were working on a way to craft precursors people have wanted this as a QoL update to the game. Relying on RNG or farming gold to buy a pre just to make a legendary was ridiculous. It made the entire process unfair to a large portion of the player base. Full stop.

There is still plenty of work that goes into making a legendary, and possibly even more work for more casual players if you’re being honest about it.

In short, “here are some things we can show that you’ve seen already. BE EXCITED!”

Just like that other mastery that will allow you to get precursors! Oh man! AWESOME. We know you’ve been wanting that since 2013! We even shopped it originally as a QoL type thing, but hey, now you get to pay for it…right.

poisonality.8972:

the festivals I like, but ending up with 50 different currencies that have no use outside of the festival sucks. we should have direct rewards from activities, not yet another inventory slot (or 5) being used for tickets/skulls what the hell ever else they decide to throw at us.

then comes the oh so great “where in the hell is the proper vendor” mini-game where you run between 20 NPC’s trying to figure out where this junk you collected is to be used

How else will they force/trick/convince you to buy more bank slots and bag slots? I mean really…

I dunno…this whole forum specialist thing reminds me of the frame from the Sandman comics when Lucifer hands over the key to hell and just smiles knowing the nonsense Morpheus is about to endure.

No.

There was an 83 page thread (that started last april) that pointed out how bad of an idea this kind of grind was already in the game with regard to traits. Making these account bound is the only way to ensure there are no riots.

Trust me.

My sig says it all. That being said, we had a large number of people jump recently for their own reasons. i really think as others have stated already, that megaservers dealt a huge blow to server identity and by extension server loyalty.

I don’t WvW nearly as much as i used to, in part due to real life getting in the way, but also because the exodus did kinda hurt.

I’ve been coming back into though as more of a roamer, so yeah. There’s that.

I usually like the festivals.

I’m not feeling this one. its just too phoned in for me. I dunno…

OK…

deep breath***

I want to have Wolf’s outlook right now. I really do. And believe me, my frustration isn’t with any one individual at Anet since they are, at the end of the day, just doing their jobs to the best of their ability.

My problem right now is with Anet’s overall handling of not only this issue that’s been festering since April 2014, but some other things which we’ve learned with regard to the xpac.

For this issue though…this one, I am beyond annoyed that this has gotten to this point. Am I glad they are doing a complete rework of the trait system? Sure, maybe. I can’t say if I actually like the idea since i have no idea the direction they are going in. Just that they are going in a direction. Given some other decisions Anet has made in a vacuum, this doesn’t leave me with many warm fuzzies. The track record just doesn’t support a positive conclusion. If they acknowledged it to be such a problem over the last year, why didn’t Anet do more during that time to reduce the more burdensome things of the current trait system? Reduce costs? Easier to find events? Less broken events? Anything. Instead nothing was really done except a few tweaks for a handful of traits early on and then nothing else.

So now we get word that the trait system as we know it will be replaced by a new simpler one on live. OK. What does that mean? Seriously. At this point, ten months on, can we get more than “somethin’ new is a-comin’”? If its still so far from actually being done or completed enough that you can’t give any details about it then SAY SO. In plain english. Just say, “hey this is still being worked out, and we don’t have something solid enough to talk about, but it is coming” and not “we have a new simpler system that will be replacing the current system on live”. The second comment there implies you have something ready to go into live, and if its that ready then you should be able to give us some details.

If its not that close to ready though, let us know that too. Stop dangling these things in front of us and then going silent. If its not going to be ready for prime time before the release of HoT, let us know that too, even if the reason is “we want to see how the Mastery system works in the wild before introducing the new trait system.” At least that is an honest answer that some of us might be able to get behind as it at least seems to be logistically sound. Just stop being silent.

And worse of all, please PLEASE don’t go and drop the updated system on us without so much as a word before it happens. I’m sure Anet wouldn’t do something like this as its a major core feature of the game, but once again I’m trying to cover all my bases here.

For all of my current misgivings, laurels aren’t one of them. If you log in every day and literally do nothing else but gain your free daily present, you should be drowning in laurels.

I just wonder if they are literally scrapping everything we know about traits and just completely re-doing it. I have a strong feeling that might be the case too and if so it might be great or the most horrifying thing to see this year.

My engie. i started with a guardian but my Engie has definitely seen more playtime (although she did not map open). She is just an utter beast and can usually faceroll people even when I’m goofing around on her. Dem bombs and rifle. Or her tanky condi build too. Either way she is definitely my fave.

My new necro is slowly earning some favor though.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I’d like to suggest, again in this thread after its sister thread was shunted off to the nunnery, something in particular about Traits. Especially in line with the new cousin of the family “Masteries” being added?

Add an extra “Traits Experience” experience bar bound to one Trait line, and as you kill your XP gain is mirrored 1:1 into this bar. Keep Trait points earned at the same rate as currently – no need to try to work this up again. But the Traits Experience bar fills at an accelerated rate compared to level so you are earning “Trait Bonuses” at a faster rate than you level. (How much faster, I can’t calculate reliably, but 3:1 might not be a bad idea.)

You unlock Traits and now you choose one of the five Trait Lines to work on. When you have it “focused” you get automatically the Minor (first set) Trait Mastery active for you. You accumulate experience towards choosing one Major Trait Mastery (the ones with roman numerals on them) to unlock permanently. When you have Trait Points you can spend them in any line and get the benefits of anything you have unlocked (including the Minor Traits).

So what does this mean, stepping back from the mechanics? Your Guardian wants to learn a Virtues Major Trait (“Master of Consecrations”). To earn it you click to focus yourself earning TXP on the Virtues line; when it fills you can choose it from the menu to unlock permanently. Now you can switch to the Zeal line and you can keep “Master of Consecrations” active, as well as the statistic bonuses, from spending Trait Points on it.

Of course, you don’t want to grind experience? No problem! Take the current unlock system and blend it down a bit – Group Events offer a free unlock for the line you have equipped.

Interesting, although I think it will play out more that experience you earn on TXP will just gather until you’ve unlocked respective tiers. That number will just correspond with how many points you can spend on major traits of the tiers you’ve unlocked so they can keep the limitations of a 6,6,2, etc type breakdown.

Not really sure that is the route they will take as that will eliminate the buying cost completely, and as others have stated, might lead to so hardcore rage from players that dropped some serious gold on the current system, but yeah…something like this might mesh well with the spirit of the new systems. Just not sure Anet is actually going that route. Not really sure of anything since, you know…no info.

@Ashen: Thank you. i was running out of ways to point out that this has been a cumulative message from Anet. Fact is, if traits or rather the new simplified system had nothing to do with how skills, specializations and masteries were set to work then they would not speak of them in the same category. If the link is simply “they are in the same game and have something to do with customizing your toons”, then they need to stop lumping them together and just give us info about the new traits system. Period. My stance still holds that if they have enough in the bag to start talking about it, then they have enough details to share with us, and if they don’t then they need to say as much now and not continue this carrot on a stick game that they’ve been pushing since last April.

Barring any details about this new simplified system they should at least be able to tell us (based on where they are now and where they see themselves going on this project) if their projected release of this new simple trait system is going to be before or after the release of HoT. Seriously, this is project management basics.

oneply.9586:

amazing how many people dont take the time to read the OP….smh

TexZero.7910:

It adds nothing to either PvP or PvE.

Keep it in the mist where PvP belongs.

yes it absolutely does.
its thrilling to have to do your quests and always be looking over your shoulder waiting for someone to gank you. just one example.
i realize thats not everyones cup of tea but to say it adds nothing is asinine.

Thats not exciting. That’s stressful. Do we really need to go over the vast number of people that don’t even get map completion because it involves going onto a map where they could potentially be “ganked”? They literally don’t want that so they stay out of the game mode it can happen in. Its not fun for them. It would be less fun if they were trying to do a JP and some tool comes out of stealth and kills them right before they finish it or hammers them from the top before they could open the chest. That isn’t thrilling and that would probably lead to the single largest decline in players GW2 has if they ever implemented that. Now if servers meant anything anymore and they wanted to make a server a PvP server where that could happen, then by all means, have at it. I’d love to see its actual population as compared to the others.

I loved the hate my sin got back in the day, right up until the end of Factions. I made so much gold off of people clamoring to have Sins and their tasty, tasty celestial dragon skill for that final fight.

All that being said, the fear of this fate for the Rev did cross my mind, but meh, people are gonna do whatever they are going to do.

Yup, RNG is going nowhere since the collection also only applied to those that buy the xpac.

i hate him. I hate him because he has no life in him. The voice acting is so flat and painful to listen to that I just hate the character.

I’d love to see him dead. Just…dead.

Moody: One thing for sure made it into the mastery system and that was account wide unlocks to avoid grinding.

Now will we see that for this new traits system? Don’t know. Its simpler, so does that mean the old trait system is getting a complete revamp? Don’t know. Is it going to just be 3 trait lines now linked to armor type? Don’t know. Is it going to be some branching system that synergizes in some way with masteries and Specializations? Don’t know. Will it roll out after HoT releases so they can see how many people buy the xpac before rolling out the new Trait system? Don’t know.

Will we get a hint to any answers to any of the above? Don’t know.

But we can speculate I guess.

Actually there is ONE place in Tyria at the moment that I would think open world PvP can be allowed. The Black Citadel has an area for combat. maybe they can flag that area as a place for combat and if you go down in there anything in there is “non-friendly” and you can then arrange your own fights with whomever is down in the arena and anyone above can watch.

Wolf, you are far kinder than I at this point.

I want information. Real info. Not a PR prepped blurb with nothing of substance like some kind of verbal cotton candy.

If there is something far enough along to actually tell us about it, then there should be enough to start discussing some of those details with those of us that have been wanting a fix since last April.

If there ISN’T enough done to warrant even that, then why even mention it as all you’ve done is set up another potential precursor crafting issue (and don’t even get me started on that BS).

The time for speculation and discussing what we hope to be the new system are frankly passed. Info on the new system, info on when we might see it, and more to the point are we honestly going to see it before or after HoT’s release. That last question in there, for me right now, is the most important of the bunch at this point.

Just yesterday I was in PvP to snag my dailies and had some random stealth spam thief get upset that I came back from having been spiked by him and killed him while his stealths were all on cooldown. He was a mite kitten. My point is, I can’t even begin to imagine the level of hate spam that would be generated from open world PvP let alone the harassment. The caliber of map chat on most days is fairly horrendous that i find myself switching to my combat tag just to ignore it. I don’t want to have to also turn whispers off just to avoid idiots that don’t take no for an answer. Sorry, but no, there are just too many other ways to get a pvp fix.

Behellagh.1468:

With the introduction of the new account based mastery system for end-game progression and growth in PvE, we’ll also be re-evaluating our other systems of character progression to ensure they match our over-all pillars and goals for Gw2.

In doing so: we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future. We’ll go into more details between now and the release of HOT on how skills, traits, and specializations will work in the new Gw2 world.

I don’t see your interpretation there. I see “Hey we once again rethought the whole character leveling thing while adding in the mastery and specialization systems so we are redoing traits yet again.”

Yes, they are re-doing traits, and keep speaking about this new system in how it will relate to the the new things being dropped with the xpac. Not, “Hey, here is the new trait system we have reworked, lets talk about IT”, but rather “Hey we are reworking the trait system so it works better with masteries, specializations, etc and we’ll talk about it at some point…soon…ish. But in the meantime, talk about traits amongst yourselves even though we still have yet to give you anything of substance other than its coming soon.” Whatever “it” may be.

There has been literally nothing for us to even discuss in here. Anything and everything we might say is 100% based upon whatever crazy thing we can come up with and the ONLY framework we have right now is the info on masteries which is part of the xpac. That’s literally it. April of 2014, and to date all we have to even “sink our teeth into” information wise is that the new “simpler” system will mesh better with something in a paid expansion. Somehow.

Shaaba.5672:

Did you see that last POI? Don’t get your hopes up.

Plus, the POI is about masteries. And Traits aren’t masteries, but they might be kinda like it, but they definitely aren’t linked.

And although they aren’t linked, they sort of are, if you read what Colin had to say about the new simplified traits system. Which wasn’t much, except that it was meant to synergize in some way with these new forms of progression.

I think I just pulled a muscle trying to keep on top of all the PR jargon.

In either case, we are now all gathered here to speculate (or not, since you know, our choice to also sit on our hands and just wait. Like we have been. Since April. Of last year).

Thats the kicker here. We can wait silently or we can play a guessing game about a fairly serious issue to us that we just want real substantial info about, and even though something has been made (is being made?) there’s not enough of whatever it is that they can discuss it with us as per their communications policy.

All in all all this new thread then does is make it seem like there never was an 83 page post for roughly 10 months on the forums that never left the top three forum pages about this subject. (And yes i know that those enterprising enough can go back and find it to read it, but it means new players to the forums will never see that black eye..i mean, post.)

But please, speculate away on Traits, but let’s not try to repeat those other suggestions anymore as they’ve probably been said so much that its no longer constructive to read them again.

I think we will need to capture rabbits in cages to earn traits that relate to Queendale, and perhaps need to douse fire imps around Mount Maelstrom for others. I mean really, anything is on the table since all we CAN do at this point is…speculate.

Speculation (since once again, no suggestions past this point will mean a thing since they already have something supposedly in the queue):

The trait system as we know it will be completely re-done. About the only thing that will be similar will be potentially be the bonuses you get for a given trait line.

Outside of that I speculate:

• Traits are now account unlocked
• You will gain trait points that can be spent by doing content in the world
• Possible level shift of content to more relevant content
• Able to spend trait points sooner
• Trait effects might be completely changed to mesh with filling specific roles in a more general sense of support, dps, tanky type builds and try to build in synergy with masteries (if you’ve bought the xpac to unlock those)

But really it will be all of these things and all of the other things people here have said until Anet actually tells us what it will be.

Let’s just hope they tell us sooner rather than later.

Oh boy! You mean I get to pay more of my gold to experience my horrible RNG luck?! FUN TIMES! Yeah…fun…times…

@Lyrael: Unfortunately no, we can’t discuss that since that involves them also taking part in that discussion which they won’t do. They haven’t done so in the past. The most we can do now is essentially shut our mouths until they spring the update on us with no forewarning or hope they leak a small amount of info on it and then they hope that will be enough for us to agree to continue on.

Also, I refuse to give Anet enough credit about not locking something like the trait update behind a paid feature update at this point. I will only believe it once i see it. Anything, including locking it, is on the table as far as I can tell. (Mind you, this is just me speculating based solely on Anets actions and words up until this point. I’d LOVE to be proven wrong by Anet on this front though.)

Blaeys.3102:

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Yeah, i wish i could have been excited for this, as i enjoyed dragon ball ages ago.

Now, not so much. Sorry Anet.

The few matches Ive done today have been much more fun than the last time it was around, thanks to the lack of the exploit farmers in the matches .

My bigger issue is that Anet has soured me about the game on the whole so something like this isn’t even enough to get me excited for playing the game.

Does it really matter to you? I mean with mega-servers, does your homeworld really matter that much, and if so why would you sacrifice all that you’ve earned just to do it for free?

Its meant to keep you busy looking at the hand over there while the other hand does stuff behind the scenes to bring us…something else?

Or basically to keep people busy.

Yeah, i wish i could have been excited for this, as i enjoyed dragon ball ages ago.

Now, not so much. Sorry Anet.

So, its Tuesday and I periodically hit the news section to see what information might be pertinent for a possible patch tuesday and I see:

• New stuff in the store (yay?)
• Tournament stuff (yay?)
• More stuff about HoT to get your blood pumping for the new xpac! (yay i guess)

So, as was asked by others: Any real word when we might get more info in “deep dive” format for Specializations, and more pertinent to THIS thread, the new simplified traits system that is supposed to mesh better with these new progression systems to be implemented with HoT?

I mean sure, it was neat seeing the dinosaurs. Great. I’d love to see them in game someday. I’d love to pay for HoT. Problem is Anet isn’t doing much to make me want to part with it. So, any (real) info about the things we’ve been asking about since April of last year?

Also, lets be clear here: if there was one thing that annoyed me more than anything else when running around in other MMOs that allowed dueling was the constant harrassment by people that literally followed me on maps spamming me with dueling requests. And no, blocking every single user that did it was not an option as that didn’t slow the annoying requests. All it did was interfere with my game play.