Guild Wars 2: Traits & Attributes

SBFord

Arena.Net's John Peters has written an extensive look at the Attribute and Traits that will ship with Guild Wars 2. The blog post goes into great detail about the differences between the two and why the dev team feels like traits aren't just a grand theoretical idea but are a way to make a player's character their own.

As a player, the new trait system has made me think harder when building a character and has made me really excited every time I hit a level over 11.

For the first time, traits don’t feel like just a great theoretical idea. They feel like the system they were meant to be—one that makes my warrior mine. Do I put 30 points in Defense, 30 in Tactics, and 10 in Discipline, to maximize survivability and major traits? Maybe a less traditional build with 26 points in Strength, 26 in Mastery, and 18 in Discipline would work better for my play style. The choices are actually staggering at times, but don’t worry, you’ll have hundreds of hours to turn the knobs to your heart’s content.

Treat yourself to a great Tuesday read on the Guild Wars 2 site.

orbitxo

i love their flowing the artwork style from GW2 campaign on their ui interface! so fresh and new!

love it turned one of their wallpapers into an iphone4 case!

DJJazzy

so...traits are pretty much like how talent trees work from other games

orbitxo

yup simple. diablo 3 has also refreshed their system recently as well to mimic this (shocker!)...

 

IPolygon

I like it. It's an enhanced version of GW1's attribute system.

Trolander

Yum... That definitely fed my appetite for the day.. Hopefully I don't crave for more tonight...

MikeB

Very cool. I can't wait to spend points in Beast Mastery to make my pet Flamingo AMAZING.

PNM_Jennings

you need to release now, GW2!!!!!

Methos12

Originally posted by IPolygon

I like it. It's an enhanced version of GW1's attribute system.

 

Pretty much this. Glad to see they decided to expand the 4 attributes system.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Master10K

I'll reiterate what I've said elsewhere... I like the idea around the Traits and how they effect these new attributes, allowing my Dual Pistol Thief to not be exactly like that other Dual Pistol Thief. However I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat. Heck, they can even just have 3 in-game purchasable Build Slots and sell 3 more in the cash shop for all I care. That way I can switch from my: Support Thief, to my Ranged Burst Damage Thief, to my Melee Stealth Thief. If they do that then I am sure the majority of the community would be happy, because right now the community is in a bit of an uproar about it.

sonoggi

Originally posted by Master10K

I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat.

im not sure you fully understand what youre suggesting with this. this would completely take away the uniqueness of your character. the community would min-max the best builds for each prof within a few weeks, and you would be switching between a bunch of well known builds. then you might as well call it "multiple talent trees with on-demand respecs", like WoW. then you simply wouldnt feel attached  to your character.

even though Skyrim isnt a multiplayer game, you can draw many parallels between it and GW2. Skyrim's customization system is flawless, and once you invest in a certain type of character, thats what he remains.

i wouldnt say the GW2 community is in an "uproar" about this, but even if it was, this would be a perfect example of when not to listen to the whiners.

Master10K

Originally posted by sonoggi

Originally posted by Master10K

I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat.

im not sure you fully understand what youre suggesting with this. this would completely take away the uniqueness of your character. the community would min-max the best builds for each prof within a few weeks, and you would be switching between a bunch of well known builds. then you might as well call it "multiple talent trees with on-demand respecs", like WoW. then you simply wouldnt feel attached  to your character.

even though Skyrim isnt a multiplayer game, you can draw many parallels between it and GW2. Skyrim's customization system is flawless, and once you invest in a certain type of character, thats what he remains.

i wouldnt say the GW2 community is in an "uproar" about this, but even if it was, this would be a perfect example of when not to listen to the whiners.

I guess you do have a point. We'll see how this pans out, when the game goes live, or maybe in a Beta weekend. At least we have seperate Trait specs for PvE and Structure PvP.

Also if you don't believe the community is in uproar about it then you haven't seen the thread and the replies ArenaNet devs have already made. XD

terrant

What I will be curious to see is how closely "competetive" each choice is.

 

Let's face it; in Wow in its current iteration there are 10 classes, each with 3 talent trees (4 if you count ferals as both dps and tank, which most do) for 30 (or 31) possible classes...and then take into acount the massive number of talents you COULD put points into, and how many, and you have thousands of possible permutations.

 

Until the guys with excel , a damage parser, and too much time on their hands realize that one build is 5 dps above the others, and suddenly hundreds of possible choices become irrelevant. It may happen here as well. I hope it doesn't.

Games888

I like rift style u can swap build anytime u want

Pilnkplonk

Don't like the trait trees at all. I expected traits to be more like WAR tactics which you could set up anyway you want and swap your tactic sets when out of combat.

This seems like a step backwards to me. Instead of standard 3 wow talent trees we now have 5 GW2 "trait" trees. Woohoo.

Needlessly restrictive and I feel it's at odds with the rest of GW2's design philosopy.

 

nomss

I say welcome back to trinity?

someforumguy

Originally posted by Master10K

I'll reiterate what I've said elsewhere... I like the idea around the Traits and how they effect these new attributes, allowing my Dual Pistol Thief to not be exactly like that other Dual Pistol Thief. However I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat. Heck, they can even just have 3 in-game purchasable Build Slots and sell 3 more in the cash shop for all I care. That way I can switch from my: Support Thief, to my Ranged Burst Damage Thief, to my Melee Stealth Thief. If they do that then I am sure the majority of the community would be happy, because right now the community is in a bit of an uproar about it.

 

The blog already mentions that you can save templates for GW2 PVP characters.

In Guild Wars 1 they also changed this later on after release. First they made respeccing free (used to cost xp early on) and at any time when in town. Then later on they added the ability to save skill+attribute templates.

I expect that at some point they will let you do this in GW2 PVE too. They dont want you to be stuck in one build like in other games.

 

nomss

how easily can we adjust these points?

VowOfSilence

Odd. Not sure what to think of it.

You'll see players enter PvP only to test builds. Duh.

Also sounds like this will emphasize a trinity system again?

nomss

Originally posted by VowOfSilence

Odd. Not sure what to think of it.

You'll see players enter PvP only to test builds. Duh.

Also sounds like this will emphasize a trinity system again?

 

Yea that's what I think...

how easily can we adjust these points?

Banisco

Originally posted by nomss

I say welcome back to trinity?

Are they coming to diner?

I dare you to find a build wich only purpose is to heal, and i mean even the 5 weapon skills only heal oriented, and also one for tanking, if the trinity is coming back i dont want to see a healer doing a little of damage, and i want to see the tank taking all the hits of the satherer or the sunless without droping a tear.

CoolWaters

Originally posted by sonoggi

Originally posted by Master10K

I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat.

im not sure you fully understand what youre suggesting with this. this would completely take away the uniqueness of your character. the community would min-max the best builds for each prof within a few weeks, and you would be switching between a bunch of well known builds. then you might as well call it "multiple talent trees with on-demand respecs", like WoW. then you simply wouldnt feel attached  to your character.

even though Skyrim isnt a multiplayer game, you can draw many parallels between it and GW2. Skyrim's customization system is flawless, and once you invest in a certain type of character, thats what he remains.

i wouldnt say the GW2 community is in an "uproar" about this, but even if it was, this would be a perfect example of when not to listen to the whiners.

A-freakin-men.

 

Agreed on all points.

AvatarBlade

Originally posted by sonoggi

Originally posted by Master10K

I hope they go for a similar system to Rift; where I can purchase 5 increasingly expensive slots, for my various saved builds and then switch between them out of combat.

im not sure you fully understand what youre suggesting with this. this would completely take away the uniqueness of your character. the community would min-max the best builds for each prof within a few weeks, and you would be switching between a bunch of well known builds. then you might as well call it "multiple talent trees with on-demand respecs", like WoW. then you simply wouldnt feel attached  to your character.

even though Skyrim isnt a multiplayer game, you can draw many parallels between it and GW2. Skyrim's customization system is flawless, and once you invest in a certain type of character, thats what he remains.

i wouldnt say the GW2 community is in an "uproar" about this, but even if it was, this would be a perfect example of when not to listen to the whiners.

Thing is that, even without multi spec, you can still change your build whenever you want as long as you go to a trainer, so it's not a permanent choice, like in your example.

someforumguy

Interesting, this is what they wrote about traits in an older blog ( http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/traits-overview/ ) :

'We want experimentation with traits to be fun and engaging, so we've made the rules for changing traits extremely flexible. With no in-game cost, you can respec at will, outside of combat. This means you are open to experiment with what works and what doesn't work on the fly, without having to go back to town or worry about if you have enough gold. '

I see current changes as a step back. They now want to tax experimentation, it makes no sense according to their own design philosophy.

Master10K

Originally posted by Banisco

Originally posted by nomss

I say welcome back to trinity?

Are they coming to diner?

I dare you to find a build wich only purpose is to heal, and i mean even the 5 weapon skills only heal oriented, and also one for tanking, if the trinity is coming back i dont want to see a healer doing a little of damage, and i want to see the tank taking all the hits of the satherer or the sunless without droping a tear.

Yeah. Gonna love to see people try and force the Holy Trinity in this game. It will look something like this.