I hate gw2!!!

[The King of Dust]

The only gold sink I found to be too expensive during the BWE was the respec one. It was actually prohibitive, which really pissed me off. As far as waypoints go, I think they should make traveling to any major city completely free, and calculate cost of travel to other waypoints both by distance from your current location, and distance from the nearest major city. What I mean by that is that traveling to the waypoint closest to my current location should cost about as much as traveling to a waypoint close to a major city, even if said city is on the other side of the world.

The reason for that is to avoid the silliness of people going into pvp-lobby->LA->Major city just to save the fast travel cost. This will simply allow people to bypass having to needlessly load 2 extra areas just to travel to a major city at no costs.

[RoyHarmon]

The only gold sink I found to be too expensive during the BWE was the respec one. It was actually prohibitive, which really pissed me off. As far as waypoints go, I think they should make traveling to any major city completely free, and calculate cost of travel to other waypoints both by distance from your current location, and distance from the nearest major city. What I mean by that is that traveling to the waypoint closest to my current location should cost about as much as traveling to a waypoint close to a major city, even if said city is on the other side of the world.

The reason for that is to avoid the silliness of people going into pvp-lobby->LA->Major city just to save the fast travel cost. This will simply allow people to bypass having to needlessly load 2 extra areas just to travel to a major city at no costs.

I believe they addressed the trait fee in a blog post or an interview recently. They said it exists to add permanence and definition to your character. Since you no longer have to return to an outpost to change skills, the trait fee is one of the few things preventing an "everyone can be everything whenever they want" situation. You can still change roles, but without paying to reconfigure your traits, you'll still be slightly better at the things your character was designed for.

It's like if I (a lab tech) were to switch careers. Sure, I might be able to make a few pancakes, but my biochemistry degree (among other things) would be insufficient to boost me to "Cake Boss" skill level. I just don't have the training or experience to be that good, and though I can cook, I just wouldn't compare without a great deal of additional (probably expensive) training.

[The King of Dust]

Yes, I read that blog post and discussed it already, I don't agree with their reasons. Not at all.

[Shrandar]

I believe they addressed the trait fee in a blog post or an interview recently. They said it exists to add permanence and definition to your character. Since you no longer have to return to an outpost to change skills, the trait fee is one of the few things preventing an "everyone can be everything whenever they want" situation. You can still change roles, but without paying to reconfigure your traits, you'll still be slightly better at the things your character was designed for.

It's like if I (a lab tech) were to switch careers. Sure, I might be able to make a few pancakes, but my biochemistry degree (among other things) would be insufficient to boost me to "Cake Boss" skill level. I just don't have the training or experience to be that good, and though I can cook, I just wouldn't compare without a great deal of additional (probably expensive) training.

I'd have to agree with the King of Dust here, or at least partially. If you wanted to simulate the 'outpost' retraining you could suffice with having the trainer NPC only available in main cities (which as far as I have seen was also the case but i didnt really pay attention admittingly) which would prevent respeccing in the field. The "everyone can be anything they want" scenario is not as pronounced as it would be in GW1 if you allowed 'in the field' respeccing there. An GW1 elementalists with earth skills but all his/her points in fire would be virtualy useless. Now the attunement swapping in GW2 is a unique feature but a GW1 warrior with sword skills but all points in hammers would be equally useless. These limitations are just not there anymore in GW2, at least not in the same way. In a way GW2 is build around "everyone can be anything they want" with features like weapon swapping and freely exchangable utility skills. The attributes in which you spec, give mostly flavor to your playstile (condition damage/duration, larger attacks/crits etc), they are not bound to one particular weapon or build nessecarily. That being said it also makes respeccing less urgent, you are not going to suck when you change a weapon or skills just because you prioritised a special attribute line. Luckily so because having to respecc everytime you changed your utility skills or decided to try a new weapon would become a pita, nomatter wether you allowed it in the field or restricted it to the trainer NPC.


So there you have it, GW2 attribute lines are more far more flavor oriented in comparison to the GW1 build defining ones which makes switching on the fly (in terms of skills and weapons) a possibility without gimping you for doing so. In GW2 you can 'truly' be what you want to be within the boundaries of your class. Assuming all of the above is true it might be that investing in attribute lines right from the get go (while stil familiarsing yourself with different weapons/skills) is not a huge nessecity. Missing out on minor and major traits would probably be annoying but should in theory not be in anyway gamebreaking. But if the respeccing is far less role defining as fx GW1 (but also fx WoW) then I wonder wether the respec cost with its 'stick in a role' motivation is so apropriate. I can accept it on the moneysink front but from a gameplay perspective it seems a tad odd.. I have the same with armor repairs, moneysink argument I understand, the 'punishment for bad play to learn how to play better' I don't buy.

[Hadder]

I liked the first GW2 trait system they showed off. Where you would just slot a minor and major trait in giving you the bonuses you wanted for a particular skill set and you could change them up on the fly. It was... elegant.

Hadder
Krisanna Wilfire / Magi Stormsurge

[RoyHarmon]

Assuming all of the above is true it might be that investing in attribute lines right from the get go (while stil familiarsing yourself with different weapons/skills) is not a huge nessecity.

The same blog post mentioned that you can experiment with them freely in the Mists, trying out different builds before you invest in the one you want for your character.

But yeah, it's mostly for flavor. It is an RPG, after all, right?

[Shrandar]

I liked the first GW2 trait system they showed off. Where you would just slot a minor and major trait in giving you the bonuses you wanted for a particular skill set and you could change them up on the fly. It was... elegant.

Hadder
Krisanna Wilfire / Magi Stormsurge

Well it still works like that, within your chosen trait line(s).

[kokabel]

Am I just imagining things, or didn't GW1 have some kind of similar restriction regarding changing attributes around when it first came out? I seem to remember a friend commenting about this to me once, when I was saying how great it was to just be able to switch stuff around whenever.

If that was the case, and they then freed up the system, it seems silly that they are doing it again. I don't mind paying to unlock the different trait 'ladders', but they should stay unlocked (sort of like unlocking secondary professions in GW1). Or at least give us a way to save a couple of trait builds so we can load them up whenever.

People are bound to want different specs for say, a dungeon, and a different spec set for just running around levelling. For people who plan who do both, paying every time you switch game mode (which could be a few times a night!) is going to get expensive very fast.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

Am I just imagining things, or didn't GW1 have some kind of similar restriction regarding changing attributes around when it first came out? I seem to remember a friend commenting about this to me once, when I was saying how great it was to just be able to switch stuff around whenever.

If that was the case, and they then freed up the system, it seems silly that they are doing it again. I don't mind paying to unlock the different trait 'ladders', but they should stay unlocked (sort of like unlocking secondary professions in GW1). Or at least give us a way to save a couple of trait builds so we can load them up whenever.

People are bound to want different specs for say, a dungeon, and a different spec set for just running around levelling. For people who plan who do both, paying every time you switch game mode (which could be a few times a night!) is going to get expensive very fast.

Yes, there was... I think it was removed with the SF update. At least, I remember it for the first week I character I played, which I deleted because of those respec costs. And when I created Rhonwyn and looked at it again, it was gone...

[RoyHarmon]

People are bound to want different specs for say, a dungeon, and a different spec set for just running around levelling. For people who plan who do both, paying every time you switch game mode (which could be a few times a night!) is going to get expensive very fast.

Why would you need that? I thought dungeons were a way to run around and level. Why would you need to switch traits multiple times in a single night? They're not attributes, in that a skill set is in no way useless if you don't have traits for it. I mean, you play through ten whole levels without traits of any kind.

If I seem completely ignorant, be aware that I'm mostly just familiar with the ranger traits. They're not linked to a specific weapon-- except the one for longbows and spear guns, which would probably apply to only one of your weapon sets, anyway. There's also a trait or two that apply to specific pet types, but again, 1. You shouldn't need to completely change all of your pets repeatedly, 2. There are multiple pets of each type, so if you care that much about both the trait and the switching, you can choose similar pets, and 3. You shouldn't choose the trait if you don't feel comfortable with your pets.

I remind you that I haven't played a warrior yet, so if they have some special traits that can only be used in certain environments or something, I apologize for being ignorant.