Guild Wars 2 trait revamp means less fiddling and more adventuring

ArenaNet has announced a major change to the way traits work in Guild Wars 2. Currently, characters receive their first point to put into the trait system when they advance to 11th level and gain an additional point per level. Every five points in a line unlocks a major or minor trait that confers various effects. By the time a character reaches the level cap of 80, she should have 70 points invested in the system. The new trait system reduces the number of points to 14 total, and characters won’t start earning them until level 30. Basically, ArenaNet is doing away with the incremental points and condensing things down to the points that actually resulted in a major or minor trait.

Another change to the system is that characters won’t just get traits by leveling up. They’ll have to seek out adventures and complete tasks via a trait guide. Alternately, characters will be able to just purchase them from profession trainers in the game. Each profession will also gain a grandmaster trait that is designed to help define characters. For example, the engineer will get access to fortified turrets (pictured above) that have a protective shield.

According to game designer Roy Cronacher’s latest news post the changes are meant to make the system more approachable and to make each advancement more meaningful for the player.

This new system for acquiring traits in the game brings back an aspect of the original Guild Wars that we really liked, which was exploring the world as a major component of character progression. Acquiring traits will be a horizontal progression system which will give us new ways to add new traits to the game and promote interesting content!

The trait changes will roll out with the April Feature Pack.