So... it just occurred to me that with weapons being opened up to everyone people are only going to use one set of weapons. The whimsy and novelty of trying out wacky weapon combos will inevitably wind down after about a week or so and then Snowcrows will swoop in with the meta and without locked weapons everyone will be running the exact same stuff regardless of loadout. Necro power build? Greatsword. Condi? Pistol/Torch. Ele? Sword/Warhorn... The only instances where I see this being limited are instances where the e-spec traitline drastically buffs the weapon in question like Deadeye Rifle, Holo sword, or Virtuoso Dagger, and I'm almost certain the balance of these is going to be shifted to accommodate widespread use.
In opening up options people are going to ironically be shoehorned into a very small amount of boxes, where we used to have a whole bunch of viable playstyles there will only be a handful. The only thing that will matter is if you're power, condi, or support and this will effect your day to day experience in the game far more than your build will. Condi Harbinger played different than condi Scourge and even though the damage type was largely the same, you could switch up your playstyle if you got bored. This is not so if both run pistol/torch. Unless the balance team ensures that every weapon has a very similar efficacy window for every single spec (Which I highly doubt, not being rude but the balance patches have been chaotic to say the least), the meta will dictate how people play. Part of the appeal of e-specs in the first place was the promise of a new playstyle, with weapon master training we'll all end up running the same weapon skills if they happen to be the best if we're running any instanced or competitive content besides open-world or pvp meme-builds.
Sure some professions have neglected weapons, even e-spec weapons. Scepter gets little use on mesmer, and daredevil staff seemed unpopular for a while. Weaponmaster training will be that phenomenon on a massive scale, and while e-spec mechanics will still provide interesting flavor and variation, the game will be largely homogenized.
If, for some reason, traits remain as is with weapon buffs remaining with their parent e-spec, it soft locks people into using the weapon and begs the question of what the point of opening them up was in the first place other than giving a a small select group of professions (Ele, Engineer, etc...) some very very powerful tools. I had fun screwing around in the beta, but I have concerns. Maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way, or there's something crucial that I've overlooked here but this seems not good and not fun in the long run.
Two years from now, when SoTo is old news and Weaponmaster training is not a shiny new toy and everyone is running the same weapons does that not feel incredibly boring to you?
