June 27 Balance Update Preview

[Chazara.9075]

9 minutes ago, Strauss.1384 said:

There were over 200 confused reactions to the original post with the patch notes and now it's down to 54. Can someone explain?

Anet does have full control of the forums and can adjust reactions like on any other social media site cough cough Youtube actively removing dislikes before outright removing the counter altogether cough cough And it is not limited to outright deleting or hiding posts or even removing reactions.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Chazara.9075

[Batalix.2873]

1 minute ago, Chazara.9075 said:

Anet does have full control of the forums and can adjust reactions like on any other social media site cough cough Youtube actively removing dislikes before outright removing the counter altogether cough cough

Secret patch nerf, condis overall have less duration. But only against ANet employees.

[Batalix.2873]

I am reiterating in the hope that the devs see this, but while a lot of the specific tweaks to HoT/PoF especs need work which I have listed here:

I overall think the direction is justified. Outside of killing Necro/Scourge identity and threatening Thief and Mirage's core gimmicks and gameplay loops. For the most part the *idea* behind implementing alac/quickness across profession is good, even though nearly all of them need another pass or two.

The Kitten Point

My bigger problem, the thing that just gets me and makes me so irate, is the pulling back of EoD espec identities and continuing to demonstrate, over a year after release, that they were unfinished from the beginning and you still are unwilling to put in the work to revise and rerelease them:

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/131631-june-27-balance-update-preview/?do=findComment&comment=1910316

Untamed, Mechanist, Specter, and Vindi all so very, very clearly demonstrate this patch, walking back the closest things to core conceits they had, that they barely had identities and concepts to begin with. And the impotent Virtuoso, Willbender, and Catalyst changes only add support to that. Please, please read my comments and fix these specs that I still can't even bring myself to play. Stop doubling down on rushed garbage. Stop putting lipstick on the pig, and then taking it off, and then trying another shade. Just take the proper time to redo them.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[Strauss.1384]

Well Anet, with this patch you are butchering not just Scourge but the entire Necromancer profession as a whole - necro relies heavily on boon corrupt for both defensive and offensive tactics (and pays a heavy price for it too), you would time axe 3 to turn stab into fear or enter shroud (with either SS or Weakening Shroud) with the intention to corrupt - it is the identity of the class and a vital mechanic. You are handicapping all necromancers taking this away. 
Nothing good comes out of these patch notes, no real issues are being addressed and random nerfs nobody even complained about are thrown in (nerf arc divider but leave gunflame untouched, really?) .We struggle with a cele/boon meta issue in WvW and your response is taking boon corruption away, it is totally unbelievable.

[SummonMinion.7306]

52 minutes ago, Strauss.1384 said:

There were over 200 confused reactions to the original post with the patch notes and now it's down to 54. Can someone explain?

Yep, someone called out that this round of devs somehow created a patch that garnered more negativity than last year's disastrous patch (which also happened on June). Snowflakes couldn't handle being blatantly called out with proof attached to it so they probably removed/switched reactions to make it seem like this round of mentally handicapped intern level devs didn't make a bigger kitten up. We all thought after last year's round of patches that they couldn't sink even lower and could only improve. Guess they wanted to double down and prove us wrong. 

[Aervius.2016]

On 6/8/2023 at 2:12 PM, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Thief

In addition to moving alacrity off of wells, we wanted to improve specter's ability to play a support role in larger group situations. Ally-targeted scepter skills will now grant their effects in an area around the target, and Shadestep has been reworked to allow Shadow Shroud skills to affect multiple allies around the tethered target. We're also introducing a quickness build for deadeye. Fire for Effect will cause every stolen skill to become Steal Time, which now grants quickness in an area. We've also bumped up daredevil's staff damage while reducing the damage of the more powerful stolen skills to make the build more consistent.

 

Core

• Improvisation: This trait now reduces the cooldowns of all utility skills by a certain percentage when you steal, instead of recharging a random skill.
  • What's the percentage? A lot of thief players have been asking for this change for years, and the ambiguity around the percentage is what concerns me. 
• Endless Stamina: This trait has been reworked and renamed Fluid Strikes. It now grants the thief a damage bonus for a period of time after using a movement skill or completing a shadowstep.
  • Awesome, glad to see Acro getting some love! 
• Pain Response: This trait has been reworked. It now removes a damaging condition from the thief when completing a dodge roll.
  • Awesome, glad to see Acro getting some love! 
• Guarded Initiation: This trait has been reworked. It now grants the thief resistance when using a movement skill, with a 5-second internal cooldown.
  • Awesome, glad to see Acro getting some love! 
• Swindler's Equilibrium: This trait now recharges Steal by 1 second per trigger, with a 1-second cooldown.
  • Assuming this keeps the power bonus with Sword use, awesome.
• Assassin's Reward: Increased base healing per initiative spent from 102 to 151.
  • Eh, years of successive "balance" patches have spiked the initiative requirements for each weapon skill, and frankly I'd expect to see more without a reworking of Initiative costs class-wide. 
• Upper Hand: Reduced internal cooldown from 5 seconds to 4 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • A negligible difference, really. It's a bad GM trait and it should be completely reworked.
    • If it were me, I'd move Instant Reflexes to GM and make it proc on any heal, utility and elite skill use and move Upper Hand (without the Regen) to the Adept tier to replace IR.

Daredevil

• Bound: Increased power coefficient from 1.75 to 3.5 in PvE only. 
  • Meh, good, but pve only kind of sucks.
• Staff Strike: Increased power coefficient from 0.75 to 1.0 in PvE only.
  • Meh, good, but pve only kind of sucks.
• Staff Bash: Increased power coefficient from 0.8 to 1.2 in PvE only.
  • Meh, good, but pve only kind of sucks. Also, why didn't Punishing Strikes get a boost? I guess we just go back to the days of interrupting the AA chain because the last one is a channeled waste of time/dps.
• Brawler's Tenacity: This skill no longer reduces the cooldown of physical skills.
  • So all this trait does is grant endurance now? Great, so it's a shadow-realm "never pick" trait. Awesome, good design guys. Maybe it could improve Crit change with Physical skills as well? like 10-15% and enable or improve damage dealt for a few seconds after use? 
• Channeled Vigor: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • Honestly not good enough, 20 seconds should be the cooldown for all modes. It's a channeled heal that causes a 100% damage and defense pause for it's duration.
• Bandit's Defense: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds in PvE and from 30 seconds to 24 seconds in PvP and WvW.
  • IMO it should be 15 seconds in PvE and 20 in PvP/WvW. If you want to disincentivize Stealth use, then you MUST provide a means of Thieves to avoid damage through evade frames or give us our v1.0 release damage back.
• Fist Flurry: Reduced cooldown from 20 seconds to 16 seconds.
  • Without a boost to it's damage co-efficient (and Palm Strike), I still don't see this being taken over defensive/evasive utilities skills for PvP/WvW
• Impairing Daggers: Reduced cooldown from 18 seconds to 15 seconds.
  • Awesome!
• Impact Strike: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
  • Considering this is a 3 part skill which downs in the final hit, this is still too niche. Add some Defiance Break to the final hit and we're in business.
• Detonate Plasma: This skill now deals damage to nearby enemies and no longer grants quickness.
• Throw Magnetic Bomb: Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 0.7.
• Throw Unstable Reagent: Increased power coefficient from 1.5 to 2.0.
• Throw Cursed Artifact: Reduced power coefficient from 0.5 to 0.4. Reduced bleeding, torment, and confusion stacks from 5 to 3.
• Time in a Bottle: Reduced duration from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

Deadeye

• Stolen Skills: Stolen skills now grant their beneficial effects in a radius around the caster. Reduced casting time by approximately 25%.
  • So what's the point of Thrill Of The Crime then?
• Steal Time: Increased quickness duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Steal Resistance: Increased resistance duration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds in PvE only.
• Malicious Intent: Increased malice gain from 1 to 2 in PvE only.
• Fire for Effect: This trait no longer requires a target to grant boons to allies. Additionally, equipping this trait guarantees that the stolen skill will be Steal Time, regardless of the target's profession.
• Shadow Flare: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. This skill now only damages once when used instead of pulsing.
• Shadow Swap: This skill now causes an additional strike to occur at your original location when used.
• One in the Chamber: This trait now also increases the damage of stolen skills, in addition to its previous effects.
• Binding Shadow: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE and from 30 seconds to 25 seconds in PvP and WvW. This skill now immobilizes marked targets instead of knocking them down.

Specter

• Ally-targeted scepter skills now also grant a lesser effect to additional allies in a radius around the target.
  • For all the Specter changes: What makes anyone on the Dev team think that this will solve the core issues with Single-Target healing in this game? There's still NO baked in UI support for it and frankly the game wasn't really designed at a core, engine level for that behavior. 
• Second Opinion: This trait now grants condition damage instead of healing power when equipped and while wielding a scepter.
• Shallow Grave: This trait has been reworked. It now causes Siphon to transfer conditions to a targeted enemy or remove conditions from the specter and their targeted ally. 
  • Explain why this targeting difference need to be split? Why doesn't this trait simply allow Siphon to transfer conditions from the Specter and it's Tethered target to the target of Siphon? Why are you still trying to shoe-horn single target support into a game built around AoE spam?
• Traversing Dusk: This trait no longer grants alacrity to allies when using a well skill.
  • Trash. Absolutely and complete trash. 
• Shadestep: This trait has been reworked. It now spreads the beneficial effects of your shadow shroud skills to allies around your tethered target, and it additionally grants boons to yourself and those allies when you use a shadow shroud skill.
  • Which boons? 

 

 

[JTGuevara.9018]

Heh...

A certain update of the previous year started off the same way, at around the same time (June).

A balance preview followed by public disapproval, that culminated in an internal "incident"! We are now currently in the public disapproval phase, so this just result in...

[Lazarus.4105]

On 6/9/2023 at 2:48 PM, GuriGashi.5617 said:

Renewed Focus being on 110s cooldown even if you spec into Valor hurts all Guardian Valor builds in PvP and Valor builds already aren‘t doing pretty well. I agree that the usual 84s cooldown for RF with Monk’s Focus would be far too short, but I would suggest that going for the middle ground is correct move to make. 95s cooldown for Renewed Focus sounds like a good compromise or make it so Monk’s Focus only reduces the cooldown of Renewed Focus instead of all Meditations.

The Firebrand Mantra change will also effectively do nothing for Firebrand in PvP, because Firebrand already has a reliable double cleanse with Regeneration if traited on 6s cooldown in Tome of Resolve (F2) and because Signet of Mercy, “Stand Your Ground!” and Advance!” are mandatory in the kit of a Support Firebrand in PvP. While the one Mantra was buffed all the other ones got nerfed by not getting the charge cooldown reduction anymore. Increasing page regeneration or the base heal of the smaller charges for Mantra of Solace in PvP would have been more impactful changes. 

Lastly - some changes to Willbender Physical Skills or Traits would have also been appreciated.

Not to mention now the elite signet has a huge cool down without any way to reduce it. Oh and also. Smite condition trait still doesn't work with willbender heal... Years later. 

[Rdot.6901]

Can we please reduce the amount of stealth in WvW? Going against thieves get's boring as hell when they just disappear and come back continuously. It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't lose participation after endlessly trying to kill each other. Alternatively, let's give more skills the ability to reveal stealth as much as a thief can go into stealth. 

[TheDetective.8172]

A simple buff to heal Chrono (Chrono experts feel free to comment on this) would be to make All’s Well That Ends Well 1) Heal with each pulse, with the final pulse being a bigger heal and 2) Make wells also apply regeneration.
 

Heal alac and heal quickness Chrono could more easily become a thing with this change, or at least would be a step in the right direction for now. 
 

I’m not sure on their protection uptime so anyone else can feel free to comment on that too. 

[TheDetective.8172]

8 hours ago, Aervius.2016 said:

Shadestep: This trait has been reworked. It now spreads the beneficial effects of your shadow shroud skills to allies around your tethered target, and it additionally grants boons to yourself and those allies when you use a shadow shroud skill.

• Which boons?

You now grant alacrity on shroud instead of on well. Confirmed in the Twitch stream. 

[Sirvaleen.1379]

9 hours ago, Chazara.9075 said:

 

• Elixir CDR and Unblockable

Why are they Unblockable now?

 

That's a funny one I learned recently. Even though not dealing damage, all the Toss Elixir toolbelt skills are considered like projectiles. Projectiles that can be destroyed or blocked by enemies 🤣

"Like with all elixirs, if affected by block, reflect or intercepted by invulnerable target while in air, elixir will be destroyed and won't have any effect."

[Myror.7521]

@Era.2635 thats what it is not. It get more range than Arcing slice but also it hits enemys hard even above 50% health. 

The difference between the oldest yet new Version and the Version we have now is simply its Casting time plus 3 Spins. For PvE I gues its also the dps it is able to do. But on a higher window even this is nullified (nowdays Arc Divider get more DPS in like over 5 Seconds window but will be on a lower dps on a longer window sitting on the Greatsword)

[RiriMu.7198]

5 days already passed and Anet didn't edit the main post to put some changes that are listed on the stream but not here. Added to the recent rumors about Cmc, then don't be surprised if people thinks about a CONSPIRACY to ruin the necro class just because someone wants it.
I don't believe in rumors, only facts, and the fact is Anet is hidding important info on purpose. 5 days already passed and none can edit a post?? SUSPICIOUS. The patch is a full disaster but the way you're playing with our trust is worse. I'll leave this game if Anet follows this way.

[Luthan.5236]

I thought it was supposed to be something bigger/major - regarding changes. Only checked engineer though. Except for the trait change for the mech there are only adjustments to the cooldowns ... which could be interesting if playing with elixirs + the trait for reducing the CD still worked + CD adjustment in all game modes.

The changes seem for all game modes. But the HGH gets nerfed. Making it more interesting to take elixirs without having to use the trait ... on the other hand making the trait line less interesting I guess? We'll see. I will take a loot at it once the patch happens. Liked to use elixirs in PvP and I think I already stopped using the trait for other trait lines - taking the longer CD instead of using alchemy only for HGH. This kinda is similar to the thing where they changed ... shields (I think it was) - reducing the base cooldown but taking the CD reduction away from the trait.

I wonder if this is the right way. Splitting the CD reduction stuff into something different (aside from the traits) where players could chose one ... might be fun. (Vs. reducing the base CD on eveyrthing that still has CD reduction traits.) Would need another mechanics though.

Edit: Seems kinda like annoying nerfs for the PvP/WvW with the other CD reduction traits nerfed as well + some base CD reduction only incorporated for PvE.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Luthan.5236

[nopoet.2960]

One simple request for Specter.  Since Alc was moved from wells and revive was removed from Shadestep.  Can you put revive on wells?  Something like 15% on impact?

[GeraldBC.4927]

11 hours ago, Chazara.9075 said:

I have one big question because most other players have torn this apart pretty well. Anet what the actual kitten is your plan with this spec?

If you head over to snowcrows, browse the thief section and look for an alac heal specter build, you will notice that there is none because it is (to their implicit claim, I don't know for myself) not viable to play. They are trying to change that. 

35 minutes ago, RiriMu.7198 said:

don't be surprised if people thinks about a CONSPIRACY to ruin the necro class just because someone wants it.

Let's not go that far. All it is, is one or two people acting on their preferences in an unhealthy way. I can already picture one of the balance devs reading all these posts and at this one thinking "Well what else are we supposed to do then?"

And to that, I actually do have an answer. It is okay to have biases, it is okay to have preferences. But instead of pretending they're not there publicly and neglecting weaker specs on purpose to avoid engaging with them, you should embrace those biases and preferences and act on them. The current approach seems to be

"I don't like this spec, so we're just going to nerf it into irrelevance so I don't have to see people play it."

Instead, turn this into

"I don't like this spec, so we're going to rework it completely and turn it into something I do like."

Some people may not like it, but it actually improves the game this way.

 

But before anything else, I think the easiest remedy to this problem is for the devs responsible for the changes in question to actually play the specs they are nerfing. For scourge specifically, I'd recommend trying the 'it's totally viable bro' challenge on the scourge.

-You have to play exclusively scourge for one month

-You can choose and alternate between scourge builds, but you can't switch elite specs or characters.

-You have to play the post-patch nerfed version on the live servers.

-You have to complete fractal CMs every day and every raid wing once a week. If you fail to complete one of them, you need to try again until you succeed.

-You can't bring any friends or fellow developers, you need to operate entirely on pugs

-You have to complete a total of 10 additional meta events in the overworld. You can't complete the same one more than once. 

If you find this unbearable to complete, simply buff the spec until it is no longer unbearable. And then buff it some more for good measure. 

 

I know you'll have the constant urge to swap to mechanist, but you want the cold truth? That's because mechanist is easy. It's unilaterally stronger than most if not all heal specs. There is a reason why I main engineer over necro and it's not because of how much I love engineer. It's because the engineer can actually perform every role and do it almost as well as the best alternative if not better by a large margin.

You complain about the scourge's barriers being op, remember? But how strong are those barriers really? If you dump all your barrier skills at once, you barely hit a little more than barrier cap. A HAM can do this just by autohitting the boss, that's not even mentioning command skills or barrier signet.

And on top of barrier spam so strong, the "OP" scourge barriers only match a fraction of it, the mech also can spam ridiculous amounts of alacrity to go with it.

And on top of that, you've got these monster burst heals between med kit 5, med kit 4, mortar kit 5, elixir gun 5 and you can do them at range and split them as well. It's not remotely comparable to well of blood, which you need to help keep the camp alive and which will hurt if used on a faraway player instead like on Q2.

 

So knowing all of the above, who are you kidding with claims of wanting to make scourge support 'viable'? Who the hell is going to handicap themselves with a scourge alac heal - even weaker than the scourge is as it is - instead of just waiting a few minutes for a HAM to come along? Or a HAT or HAS if necessary. 

I'd rather see you destroy the scourge we know and replace it with something good than to see you toss it in a corner and just leave it to rot there.

[Austin.2048]

more boring boonballing happening

[Jaden.1420]

On 6/13/2023 at 1:37 AM, Exciton.8942 said:

Feedback from mesmer changes. (...)

Great assessment, I agree with every point. The Psychic Riposte/dagger rework is one of the few point in the patch where I thought: This could actually be viable now, I want to try this.

On a side note: While scrolling through the comments, I'm really astonished how many people complain about the Mirage dodge change, and how many confused votes the posts get who defend the change. The reduced condition durations, sure, but do people really think being able to dodge while being stunned is ok?

Finally I want to propose an idea for a confusion change. Instead of increasing the dot aspect and blurring the line to the other condis, you could dramatically increase the damage on action, remove the dot aspect, but like blindness all stacks are consumed on action (in Guild Wars 1 terms Mistrust instead of Backfire). This way (a) you would loose the dependency on boss attack rate you're obviously so concerned about, (b) confusion based condi build would be much more viable in open world and (c) at least in theory would allow interesting hybrid builds without condi duration (e.g. a grieving condi chrono with a suitable reworked scepter).

[Kiro Kobra.6478]

@Cal Cohen.2358 Please hear me out on the block removal coming to Bladeturn Requiem. I have some feedback that isn't "just complaining" and I really hope you see this. This change is going to seriously diminish PvE solo/Open World capabilities. Virtuoso is already a poor choice when compared to Mirage - the differences in Open World survivability aren't minor - Virt is STAGGERINGLY behind Mirage.

 

I'm not here just to complain, but rather, offer a suggestion that solves the OP nature of blocking from this skill in PvP AND makes Virt's survivability less "swingy."

There is no denying that Virt in its current state is nearly immortal when our skills are available. But the very moment things are on cooldown, it's almost like we insta-die.

 

Solution:

1. Bladeturn Requiem. should generate barrier instead of, well, nothing at all. The animation already suggests a barrier of some sort - it would be fitting.

2. Jagged Mind. should no longer heal, but rather, generate barrier.

 

"Why barrier?"

1. In comparison to blocking, barrier is inferior in every way. It's purely a damage soak, but doesn't prevent CC, movement impairment, and other non-damaging effects. Block DOES prevent those things. This would satisfy the concerns you have in PvP.

2. Virt severely lacks any meaningful survivability when it comes to small attacks, especially from multiple enemies. Block only works on a SINGLE attack, which is basically useless against multiple small mobs. Barrier would satisfy this flaw perfectly without making us OP against strong/coordinated attacks and special effects, both in PvE and PvP. An example and comparison: It is completely insane that I can face-tank raptors on my Warrior, but have a completely awful experience on Mesmer against them.

3. This change would allow us to be preventative at the start of a fight, if we so choose. Meaning, initial attacks at range would generate some barrier with full HP, giving us just a little more soaking potential. I want to emphasize again that we'd still be susceptible to special effects and CC. I genuinely do not think this would be OP in any way.

 

I think giving us some barrier generation options would not only fit the Virtuoso thematically, but would put this spec on-par with Mirage. I really want to emphasize that the survivability AND damage output of Mirage is MILES ahead of Virtuoso, even if these barrier suggestions were real, I'd argue Mirage would likely STILL be better, but, at least Virt wouldn't be totally out-classed.

 

I don't mean to be rude, but, my goodness, it's disappointing and frustrating (as someone who enjoys Virt) that we're getting the glass cannon treatment when Mirage exists in the same breath. It implies to me there there is no fundamental understanding for the Virt spec and therefore the team is not properly equipped/educated to balance it. This is not me seeking to be rude, I am just expressing how this change preview makes me feel towards the balance team. 

 

Anyways, in summary: I think barrier generation would be the perfect middle-ground between block and, uh, literally nothing.

[Khorg.2195]

I just don't understand this. We are moving further, and further away from class identity. I truly just don't get it. As a druid, I never even asked for alacrity in the first place. What happened to DPS support/boon roles? Also... on a side rant.. I mainly play WvW and some Spvp. Why... just why... when we have things like perma superspeed on classes like Eng, etc. and a ton of cleanses, on dodge remove immob.. are we removing Ancient seeds. And this to service a "condi focused" druid build. I watched the video.. 1 sec of condition timer on avatar builds is Garbo... I'm sorry but it is. Please stop changing such drastic things. Hell the FB getting ammo on tomes is awful.. just increase the tome skill CDs.. was simple.. yet a drastic overhaul. FB feels clunky af now, and only heal builds are viable because ammo recharge is SLOW...

Edited June 14, 2023 by Khorg.2195

[prototypedragon.1406]

Warrior support build when?

[Za Shaloc.3908]

While you are looking at Specter, please consider giving core trait interactions with Siphon when used on an ally. It feels horrible to have such little incentive to use Siphon on an ally, especially when you can just target an ally before going in Shroud to have it tether someone without having to use Siphon. During the EoD beta I figured this was just an oversight, but after so much time? Honestly it baffles me that so many traits do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when Siphoning an ally. It having a reduced cooldown when used on an ally is not an excuse or reason. It just means you have to reduce the effectiveness/duration on traits when used on an ally. And in some cases, give it special support functionality due to some traits being inherently offensive. 

[reapex.8546]

1 hour ago, Khorg.2195 said:

I just don't understand this. We are moving further, and further away from class identity. I truly just don't get it. As a druid, I never even asked for alacrity in the first place. 

Several druids wanted an additional boon to help them stay more relevant. 

[Ascency.3580]

few months back, when one of the most hated patches dropped, i saw a couple of posts saying that quickness and alacrity should get removed from the game altogether. and i honestly tought its a bad idea. but right now i do feel this is the only way to get out of this spiral of bad decisions being made regarding almost every class in the game.

i mean, some classes just feel super bad when played solo, becouse of not having access to those boons. u always have to drop stats and dmg when taking those boons on classes that do have access. 

balancing around those is close to impossible, especially since, some classes can upkeep said boon with no concentration, and others have to gear up for it. condi and healer builds have it way more forgiving, since for power builds as soon as u start going for concentration u loose even more damage and crit chance, forcing u to compromise on runes and sigils, and as a result the boon providing classes vary hugely with their dps output. catalyst has to drop two traits in order to be able to provide quickness...

id much rather have quicnkess and alac be baseline, especially since jade protocols now exist, and make trait choices actually allow for flexibility when building a class. id much rather have a list of traits to chose from that actually changes how a class feels when played (mesmers bountiful blades for example) rather then being forced to choose between 20% dmg incres or passive quickness providing.

there could be a huge amount of personalization if traits allowed for modifying how certain weapons skills work (even if just a small boon aplication, range, target cap or we is concerned) between trait choices, choosing what passive effects u get when perforimg certain actions, and for elite specs choosing how certain aspects of the spec mechanic works.

overall class theme could be left untouched. balancing would be a breeze, choices would be more about utility, thus more meaningful, allowing for crazy builds, instead of there being only one build for most classes. u could tailor ur favourite class to how u want to play it, instead of boring choices that for 99% of the time is blind picking flat dmg increse, ocasionally swapped for quickness/alac providing. (unless of going for healing)

ps. flat dmg traits are among the worst in the game. they will almost always be prioritised over any other option, and still do nothing if u are a healer for example since u dont have stats for those to multiply anything, might aswell not exist and be replaced by something interesting. they are boring, and at the same time forcing players to drop some of them for quickness/alac providing is even worse.