[Poruku]

Currently there are 3 types of traits

Type 1: Must-have
things like stability, +1 skill point, sentimentality, etc. Straight up buffs that everyone simply takes because they can

Type 2: Good on some builds
Lovely face, spiritual sensitivity, some racials. Stuff that isn't an autopick but is useful to some degree

Type 3: Flavor/useless
Disposition traits, chivalry stuff, mantra, arrow catcher, allergy. Stuff that doesn't give you much of an advantage but might be flavorful

As it stands, most people simply have enough points to get literally every must-have and good traits they can get, then have space for some flavor ones. Cool in theory when said like that, but it's a very strange system. What it means is that trait points aren't actually valuable at all, you always have at least one point of "eh guess I'll put it there cause there's nothing good". Instead, I feel like traits should be about making choices that make your character unique.

Do away with the staple stuff like stability and history traits and replace it with a system that makes you take choices. Since gr1, stat points in traits have become functionally meaningless. Skill points and health regen are all things that should exist as a choice, not generic buffs. Because all it does is add bloat to character creation. Talents suffer from the same issue but at least those have more choices involved.

Thus, I propose a new trait system

At level 1 and every 10 levels, you make a choice between a selection of powerful boosts to your character. These should be focused only on things that make you stronger in combat (no PVE-only traits). Make characters more unique in a way that compliments their preferred playstyle

- charisma except it lasts at least 2 rounds
- blow kiss but without the guile req and it can scale from guile OR will (would need some balance)
- strong trait for each weapon type that deepens their niche, for example +1 bow range, spear attacks hit behind your target too, etc.
- heal on kill
- mitigating flank hit bonus / KD evade loss etc
- bring back stuff like charisma aura for supports
- guardian spirit but a bit better

At the same time, parallel to this, we should have PVE/flavor traits that work off of different points, reminescent of many of the current traits

- bonus healing from food and such
- bigger shout range, maybe traits to make your shout text bigger or something like that
- don't lose spirits on death
- durability help
- monster hunter
- etc

Then we should have racial traits that are a choice starting from level 1 and aren't linked to the non-racial traits!

- vampire: fasting or not? What status on your bite?
- naga: garden scale or whatever
- oracle: preordinance frequency
- papilion: insanity type
- etc

autopick traits like painful grip should just be added to the race because as it stands they basically are just part of the race, it's a trait point tax that has basically no bearing on the final build because trait points are so plentiful.

I'd say the most egregious part of traits is that they add a lot of decisions to make that aren't impactful. In reality they should be distinct from talents and be more rare but very significant. Talents should probably use some work too but that's another topic (who doesn't take 3 fp regen?).

So, in conclusion

Traits as they are now are simply not a very useful or engaging part of build creation. It's generally more of a pain than anything. So even if my solution isn't used, I just want to get the ball rolling on discussing this. Because I'm tired of being forced to pick sentimentality and I'm tired of getting the same 10 traits every time I reroll or LE. I'd like to see traits reworked so they are actual traits, things that make your character stand out, and have you make choices that impact your build and spice up matchups. While also reducing the amount of things you pick when creating a char to hopefully reduce bloat (talents are a bit more guilty of this). When I get a trait point, I wanna be like "Oh yay, a trait point! I wonder where I'm gonna put this bad boy. Let me think what would be good and fitting for this char". But right now it's usually like "Oh I guess I should put this trait point somewhere uhhhhhh this one I guess, since it's better than nothing"

[firehawk11]

I do not understand why this was never commented upon, it does make a good point all around.

Maybe make some decent LE traits that only happen once you LE once or level 60, like a "Legend" Trait because let's face it you're a legend if you're level 60, something that changes up your racial or class or maybe weapon group or perhaps buffs you just out right with some cool ideas.

[Poruku]

Even with the new traits this post is still pretty relevant.

I like the idea of legend traits. Maybe you just pick a single powerful trait from a list and that's your "legend" trait

[firehawk11]

That would be pretty sick.