Play Your Way – Jon Peters on Traits and Attributes

Hey everybody, Jon Peters here with a look at how traits and attributes provide a deep level of customization to your Guild Wars 2 character. Put simply, attributes are characteristics that players can invest points into in order to increase their effectiveness. We have four basic attributes – power, vitality, precision, and toughness.

While playing the game, my fellow designers and I came to the conclusion that we wanted players to be able to customize the way their characters deal damage. Two of our four primary attributes – toughness and power – were serving double duty. Toughness improved heals, while power improved damage done by conditions. This essentially left us with two offensive styles: do more damage, or get more critical hits and react to their effects.

That wasn’t quite good enough. We wanted there to be at least four offensive play styles as well as more diversity of builds overall, so we added several new player attributes to mix things up. These new attributes differ from the four base attributes in that they are only gained by investing points into trait lines and through gear. The four base attributes of power, vitality, precision, and toughness may be increased through traits and gear, but they also automatically increase as you level.

Read more here:- http://www.arena.net/blog/play-your-way-jon-peters-on-traits-and-attributes

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