Traps were so much better than Preparations

[Hollowperspectiv.3047]

Can we just get the old Traps skills back? Preparations are slow, clumsy, hard to use and don't work with Trapper Runes. I ran a Venom Traps build as my only character with total success from June 2014 until they were straight up removed. Build is no longer possible at all because of the terrible replacement skills in that we got. Pleading, just roll it back. Give us our skill type back.

[ASP.8093]

Shadow Portal is fun, though.

[kash.9213]

Preparations seem like they should have been in another game with open world pvp. They're armed at your location but you'll often be on the move and it will be passed up. Using a Preparation with some preparation usually leaves them ignored. That's a Utility slot for something that's not going to be much of a factor.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

> @"ASP.8093" said:

> Shadow Portal is fun, though.

 

Portal is fun, but shadow trap was more useful in a fight if you knew how. And honestly, we really didn't need a portal skill.

[Hollowperspectiv.3047]

> @"Jugglemonkey.8741" said:

> > @"ASP.8093" said:

> > Shadow Portal is fun, though.

>

> Portal is fun, but shadow trap was more useful in a fight if you knew how. And honestly, we really didn't need a portal skill.

 

Old Shadow Trap was great, used it all the time.

Had set range, about half a map. You got all shadowy, letting you know that it's been trigger, single button put you in stealth, behind your foe in and instant.

 

New one you have to watch the icon to see if it triggers and turns red, activate the portal, turn around, use interact to go through the portal... then you in stealth button not quickly and not behind them... like who the heck approved these?? hahah. 3 seconds arm time?? really.. smh. straight up just lost a skill type. four slots that were fine the way they were.

 

 

[cyberzombie.7348]

I do miss shadow trap, it was great for home defense in conquest and my go-to counter against stealth.

[Dadnir.5038]

> @"Hollowperspectiv.3047" said:

> Can we just get the old Traps skills back? Preparations are slow, clumsy, hard to use and don't work with Trapper Runes. I ran a Venom Traps build as my only character with total success from June 2014 until they were straight up removed. Build is no longer possible at all because of the terrible replacement skills in that we got. Pleading, just roll it back. Give us our skill type back.

 

Pretty sure they changed it to _preparations_ because of trapper's runes. It's 100% ANet's way of taking care of balancing issues (afterall they did the same with ranger's _shouts_ that worked a bit to well with the runes associated and transformed them into _commands_).

[Lurana.7506]

I actually like the preparations. You can decide when to use them and I play with portal in PvP and used some of the other preparations in 2v2 matches

[jpsssss.7530]

they removed it probably because trapper runes exist and people were abusing the fact that they got offensive utilities that also gave healing, condi cleanses, movespeed, and target breaks. Granted I don't know many people who played trap thief to begin with. Maybe anet is giving you traps with the next elite spec like how they yoinked tomes from guard to give them back later.

[Fueki.4753]

If Arenanet were to remove Rune of the Trapper, or at least remove the stealth part, I wouldn't mind Thieves getting traps back.

 

Thieves actually need **less** access to stealth, not more.

 

[Sobx.1758]

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> If Arenanet were to remove Rune of the Trapper, or at least remove the stealth part, I wouldn't mind Thieves getting traps back.

 

If that's the case then there shouldn't be a problem with leaving traps unchanged except for the skill type/naming, which would not trigger the rune. But in addition to the rune, anet probably just didn't want automatically activated traps on thief.

[Fueki.4753]

> @"Sobx.1758" said:

> > @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > If Arenanet were to remove Rune of the Trapper, or at least remove the stealth part, I wouldn't mind Thieves getting traps back.

>

> If that's the case then there shouldn't be a problem with leaving traps unchanged except for the skill type/naming, which would not trigger the rune. But in addition to the rune, anet probably just didn't want automatically activated traps on thief.

 

But we know Arenanet.

They can't just change functionally a little bit.

They always _have to_ do reworks.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"Sobx.1758" said:

> > > @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > > If Arenanet were to remove Rune of the Trapper, or at least remove the stealth part, I wouldn't mind Thieves getting traps back.

> >

> > If that's the case then there shouldn't be a problem with leaving traps unchanged except for the skill type/naming, which would not trigger the rune. But in addition to the rune, anet probably just didn't want automatically activated traps on thief.

>

> But we know Arenanet.

> They can't just change functionally a little bit.

> They always _have to_ do reworks.

 

It's the problem with a changing staff team with continuing ideas, while they work to improve something their predecessor did they often fail to acknowledge what was actually good about the old thing in the first place. You know how when you get a new manager at work and they can't just add to an existing system, they always feel compelled to tear everything down then start from scratch even if it ends up doing the same or worse than before? Yeah.....

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

> @"jpsssss.7530" said:

> they removed it probably because trapper runes exist and people were abusing the fact that they got offensive utilities that also gave healing, condi cleanses, movespeed, and target breaks. Granted I don't know many people who played trap thief to begin with. Maybe anet is giving you traps with the next elite spec like how they yoinked tomes from guard to give them back later.

 

People were "abusing" it, yet nobody played it. Go figure. (More commenting on the use of the term abuse, it was in game legally and was a totally intended interaction, so in what way was it abuse?)

 

To be honest though, my old trap build revolved around old choking gas, not traps themselves, and kind of felt like a condition version of medi trapper DH to play. I was using trapper runes to immob people in choking gas using the shortbow sneak attack, because immob in a pulsing daze field that stacks torment, rips boons and steals health every time you interrupt was crazy strong if you didn't expect it. Given that choking gas is now a totally different skill the build is nothing close to what it was, and the ghost trapper thief that killed while never leaving stealth hadn't been a thing for a year already since they added physical damage and arming times to the traps, so I don't really get why traps needed a rework frankly.

[anduriell.6280]

> @"Hollowperspectiv.3047" said:

> Can we just get the old Traps skills back? Preparations are slow, clumsy, hard to use and don't work with Trapper Runes. I ran a Venom Traps build as my only character with total success from June 2014 until they were straight up removed. Build is no longer possible at all because of the terrible replacement skills in that we got. Pleading, just roll it back. Give us our skill type back.

No they weren't traps were useless, preparations are best thing has happens to the thief after the buff to dagger storm.

 

[Shiyo.3578]

Shadow portal is useful in PvE, the condi trap is good for PvE dps, all the traps are pretty useless in PvP outside some niche shadow portal usage.

[Trianox.3486]

I love preparation skills, visuals, effects, actual functionality BUT for PvE, the 3 sec delay is waaaay too long. We move fast across the battlefield, chainkill, or basically the fight location shift quickly... So the current skills are really lacklusters.

 

Their only use case in PvE at the moment are against relatively immobile foes with very high HP that won't go down in less than 10 secondes, else it's just not useful at all and any other skills end up being a better option.

 

I love the Seal area potential for crowd control and such, but fields effect are too weak (so whirl don't really make it shine that much) and against by the time I would pop it monsters inside and outside are already dead.

I used it on the past as a safe zone I would place on the floor to pop instantly later in the fight when I needed to reset the fight, but ....when my build is DPS oriented, foes get downed too fast or I can fight without ever a need for reset when rotation is spot on... So... :-/ not that great.

 

A 1 second prep time instead of 3, would totally solve it for me for the knock down and the condi ones.

Portal is more of a PvP or WvW... And Seal, I wish would have an additional effect for PvE.

 

[pureskullz.7536]

You're build is still possible but there's a reason they did it to fix Ghost thieves for good. Condis are already strong against stealth so for that build it was over performing it had to get nerfed. But trust me the preps work just as well I mean pitfall is a 3 sec knockdown so say what you will but they are strong if put together correctly in the build.

[pureskullz.7536]

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> Shadow portal is useful in PvE, the condi trap is good for PvE dps, all the traps are pretty useless in PvP outside some niche shadow portal usage.

 

check again.

[pureskullz.7536]

> @"Trianox.3486" said:

> I love preparation skills, visuals, effects, actual functionality BUT for PvE, the 3 sec delay is waaaay too long. We move fast across the battlefield, chainkill, or basically the fight location shift quickly... So the current skills are really lacklusters.

>

> Their only use case in PvE at the moment are against relatively immobile foes with very high HP that won't go down in less than 10 secondes, else it's just not useful at all and any other skills end up being a better option.

>

> I love the Seal area potential for crowd control and such, but fields effect are too weak (so whirl don't really make it shine that much) and against by the time I would pop it monsters inside and outside are already dead.

> I used it on the past as a safe zone I would place on the floor to pop instantly later in the fight when I needed to reset the fight, but ....when my build is DPS oriented, foes get downed too fast or I can fight without ever a need for reset when rotation is spot on... So... :-/ not that great.

>

> A 1 second prep time instead of 3, would totally solve it for me for the knock down and the condi ones.

> Portal is more of a PvP or WvW... And Seal, I wish would have an additional effect for PvE.

>

 

PVE it's more likely to be used solo or on a stationary boss. Also portal can be used for jumping puzzles and also kiting bosses by yourself. :)

[pureskullz.7536]

> @"Lurana.7506" said:

> I actually like the preparations. You can decide when to use them and I play with portal in PvP and used some of the other preparations in 2v2 matches

 

Perfect place to do so too! Pitfall can be very nasty in those situations.

[pureskullz.7536]

> @"ASP.8093" said:

> Shadow Portal is fun, though.

 

Middle of a zerg blowing someones brains out(comm) then teleporting back 5k range after getting stunned not a better feeling out there.

[Shiyo.3578]

> @"pureskullz.7536" said:

> > @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> > Shadow portal is useful in PvE, the condi trap is good for PvE dps, all the traps are pretty useless in PvP outside some niche shadow portal usage.

>

> check again.

 

What am I checking? Nothing I said is wrong.

[Hollowperspectiv.3047]

Pureskullz my build is not possible without trapper rune but that's a nice thought. Also, wasn't playing ghost thief so I'm in the camp the you shouldn't completely take away a skill set if one aspect is broken. No one was asking for a thief traps overhaul and it's not better than it was. Shadow trap is 20% as functional as it used to be and it's not fun. If you think it is that I'm guessing you didn't play with the old version. 3 fucking second arming time is completely a joke.

[Taril.8619]

Preparations are one of the (Many) reasons why I believe that the devs are playing a completely different game.

 

They make 0 sense in GW2 at all, given how dynamic engagements are.

 

Heck, Traps in of themselves are bad enough, where they're utilized as "Melee Wells" more often than not, with ironically Shadow Trap being the skill that was most used as an actual pre-prepared trap.

 

It's like there was a discussion along the lines of:

 

**ANet Dev 1:** "So, what's the game like?"

**ANet Dev 2:** "Well, in PvP and WvW, there are objectives you can defend..."

**ANet Dev 1:** "Say no more, fam!"

 

So, the Traps were reworked because of a potential strategy that involved using Rune of the Trapper (Implying WvW/PvE) causing too much stealth. Then, instead of adjusting Rune of the Trapper itself, or you know... The dumb mechanic of stealth stacking that has been complained about for 8 years... They reworked Traps into Preparations, which double down on the non-existent gameplay of controlling a particular area with pre-prepared defenses...