Having read about the traits and attributes system in the article http://www.arena.net/blog/play-your-...and-attributes and the calculator http://www.gw2tools.com/ it seems to me that we will not have the full versatility of being able to do 'everything'. Instead it seems that we will generally be speccing into 2 or 3 'disciplines' (either 30/30/10 or 30/20/20) something like that.
The easiest example would be an elementalist, who has a quite clear trait system.
Fire Magic: Power and Expertise.
Air Magic: Precision and Prowess.
Earth Magic: Toughness and Malice.
Water Magic: Vitality and Compassion.
Arcane Power: Concentration and Intelligence.
Now I am not sure if a 'hybrid build' will be viable (something like 10/15/15/15/15 or 10/10/10/20/20) or if its in the developers have in mind that you will want to excel at 2 things (most classes will be using 2 weapon sets on quick swap, so it makes sense there) and have a third to compliment those 2 main traitline choices.
So if we assume that a 30/30/10 build is most optimal (that is a big assumption I know, I don't know if this is the intention) does this not bring in a degree of 'trinity' style play for dungeons? For example you would ideally like someone who excels in toughness, someone that has specced into control, someone who has healing traitlines maxed, and someone who mainly puts out the optimal amount of dps. I know the intention is that players are reactive to a situation and do what is needed, and with 2 maxed 'playstyles' you certainly have the versatility to jump between the two, but for example a warrior wielding a greatsword and dual axes as his 2 weapon sets is not going to be able to jump into the healing role (I again, assume )
Certainly the system is far more flexible than a trinity system such as WoW, we all know this by now, but it was my understanding that you basically could run things with anyone and the 'LF healer' days are gone. However MMO players being what they are, and hard content being what it is, are we going to see people requesting specific traitlines to fill groups?
My own opinion is that this isnt so bad. I was a little worried that if every player was expected to do everything, a lot of the content would turn into a mess, where everyone would be jumping around doing what they felt was best, and it would feel very uncoordinated and random. Specialisation into 2 or 3 things means that players can learn those roles and perform them better, and there is a little more structure to combat, all the time keeping the versatility of have 2 or 3 styles of play per character. It also allows players to play how they want, and not be pressured into being the person healing or controlling 20% of the time if they really dont want to for example.
It will be interesting to see how grouping works. Will a group of 5 fully dps specced characters have a much tougher time than a group with a nice mix of roles? will 5 healing / control specced classes be able to put out the dps needed? It sure will be interesting to find out One thing that does worry me is that putting together an oiptimal group for really tough content might be confusing if you dont know how people are going to play and what traitlines they have chosen.
What do you think?