Im not sure if anyone else out there is like me, but almost every item I wear across the board has the same traits, not because they themselves are overpowered (although a case could be made for SS) but because other traits are so lackluster.
Melee - Swift slaying, is obviously top tier, in my opinion is mostly due to the fact its an offensive trait, which most of the others are not, in higher difficulties, modest mitigation is fairly useless due to enemy damage output, and a lot of the weapon traits are too situation to really take advantage of. There are soooome, other variant builds like timed block handmaiden, or CDR dagger shade, that are viable, but more often then not, SS is still the better route. I propose (especially if SS gets nerfed) we examine other possible weapon traits, such as a bleed, or increased power proc, or static boost to specifically charged attacks, ect that could be a trait (heroic killing blow, could be fun to have back, since its standard counterpart was a little too strong in v1)
Ranged - I almost always run conservative, because I tend to use precision weapons, and head hitboxes are pretty big in this game, occasionally some weapons work better with scrounger, but I feel like its not as widely used, or in the very least is somewhat situational. Barrage used to be good for 1 shot gimicks but I feel like it fell off a bit with BBB changes.
Neck- Boon of Shallya, is just too good, increased THP generation with its healing boost is amazing across the board, it works with GK and WS regens, and makes your health pots more useful, a lot of the neck traits (sans imo Barkskin and NB) are pretty solid post changes (barkskin zealot and NB Unchained used to be cheese) but I still almost always lean into Boon
Charm: Concoction, its just good in every situation, not having to get a specific potion when you need X to clutch a game, is absurdly useful, and given the roster I tend to play, it just always makes more sense. The potion spread is also really strong but, it loses a lot of its usefulness outside of premades imo
Trinket: Shrapnel, this was mostly just good for back when 1 shot gimmicks were popular, but with how poorly scaled grenades are in Cata, using it for the damage boost is really all grenades are good for, making it the obvious choice.
What do you guys think, do you prefer other traits, what new competitive traits would you like to see?
(P.S sans capping Sienna, I dont play with heat based weapons so i’ll refrain from commenting too much on them, I dont really enjoy the playstyle, so someone else can chime in here.)
