Thing is, they were nerfed.
Swift slaying is now 20% atk speed
Regrowth and bloodlust are now lvl20 talents and grant 2temp hp each.
scavenger became ranger passive and now drops only on specials.
off balance now grants only 50% dmg increase instead of negating armor and adding 200% dmg.
1 trait per weapon and secondary effects now became green/blue passive bonuses.
It’s a good thing too that many of the strong traits & trait combos are not in the game. I think though that ammo recovery for some classes is as strong or stronger than it was in VT1, though in a bit of a different form. Ranger’s improved ammo recovery works for the whole team for instance (anyone lacking ammo can pickup the drop) and Waywatcher’s ammo regeneration works whether you kill stuff with your arrows or not.
Some of the mechanics are not directly nerfed either. For example swift slaying can now be built around: stack crit chance and have a more consistent attack speed buff. Bloodlust is twice as effective and predictable with the cost of being temp health.
Yes because in 2nd game you have classes which outright specialise in ranged combat and this playstyle needs to be viable too.
That playstyle also got hit heavily, trueflight bow got removed, pistols got their ammo reduced from 56 to 20(40 pre nerf bh, 30 post nerf bh), homing bolts are no longer here and dmg was reduced across the board with aoe attacks like beam staff/drakefire pistols secondary or conflag staff being hit the most.
I rather feel like this time around melee was forgotten, small bonuses and they arent any more durable than ranged classes.
Why would i pick melee is ranged can melee just fine along with its buffs to ranged. Have you seen what rapier or spear can do?
20% dmg reduction should imo be standard for all melee dps classes and then add some better melee capabilities than ranged, more atk speed, better cleave (on a class that isnt using max cleave wide swing weapons…give it to shade instead), higher stagger, extra crit chance for melee.
Now ranger, your typical legendary run will net you 30-40 special kills, so with 5% per ranger bag thats mere 1,5-2 full reloads, thats nothing and one of reasons why ranger isnt played at all. Other reasons being that he got nothing comparable to bows or repeater crossbows in his arsenal and smoke bomb just sux.
not sure why people are saying that weapon traits in v1 trivialised the game… even with all the best weapons, bad players cannot survive in cata because one unblocked stormvermin hit = dead, 4 normal hits = dead.
it doesn’t enable you to ignore game mechanics, you had to play well. traits enable you to do things better and more effectively, but it wasn’t a replacement for good gameplay.
They trivialized parts of the game, not the whole game itself. Traits trivializing parts of the game effectively means that they remove parts of the mechanics. For example in VT2 the ammo regen trivializes ammo management for me; I barely need to look at the ammo counter if I have it picked. I still lose (ie. the game is itself not trivial), but I don’t have to look at the ammo meter while losing.