Guild Wars 2

We may only get one BWE to test the Scrapper. Do the class designers not understand how niche killable utility pets are and have been since launch? At the very least the gyros should not be affected by direct damage.

Would it be too much for the gyros to use the boon pool that the owner has rather than having to be given boons? The gyros are probably working like the Guardian spirit weapons currently as far as boon application goes so it prioritizes players over the weapons. In a group situation the gyros will rarely get boons to survive longer.

We can only hope that the class gets some re-work before the BWE.

We only get one BWE (3 total was confirmed) to test the Scrapper. Aside from that confirmation, there are only 4 weekends left before HoT, and the next one is Twitch Con, so there’s not really any room for another BWE anyways.

lorddarkflare.9186:

We can only hope that the class gets some re-work before the BWE.

Looking at the actual timetable, this point you make actually becomes significant. I hope that there are at least some changes and communication with Irenio before the BWE, seeing as we will only have a couple weeks after.

I’d love to see him start getting active here this coming week and not wait until after the BWE.

I use Ceimash’s FT/EG build for sPvP, which is pretty much my standard go to condi build except with FT instead of grenades.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelUUhatY7Ww+Kw6FLsFF4HWiBgYHVFPxYOOG/IA-TJhHwAU2fAwJA4YZgAPAAA

He’s got a nice guide on it, it’s a great build that plays really well against pretty much any opponent. I rarely lose 1v1’s with it, it’s a very powerful build to roam from point to point where your team needs you.

Adamantium.3682:

We only get one BWE (3 total was confirmed) to test the Scrapper. Aside from that confirmation, there are only 4 weekends left before HoT, and the next one is Twitch Con, so there’s not really any room for another BWE anyways.

lorddarkflare.9186:

We can only hope that the class gets some re-work before the BWE.

Looking at the actual timetable, this point you make actually becomes significant. I hope that there are at least some changes and communication with Irenio before the BWE, seeing as we will only have a couple weeks after.

I’d love to see him start getting active here this coming week and not wait until after the BWE.

Agreed. I would him to actually know of our concerns beforehand so that he either fixes them before the BWE or lets us know what his fixes will be so we can consider them as we play.

They wont do anything, they even didnt listen to the engi community, none wants AI Bots and what did we get AI Bots. So i dont care if they fix anything, cause they will not do it in the next 6 Month, look at the engi buglist not much changed on that.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. I think fixes to scrapper will have to carry into release due to not enough feedback from just one BWE and them being a little too cautious about making skills strong.

Tempest still has problems for example.

This would be consistent with how the original Guild Wars 2 game went from beta to live. They continure to do fixes after the game went live, so I suspect they aren’t terribly concerned about making sure everything is perfect before heart of thorns goes live.

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

Lemondish.3268:

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

I don’t think this is the issue people are getting at.

Imo it has more to do with the fear of being left after the release and ANet not doing big enough changes at that point and focusing more on fixing maps/raids/other stuff.

I can understand that fear that there won’t be enough attention to Scrapper/Druid.

Killyox.3950:

Lemondish.3268:

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

I don’t think this is the issue people are getting at.

Imo it has more to do with the fear of being left after the release and ANet not doing big enough changes at that point and focusing more on fixing maps/raids/other stuff.

I can understand that fear that there won’t be enough attention to Scrapper/Druid.

I understand, but I don’t think it’s valid. After all, they’ve been doing balance fixes since day 1.

The problem is when they don’t fix something, or balance something, that the community has an issue with; for example, it took them three years to fix a bug with Phantasmal Haste; and Rangers have been always complaining about their pet (I’m not sure how valid it is, I only dabble in ranger, but right or wrong, the complaints persist).

But I have no fear that they will continue to balance things.

It’s important to have it working before HoTs release since a lot of players want to play the new content with their new builds.

I don’t care if Scrapper wont be “Meta” in raids/ dungeon, WvW traits or SPvP on day one. What I do care about is that it is fun and playable when we first step into the new content and experience it. Meta can be decided later, but first impressions will be important.

Morfedel.4165:

Killyox.3950:

Lemondish.3268:

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

I don’t think this is the issue people are getting at.

Imo it has more to do with the fear of being left after the release and ANet not doing big enough changes at that point and focusing more on fixing maps/raids/other stuff.

I can understand that fear that there won’t be enough attention to Scrapper/Druid.

I understand, but I don’t think it’s valid. After all, they’ve been doing balance fixes since day 1.

The problem is when they don’t fix something, or balance something, that the community has an issue with; for example, it took them three years to fix a bug with Phantasmal Haste; and Rangers have been always complaining about their pet (I’m not sure how valid it is, I only dabble in ranger, but right or wrong, the complaints persist).

But I have no fear that they will continue to balance things.

People are worried it will turn out like the “biweekly” balance patches after the specialization update, the single largest remake of the trait system yet. At least we got rifled barrels and bombs fixed after a lot of complaining. Now we are waiting for medkit and medical dispersion field. And where did the pistol main hand go?

But this was for all professions, not a lot of updates for anyone. Though they managed to squeeze in a mortar and some mesmer nerfs.

miriforst.1290:

Morfedel.4165:

Killyox.3950:

Lemondish.3268:

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

I don’t think this is the issue people are getting at.

Imo it has more to do with the fear of being left after the release and ANet not doing big enough changes at that point and focusing more on fixing maps/raids/other stuff.

I can understand that fear that there won’t be enough attention to Scrapper/Druid.

I understand, but I don’t think it’s valid. After all, they’ve been doing balance fixes since day 1.

The problem is when they don’t fix something, or balance something, that the community has an issue with; for example, it took them three years to fix a bug with Phantasmal Haste; and Rangers have been always complaining about their pet (I’m not sure how valid it is, I only dabble in ranger, but right or wrong, the complaints persist).

But I have no fear that they will continue to balance things.

People are worried it will turn out like the “biweekly” balance patches after the specialization update, the single largest remake of the trait system yet. At least we got rifled barrels and bombs fixed after a lot of complaining. Now we are waiting for medkit and medical dispersion field. And where did the pistol main hand go?

But this was for all professions, not a lot of updates for anyone. Though they managed to squeeze in a mortar and some mesmer nerfs.

I suppose. I think my real gripe is people are complaining before even trying it out. Sometimes things play differently than they look on paper. Yeah of course sometimes they play exactly like they look on paper too, but I feel we should at least give it a shot before we start complaining about these things. And then if it really does suck and then we complain about it lol

We already tried it. Every time we left turrets out in the field and they were destroyed in few seconds. And that’s with traits making them sturdier – something that gyros even lack.
And unlike most turrets, those are meant to be used in melee, since that’s where the scrapper should be.
How can you even think that the results will be different?

Morfedel.4165:

I suppose. I think my real gripe is people are complaining before even trying it out. Sometimes things play differently than they look on paper. Yeah of course sometimes they play exactly like they look on paper too, but I feel we should at least give it a shot before we start complaining about these things. And then if it really does suck and then we complain about it lol

The whole point of this thread is that waiting for the beta weekend might waste to much precious time. There are some obvious concerns that can and should be dealt with before the last beta weekend, so that when we finally get to test it first hand our feedback can go towards a final product and not repeat what we already knew.

It is obvious to everyone that noone in the forums have tried it yet, repeating the “but you havn’t tried it yet so sit down” argument holds no ground. Not saying anything is not going to help any more. If you don’t want to hear people “complain” based on the limited information we have, then don’t visit the engineer forum before the beta is here, because this is what players will talk about until it starts. A lot of people are concerned that one beta weekend is not going to save the scrapper, so they try to make the most of it.

Morfedel.4165:

miriforst.1290:

Morfedel.4165:

Killyox.3950:

Lemondish.3268:

Morfedel.4165:

dancingmonkey.4902:

I am seeing post upon post in the other subforums about how they are taking the feedback from a BWE and using it to significantly change aspects of the ES’s. To call it a waste strikes me as disconnected bias.

The only thing confirmed about BWE was 3 invite only betas. As we had at release. Which then included some additional open betas. So trying to imply we will only have one test for feedback strikes me as crying wolf in that reguard. Sure, I would have preferred they announced them all at once, in the first week, but that doesn’t justify irrationally declaring the testing we will have as “a waste”.

Agreed.

Moreover, as stated, just because BWE3 is the last beta weekend doesn’t mean beta testing is over. It COULD mean that. It could also be that they will have some open beta time where the entire world can play. After all, they had BWEs for the core game AND open betas at the end before the game went live.

Granted, they haven’t told us either way, but the point is we don’t really know yet, do we?

Even more important is that everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that balance and changes will not end when HoT launches.

I don’t think this is the issue people are getting at.

Imo it has more to do with the fear of being left after the release and ANet not doing big enough changes at that point and focusing more on fixing maps/raids/other stuff.

I can understand that fear that there won’t be enough attention to Scrapper/Druid.

I understand, but I don’t think it’s valid. After all, they’ve been doing balance fixes since day 1.

The problem is when they don’t fix something, or balance something, that the community has an issue with; for example, it took them three years to fix a bug with Phantasmal Haste; and Rangers have been always complaining about their pet (I’m not sure how valid it is, I only dabble in ranger, but right or wrong, the complaints persist).

But I have no fear that they will continue to balance things.

People are worried it will turn out like the “biweekly” balance patches after the specialization update, the single largest remake of the trait system yet. At least we got rifled barrels and bombs fixed after a lot of complaining. Now we are waiting for medkit and medical dispersion field. And where did the pistol main hand go?

But this was for all professions, not a lot of updates for anyone. Though they managed to squeeze in a mortar and some mesmer nerfs.

I suppose. I think my real gripe is people are complaining before even trying it out. Sometimes things play differently than they look on paper. Yeah of course sometimes they play exactly like they look on paper too, but I feel we should at least give it a shot before we start complaining about these things. And then if it really does suck and then we complain about it lol

Well, consider them words of advice from a concerned, and in some cases more experienced userbase. Our words are not law, but so far shouting seems to be the way to get heard. And we do not want to start the last beta as a wreck that could have been avoided if someone had just gotten feedback in time. We can argue about the color of the car or the amount of horsepower at a later date but we do know that it needs wheels.

The introduction post of the scrapper saying in essence that the scrapper gives the engineer a close combat option as if we are some kind of longbow ranger convinced me they do not grasp the notion of what our role is in the first place.

Manuhell.2759:

We already tried it. Every time we left turrets out in the field and they were destroyed in few seconds. And that’s with traits making them sturdier – something that gyros even lack.
And unlike most turrets, those are meant to be used in melee, since that’s where the scrapper should be.
How can you even think that the results will be different?

See now I want to go try it out for myself. Engineer is tied with Necromancer for my 2nd favorite slot, but Mesmer has been my main pretty hardcore for the last three years, just playing necro or engineer when I needed a break from my mez, and the other professions even less so.

So it’s rather amusing that my only engineer build I made before this last major patch… was an elixir bomb build. Since then I’ve been experimenting with other things, but I never really used turrets too much.

So now I suppose I need to go try them out for myself.

But are you saying that turrets are useless in every game format? PVE, PVP, and WVW? fractals, dungeons, and open world?

And another question… Do turrets, like mesmer illusions, adopt their stats in part from the user? If so, and if most engineers go full offensive stats (Zerker etc) then isn’t that kinda making your own problems?

Let me give an example. Often I see people in the mesmer forums posting that so and so illusion is worthless junk because they just cant live long enough; but lo and behold, I take gear with more defensive stats, and sure enough, my illusions survive much better than what these others were reporting – which makes this a STAT issue rather than an issue with the skill itself.

Case in point: Precisely because of this discussion, when I went home for lunch from work, I took my mesmer into pvp, with the Mental Defense Trait, Signet of Illusions, PVT gear, and the Inspiration line with the first two traits set to increasing phantasm survivability.

I also took several skills that gave me blocks and dodges – I was doing other stuff with the build as well that triggered some effects based on dodging, blocking, etc, but I also wanted to test the pDefender.

Over the course of several battles, I was constantly summoned the pDefender because of the Mental Defense trait. People had reported it died instantly, in ANY format, and thus it was worthless.

Mine did not die instantly. It didnt survive all that long, but seriously, 50% damage reduction effectively would be way too powerful if it lasted too long. It was enough that the pDefender lasted a good 5, 10, sometimes 15 seconds; and since when you have retaliation on your phantasm from the inspiration trait, and pDefender splits all damage, it triggers retaliation twice, once from an illusion and once from the Defender itself.

Note that this was merely verifying what i knew to be true with the mesmer; been playing it since bwe2 of the core game, I’ve played similar builds in every aspect of the game.

The point being, the usefulness of various mesmer illusions depends heavily on the traits of the user itself. I am not aware of whether or not the turrets and gyros adopt their stats from yours, but it seems likely and, if so, it may well be that the average user has been going heavy offense and low defense, thus meaning turrets, and gyros, simply would not have the CHANCE of surviving because, if they could survive well with zerker stats, they would be seriously OP.

Understand here, before you flame me on this: I’m NOT saying this is the case. I know my mesmer very well, but I fully admit not being an expert on the engineer. I’m SPECULATING… but based on my experiences with mesmer and the naysayers there who also run full offensive gear as well, my suspicions are that this might possibly be the case here as well.

And so when I get a chance i’m going to go try some turret play with my engineer. I’m willing to be proven wrong. I want to see how it goes and see if I AM wrong or not.

Turrets don’t scale with player stats. And they do suck in basically every game mode. Rifle turret has a tiny niche use in SD builds, and SD breaks skill queues just in case you didn’t like to break your keyboard.

Morfedel.4165:

Manuhell.2759:

We already tried it. Every time we left turrets out in the field and they were destroyed in few seconds. And that’s with traits making them sturdier – something that gyros even lack.
And unlike most turrets, those are meant to be used in melee, since that’s where the scrapper should be.
How can you even think that the results will be different?

See now I want to go try it out for myself. Engineer is tied with Necromancer for my 2nd favorite slot, but Mesmer has been my main pretty hardcore for the last three years, just playing necro or engineer when I needed a break from my mez, and the other professions even less so.

So it’s rather amusing that my only engineer build I made before this last major patch… was an elixir bomb build. Since then I’ve been experimenting with other things, but I never really used turrets too much.

So now I suppose I need to go try them out for myself.

But are you saying that turrets are useless in every game format? PVE, PVP, and WVW? fractals, dungeons, and open world?

And another question… Do turrets, like mesmer illusions, adopt their stats in part from the user? If so, and if most engineers go full offensive stats (Zerker etc) then isn’t that kinda making your own problems?

Let me give an example. Often I see people in the mesmer forums posting that so and so illusion is worthless junk because they just cant live long enough; but lo and behold, I take gear with more defensive stats, and sure enough, my illusions survive much better than what these others were reporting – which makes this a STAT issue rather than an issue with the skill itself.

Case in point: Precisely because of this discussion, when I went home for lunch from work, I took my mesmer into pvp, with the Mental Defense Trait, Signet of Illusions, PVT gear, and the Inspiration line with the first two traits set to increasing phantasm survivability.

I also took several skills that gave me blocks and dodges – I was doing other stuff with the build as well that triggered some effects based on dodging, blocking, etc, but I also wanted to test the pDefender.

Over the course of several battles, I was constantly summoned the pDefender because of the Mental Defense trait. People had reported it died instantly, in ANY format, and thus it was worthless.

Mine did not die instantly. It didnt survive all that long, but seriously, 50% damage reduction effectively would be way too powerful if it lasted too long. It was enough that the pDefender lasted a good 5, 10, sometimes 15 seconds; and since when you have retaliation on your phantasm from the inspiration trait, and pDefender splits all damage, it triggers retaliation twice, once from an illusion and once from the Defender itself.

Note that this was merely verifying what i knew to be true with the mesmer; been playing it since bwe2 of the core game, I’ve played similar builds in every aspect of the game.

The point being, the usefulness of various mesmer illusions depends heavily on the traits of the user itself. I am not aware of whether or not the turrets and gyros adopt their stats from yours, but it seems likely and, if so, it may well be that the average user has been going heavy offense and low defense, thus meaning turrets, and gyros, simply would not have the CHANCE of surviving because, if they could survive well with zerker stats, they would be seriously OP.

Understand here, before you flame me on this: I’m NOT saying this is the case. I know my mesmer very well, but I fully admit not being an expert on the engineer. I’m SPECULATING… but based on my experiences with mesmer and the naysayers there who also run full offensive gear as well, my suspicions are that this might possibly be the case here as well.

And so when I get a chance i’m going to go try some turret play with my engineer. I’m willing to be proven wrong. I want to see how it goes and see if I AM wrong or not.

Turrets do not inherit stats outside of condition damage and healing power (for the longest of times our healing turret provided a 5hps regeneration which overwrote actual useful regeneration). This was the problem with the turretpochalypse. Turreters saw no reason not to go full defensive since it still didn’t affect their damage output. On the other hand the turrets surviveability where also based on having what amounts to permanent berserkers stance and stone heart.

And do not base your judgement on open world. It is probably possible to kill stuff with hidden flask procs in open world without much sweat.

Hm, they don’t inherit stats from the players. Maybe that’s part of the problem? If they started with a base stat line and upgraded…. well, I dunno.

And therefore, that theory down the drain! LOL

Ok, well, thanks for correcting me on that. So much for my much vaunted theory crafting, grrr…

And therefore, it sounds like turrets and gyros both might need some buffing, but since turrets obviously havent had them, I suppose it’s not likely to get them.

miriforst.1290:

Morfedel.4165:

Manuhell.2759:

We already tried it. Every time we left turrets out in the field and they were destroyed in few seconds. And that’s with traits making them sturdier – something that gyros even lack.
And unlike most turrets, those are meant to be used in melee, since that’s where the scrapper should be.
How can you even think that the results will be different?

See now I want to go try it out for myself. Engineer is tied with Necromancer for my 2nd favorite slot, but Mesmer has been my main pretty hardcore for the last three years, just playing necro or engineer when I needed a break from my mez, and the other professions even less so.

So it’s rather amusing that my only engineer build I made before this last major patch… was an elixir bomb build. Since then I’ve been experimenting with other things, but I never really used turrets too much.

So now I suppose I need to go try them out for myself.

But are you saying that turrets are useless in every game format? PVE, PVP, and WVW? fractals, dungeons, and open world?

And another question… Do turrets, like mesmer illusions, adopt their stats in part from the user? If so, and if most engineers go full offensive stats (Zerker etc) then isn’t that kinda making your own problems?

Let me give an example. Often I see people in the mesmer forums posting that so and so illusion is worthless junk because they just cant live long enough; but lo and behold, I take gear with more defensive stats, and sure enough, my illusions survive much better than what these others were reporting – which makes this a STAT issue rather than an issue with the skill itself.

Case in point: Precisely because of this discussion, when I went home for lunch from work, I took my mesmer into pvp, with the Mental Defense Trait, Signet of Illusions, PVT gear, and the Inspiration line with the first two traits set to increasing phantasm survivability.

I also took several skills that gave me blocks and dodges – I was doing other stuff with the build as well that triggered some effects based on dodging, blocking, etc, but I also wanted to test the pDefender.

Over the course of several battles, I was constantly summoned the pDefender because of the Mental Defense trait. People had reported it died instantly, in ANY format, and thus it was worthless.

Mine did not die instantly. It didnt survive all that long, but seriously, 50% damage reduction effectively would be way too powerful if it lasted too long. It was enough that the pDefender lasted a good 5, 10, sometimes 15 seconds; and since when you have retaliation on your phantasm from the inspiration trait, and pDefender splits all damage, it triggers retaliation twice, once from an illusion and once from the Defender itself.

Note that this was merely verifying what i knew to be true with the mesmer; been playing it since bwe2 of the core game, I’ve played similar builds in every aspect of the game.

The point being, the usefulness of various mesmer illusions depends heavily on the traits of the user itself. I am not aware of whether or not the turrets and gyros adopt their stats from yours, but it seems likely and, if so, it may well be that the average user has been going heavy offense and low defense, thus meaning turrets, and gyros, simply would not have the CHANCE of surviving because, if they could survive well with zerker stats, they would be seriously OP.

Understand here, before you flame me on this: I’m NOT saying this is the case. I know my mesmer very well, but I fully admit not being an expert on the engineer. I’m SPECULATING… but based on my experiences with mesmer and the naysayers there who also run full offensive gear as well, my suspicions are that this might possibly be the case here as well.

And so when I get a chance i’m going to go try some turret play with my engineer. I’m willing to be proven wrong. I want to see how it goes and see if I AM wrong or not.

Turrets do not inherit stats outside of condition damage and healing power (for the longest of times our healing turret provided a 5hps regeneration which overwrote actual useful regeneration). This was the problem with the turretpochalypse. Turreters saw no reason not to go full defensive since it still didn’t affect their damage output. On the other hand the turrets surviveability where also based on having what amounts to permanent berserkers stance and stone heart.

And do not base your judgement on open world. It is probably possible to kill stuff with hidden flask procs in open world without much sweat.

snort, i’ve sometimes just hit the 1 button and walked away to get a drink or make a sammich lol