Guild Wars 2

August 30, 2013 –

Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of Engenious! This week, we have a more generalized discussion about dungeons and what the game could do to improve, and we have a new host guesting- Dceased! Our guest this week is Fleeting Flash, an excellent dungeon runner on Sanctum of Rall! We discuss legendaries and weapon types, as well as the latest news from Arenanet! Be sure to like us on facebook and check out the SOACgaming youtube channel, and as always, trust us; we are engineers!

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-engineer-podcast-engenious-episode-11/

SOAC Live

SOAC Streaming

Engineer Audio Only Podcasts
http://sittingonacouch.com/category/gaming/

If you have any comments or questions please let me know.

Yay! The very first podcast is now live!!!!!!
Hope everyone will have as much fun and enjoyment with listning to the podcast as we had making the first podcast!
Also, the buzzing sound on my mic drives me nuts personal, so I will have it replaced before the next podcast! :P

Looking forward to get the next Podcast going! Who the first guest will be is still in the works tho!

Also: Asteria Rose Voice is just perfect for this!

What was that “nesting” turrets thing you guys were talking about on there? Something about placing other turrets around the healing turret?

I think it was Bas talking about how he liked to stack them in an area in PvE with his healing Turret, and then he could whack heal them all with the tool Kit auto attack when they lost health! In that way making them last for longer in theory that is ^^

Amadeus.5687:

I think it was Bas talking about how he liked to stack them in an area in PvE with his healing Turret, and then he could whack heal them all with the tool Kit auto attack when they lost health! In that way making them last for longer in theory that is ^^

Interesting, playing the turret xylophone, as it were.

Amadeus.5687:

I think it was Bas talking about how he liked to stack them in an area in PvE with his healing Turret, and then he could whack heal them all with the tool Kit auto attack when they lost health! In that way making them last for longer in theory that is ^^

While I have done that before, the situation in that regard was not that way. I didn’t wack them with the toolkit. I found that by nesting them near my healing turret the self-repair trait worked better. I also would end up with a ranged player standing near my turrets then and thus protecting the turrest with his CC. We had a necro who kept going down. I dropped my healing turret stacked Rifle and Rocket next to it, than he stayed between them. When guys got close he feared them away.

I am unsure of this, but it seemed my healing turret was healing my turrets. Is this incorrect?

The healing turret won’t heal the other Turrets, sadly! That’s actually a quite cool idea tho, they should make it like that to be honest! hmmm, that would give a better reason to leave the Turrets out, which appear to be what the Devs want! Good thinking Bas!

Right now according to the wiki, the only thing able to heal the turrets directly is whacking them with the wrench. It is definitely worth looking into, as there was a bug regarding the auto-tool trait since the april 30th patch, but may now be fixed.

If turrets got heals… well, that would be a small first step toward broader-game usability, IMHO.

Elixir drinkers are Pimps, Love it.

Amadeus I feel your pain on Necromancers. So rough sometimes.

Some Notes:

1. I was surprised Asteria said she saw lots of engineers in WvW, I rarely see any other than myself.
2. Do you think more main hand weapon selections would make the Engineer more approachable? OR is it more that people need to realize that Kits are our other weapons?
3. I know you were talking a bit about build diversity and versatility, do think that more mobility based utilities would help with build diversity overall? I know we can have permanent swiftness, that is mobility in a way, but I’m more talking about engage tactics and gap closers. For example: I think one of our weakest links are gadgets, they are really neat but lack practical use. Lets say suddenly Slick Shoes made you move forward in a line and knockdown foes that you hit. Having an engage ability like this would help make things like bombs much more viable overall.
4. Engineers are Chunky! I like to think I’m Fluffy.
5. The information overall was very good, even if a few things seemed out of place. i.e. the Sigils not working properly on Kits, which was corrected.
6. Elixir S was necessary, I agree with that. As much as it sucks, I barely even notice it now.

Overall I liked it a lot and am excited to see what you folks have to talk about in the future.

Really enjoyed the podcast, been looking forward to the Engineer version as I really enjoy all the other SOAC ones (now where is my Elementalist podcast Bas!?).

On the topic of Elixir S, while I agree that kit swapping to get your skills back was broken beyond belief the fact that it now interrupts your heal is awful and was unnecessary. It’s especially terrible if you run Self Regulating Defenses, often I’ll see my health dropping, start casting my heal and then something else will drop me below 25% and now my heal is on full cooldown. It just seems like they added that heal interrupt because of Eles covering Ether Renewal (which is supposed to be vulnerable to interrupts to balance it’s high heal/low CD) with Mist Form, and the Engineer got caught in the crossfire even though the heal skills are very different.

Hey hey, Asteria Rose here. I’m so glad the podcast is up, it was very fun to do and I feel as though it will slowly be better and better in the future! Amadeus is fun to work with, so I have a positive outlook on what’s to come, right now I’m a bit rusty when it comes to speaking (I used to be an announcer at my old high school) But I should get back into it and start having fun, hopefully everyone will like it ^^

Just wanted to say thank you to the hosts and to SOAC for making this possible!
Really enjoyed the podcast, great job to everyone involved!

uhm is it just me or does their PVE guide/videos say “this playlist has no videos” ? Guess they’re having the same problems the rest of us are.

@ Mentalpulse I’m glad my few missups with words turned out to be to listen to, instead of annoying Also! Thanks for the great feedback, we will of cuase work on get the show steam lined and get all information intop to notch standard!

@DrWhom! Thanks for the kinds words, and you are spot on with the Elixir S nerf, it is for sure a tpyical Anet “nerf”, that they wanted to prevent elementalists from starting to channeling Eather Renewal and then going Mist form! Which we now suffer from as welL! Here hoping they will look a bit more into that issue!

@Spear Glad you liked it! Will make sure you get many more podcasts to look forward to! this is only the start!

@Tigirius: We have only just gotten the youtube channels up and running, and we will slowly add more content to it, when we get it that is! I will personal get more and more WvW stuff linked from my own youtube channel, but if you know anyone with good Engineer videos, send a video with there youtube channel and we will see to get it linked! It’s going to be meant as a data base for Video’s about Engineers (The other Professions got their own as well)

But I’m personal not that much into PvE, so ain’t doing video of that, nor do I know that many PvE Engineer’s (I only do Exp Dungeons and FOTM 10-16 for the daily every now and then). Which Means I’m actually looking for a Engineer with a lot of knowledge about the PvE sides of playing an Engineer, to come guest the podcast and have a conversation about that topic! If any feels that’s them, or know someone that might be spot on, be free to PM or Email me!

It was nice to hear some talk about turrets. Here are some highlights that I (badly) transcribed):

Host:
Everybody loves turrets, but you can’t play them.

I love the whole idea behind turrets.

[but] They totally disappointed me.

Amadeus:
Turrets is a bit of a hard thing to discuss with the–for the community. There is a lot of people that wanted turrets to be better and I’m definitely on that side as well, but the thing with turrets they are so situ—there are so few places where you can use them. I play a lot of WvW as well and with all of that AOE damage going around and so many people running around they’re just not going to last for long.

Host : It has a lot to do with how AOE affects them.

Amadeus: It’s hard to justify picking them over a kit—they only do single target damage, and they have targeting issues.

Host: I ran a dungeon with turrets and we were doing COF storymode, and I don’t think the turrets lasted through a single fight.

Amadeus:
They have potential, but they are weak.

Asteria Rose:
…there’s turrets that can be put to use…and if used correctly, they’re insane…

Although these comments ring true for me I’m currently having a lot of personal success with turrets. I attribute this to how I use them, but also because of the nature of the Conquest game mode and the fact that the majority of players don’t know what they can do. Players have to get near my turrets to attack me and once I start controlling them I have a very good chance of beating them. I can defeat all professions with regularity except Mesmers (we all need a counter profession), and have won a good deal of 1v2s. I have pulled out the rare 1v3, but only vs inexperienced players. That all being said, I don’t think Turrets have a place in WvW or dungeons at the moment, and in PVE/Events they are hard to use because of the long cooldowns.

Turrets are a set of utilities that would benefit the most from a split in design. The 5 minute duration needs to be removed in tournament PvP. An engineer that can keep his or her turrets alive throughout a match should be rewarded, not punished. The toolbelt abilities are not strong enough to be a good “reward” for having your turrets self destruct and go on cooldown. In PVE and WvW they need to receive a lot of buffs. The first is that they should be immune to AOE. In all game modes we should be able to focus their fire by calling a target or through the use of an Engineer only hot key much like the Ranger’s “Attack My Target” button.

I like the idea of “nesting” turrets so that the cleave/heal from Tool Kit 1 hits all of them, but the healing/repair needs to be stronger to promote this. I think a lot of Engineer players would really enjoy something like this. It would also be nice to see a Utility or new turret that heals your turrets while providing a unique and useful overcharge and toolbelt ablilty, that way players aren’t as restricted in their placement.

I mostly wanted to chime in on the turret discussion, but also drop in to say thanks for the great podcast, and I’m looking forward to more.

I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop.

Amadeus said it all for me :P. Great work guys!

@Grackleflint, you are correct in hot joins and against inexperienced teams turrets are amazing. The downside is that you give up so much utility to pickup things that a decent aoe bomb will clear out. The worst part about turrets, is that a smart Necro will condition bomb it and than epidemic off your turrets onto an entire team. Because turrets can’t dodge or block they are easy targets for necromancers.

It is done to minions and ranger pets all the time. I ran a few bunker engineer builds with turrets and it’s hilarious in terms of knockbacks.

@Crackleflint Thanks for the great input and feedback on the Turret’s!

Neither I or Asteria Rose is doing much sPvP (I have just begun to do more of it now tho, to get that experince in as well), so we couldn’t give so much feedback on sPvP (and Bas is a necro player, haven’t played Engineer that much :P). But it was exactly meant at sPvP that I do think the Turrets have potenial ^^

personal I had a lot of fun today running a net and rocket Turret, for complete shut down on everyone that attacked my node alone (But mesmers, they are a hard counter as you said). But the looong Cooldowns make you very inmobile, and I actually didn’t feel I killed people better/faster/easier in some of my Kit builds.

But right, I can keep rambling as well, my point was, I will try, in speical Gadgets and Turrets, open dialog with futhers guests, to hear their point of view, and trough those dialogs hopefully learn new things, but also create information that Anet can use, in speical when we start getting some people like Ostrichegg in ect. to talk about the Curretn tPvP!

Bas.7406:

Amadeus said it all for me :P. Great work guys!

@Grackleflint, you are correct in hot joins and against inexperienced teams turrets are amazing. The downside is that you give up so much utility to pickup things that a decent aoe bomb will clear out. The worst part about turrets, is that a smart Necro will condition bomb it and than epidemic off your turrets onto an entire team. Because turrets can’t dodge or block they are easy targets for necromancers.

It is done to minions and ranger pets all the time. I ran a few bunker engineer builds with turrets and it’s hilarious in terms of knockbacks.

I want to clarify because I think you misread my reply. I play tournament play with organized teams and against organized teams ranks 40-50 and do quite well. My comment about inexperienced players was in reference to winning 1v3s on occasion. I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention hotjoin. Also, even the best bunker builds cannot hold out 1v3 for very long. This is where team tactics come in and knowing when to ditch and leave a node to be of more use somewhere else.

Regarding bombs or other AOEs, if someone can hit all 3 of my turrets with 1 AOE, they’re hacking. My ranged turret is 900 or more off of the CP, my control turret is 400-600, and my dps turret is in the center. It’s never been a problem.

As for the necromancer I understand the risk I’m running, but with aggressive play I can prevent most necromancers from setting something like this up. I’m also fine with them hitting my whole team with Epidemic because after that set up I can drop Healing Turret and overcharge it to wipe 2 condis from up to each of 5 players. I sometimes detonate whatever turret they’re loading up with conditions because of this, but it’s usually not worth worrying about.

Amadeus.5687:

@Crackleflint Thanks for the great input and feedback on the Turret’s!

Neither I or Asteria Rose is doing much sPvP (I have just begun to do more of it now tho, to get that experince in as well), so we couldn’t give so much feedback on sPvP (and Bas is a necro player, haven’t played Engineer that much :P). But it was exactly meant at sPvP that I do think the Turrets have potenial ^^

personal I had a lot of fun today running a net and rocket Turret, for complete shut down on everyone that attacked my node alone (But mesmers, they are a hard counter as you said). But the looong Cooldowns make you very inmobile, and I actually didn’t feel I killed people better/faster/easier in some of my Kit builds.

But right, I can keep rambling as well, my point was, I will try, in speical Gadgets and Turrets, open dialog with futhers guests, to hear their point of view, and trough those dialogs hopefully learn new things, but also create information that Anet can use, in speical when we start getting some people like Ostrichegg in ect. to talk about the Curretn tPvP!

You’re welcome Amadeus, and thanks for giving so much to the Engineer community. I’m looking forward to more videos and interviews, and the podcast.

As for killing faster, when I’m bunkering in tPvP my main concerns are controlling a fight and surviving. My tactic is to apply steady and consistent damage while controlling my opponent. Then when I down them, if there is nobody else to worry about, I let them linger as long as I can to keep them away from the action. If I can keep a player out of a match for a minute or two I’m contributing a lot in terms of reaching our victory. So faster/better/easier is very subjective in this case.

Grackleflint.4956:

Bas.7406:

Amadeus said it all for me :P. Great work guys!

@Grackleflint, you are correct in hot joins and against inexperienced teams turrets are amazing. The downside is that you give up so much utility to pickup things that a decent aoe bomb will clear out. The worst part about turrets, is that a smart Necro will condition bomb it and than epidemic off your turrets onto an entire team. Because turrets can’t dodge or block they are easy targets for necromancers.

It is done to minions and ranger pets all the time. I ran a few bunker engineer builds with turrets and it’s hilarious in terms of knockbacks.

I want to clarify because I think you misread my reply. I play tournament play with organized teams and against organized teams ranks 40-50 and do quite well. My comment about inexperienced players was in reference to winning 1v3s on occasion. I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention hotjoin. Also, even the best bunker builds cannot hold out 1v3 for very long. This is where team tactics come in and knowing when to ditch and leave a node to be of more use somewhere else.

Regarding bombs or other AOEs, if someone can hit all 3 of my turrets with 1 AOE, they’re hacking. My ranged turret is 900 or more off of the CP, my control turret is 400-600, and my dps turret is in the center. It’s never been a problem.

As for the necromancer I understand the risk I’m running, but with aggressive play I can prevent most necromancers from setting something like this up. I’m also fine with them hitting my whole team with Epidemic because after that set up I can drop Healing Turret and overcharge it to wipe 2 condis from up to each of 5 players. I sometimes detonate whatever turret they’re loading up with conditions because of this, but it’s usually not worth worrying about.

I think we just found a future guest. Holy cow this is amazing information for players who want to try turrets in tournament play. I have been screwing around with a P/D bunker Turret Engi, and in some cases it’s amazing, but in others I get totally wrecked. I use thumper, net, and rocket.

I would be more than happy to contribute.

Do you mean Pistol/Shield or Pistol/Pistol? I can help with both play styles. I feel that the build you describe can take most comers—in fact I’ve been using a quad turret build with Healing, Thumper, Net, and Rocket for a couple of weeks.

Edit: I have to make sure to give Fairtex credit for getting me started on Turrets. A couple of months ago he posted a build with a video to show how he was using turrets in tPvP. I was skeptical but did what I always do—load up the build and try it out. I was instantly hooked and haven’t played other builds since then.

Hehe the only thing you need to do for winning the love of Bas is waving some Turrets infront of his nose! But I do agree, it could be quite the intrestring conversasion, both to be part of, but also to listen to! A talk about Turrets in tPvP and how to make them work, if possible, in WvW and PvE!

I will shoot you a PM Crackleflint with more info!

Thank you for all the positive feedback on the Engineer show. We are always looking to do what we can. We look forward to Episode 2 this coming Friday.

I want to apologize to the Engineer community. We had some technical difficulties which prevented us from having a Engineer podcast last week, but I have been assured that the team is ready to go this weekend.

That’s ok man. Keep up the good work!

In Engenious episode 2, Asteria Rose and Amadeus sits down with Crackleflint, and discuss the Engineer’s beloved, and yet hated, utility skill, Turrets! We discussed are turret’s truely viable, and which difficulties they currently have? We will laugh and share the joy of keeping a sneaky Theif permanent CC’ed, and the pain and frustration when your Net Turret start shooting at the Mesmers Illusions or get instant destroyed by a boss AoE!

So from our fantastic Engineer Hosts, we want to thank every single Engineer fan and say, “TRUST US, WE ARE ENGINEERS”

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-engineer-podcast-engineous-ep-2/

btw, crackle if you have any videos of you in action please let us know so we can check them out.

Bas.7406:

btw, crackle if you have any videos of you in action please let us know so we can check them out.

Unfortunately, I don’t—but I’ll work on that. Also, it’s Grackleflint with a “G”.

I also want to thank Amadeus and Asteria Rose for being so welcoming and easy to talk with. You both made being on the podcast a lot of fun.

Grackleflint.4956:

Bas.7406:

btw, crackle if you have any videos of you in action please let us know so we can check them out.

Unfortunately, I don’t—but I’ll work on that. Also, it’s Grackleflint with a “G”.

I also want to thank Amadeus and Asteria Rose for being so welcoming and easy to talk with. You both made being on the podcast a lot of fun.

Fixed it and made the change. I actually have not listened to it yet, but it’s on my playlist for my 3 hour drive tonight. I am totally pumped!

Sweet.

I hope you like it.

Grackleflint.4956:

Unfortunately, I don’t—but I’ll work on that. Also, it’s Grackleflint with a “G”.

I also want to thank Amadeus and Asteria Rose for being so welcoming and easy to talk with. You both made being on the podcast a lot of fun.

Same goes for you! It was a lot of fun and very easy to talk with you!!
Hope everyone that listen to it will enjoy it as much as I did shooting it! =)

PVE is definitely where engineers need the most help in with the seemingly continuous breakage that has been happening for months now to the class instead of the buffing of the other systems they would like us to use more (like buffing gadgets/turrets properly instead of breaking kit refinement and elixirs).

I loved the show Amadeus, grackle, and Rose. I really do wish they weren’t so bad in pve. I actually never brought the ability to choose where to put them into pvp before.

Thanks, Bas!

Yeah, in pvp placement is half of using them correctly. The rest is managing cooldowns and your own positioning relative to the turrets. If the podcast generated any more questions for you, please feel free to PM me or add me in game. I’m always up for talking strategy.

Glad to hear Bas!

People can all ready now, look forward to the next Podcast, where Ostirch Egg’s are guesting us, to talk a bit about Engineer’s in tPvP, his personal experince with what works and much much more!!

If people have anyone they would like to suggest/hear as a guest on our Podcast, or maybe a specific subject you would like covered, feel free to PM me or reply to this topic about it! We are open for suggestions about what you people would like to hear!

Hi!

I’d like to request a quick discussion regarding the minor trait “Inertial Converter” trait. I’d love to know more about the following areas:

a) What the internal cooldown is exactly… i haven’t been able to find that information anywhere. I’ve heard some rumours that is 90 seconds but It’s been especially frustrating for me when my Elixir R doesn’t pop back up when i expect it to.

b) What builds do people run it in?

If it’s actually common knowledge what the internal cooldown is, i’d appreciate it if someone could clarify that for me :P.

I tested inertial converter in the mists. It has its own cooldown of approximately 90 seconds.

p.s. this was a pain in the kitten to test

Grackleflint.4956:

I tested inertial converter in the mists. It has its own cooldown of approximately 90 seconds.

p.s. this was a pain in the kitten to test

Haha thanks for your efforts! Glad someone could clear that up for me as I would have no idea how to go about testing that lol.

Now just to figure out how to make use of this knowledge…would be nice if there was something visual to tell me if Inertial Converter will get used so i can plan whether to Toss that Elixir R for condi heals :p.

Thanks again – your awesome.

chungiee.8764:

Grackleflint.4956:

I tested inertial converter in the mists. It has its own cooldown of approximately 90 seconds.

p.s. this was a pain in the kitten to test

Haha thanks for your efforts! Glad someone could clear that up for me as I would have no idea how to go about testing that lol.

Now just to figure out how to make use of this knowledge…would be nice if there was something visual to tell me if Inertial Converter will get used so i can plan whether to Toss that Elixir R for condi heals :p.

Thanks again – your awesome.

You’re welcome, and I agree—there should be a visible countdown for traits that have cooldowns.

chungiee.8764:

Grackleflint.4956:

I tested inertial converter in the mists. It has its own cooldown of approximately 90 seconds.

p.s. this was a pain in the kitten to test

Haha thanks for your efforts! Glad someone could clear that up for me as I would have no idea how to go about testing that lol.

Now just to figure out how to make use of this knowledge…would be nice if there was something visual to tell me if Inertial Converter will get used so i can plan whether to Toss that Elixir R for condi heals :p.

Thanks again – your awesome.

With inertial converter against burst classes you’ll often see your elixir R go on CD again because of how the ability will reset during the “cast” time of elixir R.

When in doubt, throw it out. The worst thing that can happen is you throw R down too late and you don’t benefit from the reset. You get plenty of R’s with inertial converter. The best way to be able to tell the cooldown is via the match timer (in tourneys or hotjoins). Another option is your cooldown on supply crate.

Although it’s a bad idea to throw R down for condi cleanses if you’re relatively sure a teammate is going to go down before you. I’ve had that happen before and it’s a facepalm moment I try to avoid.

n Engenious Episode 3, Asteria Rose and Amadeus, sit down with one of the top tier tPvP players of the Engineer Profession! The very colorful and brilliant Engineer: Ostrich Eggs, yes that is a bird name! With him, the hosts discuss about which roles the Engineer have in the current tPvP Meta, which utility skill that rocks and those that sucks, good builds and much much more! Now go listen to the Podcast!

So from our fantastic Engineer Hosts, we want to thank every single Engineer fan and say, “TRUST US, WE ARE ENGINEERS”

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-engineer-podcast-engenious-episode-3/

Yay! Hope everyone wil enjoy it! was a lot of fun to talk with Ostrich Eggs and get some insight in how the Engineer is in the current sPvP meta! for sure not the last time we are going to talk with him! !

I can all ready now spoil next weeks guest will be no other then Maskaganda the man himself! Joining us for getting a overview on just how awesome the roaming WvW engineer is!

As all ways, feel free to PM/Email/Whisper in game any questions you migt have!!
Also, we are looking for PvE Engineer’s Intresed in joining us for a talk about the PvE aspect of the Engineer! So if you know one or are intrested yourself in joining, PM me and we will have a look at it!

Nice episode, but wow—turrets were thrown under the bus faster than a Thief can hit his #2 key.

Just a question: OP translates into useful right?

Because i hear OP being used on anything that is useful in that podcast. :O

Stop it ostrich, you are confusing arenanet. :P

Grackleflint.4956:

Nice episode, but wow—turrets were thrown under the bus faster than a Thief can hit his #2 key.

Unfortunately at the level that Ostrich is currently playing at Turrets are a disaster waiting to happen. I know that Zombify from SOAC loves pets and things like that as it allows you to spread epidemic and even funnier is watchign turrets target clones and pets over people.

sigh PVE still says “This playlist has no videos”

2177 hrs played of engineer 90% or more of that was in PVE. I learned to deal with the shortcomings of Engineer in PVE. I still enjoy it very much. 5 months or so grinding for that Fractal rifle.

tigirius.9014:

sigh PVE still says “This playlist has no videos”

If someone wants to make videos and get us a link to them we would be glad to get them on the playlist. We don’t go searching for them as we don’t want any issues. If someone gives us permission to post their videos than we have no problem linking to their videos and youtube. If there are people you would like us to add please let us know.

Hello, and welcome to another invigorating episode of Enginious! This week, our guest is Maskaganda, and we’ll be exploring the exciting world- World vs. World, that is! We learn a lot about surviving in the rough mobs, and facing up against many opponents! There’s a sense of fear in the air as we learn about how to keep up survivability, and learn how to target the weak first! So from our fantastic Engineer Hosts, we want to thank every single Engineer fan and say, “TRUST US, WE ARE ENGINEERS”

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-engineer-podcast-engenious-episode-4/

Total technical screw up – Gauge is next week ;p