Guild Wars 2

Checking in this week with Engenious, your engineered Focused Podcast

The show will air every two weeks on Saturdays at 3pm PDT live on www.YouTube.com/c/sittingonacouch.

https://youtu.be/o3cUSTrWSYA

We will have regular guests of great engineer players in the future.

Well it is good to see the show back.

Going to have it on iTunes?

Yeah I am just unsure how to get it from YouTube to itunes without having it on a website. I also am trying to create an RSS feed for other podcast pulls but I could use some advice on how to do that without recreating the website

This is actually a really good initiative. The previous attempts kind of petered out so I lost interest; but it’s coming back at the right time and in my opinion with the right speakers; Ceimash/Dirame in particular.

I am Combustiblemons from the podcast. Feel free to also send feedback my way. I realize that the mic levels were way off, I have it fixed for next time. Also, this one was much longer because of the new trait system and next episode will be more brief but with more discussion as there won’t be so much new stuff to cover.

MonMalthias.4763:

This is actually a really good initiative. The previous attempts kind of petered out so I lost interest; but it’s coming back at the right time and in my opinion with the right speakers; Ceimash/Dirame in particular.

Thanks dude! Haven’t seen you in a while! Glad to know you haven’t completely quit!

Dirame.8521:

MonMalthias.4763:

This is actually a really good initiative. The previous attempts kind of petered out so I lost interest; but it’s coming back at the right time and in my opinion with the right speakers; Ceimash/Dirame in particular.

Thanks dude! Haven’t seen you in a while! Glad to know you haven’t completely quit!

Working full time tends to do that.

A few things about the podcast itself:

• Audio levels are horrible. CombustibleLemons is super loud (and only cuts in 3 minutes into the video) and Ceimash is super quiet.
• There’s little to no structure or preamble going through the things to be discussed. I think it would be good just to quickly say, for example; we’ll go through PvP, then PvE, then WvW or to discuss the class’s recent and upcoming changes and going through what it means for each of the three game modes.

It is the first Engenious in a long time, so there’s obviously room for improvement. The previous podcasts suffered from the same problem of lack of structure, but the hosts changed every time so I don’t blame the lack of planning.

A few points about the points raised during the video:

• Turret Engineer’s nerfs, in my view at least, were justified; but Anet did not look towards reworking Turret skills and so the build is now useless. With the specialisation changes coming up the triple/quad Turret build will be buffed due to being able to combine Fortified Turrets with Metal Plating with Experimental Turrets. Accelerant packed turrets will be baseline as well; which is a massive buff to self-peel. The opportunity cost will be significantly lessened and the build will gain significant cleanse and sustain.
  • Since the very design of the Turret skills encourage “unhealthy play patterns” due to long cooldowns and immobility, it would take a significant change to the way Turrets are played now to make them useful without being OP.
  • I suppose I should own up to possibly being the one to suggest that Turrets are as glassy as they are right now. I hope they implement the other parts of the post though.

• Celestial is strong due to its high effective health. That is, high Toughness and Vitality. The closer the Toughness and Vitality ratio is, the more damage you can theoretically take. This is why Soldier’s was favoured in WvW by most classes until the Celestial buff and the Rune changes. When Dire was released, some Engis would swap over to that for solo roaming; and the reason is the same.
  • Ammys like Rabid/Settlers/Clerics have no Vitality which decreases survival against Conditions, and ammys like Carrion/Zerkers have no Toughness which decreases survival against direct damage. The fact that Explosives gives 300 Power to a Celestial build gives good hybrid damage thanks to Ferocity and some Precision. There is a reason why meta builds are so. The specialisations will hopefully give Engineers and other classes some much needed Amulet flexibility; but I won’t hold my breath.

• League of Legends’ patch schedule vs GW2’s was brought up by me a while ago. I don’t think things will change. They got better towards end of 2014 though. Whenever Anet is working on a huge game-upending feature patch though, is generally when you can expect things to slow down.

• I posted my take on the Specialisations changes in Chaith’s thread.

Regarding the Inventions changes, I’ve theorycrafted a 0-100 spike healer. .

If the Inventions Adept 2 trait has no Internal Cooldown then instead I would run Med Kit with Throw Mine and Traveller’s Runes .

I see a couple problems with the current Specialisations as they stand.

• Firearms had nearly all the Zerker engi relevant traits taken out: Rifle Mod, Sitting Duck. Enduring Damage and Empowering Adrenaline were also deleted.
• Tools has been severely nerfed for Zerker engi by putting Power Wrench along with Static Discharge.
• There are still way too many passive procs with Engineer; emblematic of lazy design. The Rocket-on-Crit, Incendiary Powder+Napalm Specialist, Shrapnel, Infused Precision+Precise Sights, Self-Regulating Defenses – all these traits being retained while other classes get interesting new synergies and effects that are predicated upon skillful play is disheartening.

MonMalthias.4763:

• I posted my take on the Specialisations changes in Chaith’s thread.

Yea, I read that already. Good stuff.

MonMalthias.4763:

Regarding the Inventions changes, I’ve theorycrafted a 0-100 spike healer. .

If the Inventions Adept 2 trait has no Internal Cooldown then instead I would run Med Kit with Throw Mine and Traveller’s Runes .

I see a couple problems with the current Specialisations as they stand.

• Firearms had nearly all the Zerker engi relevant traits taken out: Rifle Mod, Sitting Duck. Enduring Damage and Empowering Adrenaline were also deleted.
• Tools has been severely nerfed for Zerker engi by putting Power Wrench along with Static Discharge.
• There are still way too many passive procs with Engineer; emblematic of lazy design. The Rocket-on-Crit, Incendiary Powder+Napalm Specialist, Shrapnel, Infused Precision+Precise Sights, Self-Regulating Defenses – all these traits being retained while other classes get interesting new synergies and effects that are predicated upon skillful play is disheartening.

I wouldn’t put too much stock into what they are doing currently because of how unfinished and out-of-game it was, though we definitely have to tell them what we don’t want to see. I’ve also refrained from theorycrafting for that reason. I mean come on, 11 Blasts in one build? And each of those Blasts heals twice? Please Anet, have a seat because I think you lost yourself on your way down to the stream.

Dirame.8521:

I wouldn’t put too much stock into what they are doing currently because of how unfinished and out-of-game it was, though we definitely have to tell them what we don’t want to see. I’ve also refrained from theorycrafting for that reason. I mean come on, 11 Blasts in one build? And each of those Blasts heals twice? Please Anet, have a seat because I think you lost yourself on your way down to the stream.

Yep. What we saw of Engineer was extremely preliminary; so I don’t put much stock in what I saw. That being said I do fear that once again Engineer will be left half-done and balanced over time just as it was for launch. It is certainly the most dramatically changed of all the professions; with two whole trait lines being nuked and remade (Explosives and Inventions) and another two nerfed severely (Tools and Alchemy). This is even before the Elite specialisation too; of which I have no doubt will centre around drones from the trailer and the Hammer.

Anet has a golden opportunity here to rework all their old “lazy” design work and make Engineer into a much more defined class with greater build variety. Juggernaut’s changes and Kit Refinement’s consolidation into Speedy Kits bodes well for two former “dead” builds.

In terms of feedback, the main focus should be in trying to steer Anet away from passive procs. Traits that take advantage of new tech, such as on successfully evading an attack should also be leveraged for Engineer.

For active traits, Warrior has tons and tons of active traits that each alter playstyle in a slight but significant way. I think that’s a design philosophy that should be extended to every class. The Inventions line looks promising for Support builds, but I feel that Grenades will still dominate mid-range even with the range nerfs; that Turrets will be much maligned by the class if unchanged; and that Gadgets will still languish unless the skills themselves are altered in some way that redefines their role beyond CC. Elixirs will continue to be defined by the numbers; entering and exiting the meta by way of the duration of their effects; but otherwise not truly playstyle defining. Especially now with the nerf to HGH by moving 409 to Tools.

What would be really interesting is the possibility of finally giving Engineer access to a Weapon swap through the Elite specialisation. If the trailer is truly prophetic, and Engineer finally gains targeted, autotracking gap closers through the Hammer set; it could really shake up the way the class plays to the core. I would presume that the caveat in this case to be sacrificing the ability to equip a kit.

I think that in terms of profession outlook, Engineers have a bright future ahead of them. My other main, Elementalist, has yet to receive anything that actually changes the class away from the stance dancing meta nor even having the choice to “lock out” an attunement for new and different sets of skills.

For Heart of Thorns, the greatest excitement will be in rediscovering what makes each class unique. I have my doubts that Anet will be able to achieve this for classes like Elementalist and Necromancer, but for Engineer at least, I look forward to the prospect of starting from scratch once again.

I’m debating whether to start a thread like Gates Assassin’s Necro Feedback thread for Engineers. I may as well, but the slowness of the Engineer forum to me says that everyone is taking the proposed changes in with some cautious optimism. That said, silence is the worst feedback so I may type something up tomorrow.

MonMalthias.4763:

I’m debating whether to start a thread like Gates Assassin’s Necro Feedback thread for Engineers. I may as well, but the slowness of the Engineer forum to me says that everyone is taking the proposed changes in with some cautious optimism. That said, silence is the worst feedback so I may type something up tomorrow.

Go for it. I’ll definitely post my thoughts as well.

MonMalthias.4763:

• There are still way too many passive procs with Engineer; emblematic of lazy design. The Rocket-on-Crit, Incendiary Powder+Napalm Specialist, Shrapnel, Infused Precision+Precise Sights, Self-Regulating Defenses – all these traits being retained while other classes get interesting new synergies and effects that are predicated upon skillful play is disheartening.

This, instead of improving the active playstyle they have added unnecessary passive procs, id much rather see effects attached to certian skills rather then more passive procs.

Updated for this week’s show