Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

So yesterday we got a ton of information from ArenaNet regarding the new trait system as well as a look at every single trait for every single profession. You are all aware of this most likely.

So I wish to share a video and an article that I created for the Engineer changes. This includes a short talk about the skills, an in-depth look at all the traits and future builds discussion. For sure their development is still in the early stages and a lot can still change but you can already see what will synergize well with each other and what could potentially be the new ‘meta’ for the Engineer in PvE/PvP/WvW.

The video is rather lengthy, it’s 47 minutes. I therefore created a ‘Table of Contents’ at the start of the video so you can skip to the exact part you are interested in as I can understand completely that you are not really interested in listening to me for a full 47 minutes. If you are then I am very impressed. It’s this long because there is a lot to talk about that is not doable in a much shorter time without losing on information. I am pretty sure I already missed quite a bit of information especially since I read the opinions of other Engineers.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB35r8pfkTM

Text Version (summarized): http://www.wolfineer.com/engineer-traits-discussion/

Ah, I was wondering if there was something like this. Thanks for making it!

Thanks Wolf!

I was hoping the writeup would have a little more to it, but I guess you need us to watch at least part of the video. I’m starting that right now.

I agree with much of your cursory review. I’m not at all concerned about nade kit losing the range, in fact I would trade the range for projectile speed right now if I could. Explosives and Inventions look like they have great synergy, I see most Engineers pairing those together. Stacking 15+ might and getting healed for every blast you do sounds very insane. Obviously stacking it on top of water field blasts is cool and will probably result in a full heal for your whole party or close to it. Unless it’s something useless like 20 heal per blast I see this being very very powerful.

Unless I missed something it looks like all the turret traits (barring TBDs of course) are in Inventions. So you don’t have to use up all your points if you want to run turrets. Aside from turrets being useless for much of their existence this has been my main gripe with them. I’m interested to see how I can run turrets and still have two other trait lines to customize my build. Firearms is a logical choice for one since you’ll spend more time in your weapon rather than kits, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

I’m excited about Firearms damage potential. It looks pretty solid for either condi or power. Robo Legs looks pretty cool, I hope it comes with +25% movement to get people away from defaulting to Tools for speed though. Also how do you have robot legs but you can’t run faster than anyone else??? I hope this was an oversight in the slideshow.

Tools has the disappointing merge of SD and Power Wrench like you mentioned, but it’s another trait line that I like overall. Speedy Kits and KR together is pretty cool, I’ve missed using KR even in its current lame state. Cleansing Formula 409 must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Alchemy seems pretty meh, but that’s relative to our other options overall it’s not a bad trait line. It does have a TBD in every slot so their could be some special stuff hidden in there. I think we’re in a real good place if this is our worst trait line.

As an aside, do we know for sure you can spend 6 points in each trait line you choose? I’m seeing the three minor traits as being sort of pointlessly stripped apart if you get all three anyways. I didn’t catch it in the stream, but if they did say you can get the GM trait in each line you choose then that’s sort of weird to me.

EDIT: A comment on your video said Shrapnel is 100% chance with no CD!? As excited as I am to try the new Mortar and use that trait, Shrapnel is now absolutely insane even if they reduced the bleed duration.

Adamantium.3682:

EDIT: A comment on your video said Shrapnel is 100% chance with no CD!? As excited as I am to try the new Mortar and use that trait, Shrapnel is now absolutely insane even if they reduced the bleed duration.

errr i think anet implied it would still be at 15% proc rate on hit, they just added cripple to make it more defining for condi builds and swapped it with grenadier cuz grenadier is getting a hard nerf pretty much no matter what

perma cripple with frequent reapplication is even dumber than a burn guard. theres no way itll be 100% proc

insanemaniac.2456:

Adamantium.3682:

EDIT: A comment on your video said Shrapnel is 100% chance with no CD!? As excited as I am to try the new Mortar and use that trait, Shrapnel is now absolutely insane even if they reduced the bleed duration.

errr i think anet implied it would still be at 15% proc rate on hit, they just added cripple to make it more defining for condi builds and swapped it with grenadier cuz grenadier is getting a hard nerf pretty much no matter what

perma cripple with frequent reapplication is even dumber than a burn guard. theres no way itll be 100% proc

I tend to agree with you but there’s a comment on the video and Wolf seemed to agree that was happening. I would like proof if they did say it, otherwise I think you’re right.

Adamantium.3682:

insanemaniac.2456:

Adamantium.3682:

EDIT: A comment on your video said Shrapnel is 100% chance with no CD!? As excited as I am to try the new Mortar and use that trait, Shrapnel is now absolutely insane even if they reduced the bleed duration.

errr i think anet implied it would still be at 15% proc rate on hit, they just added cripple to make it more defining for condi builds and swapped it with grenadier cuz grenadier is getting a hard nerf pretty much no matter what

perma cripple with frequent reapplication is even dumber than a burn guard. theres no way itll be 100% proc

I tend to agree with you but there’s a comment on the video and Wolf seemed to agree that was happening. I would like proof if they did say it, otherwise I think you’re right.

Shrapnell + firearms = vuln., extrableed and criple on pistol AA

I still feel kit refinement will need to be changed completely as it is it feels very underpowered I have a few ideas they could change it
Kit refinement now grants a boon when swapping to a kit insert 10sec cd or something
Grenade kit-2 stacks of might
Elixer gun-Regeneration
Bomb kit-Fury
Toolkit-Protection
Flamethrower-Quickness
Medkit-Aegis
Mortar kit -1 stack of stability (really low duration would prob make this balanced)

Another idea is on swap effects somewhat
Grenade kit-next attack will explode for aoe damage 240 aoe or something
Elixergun-transmutes one condition to a boon
Bomb kit-Activates a blast finisher
Toolkit-Pushes back enemies (not really sure on this one)
Flamethrower-Creates a fire field
Medkit-Drops 2 bandages
Mortar kit-Drops a light field on your location
just some ideas

I think KR is not necessarily bad as it is now but the shard cooldown is what kills it for me. A cooldown per kit would be manageable for me but one global cooldown is pretty rough for the amount of kit swapping the average Engi will do.

I would not like to see boons (boring) and if you’re thinking of using kit specific unique skills they already do and I’m not sure your suggestions are an improvement. The first incarnation of KR was perfect to me but I know we’ll never see it again.

Adamantium.3682:

I think KR is not necessarily bad as it is now but the shard cooldown is what kills it for me. A cooldown per kit would be manageable for me but one global cooldown is pretty rough for the amount of kit swapping the average Engi will do.

I would not like to see boons (boring) and if you’re thinking of using kit specific unique skills they already do and I’m not sure your suggestions are an improvement. The first incarnation of KR was perfect to me but I know we’ll never see it again.

Well nades are to blame for the first version was a bit out of hand the shared cd does kind of suck. Wouldnt mind to just see a static stat increase while in each kit like while in med kit-120 healing power or bombkit-120 ferocity Flamethrower-120 Precision so on so forth

Frightlight.3796:

Adamantium.3682:

I think KR is not necessarily bad as it is now but the shard cooldown is what kills it for me. A cooldown per kit would be manageable for me but one global cooldown is pretty rough for the amount of kit swapping the average Engi will do.

I would not like to see boons (boring) and if you’re thinking of using kit specific unique skills they already do and I’m not sure your suggestions are an improvement. The first incarnation of KR was perfect to me but I know we’ll never see it again.

Well nades are to blame for the first version was a bit out of hand the shared cd does kind of suck. Wouldnt mind to just see a static stat increase while in each kit like while in med kit-120 healing power or bombkit-120 ferocity Flamethrower-120 Precision so on so forth

Just because nades was OP doesn’t justify the global cooldown since they changed all the abilities. I would very much not like to see static stat increases or boons but I do agree that it should be changed somehow.

Adamantium.3682:

Frightlight.3796:

Adamantium.3682:

I think KR is not necessarily bad as it is now but the shard cooldown is what kills it for me. A cooldown per kit would be manageable for me but one global cooldown is pretty rough for the amount of kit swapping the average Engi will do.

I would not like to see boons (boring) and if you’re thinking of using kit specific unique skills they already do and I’m not sure your suggestions are an improvement. The first incarnation of KR was perfect to me but I know we’ll never see it again.

Well nades are to blame for the first version was a bit out of hand the shared cd does kind of suck. Wouldnt mind to just see a static stat increase while in each kit like while in med kit-120 healing power or bombkit-120 ferocity Flamethrower-120 Precision so on so forth

Just because nades was OP doesn’t justify the global cooldown since they changed all the abilities. I would very much not like to see static stat increases or boons but I do agree that it should be changed somehow.

They could just do a simple thing to it like reduces the cd of all kit abilities by 20% and increase the damage by 10% simple but worth taking this way it would effect all kits equally. A boring idea, but useful for any build using kits. Another idea could be swapping kits refills 10 endurance something slightly small but with a low cd like 5 sec so it can be used often.

I’m seeing the possibility for MH pistol to do some very good things, considering auto-attack is now an explosion, coupled with:

-baseline coated bullets = lots of explosions when targets are grouped up
-explosives grandmaster, shrapnel, chance to bleed/cripple on autoattack
-explosives minor trait for 10% more damage from explosions
-explosives minor trait for vulnerability on explosions
-explosives master trait for increased damage to vulnerable targets

and that’s not even considering the firearms adept trait to improve pistol conditions

IMHO the engi changes look probably the best of all classes providing buffs to underutilised skills and enabling build variety and whats more apart from the moa they are generally logical. If Matt Lotharius is primarily responsible then kudos to him.

For me, aside from the massive excitement of Mortar Kit (I’ve always felt like Supply Drop didn’t really fit what my builds were trying to do, but couldn’t justify using the Mortar for anything better), and the disappointment of Juggernaut and IP+NS becoming mutually exclusive… I’m actually most excited for what some of these traits will mean for new, fresh builds. (though I do worry that ‘nades will remain glued to most skill bars, they won’t need to be wielded constantly, at least.)

Despite my disappointments around the Juggernaut build losing its best damage trait companion, I really like where this could go as a mid/close-range bunker build. Decap bunker is something that has been played around with before for SPvP – you take advantage of all the Engi’s knockbacks and sustain to just continually push an opposing bunker off a point, and thus cap it while they’re still there – and the FT is already a great boon for this thanks to Air Blast. Juggernaut granting stability only makes this better (and if that stability persists for a second or two after leaving the kit, you can even use rifle #4 without knocking yourself back). It takes on some potential for WvW frontlining as well, especially with Healsplosions traited and their FT #2 skill for more blasts, though retaliation will still be a problem. (maybe they’ll tweak that a bit along with the conditions rework?) There’s already a couple people I know who run a frontline FT engineer, and Juggernaut just makes it better.

On a different point, the removal of stats from traits kinda excites me, too. On the one hand, this could complicate gear choices; where the old 6/2/0/4/2 condi kits build had a nice little chunk of vitality and power to back up its condi/precision/toughness focus, these will be gone unless you’re mixing in some Carrion and (more) Dire to your Rabid gear. For the builds that used Inventions instead, you’ll lose that healing unless you gear for that as well.
On the other hand though? The fact that the Firearms line provided condition damage, but was so grossly overshadowed by the Explosives line due to Grenadier and IP and Shrapnel, meant that the most competitive condi Engineer builds actually had less condi damage than most of the other condi classes. Full Rabid/Dire/Carrion gear should result in higher condition damage overall, which is just great. Builds like Static Discharge can have their power, precision, AND ferocity where they want, without having to sacrifice on one of them due to all three being spread across three trait lines.
This of course goes for every class, but I think Engineer especially had a bit of a weird spread of stats on their traits, meaning that they would almost always have a few extra points in something they didn’t really need, and a few less points in something they did.

fluidmonolith.3584:

I’m seeing the possibility for MH pistol to do some very good things, considering auto-attack is now an explosion, coupled with:

-baseline coated bullets = lots of explosions when targets are grouped up
-explosives grandmaster, shrapnel, chance to bleed/cripple on autoattack
-explosives minor trait for 10% more damage from explosions
-explosives minor trait for vulnerability on explosions
-explosives master trait for increased damage to vulnerable targets

and that’s not even considering the firearms adept trait to improve pistol conditions

I agree and it’s high time the main hand pistol got some love. The only thing I question is what I have bolded: Currently with Coated Bullets traited the pistol auto shot explosion only occurs at max range, not at each target it hits. Hopefully this is part of the change.

I’m not happy about losing rifle mods.. that’s about my only issue because I can just run elixir rifle over static discharge with firearms + alchemy + tools (although explosives trait line still seems to be above average, and 10% more dmg on jumpshot is tempting)

I dont like these changes at all. And besides that i find it very telling that Engineers are still in the “power point”-stage.

Grenades are getting nuked to make the Mortar Kit seem more useful. That’s bullkitten, to get the same thing we already have will now cost an Elite slot. While Engineer keeps struggling with limited, viable, ranged options.
And Grenades work well for both power, condition and hybrid builds. But theyre getting nerfed down to 900 range and will lose their field.

I don’t like how much emphasis is being put on Engineer as a support profession. I don’t like how hybrid in general is getting gutted with how traitlines are redesigned.

And i refuse to applaud the new weaponskins for kits that previously didnt have any. It took them more than 2.5 years. 2.5years in which they added dozens upon dozens of new weapon skins but never something for the kits that didnt have any to begin with.

I don’t see the grenade changes as a nerf. The fact they could out range a RIFLE was really silly… Even for fantasy!

The changes at this stage give a huge boost not only to grenade damage, but make them easier to land when traited….

Untraited, they still look okay since now 3 grenades is standard ;-)

Silly is a pretty meaningless term in a fantasy where a Ranger can shoot in the air a few times and literally rain down a hundred arrows.
And you dont even know if these changes “give a huge boost” as its all tbd in some power point presentation. You HOPE it will be a boost.

Regardless, anyone who liked to play the style of long range bombardier is going to lose that option and is now left hoping the Mortar kit will suffice. Which again, we dont know it even will.

Engineers are very limited in their ranged options. 1200range autoattack doesnt mean it’s a good ranged weapon when everything else on that weapon needs you to be so close to your enemy, it’s virtually melee or even sub-melee range.

There are quite some changes I find interesting and I like the direction the devs are taking the Engineer with all the blast finishers. I’m also not too concerned about Grenades. The range was way too high in WvW and the damage in close combat is too high as well when considering we got bombs. Re-working them into a mid-range kit feels reasonable.

They cleaned up many trait lines and Invention finally seems to have an identity. I like it. Tools not so much. However, other than that it is difficult to judge how the changes will play out due to all the missing tbd-traits.

There are some things which caught my eye, though.

Bunker Down and Elixir Infused Bombs

I currently run a 2/6/6 build with those traits and I love it. The new Bunker Down – while supposedly doing the same thing – looks extremly odd to me. It opens up healing for non-Bomb kits. But imagining how it plays out is weird. ‘Hey, yo! Want some nice stuff? Want some Medi packs? Let me be your dealer!’

First, I love those small annoying Mines. I’d love to keep them. They look fun. They peep. And they explode. What is not to love about them? Medi packs on the other hand. Meh.

Second, Medi packs probably won’t be area effects (unless traited?). They also require an additional step to heal allies. Elixir Infused Bombs is rather instantaneous. Now your allies would have to pick up the packs. That’s not only very inefficient but also difficult to pull off. The Engineer also can actively heal a specific ally.

I guess they want Bunker Down to drop Med Kits so it synergizes with the Med Kit trait. However, I really hope they keep the small mines instead of making it only drop a Med Kit. I’d rather see small Mines which are triggered by foes (increase the trigger radius, guys…) and heal your allies while dealing a small amount of damage (since I believe they no longer want it to be a damage trait but they should be able to trigger effects on foes). The Mines could be labelled as Explosions and be affected by the Med Kit trait (whatever it will be).

Cleansing Formular 409

The new placement is rather odd. I guess it was moved there so Elixirs wouldn’t get too strong by just picking Alchemy. But thematicelly it really shouldn’t be in Tools. Even Inventions would have been a better place.

Out of combat Swiftness

Our Swiftness might be rather limited after the changes are introduced. Right now, you could always drop 2 points in Tools and be fine. You could also go for Power Shoes. Now the commitment you make to get Speedy Kits is way higher. I’m also unsure if Robo-Legs will provide a running speed buff.

This could turn out to be extremly annoying.

Adamantium.3682:

Thanks Wolf!

I was hoping the writeup would have a little more to it, but I guess you need us to watch at least part of the video. I’m starting that right now.

I agree with much of your cursory review. I’m not at all concerned about nade kit losing the range, in fact I would trade the range for projectile speed right now if I could. Explosives and Inventions look like they have great synergy, I see most Engineers pairing those together. Stacking 15+ might and getting healed for every blast you do sounds very insane. Obviously stacking it on top of water field blasts is cool and will probably result in a full heal for your whole party or close to it. Unless it’s something useless like 20 heal per blast I see this being very very powerful.

Unless I missed something it looks like all the turret traits (barring TBDs of course) are in Inventions. So you don’t have to use up all your points if you want to run turrets. Aside from turrets being useless for much of their existence this has been my main gripe with them. I’m interested to see how I can run turrets and still have two other trait lines to customize my build. Firearms is a logical choice for one since you’ll spend more time in your weapon rather than kits, but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

I’m excited about Firearms damage potential. It looks pretty solid for either condi or power. Robo Legs looks pretty cool, I hope it comes with +25% movement to get people away from defaulting to Tools for speed though. Also how do you have robot legs but you can’t run faster than anyone else??? I hope this was an oversight in the slideshow.

Tools has the disappointing merge of SD and Power Wrench like you mentioned, but it’s another trait line that I like overall. Speedy Kits and KR together is pretty cool, I’ve missed using KR even in its current lame state. Cleansing Formula 409 must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Alchemy seems pretty meh, but that’s relative to our other options overall it’s not a bad trait line. It does have a TBD in every slot so their could be some special stuff hidden in there. I think we’re in a real good place if this is our worst trait line.

As an aside, do we know for sure you can spend 6 points in each trait line you choose? I’m seeing the three minor traits as being sort of pointlessly stripped apart if you get all three anyways. I didn’t catch it in the stream, but if they did say you can get the GM trait in each line you choose then that’s sort of weird to me.

EDIT: A comment on your video said Shrapnel is 100% chance with no CD!? As excited as I am to try the new Mortar and use that trait, Shrapnel is now absolutely insane even if they reduced the bleed duration.

I am still not sure about Firearms. The traitlines Explosives and Inventions just look so strong together that it’s hard for me to see anything els work just as good. Tools is just so strong because of Inertial Converter already. That trait is really good and has saved me many times. On my Static Discharge build it sometimes was THE reason I won the fight.

As far as I know, you have to spend 6 points in every line when you specialize in it. As it is pointless anyways not to go 6 into a line as you can only take a maximum of 3 traitlines.

Oh and about that comment, that can’t be true. I mean no cooldown and a 100% chance means permanent cripple and very high bleeding stacks. Sounds just a little bit too OP!

Explosives Much of this line looks strong. Grandmaster in Mortar is the shining jewel, and skill 1 potentially becoming a blast finisher would allow easy long distance combos on the fields they make. They synergize well together. While Barrage is exciting, I see much more utility from skill 1 being a blast finisher.

Alchemy is actually a very strong line of defense when used in builds for WvW raiding / heavy pressure and I would hate to see it torn up.

Backpack Regenerator competes with Self Regulating Defenses and I take issue with that. Consider this compared to the Warrior which has both Defy Pain (similar to SRD) and Adrenal Health (a regen skill based on adrenaline level) both in one traitline, the latter was proposed as a minor trait in the Warrior Defense line. They still can take advantage of both damage negation and regeneration.

Backpack Regen should become a minor trait and 409 put in its place as Master.

Automated Medical Response This should be the TBD Grandmaster trait for Alchemy. Of all the traits that were put on the chopping block, if there was one I would pick to return over all others, it would be this.

If Automated Response is kept as Grandmaster, it should be buffed to include condis on the player before it triggered or have its health threshold increased, or completely overhauled as a way to provide condition resistance.

Inventions is solid. Players can more reliably buff/heal allies with those minors and select traits. Coupled with Mortar Kit—this of course is relying on Mortar Elixir to be a water field and skill 1 being blast—waters can be blasted with more frequency. Group heal potential akin to a staff Ele so a real support Engineer is viable? Yes please!

Tools does need a little work, but I understand some of the difficulty here in balancing. Take into consideration that Speedy Kits and Kit refinement are pretty strong, so strong that it will likely overshadow the other Master traits in that line.

I made a few suggestions for the Master TBD here.

“Gadget Trait (TBD)” =Speedy Gadgets + Gadgeteer. The CD reduction is a must for AED and other gadgets such as Rocket Boots and Slick Shoes, and is a must for anyone using a gadget focused build. Gadgets don’t get nearly as much attention as they should, which is a shame, as they are a diamond in the rough.

Grandmaster TBD: Armor Mods + Stabilized armor or Stabilized Armor + Acidic Coating Reason it isn’t in many builds currently is that it required full vestment of points in the traitline, which some players didn’t want to commit.

409 shouldn’t be a Grandmaster in Tools, but thrown back into Alchemy as Master and Backpack Regenerator bumped to Alchemy minor.

The only thing im worried about is if they nerfbat my recently crafted ascended celestial armor -_-
And besides, i see the granade change to be a buff. It was most useful in relatievly close quarters anyway. and 3 granades being baseline is awsome.

Noha.3749:

The only thing im worried about is if they nerfbat my recently crafted ascended celestial armor -_-
And besides, i see the granade change to be a buff. It was most useful in relatievly close quarters anyway. and 3 granades being baseline is awsome.

Regarding Celestial, I believe they’ve said they’ll fiddle with the numbers on the SPvP amulet, but no mention of the regular gear. Personally though, I think even with a small hit to the numbers, Celestial gear will still be a solid choice for Engineer and may actually go up in value, due to them losing the variety of stats they currently get from their trait selections. So you’re probably in good shape.

First, my concerns about following missing traits:

Power Shoes: This was a really good option when you didn’t want to go tools tree. Now that we can’t just put 2 point to tools tree for speedy kits, this trait should become more important to have. But you removed it while you should have done the opposite.

Cloaking Device: This was a really good target drop trait. I would LOVE to see this one merge with power shoes and put back in inventions tree.

Sitting Duck: This one was actually my go to trait if i ever put points in firearms. Useful for burst and pve builds for 5 instant vuln. Really good fill for condition builds. I dont know how and where to put this back but i think its worth not losing this trait.

Potent Elixir: Did i miss you talking about this one? Is this baseline or added to hgh? If its not, it really should be either of those.

Enduring Damage: This one was a nice boost when engaging battles. Burst and pve builds will be effected by this loss of dps.

Also some traits could use an update. Because some of them conflict with others or lack synergy or just feels lackluster.

Adrenal Implants: This is where I am disappointed the most. I used to run this trait with speedy kits and static discharge. Now it will be forgetten because people will always pick speedy kits over this now that power shoes are gone. If you want vigor you are now forced to go whole two trees. And if you don’t want to do that and pick this trait you are left without any speed bonus now that power shoes are gone. This trait should be synergizing with toolbelt somehow. Please reconsider making changes about this trait.

Tools Tree: I think you should add more things for our actual profession mechanic which is toolbelt. The only major trait which is directly related to toolbelt is static discharge at the moment. We could totally use more traits about toolbelt. Which could add new mechanics for toolbelt or even simple things like cooldown recharge like you did with other professions. Now that you are overhauling engineer, i dont see any reason to not add more toolbelt traits.

Modified Ammunition: This one always felt like meh. Its not amazingly good or build definingly unique. Its just like %10-12 damage boost at peaks even for massive boss fights. You should either boost the damage or add some kind of functionality to it.

Incendiery Powder: Now that burning is stacking intensity, this one should be adding 2-3 stack of burning or be cooldown free. To be honest, removing cooldown would make it crazy op with that duration so i don’t know.

Automated Response: I honestly don’t know what to do with this one. It doesn’t synergize with anything, it doesn’t have an effect on playstyle(like it used to do) or don’t even have a reason to use that i could think of. Maybe you should just make it lower the condition duration to like %25 without any health requirement.

New Shield Trait: I don’t think protection is a way to go here. Because these skils are designed to avoid the damage via reflect and block, not tanking the damage. The amazing thing to do with this trait would be increase the reflect and block duration.