Guild Wars 2

I read something troubling in Profession Balance Goals for the Winter 2016 Update and it was this:

“Engineer” … " … With that said, we’re still monitoring the defensive nature of the scrapper and may look to implement a reduction in survivability." (emphasis mine)

I would simply like to voice my opposition to any such change. My rationale is simply that Heart of Thorns is not a forgiving expansion, and survivability is kind-of all we engineers have; take away our survivability, and playing an engineer in Heart of Thorns will be as miserable, dull, and grueling as playing, say, a Warrior.

In Heart of Thorns, often, the PvE gameplay is not fun, because a player trying to navigate, for example, Tangled Depths or Verdant Brink is frequently swarmed or knocked-back, or otherwise overwhelmed by either an insurmountable horde of enemies or enemies with overpowered abilities (I’m thinking, specifically, of all the mushroom creatures, but my remark is not applicable only to them). For engineers, “zerker meta” (or whatever the flavor-of-the-month is for “optimal” damage output) is not and never really has been (1) fun or (2) viable. Engineers have always had to be clever to get the most enjoyment out of the profession, and that’s as it should be; it’s sort-of part of the flavor of the class.

I appreciate a challenge, and Heart of Thorns certainly has provided that. My only complaint is that the challenges don’t really scale with the size of the party (or the relative strength of the player(s)) encountering them. If one is a solo player trying to reach that last point of interest in Tangled Depths, he or she may frequently tend to feel like ArenaNet is just giving him or her the middle finger. That shouldn’t be the case, in my opinion, because it’s just not a fun experience, which is what a game should be. This problem would be greatly exacerbated for players who choose the engineer profession if they had to contend with a “reduction in survivability.”

At a minimum, as a player who considers my engineer to be my “main,” I would expect a compelling explanation and argument in favor of any such change. So far, I have seen nothing to indicate any such change is warranted.

I love scrapper but i must say that scrappers can take on a bit too much dmg considering the fact that we have stealth gyro and rly low cds on heals/stunbreaks

Mefiq.7039:

I love scrapper but i must say that scrappers can take on a bit too much dmg considering the fact that we have stealth gyro and rly low cds on heals/stunbreaks

scrapper seems about right though feels like it should a Bruiser , can take some hits but has to dish out quite a bit of hits to get his targets down due to not having burst skills
some skills have big damage but they are channeled unlike other actual burst skills like rifle #5 or rifle #3

and as mentioned previously nerfing survivability is gonna ruin scrapper in pve it is already near useless to run with a hammer in HoT due to everything dealing massive aoe damage or ranged damage

Rezzet.3614:

and as mentioned previously nerfing survivability is gonna ruin scrapper in pve it is already near useless to run with a hammer in HoT due to everything dealing massive aoe damage or ranged damage

How the heck is hammer useless in HoT? It has the best defense of any engineer weapon while also being capable of dishing out decent damage.

Electro-whirl, reflects missiles and dishes out pretty strong AoE damage; Rocket Charge, evade, damage, and triple leap finisher, great for using in a water field; Shock Shield, block and AoE damage; Thunderclap, AoE damage and stun.

Have we even been playing the same game? Because hammer scrapper is the easiest time I’ve had in HoT out of all my (9) characters.

Rezzet.3614:

…nerfing survivability is gonna ruin scrapper in pve it is already near useless to run with a hammer in HoT due to everything dealing massive aoe damage or ranged damage

This is my concern, exactly. I mean, if there is a problem with Scrappers living too long in PvP, maybe do something about that—something which only affects PvP players, and doesn’t totally screw over Scrappers in PvE.

They want to remove the Zerker meta by reducing survivability? They did a really poor job in giving people versatility as a full Zerker group is still ideal. Even in HoT content. The percentage damage increase from berserkers far out weigh the percentage damage reduction of other stats. I love my hammer. So much so that I’m finally crafting Juggernaut! My favourite legendary in the game.

I fear the changes will be with the hammer itself. Reducing the block of 4, reflect of 2. But at a price I don’t understand? We have a low health pool and to have the fast healing and stun breakers, we sacrifice damage. This change only forces builds to focus more on damage than trying to find a balance.

If they make changes to the trait line. And nerf it? I’ll be ashamed. Truly truly ashamed. 2 minor traits of the Scrapper are only good if your team mate is downed and you are alive. Please note ALIVE. I thought the idea was that the Scrapper was a beefy guy or Girl who will survive the mistake and be able to get up the friend that didn’t.

This change no matter how small is kitten on those traits. And if survival is going to be changed then I demand those traits are changed too.