Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow golden children engineers! I want to find out how everyone is doing with the new changes. Either answer my questions directly or just write about what you feel is important for the devs to know.

Questions:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
6. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
7. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Well I find grenades better right now with the velocity increase from grenadier, you can actually hit something that moves also the mortar is pretty good even after the nerf, I’m not sure if the physical projectiles are working correct though.The med kit had great potential (at least as far as a support bunker in pvp ) but something went wrong along the way, meaning still using turret.

My wish right now is a visual upgrade for flamethrower and egun, as they look really outdated compared to the new kits.

I use something like this (http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VZ;4sPVg0c-JR-x0;9;4ijm;0047238136;4LJ0;3jxqQjxqQr-ki-M;2a;1f1A4f6A9fBf0-WCN771C) for WvWvW and PvE (Silverwastes mostly, and I don’t like having to carry two sets of gear around).

Some Notes:

• I love the Med Kit, even though I usually only use the ToolBelt Heal (getting the activation without cd on dodge is awesome). I use the other skills occasionally, but, with the exception of vuln and combo fields a plenty, this is a pretty selfish build.
• I think that Mortar Kit is very useful, especially the Toolbelt skill, but getting guaranteed Projectile finishes on my 1 skill is great
• Grenades are still useful, though I, oddly enough, find them most useful at close range. I usually lay down my bombs, then switch to nades and go ham, switching back to bombs when they’re off of cd
• With all of the hits I get from nades, I get enough crit procs on my bleeds and burns that seeing myself get 4k bleed ticks and 2k burn ticks, on top of any poison and confusion I put out, is pretty common.

As for your questions:

1. I think that grenades and mortar are a good mix, particularly for a condi build
2. I’ve been using mortar kit. After using Supply Drop exclusively for so long, I haven’t looked back
3. I ran bombs before the patch, so I’m running them the same amount
4. Posted my build above. I use nades, but wasn’t aware of the bug or exploit
5. I currently use the new med kit because the Tools traits make the heal really strong (relatively beefy on a low cd and occasional 0 cd)
6. See above
7. I never considered gadgeteer because I only run one gadget.

I’d just note that I really miss fireforged trigger, the timing changes are a pain ignoring bugs it’s the only thing I feel I lost. I actually like Mortar much better than old 900+ range nades that you could almost never land, mortar I’m having much more success with.

Med kit, well my big hope was the “blast on heal skill” trait in the initial preview. That got dropped and well, so has my hope for a nice secondary option. It was really the trait that would shine some light on this underutilized skill. But, now it’s just clunky, some neat effects but just it’s very good imo. I think it’d be better if they weren’t viewed as a support tool but just as a personal selfish thing, maybe traits that have group support out of it.

AED with the refresh trait seems promising though I haven’t toyed with it, though still highly specialized.

For PvP…

1. Grenades are still the best kit! Mortar is for support-y fields but grenades still do the most damage by far, whether it be power or condition!
2. I’ve been taking mortar! The fields are really good for teamfights and 1v1s! Supply Crate is really good too! Elixir X is still garbage!
3. Flamethrower is still worthless! EGun has been super buffed with the HgH trait! Bomb Kit is strong in 1v1s, but still worthless in team fights! The cleave you eat is much greater than before with the power creep!
4. The build I’ve been using has been Explosives, Alchemy, Tools! Grenade Kit + HgH Elixir Gun + Tool Kit + Mortar! Rifle, Marauder/Celestial, Hoelbrak, Energy/Battle! I’ve also been using Explosives, Alchemy, Firearms P/P condi with Traveler Runes to make up for the movement speed loss!
5. Med Kit stinks! You have to cast the throwables then run over them to pick them up! You can easily die in between that! Or a teammate could pick them up! It’s just poopoo!
6. Healing Turret is still king of Engi Heals! AED is still godawful and you’d still be better off taking Healing Turret over Elixir H even in a dedicated elixir build!
7. Gadgeteer is terrible! There’s 2 issues with Gadgeteer! First are gadgets themselves! Why would you ever take multiple gadgets over multiple kits! With the way the Engi class is designed, Gadgeteer would have to beef up the power of gadgets exponentially to warrant picking gadgets over kits aka weapon swaps! Maybe the trait could empower all gadgets the more gadgets you have equipped! This prevents a super strong gadget being used in conjunction with kits a la Slick Shoes! The second problem is Gadgeteer competes with Adrenal Implants! Adrenal Implants is essentially permanent irremovable vigor and because of the new 3 trait line restriction, why would you give up permanent irremovable vigor for a booty butt gadget trait!

Also the explosives tree is poorly designed! Say you want to play a condi Bomb Kit build that doesn’t use grenades! Well your tier 1 choices in the Explosives line are bad! Say you want to play a condi grenade build that doesn’t use bombs! Well your tier 2 choices in Explosives are bad!

Thermobaric Detonation is… lol! Cool concept I guess! Not very useful in practice!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

I personally shy away from the meta but as a person who used to love hitting things with my E-gun at 1200 range, nope, it doesn’t make up for it because it doesn’t do the same things that my e-gun or grenades would do, which is pressure the enemy with condis.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

Crate is still the best, in 1v1s and above, it just fits every scenario. Mortar is more of a utility weapon, great for heals and damage but not great for CC, Elixir X, amazing CC.

I would say Crate best, Elixir X Great, Mortar meh.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?

The first build I’m making if FT/EG actually. So 2 out of 3.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.

Haven’t tried a lot of them. May be after a month I’ll let you know which is my favourite.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
2. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?

I haven’t used Medkit because it’s all about set-up, you have to be the guy sitting on a point to really gain the benefit. It’s probably great in PvE but not so great in PvP considering all the set-up you have to do.

Still haven’t touched AED or Elixir Heal.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Haven’t had time to give it a try myself unfortunately but I guess, having to get hit to get it to work may not be a so great idea. Could it be made an on dodge trait or on successful multiple dodges?

1) Grenades are good implemented imo atm, especially the velocity trait is nice. However they lost 1500 range wich is incredible important in wvw. After patch mortar was a good replacement, with enough (about equal as nades as before patch) pressure to at least make the enemies hindered a bit. Now post 28% nerf patch, sorry but it’s barely ok. I get 1500 range can’t be made overpowered. But devs forget slow travel time, reflectability (and the huge consesequances of an aoe reflect). They also forget how fast zerg moves, and how much that hinders mortar kit. Elementalist still king of kiting. And ranger 1500 range king, though more 1 target focussed.
2) mortar 1 (but now 2 because nerf). Supply crate 2 (1 because mortar nerf), the moa elixir is 3, then others (racials without F5 skill yet!)
3) Flamethrower has more play then at start of game, is is good for might blasting, however, is pretty boring, and with this patch didnt get really something new, i use it less. Bombs are ok, just not as amazing as nades imo. Heal infused bombs is truly missed, that was amazing. Elixir gun has always been a favorite skill of me. Best stunbreaker(imo), and now new elixir interaction. and lower cooldowns! Must have skill on my bar.
4) I used explosion + alchemy (hgh, Elixir S on almost death), and the line with streamlined kits. pretty allround builds, nothing amazing, but nothing bad either. Wich is what i like for in wvw, so you can zerg and roam. Nade, rocket boots, elixir gun, mortar, (and turret heal). In pve the elixir heal works great now too (hgh).
5) I tried met kit. It’s so bad now. I get it, it can’t be overpowerd. I really get it, but this implementation is both bad for support, and bad to use it for yourself. I know the old bandages had some issues but at least it had a lot of nice niche uses.
6) See above mainly. But yes only turret heal, and in pve sometimes heal elixir.
7) Haven’t investigated this yet.

I like the new Med Kit but i think the 1 Skill should get a higher base heal and a bigger Bonus from Healing Power. With 1833 Healing Power it heals only 82% more, compared to Regeneration which heals 176% more. Since you can´t attack while you heal someone, it should be a very strong healing ability.

well…

1. yea mortar WAS making up for the nades (for me).. before the friggin 28% nerf

2. crate > mortar > elixir-x. Crate cause its relyable and im used to it.. and now its even more usefull. Mortar cause of the toolbelt and fields.. and F dat auto nerf, without that nerf it would be the perfect replacement for the crate (imo). I still run it atm cause that double blast finish and the fields are really nice to have…but the attack damage man…ouch. Elixir x is really good, its just not my personal deal, i do like to moa lich form necros with it though.

3. I always used bombs and thats gonna remain that way cept they give me a (for me) pleasing melee weapon alternative. They are utility and attack power in one and its so nice to kite with them. With HGH i enjoy the e-g even more in my build. She is my clear choice of utlity with the blast finish, heal, cripple and stun break and now she also stacks might, love it. Flamer… ehhh i do use it, but not that much anymore. I did however use it in wvw just fine. Oddly i only ran the flamer waaay back then before it got buffed…but then again i wasnt that familiar with the class.

4.Well i run a weird build that most would laugh at cause its not meta and i had a lot of bad experiences showing my builds off in the forums so lets not go there…but be assured its really comfortable to play..especially now with the new trait system.. 25 stacks might sustain in battle….awww kitten.

5. Med kit…eh.. well it sure is fun and all but sooo clunky and really hard to hit things with #2 to #5, i can barely use it, a real shame… cause i love the revamp in theory, also where is the buff pylon thingy? That thing looked awesome. Also the visuals are epic too…like a mad scientist´s brass knuckle 10\10.

6. If mortar #5 + blast finish and elixir gun #5 count then yes i do. And if turret toolbelt+ blast finisher counts then i do aswell.

7. Compared how it was before the patch this is golden, compared to other traits its lackluster, it could use a bit of work…but dont ask me how to improve it, im not a gadget fan and i dont belive thats gonna change all too soon

My wall of text responses are so long they cannot be contained in a single post.

Here’s part one:

1. Grenades are just fine at 900. I’ve actually been using grenades in a build WITHOUT grenadier since they’re actually viable without it now, (More on that on the build question) so they’re still good without the godmode grenade glitch. When I AM running explosives I do much prefer the speed over the range, now that the third grenade isn’t a factor.

Mortar however, is a bit lacking as a long range artillery weapon, though it’s great for field support. I’ve suggested before the idea of possibly making it scale to do more damage at a distance like Long Range shot or the Mesmer Greatsword AA. (forgot the name of it) Honestly, one of the bigger issues for me isn’t the lack of damage against players, (Yeah, the DPS isn’t as good as ranger, but that’s single target and this is AOE) but against objects.

Old grenadier was handy for taking out traps and things like the artillery in the Ascalon fractal, and the mortar lacks a bit in that task. If the AA DPS can’t be un-nerfed, bonus object damage would make up for it, for me at least.

2. Still playing with the mortar and supply crate. Crate is like having a whole second heal skill now, but Mortar has some handy support options and has some healing of it’s own and the #5 working with HGH makes it a bit more worth it when you give up the extra cleanses from the now overcharge-able supply crate turrets.

Elixir X is easily the worst elite.
Truthfully, I actually used to run it in PvP while everyone else was still sticking with crates. It had a much lower cooldown than crates, and was really useful for reversing bad match-ups. Getting rampage was awesome for turning the tables on Mesmers and Necros, and tornado was generally handy for decaping in general. Getting the wrong transformation in a bad situation wasn’t that big a deal because it’s cancel-able with a low-ish cooldown.

It no longer has much of a cooldown advantage because of the no-cooldown mortar and the lower cooldown crate/bandage split. The main problem with Elixer X is you have no healing or cleansing while transformed, and with stacking burning, poison, passive damage confusion, etc, not having cleanses is a death sentence. Transforming into a form with no heals or cleanses is a suicide button now. Moa would be useful for resetting other’s transformations, but then, as mentioned, it’s suicide to use them so you’re better off bursting condis while they don’t have a clense themselves.

3. I’ve always had Elixir gun in both my Pve and PvP builds. That hasn’t changed. It’s my go-to PvE stunbreak and skills 3-5 are very useful in both modes.

I was never that big on the flamethower to begin with, to be honest.
I was looking forward to trying it out again with the stability from juggernaut, but it really isn’t that good in practice in PvP. I still get knocked around really easily and having to camp the flamethower (since the stability has a delay) really messes up my ability to rotate other kits or gun skills. I tried a one kit-flamethrower HGH build and I still wasn’t feeling it. Might be a personal taste thing though.

I used to run Elixir-Infused bombs in PvP, and without it I don’t really have a reason to use bombs in PvP anymore. Bunker down is the replacement, and it works better with grenades. If you have BOTH the mortar and grenades, you don’t really need bombs. Short fuse is meh. (Bigger bomb range would be better) Bomb kit needs a unique advantage over the other explosives besides just a smoke field. (and I still use it for stealthing at least, but I swap it back out as soon as I start running)

4. I’m leaning on a Firearms/Alchemy/Inventions specialization set up. Rampager, Sinister or Cele stats. Pistol/Shield, Heal Turret, Grenades, E-gun, situational elixir (actually liking U a lot now without the drawbacks, R is still really nice for certain bosses or helping newbie pug members) and Mortar for PvE and Crate in PvP. Staple traits are Bunker Down, HGH, Mecha Legs and Heavy Armor Exploit.

Still running my on-crit might and torment sigils, testing Lyssa runes for now. I’m finding this general build to be very good on support and healing while still dishing out solid damage numbers. Way less vuln than I’d have with explosives, but Heavy Armor Exploit still lets me hand some of it out on grenades so as long as I’m not the sole source of it the party still keeps decent stacks of vuln up. Crits and on-crit procs for days.

5. I want to like the medkit. I want to LOVE the medkit. I always have. Medic/healer classes tend to be my favorite ones in most games, even. But the water bom- er… heal turret is still just BETTER at both group AND self healing.

I get three clenses off the heal turret and extra regen with my traits, and the bonus healing power right off the bat before a boosted overcharge. And the water fields and blast finisher. Plus the heal turret is just harder to interrupt. (Really hard to use bandage or Elixer H in a pinch in PvP) I actually don’t mind throwing the bandages (Used to grenades, and I use a gaming mouse) but even with the cleanses the healing is just weak in practice.

The reward just doesn’t feel worth the time it takes to bother. Even having resistance feels lame with how little it lasts for the skill’s cooldown. Medkit just lacks the utility of the heal turret, despite the fact it’s a KIT. Needs better boons, or even a field or finisher, maybe even an offensive capability like the heal spray dazing or poisoning enemies in range, or just more sheer healing power, but it’s just not enough. If it’s going to be a team support kind of thing, it should be healing and supporting enough that my party actually notices the difference. Solo it takes too much time to use, and in groups other classes are better at giving those same boons just by using shouts.

7. I haven’t even tried the trait yet. The tools line in general isn’t really my style. That said, a trait that requires you to build up charges by eating hits is just bad design.

Most of the other on-struck traits or runes are damage mitigation or countermeasures (like the smokebomb or blinding birds) so it’s more of an anti-burst defense. The way it is, it useless to non-tanky builds and doesn’t encourage good habits. (I need to stand in this attack so I can use my overcharged gadget)

It needs another charging method. Like if you go a certain amount of time without using a gadget you save up the excess energy and it’s overcharged. Somewhere between 5-10 seconds, I think. Or it charges from walking a certain distance (Leg generators).

8. Bonus answer to the question you haven’t asked:
RIFLED BARRELS NOW.
I’m cool with reducing grenade range, but did every single gun (and turret) have to go down with them? Come on.

1. Grenades are good and basically a must have kit on nearly every build. They still feel kind of lackluster without grenadier though, which makes me feel kinda forced into explosives. The range is fine. I miss the poison nades being a field though, but since theres one on the mortar, its fine.

2. I like mortar, but it also feels kinda lackluster without siege rounds, and competing with shrapnel is a little tough, witch makes crate feel better since it doesn’t need trait investment to be “good”. Elixer X: The toss moa skill is great, but the actually elixer build causes you to be screwed over by RNG. I think the elixer needs a complete rework to not be RNG and to not steal lackluster trasnformation elites from two classes that don’t even run those elite skills in most viable builds, after all if tornado and rampage suck on they’re original classes, why would it be any better on engineer?

3. I haven’t really touched flamethrower or bomb kit. Grenades+Tool Kit fits my needs above them on every single build. I used a build with alchemy and HGH and the Egun and it did nicely there, but I felt it was a bit too cluttered of a build to be really all that effective in fights that aren’t 1v1s.

4. My favorite setup has been explosions/firearms/inventions with celestial, rifle, energy/intelligence and vamp runes. I feel like I honestly need inventions in all of my builds now, because it gives you so much extra healing to yourself and allies, and mecha legs is crucially important for not being a slow sea slug in a match. Bunker down is easily my favorite trait ever across all classes. I also feel like explosions and firearms are also mandatory as well. Without either of them your damage is too low across the board. Without firearms you have poor condition pressure, without explosives you have poor grenades, which makes your condition pressure worse as a result, even on celestial. I feel like Engineer suffers from 3 trait line syndrome, in that it always wants more traitlines to use than it can fit. Tools has some really really nice traits that I’d love to use, but explosives/firearms/inventions just feels too mandatory to me.

In more detail, regarding traitlines, they each have to have a unique focus, but I think the uniqueness of the engineer’s mechanics makes certain traitlines madatory.

For example:
Explosions- Direct damage
Firearms- Condition damage
Inventions- sustain through healing
Alchemy- sustain through boons/damage mitigation
Tools- Pure utility

In the past even full condition builds didn’t always take firearms due to IP being in explosives. Moving it to firearms makes more sense in the specialization system, but for hybrid celestial engineers this is problematic because:

1. Grenades give us most of our damage in teamfight
2. Grenades don’t work well enough (in my opinion) without explosives
3. Incendiary Power and the bleed on crit traits are needed to have decent damage with grenades.
4. Therefore this is problematic, because without taking both offensive traitlines, grenades won’t be good enough.
5. Taking 2 offensive lines means you can only take 1 defensive/utility line.
(full condition builds, not just cele are also bound to explosives/firearms for this very reason, probably even more so since they don’t have as much tankiness to suggest taking more sustain traits).

Additionally inventions strongly outclasses alchemy on most build because the elixer gun is needed to make alchemy be used to its full potential, and bunker down outclasses backpack regenerator for self sustain in my opinion. Taking elixer gun means you lose out on tool kit or slick shoes or elixer S, and this is a frightful tradeoff to make. This is okay because inventions is more focused on healing than anything else, but I really see little reason to take alchemy when inventions gives superior sustain, condition removal without needing a kit (e-gun), and it even gives the utility of movement speed/-movement condition duration, which negates the primary reason that engineers even went into tools in the first place in metas past.

About tools: Its very interesting and has great utility with permavigor or kinetic battery, and the ability to reveal, but I can’t see it being slotted simply because both offensive traitlines feel too mandatory to have decent damage, and its utility can’t objectively compete with inventions. Revealing stealth is very great right now, but its not worth losing a lot of damage elsewhere in my opinion.

1.Mortar kit is abokittene garbage, the long range and slow projectile is not worth than the supply crate. Even the orbital strike has superlong delay with obvious animation. It will have it niche in some people, but supply crate is better in any way. I even rather take the elixir x over mortar. If mortar had their damage back I will absolutely pick them again.

2. Best to worst. Supply crate>Elixir>Mortar>Racial

3. Bomb are still staple sometimes for me, but due to recent flamethrower buff on burning it is now my favourite kit. I run elixir for fun, but the AA is still underpowered for solo run, (good for the fumigate condi-boon) if you are well coordinated. And still good for those who want the grandmaster on alchemy, since the specialization opens up more possiblities.

4. HGH + Juggernaut + Bunker Down is pretty much my build atm, paired it up with flame legion and on-crit sigils. I can see FT viable in the new meta. You just chase down anyone who is dumb enough to be the next thanksgiving roast. You just hit them up close and drink elixirs to keep you pumped, and them melting.

5. too clunky. too cumbersome to use and just full of gimmicks. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy using a kit fully focus on buffs and absolutely no damage, but design philosophy of GW2 avoiding the Holy Trinity, healer kit is just… awkward. Healing power stat is still not viable for play. Oh and btw, the healing kit skill 1 DOES NOT HAVE A SOUND EFFECT.

6. AED has too much distinctive sound when activated, and too risky in play. Turret is still good for any situation due to the 2xwater fields. Medkit is absolute trash as above.

7. At this moment the only gadget that I only used (and most others) are rocket boots, and sometimes, slick boots. Rocket boots are literally the only good gadget in the game, because it favours more on the DPS. I might be wrong if CC is more important now like ram and throw mine, but rotation in kits are any way better and still the best way to go engineer. Does not make sense to trait your gadget, which you can only use once.

1) The 900 range thing isn’t really hitting home yet – right now the most obvious strategy is to unload at point-blank.

As for mortar, it’s not really getting much more use than ‘I may as well because I’ve got nothing else at that range’ – the finisher’s bugged and doesn’t combo properly, the damage got nerfed into oblivion, OS is too well telegraphed to connect and so slow to combo, and the slow projectile speed makes it miss a lot. Fixing both the damage and the finisher would make this more viable; I can live with the proj. speed and OS’s downsides.

2) As I play WvW, it’s mortar – as mentioned above, I’ve got nothing else that can hit at range. From a WvW perspective, I’d say elixir X is still the bottom of the pile (RNG pain, and the moa duration is negligible), and then crate and mortar are tied – mortar gives you something that hits (albeit like a wet noodle) at range, while crate gives you stun and a bit more heal.

3) I initially swapped nades out for bombs, hoping for more field combo options with the mortar. But short fuse is underwhelmingly, well, long – I was expecting, you know, instant boom! – yet with swiftness I’m still completely outside the radius when the bombs go off. Meanwhile, the blast combos just take too long to complete (OS takes ages, and short fuse doesn’t seem to affect BoB), and kinetic charge was too awkward to use for extra blasts. When you have an angry zerg running at you, you haven’t the luxury of waiting 3-4s for all your blasts to go off in a smoke field.

So I swapped back to nades. The whole 100 nades thing’s also kind of compelling, for now…

4) I’m right back with pretty much the same build I had before the patch – only real difference is mortar instead of crate. I’m running cele rifle (elixir S variant). It’s sad really, I had all sorts of ideas for interesting new builds, and they all collapsed due to bugs, nerfs, or unwieldy mechanics.

5) I’m forced into using the med kit + centaur runes. It’s either that or take streamlined kits and risk the unwanted mine yanking you out of stealth at a really bad time. So I’ve got kind of crazy swiftness uptime at the moment (over 200%). I only use F1 and skill 4 (4’s only for swiftness, and I only use it out of combat) – I can’t affort the extra kit swap time in combat.

6) I’d like to say I’m using mortar 5 and blasting, but as mentioned above, my available blasts are just too slow.

7) The problem isn’t the trait, it’s the gadgets. Slick shoes is much less OP in WvW, and gadgets really don’t compare to kits.

Just FYI – Bomb kit is really difficult to evaluate at the moment because it is using the wrong radius. The graphics and the actual damage/effects don’t line up which makes the kit very hard to use effectively.

Mortar should not have been nerfed. It needs to be a viable alternative to grenades.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

I think it’s a decent trait but I wish the recharge reduction was baked into the trait by default instead of relying on the overcharge buff. One thing I would like to see with an overcharged AED is an AoE explosion around you when you take lethal damage, something like the nova shields from Borderlands. Not sure how the other gadgets could be buffed, but Utility Goggles could use it’s 5 stacks of might back instead of 3 stacks.

Just hoping for the bugs to be fixed with it so I can start using it again…

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

Personally I think 1200 range with grenades would be more fair. Also, although both Grenade Kit and Mortar Kit’s cast time are all 1/2s, for some reason I just feel Mortar shoot a little bit slower, not sure if it’s just my imagination.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

Compare to before, where Supply Crate is like the only good elite, Elixir X is considered crap by most, and Mortar is definitely crap…right now I find all three of them really good now.

But in term of using them in PvP, I will probably rank them in: Mortar Kit > Elixir X > Supply Crate

After the turret nerfs, before this balance update turrets were already so fragile that they could be destroyed in seconds, after this balance update they just get destroyed even faster, you’d literally only use Supply Crate for that 2s stun now.

Its toolbelt skill is not bad, but considering how much damage every classes is doing now, those bandage heals are really not enough to sustain you for long.

Both Mortar Kit and Elixir X’s toolbelt skills are good, but because the actual Elixir X still has RNG factor, so I’m ranking it lower than Mortar Kit.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?

When I realized FT’s Napalm can be combo’ed with Mortar Kit’s auto-attack, I was really excited at the fact that I can shoot burning shot for 10 whooping seconds…until I realized the burning would only be applied to target “hit directly with the projectile and will not affect others who got hit within shot’s radius”.

I also played around the Juggernaut trait, then became kind of disappointed because of how you have to wait 3s before Stability will pop and start pulsing; imo it would be better if it can get both a buff and a nerf, such as giving 2s of Stability immediately when you went into FT kit, but the interval becomes 5s or something, currently it is just too tricky to use, and every Engi who use FT would know you can’t stay in that kit for long because of how lackluster its auto-attack and utility skills are, you HAVE to come out if you want to survive.

And for Bomb Kit…I feel the current meta is just too fast-paced for it to perform well, and you know how defenseless you are while in that kit unless you use it with Slick Shoes or something.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?

Honestly, I still don’t feel like using Med Kit because how most of its skill is single target only (and in my past experience, people usually don’t have the time to pay attention to the floor to pick up my bandage/bottles, making them wasted).

Healing Turret is still the best, not to mention combining it with some trait from the Invention line just makes it even more awesome.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Honestly I think this is a pretty good trait, especially when you use Slick Shoes in your build! However because most of the other gadget skills are lackluster in the first place, Gadgeteer can really only do so much, I feel that if people want to complain, they should complain about these gadget skills being too plain instead of complaining about the trait.

Also, I’m using Personal Battering Ram because I’m running SD build, and its overcharged ability is just bad…I mean increasing the launch distance from 450 to 600, who cares about that extra 150 launch distance? They could’ve increased the 130 range to something like 300 range instead…

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Questions:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
6. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
7. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

1/2 Mortar Kit is nice, good aoe for tagging, not really killing anyone with it in spvp, but I like it as it is. It’s a tough choice between it and supply drop… the other ones don’t matter.

3. My engi has always been a power based FlameThrower engi, and I am horribly depressed with it. The stability is nice, but losing 200 toughness with juggernaut is a big deal.

The FlameJet (FT #1) with my old cele spec, it took 4 or 5 streams to take down a large golem in mists, now it’s 7 or 8. The increased burn duration trait is opposite juggernaut. SO.. flame thrower damage is boosted (10%) by attacking things that are burning, but setting something on fire is a lot more complicated to do.

I’m also choosing between self-regulating defenses (elixir s) and Backpack Regenerator, and the 15% damage trait for flamethrower and elixir-gun is MIA.

It all adds up to very poor damage, and very poor survivability. Killing a mob in orr takes what feels like a lifetime, but a thief running by will kill the same mobs in a fraction of the time it takes me.

Perhaps having the burning on Flamethrower kick-in on the first tic of flamejet instead of the last, and something is needed for survivability ’cause this feel incredibly weak for having such low damage.

E-gun is really bad. Maybe it’s good for condi builds, but it losses 15% damage, cooldown reduction, range? I dunno, but it isn’t good…. I’ve replaced it with bomb kit, #2 and #3 skills are decent enough to make it worth using.

4. If it wasn’t for fire stacking, I think I’d shelf my engi. I haven’t worked out a build yet, but it gives me some hope for spvp.

5. no
6. no… engi is complicated enough without using complicated heals. Turret is simple to use. It’s cooldown is short. It can provide group support. And as fast paced as everything is, I like to keep it simple.

7. I can’t survive five hits, so I can’t think of any reason I would use gadgeteer. After taking 2 hits I use my rocket boots and pray that they go after somebody else.

So to give some perspective. I am thrilled with my hammer guard. Staff Ele is good. My mesmer is great in pvp, but a lot weaker in pve… every odd. LB ranger is good. My condi necro’s damage is down, but his survivability is up, and he’s group friendly now! My P/P thief is dead….

…and my FT engi is on life support.

edit: 2 hits is fine, but (5) ‘five hits’ is kitten lol

I actually like the flamethrower in PvP though I think you need a really tanky build to get anything out of it.

I paired it with the rune of mercy and just rezzed and stomped players.

Questions:
1) 900 range is okay. I barely remember any situation where I was constantly at max. distance anyway
2) Mortar, because it supplements FT melee-esque build when you need range. Provides a lot of fields. Orbital lazor, that’s all.
Mortar = Supply Drop > Elixir X
3) Yeah, but I’ve always used them anyways. (plz fix bomb animation and graphic!!)
4) FT tanky build and a Mortar tanky build I came up with
5) Clunky yes. Plus, #1 is VERY underwhelming
6) No

My opinions have been formed after not a ton of gameplay I just haven’t had a chance to really dive into the game this week and explore every single change. I’m judging based on current functionality (besides the Barrage Bug) so for example I say the rifle is bad because they didn’t do what they said they would. If this is a bug then that’s great, but I’m not judging anything other than the Barrage Bug as being bugged…

Grenades feel good, truthfully they weren’t good for a whole lot at >900 range. Fun to bother people with or get 1 extra throw in there as you’re running to a capture point but didn’t really serve a whole lot of purpose. Now they’re fast and more reliable. Since we didn’t lose that “bug people from really far away” ability I have no issues at all with the new Grenade Kit.

I’ve been using a lot of Mortar because it’s new but truthfully I still think Supply Crate is better. Mortar became useful but Supply Crate which was already amazing got way better. I don’t have a problem with mortar except the auto attack is bleh, I would like to see just a little more damage on it. Not a ton, but enough to at least make me stop using Grenade Kit for everything. EDIT: I guess it’s telling I didn’t even mention Elixir X. Still one of the worst elites in the game.

My use of these has not changed but I also have not explored every change yet. I already used FT and EG a lot, I could see myself using bombs a little more in the future.

I have not landed on a favorite build. I’m thinking hybrid stats like Sinister might be something I lean toward since Engis can throw out so many condis while doing good direct damage and after so much Zerker I really just need to change it up. I know Zerker will still be the top but I don’t think Sinister will be very far behind it, time and maths will tell. Instead of a specific build I’ll quickly summarize each specialization. Explosives is still (unfortunately) mandatory despite the 2nd choice being largely awful and pointless. I can’t immediately think of any good build that doesn’t use Explosives. Firearms is good now but really took a dump on the rifle which is unfortunate, I’m hoping a lot of that is from bugs to work out (older traits we were told being made baseline are not, Jump Shot not an explosive, etc). Inventions is really cool now, I feel like I can use it to balance out almost any build. I like how they really upped the support factor of Engi without making us spec away from all our damage. Alchemy is all right, some tough choices have to be made now but I think it competes with Tools for the weakest specialization. It lacks the “oomph” from a couple of the better specializations. Tools has some really nifty tools for PvP but it doesn’t have that feeling of “my build needs Tools” more like “I could use Tools for this last specialization I guess”.

I tried it but the ground targeting kills it for me. Truthfully I like everything they did with the Med Kit except the ground targeting. Dropping them at our feet like the old skills used to work would make me use this kit but still I strongly dislike having to run over the items to get the effects. If it’s supposed to be party support turn them into something that works like wells because ground targeting is not the answer for me.

No heals besides turret. I may still play with Med Kit from time to time but I don’t like it for the reasons I explained above.

I have not used the gadgeteer and to be honest it looks like a terrible trait. Let me get this straight gadget cooldown was removed, old gadgeteer was removed (still bad but at least did something) now just to get any kind of cooldown you have to go through some clunky charge up mechanic? Meh. Gadgets have always interested me from a design perspective but in gameplay I’ve never been sold on them. They’ve gone through quite a few iterations but when you compare them to kits they don’t hold up at all. It’s just so hard to give up 5 skills for 1 lackluster skill. I would start by giving them a signet effect, something to enhance you when you’re not using them. Anything to give them more “oomph”.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Hello fellow golden children engineers! I want to find out how everyone is doing with the new changes. Either answer my questions directly or just write about what you feel is important for the devs to know.

Questions:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
6. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
7. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

1- Grenades feel the same… I always only used them around the 0-900 mark anyway and find them better in a power build with glass cannon… shrapnel is only there to guarantee 10% crti from fire-arms… I’ve stopped using them since the patch though, since its now possible to do serious damage with other options!

2 – I’ve been messing around with them but my favourite is supply crate. AoE stun, AoE burn and immob with the option to overcharge the lot! yes please. BUG when traited with experimental turrets, the supply crate “turret” only grants 3 secs of vigor… no swiftness or might!

3 – I have used flamethrower extensively! I’ve always loved it and now it rocks!

4 – Pistol/pistol
– Sigil of smouldering/sigil of torment
– PvP: Rabid/WvW: rabid-dire mix
– Runes of Balthazar
– AED/slickshoes/flamethrower/toolkit/supply crate
– Firearms: chemical rounds/pinpoint distribution/incendiary powder
– Inventions: automated medical response/mecha legs/bunker down
– Tools: power wrench/lock on/gadgeteer

95(ish)% burning duration! and the AED combo makes me almost invincible

5 – yes but i prefer the new AED AMR synergy. See below.

6 – AED… remember that balthazar runes give quickness when ARM procs! see below.

7 – Right! I get the feeling that anyone who’s saying this hasn’t actaully seen how it behaves! I can defy death really consistantly… The overcharged versions replace the normal skills and each has its own CD making it very strong with AED and slickshoes.

Best anecdote so far was last night.

won a game and at the end, a ranger (who I 1v1ed a few times and stomped in a few team fights) wrote in chat, “what’s this bs engi heal?!?!? I killed him 4 times in a row and he just burst heal to full!?!?!”

I’d like to add in on another issue. After the traits update, we lost a few Turret traits without them being made baseline.

-Rifled Turret barrels- 15% damage and 50% range increase

-Auto-tool Installation: Self repairing turrets

-(forget the name) ground targeted turrets

That together with the massive buffs to conditions, and heck even just baseline power, running any kind of turrets outside of SD for the toolbelt skill is foolish. It wasn’t something I ran often, but it was still enjoyable when I did.

I mainly run SD right now, as I dont enjoy using Nades / bomb / EG at all. I find all of them only make the class tedious to play, but that’s my personal opinion. As for your questions:

1: Mortar was nice, though I feel the 28% nerf was a bit overboard. However, I enjoy using it much more than any other kit.

2: Mortar > All, sometimes X if I want to goof off.

3: No, as stated I find them tedious to use and avoid them. Tool kit is something I find enjoyable, using it purely as a source of utility to supplement myself. having a main PvE rotation that takes 20 steps to get through one cycle is ridiculous even by other MMO standards, and in PvP I find it becomes much too hectic.

4: SD, and i’ve been toying around with a P/P HGH build.

5: Agreed, clunky and low numbers make it not worth using.

6: No, unless running HGH.

7: I feel like the recharge should be made baseline, and / or the effects more pronounced for some gadgets. ( Throw mine, Ram, and Utility goggles come to mind)

I’d love to not be forced into kits if I want to seriously play any aspect of the game. Here’s hoping the Elite spec can do that.

All my answers will be in regards to WVW because thats all i care about.

1) The range is terrible now. For them to do any concrete damage you have to be close and running a good damage build. That means your dead against a zerg. And you have to hump a keep wall to get your grenades to hit. Edit: been playing wvw for a while and the more i play them the worse they feel…thats including the bug. wow.

2) Mortar. Now that the range is not good with nades in wvw the mortar is basically a must if youre not looking to get eaten alive by an enemy zerg. Please don’t reduce the damage on AA this is fine now especially with all the damage in wvw right now. Not to mention after the barrage bug is fixed. Edit 2: After playing wvw more then i have touching this would be suicide for the profession.

Elixir X is still not great even with moa(even though its an awesome idea). The randomness of elixir X again means death in wvw. I think this needs a complete rework (keep moa).

Supply crate is still ok and the separate med kit drops makes sense. Overcharging is great too especially with and extra healing turret cleanse + blast.

3) Im not using any of these right now.

4)They do? Seems like less for wvw. I’m not saying you’re wrong maybe im just trying to find a good one.

5) Hate it. Too much separation between skills. Maybe there’s some kind of support build i don’t know of yet.

6) No. Condition cleanse. AOE heal.

7) It is lackluster. Building up hits is what you’re trying to avoid. Doesn’t make sense to me. Reduce CD at least and something else to make it good. Maybe an added effect the was streamlined kits works but when you activate a gadget.

As a side note, I really hope hammer is nothing short of AMAZING for wvw. Because all this close combat is useless unless you have warrior/guard profession stats/gear etc

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Hello fellow golden children engineers! I want to find out how everyone is doing with the new changes. Either answer my questions directly or just write about what you feel is important for the devs to know.

Questions:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
   Grenades are okay, I didn’t really use it at max range much unless I had to. Mortar kit… I only ever pull it out to gun downed people from far range in WvW. Players have to be immobile or not paying attention for me to get it to work. I haven’t been able to tactically use the fields yet.
2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
   PvP – Supply Crate usually, Elixir X for a really silly build.
   WvW – Mortar for zerg, Supply Crate for roaming
   PvE – Supply Crate or Mortar. Mortar is really just for Silverwastes.

1. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
   Flamethrower is getting a lot of use because burning is kittened.
   Elixir Gun is also getting a lot of use now that it works with HGH.
   Bomb Kit is probably my most used kit on a normal basis

1. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
   My builds are really all just pieces. Things I like to combine so far has been Incendiary Ammo -> Throw Napalm -> Blowtorch, Bunker Down + Rifle -> Pulling enemies in with Magnet Pull, A.E.D + AMR, I’m going to see if I can make a turret build function well.

1. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
   A little but I’m not a fan of the ground targeting.

1. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
   A.E.D. sometimes

1. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?
   Haven’t tried it.

As someone who loves using a rifle I must say I am displeased with the state of the weapon right now. They removed all the traits that made it better and left only one for the reduced recharge. The faster attacking is absolute garbage, it does nothing for you at all. Also they promised the range would be 1200 baseline but now we don’t even have a trait for that. But honestly I will mostly miss Rifle Mod and the 10% more damage it gave. They butchered the rifle.
And the core specializations are awful too. Not all of them but Tools and Explosives come to mind. Explosives have terrible, terrible first choice of traits (I mean come on. Fall Damage trait, bugged trait for grenades and 5% more damge while above 90% health?! Is this a joke? Who thought of that? Seriously, Glass Cannon is the worst trait ever) and Tools have been nerfed so hard (you are now forced to choose between Power Wrench and Static Discharge, two critical traits for SD build.)

Ok, i am basically talking about my WvW feelings…
I am playing cele rifle explosives/firearms/inventions.
1. The range of the grenades is terrible, 900 is to less. 1200 would be ok.
2. The grenades spread out too much with grenadier trait, sometimes just hit 1 nade.
3. There is no really good trait for the rifle wich yells “TAKE ME”, 20% CD reduction is ok, and 10% attack speed is just crap. Maybe replace it with 10% dmg?
4. The pistol traits compared with the rifle traits are much more better.
5. Mortar is no good elite choice, I still use crate. Its awesome now with overcharge and detonate.
6. All in all i think that the engineer got some really nice stuff, and i love to play it now

From a PVP point of view:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

Motar kit does not replace grenades, and will never do, it is slow projectile that every child can dodge easily, and no “damage” (cf 28% damage nerf) I don’t get now why it is still an elite. Useless, even from a PVE perspective, grenades do more damage.
The problem of the 900 range forces the engi to go closer which is much more difficult now with a “zerk, 3 skills, I kill you” process. Shorter fights -> engi is even more difficult to play to get to the range we need to fight/give some difficulties to the foe.

2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

There is no rank, as always supply crate, but it is just an interrupt with a heal and the toolbet skill is really slow to appear + the fact bandages drop in a random position which gives even more difficulties. For the elixir, the toolbet skill is more useful than the elite itself, but it’s a short moa, nice for a quick interrupt, that’s it. Mortar is useless in pvp, “ice field” maybe but even..
So we have: an elite with useless turrets (can be one shot by an aoe or nearly, even traited, so it is more a heal/interrupt rather than anything else), a slow kit that does no “elite” damage, and a useless elixir. Funny when we compare with other professions.

3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
I use Egun more, from a HGH point of view, in order to survive against the zerk guys in pvp.

4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.

a LOT? Not really sorry.
toolkit, egun, elixir of choice, supply crate. Firearm, Alchemy, Inventions. lot of regen, nice damage, nothing “awesome”. Rather a life as a support guy than anything else.

There is also the condi bombs/flamethrower, but waiting for the burn nerf to see what it does.

5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.

Useless kit, everything needs to be targeted. AA is low and slow, the other skills does not give much heal or boons. Nothing compete with turret/water field proc. Stop the drop bandage please, and do a self kit/pistol like the Egun but with one skill or two for heal and 3 others only for couple of boons/break stun? .

6. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
No.

7. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

There is no reward to take it, 5 charges takes time and 50% increase is not a high reward. And kinetic charge should not have a “time window” for activation 8 sec is not much for 40sec CD. It should wait for the toolbet skills to be activated twice and then go on CD. No grandmaster trait really interesting in this line, it’s a shame…

OVERALL:
spvp: everything is faster, more powered, and I have some difficulties to see engineer in a meta like this if it stays as it is, even with a burn nerf. It will only be a “little bunker/support good guy” (worse than a guard or an ele), trying to do damage and stay alive against zerk with a lot of regen/block -> useless.

Quite sad with these changes. A lot of traits disappeared, not baseline, and a squishy engi at the end if there is not cele + alchemy + inventions.
So nerf nades, nerf speed kits, burn nerf in perspective, turrets already nerf, no real elite to use…Hm.. And even with this I want to play my engi because I love the play style. I understand the changes in order to go out a cele meta. But please, do not nerf a profession to the ground for the joy of a zerk meta which will present no interesting fights during pvp matchs.
Ah and hobo sacks removed but no rework of the skin kits….
So no “golden children” here, sorry

ps: who had the idea to name a trait “glass canon” that gives 5% more damage over 90% health in the explosives, seriously..

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

It’s really hard to judge right now with so many bugs on the books with Grenades and Mortar kit, so I have to reserve judgement until that is all cleared up. I think if both were working as it intended, they’d fill their respective roles well. All that said, the 28% damage reduction was somewhat ill timed, if likely necessary to bring things in line.

1. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

Taking Mortar Kit for now mostly cause it’s new and synergizes with explosions and alchemy.

Elixir X, while cute, is still the worst due to the RNG between brute and tornado. The F5 skill at least made it have something you could count on though.

1. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?

With HGH, E.Gun is now really great and brings some solid support to the table. I’ve always liked bomb kit, but again, the bugs and animation wonkiness are making it frustrating at times.

1. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.

Well… they all pretty much do, so I guess you’ll have to wait.

1. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.

VERY clunky. Ground targeting is just frustrating in the heat of battle. In PvE, my mini keeps eat the drops.

1. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?

I tried Elixir H for a while. It’s not bad… but losing the water field that Healing Turret provides is hard and it still can’t be beat for team burst healing. Also, the overcharged is bugged.

1. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Haven’t given this a fair enough shake to say one way or the other, but again, the bugs with it make it hard to really put it though it’s paces.

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

Definitely, although I feel the 28% nerf is a bit heavy handed, I do think that if all traits work with it though, it would make up for it!
The range is irrelevant since you use in close range in most cases anyway.

2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

I have tried all of them and still think crate and mortar heavily outclasses Elixir X, due to limited space in PvP, crate is stronger there, but Mortar still has its using, for both WvW roaming and zerging its just awesome.
Since I dont zerg much in WvW here is my order :

Supply drop.
Mortar kit
Elixir X.

The main thing keeping Elixir X from being useful its RNG factor coupled with a long CD, Rampager outclasses Tornado by quite a bit. If the CD is reduced decently or the RNG removed it would definitely be used by me a hell of a lot more, in both Elixir builds or not.

3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?

Egun, always have used it a lot, but love the QoL changes.
Bomb, the expl traits seem to be balanced around nades so the kit feels a bit weak, even more so than prepatch. I use bomb kit less now than prepatch.
Flamethrower is still meh. The burning should apply earlier during the auto in my opinion and the fire field needs some cleaning up, its very unreliable.

4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.

HGH Celestial I made a build on, still uses Healing turret though.
SD is amazing for a bit of fun.
Condi engi sucks now. Other classes do it better. Mostly mesmers(more access to Torment and confusion), thieves(poison and bleeds), ele(burning) and necros do it a lot better due to the cap on poison and burning being removed. Bleeds are very weak post patch and since that is the major strenght of the engis conditions, we feel a bit left out.

5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?

Not really, Healing Turret still outclasses all else.
Med kit auto is complete trash. Using the dropped stuff is extremely clunky and near impossible to get of and see in the heat of combat. Resistance on 5 is very little too.
Elixir H still has the problem of the RNG, removing regen or adding it by default would go a long way in improving it.
AED still isn’t remotely worth, the toolbelt still does not daze reliably at all.

6. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Cant comment have not tried.

Extra notes :
1. Shrapnel is the only real reason why you would go into explosives as a condi engi(especially now that bleeds are inferior to an extreme extent compared to other condis) and it kinda forces you into it, but the rest of the line feels pointless for non-power builds, the line also seems heavily balanced around nades, which leaves bombs behind. There literally is nothing in the Adept part worth taking as a bomb engi.

2. Thermobaric Discharge sucks with the CD. No reason to take it and it does not belong as a grandmaster.

3. To improve FT usage you could change Juggernaut to apply one stab every 2 sec for 2seconds. Also improve the actual burning application for it. The fire fields is inconsistant too, as its always been.

4. Autodefense bomb still has no use, too long a CD.

5. Overshield is underwhelming and greatly outclassed by AMR, increasing the Protection duration and added the application of the protection AFTER the shield ability has completed will make this much better. Effectively we only get 1 sec of protection after the block completes. Which seems stupid.

6. Alchemy is pretty epic now, only problem is that Iron Blooded does not feel impactful for a grandmaster. Slight increase to 3% would be all the help.

7. Tools is great too, but less used for obvious reasons, but there is zero reason to take Streamlined kits now, even the swiftness isn’t great with Mecha legs as an option. Kits are engineers main thing but the defining trait for it sucks. Separate CDs, even if they are higher, for each effect would go a long way to improving this. Separating the swiftness CD(and reducing it) from the swap effect would be great too.

8. Kinetic charge also will see no use. Do not have any ideas for this one though.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?

Grenades feel better to me. In my opinion, the 50% damage increase with the extra grenade, without having to invest in traits, is worth every inch of the changed range.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?

I primarily play WvW, so I use mortar for wall attacking/defending. I actually feel we have a decent set of choices, and that all of our elites have at least some value.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?

I have used bomb kit and EG since day one. I have never been a big fan of the FT.

There is a problem with bomb kit. We are locked into a trashy 180 radius, when promises the traited and extended 240 was to be baseline. This can be tested easily with a golem and static shock (AED tool belt) as it has a 180 range. Approach a golem until the range finder indicates you are just in range then use smoke bomb or fire bomb and monitor the field circle. 180 is also stated in the tool tip.

This really has a massively negative effect, limiting bombs value, significantly.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.

I have been favoring heal kit, slick shoes, bomb kit, rocket boots, and mortar, as utilities, and pistol/shield as my weapon set. As for traits, I have been juggling them a bit, to see how they work in combination with one another.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.

Yes, it is clunky, I despise the forced experience of being made to have to ground target them.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?

I am trying to spend time with heal kit, to give it a fair chance, before I abandon it.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

Absolutely. It doesn’t even actually effect the gadgets.

Mostly wvw…

1.) Nades are annoying to use as I was used to the longer range. However, this is just my bias because I’ve always hated the kit and if it weren’t so darned good for damage in all 3 game modes, I’d never put it on my bar. They are insane in pve though.

2.) I’ve been using mostly mortar in wvw for ranged in zergs. It’s annoying to aim like nades but the support is nice. Otherwise, it’s just crate.

3.) FT for the stability. I don’t use bomb kit, and the death of the heal bomb didn’t help either. I’ve always tried to fit EG somewhere in, if possible.

4. http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V_;4cPVi0i6;1x0;9;4jlm;0246157137;4UN0;36TsW6TsWn-Fq3;60f2A5f7AAfCf-o-G-2i;5FYDuF2Cu;9;9;9;9;84-6m Zerg build, ft for stability, damage is naturally weaker due to the mortar nerf sadly, but otherwise it’s the most survivable thing I’ve run since the patch across all classes.

5. No

6. No, although I may try Elixir H with HGH as mortar already provides a water field.

7. It’s terrible and inferior to its alternatives. It wouldn’t even be worthy of the first slot. Why couldn’t they just have done a 20% cooldown reduction? Right now, it’s even worse than the old gadgeteer and I can’t remember anyone taking that either.

ellesee.8297:

For PvP…

1. Grenades are still the best kit! Mortar is for support-y fields but grenades still do the most damage by far, whether it be power or condition!
2. I’ve been taking mortar! The fields are really good for teamfights and 1v1s! Supply Crate is really good too! Elixir X is still garbage!
3. Flamethrower is still worthless! EGun has been super buffed with the HgH trait! Bomb Kit is strong in 1v1s, but still worthless in team fights! The cleave you eat is much greater than before with the power creep!
4. The build I’ve been using has been Explosives, Alchemy, Tools! Grenade Kit + HgH Elixir Gun + Tool Kit + Mortar! Rifle, Marauder/Celestial, Hoelbrak, Energy/Battle! I’ve also been using Explosives, Alchemy, Firearms P/P condi with Traveler Runes to make up for the movement speed loss!
5. Med Kit stinks! You have to cast the throwables then run over them to pick them up! You can easily die in between that! Or a teammate could pick them up! It’s just poopoo!
6. Healing Turret is still king of Engi Heals! AED is still godawful and you’d still be better off taking Healing Turret over Elixir H even in a dedicated elixir build!
7. Gadgeteer is terrible! There’s 2 issues with Gadgeteer! First are gadgets themselves! Why would you ever take multiple gadgets over multiple kits! With the way the Engi class is designed, Gadgeteer would have to beef up the power of gadgets exponentially to warrant picking gadgets over kits aka weapon swaps! Maybe the trait could empower all gadgets the more gadgets you have equipped! This prevents a super strong gadget being used in conjunction with kits a la Slick Shoes! The second problem is Gadgeteer competes with Adrenal Implants! Adrenal Implants is essentially permanent irremovable vigor and because of the new 3 trait line restriction, why would you give up permanent irremovable vigor for a booty butt gadget trait!

Also the explosives tree is poorly designed! Say you want to play a condi Bomb Kit build that doesn’t use grenades! Well your tier 1 choices in the Explosives line are bad! Say you want to play a condi grenade build that doesn’t use bombs! Well your tier 2 choices in Explosives are bad!

Thermobaric Detonation is… lol! Cool concept I guess! Not very useful in practice!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Seconded every single word of this post. I usually dont agree with WORLDS FIRST GREATEST ENGI BLAH BLAH but she hit the nail on the head with this whole thing.

Patch has been disappointing for engineers, mostly because we stayed the same power level-wise (outside of burn stacking, which isnt just us) while everyone else got super buffed.

- Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
On Power builds Mortar is a decent replacement when it comes to applying pressure on the walls, mainly because of the AA and Toolbelt, but if you were running hybrid or condi-builds, mortar simply is a subpar replacement. Nades require you to go too close in WvW now. In PvP mortar is great for the support it brings, but I didn’t played much since the current condi-dmg is too insane to enjoy it.

- What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
Mortar → Elixir X → Supply-Crate. Because of 2 reasons Supply-crate made it last. First, I personally rather run abilities with low cd, so I don’t depend on high gapping windows to use my full performance, and 2nd, currently supply-crate is bugged and can’t live up to its promises (only 1 blast-finishers of 3), while the chosen turrets over-ride their fields, so you never know if you get healing or stealth out of it. Else Crate would’ve made it on 2nd place. And yea, Aoe-moas are fun, and perfect counter-messure against Lichs&Rampage. Thx to the low cd, it’s basically a complete shutdown for these in a match.

- Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
Bombkit? No, but FT more often. in the current condi-meta the FT toolbelt is awesome for setting up bursts, it’s frequent blast-finisher helps with soothing detonations, and it packs enough CC to outshine bombs. Didin’t tried the juggernaut trait yet. basically I never found a build that would profit from Jugg over ICP, and E-gun is a Paragon for my builds anyways…

- Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
S/D with & without lock on. In the current condi-environment it melts extremely fast, but once that is fixed it will become viable again, I guess.

- Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
I’ve put it down after 3 matches. never touched it again.

- Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
Lolnope. Yes, HgH works with elixir H, and it also clears a condi now because one of the minors in alchemy. It’s still subpar compared to clearing 3 condis with HT if you go into inventions. If anything, HT got buffed. I like it.

- I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?
No idea. Since it competes with perma-vigor, I never had any desire to run the other traits. Welp, tried out kinetic charge in Dungeons and got some good results with mortar, but for WvW or PvP, there is only 1 trait worth picking in tools: Adrenal Implant.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Questions:

1. Ignoring the bug on grenadier making it godly, how have grenades felt with the 900 range? Does mortar kit make up for it?
2. What elite have you been taking? If you had to rate them from best to worst, how would you do it and why?
3. Are you using Flamethrower, EGun or Bomb kit more at all?
4. Engineers currently have a LOT of builds to work with. Which is your favorite so far? Please don’t include any builds that utilize bugs.
5. Have you tried the new med kit? My experience has been it being a bit clunky.
6. Are you using any heals besides Healing Turret now?
7. I’ve heard from some people that the gadgeteer trait is a bit lackluster. Do you agree and if so, what do you think would make it better?

1. Mortar kit is okay, but doesn’t work as well as the GM traited grenades worked before the patch in attacking siege and archers (in keeps/towers etc.) in WvWvW
The loss of range for the grenade kit seriously hurts it’s usage in WvWvW, pushing engi possibly into the worst profession in zerging after the grenade kit bug is fixed. I know retaliation has always been a counter to grenade spam, but really the pirate ship WvWvW meta means enemy attacks from 1200/1500+ range very hard (single focus e.g. on enemy commander by quickened LB rangers + venom share well bomb with thief + necros syncing).

I wish there was a master level trait to make grenades still work at 1500 range. Those who don’t want to take this trait can still use the nades at 900 range.

2. I have been mostly using the mortar, but the new revamped supply crate has a nice toolbelt skill

3. I use EG and bomb kit almost same amount as before, not huge changes, unless you take “short fuse” trait. The loss of 1200 range on rifle/EG is a big disappointment as this was originally supposed to become baseline. Now rifled barrels trait is gone and there is no way to trait rifle or EG for 1200 range, which is vital for the range game. The lack of this option forces almost every single engineer to take toolkit (for the shield and 1200 range pull). In other words denying engineer of higher range reduced the viability of engi builds which don’t use the toolkit.

4. I haven’t yet found any build I like as my old build went down the trait thanks to the patch.

5. Old medkit was better for me and had synergy with “on heal” sigils (now the synergy is gone in spvp). New Medkit has serious problems. #1 skill underpowered, #2-#5 too slow and ground targeting super annoying and doesn’t work underwater. Traits which reduce the toolbelt skill cd, should affect bandage self.

6. I am trying to use medkit, but it really aggravates me. I often throw a vial in front of me, but it doesn’t activate when I walk over it, but I need to back track to use it!

7. Gadgeteer is way too weak for a GM trait. It should automatically provide 20% CD reduction to gadgets (most builds will take 1-2 gadget at best) and provide some effect related to gadgets when use utilize them e.g. a condition cleanse on gadget use.