Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

Lately I was wondering what engi can expect from the second elite spec.

We have 1 core 2H weapon (rifle), 1 core MH weapon (pistol) and 2 core OH weapons (pistol and shield). Then we have 1 elite spec exclusive 2H (hammer).

Now p/p condi is meta in pve, power build uses rifle although basically just because it can’t use hammer because of trait choices. The discussion about viability of rifle is for another time. Hammer is quite often used in pvp and wvw.

We are left with the shield. A weapon that isn’t used anywhere. OH pistol is much better choice for condi builds and IMHO even if we had power MH, people would choose rather pistol OH because of the current cicumstances.

Now I believe that we’ll get a new MH weapon. Maybe the mace that many people ask for. We’re missing a power 1H weapon so that seems to me like a possible choice that could complement shield. If we’ll get it, the shield will need adjustments/rebalance/rework IMHO or we’ll end up picking up pistol OH just because it has much lower CDs and is more useful.

Shield+Mace could be a great combination IMO, shield just needs changes to not be underwhelming.

How would you change shield to be better?

IMO it could use a big CD reduction and maybe adding some boons on skill activation.

Make shield the new power mainhand and make new dualweild skills, done deal.

It worked for Captain America, didnt it?

I wouldn’t mind MH shield

Adding a MH power weapon will IMO help it a little but it needs to be better in that case so that OH pistol won’t be better choice. I can see the potential, shield just needs to be better in what it does.

4 ways:

The first option: Nerf half of blowtorch damage and stabilize it bringing such nerfed damage to buffing Dart Volley and Static Shot.

7K of DPS is lost just for not having this single mere skill, even if you used all your other meta dps skills, this single skill puts shield out of question, as its DPS loss its not worth it for what it offers, nerfing such dps demanding skill and putting the damage lost into the other pistol skills could stabilize the loss of dps, you would still loss dps, but not abismaly a lot, so the consideration of taking shield in scenarios where the shield utility could be used is open.

And for not making it crazy at pvp, it could be a pve change only.

The Second option: The infamous 3/4 slot swap.

Suggested a bunch of times already, but for good reason, we keep our most important DPS skill, and as the same what happened with the first option, the dps loss for bringing shield its not hurting as it is right now.

The Third option: Massive buffs to shield.

I’m not sure how this one would workout, but its an option, make the shield being able to counter and maybe make condi damage, improve the cc damage and such, could make shield a decent secondary option, like in the other scenarios, when dps its not the problem for the party.

The fourth option: Bring a new mainhand weapon that sastisifies the dps losses of P/S, or with this new weapon, bring shield and engie a different role to be played.

The new weapon would mostly be a power based one, for avoid pistol-off hand sinergies, this would make shield logically the best choice to pick with this new mainhand, and not necessarily has to be a damage weapon, it could be a new weapon focused on healing or in tanking instead, roles that totally sinergize and fit with shield off-hand.

Bonus option: A mix and match of the previous options i suggested before.

The solution is to swap Pistol #3 with #4 (and improve traits but that is on another topic) and reduce shield CD by ~20%.
It is simple and easy.

This will accomplish:
– Pistol MH will be the condi weapon;
– Pistol OH will be soft CC (blind/immob/cripple) with a bit of condi (confusion);
– Shield is the OH hard CC and defense with useful skills and a solid trait and comparable to hammer.

Also:
– Full dps condi will still use p/p;
– When a bit of CC and defense is needed, Shield can be used without a major loss in dps; and
– Both Pistol OH and shield OH would complement a power setup and MH weapon.

It just makes so much sense.

^ What he said.

lLobo.7960:

The solution is to swap Pistol #3 with #4 (and improve traits but that is on another topic) and reduce shield CD by ~20%.
It is simple and easy.

This will accomplish:
– Pistol MH will be the condi weapon;
– Pistol OH will be soft CC (blind/immob/cripple) with a bit of condi (confusion);
– Shield is the OH hard CC and defense with useful skills and a solid trait and comparable to hammer.

Also:
– Full dps condi will still use p/p;
– When a bit of CC and defense is needed, Shield can be used without a major loss in dps; and
– Both Pistol OH and shield OH would complement a power setup and MH weapon.

It just makes so much sense.

Good explanation with good reasoning. Pistol/shield would become viable weapon set for bosses with break bar, without sacrificing much damage.

Wouldn’t swapping of skills 3 and 4 make OH pistol underwhelming?

leviathan.2148:

Wouldn’t swapping of skills 3 and 4 make OH pistol underwhelming?

If Pistol 5 had gotten longer immobilize time (2+ seconds) I say it would be worthy alternative to shield.

Samug.6512:

leviathan.2148:

Wouldn’t swapping of skills 3 and 4 make OH pistol underwhelming?

If Pistol 5 had gotten longer immobilize time (2+ seconds) I say it would be worthy alternative to shield.

And maybe have Glue Shot’s range increased from 700 to 900 to match the rest of the pistol skills. I’d prefer to have both, but a 2s base immobilize ain’t too shabby, either.

Yeah. 900 range would be appreciated. As it is now, If I go to Glue Shot an approaching enemy, if it doesn’t work for whatever reason (passive trait proc, cc break like warrior movement skill or thief dodge, fast condi cleanse etc.) my target is basically in melee range, and I need to burn dodges/escapes to get out.

maybe place a small leap on shield 4 and an additional 1-2s of block on shield 5.

Throw shield should be unblockable and have significant damage increase (10k – 15k in full zerk gear).

There is no room for shield.

1. When you are not condi, hammer bring everything you can expect from shield (defensive ability and control) in a better way (better control, better defensive ability, but also damages and mobility)
2. If you can’t take scrapper or don’t want hammer, then rifle is still a more interresting choice (jump, root, bump, damages)
3. When you are condi, you definitly can’t drop pistol 4 for shield. Even if we had pistol 4 somewhere else, pistol 5 may still be better than shield (more condi to saturate cleanses)

Give to shield something others choices don’t bring : we have better choices for defense, control, mobility, power/condi damages, but we have no choice for group support (strongs buff & heal), the 4s protection on a 24s cd 360 range isn’t good at all.
Even traited, engi shield isn’t better than guardian shield (just close to it), while we can’t switch to something as strong as what guardian can access while CD reload …
Our support problem will always remain : in overall, we lack supportive switch, and pistol 1 isn’t supportive at all !

Wondrouswall.7169:

Samug.6512:

leviathan.2148:

Wouldn’t swapping of skills 3 and 4 make OH pistol underwhelming?

If Pistol 5 had gotten longer immobilize time (2+ seconds) I say it would be worthy alternative to shield.

And maybe have Glue Shot’s range increased from 700 to 900 to match the rest of the pistol skills. I’d prefer to have both, but a 2s base immobilize ain’t too shabby, either.

Faster projectile speed would also help a lot, same treatment guardian’s hammer immob got.

I’d even go as far as reducing CD of skill 4 to 10s and CD of skill 5 to 15s + giving 5 more power dmg and one boon for skill 4 on activation, something like protection.