Guild Wars 2

Hellooooooooo everyone,

As I saw other people opened threads about their profession’s new traits all over the place, it is time that we get one for Engineer aswell. Let’s talk about the new grandmaster traits for the Engineer. You can find them here. My opinion is in the video I created about them, explaining them aswell as talking about the usefulness of them. You can find the video here!

Now, as I mentioned in the video, I would love to hear YOUR opinion on these traits. Do you think they are utter crap or do you absolutely love them? I wish to discuss them as I am a fan of build diversity!

Synaptic Overload: An AMAZING ability if you do not run grenades(i hate grenades) and gives non-grenadiers a reason to go 30 into Explosives. My biggest complaint with the trait is that you cannot get HGH in Alchemy, this, and the +10% to rifle damage in Firearms because you’d need 20.

Quickness will not be too great for Static Discharge builds, but this trait goes great with Pistol HGH builds. 30 Explosives, 10 Firearms, and 30 Alchemy and you have a top-notch build. This is the best of our new traits in my opinion.
5/5=Awesome, will be used often.

Bunker Down: A great trait, but belongs in master, not grandmaster. This type of trait is just “fun.” You fight the enemy at range and as they chase you down they run through a minefield. Couple this with our numerous knockbacks and we become a very annoying class to fight if your enemy is melee.
4/5=Pretty Good

Fortified Turrets: Turret-builds have been lacking for a long time. At launch I played a condition-turret build and loved it… then one day we lost conditions on turrets and i cried myself to sleep. Turrets still do very little damage and have little utility by themselves, but this trait fixes that.

This trait turns turrets from inferior necro-minions to amazing group tools. In both PvP and PvE throwing down turrets at the right time will be amazing. Each turret gets a field of its own, with a 4 second shield. If you lay turrets one after another you can get about 30 seconds of AOE REFLECTIONS if you slot all turrets and Supply Crate. Eat your heart out Guardian walls. <3
4/5=Pretty Good

Experimental Turrets: More love for turrets. Fortified Turrets is better if you love turrets, but this is a decent alternative. If you go 30 into Alchemy 90% of the time you’d want HGH Elixirs, but this gives you a reason to use turrets instead. Elixirs by themselves are better than Turrets, but this makes Turrets give AoE boons with little output from you.

If you go 30 into Inventions and 30 Alchemy for super-turrets I am uncertain how viable it will be, but it is worth doing if you like helping your team AFK.
3/5=Decent

Gadgeteer: Let’s start off by saying gadgets are worse off than turrets. Gaining boons is not enough to make them useable. BOTH of your other Tools grandmasters are better than this. I would take passive Vigor over this any day.

If you like boons just go HGH Elixirs and you can fill yourself with condi-removal, or even our new Experimental Turrets.

Static Discharge builds often go high into Tools, this trait is decent with our goggles because of Might right before the burst, but passive Vigor is much better than the tiny boost of damage this gives. The true power of this trait will depend on how it works with Toolbelt skills, we see no hint it does though. IF this trait works on Toolbelt skills as well like HGH does with Elixirs it will be worth 30 into tools, if it does not avoid this trait like the plague.
-1/5=Very Bad(If no synergy with Toolbelt)
2/5=Useable(If has Toolbelt synergy.)

mines on crit and turret reflects should find their way into meta builds imo, quickness on knockback and turret boons are “wait and see,” and gadget boons doesnt really excite me.

but none of our traits are gonna be boring like 300 vit, everything is kind of an incomparable. so i think overall engi is very well off no matter whether the traits suck or not. i think even the ones that dont look very good could easily be staples in the future, like especially if we get another couple gadget traits to complement gadget boons.

XIII Explosives – Synaptic Overload – PvP: 9/10, PvE: 1/10
This could be the sleeper GM trait right here. Following up an Overcharged Shot with a burst rotation enhanced by Quickness could really give us an edge. Of course this is in PvP modes, I don’t see this being useful at all in PvE especially when it has to contend with Grenadier or even Enhanced Performance for bomb builds. Not to mention the idea of knocking mobs away from your party stack is not a good idea.

XIII Firearms – Bunker Down – PvP: 7/10, PvE: 8/10
I feel this could be useful in PvE bomb builds. It’s just free PBAoE damage that gives you more than Modified Ammunition. In PvP it could be useful to make it harder for melee players to get at you in the open field/WvW, and it can also give us a lot more point pressure in sPvP. This trait is lucky that both Firearms GM traits are sort of “meh” as it is, so this will likely find it’s way into builds if only for that reason.

XIII Inventions – Fortified Turrets – PvP: 7/10, PvE: 8/10
Definitely looks like it could be useful, and with trait swapping on the fly the effect of not being in the best trait line is minimized. I wonder why they continue to encourage us to pick up/detonate our turrets though. The reflect should really pulse every 15s or something. Anyways, it’s obviously a very valuable trait only kept from a perfect score because it requires you to use turrets. Depending on how well they’ve been attended to that might even not be such a bad thing we’ll see.

XIII Alchemy – Experimental Turrets – PvP: 2/10, PvE: 6/10
Okay Anet, make up your mind. Do you want us to pick up the turrets right away or leave them out!? In a tree that already gives you a lot of access to nearly every boon, I don’t see this as being very useful. Also turret traits are so expensive as it is, I don’t know if I would go 30 pts into Alchemy just for some boons. In PvP if you want boons you’re using HGH full elixirs. If you want to survive you’re taking AR. Not to mention turrets die so fast in PvP, so I just don’t see room for this trait at all. PvE? All you really need for DPS is 1 kit, Bombs (or Nades). If you wanted to swap some traits around and lose a bit of damage to keep a couple turrets out to buff your party I guess that could work. It’s not for me but I can see it sort of working.

XIII Tools – Gadgeteer – PvP: 3/10, PvE: 4/10
Aside from the name, there’s not much that excites me about this trait. I rate it higher in PvE simply because boons are more welcome in that game mode. I really don’t have much (good) to say about this, so I’ll let the rating speak for themselves.

Overall 7/10
Sure that’s not an average, but it’s how I feel overall. It’s always exciting to get new toys to play with. Only a couple of these I can immediately think of builds I would want to use them in, but I’m willing to let the update hit so I can actually use them all first. Most of these are not desirable simply because we have much better traits already. I don’t think that’s a totally bad thing, they’re avoiding power creep by not just adding better and better traits all the time.

As a primarily Turret-using Engineer, I’m ill-equipped to comment on three of the five new Grandmaster traits.

I am, however, quite equipped (I think so, anyway) to comment on Fortified and Experimental Turrets. The following are my opinions thereof, attempting to see both pros and cons.

Fortified:
I think this trait is good, because it emphasizes tactical placement of Turrets; rather than putting them down willy-nilly, position and timing become important, as well as making them defensive tools a full Turret build is sorely lacking in otherwise.
I think this trait is bad, because it emphasizes an on-placement effect and thus reinforces the drop-and-pop mindset, while also competing with Rifled Turret Barrels for a trait slot (unless they move RTB down to Master, and maybe do something about that worthless Autotool Installation trait); RTB is the only way to increase Turret direct damage at the moment, and it’s thus really important in a Turret-focused build.
I will definitely be trying this trait out; if I find that I like it, it might give me the ranged defense I’m currently relying on a shield for, allowing me more flexibility in my builds. It has been a very long time since I ran a dual pistol build…might be time to try it again.

Experimental:
I think this trait is good, because it encourages leaving turrets on the field, and theoretically dovetails nicely with the fortification bubble in terms of group support.
I think this trait is bad, because it’s a Grandmaster Turret trait in a traitline that has until now held nothing for Turrets, thus requiring a Turret-user who wants to get it to invest heavily in a tree that has so little appeal aside from the Grandmaster trait.
I will also definitely be trying this trait out; I’m curious, and it may find itself a fixture, despite its placement, due to the boons.

Overall? I welcome the arrival of diversity to Turret traits, and hope it’s an indicator of attempting to actually make them good.

I would bet money if I was a betting man that the turret hit-box will still be a bit buggy since that shield from the inventions looks to be the size of the current hit-box. I digress though, not entirely the point.

Explosives-Synaptic overhaul
Assuming this works with both knockback and launch skills it may open up a few non grenadier builds. Zerker rifle may become a thing since I think haste makes you travel through the air faster not 100% certain on that. Won’t work in PvE very well due to defiant stacks obviously. Not really the greatest one that we got but its defiantly not the worst thing to get. A lot of this hangs on what else we get in this patch for us.

Firearms-Bunker down
Honestly, if you were going to take 30 into the firearms tree, this would be the perk to take simply because it does a lot more for you than napalm or Modded Ammunition in the long run. PvE it will help since mobs will be mobs and run into them anyway. It may be good in WvW since it can get clustered and people will likely walk on them. PvP it would be extra node control but its probably not worth the 30 points into a wonky trait line.

Inventions-Fortified turrets

Fortified turrets is a skill that promotes drop and pick up since you only get the effect once per turret. Meaning that in long scale fights this trait harms the user too much. In PvE I will yield and say that is CAN be useful and important. However, when most of the PvE bosses spam AoE attacks that are ground based, that 4 second of reflection can easily become 1 second. In WvW it can have its use for a reflect chain in large fights until it either gets dropped from 8+ people in melee or Ground targeted AoE. In PvP, most of the fights become melee skirmishes very fast and those that aren’t you will get 1 or 2 reflects off. It’s a giant blue sphere that says don’t shoot me pretty much. Even then, it has to compete with RTB and RTB will just flat out win every time since its buff lasts the entire lifespan and not the first 4 seconds. If it was 4 seconds of say like damage immunity with the shield it may be good to pick up (or to powerful but hey that is what balance patches are for. Once every 4 months…….).

Alchemy- Experimental turrets

Honestly, this is probably the best trait that we are getting from this patch. Boons to help the engineer fight and the engineer heal the turret to help him fight is the kind of symbiosis, integration, pairing w/e you want to call it for turrets. It is in a completely bogus line unfortunately and has to compete with AR for its spot which in this meta is all condition all the time so AR wins. Honestly, they should switch this with fortified turrets because this trait could at least put up a “fight” with RBT. Needs a little work on some of the boon durations in my honest opinion. Anyhow, PvE this trait would work assuming that turrets didn’t die instantaneously from every trash mob in one hit and provide nice banner like support without sacrifice too much damage(if they got adjusted). WvW wouldn’t be that useful since 20+ people hitting a bunker with protection will still die in a few hits. Would be useful for small scale fights and PvP node control as well for the banner-like properties and damage.

Tools- Gadgeteer
Gadget buff is always nice. It’s not worth the 30 points with how they are now. This to me is more like a master quality trait since its like 5 second buffs applied every 20 seconds or so. Other than that, its a gadget trait for a skill set that like turrets needs to be looked into a lot more.

All in all, I say we got one of the shorter straws for the new grandmasters. We got a couple good things, but nothing to write home about as being overly amazing.

5 engineers rolling with experimental turrets would be an interesting group. You would have infinite vigor (HT), protection (TT), fury (RT), and might (FT). If you go bunker build with 10/0/30/30/0, you already have peek toughness, vitality, and boon duration. You just get them to dumbo drop all their turrets at once and then go ape on the enemy. Hell, I’d just want to see a battlefield littered with turrets. That in itself would be a sight to see.

Of course, if you had 5 engineers then all 5 doing an elite supply drop would be a /gg right there. Especially if those turrets have the boons + shielding

Experimental Turrets sounds amazing to me, since I’m a turret Engineer. Free boons while using turrets which I already do all the time anyway? Yes please. That’s definitely one of the things someone running turrets lacks, you get pretty much zero boon support whatsoever. Nice wide area, decent boons given (except Rocket Turret), fills a niche turrets are lacking… I really like this trait on paper.

But why, oh why, is it in Alchemy? There are already turret traits in Explosives, Inventions, and Tools. And now Alchemy? Its just too much. Literally too much, with this new Grandmaster trait in Alchemy it is now completely impossible to even get all the turret traits in one build. You’d need 90 trait points to get them all.

And that’s assuming you even want to dedicate your entire build to turrets alone, which is probably not the best idea since turrets are best used as supplemental damage and not relying entirely on the turrets with a tank build (at least that’s been my experience). And a tank build is what you’re sort of steered into if you have to take 30 in Inventions for the main turret traits and then 30 in Alchemy for Experimental Turrets.

So, I mean, as much as I really like the sound of the trait and would really like to use it, I can’t see it happening. Alchemy is a terrible trait line for a turret build considering half the traits (anything that applies to kits or elixirs) would be 100% useless if your bar is full of turret utilities, and the few that don’t directly pertain to those are not all that impressive. Experimental Turrets sounds nice, but its not worth going all the way into Alchemy for. And that’s sad. Between all 6 of my characters (every profession except Warrior and Thief), Experimental Turrets is probably the new trait I’m most excited for. But due to the placement I just can’t see myself using it.

we cant even equip every single turret at once, i dont think the devs intentions are to make a single obvious optimized turret build, but to give us options. the same way we build around 1-3 kits and maybe optimize 1 of those kits. if 1-10 distinct, viable/good/niche turret builds come out of these 2 grandmasters, the devs succeeded. but dont expect only 1, thats basically the devs dictating your playstyle.

with experimentall turrets and the right build its possible to upkeep perma aoe vigor/fury/swiftness/6-12 might so I can totally see boon support engineers coming into play especially in spvp with proper positioning with be able to keep them alive for a long time and give heaps of support

Depending on where the mines are placed, Bunker Down might actually do more damage than Modified Ammunition in PvE.

Also, Synaptic Overload sounds VERY fun for PvP rifle builds with overcharged shot burst.