Hi,
so I have been playing heavily with my Engi for over a week now – saved some vacation days for HoT launch – so I thought I write down few (well more than few) thoughts. Since this point I have been playing PvE only, so I will focus on that and sorry for any typos and/or bad grammar.
Hammer
Feels great! One little problem I have been having (might be just me thou) is that sometimes when foe dies/stealth suddenly I lose target and the Rocket Charge takes me way off – in HoT even of the edge sometimes. I would be nice to have some way to cancel the skill if necessary; OR make it work so that if I do not have active target, each separate jump would take me in the direction of camera (action camera) or keys I am holding.
Gyros
I have very mixed feeling about gyros – I like the idea of “mobile turrets” but at present state it just doesn’t work. I have tried them all but the most useful seems to be Bulwark Gyro and Sneak Gyro. Nevertheless there is huge problem – they can’t keep with me and my party. They are either stuck (moving around something) somewhere or generally behind, not mentioning when you jump around alot (jumping puzzles, different map levels in HoT, uncategorized fractal, etc.). Making them follow you properly would fix a lot of issues.
Bulwark Gyro
In my opinion, the most “usable” gyro. Has nice large aoe and since you activate it in specific moment – expecting to get hit big time – its effect is the most reliable for you and your party. Also tool belt skill is great.
Medic Gyro
Very, very small aoe. As soon as you move just a little bit, you don’t get periodic heals, basically not beneficial to your party (unless you all are melee and stacked at one spot). Also seems to die a lot quicker than other gyros. Tool belt skill is OK.
Blast Gyro Tag
Generally unreliable (standing at one place, not following target, not exploding) at range; in melee situations seem to work better. Unless you specifically trait it with Shocking Speed, Rapid Regeneration and Final Salvo it’s not usable – just extra autoattack on 15s cooldown; not worth the skill slot. Tool belt skill doesn’t seem to fit theme of gyro (again, not without traits) and have long cooldown for what it does. Probably the most underwhelming of all gyros.
Purge gyro
If the gyro would follow properly with reasonably large aoe so that the party would also benefit it would be good. Again, at the moment gyros doesn’t follow properly, so the gyro effect is wasted after 1st use. Tool belt skill seems a bit underwhelming.
Shredder Gyro
Not mobile, might as well use turret instead. Tool belt skill is great thou.
Sneak Gyro
Surprisingly good even in PvE – I was skeptical after beta weekend but I am happy with it now. The use is however limited by, again, follow issues. It’s great when you want to mine an ore node/get chest/take mastery point and don’t want to fight foes, but when you move you stealth and de-stealth all the time. Tool belt skill is total lackluster in PvE. Not only it have almost no use, but when you have opportunity to use it (basically in HoT only) it does not event work on some enemies – probably because of stealth detection mastery.
Traits
Traits feel well balanced; except for traits related to function gyro (see below).
Function Gyro – As a Scrapper defining mechanic, it is complete fail. Since HoT launch till now, I have used Function Gyro like 7 times max. Does not revive defeated allies, only downed ones, works like 50% times at best – usually it just stands at place doing nothing and it is almost impossible to use because you have to specifically target downed player; not easy to do in PvE events (15+people and mobs at the same spot) – unless you have specific person in your party and target him from party UI, you will probably not be able to res anyone and to my knowledge it does not work on NPCs. Also, “finish foe” is nonexistent in PvE – that’s half of the mechanic gone. In organized party I much rather go and res party member myself than rely on AI gyro mechanic – it is too important to res people to let it on chance.
Shocking Speed – OK.
Stabilization Core – tied to issues with Fuction Gyro (see above).
Recovery Matrix – fine, but it could give stability as well.
Decisive Renown – partially tied to issues with Function Gyro. It activates when you do it yourself but there are not many situations you will benefit from this in PvE. Would be a good trait if it was optional (Major) trait, but as mandatory (Minor) trait it feels not so useful
Rapid Regeneration – OK, but it could heal a bit more on swiftness.
Expert Examination – very nice trait.
Mass Momentum – solid DPS trait.
Impact savant – great trait
Adaptive Armor – great event after nerf – I agree that 100 per struck was too much.
Final Salvo – fine gyro related trait.
Perfectly Weighted – solid DPS trait.
In general, I am enjoying Scrapper very much and I am glad that engineer finally got some melee combat alternative. I have few more thoughts but about HoT gameplay in general, so I will write another post in different topic.
and I’m not sure about the former.” Albert Einstein