Guild Wars 2

Anet, please just look at engi
the engi forums
the class itself
and the anet devs to see if any of them play an engi

engi has been neglected and not cared for by anet for the longest time and it it needs to stop. I don’t even care if they somehow do a giant nerf to all engi skills, but to me it shows that anet is actually looking at engi.
The class has by far the largest build diversity of any class:
turret engi
power rifle
gadget engi
scrapper hammer
condi p/p
condi p/s
hgh engi
and many hybrids that combine other builds

The only reason why we cannot commit to these builds is because Anet has either destroyed the skills, made the skills not viable in the meta, or just lack of damage. If only one Anet dev will take command and bring engi up on the list of fun and viable.

It also does not help that anet never looks at the class forums on their own forum pages :I if they just took a look at the many ideas that players come up with anet wouldn’t even have to think about what to do. They can just copy what the player base has made.

Yep..

* turret engi – unplayable: nerfed hard back when it was meta. Arguably a good thing, but sad that they’re so useless now

• power rifle – very bad: I have run this build for years and still use it. Not enough damage to justify the risk. Too much projectile hate. Not enough sustain/evade to keep up with HoT
• scrapper hammer – good: anet has been chipping away at this build since HoT was released and it’s (IMO) nearly balanced. Needs trait reworks for the ones they killed.
• condi p/p – decent: depends on the opponent’s condi clear. Risk/reward ratio still not great. Projectile problems.
• condi p/s – bad: shield still not good enough
• hgh – works, but throw elixir being a projectile is a problem when there’s reflect everywhere

Dont forget pistol piercing, mortar projectile finisher, grenade blindness bug, rocket boots and rocket charge change direction mid air, elixir u interrupt, toss elixir reflect, med kit is bad, purge gyro cleanse single ally and shredder gyro is bad.

it seems they buff/debuff classes/specs each season depending on the almighty short straw drawing method, followed by a swift kick in the nuts.

what debuf? We now do more damage when we land with rocket boots!

You mean the Rocket Boots damage buff that no one wanted, or the Rocket Jump “buff” that was actually a nerf because it took guaranteed damage from the start of the skill and moved it to the end of a near-1s travel animation with no evade?

shion.2084:

what debuf? We now do more damage when we land with rocket boots!

You mean jump shot.

And yes that is a nerf in my eyes. You dont want to get close to an enemy with a rifle. The best thing with a rifle is to stay away as far as possible. Jumping in an opponent is simply madness even if he/she has 10% HP. If He/she block-dodge-etc. you are goofed. You cannot prevail in melee combat… you cannot even prevail in range combat with that weapon since there are no range skills on it except hipshot.

Yeah.. Rifle was meant to be a mixed-range weapon but that was back before HoT happened.

In theory, what you wanted to do was something like:

Jump Shot on top of an enemy, surprising them; dodge their counterattack; hit them at close range with Blunderbuss, then dodge again if necessary and hit them with Overcharged Shot to cc them and put some distance between you; Net Shot to keep them there and keep pew pew-ing until you can repeat that.

(obviously, other skills go in there too depending on your build. Eg: Magnet-PryBar-OverchargedShot-ThrowWrench-NetShot-GrenadeBarrage, for example)

But it’s really difficult to get any of those combos off any more. CC was supposed to be Rifle’s utility and defense, but it no longer works. Overcharged Shot is more likely to hit defense like block or aegis or reflect, or a projectile wall than not. When you do land it, your opponent is likely to have stability or have the cc canceled by a passive trait. Net Shot is a pretty weak cc to begin with, but it’s almost insulting how easily it’s countered by thieves and warriors’ immob-breaking traits.

Setis.2863:

shion.2084:

what debuf? We now do more damage when we land with rocket boots!

You mean jump shot.

And yes that is a nerf in my eyes. You dont want to get close to an enemy with a rifle. The best thing with a rifle is to stay away as far as possible. Jumping in an opponent is simply madness even if he/she has 10% HP. If He/she block-dodge-etc. you are goofed. You cannot prevail in melee combat… you cannot even prevail in range combat with that weapon since there are no range skills on it except hipshot.

Rocket Boots got damage increased as well.

Samug.6512:

Setis.2863:

shion.2084:

what debuf? We now do more damage when we land with rocket boots!

You mean jump shot.

And yes that is a nerf in my eyes. You dont want to get close to an enemy with a rifle. The best thing with a rifle is to stay away as far as possible. Jumping in an opponent is simply madness even if he/she has 10% HP. If He/she block-dodge-etc. you are goofed. You cannot prevail in melee combat… you cannot even prevail in range combat with that weapon since there are no range skills on it except hipshot.

Rocket Boots got damage increased as well.

shame its an evasive skill and it has half the radius of jump shot and 1/4th of the damage

coro.3176:

Yeah.. Rifle was meant to be a mixed-range weapon but that was back before HoT happened.

In theory, what you wanted to do was something like:

Jump Shot on top of an enemy, surprising them; dodge their counterattack; hit them at close range with Blunderbuss, then dodge again if necessary and hit them with Overcharged Shot to cc them and put some distance between you; Net Shot to keep them there and keep pew pew-ing until you can repeat that.

(obviously, other skills go in there too depending on your build. Eg: Magnet-PryBar-OverchargedShot-ThrowWrench-NetShot-GrenadeBarrage, for example)

But it’s really difficult to get any of those combos off any more. CC was supposed to be Rifle’s utility and defense, but it no longer works. Overcharged Shot is more likely to hit defense like block or aegis or reflect, or a projectile wall than not. When you do land it, your opponent is likely to have stability or have the cc canceled by a passive trait. Net Shot is a pretty weak cc to begin with, but it’s almost insulting how easily it’s countered by thieves and warriors’ immob-breaking traits.

I prefer Hip Shot x # of times → Overcharged Shot → Net Shot → Jump Shot → Blunderbuss → Acid Bomb.

I still prefer rifle over hammer but it definitely needs a bit of a damage boost and some adjustments to the other skills. Such as; increasing the duration of Net Shot’s Immobilize, perhaps grants Engi 10sec of Swiftness if it’s evaded. Increasing the Bleed duration on Blunderbuss or, maybe change the condition to Burning. Reduce knockback duration on the Engi from Overcharged Shot and increase the range it launches the target. Increase the velocity of Jump Shot.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

coro.3176:

Yeah.. Rifle was meant to be a mixed-range weapon but that was back before HoT happened.

In theory, what you wanted to do was something like:

Jump Shot on top of an enemy, surprising them; dodge their counterattack; hit them at close range with Blunderbuss, then dodge again if necessary and hit them with Overcharged Shot to cc them and put some distance between you; Net Shot to keep them there and keep pew pew-ing until you can repeat that.

(obviously, other skills go in there too depending on your build. Eg: Magnet-PryBar-OverchargedShot-ThrowWrench-NetShot-GrenadeBarrage, for example)

But it’s really difficult to get any of those combos off any more. CC was supposed to be Rifle’s utility and defense, but it no longer works. Overcharged Shot is more likely to hit defense like block or aegis or reflect, or a projectile wall than not. When you do land it, your opponent is likely to have stability or have the cc canceled by a passive trait. Net Shot is a pretty weak cc to begin with, but it’s almost insulting how easily it’s countered by thieves and warriors’ immob-breaking traits.

I prefer Hip Shot x # of times -> Overcharged Shot -> Net Shot -> Jump Shot -> Blunderbuss -> Acid Bomb.

I still prefer rifle over hammer but it definitely needs a bit of a damage boost and some adjustments to the other skills. Such as; increasing the duration of Net Shot’s Immobilize, perhaps grants Engi 10sec of Swiftness if it’s evaded. Increasing the Bleed duration on Blunderbuss or, maybe change the condition to Burning. Reduce knockback duration on the Engi from Overcharged Shot and increase the range it launches the target. Increase the velocity of Jump Shot.

In my opinion the rifle don’t need condition-dmg at all. You need effects that support the rifle play-style (like cripple or weakness). Having nothing full and nothing half is the main problem of the rifle now.
Having a part range and part bad melee weapon that is based on power with part condition-dmg will not work in my eyes.

Can you please explain me why you want more bleeding-duration (or fire) on Blunderbuss? What kind of condition-dmg do you expect to do with the rifle? Or is it just for a hybrid build?
Maybe it is something that I just don’t see.

Ranged/Melee:
Rifle was designed around being hybrid melee/range, with cc to support that playstyle and act as defense vs a single opponent. That cc practically never works vs anyone now (reasons listed above), which makes Rifle nearly unplayable.

Power/Condi:
At launch, most weapons were designed with condi + power elements. Over time, and especially with HoT, anet has been designing pure power and pure condi weapons, and updating old weapons to be pure power or pure condi (see Warrior Rifle, for example). Engineer Rifle is long overdue for this sort of rework. You can bet that if Rifle had been designed in the last year or two, the Blunderbuss damage would be all direct.

Setis.2863:

Can you please explain me why you want more bleeding-duration (or fire) on Blunderbuss? What kind of condition-dmg do you expect to do with the rifle? Or is it just for a hybrid build?
Maybe it is something that I just don’t see.

Because Rifle works nicely with hybrid/tank builds. Even with heavily defensive stats, Rifle can do some solid damage. I run a Commander/Celestial Durability rune build (WvW) and Rifle works great with it. I maintain 15 – 20 stacks of might and Jump Shot can crit as high as 12k on players with 2.9k armor, 23k health and 173% Ferocity.

I wouldn’t be upset if the conditions were removed from any of the attacks, I just feel that it’s nice for hybrid builds because it can help to maintain pressure post-burst and through blocks.

Also need to consider that Pistols are condition, Hammer is power, so it makes sense to me that Rifle is hybrid. Again, I wouldn’t complain if it became a fully power based weapon though.

coro.3176:

• power rifle – very bad: I have run this build for years and still use it. Not enough damage to justify the risk. Too much projectile hate. Not enough sustain/evade to keep up with HoT

I disagree about rifle. The power rifle meta build is really strong right now, it just depends on where you use it. Check out this site, both Vipers and Zerkers builds are very effective. http://qtfy.enjin.com/engineer

The problem IMO is that both builds use bomb, grenade, and mortar kits. The variety is not lacking in weapon choice but in utility/kit choice. Even in the traitlines, you only change Chemical Rounds to High Caliber.

scorekeeper.6524:

coro.3176:

• power rifle – very bad: I have run this build for years and still use it. Not enough damage to justify the risk. Too much projectile hate. Not enough sustain/evade to keep up with HoT

I disagree about rifle. The power rifle meta build is really strong right now, it just depends on where you use it. Check out this site, both Vipers and Zerkers builds are very effective. http://qtfy.enjin.com/engineer

The problem IMO is that both builds use bomb, grenade, and mortar kits. The variety is not lacking in weapon choice but in utility/kit choice. Even in the traitlines, you only change Chemical Rounds to High Caliber.

This refers to PvE.
The first one is a power Bomb build and not a rifle build. You use the rifle in a very short time for just 2 skills and then switch mainly to bombs. (I run that build myself and made an old short tutorial video about it.)

The other build is a condition build that uses all (good) condition-skills in a very hard rotation that should do the maximum dmg in this game. Nothing here is auto-hit. Everything has to be used intentionally and you have more room to ruin it. (Hard to play, hard to learn and hard to master should result in the maximum possible dmg in this whole game)

The engineer has the most unused skills of all classes (mainly because he has the most skills)
A good engineer will never use the Flamethrower as a main weapon. You switch to the FT, use 1 or 2 skills and then switch back to something better. A condition build cannot be called a pistol build or a Flamethrower build just because you use 2 or 3 skills of that weapon.
The name refers always to the weapon that you use the most… therefore rifle is not the main weapon in PvE… It is bombs and grenades.