Guild Wars 2

Watching the preview streams now, someone’s finally covering Engie. (Unless I missed one earlier)

Bombs didn’t get the forceful explosives base. (unless this changes by tomorrow)

Rifle, E-gun and Pistols all seem to keep their ranges (No coated bullets on pistol either)

Without the blast range, bombs are just obsolete next to mortar and grenades. Unless you need a smoke field, basically. (Nearly everything else in the bomb kit is just done better by other things) Honestly, I’m starting to think bomb should have been the long-lasting field kit, or given extra blast finishers. It has no identity now, since you can point-blank with mortar and grenade for cleaving. (Unless it scales really nicely with power damage to be a melee replacement, I’ll need to check those numbers)

If you need range, you basically have to take the mortar now (Which is actually looking really good)

Guns are basically nerfed a bit for no-kit engies with the range reduction, though you can spike damage much better on the pistols than before thanks to the condi change.

If coated bullets is simply gone, I’m gonna be flipping my computer right off my desk and then coming back in here after I get it fixed to post my grievances.

Yamsandjams.3267:

If coated bullets is simply gone, I’m gonna be flipping my computer right off my desk and then coming back in here after I get it fixed to post my grievances.

They tested it in the streams today. None of the shots from Pistol penetrated.

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

Nilix.2170:

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

They said in the first Dev Stream that they were considering it, but it was never confirmed. I guess they decided it was too strong.

digitalruse.9085:

Nilix.2170:

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

They said in the first Dev Stream that they were considering it, but it was never confirmed. I guess they decided it was too strong.

Well I’ll at least wait to see it in the official build before I start tossing my figurative feces around the place.

digitalruse.9085:

Nilix.2170:

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

They said in the first Dev Stream that they were considering it, but it was never confirmed. I guess they decided it was too strong.

Yeah, they just said they were considering it.

Honestly, I don’t much care about coated bullets, because I think it’s too WEAK. I didn’t see why it shouldn’t be baseline.

The AA hits for AOE on its first target anyways, blowtorch is point blank anyways and Static shot bounces between targets anyways.
The only thing it really improves heavily is Poison Dart which is too inaccurate at range anyways.

I’m more annoyed about the bullet range than the piercing. If they’re not baseline, they should be rolled into the appropriate traits. They’re basically forcing use of the mortar. Which I will probably use anyways to be honest, but seriously, guns should have some decent range to them. They’re GUNS!

Nilix.2170:

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

Devs have made many claims on balance and changes. and what actually happens is often miles apart.

I was just looking forward to running a kitless, full elixir p/p spec again, a throwback to the beta days, but not having coated bullets is really gonna kill that.

Sometimes I think they might as well just delete all the utilities except for kits since that’s what everyone gets pushed into using all the time (well, except for the flamethrower, poor guy).

I used coated bullets in Silverwastes and it’s shocking how many hits you can put into a crowd with the piercing and exploding that happens. I was looking forward to that actually being worth something with the explosion traits and some on crit condi sigils for aoe condi spam on autoattack. But seems I won’t get to live that dream. At least the burns on pistol offhand are strong enough to justify dropping shield now.

Drath.4750:

I used coated bullets in Silverwastes and it’s shocking how many hits you can put into a crowd with the piercing and exploding that happens. I was looking forward to that actually being worth something with the explosion traits and some on crit condi sigils for aoe condi spam on autoattack. But seems I won’t get to live that dream. At least the burns on pistol offhand are strong enough to justify dropping shield now.

That only works on certain things. The auto-attack does not apply bleeds in it’s AoE, only to targets it directly hits, and most on-crit sigils only apply a condi to a single target on an ICD (torment and the poison one can do AoE though).

Note that more numbers is not always more damage. It’s just like how some necro players think running around using DS4 is causing insane damage just because it pops up a lot of numbers, when it doesn’t always do that great damage.

The main reason I liked coated bullets is that it allowed you to use the pistols much more effectively as an AoE and pressure weapon, relying less on things like the grenade an bomb kits to fill those purposes.

It was still a weaker option overall, which is why it was mostly ignored by people. But it provided a level of versatility that was invaluable in large group combat as well as during fights against mesmers, rangers, or anything with minions and stuff that body block your attacks.

The only way I think things will be ok without coated bullets is if one can do significantly higher single target “condi burst” damage, although I find this will be hard to do without the aid of kits.

p1 was nerfed to .350 due to coated bullets.
making it effectively required to be even slightly mediocre.

yes, lots of hits, as low damage.
p1’s damage is garbage for a few reasons.
1. the attack speed says 1/2, but in reality it is .75a/s the same as rifle.
so p1’s .350coeff, versus hip shots .650 coeff. I think the devs are still not aware of this. would explain alot.
2. pistol weapon str. 920-1080=1000 average. vs rifle 1035-1265=1150average.

Again, weapon str x coeff.
350 effective weapon coeff for p1. vs 748 effective weapon coeff for r1.
so yes, the means even without rifle mod, etc. Rifle 1 does OVER TWICE as much dps then pistol 1. again, making you wonder about the attack speed…
Or, its almost as if P1 was expected to average 2 hits per shot.. coated bullets?

And yeah, p1 only applied its base bleed on its targets hit by the direct projectile.
however, sharpshooter bleeds, etc were applied by the aoe. things with ICD, however only apply once.

Balancing for HoT. Making p1 an explosion would go a long way. I really do hope that is a go. Coated bullets itself is really useful for p2. nearly required for p1 as noted… but only due to go awful balancing. adjusting its coeff, or attack speed would negate the need for coated bullets.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Drath.4750:

I used coated bullets in Silverwastes and it’s shocking how many hits you can put into a crowd with the piercing and exploding that happens. I was looking forward to that actually being worth something with the explosion traits and some on crit condi sigils for aoe condi spam on autoattack. But seems I won’t get to live that dream. At least the burns on pistol offhand are strong enough to justify dropping shield now.

That only works on certain things. The auto-attack does not apply bleeds in it’s AoE, only to targets it directly hits, and most on-crit sigils only apply a condi to a single target on an ICD (torment and the poison one can do AoE though).

Note that more numbers is not always more damage. It’s just like how some necro players think running around using DS4 is causing insane damage just because it pops up a lot of numbers, when it doesn’t always do that great damage.

The main reason I liked coated bullets is that it allowed you to use the pistols much more effectively as an AoE and pressure weapon, relying less on things like the grenade an bomb kits to fill those purposes.

It was still a weaker option overall, which is why it was mostly ignored by people. But it provided a level of versatility that was invaluable in large group combat as well as during fights against mesmers, rangers, or anything with minions and stuff that body block your attacks.

The only way I think things will be ok without coated bullets is if one can do significantly higher single target “condi burst” damage, although I find this will be hard to do without the aid of kits.

Don’t worry- I was never disillusioned about the damage. I had never once even tried coated bullets in two years until they announced it would be baseline so I was just experimenting with the limits. And the thing with AoE torment on crit is that you need a crit. Every pierced target gives you a chance to proc a crit which is what I was excited about. And I assumed if they were explosions, that the aoe WOULD apply vuln and shrapnel in the aoe similar to all other explosions. The base autoattack and even the bleed on it are really underwhelming. I was excited for the synergies to make them not so much.

Pistol is still getting pretty buffed thanks to the condi changes and the powerful 50% condi duration trait, but it’s still best to never use it’s autoattack which is a shame.

Nilix.2170:

Coated Bullets is SUPPOSED to be baseline. So if it isn’t that’s probably a bug.

I don’t agree, if they pierce ALL the time you won’t get the explosive AoE bleed off unless you are firing at max range. Which is just poop, just like Deceptive Evasion it should be opt in only. Or at the very least a firearms minor.

And as Drath.4750 said, its still not worth using. ANY other kit autoattack is better, even elixir gun or toolkit.

nobody is saying anything about rifle 1 range…. will it be 1000 range or 1200 range with rifled barrels baseline?!?!?

Ederyn.3107:

nobody is saying anything about rifle 1 range…. will it be 1000 range or 1200 range with rifled barrels baseline?!?!?

From what we can tell, it’s still 1000 currently.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Ederyn.3107:

nobody is saying anything about rifle 1 range…. will it be 1000 range or 1200 range with rifled barrels baseline?!?!?

From what we can tell, it’s still 1000 currently.

Yeah, that’s what I said in my opening post. I forget what streamer said it, but ALL of the guns kept their untraited range. And none of the traits for the guns give the improved range back. Basically, engie got a range nerf with the exception of mortar, but it’s the ONLY long range option now.

The only place I’ll really miss it is the E-gun honestly, Longer range on the AA and Elixer F was handy for chasing for distance cripple and weakness

But it’s still a bit of a blow.

Arioso.8519:

Elixer F was handy for chasing for distance cripple and weakness

Pffffft! HAHAHA… oh, man.

Thanks for that, I needed a good laugh.

No, but seriously, that thing couldn’t hit a Zhaitan-size quaggan, let alone a moving player.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Arioso.8519:

Elixer F was handy for chasing for distance cripple and weakness

Pffffft! HAHAHA… oh, man.

Thanks for that, I needed a good laugh.

No, but seriously, that thing couldn’t hit a Zhaitan-size quaggan, let alone a moving player.

haha i was just thinking the same thing. I literally never used that skill. Completely useless.

WOuld be great if they can make it targeted, but anet hates allied targeting for some reason.