Guild Wars 2

Why did they remove the trait which let you throw turrets into position?
Why did they change grenades into mid-rage weapons?
Is my memory wrong or did they heavily reduce damage of many abilities such as the rocket turrets belt skill and the bomb kit in general?

It seems they made some serious changes to the class. Were there at least some fixes to the endless list of bugs that turrets had to compensate for what appears to be a huge nerf?

Returning after such a long time I’m kinda baffled by the changes. Not even sure which item prefix I’d want to be wearing now… Little help, please?

• people abused throwing turrets in pvp, and turret engi was a thing that needed to die in a fire, so the trait was caught in the crossfire when the specialization overhaul came out
• people complained that it didnt make sense that you could throw things 1500 range and shoot things 1200 range along with the slow projectiles needing proper leading being hard to master and making nades make the most sense in melee anyways along with mortar kit taking over the long range
• neither of those have received nerfs in my imperfect memory, bomb kit has been buffed (2, burning duration)

• no, turrets are just simply in an unusable state for the indefinite future (except healing turret which is still the best heal no matter how they nerf it and rifle turret toolbelt)

• berserker and or marauder for power or viper for condi in pve
• marauder, or something tanky like wanderer, minstrel, crusader, or commander for power in wvw (you gotta figure out what feels right for you here and mixing things is ok and HoT stat combos are just plain better than core stats)
• viper/trailblazer/rabid/dire/sinister mix for condi wvw

Thanks for your reply and sorry for dropping out. Was kinda busy. I’m still not clear on a few things:

insanemaniac.2456:

• people abused throwing turrets in pvp, and turret engi was a thing that needed to die in a fire, so the trait was caught in the crossfire when the specialization overhaul came out

Okay I can understand that placed detonations can be annoying in pvp. Still how am I supposed to let a thumper turret tank for me when I already have to be engaged in melee to set it up? It kinda defeats the purpose and it also sucks the fun out of using them in castle siege / defense.
And if they wanted to completely remove turrets then why are they still in game? Is this supposed to be a noob trap?

insanemaniac.2456:

• people complained that it didnt make sense that you could throw things 1500 range and shoot things 1200 range along with the slow projectiles needing proper leading being hard to master and making nades make the most sense in melee anyways along with mortar kit taking over the long range

Makes sense. Still it appears my damage with either kit has been insanely cut. I used to hit for like 10k with the rocket turret toolbelt missle and crit for 1500+ with each grenade. Perhaps my memory is wrong but it seems like damage recieved a 50% or even 66% cut to what I remember.
Where engis really that OP or did we get anything in return?

insanemaniac.2456:

• no, turrets are just simply in an unusable state for the indefinite future (except healing turret which is still the best heal no matter how they nerf it and rifle turret toolbelt)

So really no bug fixes at all? Like the gun turret overcharge still actually reduces attack speed instead of increasing it, etc? What the hell makes them hate turrets so much? O_o

One thing to keep in mind: most of your complaints seem to be from a pvp focus. While some of these things don’t make sense for pvp, they do for pve. Make sure to kitten changes with all game types in mind.

bearshaman.3421:

One thing to keep in mind: most of your complaints seem to be from a pvp focus. While some of these things don’t make sense for pvp, they do for pve. Make sure to kitten changes with all game types in mind.

Who was that directed at?
I don’t play pvp at all but I’m gonna agree if you’re adressing the devs / the people those devs apparently catered to.

The lack of throwable turrets is a huge hit for pve, so is having them deal so little damage. The bugs, on the other hand, are just plain bad from every point of view.

Sup!, well, you are not so off about feeling the power damage to cut off, the latest patches has forced engi to play condi (not becuase power nerfs, but because condi buffs), vanilla power engi doesnt make up for the current dps standards (even with the Hot especialization!), so yeah, Rifle is in the bench (i miss my rifle ), and hammer is trying to be the power dps way, but its getting constantly nerfed due that its soo dam good at PvP!

Pistol/Pistol condi engi with full kits (Grenade, bomb, flamethrower, and mortar kit specificly), it’s the way to go, and yeah, unfortunately, all other engi utilities arent currently good enough in terms of dps for like taking them over a kit, it’s Kits or nothing.

In PvP its another story tough, Gyros and Elixirs are at least viable, adding some more flavor from all the full kit builds (but you still depend from taking at least 1 kit, you are going to have a lot of trouble if you have 0 kits in your utilities).

So I guess this means I’ll have to craft a viper set and shelve my turrets and rifle for good.

Did this happen to other classes as well?
Are there still viable long-range + power builds (counting other classes too)?

Perhaps I’m just gonna go and insta 80 myself a ranger :/

Yep, if you still plan to play engi, that’s how it its, i really like pistols, they are fun to play, but im still waiting to rifle to comeback and make power builds nice again as they used to be.

Anet doesnt seem to have plans for turret any time soon, they will defenitely will require a rework, no way anet will buff them in their current state.

Idk a lot of other classes since i pretty much only play engi 24/7 :P, but, ranger is another good long range option too!… if you like staffs of course, rangers are the healers of this game now with their new staff :P

Ivantreil.3092:

Anet doesnt seem to have plans for turret any time soon, they will defenitely will require a rework, no way anet will buff them in their current state.

That seems to be the case since release nomatter what they do. I just noticed there are magnetic auras and group boons for turrets (which seems to cater to the old meta) and all of this is still not enough?
I mean I personally don’t find the fun to play with in PvE anymore due to the bad positioning but wow turrets are one can of worms balance wise.

Is playing ranger with long bow still viable or do I have to run with staff?

Turrets are the only aspect you really HAVE to ditch to play a viable Engie in PvE. All the other stuff works well enough if you know how to use it, even Rifle and Gyros. Of course most builds will not be optimal this way, but, who cares?

PvE has many faces today. You want to lead a mindless World Boss Zerg, pass Arah solo, defeat Matthias, explore the new Chalice JP, or speedrun fractals? Plain Condi engie is not going to be the optimal in all these, but it will be viable. Power will also be, even vanilla. Most players will tweak their builds according to each specific content, and to their own playstyle. There isn’t only one way to do it.

Also remember, THE META CHANGES. Yesterday only Hammer was decent anywere, then Condi became the way to go… not only because balance fixes, but simply because people become accostumed to some strategies. My point is: don’t expect any build to be meta forever.

In the end, PvE is way less restrictive than PvP. Try new builds, find a playstyle you like, use the amazing flexibility Engie brings. You aren’t forced to stick to any meta, so, please, don’t do it.

in pve, core power engi does great dps, but now there are easier things to play that do similar dps and the build that can do that dps is a 3-4 kit build.

turrets have never been good dps, only a couple select things are. you should still be able to hit your 10k rocket turret toolbelts… in full ascended zerk gear with scholar runes, a bunch of condis on the mob including 25 vuln, and a lot of might on yourself. that skill is a strong single hit with a too-long cd and you should be able to squeeze at least 20k out of it under full buffs.

as for ranger, anything is viable in open world and yes you can camp longbow on ranger and no you dont need a staff as a druid, but druid brings so much to the table for ranger that running without at least druid will feel bad compared to running around with druid. elite specs are op. they make them game easier. they are new and shiny. try them out. druid play doesnt have to be too different from ranger play, it just has more to work with.

Thanks for reassuring my faith in build diversity. This is a big relief!.

Mmm, i should have mentioned it was focused in serious pve content what i have said (raids, fractals, etc.), but in general, everything its right as long as you know how to play it :P