Guild Wars 2

Good day everyone! As an Engineer main with 50% of my play time on the class I would like to put my initial thoughts on the scrapper out there!

Keep in mind this is a first impression from the info we have available and I will be re-evaluating this with the first BWE or once it releases, as it is subject to change as any elite spec at this point!
I would like to thank /u/dulfy/ as well, I was unable to watch POI live, without her we would all be lost in the mists.

Right! Let’s get started!

#HAMMER :

Thank Abaddon its power based! I was hoping for a bit of burning on it in the hopes of a cele engi coming back, but that was not meant to be.
This thing is STRONG, and it needed to be to actually compete with everything that rifle brings to the table.
Specific number tuning aside when looking at the 3 things we need to to determine the usefulness of a weapon, damage, utility and defence, the hammer has all of it in SPADES right there for use.
With its current tuning kitless engineer could very well be a much more viable option than ever before, it is very clear that the design decisions behind it actually took this very commonly requested play style into consideration.
Between all the skills on the hammer we can VERY nearly keep up 25 vuln.

Now to the skills :

[You can find the tooltips here.](http://i.imgur.com/p7vcdOb.jpg)

1.1 – Autoattack chain besides having a seriously cool bunch of names, is tuned for a serious amount of power hits! The vuln and might both have very long durations. With some boon duration the might can REALLY matter in PvP, PvE we are not running engineer for might in dungeons.
The vuln just from this chain will get 3 targets to 16 stacks of might after a few seconds and maintain it there without any condition duration.

1.2 – A whirl finisher and reflect this skill could have some interesting and fun gameplay behind it in all game modes, it fits really well with the engineer reactive gameplay.
While whirls are the weakest combo fields they have some interesting condi uses as well as team support similar to guardians that act as team condi cleanse in PvE.

1.3 – A TRIPLE combo leap at a MASSIVE 1000 range, this is very much my favourate skill! Need a heal? Lets use a +water field for a 3x 1300 heal! Not to mention the dazing potential through the very many lightning fields Engi just got access to!
On top of all this it is a 1 second evade PER leap as well! Just WOW!

1.4. Shock shield! Very flavourful skill with TONS of vuln and a decently short CD, I like that the duration is less than Gear shield, the differentiate between Gear shield and this skill needs to be clear and they managed to do that very well!
Obviously the 8 stacks of vuln add to the possibility of grenades being less mandatory in every PvE dungeon build.

1.5 – Ill be clear this skill is a little underwhelming right now compared to jump shot on rifle. The damage is decent but it is spread over 6 seconds, which makes the damage portion quite useless past the almost 2 second stun.
HOWEVER the lightning field synergizes extremely well with rocket charge, allowing you to follow up with dazes. I do think the stun needs to be a round 2 seconds at least and ill likely call a radius increase after the BWE as well.
Too early to stay dfinitively right now.
The range on it is great though and will allow the engineer running a melee weapon to close the distance without needing to just rely on Rocket charge.

Overall I am VERY happy with he hammer even though it will likely not replace the rifle in PvP mostly due to the lack of hard mitigation while being able to counter pressure in melee such as warrior endure pain, which is my mainly played game mode.

#Gyros :

A little concerned about these as a whole mainly for the same reason turrets don’t work, they MELT. But some of them are pretty interesting and with some tuning they could see some play from me at least!
What I find extremely interesting and a little disappointing is the complete lack of a breakstun in the Gyros. To note they are instant cast however, so it MAY not be needed as much, but still.
Initially I was not happy with the possibility of the passive gameplay behind Gyros, however the majority of them are extremely active gameplay.

[Find tooltips here.](http://i.imgur.com/sxEMt8j.jpg)

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance but there are some concerns, AOE could melt it quickly, rendering it near useless for the 30second VERY long CD.
#Does the CD start upon initial cast or once the Gyro has been destroyed? Anyone know? This will be important!
EDIT : Apparently CD start after the Gyro is destroyed, with these kinds of high CD, they will see very little use if they can not stay alive, which is a very real concern!

Some numbers :
Healing done of its full duration assuming 2 second frequency and not 3(because round numbers and all : 2590 + 820×7 = 8330.
Healing PER SECOND : 8330/14 = 595.
EDIT : When you average this out over the 44secs for bot duration +CD, you lose out on A LOT of potential heal.
Brinigng it down to a mere 189 heal per second.

Comparing that to healing turret :
Heals : 5040 every 15 seconds when picked up.
Heal per second : 5040/15 = 336.

This does not take the water field on turret or the other utility in mind though, once you start looking at the 2 condis removed, the added blast, the possible to trait knockback the healing turret still looks like the best heal skill in the kitten game!

What MIGHT just save the Medic gyro, the toolbelt skill is incredible! 4 second water field! Think of back to the hammer triple leap! NIIIIICE.
This also pulses 1 1/4s protection when standing in it as well, protection is nothing to laugh at!

My personal opinion here is to either tune the toolbelt skill to a lower CD(20 secs or so) or tune the initial heal up on the medic gyro to incentivize use above the OP that is Healing turret.

Phew, long one!
Moving on!

2.2. – Our own little tank! But it sucks… Why? Cuz from the POI, it has SO little HP and a 30 second cooldown! The reflect on the toolbelt skill will see some use in PVE when a guardian isn’t as readily available.

2.3 – This kamikaze thing looks cool and I can imagine feels cool. But why would we use it? Because its an Unblock able CC? Maybe…
It has a decently low CD with decent dmg, even the toolbelt is decent, although adding a breakstun here would make SO MUCH sense.
I just don’t see this being used above most other utilities though, we have an unblock-able pull on Toolkit after all.

2.4. – Turtles BEWARE! Not happy with the Shredder Gyro, it could be interesting with smoke bomb in dungeons if you lack a thief and need to blind large amounts of mobs. It could also see some use in condi heavy specs, although whirls are not reliable enough in my opinion.
The toolbelt sounds pretty cool and provides an extra lightning field. Kinda meh in my opinion!

2.5 – Passive game play, UGH! This is the one place Gyros went completely wrong, LUCKILY we knew about it before POI, which made the other Gyros a pleasant surprise.
The every 3 seconds is quite strong none the less, however I don’t think it will survive long enough to matter, the cooldown is pretty long too.
Toolbelt doesn’t really bring anything new, although it is the longest duration poison field we will end up having.

2.6 – Thematically I am NOT a fan of this skill. I also think it will never see play in PvP or PvE.
But I might be premature though.
Even considering the Revealed on the toolbelt. I do think we are getting to a point where thieves will suffer with all the AOE reveals coming into play.

So as a final note, the success of these will very much depend on their individual durability!

#TRAITS!

Some serious synergy in the specialisation as well as other specialisations!

[Tooltips here.](http://i.imgur.com/aFbqDqO.jpg)

Let’start with minors as we get them all!

Minor 1 – REMOTE stomping/rezzing, pretty sure this will be a REALLY good and welcome alternative to Elixir S which has been forced on us in PvP for the longest time because of its insane utility and versatility! Even more so post Alchemy buffs!

Minor 2 – Short CD might and superspeed team support! All other classes have some serious downed support, we got some too now, its not that strong but considering its a minor, i think it is VERY strong!

Minor 3 – +25% stun duration outgoing and -25% incoming. Really strong and I believe quite important for a melee engi to be even remotely possible in PvP thanks to a bit limited access to stability.

Adept 1 – Shocking speed, meh, not to big on this, we have plenty swiftness but it could allow us(with the Adaptive Armor GM) allow us to really ignore many conditions on us, which could make for some SUPER interesting bruiser game-play!

Adept 2 – Stabilizing core, Just insanely powerful, double stomp with your gyro and you both have 2 stacks of stab? That is INSANE.

Adept 3 – Recovery Matrix, An alternative to Protection Injection with less uptime possible, honestly quite under-tuned, not even considering how strong Stabilization core is which obviously competes with it.

Master 1 – Rapid regeneration, absolutely LOVE this trait, actually making it worthwhile to over-invest in SuperSpeed. We also have TONS of Swiftness options!

Master 2 – Expert Examination, also a really strong trait! This ties in with even more bruiser possibilty but a lot more dueling potential vs Rapid Regen would be better in outnumbered.
Deciding between these 2 might give me a hard time in the future.
It is worth noting that Rapid Regeneration requires more investment in Gyros and traits to make it MUCH better, but right of the bat Expert Exam will perform well without further investment.

Master 3 – Mass momentum. As mentioned on POI, the synergy with Juggernaut+FT is very obvious and VERY strong and could potentiall get FT to be an EXTREMELY powerful sustained DPS weapon in PVP/WVW.
You would probably want to use this trait with Rifle though as it will allow you to camp FT more while seting up more CC.
Good to see some of these traits also being catered towards other weapon types outside hammer!

GM 1 – Adaptive armor, just WOW, 1000 added possible toughness! I have been whining about toughness being useless since June23rd, but with these extremely high amounts of it, you start to even curb the crazy diminishing returns a bit!
Not to mention the bruiser JOY you can have with the 20% reduced condition dmg which is super unique!

GM2 – Final Salvo – At this point the super speed is getting a bit overkill, this trait isn’t realy that great in my opinion, but that might just be because I am already a bit scepticle about Gyros in the first place.

GM3 – Perfectly Weighted – More bruiser potential and once again a difficult choice to be made between Adaptive armor and this.

With an exception of the adepts the choices and competing traits per tier are pretty well structured with some AWESOME synergy!

#Final Word and TLDR :

FUN! Simply put, the hammer looks rediculously FUN!

I have seen plenty of people saying the Scrapper is made for PvP and that PvE is being neglected with this elite spec.
I say NAY! Looking at the vuln/might and very high base dmg, this could be the new POWER based dungeoneer build for engi, near or matching nades in damage while feeling less spammy and much more fun in the process.
YES, THEY DID IT boys and girls! Kitless engineer without being completely useless!

While it is true that the traits are PvP biased, don’t count the scrapper out of PVE just yet.

Well thanks for bearing with me during this long and a bit speculative write-up! PLEASE gimme input and feedback and feel free to criticize!

Have fun and see you in far Meguuma!

Cooldown starts after the gyro is destroyed.

And its 500 toughness, notice max 5 stacks.

EDIT: And almost 2 sec stun? Its 1+1/4th second (the last part thanks to our grandmaster minor, of which this is among the only skills to affect). Call me a pessimist who thinks the glass is half empty, but 1 second stuns on a decent to long recharge aren’t exactly what you would equip paralyzation for is it?.

All in all i agree that the hammer allows us to ease up a bit on the kit usage, removing the need for toolkit above all. But my theory is that we will not see gyros but instead gadgets like slick shoes (which synergize both with super speed traits and the melee playstyle) or rocket boots (even moar mobility and blasts), elixirs and field generating or ranged kits like the mortar and elixir gun.

miriforst.1290:

Cooldown starts after the gyro is destroyed.

And its 500 toughness, notice max 5 stacks.

Thanks! I assumed the duration.

In response to edit :

Yeah, the stun is is underwhelming. As I said.
I was never a big advocate of kitless and the need for it, but this was done VERY well from the info we do have.

miriforst.1290:

Cooldown starts after the gyro is destroyed.

wich is a major fail design

More clarification on effectiveness on Medic Gyro.

When you average this out over the 44secs for bot duration +CD, you lose out on A LOT of potential heal.
Bringing it down to a mere 189 heal per second.

Novuake.2691:

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance

I refuse to believe you play Engineer (The class that has Healing Turret) 50% of the time, took a look at Medic Gyro’s 800 heal per 3s and said “yeah that looks strong”

I refuse to believe it.

I refuse.

Ricky Rouse.1583:

Novuake.2691:

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance

I refuse to believe you play Engineer (The class that has Healing Turret) 50% of the time, took a look at Medic Gyro’s 800 heal per 3s and said “yeah that looks strong”

I refuse to believe it.

I refuse.

you fail at reading. he then immediately does the math showing why medic gyro is not strong at all.

i can kind of understand the fail as his post was way too long, but if you are going to bash him at least do some fact checking.

Raven.9603:

Ricky Rouse.1583:

Novuake.2691:

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance

I refuse to believe you play Engineer (The class that has Healing Turret) 50% of the time, took a look at Medic Gyro’s 800 heal per 3s and said “yeah that looks strong”

I refuse to believe it.

I refuse.

you fail at reading. he then immediately does the math showing why medic gyro is not strong at all.

i can kind of understand the fail as his post was way too long, but if you are going to bash him at least do some fact checking.

Thank you. And yes, if he read the post properly, then it would have been clear I am NOT saying that healbot is anywhere near HT.

Novuake.2691:

Raven.9603:

Ricky Rouse.1583:

Novuake.2691:

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance

I refuse to believe you play Engineer (The class that has Healing Turret) 50% of the time, took a look at Medic Gyro’s 800 heal per 3s and said “yeah that looks strong”

I refuse to believe it.

I refuse.

you fail at reading. he then immediately does the math showing why medic gyro is not strong at all.

i can kind of understand the fail as his post was way too long, but if you are going to bash him at least do some fact checking.

Thank you. And yes, if he read the post properly, then it would have been clear I am NOT saying that healbot is anywhere near HT.

I did read your post properly. But let me rephrase:

You claim to play Engineer 50% of the time. A blind kittenroach could look at Healing Turret and say “gee whiz boss that’s kind of broken.” You proceeded to look at the reveal, and at the healing gyro, and think, even for a short lapse in your head, that it was “strong at first glance”.

The first thought, as someone who plays plenty of engie, upon even HEARING about a new heal skill, should have been “What reason do I have to take this over healing turret”. Subsequently, if you honestly thought healing gyro was strong, even at a first glance, that would mean two things: A. It’s horrendously broken (it isn’t) or B. You probably don’t actually play a lot of engie.

You should not have to run any kind of silly mental math in your head to realize that it’s trash.

But yeah. I’ll leave you to your in depth analysis.

Ricky Rouse.1583:

Novuake.2691:

Raven.9603:

Ricky Rouse.1583:

Novuake.2691:

2.1 – Medic! I hope it has some dialog like Hero tron!
The heal appears quite strong at first glance

I refuse to believe you play Engineer (The class that has Healing Turret) 50% of the time, took a look at Medic Gyro’s 800 heal per 3s and said “yeah that looks strong”

I refuse to believe it.

I refuse.

you fail at reading. he then immediately does the math showing why medic gyro is not strong at all.

i can kind of understand the fail as his post was way too long, but if you are going to bash him at least do some fact checking.

Thank you. And yes, if he read the post properly, then it would have been clear I am NOT saying that healbot is anywhere near HT.

I did read your post properly. But let me rephrase:

You claim to play Engineer 50% of the time. A blind kittenroach could look at Healing Turret and say “gee whiz boss that’s kind of broken.” You proceeded to look at the reveal, and at the healing gyro, and think, even for a short lapse in your head, that it was “strong at first glance”.

The first thought, as someone who plays plenty of engie, upon even HEARING about a new heal skill, should have been “What reason do I have to take this over healing turret”. Subsequently, if you honestly thought healing gyro was strong, even at a first glance, that would mean two things: A. It’s horrendously broken (it isn’t) or B. You probably don’t actually play a lot of engie.

You should not have to run any kind of silly mental math in your head to realize that it’s trash.

But yeah. I’ll leave you to your in depth analysis.

if you spent half as much time thinking about how to improve the skill as you do attacking him you would prolly have a million awesome ideas for how to make it not suck.