Guild Wars 2

So far I am loving the engineer, except for one thing I feel is hurting it.
Too many skills doing random effects, rather than conditional effects.
The elixirs are the main source of this bane.
Please change the functionality to be conditional instead of random.

Take at look at Elementalist’s glyphs. One glyph does 4 different things but it is conditional as it depends on what attunement the ele is in when using the glyph. The same concept can be applied to Engineers and their elixirs specifically.

To everybody reading, any ideas on what conditions could change elixir effect that make them strategic?

One of the most common suggestions was to make every elixir have one or more consistent effects and then adding one or more effects from a selected bunch

I.e. Elixir W
Grants protection (100% sure)
Grants one of the following boons:
regeneration
swiftness
retaliation

Keep in mind that this is just an example to better clarify myself.
While your suggestion seems interesting, I can’t really see how to implement it.
Unfortunately though I’m just wasting time as I recall one of Anet’s developers saying that they do not think randomness is a bad thing ( and implying therefore that it’s not going away ).

I agree with this a whole lot… I feel like the RNG portion of the elixirs isn’t satisfying (or helpful for that that matter) at all. I think Wolfheart had a good idea for how they could change it. RNG is good to an extent but, not in this situation.. I hope Anet takes a look at this in the future.

as already point out in many threads: RNG does not belong in a pvp game and they should all work like toss elixir C: one consistent and one random effect.

if the effects were stronger thus actually had an impact even if you would get a less desirable effect then RNG would be not such a big problem but a randomly picked from 3 minor buffs was a really bad design decision on the devs part. just take elixir H, it is not only the worst heal of the engineer but the toolbelt skill toss elixir H is also almost useless unless you go deep into alchemy traits.

I agree with wolf, I’d thought of this and think that one effect should be guaranteed, and one random, even if potency has to be reduced.

Playing engineer, no matter what I do, I feel I give too much all the time.

Btw, for those who don’t know: RGN is random number generator, used to pick which random effect will activate.

Even though i really like Engineer and also the Elixers…. but… the random effect does do more dmg to the player then to the enemy. We cant base tactics on elixers cause they do what they want themselfs :S

As i’ve said here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Rework-Elixir-Random-Effects-aka-66-chance-to-frustrate-a-player/

The elixirs are currently defined by their traits.
The random boons they give are not something you can primarily use them for because you never know what you might get.
The devs thinking that requiring the engineer and his allies to quickly react to whatever they might get is fun and adds depth is utter nonsense and i can’t possibly understand how anyone can enjoy this unpredictability.
Losing a fight because you got the wrong effect is not fun.

Why do i have to fight the unreliability of my own skills?
Why do my own skills actively work AGAINST me?