Guild Wars 2

This is just a list of small tweaks I’d like the engineer to receive, to make our skills more stream-lined, and to fix some traits and their counter-intuitive behavior and/or placement in our trait-lines:

Utilities / Heals:
- Elixir H clears 1 condition per default
- A.E.D. becomes a insta-cast
- Elixir S applies Resistance (once HoT is released)
- Elixir U does not cancel ongoing casts (and therefore behaves like every other skill without cast-time)
- Rocket becomes a targeted, homing projectile
- rocket-boots have their leap-animation stretched and the after-cast “roll” removed, so they don’t bug out on uneven terrain anymore

Kits:
- Flamethrower
// Flame-jet attacks 5 times with doubled dmg per tick
// Napalm becomes a proper line-skill, applying its effect instantly on trespassers. additionally it cripples (think sticky paste, which napalm actually is)
- Elixir Gun
// Elixir F becomes homing and / or has increased projectile speed
// Super elixir places a water-field instead of a light-field
- Bombkit
// All bomb animations get hastened to be as fast as its underwater-behavior. The current pre- and after-cast stretch a single bomb attack to 0.86 seconds, which almost justifies the tooltip to display a full second.

Weapons-Skills:
- Rifle
// Overcharged shot and Blunderbus do not go on a interrupt-cd if they get accidentally triggered while the selected target is not in the correct aiming cone. Especially Blunderbus should fire in the direction you face, regardless where your selected target is.
// Jumpshot has its pre-cast removed

Pistol(s):
// Fragmentation shot’s aoe-explosion profits from the traits Shrapnel, Forceful Explosives, explosive Powder and steel-packed Powder.
// Poison dart projectiles aim properly at your target (it really is the only projectile-based skill in the game which is designed to miss on purpose)
// Blowtorch has a wider front-aoe-cone

Traits:
- Toss elixir S does not profit from Acidic Elixirs
- Synaptic Overload Switches place with Bunker Down
- Low Health Response system triggers at 75% health
- Protective shield has its internal cd reduced to 10 seconds
- Cloaking device also clears immobilize when triggered
- Elixir Infused Bombs switches place with Experimental Turrets
- Static Discharge is streamlined to always deal the same damage, and always fire on the selected Target.
- Kit-refinement does not trigger out of Combat. Additionally its skills do not share a global cd anymore. Switching into the Grenade-kit -again- release a grenade barrage to the players feet, like explosive fall does.
- gadgeteer switches place with Kit-refinement.
- Healing turret does not profit from deployable turrets.

All good ideas. One I would add is “When used underwater, grenades have no spread when thrown” since they’re so hilariously inaccurate underwater right now. What do you mean by SD always dealing the same damage, though? Isn’t that how it works right now?

Nope, static discharge has a low-dmg and a high-dmg proc, depending on the toolbelt skill it’s used with. Surprise shot f.e. will trigger the low-dmg proc since it has the advantage of being a insta-cast, while also possibly being proced twice in short succession with placing and blowing up rifle-turret beforehand.
Throw Wrench on the other hand releases the high-dmg proc, since it has a cast-animation and a fairly high cd.
additionally s/d bolts are influenced by your current weapon-dmg, and if they hit while you are in bombkit or flamethrower, they will deal less dmg than if you were on a ascended rifle. And even tho the stat-gain in PvP is much lower, you also can feel it there. it makes roughly a 5-7% difference.

Arantheal.7396:

- rocket-boots have their leap-animation stretched and the after-cast “roll” removed, so they don’t bug out on uneven terrain anymore

to my knowledge rocket boots is fixed, i havent gone in unintended directions midway through the animation since at least last patch

unless youre talking about something else? i know its blast finisher is a bit wonky, at least.

also bomb kit doesnt need a dps buff…

id give a lot to have super-e having a water field. I mean retailiation is neat and all.. but aoe heal at blast finish is a bit more usefull…

My few cents:

A.E.D. – cast reduced to 1/2 s rather then instant. It needs that risk factor in it, as the reward is great.

Low health response system should stay as is or trigger at 40%. 75% is a huge nerf, as engies who got revived or did it themselves (such as mine), don’t come back up with 75%+ hp, only 25% or half at best, which means they would never see that trait trigger when they need it most.

Agreed with bomb kit speed up. If not possible, at least make smoke bomb trigger faster. This is very often a reaction skill, waiting 1s is too long when under fire.

10s water field on super elixir is overkill. Give 2-3s water field to it’s toolbelt skill instead.

My alternative suggestion for gadgeteer – boons are also triggered by gadget’s toolbelt skill. So now both the gadget and toolbelt skill grant the boon. Also retalliation on A.E.D. should be buffed to 5s.

Totally agreed on pistol changes. Reason i run pistol in pvp…is the shield. That says enough about how luckluster it is atm.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Low health response system should stay as is or trigger at 40%. 75% is a huge nerf, as engies who got revived or did it themselves (such as mine), don’t come back up with 75%+ hp, only 25% or half at best, which means they would never see that trait trigger when they need it most.

Traits with thresholds trigger when you get hit while being below the displayed threshold.
This means that LHRS will trigger as soon as someone really focuses you, and will also trigger reliably every 10 sec while you are below that threshold.
So if you come back from downstate (usually on 50% health) the trait is available right away.

Arantheal.7396:

- A.E.D. becomes a insta-cast

Imho, A.E.D.’s main issue lies in the opportunity cost – normal healing skills can be easily used a couple times before the time of using A.E.D. even comes. Rather than make it insta-cast, the low-healing processing could just have a reduced cooldown (like, 20 or 25 seconds).

// Super elixir places a water-field instead of a light-field

That may easily make it too strong, especially considering the uptime that field may have. What about just no field at all, and just increase either the radius or healing a bit to compensate for it?

// All bomb animations get hastened to be as fast as its underwater-behavior. The current pre- and after-cast stretch a single bomb attack to 0.86 seconds, which almost justifies the tooltip to display a full second.

I’m on the fence on this one. The delay on activation is supposed to be a drawback, after all – they’re probably balanced taking in account that factor as well. We may have to give up something in exchange for it.

- Low Health Response system triggers at 75% health

It would kinda miss the mark. It is called low Health response system, after all.

- Elixir Infused Bombs switches place with Experimental Turrets

I can’t agree here, and for the same reasons i described in the other thread.

Arantheal.7396:

- Kit-refinement does not trigger out of Combat. Additionally its skills do not share a global cd anymore. Switching into the Grenade-kit -again- release a grenade barrage to the players feet, like explosive fall does.
- gadgeteer switches place with Kit-refinement.

It would be nice to get kit refinement back to a decently usable form, but by giving it back the grenade barrage, we may risk seeing a return of a sort of 100-grenades build…and that was the exact reason that caused a nerf of the trait, back in the day.
Also, having it as a grandmaster may be quite a steep cost, seeing as kits themselves are already quite trait-dependant.
I would rather see it working better as a master trait (with separate cooldowns, and without the grenade barrage of sort). And i think Gadgeteer would be more deserving of a master-trait spot as well, too (some of the boons are quite nice, after all). But there would be the problem of making them fit there. Maybe Scope could be moved up to grandmaster and gain some additional effect (maybe something related to toolbelt use, since we lack such traits). Then Packaged Stimulants may be moved to adept – maybe it is just me, but i never see people using it; or the med kit either, anyway.

Arantheal.7396:

- Flamethrower
// Flame-jet attacks 5 times with doubled dmg per tick

Disagree. Flame jet is supposed to hit often. For retaliation they should make juggernaut reduce incoming retal damage.

I am not speaking against the thread or anything mentioned, but everything here has been listed before, or discussed individually on multiple levels in the past. I will say it is good to re make a comprehensive list again and put it back on the fore front.

coglin.1867:

I am not speaking against the thread or anything mentioned, but everything here has been listed before, or discussed individually on multiple levels in the past. I will say it is good to re make a comprehensive list again and put it back on the fore front.

Which is why I collected them.

As to kit refinement not activating out of combat. I believe that is done for a reason. Swapping out a kit for the effect of swiftness from speedy kits is handy out of combat. Dropping a magnet bomb, mine, or glue trail and catching random yellow mobs is a bad idea. There is no need to be slowed down to in combat speeds.

Poison dart volley isn’t "designed to miss’ and your comment on that is just plain silly. It is a front conal AoE, common in MMOs. That is like claiming that meteor shower is intended to miss.

Why should – Low Health Response system trigger at 75% health instead of 25%? I mean, if your stating that something has to change, at the least, offer a reasoning or justification please.

Why should Protective shield have its internal cd reduced to 10 seconds?

Why should Elixir Infused Bombs switches place with Experimental Turrets? That strikes me as a horrible idea. Why would I want a trait that adds healing to a skill set, removed from the line that offers healing power? That is irrationally counterintuitive.

Maybe I’ve misread your post, but in case you thought kit-refinement is not triggering ooc currently: it does. Which wastes a 20sec cd everytime you swap a kit (for swiftness while ooc), so I actually want this trait to be changed to NOT trigger ooc anymore.

“Poison dart volley isn’t “designed to miss’ and your comment on that is just plain silly. It is a front conal AoE, common in MMOs. That is like claiming that meteor shower is intended to miss.”

Poison dart is not a front-cone AoE. It uses projectiles, fired in a random, conic pattern. It can be reflected, and also traited for piercing. AoE’s by definition affect a certain area (with a maximum of targets inside), which poison art does not. it fires 5 projectiles in the general direction of a target, therefore poorly imitating a conic attack-pattern.
projectile-skills that actually attack in a conic pattern are Fan of fire, Poison Volley, Splitblade, and others, all of which guarantee at least one hit, unless the target uses a defensive cd, dodges or uses LoS. Poison Dart on the other hand does not guarantee a proper hit, especially not at its max effective range.

“Why should – Low Health Response system trigger at 75% health instead of 25%? I mean, if your stating that something has to change, at the least, offer a reasoning or justification please.”

Better uptime on regeneration, especially for niche-builds that use heals other than the healing-turret. Additionally it should be noted that regeneration itself is not that powerful, especially if one encounters a situation where one has to fight below 25% health. letting it trigger sooner increases the effectiveness of this minor trait, helping to avoid low health, therefore making one unattractive to get stun-locked and sniped, instead of triggering somewhere in the middle of said stun-lock, shortly before getting into downstate.

“Why should Protective shield have its internal cd reduced to 10 seconds?”
Because the trait is garbage, not providing enough boon-uptime to be considered more valuable than stabilized armor, even if one runs 6 points in alchemy and has runes of earth, since stabilized armor + protection injection is already perfect defense against any power-burst that one can think of.

“Why should Elixir Infused Bombs switches place with Experimental Turrets? That strikes me as a horrible idea. Why would I want a trait that adds healing to a skill set, removed from the line that offers healing power? That is irrationally counterintuitive.”

Because Elixir Infused bombs has nice synergy with backpack-regenerator (which itself would also profit more from being in the inventions-line, healing-power wise), especially since one needs to go into the alchemy trait-line to make bombkit-builds work. Backpack-regenerator, transmute, Invigorating speed and speedy kits are mandatory traits if one wants to engage in melee combat rather often than not.
And that would allow us to go 4/x/x/6/2, to make bombkit-builds actually awesome, while still having 2 points left to further being dropped into explosives, or other traitlines.
Experimental turrets also belongs to inventions, since that is the trait-line that enhances turrets. Deployable turrets just enable better placement and explosive turrets only enhance the effect of blowing them up, but Inventions is the line where all the traits are hosted that actually increase the turrets performance once it’s up and running.
Also having to decide between increased dmg/range OR shield bubbles OR boon-spam would tone down the effectiveness of the turreteer-build, therefore lessen the reasons to nerf turrets as a whole (disclaimer: I’m totally fine with the turreteer build itself as it is currently, but as it is such a easy Pug-farm, the current whining makes turrets suspect of a coming nerf, which will possibly also hit healing turret and supply-crate, so I rather go ahead and try to avoid the worst with providing ideas for reasonable changes to this build / trait options than seeing a few of our best performing skills going down the gutter).

Personally, I feel Backpack regenerator should be in the Inventions lines. That line is often said as underwhelming, and that would allow your synergy with elixir infused bombs. It seems counterintuitive to me to have them outside of the healing power line.

As too Poison dart volley. You can dislike the cone it makes all you want. That doesn’t change the fact that it has a predesigned pattern and very literally a conal AoE. I would just assume see it work like fumigate. I see your point in wanting all darts to go right to the target thought…………..In that case, I would like to see something happen to coated bullets. It is such a waste on anything other then the auto attack, and it isn’t particularly valuable there.

As to kit refinement, you are saying it is activating out of combat? No you didn’t misread my post. I misread yours. Yeah, given the nature of it having a global cooldown, yes it is bad that it does that. It certainly shouldn’t function our of combat.

It seems you made a list of what you want, but when anyone else has a suggestion, comment, or concern, you feel you need to argue them down. Such as Poison dart volley. The devs listed it as a front conal attack, and your ranting at me because you don’t like that I explained that fact to you. It is also listed on the wiki for example, as a “front cone spread AoE”

Since when is expressing my opinion (and defending it against uncalled-for ad-hominem attacks) considered a rant?
Most of your reply was formated as question, so why is it surprising that I answer those? At least where I’m coming from this is not considered as “arguing one down”.

Also yes, the list contains points that I’d like to see being changed. But I doubt that I’m the only one for most of these points, even tho some changes are plain buffs. I don’t expect to have them all put into the game just because I made a post, but having this list + additional input from other engis around surely will help the developers to know what engis in general want. Still no-one expects them to abide to everything I (we) want, just because I (we) call for it. Balancing 8(9) classes + the upcoming specializations is already complicated enough, so I personally don’t find it surprising that balance-changes are rather conservative and only come in a 6-month period.

Also, you’re totally right about backpack Regenerator being better suited to the inventions-line (if you really take the related stats into account), but I don’t really see a trait in the inventions-line that would fit into the alchemy-line, except for elixir-infused bombs, last but not least because of its given name.

Arantheal.7396:

Since when is expressing my opinion (and defending it against uncalled-for ad-hominem attacks) considered a rant?
Most of your reply was formated as question, so why is it surprising that I answer those? At least where I’m coming from this is not considered as “arguing one down”.

Yeah, I think you need to relax. Particularly with all of your “Ad-hominem” claims. I had a logical reason for my perspective. No need to made for the ad-hominem angle attack. Assuming you understand what it means fully, that is. You made a thread. That doesn’t make you the king of it. You need to be aware that some will disagree or criticize it.

Do you feel the traits in the inventions line are weak? If not, please explain that, if so, why are you looking to move useful traits out of the line for the synergy you want, instead of moving useful traits into it, when both synergize with the stats the line itself offers?

Protective shield shouldn’t have the cooldown reduced but the protection duration buffed to 10s and merged with protection injection. In alchemy of course.

Inventions line is supposed to be useless just like blood magic is for necros. Just let it be.

“No need to made for the ad-hominem angle attack. Assuming you understand what it means fully, that is. You made a thread. That doesn’t make you the king of it. You need to be aware that some will disagree or criticize it.”
So you never used the word silly in reference to my proposed changes to poison dart volley? Ad hominem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem Instead of discrediting the change itself, you could have at least provided a valid reason why you wouldn’t like it (which you did after pointing out the initial fallacy).

“Do you feel the traits in the inventions line are weak? If not, please explain that, if so, why are you looking to move useful traits out of the line for the synergy you want, instead of moving useful traits into it, when both synergize with the stats the line itself offers?”
First of all, I’m not the first, nor the only one who wants this change, please look into previous threads to find other perspectives on why these traits should switch places.
For me personally (as explained above) it’s mainly nerf-prevention. Turreteers are forced to weaken their build by default and bombs become more attractive to the meta (even tho they already have a pretty sweet spot in many builds currently).
And about the inventions-traitline itself:
Yea, it’s pretty weak, objectively spoken. The only real nice thing is the heal-reset, especially useful for A.E.D. centered builds. Also it’s a alternative way to get movement speed, but you will loose out on vigor in return. both would cost 4 points and if I have to decide where to drop them, I rather go 0/0/0/2/2 and continue with building from there on. If I wanna run flamethrower, the base-build will look like this: 4/2/0/4/2. Do I get something nice for 2 points into inventions?
Lets check:
protective shield? nope, I get better uptime by going 2 further into alchemy.
Explosive descent? If I go open World PvE or Edge of the myst, maybe.
Metal plating? nope
Stabilized armor? Eh, not enough points to get protection injection, so nope.
Energized armor? Do I run full knights? if not, nope.
Cloaking device? Kinda a one-trick pony, and you’re kittened when Transmute is not triggering in the same moment.
So, I have 2 points, and the choices are not that overwheliming…
how do the other traitlines look:
explosives: Synaptic overload or automated bomb dispenser. one is awesome offense, the other is awesome defense.
firearms: Juggernaut, hair trigger, Rifle mod… looks promising
Alchemy: Deadly mixtures, Automated Response, both useful for a FT build, maybe even spicing things up and getting some elixirs with HGH.
Tools: Static discharge, speedy gadgets (in case I wanna run rocketboots + slickshoes), leg mods, scope, power-wrench

There is so many good stuff you’d get for 2 more points into other traitlines that inventions goes down under. Yes, the line itself is weak and mostly worthless, unless you run turreteer. Throwing backpack regenerator in there as master-trait just will people make angry and not picking backpack regenerator at all anymore, since transmute (which triggers every 15sec) is way more powerful than a second healing-turret every 90 secods.
Additionally, healing power as a stat is mostly worthless since basically nothing on engi scales well with it (only our regeneration-uptime does), not even healing turret, which refuses to scale for 50% of its heal straight away, so getting elixir Infused bombs out of inventions and into alchemy will at least increase the (already high) utility of bombkit in a way that people are comfortable to go with.
Unless you wanna go full tank and eat dmg all day long (usefull for WvW), there is no reason whatsoever to go full into inventions, unless you run turreteer.

Arantheal.7396:

since transmute (which triggers every 15sec) is way more powerful than a second healing-turret every 90 secods.

in a vacuum given the choice of 1 or the other, i would much rather have healing turret reset than transmute, because transmute can be soft countered through smart play, because lots of skills naturally come with condis the enemy player doesnt really care about.

I agree for weapons tweaks, especially as pistols are horribly weak unless traited with pierce.
Kits are rather strong on their own, flamethrower AA should keep its proc strength and weakness to retaliation, the bombs however could indeed use a faster cast.
—- Elixir H: default 1 cleanse
//I disagree, Cleansing formula 409 does plenty if you’re going into elixirs, and if anything, Healing Turret should have a CD nerf.
—- InstaCast AED
//I don’t think so, it wouldn’t be a risk/reward skill or counterable, however, it should have a reduced cd.
—- Elixir U fix
//Devs should just add a 1/2 or 1/4 cast time, like with necro’s well of power, like with all elixirs. Then again, nobody uses quickness utilities after the nerf, they should be reworked.
—- Elixir S’s resistance
//It’s pointless to bring HoT out when things are so prone to change, it was always about what Anet thinks what players want, the feedback part always came later.
- Rocket targeting
Imho it should just be a slow kitten projectile that nukes the whole area sky high, but that’s probably just me.
—- Remove Rocket Boots’ roll
//If you mean it to behave more like Rifle 5 leap, I’m all for it.
—- Toss Elixir S trait damage remove
//I disagree, players should be allowed to use it offensively and difensively.
It helps spot cloaked people, and it will still cloak allies on need, cloaking yourself in midst of the battle should still be thief’s and mesmer speciality.
—- Bunker Down for Synaptic Overload
//I agree, Bunker Down belong to those “softer” GMaster traits of Explosives, I can see use of SO in more builds in Firearms.
—- LHR at 75%
//Absolutely no, it wouldn’t justify nor the name nor the fact that it’d be a copy of mesmer’s Chaos Minor Adept trait on a 1/3 of the coooldown.
—- Protective Shield on 10s CD
//No, maybe 12-15, but with 10sec is just too low and reliable, as any offensive build has some crit-based procs.
—- Cloaking Device’ immobilize remove
//Should be as it is, it’s a strong trait, it’s just wasted on people who don’t use immobilize.
Which pretty much sums up the utility of the Adept Inventions traits.
—- Elixir Infused Bombs for Experimental Turrets
//I’m all for it.
—- Kit Refiniment not proc ooc
//I agree, personally I’d love it on per-kit cd of 10 seconds like Evasive Arcana and not global, then put it on GrandMaster Trait, swap Adrenal Implant on Master and Leg Mods to Adept.
—- Gatgeteer for Kit Refiniment
//I somewhat disagree (for the point above), but the Boons could be longer, considering the long cd that Gadgets have, also, swiftness for Slick Shoes.
Additionally I’d expect Rocket Kick to knockdown when used, as you’re basically helpless when using it.
—- Healing Turret not “turret”
//It should be as it is now, just on a longer cooldown (to 25 perhaps), it’s OP as a base healing skill.

Instant cast is too much for AED. A half second cast would be more than enough. Instant cast would mean you could use it during a CC chain, or pretty much any time when you were sure you were about to die, and nearly always get the high health heal, as opposed to having the risk of having to predict when it would be best used with more enemy counterplay in being able to stop damaging you.

The biggest problem in using Elixir U I think is that it has a 50% chance of completely depleting your endurance, which is beyond counterproductive. If that was removed or reduced it might see more use.

Disagree on water field on Super Elixir. I’d rather just see the water field on Regenerate increased in duration by a second. High water field uptime with all the blasts we have access to would be pretty OP.

While I do think 25% is too low for Low-Health Response System, 75% would be overkill. 33% to correspond with the current revision of Automated Response would be better imo.

Similarly, 10s recharge is too low for Protective Shield. High protection uptime from an adept trait is a bad idea. We can get kitten near perma already with the right traits atm anyway. I wouldn’t want to see the recharge lower than 15s.

I don’t want to see Elixir-Infused Bombs leave inventions. It’s the toughness/healing line, which is exactly what EIBombs is about. Instead taking one of the precious few decent traits out of the line, we should work on improving the other traits in the line. Stabilized Armor needs to be changed to reduce damage when effected by any CC, Power Shoes needs to be increased to 33% speed, Reinforced Shield needs to be moved to adept tier where all the rest of our cooldown decreasing skills are (swap with Energized Armor maybe?).

Also, as much as I’d like to see 100nades return, it’s really not a good idea balance-wise, even at GM tier. The global cooldown definitely needs to go though, or at least be decreased significantly. I’d like to see the cast time on Mine Field to be decreased to half a second to make 100nade style mine build a little more of a thing.

Personally I’d like to see Gadgeteer merged into Speedy Gadgets. Maybe put in a trait that grants evasion frames when using a gadget or something in its old spot.

The other suggestions are all great though.

I like almost Everything!

Instant A.E.D would be a great change. There is no reason to not have it instant since Thief has an instant heal.

I would like to see overcharge shot have evade. engi has what one evade special .
Thief and rangers both have alot of evade specials and there med armor .

warherox.7943:

Instant A.E.D would be a great change. There is no reason to not have it instant since Thief has an instant heal.

Couldn’t disagree more. In my opinion, heals are the skills that should have counter play with interrupts. and should never ever be instant. We shouldn’t lower AEDs cool down, but increase the cool downs on the others.