With everything of the Scrapper revealed, most people have some doubts by the scrapper. The Gyro’s play a huge role in this as they are basicly not good enough compared to the other skills engi has (long cd, small damage, lacking functionality). The Gyro skills aren’t just really it at this moment. I personally am pretty positive on the scrapper, although I see alot of issues that can / should be fixed. So let’s go over all the things that come with the Scrapper and discuss what should / could be changed.
Hammer:
The hammer looks like it’s a pretty good weapon. The ability’s on the hammer are pretty decent. The hammer is in a pretty good state at this moment and I think that alot of people agree with me on that. Of course we don’t really know how much damage the hammer does but I think it’s decent. Maybe a small tweak in the CD of Electro Whirl, increasing it with 1 or 2 seconds.
Gyro’s:
As for the gyro’s there are a few major problems. The first one is their health. I am aware that we don’t know yet how much health every gyro has, and if they are all the same, but looking to the sneaky gyro and the bulwark gyro in the stream they have around 11k – 12k hp. Atleast not alot. This health pool needs to be increased or no one will ever use the gyro’s. Note that Gyro’s can’t evade or block any attacks without the help of another player, so they are very vulnerable.
Alot of people say that they shouldn’t have a health pool and just be invunerable (or just don’t take any damage but that they are CC’able) but I don’t agree on that point. This will mean that there is no counter play to the gyro’s, making it rather boring to play with and against. Having the counter play makes fights way more interesting for both players. What I suggest is giving the gyro’s 20k hp (maybe even more but we will have to see how it goes).
The second thing on the Gyro’s is their cooldown, which is way to high. There is an easy fix for this and that is to start the cooldown when you activate the Gyro. This will reward the player for keeping them alive so he can have a better uptime of the Gyro’s. Of course the cooldown of some Gyro’s have to be adjusted (like the sneaky gyro for example).
The last major problem with the Gyro’s is their movement speed / AI (I personally think that movement speed solves the problem). As we could see in the stream the sneaky gyro wasn’t able to follow Irenio properly. This could be a bad AI, but it’s also a matter of movement speed. Also Gyro’s like the purging gyro are useless when you are using streamlined kits for example (which is basicly perma swiftness) as you are running faster then the gyro, which means no condi cleanses for you (assuming you are running around alot which you are most of the times). I think that giving them a baseline speed boost (or a self pulsing swiftness once every 10 sec so there is a very little bit more counter play) will solve some of these problems. Of course there is still a part of the AI that needs to be improved.
The gyro’s itself have some problems aswell.
Medic Gyro
The medic gyro’s main problem is the amount of healing. The initial self heal is Ok, but it could be changed to maybe 3k – 3.5k heal. As for it’s pulsing healing they should change the amount of healing to something like 600- 650 and the interval to 1 second. This will be a little healing increase compared to what it was before and the change in interval will make it a more reliable source of healing. The toolbelt skill is pretty good.
bulwark Gyro
Ok the problem with the bulwark gyro is it’s health. It can get 50% damage from 5 players which will result in the gyro staying alive for just a few seconds. So what I suggest is giving the gyro 40k hp, which is alot assuming he only gets 50% damage, but also giving him less armor so it will take more damage when it’s targeted itself. The toolbelt skill it pretty strong and I think it should stay like that to compensate for it’s weaker base skill.
Shredder Gyro
The shredder gyro is probably the best gyro there is at this point. I think the damage could be a bit increased though and the cooldown reduced by a 5 seconds. The toolbelt skill looks fine at this point.
Blast Gyro
I personally like this gyro. That doesn’t mean it’s rather weak though at this point. It’s a stronger (in terms of damage) and a weaker (in terms of utility) version of the throw mine skill. Also it isn’t very rewarding yet for a skill that is dodge able twice.
What I suggest is making the detonation a blast finisher, like the name of the skill already says. As we don’t know how much damage the skill does at this point i can’t really say in what position it is now. But if the skill still is lacking then they could add something like once the gyro is detonated the parts of the gyro will fly around cause of the explosion. If someone gets hit it will take some damage and will get some bleeding and crippled.
The toolbelt skill of the blast gyro is rather weak, I feel like something is missing. Maybe a stunbreaker (not a AoE stunbreaker) or a random boon will make it a bit better.
Also the detonation should work with the explosions traitline..
Purge Gyro
The Purge Gyro’s funtionality is pretty good actually. It is lacking in 3 places though. The first one is it’s cooldown as stated before. The seconds one it that it’s a melee range gyro at this point, making it die very quickly due to AoE and cleave damage. To fix this I suggest make the gyro to his stuff on range. Like a 320 range for cleansing and a 400 – 500 range for scanning players with conditions.
The toolbelt skill is the last bad thing of the purge gyro. At this point is looks weird and useless. I would change it to a AoE condi cleanse that removes 1 condition in a small range from 5 allies.
Sneaky Gyro
The sneaky gyro is the most interesting one, but it still has some huge problems. First I think the stealth radius has to be doubled. This will make there is plenty of space to walk around stealthy.
Secondly the AI should be changed so it’s less predictable where the player is walking. The baseline increased movement speed is pretty helpful for this.
Then I would change the duration of the stealth you get and change the interval of it. I would change the interval to 5 seconds and the stealth duration to 6 seconds. This has benefits for in combat aswell as out of combat. In combat you will get revealed alot. The revealed will have a duration of 3 seconds in WvW and PvE and 4 seconds in PvP. This change will make it easier to have a high stealth uptime. As for out of combat you are able to stack up to 10 seconds of stealth (which is 2 seconds more then it is now).
Last thing is that the detonation / destruction of the Gyro should get you revealed ( or any other of the gyro’s) as it would work against itself then.
The toolbelt skill is pretty strong. I think it’s even slightly too good, so increasing the cooldown by 4 – 5 seconds would be better for the balancing.
Last thing I want to mention about the Gyro’s is their detonation. In the tooltip is some difference between them. 2 of the 6 Gyro’s at this point have a cast time on the detonation (Bulwark Gyro and the Sneaky Gyro). I personally think that this should have a cast time at all. Also all the detonations should work with the explosions traitline.
Traits
The traits are overall pretty good and solid and I don’t see alot of changes needed. Although there are some things that I think could need a little change in ICD / duration’s etc. I’ll go over the traits that I think that need a change.
Function Gyro
Good trait / mechanic but the ICD is just a bit too long. Reduce it to 15 – 20 seconds would be fair I think.
Impact Savant
It states that it’s only for outgoing stuns and incoming stuns. I personally think this is kinda weird. This elite spec only gives us 1 stun and a ton of dazes. I would add the daze effect to this minor trait aswell to have a bit more synergy between the trait and the elite spec.
Recovery Matrix
This trait really sucks actually… A bit extra regeneration and vigor would be on it’s place here.
Expert Extermination
I think this trait is rather OP in PvP and WvW. Weakness good condition and you can stack it up heavily. I would halve the weakness duration and keep the vulnerability as it is now.
Adaptive Amor
Just wow, this trait is way too good in my opinion. The -20% condi damge is ok, but the +500 thoughness is just a bit too much. Reduce it to 80 thoughness per stack so you’ll get a total of 400 thoughness. Maybe even that is too much but we’ll see.
Final Salvo
This trait is weak compared to the other two in it’s tier. What I would change to this is once a gyro is destroyed or detonated it creates a mix of a Static field (From ele staff in air) and what it is now. Makes this trait way more viable to take aswell to bring the gyro’s in a better spot to take as utility’s. Also not sure if it does, but this trait should work with the blast gyro if it is self detonating.
Perfectly Weighted
This trait is ok at this moment but not as good as Adaptive armor. I am really missing a -20% cooldown reduction for hammer in this trait, think that will make it more competitive to the other traits.
That was all about the scrapper itself. Now there is one big issue that alot already mentioned and that is that Super speed should be stacking in duration. And yes that is actually kind of needed. Also Super speed should do stuff out of combat, and then I mean a bit more then just giving the swiftness.
That is all for now, let me know what you think but please keep it realistic, try to keep stuff balanced.