Guild Wars 2

Hey guys and girls. some friends talking about GW2 got me the bug again.
Shelved Terraria, LoL, and PoE and took a look in game to see what was up.

Looking at the patch notes page, last I looked at them was March.

Anyone willing to give me a rundown on some of the key engineer changes since then? Particularly things that may not have been in the notes. always lots of hidden things.

Got alot to catch up on. luck changes. wvw changes..

Actually engineers haven’t changed very much since march.

Toss elixir B now gives guaranteed stability. Toss S gives guaranteed stealth. Cloaking device is five seconds but has an ICD. IP is 4 seconds with a 10 second ICD.

There are ascended weapons with higher damage modifiers, but of course those don’t help condition builds much. They also don’t raise the attack value of kit skills.

Turrets got an update that now makes them try to shoot at whatever their owner damaged last when possible. In theory it would have been a huge fix to turrets in WvW or PvP, where turrets shooting spirits/minions/etc was a huge problem. Unfortunately, it’s still not working perfectly as AoE skills seem to confuse the turret briefly.

nah. some major changes really.

Some of the things I note most important.

Stability shifts. and stunbreaks. as you note.
Stability on elixir b throw. wHHAAAAAA. thats… crazy. Elixir B was a god mode dps buff on self. Its throw was “ok”. most useful for hgh and 409. but elixir B’s self use was so good, it made up for it.
It was a glass cannon skill though.
Giving stability on throw to elixir B, means unbreakable stomps, as well as wall dives. I don’t really know why they would do this. B was good enough as it was. But it was situational. Other abilities gave more utility in wvw,spvp.

U, S and R for example.
Throw S just being stealth is more reliable. nice. invis stomps are good too.

U’s haste was buffed, and its debuffs nerfed. so its more useful.

Elixirs in general all got buffed it seems. which is odd considering they were already better then gadgets, and miles beyond turrets.
I like the new rocket boots. Stunbreak loss hurts… but overall more functional. that said, im taking it off my bar to put B back on.

Flame thrower. I see a 10% damage buff to skill 1 vs a burning target. given the stacking nature of damage buffs. I wonder how much that helps. it was WAY below average damage.
Fire field throw napalm. Thank god.

master level coated bullets. good for leveling.

Blind instead of poison acidic coating. hrm. better. but still reactionary. Blind needs to be on call. you can NOT have your blind on cooldown, because it procced on some random auto attack, leaving the warrior free to nail you with his execution. Same reason firearm blind proc is kitten

ASSIN stats. whooooo boy. this should outdo beserkers in all ways for all specs. If only it was an option in Spvp, etc.

Turrets in WvW need deployable turrets to be working. is that fixed yet?
kit base weapon damage damage still below par, or has that been buffed? It was already set at “master” quality, falling far below exotic. with ascended, it will be far behind, if it was not buffed.

That 2% per condition in firearms trait is a pretty powerful pve trait. A nice pistol buff.

Kit base damage has been at 969, or low-exotic level, for a long time (since last fall I think). Of course, that number doesn’t really mean much since every skill has its own base damage and power modifier. The point is that kit dps has not increased with ascended weapons, although that could change in the future.

People got over HGH/nades pretty quickly. It’s always been a good damage build but teams figured out how to shut it down in PvP. It’s making a bit of a comeback with the very nice changes to toss B and toss S.

Not to forget that they upped the Kits Damage shortly to Ascended Weapon Damage and “fixed” it shortly after saying that it was an accident … so maybe we will see Kits scaling with Weapon Damage soon?

the 969 is max damage. well below exotic. the average was like 820 iirc. And the skill modifiers were not boosted to compensate for this. It was a serious problem, and a large reason kits were so bad. save grenades, which gain so much from steel packed and grenadier.

Yeah, when I left. Nades were still the best of course. hgh was popular.

However, the merits of tools 30% crit damage buff were getting known. It was a higher pure damage calculation then hgh’s power/cond.

rifle/static/toolkits burst damage was gaining popularity. both hgh or 30 tools variety.
I was using it for spvp, pve, and even wvw. mostly because I was so bored of grenades. although grenades were still clearly much stronger for wvw. Its burst was unquestionable very effective in spvp however. and with that stability on call. yeah.

sitting duck buff hit just prior, and that was amazing.
As well as kits getting weapon stats, and sigils.

Casia.4281:

the 969 is max damage. well below exotic. the average was like 820 iirc. And the skill modifiers were not boosted to compensate for this. It was a serious problem, and a large reason kits were so bad. save grenades, which gain so much from steel packed and grenadier.

Yeah, when I left. Nades were still the best of course. hgh was popular.

However, the merits of tools 30% crit damage buff were getting known. It was a higher pure damage calculation then hgh’s power/cond.

rifle/static/toolkits burst damage was gaining popularity. both hgh or 30 tools variety.
I was using it for spvp, pve, and even wvw. mostly because I was so bored of grenades. although grenades were still clearly much stronger for wvw. Its burst was unquestionable very effective in spvp however. and with that stability on call. yeah.

sitting duck buff hit just prior, and that was amazing.
As well as kits getting weapon stats, and sigils.

Kits got sigils about a year ago. It was the same patch that reduced the damage on grenade 1 by 30%. I believe kit attack value was normalized to 969 around the same time.

I meant that each skill has a base damage and a power modifier. Kit attacks have never really been below other profession’s weapon skills in terms of dps, so I think it’s not been an issue at all honestly. However, ascended is a direct damage buff that does put kits somewhat behind the power creep curve.

not sure if this will be faster to ask, or look up.

Refresher on the current mechanics of sigils for engineers?

5% damage on weapon is active all the time. right?

power, cond or prec on kill, applies the buff. this buff lingers till death, even if you remove the weapon in question and swap to another. (this is easy with other classes due to weapon swap, a pain on engineers, due to having to leave combat and physically swap)

Proc on weapon swap. I can’t remember if this worked for engineers swapping to kits. I think so right? seem to remember a strong aoe bleed that I had was very effective.

proc on crit. did this one work with kits? trying to figure out, why I wasn’t using might on crit.

All sigils work on all kits at all times. Swap sigils function with every kit change or kit to weapon or weapon to kit, with the 10-second ICD of course.

Might on crit is a good option, but it does have a cooldown that can interact negatively with sigil of battle. So most players of any profession will only take one sigil with any kind of cooldown, since all sigil cooldowns are universal.

Stacks stay up regardless of equipped weapon. They are lost if you are ever put into downed state, even if you don’t die.

ah thats right.
lets see. 2s internal cooldown on sigil of str.

13s duration with 30 alch, and no others. will only be 2-3stacks on average even with a high crit rate. yeah, battle pretty much dominates that.
5% force is far better, particularly for rifles all situations.
Pistols 5% force, and on kill probably.
although spvp downed alot, so force and battle.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Kits got sigils about a year ago. It was the same patch that reduced the damage on grenade 1 by 30%. I believe kit attack value was normalized to 969 around the same time.

I meant that each skill has a base damage and a power modifier. Kit attacks have never really been below other profession’s weapon skills in terms of dps, so I think it’s not been an issue at all honestly. However, ascended is a direct damage buff that does put kits somewhat behind the power creep curve.

skill coeff*weapon damage*power/armor=damage dealt.
Skills do not have base damage’s at all. They do have hidden coefficients. many of which are not the same in pve/wvw as they are in spvp.
These in theory could be buffed to make kits scale with power better to compensate with lower kit weapon damage. but for some reason do not.

This is a large reason why rifles are/were so strong. their base damage is much higher then kits or even pistols.
one would expect 1 handed weapons to have higher attack speeds to counter this higher base damage. Most do not. only ranger with its .5s short bow does.

last I knew, kit damage very much was highly underpar. Which the exception of grenades, which was due to grenadier and steel packed of course.

example. Rifle.
hipshot
.650coeff.
.9s attack speed.
985-1204 damage at exotic level. 1095 average.

pistol
explosive shot.
.350 coeff.
.8 attack speed.
876-1028 damage at exotic level 952 average.

flame thrower.
flame jet
1.5coeff.
2.5s attack speed.
10 hits over 2.5s. (note the skill clearly lies. 5 attacks per second, should be 15, not 10 over 2.5)
876-969 weapon damage I’m seeing. I dont have copies of my own testing. so will take these. 922.5 average damage.

For ease, Im going to round.
.9×3 is 2.7s, and .8×3 is 2.4s. But I will say both pistol and rifle hit 3 times over that 2.5s duration of flame jet.

So, lets say 2000 power, and 1800 armor(cloth) I will ignore condition damage for a moment. As well as traits that effect only one element. 10% rifle mod is huge though, as well as coated bullets. Or as noted grenadier makes grenades viable.

rifle.
.650*1095*2000/1800= 791/hit, with 3 hits averaging, 2373 damage over 2.7s.
pistol.
.350*952*2000/1800=370/hit, with 3 hits averaging, 1111 damage over 2.7s. (coated bullet double hitting, effectively doubling your damage for 2222)
Flamethrower.
1.5*923*2000/1800=1538 over 2.5s.

flamethowers base damage is woefully, lower then rifle. better then default pistol. but coated bullets is huge.
Conditions. bleeds and burns of course. the 1s burn on flamejet in comparison to its 2.5s cast time is pretty bad. the 10% damage buff only applies after that 2.5s cast. Thankfully burns from other sources. like burn on crit.
crit itself and crit damage here also heavily buff rifles damage in comparison. Run around with 40-60% crit, add in fury, might, and 40-60% crit DAMAGE. and kits are left in the dust.(as well as conditions for that matter..) except for grenades.

Casia.4281:

NevirSayDie.6235:

Kits got sigils about a year ago. It was the same patch that reduced the damage on grenade 1 by 30%. I believe kit attack value was normalized to 969 around the same time.

I meant that each skill has a base damage and a power modifier. Kit attacks have never really been below other profession’s weapon skills in terms of dps, so I think it’s not been an issue at all honestly. However, ascended is a direct damage buff that does put kits somewhat behind the power creep curve.

skill coeff*weapon damage*power/armor=damage dealt.
Skills do not have base damage’s at all. They do have hidden coefficients. many of which are not the same in pve/wvw as they are in spvp.
These in theory could be buffed to make kits scale with power better to compensate with lower kit weapon damage. but for some reason do not.

This is a large reason why rifles are/were so strong. their base damage is much higher then kits or even pistols.
one would expect 1 handed weapons to have higher attack speeds to counter this higher base damage. Most do not. only ranger with its .5s short bow does.

last I knew, kit damage very much was highly underpar. Which the exception of grenades, which was due to grenadier and steel packed of course.

Right, sorry. “Base damage” is not a good term to use. Kits in general have very few damage cooldowns, but those that exist are on par with other weapons. For example, flamethrower only has one damaging skill besides its auto, but its 2 is definitely not subpar. For toolkit, prybar is the only damaging skill (except for throw wrench) and both of those are strong. Bomb kit of course has its auto as the only damaging skill, as well as BoB, both of which are quite good in terms of damage.

Not taking condition damage into account as it’s obviously not affected by weapon strength. I’m also not counting autos as there’s no reason to use an auto you don’t want to use.

that seems like you are making excuses though. “they are utility, so they dont need damage”

right, because rifle and pistol don’t have utility?

Rifle has superior range. Piercing/aoe. targeted root. a knockdown with high damage attached. a leapcombo with massive damage attached. high damage aoe bleed.
Pistol has an aoe blind on call with good damage. aoe poison with good damage. blowtorch is weak. aoe root/snare.

Supposed utility does not justify inferior base scaling. nor poor coefficients. (or lying tooltips. I wonder if they even KNOW pistol is .8 seconds, not .5. and flamejet is 2.5s, not 2s.)

The other issue was damage was multiplicative from other sources for direct damage.
Taking the rifle.
2373 damage over 2.7s.
10% rifle mod, 5% damage to bleeding target. 5% force sigil. 5% 6/6 strength runes.
Theres more, but lets just use them.
That is not 2373* 25% for 2966.
it is in fact, 2373*10*5*5*5 for 3022. 27.34% increase, not 25%.

This just makes the gap get bigger comparatively. (its also why that 5% force sigil is probably the best, and getting 6/6 is probably better then +might duration with split runes people like to do.)

Blowtorch is Weak. What?!

It ‘s actually great for up to 3×2s Base-Burning on groups every 15s (12s).
If you go for Condition Duration and CD-Reduction you’re almost able to keep up Burning on Multiple Targets by that Skill alone. It ’s just good for Conditions thought …

probably got a bit off target there.
Thanks for the updates.

yeah, blowtorch is a bit weak. the burn is.. nice. but damage/cooldown doesn’t quite match up. Particularly as a skill that doesn’t have any utility. and burn stacking in parties being ineffective.

Can be pared with flamethrower of course. Applying your burns, swaping to flamejet, getting your damage buff right away. and even comboing projectiles with napalms new fire field. which was sorely needed as well.

Well 100% Duration + CD Reduction = 12s Burning on a whole Group every 12s even splitted applying 3 times instead of once (works towards Condition-Removal). And we dont have to take a Kit for that Utility.

It ‘s actually pretty nice especially since it ’s an Multi-Target Burn. Even thought it could be 3s. At least it doesn’t have a ridiculus 60s CD like the FT-Toolbelt for 3×2s Burn and applies it reliable when wanted unless the FT Burn on the last attack or the Flamewall ’s Burn.

honestly, if you are running around with +100% duration, you’ve completely kitten yourself.
that is coming at the cost of much stronger sigils, runes, buffs or traits.

and 100% burn uptime in party play is just awful, unless you are the ONLY one with any burns.

Yeah it is good vs cond removal, that is true.

In general, I do not feel burns are just that great, with cond removal, and the inablity to stack with other sources of burn.
Add into this, my already asserted damage scaling issues.

Blunderbuss is 1.6 coeff at 100 distance, 1 at 400.
4 stacks of 4s bleed., or 1 stack.
Blowtorch is .99coef at 200, or .330 at 600.
3stacks of 2s burn, or 1 stack.

At default, blowtorch looks pretty good. that naked burn will deal alot more then 4 stacks of bleed.
But as noted. rifle has a higher base damage. so that 1.6 vs .99 is more like 2 vs 1.
then, previously, riflemod 10%. 2.2 vs 1. coeff. (again, that 2% per conditions is a nice buff for pistols. poison, blind,confusion, burn and bleed. 100% up time on bleed and poison. 50% on confuse/20% on blind and burn. and more with vul on crit possibly, as well as in team fights 100% on all 6, and possibly more. Seriously that is a huge addition to pistol engineers in pve. I am going to look it for sure.)
In game it really stands out. run a crit/crit damage build. might, and % modifers like I stated.
watch blunderbuss crit for like 4-5k vs armored targets regularly. Watch your blowtorch crit for 1k. The burn doesnt make up for it. and it has a longer CD. and in a group or pvp it can be cleansed or hit 100% uptime and never even really get applied.
I leveled pistol, but had to abandon it when I noticed my rifle was doing a good 50% more damage, or higher.

things do play out a bit different in spvp. as you can not attain the massive levels of crit damage, or the like you can in pve or wvw. Assassin’s gear stats do not exist.