Guild Wars 2

I am just wondering am I the only one who finds Toss Elixir Skills too RNG to provide any real benefit? It’s a very nice ability, with some really strong uses.
The problem I have is that not knowing which I am going to get is making them almost useless.

The Tool belt skills seem a little lacking in all Departments and doesn’t really seem make sense. Because of this I would like to see what you guys would think if we could choose our kits on our tool belts instead.

I think the engineer would feel a bit more rounded that way.
We could have grenades, bombs, flame thrower, elixir gun, wrench or med kit on our tool belt for quick switching. Our choice or a selection of tools we could get on there.

Personally I feel a bit like if we want to use a weapon we have to sacrifice a lot of our buff abilities compared to other classes. Our main weapons are a little bit lacking in terms of other classes, so we almost always have to lose one ability.

So to summarise.
Are toss elixirs too RNG? and with the tool belt abilities lacking, would removing them be a big issue if we could select kits there instead?

toss elixir yes, they are lacking alot, but their only purpose it to fuel up elixir builds so their effect rarely matters, but for any other skill, the tool belt has some of the strongest skills available to engineer, some times they are better than their utility counterpart and if combined with static discharge they can do crazy damage,

You are not alone. The only reason I like the tosses in my own build is because they are enhanced by 409 and HGH. Even then, without the 409 part they would typically only be used out of combat and in no way are intended to help anyone other then myself the vast majority of the time.

I’ve said it before, but many of them need to be buffed so the base skill is even worth using and have their RNG reduced. The way to do that is simple, by creating a reliable effect in addition to the RNG thus reducing the extremity of it all. They need to do this with a lot more then just these ones I’ll suggest in a bit, but it’s a start.

• Thrown Elixir H could drop a splash heal, and then also randomly create Regen for 10 seconds, Vigor for 10 seconds, or Protection for 5 seconds. This gives it some supportive ability and a real reason to use during combat.
• Thrown Elixir B could always grant Swiftness, and then also randomly create Retaliation, Fury, or x3 Might for 10 seconds. This gives us an actual method of granting allies Swiftness, which is something we somehow lack.
• Thrown Elixir S should simply grant both Stealth and Stability for 4 seconds. The unreliability of this one is an absolute headache. If a 50% chance of something working is balanced when it works on a single use ability with a long cooldown, then a 100% chance of it working would also be balanced.

As it stands, the only reason most of them are used is HGH and 409. Which seems silly, since even Grenades without Grenadier can be used, even if they aren’t used optimally. Even with HGH, boon supporting your allies with thrown Elixirs is kinda a joke.

Many tool belt skills in general need a good pass. The ones associated with non-kit utilizes often need a major boost. A lot of them often aren’t worth the cast time.

@Ayestes.1273

keep in mind that throw Elixir S might not be as useful or reliable on PvE but it has its place on sPvP and WvW where either outcome can be used to finish off downed players

FT toollbelt skill is completely worst - it must have 10-15 sec cooldown, not more and especially not 60 sec!

I’m actually speaking to PvP exclusively in that post. I fully understand the uses in helping stomp opponents. It’s helpful in that situation more often then not, but it’s not a sure thing though. If I’m alone against a Mesmer and I’m stomping then I want Stealth, or if I’m against a Guardian and stomping then I want Stability. If I’m fighting on a cliff or trying to hold a point, I want the Stability so I don’t fall to my death or lose the control point. If I’m making an escape or simply trying to buy a little survival time I want Stealth so I stop taking damage.

There is selective bias I’m sure in my perception, but I hate it when I get the outcome I didn’t want half the time. It doesn’t seem right to me at all, if it was balanced if I got the one I wanted why wouldn’t it be balanced if I could always get that outcome – stipulating that this is not something I can repeatedly do within a short window due to the long cooldown to phase out the unreliability of it.

On kits it’s a mix of awesome and terrible.

Flamethrower: absolutely terrible, simply because of the cooldown to damage ratio.
Possibly one of the worst all around.

Grenade kit: pretty awesome, so good it’s the core of the 100nade build.

Bomb Kit: one of the most loved ones, simply because it’s good old fun.

Tool kit: hits hard, but needs to be traited to have utility. The ee for a trait for the cripple makes it look worse than it is.

Elixir gun: nothing special, it’s a regen, not an impressive one.

Med kit: the big heal is here in fact. The fact that it is on the tool belt gives the med kit another usage than the 2 other healing options: you can reset it in the tools line instead of the inventions line. And it gets reduced coodlown from that same line as well.

Just throwing this in here, allthough i realise the OP is mainly concerned with elixirs.

Ayestes.1273

that’s true but if they remove the RNG from this skill, other players will request the same from other skills and they won’t do that. so the only thing left to do is to think twice before you use it, usually i keep elixir S for guardians, theif, ele stomp only and throw elixir S for any other class

but yea, it would be nice if you could also use them to make a get away

Yeah I try to avoid using it in life or death situations where I don’t have to. I’ll be honest, most of the time I just DPS a downed body anyway so I don’t really use it all that much for stomping. Cleaving those reviving is often a superior choice then taking a gamble at an unstoppable stomp.

It would involve removing the RNG from the skill, which is something I’m an advocate for when it involves potentially very different situations. Such as with Elixir X, or thrown Elixir U. I understand that RNG can create something you can play off of, but more often then not at least in the case of thrown Elixir S it often does not work out that way. Rather I’m throwing it down, checking my buffs, and deciding whether or not I’m capable of doing the thing I intended on doing.

Small chunks of RNG can be okay and add some theme to the class. Things that drastically can alter decision making based on what effect was just created though is something I dislike and I’m often only chasing a single piece of the RNG when using it.