Guild Wars 2

Intro:
The hammer has a really awesome feel to it so I can’t really complain about it. That being said I see several other parts of the Scrapper elite specialization that needs a lot of tending. I will attempt to address these issues and thereafter bring up a suggestion for how to fix this and make them more streamlined.

First up are our all new favorite utility skills: Gyros.
To me gyros seem a lot like turrets mark 2 (though they might be more closely related to guardian spirit weapons). I’m well aware that I’m not the first to mention this but I still felt the necessity. First of all let’s look at some of the other “summons” in the game to address how they are useful.

Mesmer: Phantasms are very easy to kill but in regards of damage they only need to do their ability once and they have served their purpose, so after one spin with the phantasmal berserker it can die or shatter and it will still has served its purpose perfectly fine. Furthermore new ones are usually summoned all the time so the benefits are present at all times. In pvp it’s impossible to keep track of a Mesmer and in pve you can tank anything for a good while even when your phantasms are being one shotted. Since the best phantasm are weapon skills and not utility skills it wouldn’t make sense to try to make gyros something like this as their primary purpose is not to deal damage but to “utilize”.

Necro: Honestly, I don’t see minion necros outside pvp a lot, but said being said I think minion necro is a decent build. I imagine you can use minions to tank in pve as well but i’m not experienced on that matter so I won’t go further into it. Turret builds usefulness is currently somewhat the same as necro and I find these comparable and decent in the specific scenario of defending points in pvp.

Elite Specialization:
While I was lying sleepless over the dark future of engineer class I have come up with the necessary improvements for the gyros. They should not be like turrets and they should not be like minions because we already have something similar. The entire specialization theme synergy is horrible. I made these 3 specialization lines to be better themed and coherent:

- Upper Line – Tanking, added bonuses through swiftness and Superspeed
- Middle Line – Gyros, focusing on improving gyros
- Bottom Line – Hammer, built around synergy with stability

I made these 3 lines with the conviction that you would be able to pick scrapper and still have viable options for traits even though you’re choose not to use hammer or not to use gyros. As the current ones seemed kind of all over the ones I suggest are complimenting each other but still with the opportunity to mix up.

Minor Traits:
Function Gyro
- Stays the same

Decisive Renown
- Current trait is incorporated in Grandmaster in Gyro line
- New trait, Artillery chip – the function gyro now comes with a chip containing all the 20 century action movies thus making it more aggressive and actually takes part in combat with its newly added gun strapped to it. It will now shoot every few seconds and due to its perfect design it will synchronize its attacks to that of the scrapper. Since it now resembles a mini helicopter it is haunted by the voice of Michael Bay and deep inside it is aware that its fate ultimately is to explode.
- Sorry for the digression, the function gyro will shoot every third second or so when the engineer is using an attack, very much like a flying sigil of air. Trait still called artillery chip though.

Impact Savant
As I stated earlier a minor should be somewhat applicable regardless if you choose gyros and regardless if you choose to use hammer, Impact savant should be reworked to the following
- All incoming cc reduced by 10% duration, all outgoing cc increased by 10% duration

Tank through Speed:
Shocking Speed
- Grants Superspeed for 5 seconds (up from 3 seconds) and Swiftness for 10 seconds when you execute a leap or blast finisher in a lightning field
- No internal cooldown for application anymore
- Superspeed can now stack to more than 5 seconds on you (should be universal but putting it here for the people to notice)

Rapid Regeneration
- Swiftness heals for 105
- Superspeed heals for 235 (halved due to possible longer Superspeed)
- Create a Lightning Field when you dodge roll, 10 seconds cooldown (could be on Shocking Speed but it felt like adding a little too much to an adept trait)

Adaptive Armor
- 20% Condition Damage Reduction
- Gain up to 100 Toughness when under the effect of Swiftness
- Gain up to 400 Toughness when under the effect of Super Speed
- Increase the duration of speed enhancing effects by 20%

Gyros:
Stabilization Core
- Grants Stability to you and the function gyro when it is activated
- 20% Cooldown Reduction on all gyros (including Function Gyro)

Improved Functionality
- Function Gyro spawns with Superspeed and Quickness, 5 seconds, 60 seconds cd
- Grants Superspeed 5 seconds and Might 5 Stacks 12 seconds on revive/finish from either you or gyro (Current minor Decisive Renown incorporated here)

Advanced Gyros
- Increase duration of gyros by 20%
- Gyros grant a boon to you every 10 seconds while in passive state
Medic – Regeneration, 3 Seconds
Bulwark – Protection, 3 Seconds
Purge – Resistance, 1 Second
Shredder – Quickness, 1 Second
Missile Gyro – Might 3 Stacks, 5 Seconds
Stealth Gyro – Swiftness 10, Seconds

Hammer/Stability:
Recovery Matrix
- Grants Protection for 5,75 seconds when using a heal skill

Mass Momentum
- 10% Toughness converted to Power
- 2 Stacks of might (5 seconds duration) every second while under the effect of stability
- Grants Stability for 5 seconds when using a heal skill

Perfectly Weighted
- 10% increased hammer ability damage
- Grants Stability when you dodge
- 10% overall damage increase while under the effect of stability

Gyro Intro:
I don’t think gyros should resemble turrets so I like to see them as moving AOE fields on top of you that follow you as you go and each add something to you and the allies around you.

Toolbelt:
The tool belt skills for the gyros are in a fine place, they should remain as they are
Like the function gyro, a utility gyro should be zoning the scrapper when the skill is chosen and off cooldown, in this state they are invulnerable. Here are the suggestions for how the gyros should be reworked: All gyros still stay close to the engineer at all times. I see 2 possible scenarios for this.

The ideal scenario:
All Gyros except for function gyro are invulnerable when deployed. Except for Blast gyro all deployed gyros will give an effect with a 300 radius around the engineer instead of wandering around mindlessly, thus making the scrapper a moving heal field, condition removal field or defensive field etc. wherever you might go. However their duration/effects should be weaker since they cannot be damaged and so they differ from turrets.

Gyros keep having health scenario:
Gyros will suffer from early deaths and be unreliable like turrets; however the numbers will stay as they currently are.

Self-Destruct:
For the self-destruct all gyros were only dazing and dealing marginal damage when exploding and felt very bland. The only synergy this have with anything else in the specialization is the minor: Impact Savant. As many people have suggested before in other posts gyros should have an individual effect on self-destruct so you might actually want to explode them. Now going through each gyro a suggestion for a self-destruct effect has been added.

Gyros:
The numbers on the following suggestions are for the ideal scenario where the gyros are invulnerable. The rest of the suggested effects count for both scenarios.

Medic gyro – 10 seconds duration
Purpose: The idea here is to make it a burst heal a little weaker than others but a decent group support if you can let it stay for the duration.
– Initial self-heal 2500
– Heal for 400 every second for 10 seconds to 5 targets
– On self-destruct – another 2000 self-heal and regeneration to 5 targets
– Note on current state: a strong heal overtime and a fairly decent one if it is destroyed, imo the most useful gyro atm.

Bulwark Gyro – 3 seconds duration
Purpose: Short damage reduction to save allies from otherwise deadly attacks.
– 50% damage reduction to 5 allies
– On self-destruct – Aegis to 5 targets 240 range
– Note on current state: Bulwark is kinda like a thumper turret if you have traited experimental turrets (which I assume you have if you’re using a full turret build) so how is it different other than it moves and deal no damage?

Purge Gyro – 10 seconds duration
Purpose: Decent condition removal over time and an instant remove for those really suffering.
– Removes 1 condition every 2 seconds from 5 targets
– On self-destruct – removes 3 conditions from 5 targets
– Note on current state: Purge is okay if it lasts the duration, but I haven’t seen that happen so far in Verdant Brink events, besides it might target someone else and you just die from the 12 flame stacks the fire wyvern just gave you (surely, not talking from own experience here)

Shredder Gyro – 6 seconds duration
Purpose: Strong AOE interrupt and whirl that will occur where you happen to be
– Create a moving whirl finisher at your location (like warrior torch 5 skill)
– Somewhat increase to its current damage output
– On self-destruct – creates a tornado due to overspin launching 5 targets into the air for 1 second
– Note on current state: shredder looks cool but is just so weak, the idea of a long duration whirl finisher is nice but doesn’t really work that well, though I have seen this deal some decent AOE damage once in a while it feels not very useful just standing and whirling.

Blast Gyro Tag – 2 seconds duration
Purpose: Still a launch but instead of it moving slowly and inconsistently I felt like the small missiles would be a warning to the target so you could prepare to dodge/block/reflect the following launch. However if you stand on top of each other the scrapper can detonate it right away and you have very little time to react to the ability.
– Renamed Missile Gyro
– Shoots out 5 missiles per second each inflicting little damage and 1 stack of vulnerability to your target
– On self-destruct – Propels itself towards its target with the speed of many other projectiles in the game and does exactly the same as the current Blast gyro tag on impact
-Note on current state: Engineer has a million launches already, I don’t mind another being added but being a part of an elite spec it should feel cool to use and not be a slow easy target to destroy

Stealth Gyro – 10 seconds duration
Purpose: Enables a party to move stealthy and swiftly around but the gyro may raise suspicion during its duration.
– Apply 1.5 seconds of stealth and 3 seconds of swiftness every second to 5 targets
– Though the gyro is not targetable it itself as well as it field is visible to enemies so you can see something suspicious going on
– On self-destruct – Grants Quickness and Superspeed for 3 seconds to 5 targets

As a last note I will rant some more.
When a class already has a type of minions why would you want to add something identical? Necro didn’t get skeletons or zombies or ghosts or spiders and the reason for that was that the minions were already there! I like the small helicopters but they don’t need to be another minion category. Add some continuous track under the turrets and let them drive around until they are destroyed but why add a minion type with a limited duration that can be targeted? Quick pop quiz: what other limited duration summons are horribly bad and not used by anyone for anything but gimmick builds? That’s right guardian spirit weapons! Don’t let gyros become spirit weapons.

I know that some of these changes seem drastic but I see the scrapper as the class that been put least heart and effort in. Now I poured my heart in this and hope something will take notice. I don’t except gyros to be exactly like what I mentioned above, but I think I put down some pretty good guidelines to make something that could work and be fun to use. All I want is another awesome elite spec so please consider reworking the scrapper and take a few steps back and look at what the scrapper could be instead of seeing the opportunities through horse-blinders only making small adjustments for it to live up to the standard of “good enough” even if it means a dent in your pride. The untargeted pet damage reduction is a good short term quick fix but I hope you will strive to make scrapper something more than an awesome hammer wielding class with otherwise too much scrap weighing it down.

After playing reverant i can absolutly sure say that new engj divine ideal and strong that this kitten.
And he has no anything to be good=)

Interesting suggestions.

Above all, what I want to stress is the flavour of the elite mechanic should ideally be something that puts the spec apart from the other baseline specialization options. If you look at Reaper, it provides a fundamental change to the class that applies even if you do not use Greatsword or Shouts. The same goes for each of the other elite specs.

An Engineer that does not use the Hammer or Gyros does not feel as if their class has a fundamentally different mechanic wiith how rarely the function gyro actually functions. The worst part is that its use declines drastically the better you get at the game. No other elite spec mechanic disappears entirely if you happen to be doing well.

Now, I’m not against the function gyro as being a thing. It’s a neat thing. It just shouldn’t be THE thing that makes the Scrapper. Maybe it can remain somewhere in the spec as a minor trait just for giggles. As the elite spec mechanic it is insufficient.

As for Gyros – they should orbit the Engineer. I’m not certain if it’s possible to make them also able to be attacked while doing so, but the worst part about them is that they are rarely where you want them to be when you want to use them. Babysitting them is a tiresome job particularly because they will not always behave the same way depending on a variety of factors that will have an impact that we cannot predict. This is especially true in combat.

But they certainly are fun and interesting when they do work. I’ve had some experience with them in less mobile fights where they’ve been a pretty fun and effective utility choice. Gyros as a utility skill is entirely salvageable.

The hammer is a big ol’ example of how to do things right. It’s fun to play, has some fantastic synergy with the rest of the kit, and looks bloody awesome. It fits the Engineer visual style perfectly.

I had opportunity to use function gyro ONCE since the release of the game. Such great mechanic, much wow.

I won’t change my look on current mechanic. It’s lazy, uninspired, boring and downright bad.

Killyox.3950:

I had opportunity to use function gyro ONCE since the release of the game. Such great mechanic, much wow.

I won’t change my look on current mechanic. It’s lazy, uninspired, boring and downright bad.

I am not sure why so many seem to dislike the new spec. I am FAR more impressed with it than I thought I would be initially. Function Gyro has provided 10 times it’s weight in gold thus far. The potential of being a double res/stomp or combination of both is beyond words. The only problem I have really had thus far is that both Blast and Shredder Gyro are lackluster to say the least. The others are amazing. Medic Gyro could use a constant regeneration or aura effect instead of 3s intervals, but most of the time it is better to blast it immediately anyhow (in its current state).

What the scrapper really needs is Stability, hope Anet can see it some day.

i agree it with the guy above no stab is hard. also whenever i face a necro i have no chance on my scrapper still.

I too found the function gyro more useful than i expected, cause people have no idea what to do in the new fights and need reviving. Though exactly as lemondish states, a mechanic that loses its purpose when performing good is not a very fun stand alone mechanic at all. It needs something more.

I still find it weird that scrapper’s hammer screams for you to be in the enemy’s face all the time and then the new utility you bring along is flying helicopters that explode if someone look at them. Gyros seems to benefit all hammerless builds better, though i again with the synenergy i find it weird you have to choose an elite spec and then the weapon you get with it are the worst compatable with the utility. Your choice of weapon weighs much harder as engineer since choosing more means giving up your utilty slots. If you want some alone time away from the gyros just pop hammer 3 and you won’t see them anytime soon. Some very interesting alternative routes they take if you go over a slight incline and so on.

While playing with my ele friend, who has no interest in reading patch notes and such, he asked me to explain the new engi mechanic. I told him that i got a small helicopter that can revive/finish at range. After a brief silence, as he seemed to think i would go on saying “but it can also that and that etc.”, he laughed and said: “so i can do this” firery tornado thingie “and this?” lighting raining from the sky “and yet i have 2 more that i don’t even bother using, while you are only useful when i suck at playing?”
I found that funny in a melancholic way

Doesn’t make it anyless boring.

It’s just a boring spec. Outside of the function gyro, It adds absolutely no unique gameplay to the class, and the things you can do in this spec don’t synergize at all with the core specs. We got some more sustain options. We got a super gimmicky skill line that feel like rehashes of skills we already have, and the only real thing we bring to the table that we didn’t before and that other classes don’t is super lightning field spam – which our class can’t even take advantage of.

If they changed lightning fields so that whirl/projectile also applied daze, rather than useless vuln which we often have stacked easily anyways, then we’d be halfway to a fun spec. And because of how lightning fields work, whirl gyro is just pointless. It’s a pretty cool idea, but I’m not sure exactly what engineer build has the luxury of giving up a kit slot for what’s basically just a few whirl finishers. I swear I’m going to get upset if someone tells me it’s good for stacking vuln. We have 500000 other ways to stack vuln without dedicating a utility slot solely to it.

At the very least I would have been happy with a few more traits like Expert Examination, traits which synergize with the core specializations and let you play in slightly different ways. But what we ended up getting was mostly stuff like Adaptive Armor. Incredibly boring passive stats that you just throw onto a build anytime you want more tankiness. You don’t even have to modify your build like you would for Expert Examination. It’s just there, invisibly making you tankier. Big whoop. And if you look around, almost every other elite spec grandmaster is incredibly flashy, or incredibly useful. Just look at Daredevil’s GM traits.

Really it just sucks that we didn’t get any fun interactions. We have a unique skill type so we didn’t get anything fun like DH getting access to stealth through trapper runes. And since we didn’t have melee before we don’t have any traits that interact with our new melee weapon, while DH spec revolved around augmenting blocks and virtues, and they had loads of traits that already modify those, so they have a lot of options to pick from. Meanwhile I’m stuck here wondering when the hell I’d ever take a terrible big old bomb minus the kit, and minus the blast finisher. I guess if you want more useless lightning fields? Which our class can’t even use properly? We have literally one leap finisher when we’re using the hammer, while we can put out around 10 lightning fields. On some level I’m curious who designed this class’s spec when other elite specs feel incredibly cohesive whereas ours is “here are a bunch of passive traits, and yet another joke skill line, and umm, and here, have this new F button so you don’t notice how bad the rest of the specialization is.”