Guild Wars 2

With pax soon coming to an end we get to look forward to another great (or horrifing) balance patch, and with the news that ascended weapons/armour is on the way (before the end of the year) and new traits and skills(maybe even a new weapon set) what’s everyones hopes and dreams for what’s to come, personally I’d like to see the power side of an engineer to be improved, and if you don’t want anything improved lets talk about the stuff that shouldn’t get a change.

Rework to weapon skill cd’s and/or effectiveness so that Engineers aren’t totally dependent on kits to be viable.

New weapon(s) (HAMMER, torch, mace, and/or longbow)

Removal of hobosacks – allow weapons to always be visible – just like every other profession.

Buffs to most non-kit utilities.

I hope they remove the randomness from our skills

reduced cool downs on some of the skills, some are just really not worth using for 45-60 second re-uses

-slick shoes for example

I pretty much fing myself using elixir gun, bombs and toolkit – utility from all of those alone is brilliant and cycling between them I rarely even have to think about CDs

Rifle to become more appealing

My wish list

1. Fix Eng’s #2 downed skill
2. Make conditions count in multi-player PvE and WvW battles
3. Balance kits for multi-player WvW and PvE (to be the value of Grenade kit)

Downed state balance.
Turret bug fixes.
Lady Kasmeer bikini as combat armor (hey I can dream…)

Wishlist for balance? I’ll leave the laundry list of Turret bugs (which, on a high note, has been acknowledged, finally, by somebody on the staff) out of it, then.

Instead, I’m going to say ‘Turrets scaling off more player stats,’ and ‘Explosive Shot’s aftercast reduced in order to make the attack faster.’ I’m definitely a fan of reworking our skills so we’re not so dependent on Kits, of course.

Other than that? I just hope they give us more weapons soon, and give us more unique, useful Elite Skills.

Anymras.5729:

’ I’m definitely a fan of reworking our skills so we’re not so dependent on Kits, of course.

Other than that? I just hope they give us more weapons soon, and give us more unique, useful Elite Skills.

I’m afraid you have the wrong idea of what the engineer was designed for. Kits are our bread and butter, and to not use them would be against the grain of the class. I whole-heart-idly disagree with making the base weapons superior to kits or equal to.

I agree with the elite skills comment.. Our elite skills, especially with the current state of our alive-for-one-second turrets, mortar which is just plain horrible, and the random elixir x.

I would absolutely love to be able to use gadgets in an effective manner rather than kits or elixirs. I agree with a shortened CD for them, along with some cond removal maybe. I also like turrets, but errmahgerd the issues with them. I love the “tricksiness” that gadgets can give though. I’d also like rifle buffs and some sort of melee ability besides tool kit.

I would like for Engineers to have a QoL pass over their main hand weapon skills . I feel that this is the easiest way to globally improve all Engineer builds, and especially those builds that have no kits and rely on Weapon Skills for their DPS and survival. Fixing the weapon skills themselves is also relatively trait agnostic – so there is even further room for improvement if traits associated with Weapon Skills are looked at in the future.

There have been a ton of threads regarding changes and fixes to Turrets and Gadgets, and whilst the June 25 patch did a lot to bring new life into the Engineer, there is still a long way to go. Turrets and Gadgets remain relatively broken and ineffectual, and countless threads in the past regarding Turret AI and a dearth of Trait support for Gadgets have seemingly gone unheard.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Engineer-Comprehensive-Suggestion-List/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/It-s-time-for-Turret-traits-to-be-reworked/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Turrets-STILL-useless
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Improving-the-Engineer-How-I-d-Do-It/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Reasonable-engineer-buff-fix-suggestions
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Suggested-Gadget-Changes
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Turrets-The-Buff-A-Net-Wants-us-to-HAVE

Increase damage of FT auto to make it more than just a Retaliation trap
Increase effectiveness of pistol auto to make it a better condition weapon. As it is, the mini-splosion is less helpful than spreading the bleeds would be.
Remove self-cc
Fix SD so that it always hits the current target, even for non-targeted toolbelt skills
Make turrets more viable in large groups (improve aoe survivability)
Enable grenade auto-attack. No change to the design, just have it auto-throw at the cursor/targeting circle.
Increase max damage range of Blunderbuss to melee range (240?). Increase overall range to 500 and reduce that damage to compensate.
Increase Homing Torpedo speed or make it actually homing.
Greatly improve downed skills
Fix mortar so that it’s useful

@Seras:
Honestly half the problems that the FT and to a lesser extent GK has in WvW zerging would disappear overnight, if Retaliation actually reflected an absolute %damage taken as it states on the tooltip instead of providing a flat damage tick that scales off the Boon Holder’s Power and procs on hit.

I have no idea why Retaliation was ever implemented in this capacity because it offers no deterrence against spike damage, and it invalidates the use of several multi-hit skills for no apparent reason, across all classes.

Raghnu.1049:

Anymras.5729:

’ I’m definitely a fan of reworking our skills so we’re not so dependent on Kits, of course.

Other than that? I just hope they give us more weapons soon, and give us more unique, useful Elite Skills.

I’m afraid you have the wrong idea of what the engineer was designed for. Kits are our bread and butter, and to not use them would be against the grain of the class. I whole-heart-idly disagree with making the base weapons superior to kits or equal to.

I agree with the elite skills comment.. Our elite skills, especially with the current state of our alive-for-one-second turrets, mortar which is just plain horrible, and the random elixir x.

Just going to point out that it is the toolbelt skills that are actually the engineer’s class mechanic. Kits are the most effective option in many cases, but that certainly shouldn’t mean that the other options are less effective. Choosing kits should be about a playstyle choice, not being forced into using them in order to keep up. Personally I am a fan of having the high apm that comes along with playing a kit engi, but I can see why others would not be. Doesn’t mean I would not like to still be able to use the flavor of the zany gadgets or the turrets, and still be effective, in order to do that gadgets and turrets and mainhand weapons need to be looked at.

MonMalthias.4763:

@Seras:
Honestly half the problems that the FT and to a lesser extent GK has in WvW zerging would disappear overnight, if Retaliation actually reflected an absolute %damage taken as it states on the tooltip instead of providing a flat damage tick that scales off the Boon Holder’s Power and procs on hit.

I have no idea why Retaliation was ever implemented in this capacity because it offers no deterrence against spike damage, and it invalidates the use of several multi-hit skills for no apparent reason, across all classes.

Only reason I can think is that protection, block, blind, and dodge already negate spike damage. I think retal is implemented precisely the way it is to give a deterrent to non spike damage specifically. The problem becomes compounded for engineers because our grenade auto can hit 15 people and if every one of them have retal yeah it’s ugly. Before the current “strategy” of blobbing up became so popular it wasn’t nearly the issue it is now for engi’s. Even if it goes to a flat % damage returned it will still affect engineer’s more than any other class simply based on the number of targets we can hit. So I am not sure how they could “fix” retal in a fair manner, because it will always be a bigger problem for engi’s using ft or gk than any other class (well except maybe a mesmer who puts a reflect down on a group of ranged players with retal). We have other options available to us, such as bk but without easy reliable decent length stability it really is not ideal either. Just not sure what the best course of action would be.

MonMalthias.4763:

@Seras:
Honestly half the problems that the FT and to a lesser extent GK has in WvW zerging would disappear overnight, if Retaliation actually reflected an absolute %damage taken as it states on the tooltip instead of providing a flat damage tick that scales off the Boon Holder’s Power and procs on hit.

I have no idea why Retaliation was ever implemented in this capacity because it offers no deterrence against spike damage, and it invalidates the use of several multi-hit skills for no apparent reason, across all classes.

That is exactly what retaliation is for. Blind aegis and dodge already punish large single hit attacks.

Knox.8962:

MonMalthias.4763:

@Seras:
Honestly half the problems that the FT and to a lesser extent GK has in WvW zerging would disappear overnight, if Retaliation actually reflected an absolute %damage taken as it states on the tooltip instead of providing a flat damage tick that scales off the Boon Holder’s Power and procs on hit.

I have no idea why Retaliation was ever implemented in this capacity because it offers no deterrence against spike damage, and it invalidates the use of several multi-hit skills for no apparent reason, across all classes.

That is exactly what retaliation is for. Blind aegis and dodge already punish large single hit attacks.

While I agree that Ret is designed to counter non-spike attacks, the difference between blind and ret is staggering. One simply negates an attack (generally one with a longer cooldown). The other actually punishes the user for attacking. Blind & aegis won’t kill me and they won’t force me to not attack, just to be smart about my spike. Ret means I have to stop attacking altogether and either kite or heal.

I detonate BoB in a group with aegis and they laugh and the fight continues.
I detonate grenade toolbelt or FT auto into a group with ret and they laugh at my corpse.

@Seras:
I agree with Retaliation being too passive. It also kind of forces builds excessively in one way or another – You have to use very few, very hard-hitting skills to counter it. Mesmers that Shatter and Thieves laugh at Retaliation. At the same time, classes that rely on long combinations of skills or multi-hit skills to spike like Elementalist or Engineer, can take excessive amounts of damage for something that might have taken 10+ cooldowns to pull off.

Take that into WvW where AOE Retaliation is rampant, you can literally kill yourself with Retaliation proccing passively on a few targets.

I honestly don’t have a good solution other than to simply avoid zergs and playing Zerg V Zerg as Engineer and stick to small group fights and roaming, just as ShadowPuppet mentioned.

CHARRZOOKA WEAPON KIT !!!!!

GRENADE >>>LAUNCHER<<< kit no ground target needed.

turrets get aoe imunity in >>>>PVE ONLY<<<<< and take full dmg from players.

make turrets worth using because atm kits and elixirs are far far far more powerfull then turrets that last 5 seconds in dungeons and less in pvp.

real elite skills

let use use normal skills in elite skill slot because atm our only good elite is supply crate and well i only use it for stunning.

Chainsaw Kit. That is all.

FT needs less ticks, more base damage, less channel time (kind of lackluster for a channel/main source of dmg)

Grenades need reduced range, and be thrown to target (get rid of ground targeting)

Elixir gun needs more condi application, and change the sound clip for it please.

I dont agree with improving main hand skills, because kits are what an engi is based on. Main hand skills are utility, or cd pop then back to kit.

and most of all, FT and EG packs need to be LOWERED on the back, it currently sits on the back of my charrs neck.

Wolf.5816:

Chainsaw Kit. That’s is all.

and also this.

I’d be happy if they just made Turret and Gadget builds as viable as Elixir and Kit builds.

Which is really a problem all classes have at the moment. Every class have their builds that are supposed to exist, but don’t really work in the grand scheme of things, so no one uses them. Spirit Weapon Guardians, Minion Master Necros, Conjure Weapon Eles, and so forth, all sit in the same lackluster boat as Turret & Gadget Engineers.

For the longest time, it seems like only 3/4th of the game has actually been viable in terms of builds and thus restricts build creativity. Which is, in my mind, one of the chief issues plaguing GW2.

Raghnu.1049:

Anymras.5729:

’ I’m definitely a fan of reworking our skills so we’re not so dependent on Kits, of course.

Other than that? I just hope they give us more weapons soon, and give us more unique, useful Elite Skills.

I’m afraid you have the wrong idea of what the engineer was designed for. Kits are our bread and butter, and to not use them would be against the grain of the class. I whole-heart-idly disagree with making the base weapons superior to kits or equal to.

I agree with the elite skills comment.. Our elite skills, especially with the current state of our alive-for-one-second turrets, mortar which is just plain horrible, and the random elixir x.

i’m afraid your idea of engineer isn’t the idea. you can run somewhat fine on elixirs. this works great on dual pistol or p/s. i also think that blunderbuss and jump shot should either be buffed somehow(bleeding does nothing for power builds but i get why it’s there) and jump shots range is easy to neglect. range buff on jump shot, something buff on blunderbuss.

@Brenil:
Holy crap it’s been a while since I’ve seen you post in here.

I have to agree that a lot of skills need to be addressed by Arenanet if only to promote build diversity. I think that the June 25th patch, although it introduced the OPness of the Necromancer, was a huge step forward in terms of build variation across all classes. Moving the stunbreakers around for Elementalist finally broke it out of 3 cantrips or bust (although there really needs to be some kind of fix to the 15 Water 20-30 Arcana minimum investment to not die Ele meta); whilst fixes to Rocket Boots, moving some stunbreakers to Elixir Gun and Thumper turret made several Engineer builds actually viable.
There is still a long way to go, even 12 months after release. I hope that before any new Weapons or Skills or Traits are introduced, those minimum 2 “broken” skill _categories should be looked at for all classes.

Forum feedback has been calling for similar things in different threads across the lifetime of GW2; time will tell if Anet finally buckles down, bites the bullet, and delivers – hopefully before interest in the game dwindles from Living Story fatigue.

@Lightsbane:
A link to my thread that discusses how Engineer Rifle, Pistol and Shield could be given some much needed quality of life changes.

Hasn’t engendered much discussion aside from people calling for Whips, Chainsaw Kits and Hammers – which I guess speaks more to the resignation that Engineers must rely on kits for competitive damage. It also says to me that people just ignore the OP and just post random things, but hey, that’s the internet.

Hopefully you can add something that that doesn’t revolve around new weapon and kit suggestions that are completely tangential to the topic.

ShadowPuppet.3746:

MonMalthias.4763:

@Seras:
Honestly half the problems that the FT and to a lesser extent GK has in WvW zerging would disappear overnight, if Retaliation actually reflected an absolute %damage taken as it states on the tooltip instead of providing a flat damage tick that scales off the Boon Holder’s Power and procs on hit.

I have no idea why Retaliation was ever implemented in this capacity because it offers no deterrence against spike damage, and it invalidates the use of several multi-hit skills for no apparent reason, across all classes.

Only reason I can think is that protection, block, blind, and dodge already negate spike damage. I think retal is implemented precisely the way it is to give a deterrent to non spike damage specifically. The problem becomes compounded for engineers because our grenade auto can hit 15 people and if every one of them have retal yeah it’s ugly. Before the current “strategy” of blobbing up became so popular it wasn’t nearly the issue it is now for engi’s. Even if it goes to a flat % damage returned it will still affect engineer’s more than any other class simply based on the number of targets we can hit. So I am not sure how they could “fix” retal in a fair manner, because it will always be a bigger problem for engi’s using ft or gk than any other class (well except maybe a mesmer who puts a reflect down on a group of ranged players with retal). We have other options available to us, such as bk but without easy reliable decent length stability it really is not ideal either. Just not sure what the best course of action would be.

2 short points. Deterrence and negation are 2 different things. Nothing makes a spike actually scarred to spike. Protection reduces damage all the same across the board. Everything else may stop a spike but it wont stop some one fro attempting it or using another skill to blow the defense and continue with the spike.

% based total damage might hit us much harder than the flat rate we have now depending on how much is reflected back. Retal has its place as a deterrence against mass AoE however I can not help but think that it should be reworked so it either has an internal CD or that you can not but hit by more than X number of sources simultaneously.

Raghnu.1049:

Grenades need reduced range, and be thrown to target (get rid of ground targeting)

Nades are fine as they are and they do not need anymore nerfs. Dumbing down a kit for a minority of players would hurt the class more than help.

Granade explosion radius changed to 180. That’s all I wish.

New toolkit: Mech Armor

Encases your character in a “Aliens” like robot cage. Gives 250 toughness if traited and 8 second stability when activated with an icd of 15 seconds.

Skills can include various knockdowns, launches, or pushbacks. A jumping skill that can launch you 1200 range.

Feel free to get more ideas! I vote my idea is best already!

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

New toolkit: Mech Armor

Encases your character in a “Aliens” like robot cage. Gives 250 toughness if traited and 8 second stability when activated with an icd of 15 seconds.

Skills can include various knockdowns, launches, or pushbacks. A jumping skill that can launch you 1200 range.

Feel free to get more ideas! I vote my idea is best already!

Would make an interesting new Elite skill. Certainly an Engineer-specific one.

@Chewablesleeptablet, Anymras:
I think it could make for a very useful elite actually; although what you describe would be tantamount to the Rampage skill for Warriors, or the Rampage component of Elixir X when the RNG rolls in our favour. Certainly I could see myself taking it instead of Supply Crate.

Engineers could also do with an elite Gadget or Kit, and this would fit the bill.

That being said, I do hope that before new skills are introduced, that Turrets and Gadgets are given a pass such that they are attractive as an alternative to Kits. Right now the foundation for them is there – Turrets have potentially 4 cooldowns including the Detonation – now there needs to be a way to make them smart enough (AI) and tough enough (Hitbox, player HP/Toughness scaling) to keep out on the field. As for Gadgets, we’re still waiting on Trait support that will give them what we’re missing – Stability, Condition management outside of Elixirs.

Raghnu.1049:

Wolf.5816:

Chainsaw Kit. That’s is all.

and also this.

The more and more I think about it, the more I want to be running around with a chainsaw, it could be our non-defensive melee kit!

Yeah, we know you want a chainsaw. Can we get back to the balance ideas? What do you think needs buffed, nerfed, redesigned?

Mortar needs to be a kit, with a duration or limited ammo and a short CD (40 seconds maybe) if they were to change it to a kit it should at least be called a bazooka, stats should effect it, the same skills would be fine and it wouldn’t need huge damage as you would be mobile with it, that’s my opinion on the mortar anyway, since as it is no part of the mortar fits with any build and it’s effectiveness is low compared to the supply drop, you could debate it’s effectiveness in wvw for defending and attacking but if that’s what you want to do then nades heavily out classes the mortar for that anyway.

Engi wishlist:

Make it so that I can use FT and grenades in wvw without killing myself in 2 attacks due to retaliation. This means a major rework to the entire retaliation system. Unfortunately changing the engi skills won’t really do anything, the way ret works needs to change.

Give us hammer, and maybe another main hand weapon.

Mortar is now indestructible.
Turrets now scale of the players vitality and toughness.

1. Base health increased to match Warrior and Necromancer

2. “Random” proc skills are 50/50 between similar effect (Elixir H procs Protection OR Regen), with possibly a minor 100% proc (and 3 seconds of Swiftness).

3. A non-kit build becomes viable.

4. Mortar is able to be held and charged and is no longer ground targetable. 2500 range.

5. My favorite…. Crossbow with Lightning Combo Fields!

I mostly want one thing: An entire balance patch worrying about PvE balance, not sPvP. Or at least WvW. Focusing on such things as general range balance, zerg warfare, Mortar, keep attack vs defence potential, killing downed players vs finishing them, and so on.

None of that 1v1 stuff which dominates sPvP.

1. A power buff on the pistol 1 skill since the bleeding has low duration.
2. Get some boons on the gadgets ( maybe stability).
3. Hammer and Crossbow

Now that you mention it, Raven, I’d like some consistent “themes”.

Like, our gadgets provide mobility. Our elixirs provide boons. Our turrets provide damage. (and so on)

Static Discharge – Change ground targeted toolbelt skills to hit the target other than aiming with the camera.

Turrets- better mechanics needed, either mobility or toughness could improve them.

Mortar – Longer range or mobility needed.

Elixir X – Remove randomness, break it into 2 elites.

Oh yes, forgot to add:

Crossbow. Pin stuff to walls, exploding bolts, etc etc.

Rework to elixir X and Mortar. Elixir X should allow you to choose. I love the idea of changing mortar to a bazooka, would actually be useful and let’s face it… it would be awesome. Who doesn’t love rocket launchers?

Increase projectile speed of grenades. It takes about 3 seconds for a full range attack to land. Which is ridiculous. Heck, you can miss at 600 range because of how slow they are!

Rocket boots under water, similar to rangers lightning reflexes skill.

^and agree on the static discharge point. The toolbelt skills which fire a random lighting bolt where your camera is pointed should be changed to locking onto whatever you have targeted.

Problem with removing the RNG and breaking Elixir X into two elites, or allowing choice in what it does (which would essentially turn it into two elites): It’s a conglomerate of several Elite skills of other classes. Rampage is Warrior’s, Tornado (and probably Whirlpool, though I’m not certain) is Elementalist’s. Plague is Necromancer’s.

Dividing it into several separate skills that all mimic other class’s elites would just lead to us having reliable copies of what other people can do.

Anymras.5729:

Problem with removing the RNG and breaking Elixir X into two elites, or allowing choice in what it does (which would essentially turn it into two elites): It’s a conglomerate of several Elite skills of other classes. Rampage is Warrior’s, Tornado (and probably Whirlpool, though I’m not certain) is Elementalist’s. Plague is Necromancer’s.

Dividing it into several separate skills that all mimic other class’s elites would just lead to us having reliable copies of what other people can do.

I’ve always disliked that they gave us an elite skill that is just other professions elite skills….. It makes me think they couldn’t come up with third elite for engi and just said “Oh whatever, lets give them some random chance at other professions elite skills”

WhiteAndMilky.2514:

Anymras.5729:

Problem with removing the RNG and breaking Elixir X into two elites, or allowing choice in what it does (which would essentially turn it into two elites): It’s a conglomerate of several Elite skills of other classes. Rampage is Warrior’s, Tornado (and probably Whirlpool, though I’m not certain) is Elementalist’s. Plague is Necromancer’s.

Dividing it into several separate skills that all mimic other class’s elites would just lead to us having reliable copies of what other people can do.

I’ve always disliked that they gave us an elite skill that is just other professions elite skills….. It makes me think they couldn’t come up with third elite for engi and just said “Oh whatever, lets give them some random chance at other professions elite skills”

We have the same situation with Elixir U – but Elixir U isn’t one of those big, build-defining skills like Elites seem meant to be.

Rundown of our Elites, in my opinion:
Supply Crate: A bunch of heavily bugged Utility skills in a box, with a couple Healing skills thrown in. Still our best choice, as it’s relatively reliable and not the Mortar.
Elixir X: Three other classes’ transform Elites, bundled into one, with lack of reliability to balance. If you’re a gambler, go for it. I only ever use this to cheese Goemm’s Lab.
Mortar: A slower-firing, slower-hitting, barely-longer-than-Grenade-Kit-ranged self-initiated Immobilize effect disguised as a Kit-Turret hybrid with the durability of a used Kleenex.

Kleenex can be kinda strong (relative to the mortar) if you let them dry…
I also think that it has the same range as grenade kit.
You forgot non-critting also.

I barely think about crits, so yeah, I completely forgot about that. Nice catch.

As for the range…
Going by the Wiki, it has 1400 native range, putting it at 200 more untraited range than an untraited Grenade Kit.

With both traited, the range is exactly the same. Because an artillery piece that can be matched by a strong throwing arm is worth traiting.

I had assumed that you were referring to the traited grenades, as I didn’t realize that people actually used the untraited version.

WhiteAndMilky.2514:

I’ve always disliked that they gave us an elite skill that is just other professions elite skills….. It makes me think they couldn’t come up with third elite for engi and just said “Oh whatever, lets give them some random chance at other professions elite skills”

Not really – the same theme is existent with Elixir U.

Wish list: Anet fixes the numerous bugs and makes both power-based builds and turrets viable in actual mid to high level PvP.

Reality:

-Fixed an issue where Engineers could achieve large uptime on Swiftness.
Speedy Kits now has a 15 second internal cooldown and only activates in combat.

-Fixed an issue where Engineers could achieve large uptime on Vigor.
Invigorating Speed now has a 15 second internal cooldown and only activates in combat.

-Fixed an issue where Engineers could achieve large uptime on Protection.
Protection Injection’s Protection buff reduced to 1 second. Increased cooldown to 20 seconds.

-Improved Fumigate’s scaling coefficient from 0.05 per tick to 0.06.

Just something to think about: should mortar DPS be increased to outmatch other classes’ DPS? Mortar should be a painful weapon to use against targets, because the risk of mortar is: a.) it’s destructible and b.) it’s rooted.

Mortar removed or completely redone.

Alchemy – All throw elixir skills are bad save elixir R. They are either RNG or they are simply bad. Those are our utility skills…they should be more useful/reliable.

Turrets – Would like them focusing priority to engineer’s target and be much more robust.

Gadgets – They are weak and synergy with traits and skills doesn’t seem to be there. Many have short duration’s and long cool down. Rocket boots are the exception in this case.

Firearms – Pistols and Rifle need to be looked at, I don’t think they are up to standard or they need to add a single target ranged kit. Rifle and pistol only really work close range and grenades just won’t hit anything that moves.