Guild Wars 2

so, jon told us to make sure we whine and moan if it looks like our builds are gonna evaporate, cuz theyre still thinking about things. i figure its best if i just write up my builds and try to see what the equivalent will be post patch. id suggest everyone else do it too

so anyways, the builds i run.

pve:

open world and drytop/silverwastes/lazy wont change much. might have a debate between tools and inventions. basically… if kit refinement makes the speedy kits merge suck, ill ditch tools for inventions cuz blasts and robo legs will have to make up for it >.>
dungeons stays about the same, though i prioritize damage over mobility so a lack of speedy kits is less of an issue. i will likely want inventions over tools and rifle mod over robo legs.

with the condi changes, i may find reason to run my 2nd engi more often (sinister or rabid sets). her traits wont change all that much. i tend to only do the open world and dt/sw builds on her, just condi gear and p/p instead of rifle/power. im confident the proposed changes will allow for the build to be at least as good as now. when i do triple trouble on occasion, i always take her cuz they always seem to need people for the condi team.

pvp:

cele rifle, though more often i default to valk / pack rune unless i see condi players. …anet pls. youre giving this build 2 grandmasters without nerfing anything except the super long range downed cleave. ok, you take away IP, which is what makes this deadly instead of sorta dangerous, but youre also changing burn in a way thatll nerf IP anyways. but we only went deep in explosives for ip and grenadier. the functionality we most want from grenadier is being absorbed into the baseline — throwing 3. since IP is moving to firearms, there isnt really anything tying the build to explosives, and instead we can just go firearms — anti-scope, robo legs, and IP/napalm. IF IP is still strong. if its weak, well just kitten around with mortar, or maybe shrapnel, since the explosives traits are nice but arent gonna be really necessary imo for conquest. then of course theres those 2 free extra grandmasters, 409 wont be good for this but 2 of those are still TBD, and automated response is the obvious free buff in alchemy. its almost too bad were gonna lose the option of both prot injection and invig swiftness, but considering the other changes… whatever. so overall i predict this playstyle can still easily exist.

on the other hand, condi p/p or 60044 type variants look like they might still exist, but idk if theyll be any good with IP moving to firearms. maybe well see a 66060 build. cant say without being able to play it, not in the same way i can ponder about rifle builds. but currently theyre a 3 line build, and well… 3 line builds should all remain, more or less. (though it may trade the tools utility traits for firearms damage traits).

and of course, turret builds (im not linking that kitten) will hopefully be gutted with the other nerfs. doesnt look like the traits are too kind to them aside from putting everything in inventions instead of splitting between explosives, inventions, and alchemy. whatever. dont care. good riddance.

…gimme 5 mins for my flood control ok guys :/

wvw:

this is where things get really scary for me. ok.

first, roaming. the thing that i noticed and was most concerned about on the stream is the lack of automated medical response anywhere. ever since you guys changed power shoes from “in combat” to “always on”, inventions has been a line worth putting 4 into to cover 2 bases: REALLY REALLY kittenING STRONG DEFENSIVE TRAIT AT MASTER MINOR, and move speed. the combo of stabilized armor (WHICH IS ALSO GONE) and prot injection also allows me to run without a stunbreak in a pvp mode.

hang on.

lemme repeat this.

yall are deleting the (currently) 2nd strongest trait engi has (AMR) (the strongest being grenadier). without even acknowledging it.

at least grenadier is being moved and its functionality will remain.

ok… so what do i do… my current build has been imo the strongest roaming build an engi can run for about 2 years now, and received buffs during that time (tk cripple, ty anet didnt need it but ty). i need the mobility from rocket boots, wvw is a big place and getting places first/faster can often mean the difference between a successful defense and a lost objective, especially in low tiers where solo roaming is extremely viable and potent. i cant give that up. toolkit block is invaluable for running past a zerg into an objective, and pull can define an engi build on its own, but this is the probably the candidate for swapping to a stunbreak. gaining mortar in place of crate is a nice addition, but it isnt gonna make up for the the defenses in this build being almost entirely gutted. i will have to take a stunbreak, because i cant go breakless without all 3 of AMR, stab armor, and prot injection.

did i mention i can solo keeps? did i mention i can flip an entire undefended map with any amount of upgrades? did i mention i can do it because of AMR? ANET PLEASE! AMR defines my play as much as grenadier! it deserves the TBD master slot! hell, it deserves the spot youve given to bunker down!

…and then theres condi wvw. again, a breakless build. this isnt as good imo as my power roaming build, but it spreads its condi STDs around and makes people wanna jump off a cliff after losing to it, like any good condi build should. anyways, it doesnt seem like itll change too much except for the part about invigorating swiftness. i also can change to a 60440 variant of it that will be gutted just like the power roaming build. after specializations this will prolly use firearms instead of tools, to keep IP and get robo legs. trade in torment sigil for energy and go explosives, firearms, and alchemy. this build can solo towers and fully upgraded camps in exotic armor and pink trinkets, so its likely able to do keeps too, but now im on t1 and dont have the opportunity, not to mention lazyness about acquiring a set of condi wvw ascended armor due to my … enjoyment of power builds and a currently small niche. i dunno, everyone else seems to like condi roamer engi a lot more than me, imo it just doesnt have the survivability and utility that power has.

(la la la… tl dr in the next post)

finally, due to the stability changes, slick shoes is now the single best cc in the game. so its my opinion that this frontline zerging build (which is what i currently have equipped) or something like it will enter the zerging/gvg meta. lets see… how will this change. well, again, AMR IS GONE. thats huge. but also… CLOAKING DEVICE IS GONE. oh. my. god. its gonna be about 10 times harder to zerg dive without those 2 traits. cloaking device is so key here. you jump in, you get immediately stealthed. you run around in the middle of their melee ball making people banana peel all over the floor. THIS BUILD IS REALLY REALLY FUN. it has good dps for a melee build with bombs, cuz the cleave is loads better than those other dumb melee classes that got nerfed hard with stab. it sows chaos — the zerg takes notice of me in their midst, and then i disappear. and if they dont do something about me, theyre on the floor getting bombed by my zerg, because my commander noticed i jumped in (because im a single green name in a sea of red and he knows what im doing) and JUMPED IN TOO and started shouting bomb on me! at least, thats about how it goes when im with an experienced commander who isnt afraid of committing to a fight. when he doesnt decide to commit on my initiation, i have a good 15 seconds to get out from all the defensive traits i have, and id say i make it out safely about 3/4 of the time when kitten hits the fan. so, anyways. since inventions is being gutted, this build will be a lot more risky. at least forceful explosives will be base, so i dont need to worry about going from 4 trait lines to 3. but the new inventions, the mostly-the-same alchemy, and the new tools… i dont think theyll be enough to preserve a frontline build of this type, which focuses more on gadgets than anything. perhaps i can trade tools for firearms, since robo legs will be super important, but if i do that ill forfeit the “gadget” line, which would be a real shame, because i do want the stunbreak reset and i do want the cooldown reduction.

anyways, that was a bit longer than i… well no it wasnt. i play all the game modes. on engi. and im kitten good at all of them, if i do say so myself. thanks for reading.
tl dr?
pve: engi buffs. ..ok cool. i think i can still do my thing.
pvp: engi buffs. WTF. cele rifle is already considered op by the community and now it gets more grandmasters??
wvw: huge engi nerfs. i think my playstyles will evaporate. WTF. i need AMR currently, but can bunker down replace it??? my traits are going to random places and disappearing!!!

i encourage others to post your current builds/playstyles and whether you think youll be able to play the same way post-specializations.

used to combo it with self regulating defenses for an amazing second wind. very sad to see my two essential traits deleted. all of my engi builds have been broken. lost healing bombs too

insanemaniac.2456:

…

did i mention i can solo keeps? did i mention i can flip an entire undefended map with any amount of upgrades? did i mention i can do it because of AMR?…

Devil’s advocate here… but don’t you think this could be a good reason to get rid of something? Objectively if another profession had a trait that single handedly allowed them to do what you describe here most of us would be screaming for the nerf bat.

To be clear I fully understand what you’re saying, and I even agree to an extent. I hope both of the recharge @ 25% traits (I prefer the other one, but I understand why AMR is better to you) can be worked in to remain in some way or another. I just think in your long explanation of why it kills your build you may have described exactly why they decided to get rid of it, if they have decided such a thing.

This thread needs more attention!!

Adamantium.3682:

insanemaniac.2456:

…

did i mention i can solo keeps? did i mention i can flip an entire undefended map with any amount of upgrades? did i mention i can do it because of AMR?…

Devil’s advocate here… but don’t you think this could be a good reason to get rid of something? Objectively if another profession had a trait that single handedly allowed them to do what you describe here most of us would be screaming for the nerf bat.

To be clear I fully understand what you’re saying, and I even agree to an extent. I hope both of the recharge @ 25% traits (I prefer the other one, but I understand why AMR is better to you) can be worked in to remain in some way or another. I just think in your long explanation of why it kills your build you may have described exactly why they decided to get rid of it, if they have decided such a thing.

well for what its worth i couldnt solo keeps until ascended armor was released and i got access to another 6 defensive infusions (!!!), but for example condi engi could prolly solo keeps without that power creep because kiting the ai is op, and guards have been able to since forever (but it takes 20 minutes), and thieves have been able to since forever while permastealthing or some kitten

i guess my point is that ability isnt unique to the builds i run, but that trait is what makes it possible for me. the difference between a build with it and without it is stark. i cannot solo a tower on a power engi without it, much less a keep.

you play in a completely different way with the trait than you do without it. I turned so many fights with it. with it, power shoes, any elixir bombs being removed my pvp build has almost had a whole trait line deleted.

Didn’t watch the video but I skimmed through the notes and it appears that Engi will basically play the same way! Explosives top dog, everything else garbage tier! What a shame! Assuming runes and sigils don’t change (much) then maybe a 15/30/0/20/25 build for a condi Engi! P/P + Adventurer Runes with the new Incendiary Powder burn duration! Seems good!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

Didn’t watch the video but I skimmed through the notes and it appears that Engi will basically play the same way! Explosives top dog, everything else garbage tier! What a shame! Assuming runes and sigils don’t change (much) then maybe a 15/30/0/20/25 build for a condi Engi! P/P + Adventurer Runes with the new Incendiary Powder burn duration! Seems good!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

sorry to be rude, but I can’t take you seriously when you act like you know about the new system any then suggest’ 15/30/0/20/25’.

What am I missing! All I did was skim the notes here!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/33qrg0/specialization_ama_livestream_notes/

Wahoo! Bye frands!

you can only use three trait lines any have to go fully into all three. you can’t use adept in master slots either,

Interesting! You’d think that would be important enough to include on the reddit page but oh well! Still doesn’t change the fact that the Engineer playstyle seems like it will be relatively unchanged! 6/6/0/6/0 Explosives and Alchemy! For PvP anyway!

Also did they mention anything about condi duration! If trait lines are losing stats, where will the missing condi duration come from!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

Interesting! You’d think that would be important enough to include on the reddit page but oh well! Still doesn’t change the fact that the Engineer playstyle seems like it will be relatively unchanged! 6/6/0/6/0 Explosives and Alchemy! For PvP anyway!

Also did they mention anything about condi duration! If trait lines are losing stats, where will the missing condi duration come from!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

gear. i… kinda dont think well be compensated in terms of condi duration, and i think thats a very good thing.

oh, did you see juggernaut? pulsing stability. thats your favorite right? but it competes with IP :O

I wonder if they retained the 200 toughness for Juggernaut. As far as i remember, the original Juggernaut gave it was well. Assuming it is still a flamethrower trait, that is.

Manuhell.2759:

I wonder if they retained the 200 toughness for Juggernaut. As far as i remember, the original Juggernaut gave it was well. Assuming it is still a flamethrower trait, that is.

They did say that the Juggernaut trait still functioned the same as it did before, only with the pulsing stability added-on now, so I would assume so.

So I suppose I’ll hop in on this one! I for one am very excited to see how the final traits will fill out for Engis, and I’m optimistic (though somewhat of a minority in this thread it seems?) that the new system will, in fact, open up a bit more diversity in the Engineer’s roles. They are already fairly diverse in the options at their disposal – which I love – but the actual job they do tends to boil down to just a more limited selection of viable options, in my opinion. Mostly involving grenades.

My current builds actually shift a lot, but I’ll go over them in brief and mention which ones have retained their “spirit”, as seems to be the focus here, and which ones may have been dismantled…

SPvP
I usually just run turrets here (why not). This will be taking a hit, of course, but a deserved one I’m sure. I actually like how the new traits look for this, everything is still there in the Inventions line, with the only major loss being the self-repairing turrets trait. This is a really big loss actually, but probably one that had to come. And I do really like that we get all the turret traits in one line now, so a turret engi under the new system can choose their remaining two lines to further customize their role towards bunker or maybe a more offensive variation.

In conclusion: turrets got nerfed, but they needed the nerf anyway. They still do turret things.

The other build I currently run is celestial flamethrower, using elixir gun and rocket boots to round out the kit. This one would have benefited a lot from Juggernaut’s buff, BUT it also relied a lot on Incendiary Powder and can’t choose both of them together. That’s a really big hit, and honestly, since burning is so central to the FT’s damage output… I don’t know if I’d play this build anymore without access to both of these traits. The new IP is amazing and I intend to get a lot of use out of it, but that’s also the problem, Juggernaut is hard-pressed to compete with it and it would make more sense to just stick with IP and use a different kit entirely, which I suspect will be ’nades again.

In conclusion: this build’s probably dead, or more specifically, forced to split its focus too much and thus just turns back into the celestial rifle build that spawned it. Maybe Juggernaut will open up some options for FT bunkers, who knows, but that’s a different thing entirely.

WvW
I run two main shell builds here, power and condi.
Condi is your pretty standard Rabid roaming build, the 6/2/0/4/2 setup. Toolkit, Elixir S/Rocket Boots/Slick Shoes/Elixir Gun, and either Grenade or Bomb Kit. I think for the most part this will still function fine. Firearms will give a nice buff to the condi focus – improved IP is perfect, Robo Legs or the condi-crit conversion, etc – and the other two lines actually look pretty flexible now; Alchemy seems like a no-brainer, but even that could be swapped out to make it a more YOLO setup or paired with, say, Inventions to turn into a bit of a condi bunker with all that healing. Mortar might even reduce the need for grenades, since the one problem I always ran into was that if I used the bomb kit, I would always have to switch it to nades when I was defending or attacking a tower.
Power is honestly much of the same (same traits, even), though it’s almost always using the grenades rather than bombs, unless I’m diving groups and want to Big Ol’ Bomb in the middle of them (which is fun but I’m usually better off dealing similar damage from way off on top of a hill). Mortar can probably replace the ’nades for raining pain on zergs, and I would seriously consider a Mortar/FT build using a 6/6/0/6/0 setup to get the mortar traits and Juggernaut together, seems great for open-field fighting.

In conclusion: both of these builds retain their spirit, and actually gain some additional options. However, there is one big caveat here, and that’s out-of-combat mobility. This is HUGELY important for roaming in WvW, and as sexy as Robo Legs looks, it doesn’t actually do anything on its own out-of-combat. Power Shoes being gone hurts, because your only remaining option now is Speedy Kits, but it’s in a trait line that doesn’t seem to offer as much offensively or defensively as the other lines do. Those TBD traits in Tools will decide a lot though, possibly?

In summary:
-No Power Shoes and no easy 2-point investment for Speedy Kits could be bad news for out-of-combat mobility, something Engineers lack without their traits. (no signets, and their sources of swiftness are less useful skills and/or granted randomly.)
-Making Juggernaut and Incendiary Powder mutually exclusive makes the choice between them more interesting, but ultimately it just means less reason to use FT over another kit. (maybe Juggernaut would fit better in Inventions or Alchemy, since it is a more defensive trait?)

Alright, I usually don’t post in the forums but since the devs said it’s a WiP and they would like our feedback about the changes here it is.

1 – Thanks for the hobosack thing guys.
2 – Overall specialization (traits) changes sound pretty cool, we had some traits that no one picked and some that needed small changes.
3 – One of my favorite wvw builds was killed though and that made me a bit sad(more about it later on with a link if you guys want it for whatever reason).
4 – There’s four changes that I quite don’t understand / like so I will talk more about them below.

• Robo Legs (Firearms Specialization)
  On paper, mixing power shoes and leg mods sounds amazing, specially for a bunker engi but from what I understood (and correct me, please, if I’m wrong) the power shoes part is just an increase in swiftness duration (maybe speed?) And not the flat 25% move speed bonus we used to have.
  Also, why would a trait (well traits) that were build defining for bunker engis be on the firearms specialization line which sounds like some sort of condition damage line just like explosives specialization sounds like something from a power damage line? Why not put it back at the new and improved bunker / medic line (inventions)? It totally sounds like something that an inventor would create to improve whatever he’s doing with his legs.

• Formula 409 (Tools Specialization)
  I can see this trait working here and not depending on how I look at it, that’s why I’m still unsure if this is the right place for it, but right now I’m still more inclined of it being on the alchemy line and tools working more with kits / gadgets)
  From one side, it totally makes sense being on the tools line (We basically throw elixirs to remove conds) and since this line reduces the cooldown on toolbelt skills, it does synergize well.
  On the other side of the coin, this was one of the traits that defined an elixir build, engineers have poor condition removal and whenever you ran two or more elixirs, it made a lot of sense for an engi that goes deep on the alchemy line to get, not only this but fast acting elixirs (and in some cases, HGH). Whenever you saw an engi with more than 2 elixirs you could bet he was an “alchemist” with 409 / other elixir traits.

• Protection Injection (Alchemy Specialization) and Stabilized Armor (RIP)
  Well this combo was what kept me alive many times on wvw, there’s a limit of how many stuns you can evade and you can bet one thing, on gvg and blob fights, there’s more than enough stuns to lock a poor engi.
  The juggernaut change which made it be what it was back in the day won’t be enough to make up for this loss due to many things, one being the number of stacks it will give (which would be extremely hard to balance since in spvp it would be ridiculous OP if it gave many stab stacks) and the fact FT simple sucks.

• HEAL-SPLOSION (Inventions Specialization)
  Well, we don’t know a lot about this (heal coefficients, maybe internal cd? number of blasts we can have with the mortar trait changes?) so all I can do is speculate. The good old Elixir Infused Bombs was a build defining trait. The only reason we became grandmasters in the inventions line was for that thing It gave the bomb kit functionality outside of just DPS.
  This was another trait that made this weird gvg build of mine work and I will miss it more than any other engi trait, more than kit refinement and god I miss that thing while roaming.

To conclude, I think I will have a lot of fun roaming with the new changes, most of the time I roam on wvw and I’m happy to be able to run other things than crate for example, but how I play my weird gvg / blob engi will have to change quite a bit or on the worst case just stop existing but for that we need more info about the changes, I hope the guys at Anet have another look at it, overall things look pretty cool tho.
Here’s the last incarnation of my weird gvg engi build

Arcem.7289:

To conclude, I think I will have a lot of fun roaming with the new changes, most of the time I roam on wvw and I’m happy to be able to run other things than crate for example, but how I play my weird gvg / blob engi will have to change quite a bit or on the worst case just stop existing but for that we need more info about the changes, I hope the guys at Anet have another look at it, overall things look pretty cool tho.
Here’s the last incarnation of my weird gvg engi build

that isnt weird at all, its very similar in playstyle to the 20444 frontline build i detailed. i have a couple things different in it but the goals are the same. i think the main difference is that in my opinion, healy bombs holds you back. i started off trying out 20642 with healy bombs. but if you made it work, then awesome.

Jio Derako.7638:

So I suppose I’ll hop in on this one! I for one am very excited to see how the final traits will fill out for Engis, and I’m optimistic (though somewhat of a minority in this thread it seems?) that the new system will, in fact, open up a bit more diversity in the Engineer’s roles. They are already fairly diverse in the options at their disposal – which I love – but the actual job they do tends to boil down to just a more limited selection of viable options, in my opinion. Mostly involving grenades.

for what its worth, im only pessimistic about wvw! pve and pvp look like interesting changes and i think the devs are really getting something right for those modes.

-About IP trait and Juggernout competing in firearms,i think it is a good think.
It’s better to don’t have both.
Take it that way,you can use stability when you run zergy content in WvW or PvE mass events.
You can use IP to optimize your DPS while running in PvP or roaming in WvW.
Have both(DPS and stability) in the same moment would be a mess for the balance.
Consider we can also have some new power build to use,do MAY BE the use of IP for a power build will not be required anymore.

-About Power Shoes: here you got a point.
I did not understand how that ROBOLEGS will work…i really hope there will be power shoes included in it with his 25% passive effect always up like it used to be.
Without Power Shoes engi would be forced to go in Tool line just to gain the swiftness,or forced to relay on some of that useless runes that grant 25% movement speed(like mesmer….).

-About AMR , no words,it was awesome trait,especially because you can have 2 condi clear when things are going bad.
But here again,the new traits looks a lot promising for bunker builds , may be AMR should turn OP?
We can’t really discuss things without test it properly….i just hope we will have another good condi clear (about the sustain may be the new Bunker down should do the job if it will provide 1000 hp regen with an ICD of 3 sec. or something similar to don’t make it too much OP and not even completely useless).

-About Stabilized Armor….another big loss,awesome trait that is allowing me to fight in first line in the zergs in WvW,coupled with Protection Injection and some defensive food.

Tested some game without it ,and ofc it’s not easy to stay alive that long…-20% damage should not appear that much,but consider is -20% on every attack while stunned + protection + food ; now consider all that damage mitigation for every attack yoy take from the enemy ranged/melee Bomb.
Numbers are big if you consider it for a whole enemy bomb.

I just want to know how do I make a minimally viable Flamethrower build now.

I used to run battle sigil to keep a decent might stack up. They nerfed battle sigil.
I used to wear hoelbrak runes to keep might for more time. They nerfed might.
I used deadly mixture to improve the poor FT damage. Now deadly mixture is going to dissapear.
I comboed speedy kits and invigorating speed to boost my evasion, because they were cheap and I like the style of run, dodge and burn. Now to combo them I’m forced to choose multiple traits that are useless for my FT.
I used juggernaut to have at least some survavility, because FT is a melee weapon; and Incendiary Powder because flame jet multiple chances of crit would then compensate the overall weak damage of the kit. Now I’m going to lose one of them.

If the problem is the abuse of other, much more powerful kits, WHY ANET KEEP NERFING SECONDARY BUILDS?

Maybe I’m wrong, and they are going to create much better options for FT builds, but I really doubt it. I dont ask to have the more efficient build in the game, or for the FT to become meta. I simply want to run around and set things on fire with a decent balance of damage and survivability. Please stop destroying my FT play.

ft will be a pvp utility kit, at minimum. it will offer safe stomps whenever you want, decent burst damage, a solid fire field, and a solid cc. it might be able to take the place of a stunbreak, adding to the current choices of eg, slicky, and S in kit focused builds. but im not entirely sure about that yet. a cele rifle type build will prolly look like 66060 after this hits, but i dunno if IP will be worth taking over juggernaut or vice versa. but we might also get to use 60660 total explosions, for a bit different flavor of rifle/kits.

ye, by simply looking at the new specialization i can try test 3 different build to play FT.
It also depend on the content you are goind to play.
In sPvP, i would never give up on IP, because of his potential single target optimization.
Unless… you want to play an annoying decap/bunker, the i would go juggernout.
I think new power builds will show up as well, going with that 6 6 0 6 0 Insane already told you.

Anyway, we don’t have a clear picture yet, so let’s just wait before speak.
I don’t think the same Anet has the complete picture yet, they have a concept and an idea they are still working on.

On paper, after i watched the whole AMA video, engineer is the class to really be feared of guys… the same devs should really look carefully to some of the changes they already showed us before send them live.
Bunker condi engi will be something incredible at this point, and sPvP can suffer a lot of that, even more than the turret shame we saw till now.

As far as WvW blob jumping, Gear Shield, Elixer S, and AED have good survival and repositioning capability, if triggered on time and you don’t have a weave of warding lines/rings infront of you. I’ve also used Self-Regulating Defenses successfully, but only when I’ve mentally checked the internal cooldown of it against my AED use.

AMR was an awesome trait especially coupled with AED in these scenarios. If it is no longer a minor trait, I would not want this trait to diminish into obscurity. It would be fine as a regular trait.

The only thing the changes mess up in my personal build is that Self-Regulating Defenses is now a Grandmaster Master, so I will have to potentially sacrifice my damage capability by going into a traitline I don’t really want. Since Engi isn’t a heavy armor class, it relies on damage negation in those blobby situations.

Overall, I never found much use for Stabilized Armor. I have tried it before and only found it to be meh. There are other traits that outshine it and there are other ways to get damage reduction on stun or stun durations reduced. If was super concerned about stun, I would get either Loaf of Saffron Bread (-20% damage reduction on stun/disable) or Roasted Lotus Root (-40% stun reduction). Melandru Runes for a -25% stun reduction (which are pretty awesome for WvW) have worked very well for me in the past. I get more concerned over conditions and immobilize chains.

If Elixer S/Self Regulating Defenses and Gear Shield can’t get you out of a hot situation, 9 times out of 10 the reason is bad positioning and not taking notice of oncoming enemies.

nooo SRD is on master, you can take prot injection, SRD, and auto response which is pretty legit for frontlining. so alchemy is buffed. tools and inventions are scattering to the wind though, and while alchemy is very core to a frontline build… its not the only thing we need. the heal reset is just so important. for users of both aed and healing turret.

Xinrut.1743:

Overall, I never found much use for Stabilized Armor. I have tried it before and only found it to be meh. There are other traits that outshine it and there are other ways to get damage reduction on stun or stun durations reduced. If was super concerned about stun, I would get either Loaf of Saffron Bread (-20% damage reduction on stun/disable) or Roasted Lotus Root (-40% stun reduction). Melandru Runes for a -25% stun reduction (which are pretty awesome for WvW) have worked very well for me in the past. I get more concerned over conditions and immobilize chains.

I used to run frontline with all the things you listed:
Runes of melandru + Loaf of saffron Bread + Protection Injection + Stabilized Armor.

The situation is :
-A commander party pushing with 3 guard and 2 warrior IN PARTY was going to die,or anyway to struggle a lot (consider all the heal from shout,condi dispell from guard+war + heal from guard + stability on demand ) .
-Then there is me : a lonely Engineer,without party because melee never want to have my class in their party , always on commander tag,ALWAYS.
I do the same push ,i’m in the same commander position ,i get stunned over and over from enemy guard lines+ele static+necros Fear(disable) + i get all the enemy ranged and melee bomb exactly like my commander party.

The result is : commander party = full dead , me = still alive with 50% HP or with 30% HP (right there AMR kicks in and i can fully refresh again) .

Now,try that without AMR and without Stabilized Armor.

I already told,that 20% alone is nothing….but try it with my same food/runes/traits and you will see how that 20% damage riduction will give HUGE results when applied to mitigate all the damage you take while stunned with the effect of all the other damaged mitigation source + AMR that allow you to refresh and condi clear 2 times in that pushes.

Let’s be clear,i’m not complaining about AMR and Stabilized Armor dissapearing.

I’m trying to contribute to the OP idea of let Anet know some of the builds that uses traits that dissapeared from the new specialization.The same Anet asked for this kind of thread.

I’m just wondering how will i run that situations again as solo player,and be sure i will find out the way to do it without AMR and SA too(i hope.. ) , so take my words as a report from my experience.Nothing more.

I think it’s worth noting that you should be able to get a similar effect to Automated Medical Response when this goes live by running Medical Kit and the Tools specialization, as Bandage Self will recharge thanks to the still-present Inertial Converter (since it is a toolbelt skill) while it’s true that at the moment Med Kit is rather poor compared to the almighty Healing Turret, the changes they’ve shown in the AMA might make it not as bad of a choice as it is now.

Alchemy should be shuffled around to streamline some of the traits.

Minor TBD: Backpack Regenerator or variant
Master: 409
—Replace backpack regen that’s proposed in Master and move to Minor; this removes the conflict in choosing between Backpack Regen and Self-Reg Defenses
Compare to Warrior which will have access to both Adrenal Health (regen) as a minor and Defy Pain (similar to SRD) in the Defense traitline
Grandmaster: Automated Response: buffed to include condis on the player before it’s triggered and/or a higher threshold, and/or merged with a weaker version of AMR/something that restores health

Nirvana.8659:

-snip-

Let’s be clear,i’m not complaining about AMR and Stabilized Armor dissapearing.

I’m trying to contribute to the OP idea of let Anet know some of the builds that uses traits that dissapeared from the new specialization.The same Anet asked for this kind of thread.

That’s why the TBD Grandmaster Trait in Tools or the TBD Grandmaster in Alchemy would benefit from a combination of Armor Mods + Stabilized Armor like “Cybernetic Enhancements,” or some similar variant that introduces damage negation or reduction. I wouldn’t mind if some stability was thrown in there, too. If it’s placed in Tools, it may not be in the traitline you would specialize in, but it wouldn’t disappear. It would give some defense in a build that might not make use of Alchemy.

that would definitely make auto response pretty defining in terms of playstyle

What about changing Automated Response entirely? Could be something like “gain X seconds resistance when you’re affected by a condition, Y seconds cooldown”.
Or even give pulsing resistance when under a certain health treshhold, for example.

1. Cloaking Device: (stealth when immob)
This is absolutely amazing for WvW especially when roaming there is so much immobilize flying everywhere and with engi limited condi removal this trait is really worth having as part of your set up. It has saved my life countless times and has been a contributing factor of me winning many fights.
2. Automatic Medical Response: (heal skills recharge when below 25%)
Basically a must have for any build I run. It gives you a extra heal and condition removal when your really being pressured. When paired with self regulating defences its really great at giving you a second wind at getting back in the fight. Its a game changing trait.
This vid(Solo Keep Cap) shows how helpful AMR and Cloaking device can be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBhfkJ1J3MY
3. Elixir Infused Bombs: (Bombs give healing)
This trait can really influence an engis game style and is great when creating a supportive healing engi. This+eg super Elixir and the other 2 water fields really allows engi to become a good healer. I think it also promote good active play since the range is quite small and forces a team to coordinate well. Also can be used as part of a viable build in spvp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Z6wJzH37Y I used a healing type decap build in ESL match vsing some the gw2 finest(The Dankening).
4. FireForeged Trigger:
Very easy to make a good build using FT and Eg so would be nice to keep this trait.
5. Sitting Duck: (Apply cripple and vulnerability to enemies you immob)
I have used this several times with with a 3xkit(bomb) rifle build. This trait is really good at covering up the engis other damaging conditions which can be really helpful for engis that dont like to take grenades.
6. Enhanced Performance: (3 stacks of might for 15sec when using a healing skill)
This is a nice trait for might stacking engi, especially when combined with Altruism runes and med kit. Constant 6 stacks of might just by switching in and out of med kit.
7. Stabilized Armor and Protective shield these two traits have really good synergy together and would be nice to have them as options to give an engi extra survivability should he want to spec for it.

This topic deserves more attention.

Turret engineers got destroyed so my engineer play style has already been ruined. I expect more trash moves from Anet not less.

Aidenwolf.5964:

Turret engineers got destroyed so my engineer play style has already been ruined. I expect more trash moves from Anet not less.

Turrets are fine. Some people are over reacting by demanding they are underpowered simply because they were previously overpowered.

It is perfectly reasonable that investment in condition damage and precision effect them now instead of being completely ignored.

coglin.1867:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Turret engineers got destroyed so my engineer play style has already been ruined. I expect more trash moves from Anet not less.

Turrets are fine. Some people are over reacting by demanding they are underpowered simply because they were previously overpowered.

It is perfectly reasonable that investment in condition damage and precision effect them now instead of being completely ignored.

Absolutely untrue. Supply crate is ruined Now because it has Turrets healing turret is only for destroying now and actual traited turrets are worthless.

Conditions were always effective against turret Engineers just shoot the engi not the turret.

coglin.1867:

Turrets are fine. Some people are over reacting by demanding they are underpowered simply because they were previously overpowered.

An engineer is supposed to “take control of an area by placing turrets”.
They get destroyed in seconds when doing so.
No, there is nothing fine with that.

I wouldn’t say they were overpowered either. Our utilties already have to make up for the lack of a second main weapon. And turrets in particular, while placed, even prevents the use of a part of the class mechanic (toolbelt).
Either they were effective at whatever they had to do – in this case, take control of an area – or they were worthless.
Now they’re worthless. They basically get used due to how some trait works or some balancing loophole, rather than for what they were supposed to do – be turrets.

If they still want to adhere to their original intent, some degree of sturdiness is required. You can’t control an area with turrets if they die in few seconds.
Something to make them more active once they’re placed should also be done, though, by giving far less importance to autoattacks and more to the overcharges (albeit, if it were for me, i would redesign overcharges as well).

coglin.1867:

It is perfectly reasonable that investment in condition damage and precision effect them now instead of being completely ignored.

Sure, that’s right. What isn’t reasonable is to change their defensive design and not rebalance them thereafter.
Cause we aren’t talking about some bug – they were designed and balanced taking those immunities for granted.
It was obvious they would end up paper mache with such a change.
It would be like taking banners, making them destructible “to make them in line” and don’t give them even an hp value. And then they die (cause their hp are supposedly zero). And our change is exactly as nonsensical.

Manuhell.2759:

An engineer is supposed to “take control of an area by placing turrets”.
They get destroyed in seconds when doing so.
No, there is nothing fine with that.

Do you have a link to that quote? Or are you simply inserting your “opinion” of what you want it to be and implying it is official in some capacity?

Manuhell.2759:

coglin.1867:

It is perfectly reasonable that investment in condition damage and precision effect them now instead of being completely ignored.

Sure, that’s right. What isn’t reasonable is to change their defensive design and not rebalance them thereafter.

I can agree with that

coglin.1867:

Do you have a link to that quote? Or are you simply inserting your “opinion” of what you want it to be and implying it is official in some capacity?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/engineer/
I would say that’s official.

Manuhell.2759:

coglin.1867:

Do you have a link to that quote? Or are you simply inserting your “opinion” of what you want it to be and implying it is official in some capacity?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/engineer/
I would say that’s official.

Fair enough.

My apologies.