Guild Wars 2

Hi all, Wanted to create a post to ask a series of questions to all my fellow power scrappers out there who may feel they are mechanically inferior to some other classes due to scrappers continuous nerfs and other classes buffs.

For clarification: this is not a post intended to cater to people whining and such, but rather the post is for people who want to voice opinions or concerns about the viability of scrapper in WvW and PvP as it stands in the current metas,(WvW zerging, Roaming, Spvp) in one consolidated thread with an easy to read layout.

1.) What about hammer scrapper feels under-tuned to you? What would you change?

2.) Do you feel at a disadvantage vs particular classes? Which ones?

3.) It’s pretty obvious via Wooden Potatoes recent youtube video that power engineer/scrapper has some really wonky traits that need changing: What would you change?

4.) Is there anything about power scrapper you feel is OP? Would you nerf anything?

Do you have any other concerns about the state of scrapper or engineer?

Thanks guys!

It’s common knowledge that there still is a lot of work to be done on the engineer traits, It’s good that Wooden Potatoes addressed this issue in his video (although much from a PVE’ers perspective).

I refrained from playing power scrapper because the playstyle of all the serious WVW scrapper roaming builds did not intrest me (too much melee orientated, too kiteable).

I would try to achieve an increase in serious (non yolo) power scrapper build/playstyle diversity and range damage by buffing gadgets and fixing the tools traitline.

My suggestion:
-Fix the bug of “Long Fused Powder pack” so it explodes after 1 second instead of the incorrect 2 seconds it does now

Buff gadgets by introducing strong traits:
-Change “Gadgeteer” to a usefull trait (eg. 20% cd reduction on all gadgets and allow gadgets in the elite slot) ( A.E.D. excluded? or with an increase cd in the elite slot?)
-Change the minor trait “Excessive Energy” to a usefull minor trait (eg. Do +10% damage when endurance is full and using a gadget removes 2 conditions” (gadget toolbelt skills excluded)).

Do gadgets buffs:
-Removing the random placements of the mines from “Mine Field”.
-Make “Launch Personal Battering Ram” pierce.
-Add stability here or there so a gadget can be used for stomping.
…

Other tool trait changes (Not necessarily for scrapper or gadgets buffs but I just want to be complete with my tools traitline suggestions):
-Don’t let a blind trigger “Reactive Lenses”
-Increase the instant recharge duration of “Kinetic Battery” from 8s to 30s
-Give “Streamlined Kits” a 5s icd and remove the spell effects it triggers, that way it’s more usefull in combination with “Invigorating Speed” just like pre 23/06/2015 patch, plus you don’t lose your mobility for long when your swiftness boon gets corrupted/stolen.
-Revert the recharge reduction from “Power Wrench” back to 20% BUT decrease the cooldown of “Gear Shield” block to 16s base (13s when traited).

(This all with a “Tranquilizer Dart” range increase (1200 range) and a “Grenade/Mortar Kit” baseline buff (increased travel velocity) to improve/make possible reasonable sustain range damage while being kited )

santenal.1054:

It’s common knowledge that there still is a lot of work to be done on the engineer traits, It’s good that Wooden Potatoes addressed this issue in his video (although much from a PVE’ers perspective).

I refrained from playing power scrapper because the playstyle of all the serious WVW scrapper roaming builds did not intrest me (too much melee orientated, too kiteable).

I would try to achieve an increase in serious (non yolo) power scrapper build/playstyle diversity and range damage by buffing gadgets and fixing the tools traitline.

My suggestion:
-Fix the bug of “Long Fused Powder pack” so it explodes after 1 second instead of the incorrect 2 seconds it does now

Buff gadgets by introducing strong traits:
-Change “Gadgeteer” to a usefull trait (eg. 20% cd reduction on all gadgets and allow gadgets in the elite slot) ( A.E.D. excluded? or with an increase cd in the elite slot?)
-Change the minor trait “Excessive Energy” to a usefull minor trait (eg. Do +10% damage when endurance is full and using a gadget removes 1 condition” (gadget toolbelt skills excluded)).

Do gadgets buffs:
-Removing the random placements of the mines from “Mine Field”.
-Make “Launch Personal Battering Ram” pierce.
-Add a reflect,stability or evade frame here or there.
…

Other tool trait changes (Not necessarily for scrapper or gadgets buffs but I just want to be complete with my tools traitline suggestions):
-Don’t let a blind trigger “Reactive Lenses”
-Increase the instant recharge duration of “Kinetic Battery” from 8s to 40s
-Give “Streamlined Kits” a 5s icd and remove the spell effects it triggers, that way it’s more usefull in combination with “Invigorating Speed” just like pre 23/06/2015 patch, plus you don’t lose your mobility for long when your swiftness boon gets corrupted/stolen.

These are some great suggestions!

To OP, I think Hammer/Scrapper has its problems – in particular, some very useless major and minor traits.

However, Scrapper is still the best engi build for pvp/wvw by a large margin. Why?

• Is inherently tanky
• Defends while attacking – Defense Matrix, 3 out of 5 Hammer skills
• Also offers the best self-combos with healing skills

In the past, anet has nerfed base engi to try and take Scrapper down a peg – eg. they raised Healing Turret cast time by 50%. They reduced gear shield block duration by 33% (which is dumb ‘cause Scrapper didn’t run Toolkit … not that I’m bitter or anything). etc.

IMO, what they need to do is buff base engi skills like the gadget + trait suggestions above. This will encourage some build diversity and offer different play options.

I don’t play PvP so this is WvW only:

1.) What about hammer scrapper feels under-tuned to you? What would you change?

We have lackluster mobility and no chase potential. Before HoT, Engineers were sorta fast due to either streamlined kits or Mecha legs, however passive movement boosts or easy swiftness were doled out to everyone (well, except Guardians which still gained an extra disengage) meaning that it was no longer special and Engineers were left in the dust. And then you have daredevils and druids even having more mobility.

Rocket “charge” isn’t really gaining of any ground, while the only true movement skill “Rocket Boots” is so ridiculously clumsy for a movement skill that it’s almost never worth taking anywhere. In fact our “best” movement skill isn’t even a movement skill in the form of Acid Bomb.

Furthermore, this would not be a issue if we have a ranged option. Hint: We don’t. Rifle has been fortunately balanced lately to be not completely garbage, but since we’re talking about hammer, it’s outside of the scope of the discussion. This leaves our kits. Magnet bugs out half the time, elixir gun isn’t really for direct damage, and Mortar is really only good in big groups. And then not really.

2.) Do you feel at a disadvantage vs particular classes? Which ones?

Necros, mesmers. Fortunately, it is easy to simply leave.

3.) It’s pretty obvious via Wooden Potatoes recent youtube video that power engineer/scrapper has some really wonky traits that need changing: What would you change?

Engineer traits suffer from a horrific lack of synergy. This is why condi builds don’t even see scrapper. This is why we have traits like “Expert Examination” that is based off things that were really removed. The one exception is probably alchemy, which is hugehly popular.

Over specialization is a great problem with the scrapper. One good example is the function gyro which is excellent in some contexts, not so great in others. Gadgets are also suffering in this.

Finally, it seems only engineers are saddled with ridiculous mechanics that serve to do nothing but make it impossible to use your abilities. This includes tossing elixirs being subject to reflects and blocks. The closest is the necro corruption abilities, but oftentimes even the cons can be used otherwise (condi transfer)

4.) Is there anything about power scrapper you feel is OP? Would you nerf anything?

They are still rather implacable and are able to utilize stealth/counter stealth very readily. I also think hammer is an overly sufficient weapon which has almost everything on it; this might be because they were moving away from kits when designing scrapper. I wouldn’t really consider that OP. If this had been at HoT release with 20s insta-cast stealth gyro, triple leap finishers, dazes everywhere, and that hard to avoid hammer 5, then I would say, yes, there needs to be some balancing. But honestly, I think every needed nerf has already happened and then some.

That means at this point I think they could take nerfs, but need to be buffed in some area in which they are lacking.

Overall, I think scrapper is carried by the hammer. Gyros seemed like a fun idea but then they get complaints about passive play and eventually the balancing act makes them more useful to be cast and the immediately blown up for some effect. Just like turrets.

All my answers are from a WvW perspective

kornfanxxx.9143:

1.) What about hammer scrapper feels under-tuned to you? What would you change?

I think hammer is mostly fine. I would probably revert the dmg on first tick change of Thunder Clap. And alter how the evade works for Rocket Charge, the last part of the animation has no evade frames. But the first 2 parts to the animation is all an evade.

kornfanxxx.9143:

2.) Do you feel at a disadvantage vs particular classes? Which ones?

The usual roaming meta builds, Zerker, DD, Condi Chrono. Really this is more an issue with these classes being over tuned than it is with any inherent problem with the Scrapper. Id like to add Condi Reaper is pretty much a hard counter.

kornfanxxx.9143:

3.) It’s pretty obvious via Wooden Potatoes recent youtube video that power engineer/scrapper has some really wonky traits that need changing: What would you change?

Most of the explosives line needs to be redone, then just review traits that dont see a lot of play in the other lines. Every build is 2-2-1 in Alchemy, this should probably be addressed.

kornfanxxx.9143:

4.) Is there anything about power scrapper you feel is OP? Would you nerf anything?

After all the recent nerfs i feel it is actually in a good spot, much like power mesmer i feel is in a good spot and both would be quite valid again if the meta builds ate a nerf.

kornfanxxx.9143:

Do you have any other concerns about the state of scrapper or engineer?

Id review gadgets, they are just terrible, then some of the outliers that dont see much use. The whole Health Insurance Med Kit debacle. Med Kit is utterly useless in any given situation anywhere. Id look to make a lot more of the toolbelt skills instant cast rather than having a cast time. Things like bypass coating, chemical field, some toss elixir effects like Elixir R, U and C.

I played a Mesmer as my other main roamer i find all the casting times on Scrapper really noticeable. All my shatters are instant, my continuum split is instant. My blink, mirror images and decoy are instant, feedback is instant, all my mantras once charged are instant.

Again it’s the same when i play DH, all my shouts are instant. All the meditations are instant. Wall of reflection is instant, test of faith and fragments of faith are both instant.

ArchonWing.9480:

Magnet bugs out half the time, elixir gun isn’t really for direct damage, and Mortar is really only good in big groups. And then not really.

Which pretty much describe the entire engineer.

The core issue with the engineer today is that you are basicly getting pidgeonholed to choose certain skills and traits. Purity of purpose!

As a sidenote, I still consider the power scrapper to be inferior to condi scrapper in WvW (and I would say even inferior to condi engineer). It’s not bad, but it’s just soooo easily kited. I have only seen super tanks perform decently and that’s just by surviving and being there as support, another meatbag to take the pressure off. Problem is there are far better classes that do far more damage while performing similar duty (warrior to take the most notable example).

hammer scrapper’s biggest flaw is its too kiteable and engi doesnt have a reliable CC skill after the slick shoes over nerf

other than that power scrapper doesnt really have anything to it , gyros arent really offensive, blast gyro’s unblockable part is the stupid tag and not the actual gyro blast

engi as a whole suffers from a high risk no reward design
and the fact it was meant to be a heavy armor profession during initial design but was shipped out as a medium armor profession at the last moment , cuz someone found trench coats stylish.

In sPvp as a power scrapper, I feel balanced against almost everyone, once I learnt to manage them, not better not worst just equal, gameplay then do the difference. Only mesmers can be really hard to manage. I played reaper/dh and prefered my scrapper, who can adapt to more situations with no weakness.

What we lack the most is choice. We have to take alchemy inventions scrapper, others spe bring nothing good, no fair trade, and not only this but also with each traits. Our meta is just obvious because anything else looks like absurd.

Thanks for all the reply’s guys, really good insight. I wanted to put down my feelings and thoughts as well about some potential QoL changes that would help us scrappers out without going nuts:

1.) I think a few things scrapper could stand to see happen is a shave on the aftercast of the hammer auto’s. some scrapper’s remedy this by going with applied force and elixer U, however quickness stacking on scrapper can sometimes be detrimental due to speeding up cast times of #2/#4 on their defensive portions. Another thing i’d like to see is elixirs getting a PbAOE effect as well. This would really help avoid the reflect issues elixirs suffer from and could really speed up elixir application in the middle of a fight. (Lastly I believe Gyro’s should also recieve the PBAOE treatment instead of following you(Exception being blast gyro) They would be 100% more useful and less situational than they are now and could provide enjoyable play.

2.) Warriors(Mainly because of their sustain and dmg output, not really due to scrapper being “under-tuned”) Necros(Boon Corrupt) , And most thieves with boon stealing abilities.

3.) I’ll just specifically refer to the scrapper traitline here: Decisive Renown is a PvP only trait really, and i think it should be reworked to provide usefulness in a broader fashion.
Impact Savant is another offender here, this should honestly just be deleted and replaced with some type of situational damage boost maybe 10% or so to help us bump up our potential dps in raiding/pve/pvp/wvw.

4.) I think scrapper’s seen more than its fair share of nerfs, so i don’t have much to contribute to this question, was more looking for others opinions.

problem of scrapper in wvw is that there are classes unkillable for a scrapper. A warrior, a druid , a thief, if are good, can disengage easily and you can not chase them. This is not a problem of scrapper alone . A good player knows usually when he will be downed and so he will run away before. Yesterday for example i was on a camp alone …. a druid came 5 times and every time i drop down his heal every time … and every time he ran away and came back. At the end he came with 3 friends ….. and i died