Guild Wars 2

Yes, I am aware there are already a dozen topics on that matter, but we honestly need as much visibility to the issue as possible.

The game is hardly playable in the current state – doing those long events is utterly pointless when you crash every time. This issue singlehandedly managed to completely ruin my excitement for the game and needs to be top priority to get fixed.

That sounds like awesome fun!

Character: Andazeus
Number: 327

It’s not that engineers wouldn’t be viable or competetive. I main one and yes, I can kill people quite easily. The problem, though, is, that you have to put so much effort into it when compared to others.
There is a steep learning curve to the engineer and you will have to use everything at your disposal and come up with a well thought out trait tree. If you do that: great. If not: you’ll have a hard time.

The engineer’s lack of burst damage potential, the random elixirs, the buggy and weak turrets and finally the huge amount of bugged skills and traits is making the engineer way more complicated than would be necessary.

The engineer is also missing a niche. We can do many different things, but we have to heavily trait into the task and will still often be slightly less effective than another class built for the task.

For now, ANet should focus on fixing all the bugs. We are heavily hamstrung by them and only once the bugs are fixed will we be able to see, how useful our abilities actually are. For example, I expect kits to become considerably more useful once the sigils and weapon damage are fixed. With a proper sigil, flamethrower and toolkit might actually start doing some nice damage. We’ll see.

Ironically, this is also the only reliable source of vigor for us (at least as far as I’m aware of).

Take a look at that: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/zy752/combat_mode_02_beta/

Would have been a great solution, but has been declared illegal by ANet for now. I still hope there is a way to make controls like this work.

Personally, I have some serious trouble with quickness/dagger storm thieves.

I am somewhat tanky, yet they drop me so mind bogglingly quickly… by the time I actually notice the thief teleporting towards me, he already fires off his full combo before I get any chance to counter. Toolkit block is a nice counter, but it is so incredible specific for this one situation, I don’t want to be forced into it just because of one build.

Any other ideas how to deal with this specific type of thieves?

Allright, that’s a bummer. Never noticed it because I try to line it up with static shot so I can burn multiple targets at once (also: you can actually apply it mid flight and it will still work).

Swtiching to a kit should bring you back to normal, but toolbelt skills work fine. Yes, this allows for healing with the medkit. And no, this is not overpowered. Other classes, like guardian and elementalist have uninterruptible heals as well.

Also, many people don’t know that you can use while stunned, knocked down, feared, making it a pretty powerful stun breaker.

Sorry, but I don’t understand you PewPew. Why would going shield NOT solve your problem with missing cc? Sure, you lose blowtorch, but you can replace the burn with rocket boots or flamethrower.

You can’t have big damage AND cc.

Pewpew.9302:

Incendiary ammo is so bugged right now.

What do you mean? I never noticed any problems with that so far.

Oh sure. And as an engineer I can place a smoke bomb, a napalm bomb, a poison grenade and the healing turret and can blast finish into them three times using the shield, supply crate and rocket boots for 9 stacks of might, stealth, triple aoe poison and healing.

We already have ridiculous combo options. It just takes the right build and some execution effort, but the same is true for the elementalist. Also note that the vigor is part of the phoenix skill and not a blast finisher. The finisher only gives you the 6 stacks of might for a short time, which isn’t a huge deal.

In return, the grenades do a lot of damage, can be traited to 1500 (!) range, apply conditions and set up combo fields. Sorry, but additional finishers would just be too strong, especially given the extreme range.

They are not for balancing reason. While it would appear logical at first glance, they would actually be way too strong if they were blast finishers.
They already provide combo fields and have a low cooldown. If they could also finish, you would constantly blast finish your own zones.

Many blast finishers are fairly powerful and most professions only have a few of them, and typically on some considerable cooldown.

Even with the bomb kit, only the big old bomb serves as a (buggy) blast finisher for exactly that reason.

As I already said: yes, pistol/pistol gives you more damage. Shield gives you more cc.

You have to make a choice at some point. You can’t just pick the cherries and ask for a super set that does everything.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with the idea of the glue shot. It just needs a little tweaking to be easier to use.

Engineer shield is my favorite offhand weapon among all the classes.

Knockback, reflection, stun, daze and block plus a blast finisher. All with just two cleverly used skills. Yep. I like it.

Grenades are actually stronger with power as well. The toolbelt skills does lots of damage.

Grenades are the closest thing to burst damage we have. They are quite good. The only thing to miff about is, that they are just incredibly difficult to use against any moving target.

I found comboing with regenerating mist in general a little tricky. But yeah, supply drop finisher works.

It’s definitely way more useful than elixir x. And the floating turrets looks pretty funny

Hmm… that’s a bummer. Dunno if it has been changed? There is so much unclear about all the stuff and they’re constantly switching it around. I really wish we had some reliable information.

I think the rocket boots would be way more attractive as a targeted movement skill, similar to the jump shot. Or as a very short (~1 second) extreme speed boost with some flame trails.

Yep, always nice to add that. Instead of writing the level ratios though, it would be nice if you would just write the direct level 80 values, as build discussion is mostly relevant for sPvP and high level PvE anyway.

1) Backpack generator is bugged atm and does not work. Don’t use it.

2) Why are you using elixir h if you don’t have cf409, elixir cooldown reduction or elixir duration increase? Without any elixir traits, the medkit can replace both, elixir h and b easily.

3) Engineer is incredibly bad at bursting, but even if you want to build it just for the giggles, why no elixir u? Also: grenades.

% damage traits don’t work, that is correct. Also note that might increases condition damage as well.

Why a stun for pistol/pistol if you can have a stun plus knockback, two dazes, block and projectile reflection with a shield alone?

The glue shot has a huge area and immobilizes and cripples. And you also get the blowtorch, which gives you a nice damage boost. If you want cc, use a shield.

The sigils work together. You have two chances 60% each to get the proc. However, even if both chances succeed, you will only get a single proc.
So dual sigils increase the chance for the effect at diminishing returns.

Also: vulnerability should affect conditions.

And regarding point 4: condition duration reduction exists as a stat for mitigating condition damage. It is found on runes and food.

MrTeMK.3125:

I can click 1 target in a bunch of mobs and still ONLY hit the one I have targeted instead of it jumping around and hitting where my “aim” is.

This is actually not entirely correct. If you shoot at a mob of enemies, you will always only hit the front row. All projectiles can be blocked (this is actually important in pvp, as you can often save your teammates by simply blocking the path).

However, to get back on topic: yes, the combat mode implementation should definitely become an option for combat. While it is theoretically slightly less powerful, it is so much more convenient.

They should either allow the combat mode mod or provide their own implementation (as an option of course).

You don’t need an additional blast finisher on the bomb kit, because you got the BOB (its finisher is just bugged atm).

Also: I think only the primary mine serves as a blast finisher. The mine field shouldn’t do that.

Also, the second: shield. Shield has a great blast finisher. And lots of utility. I can only laugh at all the dual pistol engineers.

When not traited, both, elixir h and medkit a kinda meh.

It’s the traits that make them useful. As has been stated above, elixir h with cf409 is incredibly useful, especially when considering that it gives you a condition removal for your whole group.

Medkit is great when you go for swiftness and vigor on kit switch. Also the 25% toolbelt recharge trait allows you to use the heal two times in a fight, as the actual heal is a toolbelt skill.

It really just depends on your setup.

The explosion is weak. Try refinement with the elixir gun. Gives you a super elixir every time. That’s a lot more useful.

Lyuben.2613:

That’s fine and all but remember:

Engineer- 2s single target bleed, traited to cause 2 skills to pierce with grandmaster trait
Warrior- 6s single target bleed, traited to cause 5 skills to pierce, and 5 skills to have a 20% shorter cooldown with a master trait

Its simply out of line.

I’m not sure if you can just compare it like that. It’s not just about the number of skills, that are affected, but also by how much these skills are affected.
I’m not too confident on my warrior knowledge, so I won’t comment on these, but for another example:

explosive shot gets exponentially stronger through all the secondary explosions caused by piercing. The rifle auto attack has piercing by default, yet it still sucks, because it has no useful secondary effects.

Just comparing by number of affected skills doesn’t always work out.

Yes, there are workarounds. But it still is a bug and should (and probably will) be addressed.

I found a support focused bomb build quite useful for dungeons.

The healing bombs combined with the huge blind field give my group a considerably boost in staying power, turning many battles into face roll fests.

Also, with massive self heal from medkit and permanent swiftness + vigor, I found myself to be an almost unkillable kiting machine.

It plays a lot like Singed from League of Legends. You dare everyone to follow you, and if they do that, you just run and run and laugh your socks off, while widdling them down. And if they stop chasing, you turn around and punch them in the face. It’s hilarious AND effective!

Remember: is you trait the pierce, it will actually consider everyone hit by the pierce as a primary target, meaning it will apply the full bleed and cause additional explosions which will, again, cause even more aoe damage. And the piercing poison darts also get considerably stronger.

Sure, only two skills are affected by it, but they gain quite a lot.

Also don’t forget, that by using pistol, we are the only class besides the mesmer, that can reliably apply confusion. And we get free aoe blind.

I think the pistol does great consistent damage. It doesn’t have any burst, but then again, the engineer as a whole is missing some proper burst options.

You have a keep defense build with lots of long range and close range aoe. Of course, you will get wrecked by anyone build for dueling.

If you really want to go into some dueling, try pistol/shield, elixirs h,b,u and ft. Get the on crit burning from explosives, cdr and piercing for pistol and make sure to get cf409. For gear: just get a few carrion pieces.

This build gives you lots of pressure through conditions and consistent damage output (don’t forget to use the incendiary ammo).
The shield gives you way better cc and defense than the glue shot. It potentially gives you projectile reflection (srsly: learn to use this, it can totally turn the tide of battle), aoe knockback and a stun or multiple dazes on multiple targets. It’s actually awesome.
You also got another short cd knockback on the ft and two blinds from the pistol and the ft.
You also have a 2/3 chance for stealth through elixir u. If you get the mesmer wall, just walk through and if get the smoke screen, blast combo it with your shield. Also: smoke screen and guardian wall will help a lot against ranged. Against melee, blast combo the guardian wall for retaliation or kite through the smoke screen for blindness via projectile finishers. The mesmer wall allows you to stack some more confusion.

You also have five condition removals through cf409 and three elixirs, making you extremely difficult to cc through chill, cripple, immobilize. Just learn to time your removals properly.

And don’t forget that flame wall. You can kite melees through it, projectile finish burning on ranged and blast finish it for three stacks of might.
And you got elixir u for some small burst. It has a short cd and removes a condition. Use it liberally.

The only thing this build is missing is stability. But then again, getting stability with the engineer is pretty much a lost cause anyway.

Given that, I win the vast majority of 1v1 engagements and even a considerable number of 1v2s. I found it to be a very versatile build and competent in almost any matchup.

Of course, you will suck in WvW keep defense. But then again, there is no magic build that will do everything for you.

There are over half a dozen traits that simply do not work, elixirs are bugged ( they sometimes do not work), rifle animations are bugged (the animations take longer than the skills), turret ai is terrible, flamethrower and blunderbuss are bugged, elixir gun 2 is bugged, static shot is bugged, throw shield is bugged, auto-attacks with kits are bugged, sigils are bugged, several tooltips are just plain wrong and the balance is completely of everywhere.

It would probably be easier to just list what is working properly.

But I think the biggest gripe is indeed, that many of these problems persist for many months now and apart from a few nerfs, we have seen little change (the change to the mines has been the only real fix I have seen to anything engineer related).

For example, the tooltip of elixir b has been plain wrong for several months now. You would expect this to be an easy fix (just a bit of text) but nothing is happening. Also, with some of the bugs, we’ve been told they will be fixed soon for many months now.

I think many engineers are just starting to get a bit weary and disappointed for feeling somewhat abandoned. The general concept of the class sounds fun, but so far, it just doesn’t seem to deliver.

I am using a usb surround sound headset and having a really weird bug:

whenever I watch a vista, my center sound channel goes completely silent. Yes, whenever I watch a vista. I have no idea why.

Also, it remains silent until I attack something. Just using skills is not enough, I actually have to hit a target (a critter is enough) and the center sound returns.

Anyone else come across this really strange bug so far?

With the juggernaut change, I think the engineer is the only class without a reliable stability source right now.
This is driving me nuts, as I am getting chain cc’d like crazy right now.

Grenades only provide ground targeted projectiles, that are easy to dodge. Actually, you don’t even need to dodge on long range. Just moving a bit does the trick.

Guardian scepter 1 is a homing, targeted attack. The smite zone has no travel time, so you will get at least some hits in, before they dodge out of it + scepter 3 is targeted and instant and immobilizes. So: 3 -> smite -> spam 1. Lots of damage. No escape.

I have been using that combo to great effect in WvW.

Scepter. 1200 range.

Pistol 3 does great damage against two targets, when it bounces multiple times. It also does confusion, which tends to hurt quite a bit. Sure, 5 is utility, but then again, almost all the weapon sets amongst all the classes have at least 1 utility skill.

But I agree, the engineer is sorely lacking some proper single target (burst) damage.

Lyuben.2613:

Last update changed attunement swapping to trigger on swap sigils…

I was indeed not aware of this change. And our guild elementalist wasn’t either, lol.
I wish ANet would give us some proper update notes on stuff like that, because I could swear it hasn’t always been like that with the ele.

But before we get on swap effects, I would rather at least want to finally have at least the passive ones available with kits :/

Lyuben.2613:

Med kit has a better uptime of fury, and swiftness when compared to elixir B.

Hmm.. never thought about the medkit. Good point. Gotta try that out.

We do not “swap” weapons, but we do “switch” skill sets.

Yes, “on swap” sigils are useless for us. As they are to elementalist, who, guess what, “switch” atunements.

If you are so nitpicky about my choice of words, at least present a better alternative, please.

I agree with your point 3. It’s essentially that one trait that makes grenades go from “meh” to “over 9000!”.

As I said, there was an official dev response on the beta forums. I can’t show it to you as proof since the beta forums are obviously not accessible any more.

I’m just answering your question

I think dual pistols and traited grenades are both very dps oriented sets with little utility.

When leveling, I consider elixir b a must have, because it is the only reliable source of swiftness and makes you breeze much faster from event to event.

Also: make sure to give pistol/shield some proper playtesting. Many people dramatically underrate this combination.

I would rather see the current ones fixed first.

Not going to happen, because that would be too similar to the elementalist.

People feel like they “waste” a utility slot when taking a kit, when in reality, we get multiple utility skills for the price of a single slot. We are the only class with no cooldown on switching, which is a big advantage.

That said, I think the kits mechanics as such are fine. The random elixirs and weak turrets are much more problematic subjects.

Cyferwolf.1089:

I dunno why the random boon stufff irritates people so much. for the most part you know what you’re getting from elixir B, which is what I rely on for boons

Elixir B is pretty much alright. The others, however, are not. I don’t know how many dungeons you have done so far, but with many bosses, vigor and stability can become a pretty big deal. Many fights launch deadly projectiles at you with a frequency slightly higher then your endurance regeneration lets you dodge. Whether or not elixir h gives you vigor in that fight can decide about life or death.
Similarly, there are some trash pulls which will instantly knock down and kill you. Pulling these with stability on, means you can easily survive. Without, however, you won’t. And elixir s only has a 50% of stability. Got stealth? Too bad. You die. But got a dozen enemies after you and need to drop aggro? Look! Stability! Too bad, you die again.

And try throwing elixir u… projectile reflection wall against a melee? Yep, that can happen. And kill you.

Once you have some serious playtime clocked in and get a hang of all the boons and conditions and their effects, it becomes increasingly noticeable.