ppl want to dps with scrapper…
then ppl want to tank with holosmith…does not compute
(._o)
I think most of it is Scrapper can already be a good bruiser, people want to know if its viable damage. Holosmith has already shown to be good glass cannon, people want to know if it can be tanky enough for non glassy play.
In my experience in WvW at least Scrapper can do a lot of damage, just not with what’s provided as utilities. Hammer does great damage and combined with core class options the damage is really good.
Holosmith has excellent damage output but with the right gear and other traits you can be tanky enough to not be glass cannon like. Probably won’t cut it as a full tank though.
Engineer shield is also really good but needs the CD’s on par with the other 2 so untraited is 20/25 seconds.
Maybe there is hope a dev will read this thread and lower CD’s?
I guarantee they already know about it. I can see their line of thinking though on why they don’t want to reduce the CD’s. Warrior shield has a block and a stun and Guardian shield has a cone skill that grants aegis and protection and a bubble that blocks projectiles and can flipover and do a very minor heal.
Engineer shield on the other hand has a 3 second projectile reflect that flips to a 5 person knockback/blast finisher and a 2 second block that stuns anyone who hits it for 1 second (even if they are in an evade frame ability like thief sword/pistol flurry) and flips over to a throw-able daze that dazes multiple targets both ways.
Comparing engi shield to the other two it can do a lot more things and its more versatile so I could see if that’s their reasoning they don’t want to reduce the base cooldowns.
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Sadly, the shield is still pretty weak due to the long cooldowns. Scrapper with hammer is much more defensive overall.
The devs seem to have something against the shield in this game. It’s a mediocre weapon with niche usefulness for pretty much every class that can use it.
At least in WvW shield is pretty meta for both warrior and guardian. Axe/Shield and GS is the main warrior combo and Mace/Shield guardian is WvW zerg meta, both shields are pretty good.
Engineer shield is also really good but needs the CD’s on par with the other 2 so untraited is 20/25 seconds.
You’re traited for power wrench btw.
Even with tank stats the Holosmith will move from a glass cannon a little bit up the spectrum to a balanced fighter or bruiser. There is no tank.
Also the stab and barrier on corona burst is way more survivable than super speed. Alchemy way more survivable than tools.. Idk what you’re trying to do really
Gotta get that superspeed to be the ultimate dolyak escort in WvW though.
This is the build I’ve adapted for Holosmith from the one I’ve been currently running with Scrapper. Like to see what you think about it. Its meant for WvW play.
(edited by Arimas.3492)
Its been a fairly common issue in WvW where skills that pull a target to you are making the target get stuck in terrain or walls. Just a bit ago before writing this I got pulled into the well at North Camp in Alpine BL by a cabalist and got stuck in the darn thing.
I’ve even seen in zerg fights people will target the commanders and attempt to force them into terrain and keep them out of the fight because they are stuck.
Do they know about this and have they said anything?
Engi has been my main for a long time. Originally I got into the class because it has a lot of diverse skills that all felt different from each other whereas other classes all fit a theme.
Nowadays I still love engi and its still my main but I mostly just like the skills and play style. There are some good builds I have that are effective and it actually makes me a bit happy when I’m running in WvW groups and people admire how engi can fill multiple roles at the same time (say power scrapper but running Elixir Gun for group cleanse) since a lot of WvW players look down upon medium armored classes.
I do hope they revisit more skills and traits the same way they did explosives. Firearms needs a look as well as some inventions traits. I’d like to see inventions have a more defined group support role. Also rifle and mortar kit rework would be nice.
I think they should just add weapon swapping, nothing special. With Elementalist their mechanic is switching between elements giving them permanent access to 20 skills no matter what. Engineer can choose to run kits or not run them at all, kits are not the mechanic, so engi can choose to only have access to 10 skills (toolbelt are basically mini skills).
The real solution is the zergs need more tactics warriors with warhorn and shouts. It’s pretty dank.
TBH as fun as rifle can be sometimes, we now have 2 options for close range power builds with both elite specs so I think reworking rifle to be an actual ranged weapon wouldn’t be a bad idea. Plus the fact that of anyone who doesn’t own either expack they still have the options for kits to be close range power in the event of rifle becoming ranged.
Either that or rework mortar kit to substitute being a ranged power weapon that is actually effective and could be used reliably as a power ranged weapon.
I do just fine in WvW with conditions removal even without running Alchemy. Just slot Elixir C and you’ll be alright. As for other forms though sigil of cleansing helps a lot too for those classes that put on a lot of a singular condition like torment rev or confusion Mesmer.
Holosmith heal has good cleanse on the toolbelt but healing turret it still better, which also cleanses 2.
For my build that I’ll be adapting to Holosmith I’m just getting a bit extra cleanse now which is nice.
The only time I really use core engi for WvW nowadays is for condition builds with p/p or if I’m messing around on an SD build. Other than that I always use Scrapper with hammer for my builds. Rifle is a good damaging weapon but hammer has so much defense and utility and can still bring great damage its hard to not choose it.
Maybe with Holosmith I’ll use rifle more since you have the forge mode to supplement it as well.
For me Rifle doesn’t have good enough autos to use it as a main weapon. I actually have a build that is okay that uses rifle for the burst in 3/4/5 and tool kit for its utility and auto attacks when there’s nothing else to cast.
Guild halls are pretty sweet but for small guilds they are very hard to level up. Any chance there will be smaller guild halls that cost less materials in the future? Or maybe make material cost scale with guild size? For a <10 person guild that’s WvW focused its a daunting task to level these halls.
Sucks that we don’t have a linked server so we will probably stay T3 for a while, maybe we’ll hit T2 a couple times. Though FA is still considered full in population last I checked so its possible the people playing last link filled the gaps more for us than native FA players which is why there’s a shift in how many people are on.
Unless a guard is throwin’ spears we need to save Paragon! Firebrand is a good name but Dragonhunter was a bit underwhelming.
This is definitely interesting, not sure if I’m down with signets though as they are a very boring and passive type of skill and most signets in the game are only used for 1 slot and to keep the passive. If anything based on your descriptions for the toolbelts and the class I think Physical skills would be a better fit. Also that elite passive is EXTREMELY OP. if they were to add something like that the highest I could see them give is +50 to all stats.
Dual skills would be a cool addition and I like the flair of the class but I think the next spec should be more focused on the support and healing rather than tank seeing as Scrapper already is a tanky bruiser spec.
Though your imagination is definitely really good and I appreciate the design.
Edit: Also based on Holosmith if we are to get any new mechanic in the form of a F skill we are most likely losing the F5 elite toolbelt as well.
The gyro should have never been a pet/ minion. They should have been buffs the tiny gyro around the scrapper gave you, instead they just turned out to be a mindless minions you summon.
Agreed, not sure why they did an AI spec when everyone already knew one of GW2’s major faults is AI and how bad it is on every class that has it, and now engineer has 2 sets of it.
They should have scrapped the idea early on (pun intended) and made it ANYTHING other than AI. There are no good builds in GW2 that use AI skills at all with exception of maybe 1 skill in the set (like Bulwark, but in reality its only for the toolbelt).
I’m surprised how little they’ve done to gyros in 2 years considering they are even worse than core class utilities in every way, shape and form. I’m just glad they didn’t make Holosmith utilities useless as well.
Makes me especially sad the gyros suck considering how they nerf the core class to make the elite specs seem better.
So its been 2 years since Scrapper came out and Gyros have been in game but half of them are still rarely used: Purge, Shredder and Blast Gyro.
This is coming from a mostly WvW and PvP perspective but my suggestions would help PvE too no doubt. The effects of these gyros and their toolbelts are lackluster and for some of them the toolbelts are also the reason they are not good. They also suffer the same fates of turrets in that they can take ALL damage 100% and have low health so they die extremely quickly. So to start:
- Purge Gyro – As it is it’s a mediocre cleanse at best. The sheer amount of conditions present in WvW and PvP though overpower the gyro and considering they follow you any AoE pressure will also kill them before they can even get a second cleanse on you. so the fix should be to be remove 3 conditions every 2 seconds (up from 2 every 3) and the Toolbelt should be an AoE cleanse that cleanses 2 around you and the gyro if its up. The current poison field is useless.
- Shredder Gyro – They have buffed the damage significantly but the main issue was always its easy to avoid (even in PvE) its immobile and the radius is small (180). I’d like to see this become an effect around the player (not following like other gyros but an actual effect, sort of like the Holosmith Laser Disk). The Toolbelt is alright for the daze but I’d like to see it daze on every pulse in WvW and PvP for better area control. Also it would be nice to be able to cast this from 1200 range.
- Blast Gyro Tag – This is probably the most gimmicky of the gyros, the damage appears huge but in reality Engi has a lot of high damage abilities that don’t waste a utility slot just for 1 ability that will miss 90% of the time. I’d like to see this gyro become a sticky bomb of sorts. So you will still have to throw a tag to mark the target but if successful you will mark them with a debuff that will explode and launch foes the same way it does now, similar to Timed Charge underwater skill.
As for Gyros themselves I’d like to see them either get greatly increased health and toughness or a trait change to make them take % less damage or heal over time. We are engineers after all we’re supposed to be smart with building stuff.
What do you all think?
I just recently came back to the game, so I’ve been out of it for a while, but it seems to me that Mortar Kit and Grenade Kit really feel like the same kit… Yeah, one is range 900, the other is 1500, but they both have all AOE targeted abilities with a basic damage skill, a chill, a poison, and a blind field skill. But the mortar kit, for whatever reason, takes up the elite slot. Just seems kind of strange to me, but what do I know!
That’s because they literally are the same. 4/5 of the skills on both mortar and nades deliver the EXACT same thing: straight damage, blind, poison, chill. The only difference is the range and bleed on nades and water field on mortar. Mortar needs complete removal of every field except water and make 3 new power skills and the fields need to be added to grenades.
I’m gunna throw my 2 cents about the kits argument and ele comparison.
Engis have the option to run kits that all have some type of niche use or are effective at one area whereas weapons aren’t built to have a niche use, they are more build defining.
Eles don’t have weapon swap because their mechanic is swapping between elements, so no matter what they will always have 20 weapon abilities.
The only reason I don’t see how weapon swap wouldn’t work on engineer is because the core class does not have a utility weapon that could fill the gap. Rifle is power, pistols are Condi and shield is offhand for defense. With elite specs it could work but then that could be considered a direct upgrade to run elite specs because then only through elite specs could you get 2 power options (hammer and rifle or sword and rifle) for example.
I really enjoyed all of the animations. The only issue I had was some of them felt clunky to use, namely forge 5 and sword 3. The Asura always get the coolest ones though because they do flips and stuff and my human just has no pizzaz.
As for the clunkiness forge 5 you cannot use while running as it’s a skill that roots you. So if you activate it while you are running it will take extra time to go off because it stops your character and feels extra slow.
Sword 3 has a long pre and after cast, those should just be removed. Nothing in game should have any pre or after cast when skills already have cast times scaling with how powerful the ability is.
I posted this in another thread but basically I always thought mortar should have been the power option and grenades the condi option.
Put the fields on grenade kit except water and make mortar full power save the 5 skill being a water field, take the old concussion barrage and put that on the kit as well and make up a couple new power based skills for the mortar, like a pulsing damage field as said above. Increase the velocity of the projectiles by 50% because hitting anything beyond 1000 range is near impossible unless the thing isn’t moving.
TBH If the game engine/servers could support it I think having one giant map like ESO would be a lot better than 4 different maps that don’t really play into each other.
Some benefits would be:
*More space to fight on and considerable distance between objectives so it feels like a big PvP map
*It would make roaming/havok groups more viable and fun as you could totally avoid any large groups and with one big map have a greater impact on the game.
*Could open up more options for siege equipment (especially mobile ones like golems).
Those are just a few but there’s probably more.
Some things would need to change though, like having that camp idea from your post (I think ESO also has a similar thing) so you could respawn nearby and not run forever. Also make it easier to travel between server owned objectives. And some similar things.
I think the only reason why this doesn’t happen and why there are multiple maps in the first place is because the design of the game doesn’t allow so many players on one map, so splitting the maps means you can get more people, so that would have to change in order to support this idea. Also as most people can see now when you get large blob battles the game lags a lot, lots of skill effects and such slow it down.
Sadly this idea is also such a huge rework to the game it might not even be possible. Or if it was it would take a huge investment which would better (debatable) be spent elsewhere. Who knows maybe the “WvW overhaul” they talked about back in the day WAS this idea but they totally scrapped it because they realized it’s not possible because of these issues.
Overall the only thing I think that would be a good change is to not allow catapults and trebuchets to be built near enemy controlled objectives so you don’t get the cheese throw a cata right on the wall experiences. The current maps are small enough that running back isn’t a huge issue and the respawn is also a factor in defending.
heck im still waiting for the boon pylon we were gonna get with the med kit rework
That med kit rework they showed off was infinitely better than what we got in the end lol
That is the running feel with Engineer. How things are pitched are always better than how it finally ends up implemented.
I still miss old Grenadier kit. Sacrficed to make the Mortar Kit not look to bad, which it still did and then they even nerfed it.
I agree, Grenade kit should have stayed the same and have added fields to that. Mortar kit should have become a total power option with maybe keeping the water and light fields, 2 and 3 abilities should have been some other type of power long range option like a mortar volley or something.
TBH if this trait stays for Renegades and doesn’t get its piercing removed or the trait nerfed somehow, this is very hypocritical and unfair for Engineer pistol. They do they exact same thing yet the Engineer’s was too powerful (which isn’t even an excuse considering they have the same thing for Renegade now).
Sadly I bet we’ll never get out piercing trait back let alone baseline like they said it would become. You’d think they would just come out and say that “No we’ll never add this back, here’s why…” but they would just pretend they can’t hear us.
Don’t get me wrong I think the game is in a good place but some old stuff like this always comes back to bite them, yet they won’t remedy it.
Yeah I’ve noticed this too when playing on my Holosmith, I know the stealth attack is unblockable but there are times when I reflected the Death’s Judgement shot and it just disappears when I reflect it with magnetic bubble for example. Which sucks because almost all the DE’s are running zerker and it would probably kill them if reflected lol.
tigirius.9014:
Acidic Elixirs Thrown elixirs cause damage when they land and remove a boon.
kitten I forgot they removed that. Wish they would bring that back!
you already have so many utilities…like what are you even talking about…i used to main war, i so wished to simply swap a utility and cover everyone from boss projectiles and carry the win since pugs cant dodge back in the 2013 fractal days
like you already have a tons of team support utility options…all you have to do is a simple swap of utilities you still maintain the high damage upgrade holo forge skills…
I am talking about what it adds into what we have already, not the entirety of the Elite Spec build combination with Core Enigneer Trait and Skills.
Design wise the focus of Holosmith is a lot on the “Selfish DPS” design for this elite spec. Players can use Core Engineer traits and skills to apply Utility into the Holosmith but if we look at the design of Holosmith Skills and Trait tree we can see it is focused on the Holosmith itself over providing any Utility and Support to a party or other players.
However, this is intentional as this is a Elite Spec tree that focus on DPS and Self Survival itself over Party Utility and Support.
It fits into the Job role Trinity being Tank (Scrapper), DPS (Holosmith), and Healer/Support.
If this is what Anet is going for design wise for the release of Engineer Elite Spec we may see a more Healer/Support focus Elite Spec as the 3rd Engineer Elite Spec that may be designed with a trait tree and skills focusing a lot more on providing Barrier orBuffs or whaever Anet deem fit for a Support theme Elite Spec.
If they would just buff medkit engineer could already have an amazing healing spec. I’ve made one with scrapper that is a good support while also still dealing damage. But it’s not the best at either just balanced.
Light arena should affect 10 targets. There. I said it.
I think it should affect 10 targets only if you’re above the heat level, that would make more sense.
TBH I didn’t have an issue seeing the heat gauge and your character also changes colors when you increase levels of heat so that’s a really good indicator.
I agree with radiant arc pre and after cast they are terrible. Prime Light Beam I would rather stay targeted especially for the fact that it can still track targets in stealth if you start casting beforehand. And the drawbacks are fine considering you can hit like 10k crits, it’s the same as kill shot basically.
Photon blitz I agree should be 900 , 600 is very awkward of a range for an unload ability.
I think kits kicking you out of forge is great as it saves you an extra click, especially if you want to use one of the skills right off the bat that extra time spent dropping forge and going into kit could be an the opportunity is gone from what you wanted to do.
I think the biggest disappointment from the new Elite specs is that soulbeast has a trait to make protection reduce condition damage, which I always thought should have been baseline for protection especially with the rise of Condi meta.
I think engineer has enough condition cleanse as it is though, Elixir C is really good.
Engineer in general lacks stability, I think the original idea was to not give lots of stability to the class with tons of CC but idea has changed since then I suppose.
I’d like to see a few more skills across base class to gain stab as well.
Well none of the abilities besides forge generate heat but I’d like to at least see the other weapons benefit from heat like the sword does.
Yeah I’d like to see a buff for the Photon Wall skill too. 3 seconds of block and reflect only if you’re above 50 heat on a 35 second CD is terrible, even with the attack moves so slow the damage isn’t worth it.
I agree with how it feels clunky in some areas. Sword 3 feels off, like it has a before and after cast on it. Same with Forge #5 the Shockwave, you can’t move while casting it and if you are moving and cast it it takes extra time to go off it seems.
As for the skills they are all pretty decent. I’d like to see a lower CD on cauterize and flash spark and maybe make flash spark reveal because right now it’s the worst skill ever.
Overall a good dps class and I bet it will do well in PvE but scrapper brings too much utility over Holosmith in WvW. The function gyro although seemingly lackluster has help me win so many fights I otherwise wouldn’t have because I get a stomp off, even when I’m downed sometimes.
I was a little disappointed I can’t make a viable support build for WvW out of Holosmith because all of the traits are all about the forge and the forge has no group utility at all. Taking Holo over anything else will really hinder any support you provide and you lose the Elite toolbelt too.
Other than that I think the damage and mechanic is fun for dps builds. I roam a lot too so Holosmith will be a fun addition.
IMHO the shield skills are fine as they are and are probably the best shield skills in the game. What other shield has a 3 second reflect/knockback+blast finisher and a 2 second STUN block (that can stun through evade attacks) and a throw that deals damage and dazes both ways, and all of that is without traits.
The only thing shield could use would be a CD reduction to 20/24 seconds on 4/5 respectively and maybe a buff to the shield trait as its fairly lackluster.
Even though kits are a staple for Engineer I’ve never felt more like an Engineer than using Gadgeteer with Rocketboots in WvW this past day.
Rocket Boots with Gadgeteer. Been outrunning some thieves even in WvW. with 2 charges thats 2400 range with 2 seconds of superspeed on the end.
I’ve also been using this with a condition build I’m testing. One thing that seems bugged (or intended but not clear) is AED’s interaction with AMR.
Been using it in WvW all night and even though I activate AED well above 25% health threshold of AMR when I go below the 25% it does not activate AMR trait and come off CD. Basically taking AMR with AED is like not having a trait at all. Several hours worth of fights and not once did it reset the CD or work as it should.
So far the change was in the right direction but IMO they will never be viable unless they are instant cast. 3/4s is way too long for an already telegraphed attack and it forces you to stop attacking to cast a spell that might miss.
Also yeah they need to make them able to be cast anywhere, lots of terrain is making them miss because it follows the same rules as shadowstepping.
(edited by Arimas.3492)
Bump again! bumpy bumpy bump
Posted a Poll in the main post!
Can I bump my own thread? Need more visibility!
According to this post https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Skirmish-Reward-Chest-changes/first#post6679871 the no ticket cap is not intended.
Comment on this thread to tell them to leave it so you can gain repeat tickets after hitting diamond! NO MORE TIME GATES!
Strawpoll! https://strawpoll.com/g98bwazy
(edited by Arimas.3492)
Please don’t change it. WvW doesn’t need a ticket cap there are enough time gates as is.
I think with the Holosmith coming that will make Engineer have 2 melee power options between the elite specs so rifle should be changed to an actual ranged weapon and not a melee range weapon.
The med kit 1 skill is actually decent and can heal near 750 health per second. The 2 through 5 skills need changing and they should be AoE skills around the engi.
What perfect group are you playing with that has all buffs on every person for it to heal 750hps on the #1 skill?
Do agree with you on the 2-5 skills though. No denying that they’d be infinitely better as such.
I mostly run it in WvW groups from 10-30 people because it’s better than any other option IMO. The big thing is getting your outgoing healing power percentage up it helps the small heals a lot. I’ve hit near 1000 health per second under the right conditions.
If I’m supporting in smaller groups the heal turret is still the best as always.
Wiki says it is a 30 second cooldown, 25.5 if you take Tools. (Flash Spark)
And hey, on the “bright” side, it gives you a 4 second Light Aura too when above 50 heat!
What you should be worried about is Cauterize! It’s one of two condition clears the Holosmith offers, and it sets us on fire!
Maybe 08.08 balance patch will give core engi more condi clears than elixirs. Remove condition after using toolbelt skill? Give Gadgets 2-3 charges and add condi cleanse fact per use after traiting Gadgeteer? Pretty, pretty please.
They are changing light aura to be -10% condition damage which makes it slightly better than just a blind but still meh.
I like the idea of charges on gadgets and the toolbelt Condi clear as well. Throw Mine having charges would be a good synergy with the trait that heals when you combo a blast finisher and some others.
The med kit 1 skill is actually decent and can heal near 750 health per second. The 2 through 5 skills need changing and they should be AoE skills around the engi.