Guild Wars 2

I don’t disagree that Ventari is cumbersome, but I definitely do not like the idea of making the two most meta stances (Glint/Shiro) even more meta by giving them condition removal.

Heavy condition pressure is an issue with that build because that is that build’s only significant weakness. With the ability to clear their only weakness, there no longer is a reason to ever use any other stance.

Besides, even in that build you can deal with conditions via Runes of Leadership and the Staff 4, or in a pinch, Glint’s heal.

I don’t get the poo poo party on the staff 2.

It has AoE, it provides weakness, and if you hit someone using a skill, it hits like a truck and dazes. All of this for 5 energy on a five second cooldown.

Why the hate? It’s a great skill, especially in PvP.

Listen to MagicFace, he has wisdom.

The staff is a staple for many PvP builds and is an excellent tool to staying alive in both PvP and PvE. It provides utility and when combined with sword/shield or mace/shield, will allow you to survive many encounters other classes cannot.

Like the man said, damage isn’t everything. You have to be alive to do damage and the staff excels at keeping you alive.

Ashadow.6874:

You want Scarlet to just “up and die” and be done with. But you probably don’t even know her story.

I know her story. Her story sucks. Thereby she sucks and every plot line that is associated with her sucks.

I figure that’s the most blunt way to frame that response.

If you think Scarlet is a great character and are interested in finding out what happens to her and her story, then more power to you. However, none of that changes the fact that she breaks many literary character creation sins, which put her firmly in the Villain Sue category. It is interesting that you point out which few issues somewhat soften such a label while ignoring the vast majority of her character that points squarely towards it.

Scarlet is a Villain Sue. I don’t really think there’s any arguing that. If you enjoy that sort of thing, good for you. For most people, it’s just annoying and makes people hate the character and everything having to do with them, which unfortunately is much of the new PvE content these days.

I didn’t play through all the Living Story as I played the game from release to just past Christmas then stopped for about seven months and came back. I suppose the most jarring thing about coming back after so long a time was the utter lack of change in GW2 as a whole. The game hadn’t changed much since December in any really noticable way, beyond far more people having numerous level 80s and full exotics.

With that said, I only really experienced the LS from Dragonbash onward. Therefore, with that in mind, here’s my best and worst:

Best

- Queen’s Jubilee

The overall event was… kind of poor. Everyone saw the disruption to the event coming beyond a mile away. The characters were uninteresting and the mysterious party crasher was – insert sterotypical super villain here – material. Yet, the actual 1v1 arena fights were really great and enjoyable. Despite the farm first floor event and the story aspects, this was the best LS I’ve experienced so far. Which… when it comes to story and characters, that’s kind of a sad thing to say. Anyway, the 1v1 fights were great. Loved them and didn’t stop until I got my mini-Liadri.

- Bazaar of the Four Winds

While the entire concept of ‘people of the sky’ is utter non-sense from any practical point of view, it was at least… different from the rest of the content I’ve experienced. I will admit, the mini-games were pretty enjoyable, and while there wasn’t a lot to do beyond achievo grinding, at least the zone was interesting and the movement abilities were pretty fun.

Worst

- Everything else.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the Living Story is not only does the story not make sense, but what story that does make sense, is just really poorly done. I’ve felt zero inclination to dig deeper into the lore of the Living Story, because it doesn’t seem like any deeper lore exists. And even if it does, I don’t care about the relationship between Bram and Rox or Scarlet’s derangement, because all those characters are bland sterotypes at best and Mary Sues at worst.

The biggest disappointment with the Living Story has been just how unoriginal and uninteresting the story has been thus far. It seems to me that all the content from Karka onward has been disjointed products of ’wouldn’t it be cool if’ thrown together and then explained – however loosely – by some maniacal super villianess that has no place in the existing setting of GW2.

I know this is a negative post, but it is also an honest one. I just don’t see much good about the Living Story. I especially don’t see much good for the future of the Living Story if they continue to expand and push Scarlet Briar as some dire threat to Tyria; because she isn’t. She is just a joke of a character that ticks off all the boxes of a traditional Villain Sue and that’s not a good thing to anchor the Living Story on.

If you’re not partial to the Grenade Kit and its less than user friendly ways, an alternative to GK in bleed stacking is the Elixir Gun + Condition duration runes/food/weapons. With 40+ Condition duration you can stack around 12-14+ stacks of bleeding plus perma weakness with just the auto attack on the Elixir Gun. Now that’s not to say you should just auto attack with the Elixir Gun, but it is a nice auto (much better than the pistol auto) to use while your rotational skills are on cool down.

So say something of a rotation on the order of:

Poison Darts —> Blowtorch --> Static Shot —> Prybar --> Concussion Bomb —> Fire Bomb --> Acid Bomb —> Elixir F --> Fumigate —> Elixir Gun auto for 5 seconds or so, repeat rotation.

With Rabid I’d agree with Sylentir on the Sigil of Earth as you’ll want to proc more bleeds on crits and also maintain burning with Incendiary Ammo. But the GK isn’t necessary to have good condition damage output and using the above rotation and kit combination (Elixir Gun, Bomb Kit, Tool Kit, just to be clear) will give you a lot of utility while maintaining all the important conditions and giving you the option to maintaining a healthy stack of bleeding with the added benefit of perma weakness for as long as you want/need it as the situation demands.

Oops. Missed that. Thanks for the correction.

I don’t see how we’re lacking in survivability enough to justify this kind of buff. And I don’t see it as very minor, considering the amount of health we can already obtain with Carrion/Dire and other combinations while still maintaining respectable or even awesome toughness.

The only way this argument has merit is to ask the question:

Is our class too fragile for its role?

Does anyone honestly think the answer to that question is yes?

Also, I think saying the Engineer is lacking in escapes is over simplifying the issue by taking each skill in a vacuum. Are you honestly saying that Rocket Boots + Elixir S (or Toss Elixir S + Rocket Boots, if the sitaution demands… or you get lucky with stealth) isn’t amazing? This is an especially great escape combo with the upcoming change to Toss Elixir S.

Now throw in Gear Shield, Box of Nails, Slick Shoes (which was mentioned, but again, in a vacuum), Jump Shot, Glue Shot, and Acid Bomb to name a few. That’s not to mention our myriad of knockbacks, blowbacks, and launch skills that can be combined with any number of escapes to make our class one of the most trolly next to Thieves.

In short, this change isn’t necessary. We have issues as a class, but durability and escapes aren’t at the top of the list.

Dirame.8521:

Not many people will get the Engie at first glance. I was one of those people who didn’t “get” the engie and it seems you are too. One day, if you keep playing it, you will understand how large the possibilities are with the Engie and how they can sometimes even be more effective at support than even the Guardian.

That. All of that. Read it again if you missed it, as that is the most concise way to answer the OP.

There’s issues with the Engineer, but, coming from someone who has played all the classes to level 80 save Thief (ugh), there are issues with every class. Some more than others obviously. We have our share of problems, turrets being a big sticking point, but I wouldn’t go so far as say we’re underpowered.

Engineers are just a high skill cap class that requires a lot more work to have the same results that other classes achieve with a few button presses. If you stick with it and start to think outside of the class box, you’ll begin to understand the possibilities.

I’ve mained Ele for a long time and now have mained Engie for longer than Ele. I give the complexity award to Engie over Ele. There’s just far more utility you need to know as Engineer than Elementalist and far more build diversity to keep in mind. Also, I seem to have to switch utilities (and even traits, sometimes) between fights far more often as Engineer than I ever did (or do) as Ele, which means knowing far more about the class is mandatory, as you need to know what you need ahead of the time you need it.

So no, Engineers are far from a button mashing class. They’re actually the furthest away from it and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t play this class as a main and only makes an Engineer for grenading in WvWvW and then claims they’ve mastered the class.

Elites aren’t omni-skills, they shouldn’t work perfectly for every build. That’s why we get several of them (racials included). The problem isn’t Elixir X, as it is a complete – yet conceptually uninspired – elite skill that functions just fine and is useful even for builds that aren’t built around it.

Elixir X is mostly about disruption, as it has already been said, therefore it can only work as a damage booster if you’re a power build. Yet even if you’re condition/healing/support based, it still works fine for pulsing blinds and other forms of CC, which is a quality support tool in PvP/WvWvW.

I honestly don’t see any case being made for Elixir X needing to be improved, only that some people don’t like how it functions, therefore want it changed on that basis alone.

As has already been said, if you want a skill to improve that truly needs help, look at Mortar. That’s an elite that is almost the opposite of Elixir X. It is conceptually interesting but performs abysmally.

So you want the upcoming reworked Elixir B… as an elite that merely copies Rampage as One? Okay…

To everyone that hates Elixir X, what was it specifically that you’ve used it for has it not done that you expected it to do? Seems like most of the complaints are just expecting Elixir X to be something it’s not and probably never will be.

As far as I know, Runes of Lyssa will give you the boons regardless whether or not you have conditions on you. It doesn’t transmute conditions into boons, it removes conditions and adds the boons.

As for changing Elixir X. I agree with several others, it is a fine – if somewhat uninspired – elite skill. You get as much mileage out of it as you put into it. Its least useful in PvE, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless there either. Its pretty good for WvW and great for PvP. Which is more than can be said for the Mortar, which is crap in all three. That’s the bigger issue when it comes to our elite skills.

Is this ‘lag landing’ the bug where you get mysteriously immobilized after landing on Rocket Boots use?

I had that bug recently and it was during a PvP battle. I was mysteriously immobilized (no, I wasn’t actually immobilized via a debuff) until Rocket Boots came up again where I finally was able to move. Needless to say… the end result of the PvP battle was rather catastrophic.

I’ve become a bit gun shy of Rocket Boots since then.

I don’t mean to get into the middle of this discussion, but I would like to point out that Mine Field does indeed remove boons:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mine_Field

Having said that, I am interested in making an Apothecary-based bunker build for WvW and was curious about others experiences with the setup. Do you guys favor full Apothecary’s or mix it with Rabid, Carrion, or even Rampagers?

I’m also concerned about the rather lackluster healing power ratios on Elixir-Infused Bombs when it comes to Apothecary’s. It seems questionable as to whether it is worth the price of admission for such modest gains. There again, the heal stacking from the auto attack could add up. Thus my interest in others’ empirical evidence with using Apothecary’s.

I appreciate the feedback. This build was more of a sample build that I’m currently using while messing around with Celestial gear which is hybrid by its very nature. Here’s a bit explaining on my reasoning to some of the points brought up:

First off, kits grant flexibility and spread your abilities out giving you tools (no pun intended) you need when you need them. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone argue against using kits… but there’s a first time for everything and I won’t go any further than that in response to that topic.

As for the points brought up:

Forceful Explosions is unnecessary for this build as I don’t spend enough time in Bomb Kit for it to make a huge difference. Bomb Kit – which I also sub with Flamethrower or Elixir S, depending on the situation – is primarily for Fire Bomb burning + fire combo field (set off by Big ‘Ol Bomb or Acid Bomb) and Confusion Bomb to add Confusion stacks with Prybar and Runes of Perplexity procs/interrupts. Smoke Bomb and Glue Bomb are also useful sometimes too for Stealth/blinds or pinch immobilize/cripple. So in general, I don’t stay in Bomb Kit much.

Actually, that’s somewhat the case with all the kits. It’s like an Elementalist, I switch between kits chaining skills together as needed. So I don’t actually stay in one kit for an extended amount of time but dance between them when my primarily skills are on cooldown.

In response to Conan:

Thanks for the tips, my thoughts are as follows to your points:

- Infused Precision is a skill I chanced upon when trying to beat Liadri in the gauntlet. I was looking to stack movement speed in combat. I use Power Shoes in some of my other builds and I love the mobility it provides during combat (in PvP, that is). Not being able to work it into this build means I wanted something to replace it. It’s true Speedy Kits gives perma-swiftness, but without a lot of boon duration, it doesn’t work by itself as a combat mobility replacement. As such, given my 49% chance to crit, I figured Infused Precision is a nice replacement for Power Shoes and it has proven useful in PvP as I routinely stack up nice amounts of swiftness in combat. Call it a personal preference, I like moving faster than others in combat, gives me more options.

- You may have a point here. I’ve been on the fence with Modified Ammo and you have sound reasoning with saying Rifle Mod is a better choice. At least it is consistent in its damage bonus. I’ll take this suggestion to heart.

- I disagree. I think Power Wrench is great for PvP/WvW. PvE? You’re right, not so much. The great thing about Power Wrench is the cripple in a pinch that helps keep people in Prybar/Confusion Bomb range long enough to Immobilize them with Netshot for a nice Fire Bomb/Acid Bomb burst followed by a Jump Shot back on their face for a Blunderbuss. Ideal situations notwithstanding, it has proven its worth by allowing me to keep people severely crippled between Wrench Toss and Sitting Duck.

- See my above response on Forceful Explosions.

- Hair Trigger is great for rifle builds, I agree. Not so much this one. I juggle kits so often it seems rather unnecessary to have cooldown reduction on the rifle. By the time I complete a series of chain skills, my rifle skills have refreshed anyway.

- Survivability is probably one of the biggest issues with my test build when compared to say a Pistol Condition build. The armor is just shy of 2500, which isn’t bad. But it lacked traits that help defend you against Thief ganks. I used to run with Cloaking Device and that proved amazing for surviving ganks. But using that on this build felt a bit out of place. So while its not especially tanky, it isn’t exactly squishy either. Protection Injector is pretty nice and more reliable damage mitigator than Cloaking Device, so again you may have a point and I’ll keep that in mind if I need more tankiness.

Again, thanks to everyone for the responses. I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has any ‘bad’ hybrid builds as I think they have potential to bridge the gap between the current engineer meta builds (condition & SD).

After collecting the typical condition meta full set gear and then direct damage gear, I finally charged enough stupid quartz to get a full set of Celestial gear to on top of everything else. It was at this point I started wondering about the viability of hybrid rifle builds.

The rifle, as we all know, is more about control than damage and generally speaking if you want to go condition damage you go pistol/shield or pistol/pistol. If you want direct damage, you go rifle with Static Discharge. But I like to mix things up because I’m weird and like trying out new things. So here’s my current build that mixes up direct damage burst with supplemental condition damage, with confusion stacking thrown in because it’s stupidly good at the moment.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VW;4cPku0c-3UFx0;9;49T-9J4;012A;10;057-T;2R;0bUytbUytH0kr0;2N_-Vq5rar5sas5t59eWPk-BV8V-X5P-0d

Some traits can be exchanged for the situation, but in general that’s the build I use for WvW for the perma-swiftness/vigor amazingness. I also use Elixir S when necessary for stomps and kitten ing around enemy zergs. I also sub Bomb Kit for FT on occasion when I need more CC/consistent burning. Really, it’s pretty flexible when it comes to utilities, although I am loathed to ever go without Tool Kit on my bar.

This is the build I’m using right now thrown together with items I already had from my condition and direct damage sets. I’ve been using it and variations on the build for dungeons, world PvE, WvW, and even a weird off-shoot for sPvP. It has worked reasonably well but I feel like perhaps I’m not getting the most out of the idea or perhaps the idea is flawed to begin with.

The feedback and discussion I’m hoping to garner is whether or not people think this build and hybrid builds in general can be made to be as useful as the staple Elixir, SD, and pistol-based condition builds. The great thing about the Celestial gear is you can pretty much try whacky stuff without spending a lot of money. So my next interest beside hybrid rifle builds are full condition proc rifle builds and direct damage pistol builds.

Any thoughts on more off the wall builds that stand a chance at being useful or critiques on my current test build are welcome.

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

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

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

Pretty simple question that I haven’t been able to have answered clearly enough for me by searching and asking people in-game:

How do you counter stealth?

Such a question obviously leans toward Thieves as they use it the most, but I sincerely do not understand how the stealth mechanic in this game works. So if someone or some people could explain how it works and what its counters are, I’d appreciate it.

I’ve started to encounter this exact problem myself and only started to notice it a few days, maybe a week, ago. Prior to that I never encountered any sort of slowdown in the game beyond large battles in WvWvW, which is normal. Now, I typically run the game at around 50-80fps depending on the area but when I use high particle abilities (mortar barrage is a good example) my fps just takes a nose dive down into the 20s or teens. Changing the graphics doesn’t seem to really effect the outcome any and prior to a week ago I don’t recall having this issue at all.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.40 GHz
4 GB Ram
AMD Raedon HD 5750 1 GB
Windows 7 64-bit

Video drivers changed nothing, I used drivers from a year ago and fully updated drivers, no difference and there hasn’t been any major changes to my computer in the week or so this has begun happening. Very puzzling, hopefully someone has a suggestion or explanation.

One with Air does seem broken at first, but if you switch attunements then switch back to air, I’ve noticed it working. I only use it mostly in WvW to get from point A to point B faster, I usually switch it out for PvE. Although, I do see the benefit of Zephr’s Boon, so I’ll try using that.

As for the rest, I realize my build is all over the place and my items aren’t anywhere near complete. But basically what I’m shooting for in terms of stat focus, at least in this build, is precision, condition damage, power. I do have side stats of vitality for durability and maybe that’s where I run afoul. In PvE, I don’t have any problems with surviving, and in WvW it’s so hard to tell if I die because of my lack of durability or because I just get mobbed (I suspect the latter, my server is getting wrecked in WvW atm).

I’ve tried the tanky dps build that seems so popular now in sPvP and that’s pretty nice, but I suspect it might get nerfed reletively soon, so I’m not sure if I should invest time, karma, and dungeon runs into something that might not be so great soon.

I suppose my problem in deciding is because I’m not entirely certain what build serves the Elementalist best in WvW while keeping them able to be effective in dungeons at the sametime. My current build, with its flaws, works, but I’m sure I could do better, I’m just not sure on what path to take.

Thanks for the help so far, by the way.

I’ve been reading up on various builds and discussions within this forum since I hit level 80 on my Elementalist and have been trying to decide on what route I want to take for WvW and PvE in terms of building and therefore equipment.

With that said, I’m hoping I can get some advice on my current build and perhaps suggestions on what works best for WvW and PvE. The reason for this is that I’m close to starting to build an exotic set and I obviously don’t want to pick something I may not use very long. As such, I’d appreciate any feedback or advice.

(Note, this is for PvE and WvW only, I run a different build for sPvP)

My current build is thus:

10 Fire – Burning Precision
25 Air – One With Air (I sometimes exchange this for Bolt to the Heart), Soothing Winds
10 Earth – Earth’s Embrace
15 Water- Cleansing Wave
10 Arcana – Elemental Attunement

The rare gear I’m currently using with this build is Rampagers for everything except boots and legs, which are Carrion. This is because I wanted some extra vitality for some more survivability. The runes on the armor are Lyssa.

The weapons I use are D/D Rampager’s on both with Bloodlust and Blood runes, while my staff is Cleric’s with a Water rune. The accessories and jewelry is a mix of vitality, precision, power, and critical damage increases.

Before someone says my build sucks or is all over the place, the thinking behind it, perhaps flawed, is a crit/condition build that takes advantage of always having decent conditions up while still having decent spike, some durability, and the ability to weapon switch roles for different aspects of PvE and WvW. It isn’t the best damage build, nor is it extremely tanky, but I am more or less looking for a build that can get the job done without focusing one extreme over the other, such as bunker builds or beserkers.

I’d appreciate any advice anyone has to give.