Guild Wars 2

Med kit and mortar kit are meh.

The other kits see play in differing areas of the game.

A lot of the problems would be solved with build tabs that store your builds(including gear) so it doesnt take up space in your bank.

You can easily have 2 or 3 different builds for one class. Got a condi build, how about a supportish build. And of course a power DPS build.

But given we dont have this, yes i would buy more bank tabs.

Sobin.5947:

Also, i seem to have an issue with keeping swiftness up. If i do hammer 5 + heal turret / eg 4, then all that stuff is on CD if i happen to see an enemy
thanks!

Most builds will run either tools for streamlined kits or inventions for mecha legs for mobility.

apharma.3741:

Condi mes and P offhand thieves have far too much of all of it and need toning down.

The trouble is these classes have no role outside of roaming. Are they over the top in this role? Sure, absolutely. But what else is there for them to do in WvW? One stray CoR and down goes the thief in any zerg situation. And the mesmers clones/phantasms will insta melt in a zerg fight to AoE. At least the mesmer i guess can play a supporty type role I guess.

The same argument could be made about zerging rather than roaming, do reapers need to be toned down in larger scale conflicts because they dictate/dominate?

As far as the zerg is concerned, bring whatever you like. The public pug blob tag isnt going to care that you are on your Turret Engi or a minion master necro.

Comp groups and 15man guilds though will always be this way. It’s about optimising classes/gearing and specs, therefore classes will miss out. You reach a point where there is no point bringing class y when you can just add more of class x.

Healing Kit is probably useful if you want to roleplay the GW2 version of ER in the Divinity Reach injured seraph guard hospice.

I dont think the meta has moved too much from that Soldiers/Marauder build. It just runs new armour stats like commanders rather than soldiers. And you will see Elixir C or Purge Gyro being slotted a lot more. Because there is so much condi out there in small scale/roaming WvW now.

But it still plays the same stack might bruisery style. And hinges on the synergy between Perfectly Weighted/Mass Momentum/Final Salvo. The might tick duration from Mass Momentum is decent once you are up around 60% boon duration. Then you just pick up some might stacking food or sigils.

Brutaly.6257:

Is there a single player in wvw that actually will run ministrel and why should you ever use ministrel on FB? It effectively renders F1 uselesss to.

For support, tempest Minstrels is pretty much meta for any comp GvG guild like [KEK] I mean in zergs you do whatever you want. Hell bring that Minion Master or Signet thief.

As for the Firebrand as i stated earlier due to how good the F1 tome is i could def see some Settlers/Apothecary creeping into templates.

But power DPS, probably not, if you want power DPS you would just choose DH. But i think for a burn build you would definitely look to FB.

As support id say you would take a FB over base Guard, I will definitely give it a try in a small havoc group environment.

I do think the F2 tome is poor and the F3 average due to the timer, I think 90 is a bit excessive. What is that traited, like 77seconds? and im not sure how many mantras will see play due to them being far too restrictive for support.

RabbitUp.8294:

Yes, I know Tome of Courage has skills with stability. So, you get more stability out of a skill that’s already granting stability, and the price you pay is it having double the cooldown.

You lose stability frequency to gain a bigger burst of stability, in a meta that stability will be stripped by boon removal/corruption, which remove all stacks.

The tome skills also have noticeable cast times, so you will be spending 3+ seconds being effectively removed from the fight, when base guardian insta-casts F3.

Anyway, just the fact alone that there are arguments that can be made about guardian vs firebrand speaks volumes. You would never have a serious discussion about whether mesmer or ranger are better supports than chrono and druid.

Every point of damage counts. You are also unable to do anything else, like healing and cc.

Well the Tome of Courage potentially heals better passively than active healing with the Tome of Resolve if you trait Legendary Lore and Pure of Heart. It’s why i thought our Resolve tome was poor due to the scaling on Eternal River compared to say something like Lunar Impact.

RabbitUp.8294:

And who said you have to use Minstrels gear? You can use Commander, Wanderer, Celestial, or even condi gear.

With the strength of the F1 tome i think some settlers/apothecary could make an appearance. Even with a dip in condi dmg you will give ppl pause for thought with the amount of burn stacks you can apply. I feel the F1 tome is the best out of the tomes, with the Tome of Courage being average and the Tome of Resolve being poor.

The Mantras I doubt will change unfortunately. The Mesmer’s power break is still on a 240 radius around the mesmer. Guess how many mesmers slot this utility?

Brutaly.6257:

while you give up the most important part in this game, damage.

Stability isnt worth spamming, stabiliy is situational so it is of very little interest from a balancing perspective if a FB can spam stab.

Spamming stab with ToC means you are effectively one player down.

From a WvW perspective your support classes are not there to do damage, they are there to provide support for the group. You certainly arnt going to be seeing big DPS numbers from a minstrel Firebrands staff autos lol.

DPS will come from your DPS specced classes, however the group is set up. Epi reapers CoR Rev’s etc.

A full healing/minstrel Tempest does virtually 0 damage, you are hardly a player down having one in your group.

RabbitUp.8294:

You know who else brings stability? Base guardian.

And firebrand fails to be an upgrade over base guardian when it comes to stability uptime, because VoC has half the cooldown of ToC, which means you can proc Indomitable Courage twice as often.

The only other source of stability for Firebrand is the elite mantra, which is both unusable in wvw due to its range, but it also competes with Renewed Focus, which can act as AoE stability by proccing Indomitable Courage a second time.

You do realise the Tome of Courage has two sources of stability as skills within the tome? Unbroken lines grants 5 seconds of stab on a 12 sec icd, 600rad. Unflinching Charge grants 4 seconds of stab to everyone in a cone 600rng in front of you and can be spammed as long as you have pages left. These numbers are with 0% boon duration any support Firebrand will be rocking around with decent boon duration.

So in 90 seconds you have
Opening the tome: Indomitable Courage stab 4sec
Unbroken Lines stab 5sec
Unflinching Charge stab 4sec

This is also assuming you use these tome skills once only whilst the tome is open within that 90 second interval. You could easily get multiple activations out of Unflinching Charge.

Compared to two uses of the 45 seconds Indomitable Courage stab 4sec for base guard within that 90 second interval.

You still get the indomitable courage stab from opening the tome and renewed focus will still reset the tome.

Anet does not care for balance in a microcosm within a mass conflict game mode. The thief class cannot contest a point in PvP whilst he is kiting around or in stealth. This mode is what the classes were built onand balanced for. They just piggy backed WvW into the game then threw the classes into WvW as is.

You want a semblance of balance, go to PvP where condi classes can actually be blown up like everything else(limited stats) and thieves are reasonable.

sPvP:
- no burst sigils
- normalised stats
- significant endurance nerfs
- skill nerfs (Vault)

look at signet of agility in WvW, 100% endurance buff and three condis cleared on a 30sec icd, is there another utility more overloaded? Maybe shadow step.

Sure it is annoying when you are involved in a larger scale battle for mid or something like that and from stealth you all of a sudden take 15k dmg.

But the mesmer is using his mirror blade, his mind wrack, a charge of his mantra of distraction, has traited for the stun and probably used either a blink or stealth from prestige/decoy to set it up. Maybe even a mirror images or continuum split.

It is a lot of investment and if you see it coming and avoid it he’s most likely looking to kite around for 12 seconds whilst his wrack recharges, burning through his defensive CD’s, shield block, blurred frenzy, invuln, stealth/teleports.

He is a walking kill for any decent DD, DH, Warrior

You bring stab, you will always be wanted in WvW, now it’s just about making it useful outside of being a boon bot.

The best tome was the F1 tome but it’s hard to make use of it as a support boon tank. The only thing i really used in it was the grav well effect because being a support tank ur all boon duration and healing power.

The F2 tome was just bad from a healing point of view, the condi clear is nice though. It’s kind of sad that passive healing from your boon tome outstrips active play from your healing tome.

The scaling on Eternal River is garbage, this seems like it was meant to be our big heal for the tome. at around 1225 healing power i gained something like 358 healing to the skill. So it went from 1200 or so at zero healing to 1558 with 1225 healing power. Our support tome(F3 tome) heals better than it with PoH traited and the trait that gave each of it’s abilities aegis.

At around 1130 healing power one PoH heals for 1211(no icd). This is with 0% outgoing healing, the skill five on courage tome is 600 radius the skill four 360 radius. If these are hitting max player and getting popped in a large wvw battle thats over 12k passive healing. Without considering the other tome skills like the dome or the slot one ability cone with 600 rng which also grant aegis to everyone.

Aza.2105:

Tome of courage with legendary lore and pure of heart trait is better for healing than tome of resolve hah.

This, At around 1130 healing power one PoH heals for 1211. This is with 0% outgoing healing, the skill five on courage tome is 600 radius the skill four 360 radius. If these are hitting max player and getting popped in a large wvw battle thats over 12k passive. Without considering the other tome skills like the dome or the slot one ability cone with 600 rng which also grant aegis to everyone.

The F2 tome is kitten for pure healing, the condi clear is nice though. It’s kind of sad that passive healing from your boon tome outstrips active play from your healing tome.

The scaling on Eternal River is garbage as well, this seems like it was meant to be our big heal for the tome. at around 1225 healing power i gained something like 358 healing to the skill. So it went from 1200 or so at zero healing to 1558 with 1225 healing power.

It’s definitely interesting, I ran the usual condi cancer using axe/torch – staff wanderer/nightmare-undead.

With the 3 Jaunts, Phase Retreat, Illusionary Ambush, Axes of symmetry it can be really hard for any melee to track you down. You can keep mobile while spewing out the usual condi cancer. Ran the usual mirror images stun break and the necessary mantra of resolve.

The 5 second vigor on the oasis i feel could be a little more, maybe some endurance restore rather than vigor so it doesnt just get stripped.

The whole walking over mirage mirrors thing i just avoided, it’s just plain bad. The only thing i had with the mirage mirrors was the Oasis heal. Because a lot of the time im standing on it for the pulses anyway.

And the ambush feels slow, whats with that massive staff wind-up animation before it fires off? You have already burned a dodge or skill to give you the mirage cloak and now you have to wait for the animation?

Seems fine, i dont get the tears? You need to be in an area where you control the main objective to initiate gliding. I feel Anet have actually done well here.

Justine.6351:

Idk I have lost some admiration for vT due to the level of tryharding a couple of your members have had the last week.

Shots fired!

Relax and blame Clown

apharma.3741:

I do agree a scrapper won’t beat them but if you’re even half the competent roamer you’d have us believe you wouldn’t engage multiple heavy condition players on your own.

A lot of the time with Scrappers mobility you dont get to pick and choose the engagement, you can stealth gyro and hope you can make an escape. But if the group pursuing is thirsty they can chase you down. This is one of the reasons DD is such a strong choice for power roaming.

Im an average roamer, 300 ping from Australia which can rocket up to 1000 at any given moment. And i like to play off beat stuff, power block build, shattered strength build etc.

Ive just come back from a decent break and it seems nothing has changed, in like 5-6 months. In regards to WvW small scale/roaming balance, same classes/specs are dominant.

Actually Zerker has come down from godlike to just run of the mill solid.

Im with Helly on this, a full TB/Dire Condi reaper will make you look foolish on a Scrapper in short order. As will most heavy condi application classes.

Sure you can probably tank 2-3 power classes for a while and maybe do some damage in the interim. But if this is 2-3 heavy condi application classes as opposed to power dmg classes you will down within 10 seconds. Probably in stealth after Self Regulating Defense has triggered locking you out of your skills.

When I played in a roaming squad we dropped the scrappers in favour of other classes for a reason.

Is this a for funz build? As in you dont mind dying if the build is fun to play? Or you want to roam around and be top tier ganker?

Balls out power shatter is quite fun for the lulz but you will die a lot, if you dont mind running back out it can have some pretty funny moments.

Im sure gunflame warrior would also fit this category.

But what Beep said, DD, load up acro, profit.

Nikkinella.8254:

Pretty sure he was just making a risk vs reward comparison.

Yes, in the small scale, which is what this thread is about. You scale the battles up in numbers and these problems evaporate. Not that a condi mes or thief are likely to get a group in a zerg.

But there is a lot of smaller group action outside T1-2/ NA prime time. I understand the game mode is about large scale battles. But surely they could at least take a look at how classes are performing in a microcosm. Considering as the population shrinks more emphasis is on smaller scale conflicts.

Very little balance for small scale action which unfortunately during some time zones or outside tier 1/2, is all there is. People just log off rather than deal with the terrible balance in WvW small scale.

Struggle to kill anything on the power based scrapper. Log on my condi chrono, roll my face across the keyboard whilst watching netflix on my second monitor. Collect bags and not die for over an hr.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I don’t think scrapper is “rubbish” either, but after receiving two straight years of nothing but nerfs it’s hard to argue that scrapper doesn’t feel bad.

Tbf some of the nerfs were warranted, what was the initial stealth gyro timer, 20seconds? How did that go live would be something id question. Especially when a skill already existed that was more limited in it being static in Shadow Refuge. That was on a much longer timer.

When it comes to Engineers the balance team needs to stop being lazy, a lot of skills dont need cooldown tweaks/DPS tweaks. They need to be rewritten from scratch(Thermobaric detonation). The whole explosives line is under performing outside of PvE. Anet talk about purity of purpose, why does shrapnel exist in the explosives line then?

The totally useless med kit, if you are going to spend your whole time doing 1 thing, such as healing with the med blaster, it needs to be rewarding/worthwhile. You can drop a HT gain the 5k burst heal to everyone in a 240 radius and pick it back up to get the 15sec CD(plus the water field for blasts). The whole process is a couple seconds, you are still probably on second use of your med blaster at this point having healed 800hp’s.

Ive pretty much given up on this games balance team, they are either non existent or dont play enough to know the mechanics of their own game. Hell they gave out might buffs to phantasmal swordsmen, might buffs do nothing for mesmer phantasms. Phantasm dmg is derived from the summoners stats.

Rezzet.3614:

scrappers now are rubbish

I dont think they are rubbish but they are limited in what they can do from a PvP perspective.

Your best role atm seems to be bunkering on far, i guess the Menders rocking Water/Monk/Herald runes style of play is not for everyone.

Im trying something different atm with a group supportish style build for the mid fight. But without voice coms it’s common i lay down my function gyro/stealth gyro, begin a rez. Only to have the downed player auto attack and get stomped.

I can clear some condis with fumigate, super elixir is pretty useful. And i run elixir C to toss on the mid point brawl. As well as HT and some blasts for healing, all in all Ele is a better pick for that slot but in solo Q you just dont know what your team will be.

I think if the criteria is known across multiple servers my vote is Nocturnal Lunacy. That dood has probably whispered 50% of the player base.

The argument is pretty simple with tb and dire, you get optimal dps output for condition damage whilst maintaining 2 defensive stats(toughness and vitality).

For power damage your optimal damage output requires three stats in power, ferocity, precision. The closest you can get is Marauder which offers all three stats with a defensive stat(vitality).

I agree that this is only part of the problem, there is also class balance to account for. But tbf in PvP the condition builds seem okish for balance.

Roamed solo for a while in T1 on my power shatter mesmer, had a couple fights against non condi builds, most notably a power Rev and power Scrapper(yay).

Apart from this the only non condi builds i encountered were DD’s because of how imba they are in a wvw setting. Condi DD’s, condi chronos, some condi zerkers, and a condi rev were most of my engagements. Everyone is rocking around with 3k+ armour, 20k health and condi duration so those condis are not falling off any time soon without clears.

So just been playing PvP as my couple hours of roaming has cured me of any desire to fight total cancer builds. It’s not the players fault, people are just going to load up with the most efficient build with low risk high reward because it’s a no brainer.

If anet have to group WvW class balance in with another game mode it needs to be PvP and not PvE. Ultimately all three modes are vastly different so they should have their own balance. But we know that isnt going to happen.

KrHome.1920:

Dececrator.9021:

I just listen the noise and I am downed.

So why don’t you just press the dodge button after you hear that noise? It’s not that hard.

You dont even need to do that, you can just slot instant reflexes and have the game passively play for you.

I got all excited Power Mesmer had received some buffs when i started reading this thread.

That all PvP teams would be ditching their DD’s and Condi Chronos for Power Chronos. That unranked would be teams of 5 power mesmers vs 5 power mesmers. That zergs in WvW would be 90% power mesmers(why play anything else scrubs). That PvE raid groups would be 100% power mesmers(“Druid lfg”, diaf idiot, mesmer or gtfo). That Anet had made power mesmers gods, akin to Zerkers up until the recent series of nerfs.

Alas no.

This is outright game breaking, Guards can get Aegis(just off a quick look at the char builder) from:-

Protectors Strike
Shield of Judgement
Virtue of Courage
Retreat
Protective Reviver
Retaliatory Subconscious
Valorous Defense
Courageous Return(resets Virtue of Courage)
Communal Defenses*

Each time an Aegis goes down im getting around 1200-1300 healing on a support style guard due to Pure of Heart. Now with Communal Defense also triggering from other Guardians imagine a 15 man wvw group with around 5 guards. Thats a communal defense every 3 seconds. So one second of invincibility every 3 seconds. This is on top of all the personal Aegis you can wrack up.

Bigsexy.8302:

lolz. “Roaming guilds”. These guilds are dead. Pretty sure you mean ganking squads with fotm cookie cutter cheesy builds grabbed from metabattle because thinking and learning your class is so hard.

tbf the roaming guilds are probably the originators of some of these “cheese” builds.

Famine.7915:

- and a rubber duck

Re-installing GW2 for sure.

lol @ this thread.

Dimes.6024:

its still the same ol

you can try pp condi (burning surprize) – smth like http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqanUUBVXhtbB2aBEqiF2iC8DLxAgu3H+kXsjminA-T1RFQBNS9HRqEsD7PksHAAAOBAwRPAxU+RKgHVbB-w
fun for a pair of weeks (dont evar try dis on pvp :P )

This build looks incomplete, for starters no 25%(mecha legs, speedy kits)move speed on a roaming class? You are having to burn Elixir B and the toolbelt B to get swiftness. Meaning your stab could be down when you need it.

Shocking Speed and Rapid Regeneration are traited with no access to a lightning field? Seems a little light on Condi removal.

I will preface this by stating im playing other games atm so this is purely theorycrafting. When i last played, Scrapper was well down the list as a viable roamer. But with the recent changes maybe a bit has changed.

For condi id go base engi, something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUh6rYBWwWLw6FLsF1YOOGfhYHNFPB4HWiBAA-TFSHQBjTPgAOBAWUJ4Q2fwIKHAwDAYgK5Mh6PZGCAmAgVVSBAzyK-w

For power id take the standardish bunker/boons Scrapper:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUBdpi1XBubBEqilJjS8ZKgAYc9qgIg+vz7+G-TlCEQB0TdFpoMwd6AiiShMqEEAPAA4t/gmUpghK5C3FAIAACwNvZAwNv5Nv5NvZpACcoF-w

Very little in this patch outside sustain nerfs in the form of bunker down(BD) protection injection(PI), bulwark gyro(BG), and purge gyro(PG) and turret QoL changes. Still dont think turrets will see play outside of healing turret.

The PI nerf is interesting, but they didnt follow it up with anything. Like autodefense bomb dispenser(ABD) buff, firing on CC, not 1-2 seconds after being CC’d. Clearly no-one is taking health insurance, lel. So the option now is PI or invigorating speed(IS).

I still think PI wins out although there is an argument to be made that if you are using Elixir B and speedy kits(SK) thus optimised activation(OA) you will have close to, or perma vigor on the standard commanders Engi if you slot IS. As the icd on IS is still only 5sec.

With adrenal implant(AI) 50% endo buff or the food that gives you 40% endurance regen increase. Provided they function in an additive manner, you can sit at 90%-100% endurance regen. Im assuming the 100% cap still exists so you can’t stack all of them for 140%.

I kind of think power mesmer is in a good place balance wise from a WvW perspective.

The problem is there are some classes that are just over tuned like DD and Zerker, to a lesser extent, Druid. And of course the usual condi chrono.

If they kept rolling out balance patches shaving the over tuned classes/skills the power mesmer would see a lot more play. Without needing any major rework or restructuring of the class.

The full glass burst/shatter is viable as is, it’s just not optimal. And you have to be a player that doesnt mind constantly running back out from spawn. As you will die a lot in WvW with little to no condi clear.

Can’t go wrong with DD(Acro), Zerker, Condi Chrono, or Druid. The only reason Druid is not very top tier is because they can be a little susceptible to sustained condi pressure/condi bombs. But really shine vs power builds.

Whereas the other three have access to a lot of clear(or resistance). Zerkers can have some crazy uptime on resistance.

roamzero.9486:

Top tier cheese: Condi Mesmer/Boon Warrior
Mid tier cheese: Staff Druid/Daredevil
Low tier cheese: Condi Reaper/Dragonhunter

I think this is pretty accurate for roaming/small scale, I would move DD to top tier if they have Acro line.

In WvW large scale fights the whole thing is dominated by Guards, Eles, Necros. An argument can be made for not even needing other classes. Maybe Malyx Revs for the pulsing resistance if condi bombing is still the meta.

SniffyCube.6107:

or don’t have enough people to wvw, but they’re just sitting around until their guild dies (or never starts up).

I’ve never really understood this, there is no pre requisite to join WvW numerically. You can stroll out there with 3 people in your group. How can you not have enough people to WvW? This scenario never actually happens, it’s a player construct.

Granted you will have to scale back your objectives, you wont be hitting SMC or Garri. But thats not to say other things cant be accomplished if your guild is objective driven and needs to be “for the realm”. Or fun to be had if it’s more the casual type guild.

I think with the disengage conundrum people are getting confused. The argument seems to be you both disengage from the combat thus it’s balanced.

What people fail to realise is the aggressor doesn’t want to disengage. He has the Daredevil(DD) on the ropes through good play on his behalf/poor play on the DD’s behalf. He wants to push the advantage, but doing this if the DD chooses the out option is very difficult, and the fight literally cannot be forced on some classes.

The DD has an out that he can use to reset the combat. It’s not an equal advantage gain to both combatants if the DD heals from 15% health back to full whilst the opposing player goes from 80% to full out of combat. And this scenario happens three times before the DD lands his burst, gets the advantage and wins.

Yet when this role is reversed, the DD has someone down on 15% life through good play or that player has played poorly. Where is his out to reset? The player eats the loss because well, he played poorly and the DD played well. Druid running GS/Staff is probably another candidate, but they don’t have quite the same on demand access to stealth like the DD to help assist the disengage.

But both the shortbow spam from DD’s and the staff/GS kiting can also trigger a disengage.

This is why you find a lot of DD’s roaming, ignoring the Acro line for the time being. This ability to disengage from a fight in WvW is a great ace to have up your sleeve. You never know when the fight could go to 3-5v1 or a group will come rolling by and want to kill you.

I think this is where the OP frustration stems from.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

If a Thief Resets so do you, and if a Thief does run far enough away that you aren’t a threat they will have to Burn Initiative and CDs to re-engage, especially if you decide to it just stand in the one spot waiting for them to return.

The thing with power builds in a fight is it’s all about timing and landing bursts. The fact you can virtually win the fight 3 times but never force the encounter because the DD can disengage @ 10% health or so to heal back to full and try again is the main source of frustration from the OP perspective i would imagine.

But as soon as you make a mistake and you eat some burst the role is reversed, and unless you are a DD yourself you have no counter. This could be the fourth or fifth attempt by the DD in question.

jacksmith.6028:

The game isn’t designed for roaming – it’s designed for large scale battles.

This right here, WvW is the large scale format, PvP is the small group format. Anet do not care how classes perform in a microcosm in reference to WvW. You just need to look at the Acro line for DD’s, how much condi mesmers kitten or how over tuned zerkers are to see they give zero kittens about WvW balance when scaling down to 1-5ppl in a mode designed for large group conflict.

Balance on the small scale in WvW is poor at best, broken at worst. Anet do not care, Zerkers, DD, condi chronos are probably the worst offenders.

It takes player intervention in 5v5’s to preserve some semblance of balance by banning condi comps.

And then you have things like the 5 man mesmer distortion groups. How long was Ghost thief a thing? Like 6 months before Anet got around to balancing it and only because someone posted a vid of them killing a PvE boss mob with the build.

PierPiero.9142:

why scepter and not sword ? In spvp i find sword more effective but it seems that in wvw roaming scepter is more used, and i want to understand why

Play whatever you prefer. Some ppl like sword for the blurred frenzy/stowe and illusory leap immob.

I will preface this by saying i havnt played in months so they have probably patched a few things. You used to be able to confusing images/stowe and the full animation would play out, was good to bait dodges. Plus 6 confusion stacks is good if you land the channel. Illusory counter 5 stacks of torment on a block on a 4.75cd. I hear they have added some evade frames to the counter animation now? If so even better. And faster autos with malicious sorcery that stack torment.

I felt the scepter gave me extra condi pressure allowing me to slot defender runes over tormenting/perplexity. And i personally loved the synergy between Defender runes and mesmer shield/mantra of recovery’s power return.

mainhand sword was always a mainstay of my power burst/shatter builds.

Condi Chrono is pretty over tuned in 1v1’s in WvW. I ran shield for the synergy with Defender Runes and the alacrity, Malicious sorcery for illusionary counter(5 torment stacks) every 4.75 seconds and faster autos. Illusionary Disenchanter for the boonrips and shatter fodder. The rest is pretty standard.

You can easily drop the Disenchanter for Mirror Images or Decoy if you feel you need stunbreak/survivability if you are new to the class and learning how to play.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7el0nhy0YhawDNwtGLOH1ZAMAJGajtPJQdhmoNKA-TVyCQBA4gAQhjAAyeAAH7CA0P1fS3+DVU5HKVCWPdDkCAmxWA-w

Heres a relatively open fight with no distractions from vT Herald’s perspective. The SBI map Q vs two havoc squads plus some solo roamers. We were around 8, vT 4 and 3 or so solo roamers. So combined we roughly made up 15.

https://youtu.be/4LA5C84uBiY?t=488

Doable yes, common no. Pin sniping was always a good way to kill the larger group, and farm salty whispers. There were even posts on this forum complaining about pin sniping.

Last i played there were not a lot of 15man guild groups left in the game for NA. Maybe EU still has a lot of active 10-15 man guild groups? There was still some small mans in NA like 5-8 players, but they have dwindled as well.

Staff is mostly a defensive condi weapon. You will be glad for that Phase Retreat if you have staff equipped when fighting a Zerker. Our 2-handed power weapon is GS which would be a more apt comparison with LB or Rifle.

You can trait Scepter for more speed and confusing images actually does pretty good power damage(for a condi based weapon). Not only this but last i played the animation would play out even if you stowed. Allowing you to bait dodges.

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.

It all comes back to too many things are in the blobs favour in this game. It has improved slightly with the update to the rally mechanics. But still far too heavily stacked in favour of blobbing over co-ordinated smaller group play.

5 man cap on AoE. Every AoE the 30+man group farts out, epis, meteor showers, drop the hammers etc etc hits the 5 man crew. Yet the small groups retaliation AoE only hits 5 in that 30+man. And how rewards are just given out regardless of numbers, do it with 5 ppl? Same reward as blobbing it down.