Guild Wars 2

One year later, and still perma stealth.

They can use the walls of structures to stay stealthed the entire time, with no negative tradeoff.

They need to leave stealth to do damage to players now, but if they are taking any damage, their huge range of mobility and freebie perma stealth allows them to leave combat. Their damage, not ours, is the ONLY thing that knocks themselves out of stealth, so they are allowed a free heal while in stealth. They are allowed a free stomp while in stealth. They are situationally allowed faster movement in stealth.

There is no negative tradeoff and only imbalances.

Other games balance stealth by having you be able to “see” a stealth character if they are too close, or if you hit them, or they have reduced mobility.

GW2 allows them to move around like an Ele in Air, stay invis as long as they like, heal, and stand on top of you until they feel like attacking with burst. Exactly how is this balanced with the tools of other characters? Wildly attacking random spots? No play can force an un-stealth.

How this has any balance or counter besides randomly AOEing your own body, I have no clue. A bunker Engineer or Necro will have no issues, but the Thief has no risks either. They simply leave if they can’t get their kill.

Open environments allow you the possibility to burst the thief, but in WvW you are almost always near an objective. PvP isn’t so bad, as they need to use a player to stay perma stealthed, and that allows the player to AoE them in return.

When playing a thief, all you do is attack and run away and repeat, forcing their Cooldowns and bursting them when safe. You yo-yo on the target, and Youtube videos demonstrate this. Cheap kills are fun, especially since you can mess up your own rotation, but this is not a counter to anything. It is just an “I win or will run away” button.

Thieves can perma stealth off of structures.

They have zero risk to themselves and nothing but benefit. They can attack players and if they are failing, use any wall to target and perma stealth.

Also, they risk nothing when in stealth and their attack misses, and they get to ambush again. There is no downside to need to weigh in on.

High DPS, High Mobility, Perma Stealth.

Does that seem like a balanced intention?

When mailing Friends, who have us friended and we have them friended, it will bug out and supress the mail.

Obviously bad programming, causing something not intended. It makes no sense to protect us from communicating when we WANT the communication.

Same goes for the WvW commanders when no one is reporting them, and then they get suppressed. Makes zero sense and needs to be fixed.

Many months now.

We are guildmates, friends, and roommates.

We are in each other’s friend’s list.

Why are you suppressing us mailing each other? Obviously, I want the messages. Obviously, I don’t want you suppressing them. Obviously, I would like the Gold Spam to stop.

Either way, you failed and still I get annoyed by the same 2-3 players whispering me 10-20 times if I don’t block them.

Please fix this to allow guildmates and friends to not be censored, for the common sense of it all.

Charr.
Engineer.
Kits are not centered on back, but instead way too high, more like on the neck.

The Grenade and Bomb kits sit on the Charr back centered well. Same with Med Kit. Screenshots for good example.

The Elixir Gun and Flame Thrower though, they sit very high on the upper back/lower neck. My Charr is max height, and the second or third most “buff” body type.

Anyone I talk to says they have the same issue, and we all thought it would have been fixed by now, since our Charr have looked like this at beta/release. It is so bad to stare at, I refuse to use those kits, since I can’t hide them.

First set of pics show the “normal” position of a kit, for a side-by-side comparison to the abnormal position. My bomb kit is squarely on my back, and not my neck. From the front view, we can see only the bare top showing.

The last set of pics are my Elixir Gun floating up my neck, and Flame Thrower, doing the same. They are very high and bobble to the left side. From the front view, you can see it hovering up there…

Temporal Curtain.

It is intended to not stack with anything. But, that makes the Description of the skill wrong. It says “grants swiftness”, and we know Swiftness stacks in duration.

Temporal Curtain does not stack with anything.

It needs to be “fixed” to work with other Swiftness sources. A total rework of the skill if need be.

Mesmers have little long distance mobility. Try to stay with an Edge of the Mist zerg as a Mesmer, and notice how you drift toward the back. You get less damage on champs, and you get less loot drops because you get zero credit. It sucks.

Temporal Curtain is bugged. If I have 1-3 seconds left of Swiftness because a Guardian gave it to me, and I lay down my Temporal Curtain to give me ~17 seconds of swiftness, and instead I get zero seconds, this is very wrong. The smaller cooldown prevented me from getting my own superior Boon, and causes me to fall out of swiftness, and I get left behind until my cooldown is ready.

I can’t stop others from giving me boons that will harm me.

This is broken

Please do something.

Hmm…. 4 days without a response.

Me thinks I need to try this. After all, by NOT doing it, I risk losing out to those who do.

Sad that the bug reports are not even looked at…. says a lot.

I been “gone” for over a year. I logged in occasionally, and I saw some of the Living Story, bought some Gem Store things, but I mainly missed the whole thing. Every character, every convo, every cutscene.

Coming back in, nothing is really special or new, just a reminder I missed everything and “here are the changes”.

I never saw the post, but I heard in a discussion about GW2 opening in China, someone asked about the Living Story and the Chinese market—if they’d be able to see the LS and participate, or they’d just join the game in the middle. The answer was “we may make old LS revisitable”.

Anyone able to confirm that hope was uttered?

I can see it being an option in the Personal Story that makes the players go to an alternate map where the events are unfolding.
It could be placed in the mists, as just floating maps in time.
It could be placed in the Fractals, making the content revisitable, but on a 5 man scale (tuning the old content into challenging events).

It feels a bit off to be a supporter of the game monetarily, but unable to enjoy the content. I can watch Youtube videos, but I could do that for the entire game. There is also the issue of the huge Achievement gap made by the LS being time sensitive. Playing at a slower pace and making up missed content doesn’t detract from those who accomplished their personal goals.

Also, without going into it, life happens. It is just… sad… to have something of high entertainment now be exclusive because of tragedy. You want to return and enjoy some gaming, and it is now no longer “your” community.

GuardianOMS.8067:

Hsinimod.5784:

I’m a hot single intelligent female that happens to like this MMO. And I like dating.

win-win.

How would you a ride on my hot air balloon?

Ok. I’ll be wearing a panda hat and holding a bouquet of roses. I like to hide up on cliffs over-looking the world.

I’m a hot single intelligent female that happens to like this MMO. And I like dating.

win-win.

NickDollahZ.5348:

In the situations that you specified, Grenades and turrets both do a great job in forcing your opponent to leave the node/spot being bombarded. I’d argue that they wouldn’t out right kill you. At least not anymore that 100 nades is gone.

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Besides the occasional trolling with Explosive Descent. Jump shooting off a cliff onto your opponent then Grenade Barrage. ZOMG 100nades is back

Which bring up a whole different point of using the terrain to your advantage to deny your opponent a node with 1500 range. Whether or not that is balanced has nothing to do with HGH. It speaks to rather or not Grenades themselves are balanced. Which is a good question for another thread.

As far as sidekick build, I think there alot of other classes/build that can destroy a CC’d opponent. I believe grenades are the strongest ranged AOE damage skill in the game.

In no way can I see Grenades as being OP, when I can see others out-do that damage with ease. Only with the synergy of Grenades with other factors do you see it climb. That synergy is in question. Not HGH alone or Grenades alone.

Frankly, my Grenades in my build only hit for as much as my Bombs (30 Explosives). I didn’t min/max them with my gear stat choices. They were simply because I liked the spread and Vulnerability. (pve speaking). They were nerfed long ago. It didn’t affect me much, but I noticed the loss in damage. If they get nerfed again, I’ll be demanding that pvp and pve skills just get split off from each other. As messy as that is, it just doesn’t make sense to balance everything about a class because of subset in pvp.

Any class that can out-range another has an advantage.
Any class that can cast multiple AoEs has an advantage.
Any class that can do decent front-loaded damage has an advantage.

When all those fall into 1 build, it will look OP. They are far away, laying down a spread of damage, and it is hurting. LOS is a friend, along with stripping Might, and a good direct burst. Condition and Boon swapping is deadly, or at least deadlocks the point of HGH.

If everyone at high levels of tPvP is running cookie-cutter builds, that is an obvious problem, since they are being predictable. And it means the class design is poor.

Frankly, I don’t see why anyone can self-buff to 25 stacks of anything. It should be a group reaches the total together, but an individual hits around 10 and then the stacks start falling off as fast as a solo person can place back up. Support should be buffed to make up for that, allowing multiple people to combo to full boon stacks of 25. But eh, who knows. I don’t play with the numbers.

Ostricheggs.3742:

google.3709:

Ostricheggs.3742:

it IS actually OP. There are no rivals at what it does. It kills the kitten out of everything with no remorse.

In top tier tournaments I win 90% of all even fights and 1v1s. Team fighting is a breeze.

The build is insane, but also takes a lot of practice. I am pretty sure it will get nerfed next patch, so have fun while you can!

Just wondering, since you’re 1 of the main persons behind the HGH build. what will you do if they do in fact nerf it ? what’s your backup build ? will you still play the class ? etc :]

I was honestly thinking about that earlier, and the depressing answer is that there are no other viable builds that don’t rely on HGH.

After kit refinement was gutted I have no others. I’ve tried so hard to find anything, literally anything, to replace or rival the efficacy of HGH and I have been since I discovered the build. Last patch both of the substitutes I “found” (hundred nades with elixir C/might stacking instead of toolkit and bunker with tookit/e-gun) depended on kit refinement as a main part of the build.

So really, I have no idea what I’d play. Obviously there needs to be some buffs to a LOT of underperforming traits and utilities. Right now we’re in the same boat as eles. We only have one spec that’s anywhere near decent, but that spec is overpowered. How can you nerf the only spec a class has? A-net has a depressing record of nerfing classes into the ground, beyond the point of unplayability, for months and months at a time.

I’d prefer that not to happen to us AGAIN. In a perfect world I would like to see HGH get a nerf and far, far more viable builds created via buffs to kittenty stuff

GW1 has an excellent track record of poor balance. One profession get buffed into the heavens, while another is ground into dust, and nothing is done about it.

Monks sure could heal, but their Smiting wasn’t allowed to last long.
Paragons… I never saw the point.
Dervish, really? What couldn’t they get away with.
Ritualist was nerfed, and still was strong—in PvE. PvP was debatable with how long everything took to activate.
Etc, etc, etc.

With GW2…. I don’t know what to think. It’s been 8 months. Flame Thrower was just recently fixed to not miss miss miss miss anymore. And frankly, I just assume it really is fixed (who knows if it is, since Blowtorch on the Pistol still misses). And what about Poison Dart Volley? Do our Engineers need Diazepam to get their snipe off?

Zenguy.6421:

Is the Eng the ‘best’ class in GW2? No.
Is really fun to play? Yes, and then some.

This.

To me, the largest problem with the Engineer is the lack of versatility.
“WTF! Engineers are the most versatile!”
Well, let me explain.

I’m playing an alt and have my traits set a certain way. I need to swap out to another weapon and skill bar set for the encounter in PvE or WvW, but it will gain ZERO benefit from my current traits, no matter what I try substituting. Oh well, I’ll just do it and see.

That scenario plays out a lot if you are that type of player, that swaps for the situation. (or, you go a step further and just re-spec by talking to your trainer).

On my alts, I feel less penalized than on my Engineer. My Engineer feels like it is balanced based on what the top tPvP players are doing, so if I’m not min/maxed with my stats and traits and skills and sigils and runes all aligning, I’m going to be doing everything slower and weaker. But my alts can feel like they are in the wrong stat gear, the wrong traits, but my skills were still useful.

Swapping to Flame Thrower, without buffing it, feels worthless.
Ditto Tool Kit.
Elixir Gun only feels nice if I’m devoting my entire time to cleansing others.
My own Rifle and Pistols feel like everything is doing auto-attack damage….
(again, speaking of times when you are wanting to use the versatility of the skills but haven’t been able to buff them toward min/max)

Bomb Kit and Grenade Kit are able to be useful without any traits. I mean, you are either fighting the AI, and they are just too easy if you keep kiting, or in PvP, you are doing the same kiting with 360 degree attacks. Even hitting weak, you still feel the use.

There is a skill cap with Engineer not in how you play it (again, my opinion) but with what sigils, runes, stats, traits, and skills you choose to bring (theory-crafting and number crunching as opposed to skill choice and reaction times). Then you lock yourself into that and “have fun”. We can do some great things when going for niche builds, but I feel so locked in that I find myself thinking how I could be on my alt and just switching to another weapon…. If I pick a loose build that allows me more freedom to swap around, I find myself obviously weaker than my peers.

Now, if you aren’t prone to “the grass is always greener”, then you won’t make those comparisons between professions. Or, if you love grenades or bombs, you aren’t going to see many problems either.

The best class is the one you have the most enjoyment with. For me, I’m tied between Guardian, Ele, and Necro. The Engineer and Ranger are the ones I wish I enjoyed the most. They have what I want on paper, but “meh” execution. Maybe when I have more gold to throw around on gear, I’ll be more happy (or if I stick to only PvP).

nakoda.4213:

your loss.

Or his gain.

Guardian has a nice feel in its variety. The only loss is range. More tanky, more support, and more damage. Generally.

Plus, I like seeing that not every Guardian is in the same weapon set.

Or Elementalist, and just think of it like swapping kits with a realllly long cooldown.

I care not anymore about the nerf, except to call it what it is. You apparently do, since you bring it up on many other threads. You want to go to the extremes and call Kit Refinement, that existed for almost a year, an exploit? Fine. It doesn’t change the fact it was designed to function that way, and still does function the exact same way. It still triggers while the player can trigger any other ability. This you are ok with. But when it triggers Grenade Barrage, and the player chooses to active Grenade Barrage at the same time, “oh! that was never intended! it is an exploit”….. But if they activated their Skill #1 auto-attack, that is perfectly intended…. Sorry, but the Devs made Grenade Barrage a toolbelt skill AND a Kit Refinement skill. Fully intended. Now it is Grenade Barrage and Throw Mine instead. This an exploit?

The consensus was generally not upset that Grenade Barrage and Super Elixir double tapping were taken away, but the fact they were taken away WHILE Kit Refinement was destroyed for multi-kit users. It is clunky and now a waste of a trait for those that loved it. Either change would have been met with sour notes, but together it was a solid message that a staple trait was being deleted and to change your builds.

The trait was never OP for the vast majority of users (most people don’t min/max). It simply was useful for a variety of builds, and used by “too many” as more and more became aware of it. Single kit users AND multi-kit users all had something to benefit from. Mainly Flame Thrower, Elixir Gun, and Grenade users had a reason to place 10 points there. Where else would they put them for their builds? Even Tool kit users liked it for keeping targets close, but Speedy Kits was more useful.

As others have mentioned, the balance with other professions being able to do multitasking and having low cost traits wasn’t touched, but Engineer was (again, I never see crying about Engineers from the other professions). All because of balancing issues with the top tPvP subset? That is a horrible way to deal with a problem.

You say the Engineer has multiple viable builds? For single target DPS, yes (or PvE because anyone can outsmart the AI). But for AoE, the grenade spread and range simply outperforms the rest of the Engineer’s tools. Rifle, Elixir Gun, and Pistols simply don’t have enough splash damage. Bombs do, but are melee. Flame Thrower was broken for months (miss miss miss miss) and is a medium range weapon whose damage isn’t worth (usually) the sacrifice to range (unless range is worthless due to cramped conditions). Obviously in PvP, people need to get to the points, forcing crappy range to not be an issue. But in WvW and PvE, you’ll notice it is just far more efficient to use Grenade builds, even though the rest can be “fine”. Why would you give up so much AoE when you know all fights are going to call for AoE?

The problem Nak, is that the Engineer community is keenly aware of all aspects of the game, not just the top 3% of tPvP. And, they play other professions too. They fully expect something like Might stacking to be nerfed, but instead get a curve ball with a favorite but lowly trait being fully changed. No Engineer will care really Nak, they’ll just change their build from over that one trait being deleted or play another toon. But you know the real reason why Engineers will care for the long term? Because they then wonder how many more needless changes will happen due to balancing issues at the top, that ends up affecting the “majority” of players.

I think the whole game represents the majority. When you belong to a large guild of 400+ players, and they openly talk without attacking each other, and they all dabble in multiple professions in all content areas of the game…. you can gather a consensus of what the general feelings are. Or the same thing when in map chat of any zone. Generally, from being social in an MMO. And our server is generally quite social.

People tend to talk, and nicely, when there isn’t an attitude behind what they are saying.

People mainly say two things.
1) Engineers were given fixes that were a long time coming, a small buff, and a large nerf.
2) And, by doing this, more builds are viable, simply because we were forced to change.

And in regards to Turrets, yes, more Engineers complain about Turrets than they gloat about how wonderful they are—both in-game and on the forums. “Seeing” players use them has nothing to do with the feelings on them. I used them for a long time with a knock-down build, but it didn’t mean I enjoyed them. They were always a reminder they were lacking. And many other Engineers say similar things. “They tried to like them” “they used them while leveling” “they simply die at high levels” “they wish…..” etc.

I’m simply using the same tone as you Nak, who is dismissing everyone that isn’t you. A minor buff to unused turrets doesn’t count as a true buff nor justify for the large nerf. Turrets are used mainly as fodder to blow up. That is saying something huge about the poor design of turrets. Players view them as more valuable being blown up.

Turret buffs were frankly a “give me” to the Engineers so Anet could take away. A misdirection. Anet “fixes” long term bugs of every profession suddenly when they are taking away a key element. Turrets are not going to break the game, so a round of extra damage is a sweet deal when destroying builds. Especially since turrets are underused, and they can be brought back down if need be.

I’m not dismissing anyone who uses Turrets. I’m dismissing that increasing their damage is a buff to the Engineer in the context of the whole patch. Or, more exact, to most Engineers (as we’ve all been saying all along). As someone else already mentioned, this patch was a buff to a subset that wasn’t using grenades, a nerf to a large chunk, and irrelevant to the rest. Of course you won’t care for those who lost out, since it didn’t affect you. No one was speaking for you, they were speaking for the death of their builds. Please stop speaking for us.

nakoda.4213:

being able to drop two full grenade barrages within one global cooldown is not intended. it was accidental. you cannot tell me that the devs intended any two abilities to be used on the same GCD like tha, otherwise, why have the GCD?

the dbl pop was accidental, and therefore an “exploit”

no one is calling anyone a cheater. exploits and cheats are different things.

eg: jumping. to avoid KR proc was also an exploit.

It was, and still is intended.

The new Kit Refinement still does a “double pop”. You automatically activate an ability while being able to do another.

Still there. Still intended.

The Devs put it in. It was used for months and months and months. Can’t say it wasn’t ever intended. You can say it was too popular.

nakoda.4213:

How do you quantify impact? I see far more turrets in pvp (where one would expect to see them) than I did pre-patch, myself included.

the turret buffs were an improvement, you cannot simply negate them just because you don’t use them

People tend to flock to what was buffed to try it out. You’ll see people with turrets for that reason obviously. It doesn’t mean turrets are truly where they should be at, or that the players like them.

The players are simply trying to make it “work” because the patch told them they are supposed to.

And “you” applies to a large chunk of the Engineer community. Your observations are a minority compared to the wealth of Engineers that have wanted to like their turrets more, but simply couldn’t.

So when people say that the turret buff is a moot point, it is because the turret buff is a moot point. There is common sense reasoning behind it. One, turrets are underused. Two, the current buff is only a step in the right direction, and still not enough. No one is saying it wasn’t a buff. They are saying that overall, the Engineer lost a chunk while getting bandaids to the rest.

Or, what was gained didn’t equal or surpass what was lost.

Zenguy.6421:

Summary of the 29 March patch:

Who benefited significantly?

• Elixir/condition (giver’s weapons now work and RNG on elixirs reduced)

Who lost out significantly:

• 100nades (build removed)
• KR multi-kit builds (major reduction to survivability)

Buffs that have had little impact:

• Turrets

What’s happened: Elixir users are happy; 100nades users no longer exist; the few turret users liked it but their numbers haven’t increased significantly; major migration from other Eng builds to Elixir based ones.

Overall the patch turned Engs into an elixir based condition class with a common play style. If that’s what you like, the patch was great. If not, other Eng builds can be made to work, but you’ll have to work very hard to achieve that as the popular but only marginally effective KR based builds were heavily nerfed.

This sums it up nicely. And exact.

CriSPeH.8512:

nakoda.4213:

double grenade barrage pop, double elixir pop, and double flame blast pop. granted, they may have only been “hand in the cookie jar” exploits, and not the “stole five hundred billion in gold after crashing two planes into a high rise” kind of exploit, but they were exploits nonetheless.

I wouldn’t go as far to call them exploits!
Just very bad design decisions. Its hard to tell anyone not to take advantage of something that seems to be working but just might be suffering from poor balance.

Like Thieves taking advantage of culling. Anet applied the culling and a side effect was stealthed players got a few extra seconds of invisibility, which you cannot blame the players for. But what those players did was specifically design builds to take advantage of the culling so they could remain unseen permanently.
So you could say they were exploiting but Imo its closer to what you previously said that they were just taking advantage of something. (bad design decision.)

Otherwise right now whole servers are exploiting in WvW by running in zergs of 50+ ,so that when they attack you receive such a huge lag spike you end up insta downing before you can even get your heal skill to activate.

No, Thieves using unintended perma-stealth is an exploit. They know it isn’t intended, but decide to take advantage of it for as long as possible.

Engineers using a skill as designed (without even needing to do anything “funny”) is not an exploit. You literally just had to place 10 trait points and pick it. Not an exploit at all.

If Engineers in full Zerkers gear were killing people with Kit Refinement, that is a select balance issue of Grenades scaling when multiple factors were chosen. You needed to pick Grenadier for a third hit and 1500 range, Zerkers gear, and HGH to stack Might. That made a super-ranged Engineer that could burst (and die easily having zero defense, AND don’t forget at max range he/she would miss with Grenade hits and only have one Grenade Barrage… so could be argued it was balanced all along and was a glass cannon choice). Obviously, THAT needed to be fixed if truly an issue. That is not an exploit, but min/maxing traits with stats.

The rest of the Engineers that were not stacking tons of power (AKA normal players with their own builds) were now affected too, because Anet decided to kill Kit Refinement for all instead of HGH might stacking (or any other amount of things). And yet, we all still assume Might Stacking will be killed off.

So now Engineers lost an ability to do melee-range burst, lost condition removal, and may lose HGH still (which was the only reason Kit Refinement was ever considered OP…).

I’m not saying Engineers shouldn’t be nerfed when needed, but I am saying builds shouldn’t be deleted. With a nerf, we could still decide to keep our loved skill choices. With a delete, we are forced to play a new way.

I’m also saying that Kit Refinement didn’t change much of anything, as HGH is unaffected, so it makes no sense, and will still trigger nerfs in the future. And let me remind people that stacking up to 25 Might is not easy unless you go a very particular route to do so, and that route can be argued as “balanced”, since it is so particular (and boring if not your playstyle).

nakoda.4213:

double grenade barrage pop, double elixir pop, and double flame blast pop. granted, they may have only been “hand in the cookie jar” exploits, and not the “stole five hundred billion in gold after crashing two planes into a high rise” kind of exploit, but they were exploits nonetheless.

Devs designed Kit Refinement to be that way. It was blatantly intended.

It was not an exploit. It was intended. It’s highly dramatic to call them exploits. They were, again, intended.

But when too many people use the same traits, those traits get reviewed. “Why are so many players in one of the underplayed professions all picking Kit Refinement?” “How can we add balanced diversity?” “Hmm, let’s change the key skills that make Engineers pick it, so they’ll pick other stuff instead—solved.”

People who used Super Elixir or Grenade Barrage didn’t view themselves as OP. They viewed themselves as equaling the other professions they faced. And frankly, the rest of the forums were not crying “OMG THE ENGINEER IS TOO OP”.

So why then, would we get gutted? Makes no sense.

Most of the people complaining are not complaining from the narrow mindset of the Engineer. They are complaining from the broad mindset of all the other professions. Other professions can trait for damage AND condition removal. Or damage AND a million other things. So why was the Engineer deleted from one of its favorite builds?

The new Kit Refinement would have been accepted if it wasn’t broken. The new skills are fine, some loved. But the global cooldown is ridiculous. It’s now far too situational (probably intended) so that only a select few will pick it—thereby freeing up “diversity” to the Engineer.

Turrets still need to be buffed.

Kalan.9705:

“Lack of all trades, mediocre at one” – appears to better fit A-net’s ‘engineer vision’ in practice.

Debating this as my new sig…. or my new motto for Anet.

The easiest way for anyone to compare a profession is run out to the PvP lobby as a lvl 2, stack pure damage, pure defense, and mix stats, and just test some numbers with key builds.

You’ll notice something Anet appears to…. never look at. Numbers. The damage you do that is high for an Engineer is low for the other professions (when adjusting for equality in stats/builds).

Go pure berserkers, and watch how pathetic the damage when spamming your auto-attack. Now switch professions, and watch how you are more pleased.

Engineer has short cooldowns on swapping. That is it. Nothing more. Nada.

So the engineer can hit for crap, and respond with “meh” counters, but do so repeatedly hoping to “wait out” the other player’s cooldowns. It is fun because the engineer can just do a lot, even if it is all mediocre.

But when Anet takes away, for a profession that isn’t on top, you need to wonder what vision will happen down the road. We already have super long CDs on mediocre skills, which were made longer in past patches….

The vision of the future is bleak. Unless you are looking at what Elder Scrolls Online will shape up to be. Fresh air can either bring a new love, or appreciation for an old love.

The best legendaries are the concept arts made by fans.

I was playing around with it too.

I favored it over all other stats. Sure, I wasn’t bursting anything down, but I was melting them, while I was perfectly ok to handle the incoming damage. The healing and toughness really allowed some wiggle room.

But with my Super Elixir removed from the game, I’m not sure if I want it. We still have Super Elixir as skill #5, but not from Kit Refinement. Why waste an armor set on increased healing, when we barely have healing?

Running over med kits and firing a super elixir is it. Since we were gutted (those of us who favored a support build), I see no reason to roll it anymore.

I’m playing my Guardian and Elementalist now. They just have too much more in the way of support, without losing as much when doing it.

Necromancer is my new favorite atm though. Because it heals and strips conditions off the entire group more than an Engineer, imo.

PhelanDisturbed.1650:

That is exactly the point we disagree on. If that were solid fact guardians would almost always destroy me, however it’s the other way around in my experience. And unless you want to call the 50+ guardians lives I’ve claimed all bad players that argument is moot… I know I’m not the best, so if a mostly pvp noob is taking out heavy Armor types on such a frequent basis, the argument that engineers suck has not a leg to stand on.

I never said Engineers suck, nor implied it.

I implied that Engineers are lacking when compared to other professions, when matching up for similar builds. Like tanky, DPS, etc.

I never compared my observations from the one-sided perspective of “oh, I fought them and it was ok, so we must all be ok since I’m so good”. That isn’t objective.

What is objective is when people play multiple professions, and notice that they (the same player) consistently does better as other professions.

So if I kill 50 Guardians on my Engineer, grats to me. But what if I’m killing 100 Engineers (if I can find them) on my Guardian? Can I make the giant leap of logic that my skill level is the same on both professions and the Guardian (or Ele, or Necro, or etc) is then better suited? No.

I’m just 1 opinion of observations.

But when an entire group gravitates toward the same assumptions, then yes.

Engineers are not many.

Guardians are.

So yes, the variety of Guardians means you’ll come across many with… questionable stats. Simply so many people play one. And if in WvW, you’ll come across many that aren’t even near your level. So if you are killing level 20 new players, that isn’t exactly a telltale sign.

But a tanky Guardian vs a tanky Engineer is just no contest. The Guardian does more damage as a tanky spec. And if you flip it to pure DPS, the Guardian has more survivability than the DPS Engineer.

I’m all for the Engineer. It is more fun. But I play my alts when I feel like being more…. suited for the situation. I hope I make sense.

Quae.5431:

Daxxter.8920:

I have my engineer at level 80 and it has gotten some “bad nerfs” […] My point with this is that reading the forums past the 26th patch, every class is broken and not viable any more. I don’t know what to think any more and the more I go on the forums the more it depresses me and makes me want to play something else…. Are engineers that bad or are they just not played how they are supposed to.

Well, my complaint is not that the eng is no longer viable across the board. Certainly there are builds that still work. Some peoples’ builds were not affected at all by the patch, of course, and they aren’t complaining. But I had tried several builds people have been raving about since launch and didn’t like any of them (i still don’t understand the love for grenades). I found one build that i liked, that made sense to me, that did what i wanted it to do and made the game seem worth while. With the patch, my build is gone. All of the people saying “learn to adjust, just play something different” are right in many regards. The fact that I can’t find another build that is intuitive and fun for me to play is maybe my own problem, not the fault of the game. But it doesn’t change the fact that my build becoming non-viable means I may have to find not just another build or another class, but another game altogether. That is the part that’s disappointing to me. With all that GW2 has going for it (it’s gorgeous!), I have found it lacking in many ways from the start. I felt “at home” with my engineer build, but now it’s gone. So it’s going to take me a while to see if I can find something else about the game that feels like home, and in the meantime I’m going to pout about the changes. That’s the plan. haha.

When you have a build that is perfect for your playstyle, and it is nerfed, you just keep using it.

When you have a build that is perfect for your playstyle, and it is deleted, you complain on the forums.

Anet deleted Engineers’ builds from existence. It isn’t fun to be forced to play something you don’t want to play. It isn’t a player problem, but a design problem. The option was there, and is now gone.

So it is valid to be upset and not passive about it.

With my build, I can use the same kits, the same rotations, and just lost some key effects. But it doesn’t feel the same. I ran with only 10 points in Tools for Speedy Kits, but often swapped it out for Kit Refinement for key encounters. I now have zero reason to do that again, and now just have Speedy Kits…. I don’t need swiftness in those encounters, but there is no other option I want.

So I’m upset. I can do the same stuff mostly, but it isn’t the same.

Daxxter.8920:

I think it just gets to me because I come here with a smile and telling my self each day will bring a ton of new info from players on how to improve playing this wonderful class and all I get instead is you went to level 80 and spent all your time and gold for nothing, go roll a warrior and press 2 on GS from lvl 1 to 80.

The forums complain (usually) about aspects of their profession being broken. Not the whole thing.

Engineer is fine in playability—overall.

The problem is the last patch removed many builds from existence. It didn’t nerf them, it deleted them. Key abilities that were used no longer exist. So anyone using those is highly highly upset, especially since Engineers are not an OP class. Why did a nerf happen when the ability was fine as is?

The necromancers have issues too. They have really strong areas, and completely useless ones. So they focus on what they lack, wanting it to be just as viable as the rest.

Warriors are PvE heavy, and PvP light. Strong in one, and not in the other.

People want balance, and they want it quick.

Thieves just complain to complain. lol. But also, because they do have some limitations. They have low damage on a few weapons, making them kinda worthless. But complaints about stealth nerfs are just whiny. It just means relearning the timing of skills, to delay 1 more sec. It is a profession that attracts those that want cheap kills, so they are upset if they can’t get them as easily. Along with normal players complaining about real balance issues.

It is what it is.

sapphyredragon.6437:

Sororita.3465:

No such thing in WvW…my guardian can survive a very long time with 3 80 thieves on it…the engy gets steam rolled even playing smart.

An engi shouldn’t be able to handle 3 thieves unless it’s a tank build. Sounds kinda like you are comparing different build types.

No…

It sounds like she was stating something very simple. Her lvl 15 Guardian that doesn’t even have a build yet is able to survive with it’s weapon set skills, while her well-played lvl 80 Engineer is not.

Which I can agree to.

If I take my Engineer out in a few builds I don’t like, I get the results I want. But it isn’t fun.

If I take my Guardian out (who is now in the 60s) in any build, I have fun and typically the results I want.

Some professions are able to specialize, without giving up much else. The Engineer is not one of those professions. Assuming because the Engineer can “swap” to do so much… but the base numbers seem off, when compared to the other professions.

And who says a Guardian is support and an Engineer is not? You need to play them both again, and look at the options. They are both support, damage, and control. Just one can do all three a weebit better. And hint: it is not the Engineer (unless doing all 3 weakly at once counts as better).

Eviator.9746:

Kit refinement defined a few builds. Now it can no longer do that, so those builds are destroyed. Those who liked using those builds are understandably upset. Any nerf, expected or not, that decreased the usefulness of that trait so that it could no longer define those builds was going to cause a lot of rage. Sure, AN could have restructured the trait tree to make it a grandmaster trait. I think what they did instead is the simpler method of handling the balance issue.

Fun, shmun. Don’t kid yourselves, the fun you experienced is 1-shotting people. Intellectual honesty.

Frankly I’m not too upset. Once 100nades became a household name, there were a lot of new fair-weather engineers. Now that it’s gone, we’re a rare species again, to some degree.

Don’t assume how people played, or why they chose Kit Refinement. There were many more uses to it than 1 build. Which is why it was fun.

If people can’t see beyond that one build and the fun to be had, then they weren’t very intellectual to begin with. That’s honest.

Engineer 1-shotting people? You mean the afk folk standing in WvW?

darkace.8925:

I’m seeing a lot of discussion about Kit Refinement. Being a turret Engineer, I never really paid a ton of attention to the trait, but seeing it being the subject of so many threads now has me wondering what I missed.

I’m wondering why everyone is so upset over this trait. It looks to me, on paper, to be a useful skill. It doesn’t seem overpowered; it doesn’t seem underpowered. It looks like what I’d expect an Adept-tiered trait to look like. Yet I see a lot of vitriol over the trait. And that has me asking myself two questions.

First question: if the current iteration of Kit Refinement is so bad why not simply choose a new trait? The only answer I can think of is “it used to be so much better.” And that answer leads me to my second questions: if Kit Refinement used to be such a good trait that it was too good to pass up, then don’t you think a bit of a nerf was probably in order?

I’m not looking to rock the boat here, I’m legitimately curious why everyone’s so upset. And as I said, I don’t know what KR used to be or why it was such a staple in other builds, so please feel free to fill me in. Thanks.

Answer #1) You can’t just pick any new Trait. The loss of the old kit refinement killed the builds many Engineers had. Some used it for Super Elixir. Some for Grenade Barrage. Some for the flamethrower’s ability to take off a condition.

The new version gutted all those builds, without giving anything in return. Many Engineer are ok with increased cooldowns OR the new effects. They are not ok with both AND having the cooldowns shared by ALL EFFECTS.

The old version was not imbalanced as far as most Engineers are concerned, because no other professions were complaining about Engineers. So the new version is a needless nerf. It has no point or thought, except that Anet wanted to force Engineers out of how they chose to have their fun.

Answer #2) No. The assumption for question #1 lead to question #2. If too many Engineers were all picking the same trait, and if that trait was not overpowered, that just proves that many of the Engineer’s abilities/traits were worthless/lackluster in any Engineer’s arsenal. It is a Developer problem for not making more fun choices.

People were attracted to the same trait for the variety of effects, and because there was nothing else worth doing. You don’t fix that by getting rid of the only good thing that exists, forcing people to pick crap. You fix it by making the other skills/traits more desirable.

If it was “too much”, it could simply been made 20 points. But, Elementalists have a similar trait, also adept, that gives them a ton, and gave them more benefit than ours ever did. Why is it not noticed? Cause the Elementalist has many such traits that are all good, so they have a variety of builds.

That is why people are upset. Something not overpowered was kitten for the sake of ruining their fun, to make diversity. Or, the Developers’ “vision” of the Engineer is not what the players were doing. So they decided to kill off player creativity.

Oxstar.7643:

It’s funny how people always claim that elementalists are better than engineers in every way.
I beg to disagree, given the past experiences I’ve had. But I don’t know what the world is like now since the patch.

Well, during the last few months special events, my low level Ele (under lvl 20) was side kicked up to 80. It was able to hold it’s own and kill/survive as fast or faster than my 80 Engineer. It was a humbling experience.

Those attunements are just insanely powerful to combo off each other, and the only downside is if the adds keep coming and you are stuck in an attunement you don’t want.

Deniara Devious.3948:

But on the positive note, finally they fixed culling and it is tons better now. I am also happy that they nerfed quickness, which should have been 50% to begin with.

To me…. that’s a negative note since it took that long for anyone on the team to realize it needed to be changed…

That’s a bad sign.

They need to hire a mathematician to help them in data pursing maybe. Programers use math, but don’t need to understand it. It just seems odd, big picture, the mistakes in balance. Something isn’t right, be it not enough employees, or not qualified enough in the right department.

Or, the vast majority of players are suffering due to balancing the extreme top % of sPvP. I know a few top-rated sPvP players and how they complain about WAY different skills/issues than the rest of the playerbase.

But I never paid attention to whether those changes that hit us players, are because of how a small % can min/max the usefulness. I should maybe go back and look lol.

blurps.2340:

NevirSayDie.6235:

Don’t forget that an elementalist made a youtube video with exactly the same premise several months ago, only he talked about how much better he got after switching to thief. No one considers eles underpowered now, so perhaps in time we’ll get there, too.

ANet obviously had a pretty good idea of where they wanted to go with the Ele and took it there relatively quickly, while the Engineer changes have been all over the place and more often than not contradictory.

Sure, they’ll probably get there eventually. I wouldn’t bet a Dime on that happening anytime soon though.

I lost faith in Anet long before this. (Lost Shores, WvW, Events bugged for days and days…)

I suspected it was just “growing pains” and wait out a few months as they learn from mistakes and get better.

But they keep biting off more than they can chew. With how everything is going, I just view it has they will always have this as their standard—high intentions, low quality executions.

KR took away the fun for my Engineer, but ultimately is no big deal. I mean, yes, it killed my build, and I don’t want to make a new build. But the rest of the game is still there.

And that’s the problem. The rest of the game is still there. To play my alts, I need to get new laurels and such to gear up again…. it’s just too much stale repetition. The whole time, I’ll be thinking about how I already had a character higher up on the gear treadmill. It would be a psychological thing to be reminded that I’m having to do something all over again, and that distracts from the “fun” that should be had.

Plus, playing an Ele or Guardian just reminds me I’m doing the same thing in a new way (and better way). Only reason I favored the Eng over them was because Guardian lacks range, and Ele swapping attunements is slower (but more powerful) than Eng swapping kits. I took a hit to power in favor of the instant gratification, which was yanked away….

I’m just seeing how this plays out for the first year. If Anet takes that long and still is kinda all over the place with quality content (for every 5 good things, we still have 4 bad), then I’m not going to have patience anymore. That other MMO out there took years to bring up, and then back down, their classes. I’m not going to be a a repeat of that where X and Y are flavors of the year, while A and Z are just going to be weak until the next expansion….

Terrahero.9358:

Need i remind you of the infamous profession description a few months back? Or point out how this description is suddenly, hilariously, different from what the devs are now saying Engineer is all about in a recent interview?

Oh. I’m curious. What is an Engineer now?

Zenguy.6421:

All the indications are that ANet is theory-crafting the Eng class, far more than they are paying attention to how people use and want to use this class. The result: changes that look sensible on paper but suck in reality.

KR is a classic example. Sure, it was uneven and more powerful in some builds than you’d expect for a 10pt trait. But it was also filling a gaping hole in our traits: reward for multi-kit builds (kits aren’t free, they take up a slot and toolbelt that can’t be used for anything else). A lot of Engs running multi-kit builds needed the boost the old KR trait gave to make those builds viable. That’s where ANet’s theory crafting of the KR changes failed.

With KR, ANet thought they were just balancing a 10pt trait. Instead they were removing a capability that was needed to make a significant proportion of Eng builds viable – and they appear to have had no idea they were doing that!

TLDR: ANet aren’t paying attention to how people actually use/want to use this class.
Result: Repeated changes to the Eng class that suck when implemented.

Great point

Kit Refinement allowed for muti-kits, because we could feel ok about not pouring all our traits into buffing 1 kit only.

We can either buff 1 kit to max and rely on it 100%, and never use our other utility. Or, we can be weaker and have more utility.

We lost some utility.

There needs to be a new patch that reverts this patch. At least to some degree.

Sladeakakevin.4162:

Do people seriously think that developers don’t play Engineer at all? ArenaNet is a multi-million dollar company and you SERIOUSLY don’t think their developers know a lot more about class balance than their players? It’s their job to do this, we all do it for fun. Of course they have people who play each class, it would be insane to think they don’t. A lot of these changes are made in mind with ALL other changes made to other classes, everyone likes to look at their one class and scream “STOP NERFING US!” but never take it into the big picture.

It’s not like these changes are permanent, they do a lot of things to “test the waters” and see if it works or not. These forums are a mess, crying every patch I swear.

And…. where on the forums did you see anyone crying about the Engineers needing to be fixed because they were so OP? It didn’t happen. And what Engineers could do with the old Kit Refinement was not trivializing content. It had no point to be changed, besides the uselessness of some of the old abilities. (the new Bomb and Med Kit ones are much better)

People can complain AND see the big picture. We all know when our beloved profession has something wrong with it because it is too powerful. Remember Pistol Mesmer anyone? There is nothing wrong with bringing an ability into line with the rest. And many Mesmers expected, defended, and accepted the change. They knew it was needed, as it was cheap.

But when an ability is completely 100% fine, and we still end up losing it…. it makes no sense. It is a key ability. It is used specifically for a certain playstyle. It was fun.

What if Anet sees too many Engineers with cookie-cutter builds? Well, to make Engineers stop being the same, they ruin the key features of a popular build to force Engineers to “have fun” being different. This is my opinion.

We lost a fun ability because Anet is picking how we can have fun. My view on the matter.

irakai.6891:

That’s all we ask. It’s not a lot to ask and it shouldn’t be asked, but in light of the recent changes it seems necessary.

It’s nice that we’re getting some attention and bug fixes. Thanks for that, even though we came out significantly weaker because of it.

But it feels like no play testing has been done at all, as evident by KR having stupid hidden global cooldown, which makes trying to proc the desired effect in the heat of battle nearly impossible with 2-3 kits, as well as Flame Turret being broken with Deployable Turrets, a trait you’d most likely have if you play tested a turret engineer.

Now I’m sure you have a reason for not having public test servers. But since you don’t, could you please assign someone to play the class on a regular basis? Preferably in tPvP or sPvP?

Thanks.

I’ve never, never, never, never, never, NEVER, seen any class in the game complain about the Engineer as “too strong (or a similar wording)” since the first beta a year ago. A long long long time ago.

So why did somone feel it was necessary to “adjust” Kit Refinement? Grenade Barrage I used often, as I could keep track of it to cause a burst effect.

It wasn’t some “OH MAH GAWD LOOK AT MY LEET NUMBERS!”

It was “oh look, every 20 seconds I can finally burst evenly with those around me.”

I keep wondering, why is one profession able to constantly have a level of damage, defense, or healing options kept high, but our Engineer profession is constantly “tweaked” to make it subpar to those around us.

Overall, the fixes outweigh the breaking, but the breaking hits CORE features of our builds. That… is just not acceptable.

Anymras.5729:

I’ve been running full turrets pretty much since release, and the times that my turrets have been out for five minutes or more…well, those tend to be when I’m reading a book while farming for crafting materials or something. Never when I’m actively playing. Admittedly, my experience is purely PvE, but I still find it difficult to imagine a circumstance in which I am both actively playing and leaving my turrets standing (not even picking them up to arrange them in slightly different ways) for upwards of five minutes at a time barring a fire-and-forget ambush in which they’re essentially warning bells.

I think the change may have something to do with the Engineer’s ability to get contribution to several events simultaneously while not really being in the area of any of them or actually participating at all – no other minion-having profession’s minions can be used in this particular way, as all other minions follow their makers.

Too little too late. Had I thought of this, I’d have maximized my Skill Point/Karma gains.

The Engineer is meant to swap kits as their playstyle, if they choose. It is why the Engineer is restricted to 1 weapon set after all.

And, the Engineer can choose a variety of traits to compliment their multi-Kit playstyle. There is no “must have” trait build.

But let’s be honest and face it…. certain traits are weighted far more heavily than others. There are only so many “key” traits that have synergy with others.

With the new “Refinement Kit” having a 20 second cooldown on ALL kits, this limits the trait to single Kit users, and limits the usefulness of the trait. The trait is placed in dead water.

By having anymore than 1 kit, there is little to no control over the random effect going off. It would be wasted and in no way helpful.

Engineers have mixed feelings about which of the new effects are better or worse, but one thing stands out, most Engineers seem to like the new Bomb Kit effect (Magnetic Bomb) and Healing Kit effect (Magnetic Aura), but hate the cooldown affecting every kit equally, hate the long cooldown in association with the short durations, and hate the limitations of when they’d now use Kit Refinement (which used to be a key trait in builds) over another given Trait (if at all).

Glue Trail vs Super Elixir is a debatable topic. I personally think Glue Trail should be placed somewhere else, while some love it. Yes, Engineers can use Glue Trail to maneuver foes to stay on top of Acid Bomb longer, but it is not reliable. The hidden 20 sec CD is a major factor, as is not accidentally wasting the effect when swapping between kits. Setting up the combo when combat first starts is the only reliable time. Or just mashing the Kit over and over while running away. Any other chance to combo with other abilities requires not having other kits, not using those kits, or carefully watching a hidden cooldown in the middle of combat. It is not user friendly nor allows the player to watch the game, but instead watch our bars to “match-up” with a similar cooldown.

But more importantly, Engineers gain another movement control ability with Glue Trail (why? Engineers have plenty already) and lose a support skill to heal. Supportive play in PvE takes another hit and a backseat spot to the “everyone for themselves” mentality. Magi, Cleric, and Apothecary stats are made even more trivial as options. We already have large groups demanding Beserkers only stats, or they don’t want you. And this leads more people to adopt that mentality too, since they see that as what “everyone else is doing”. Check the LFGGW2 website or /map chat as examples.

As a class able to do Healing Support, the Engineer has the least amount of heals already, even when they try to build around it. The Guardian and Elementalist for instance are able to do damage while using some of their Healing Support, but the Engineer must decide to do Support at the cost of anything else. Med Kits being dropped is a dedicated choice. Firing a Super Elixir is a dedicated choice. And the Engineer lost one of it’s key options for players that built around that choice.

NevirSayDie.6235:

To be fair, the patch shows how much the devs are focusing on the engineer profession, and that they really want to reach their vision for the class. I don’t think it reflects well on their understanding of how to actually successfully play an engineer, though.

This.

This.

This.

So much this.

The other fixes are great. But this was simply a way to destroy Kit Refinement.

20 sec shared cooldown is useless. We can’t make a reliable skill choice.

Glue Trail and Magnetic Bomb can be used in builds. The rest is just useless (not because it is bad, but because we don’t need it).

We already had a lot of movement control. We don’t have much in supportive healing (in terms of how much we can heal, how short the cooldowns are, and how much we can do other tasks while healing).

The Guardian and Engineer can do healing support while doing damage or other things. We needed to dedicated our skill use solely to heal, while not doing damage or other support.

Now, we lost an AoE heal. This is not cool.

Kimbald.2697:

on elixir gun this:

1. swap Elixir gun and glue

2. hit #4 and drop an acid bomb

3. start your shooting on the enemy getting hurt by the acid bomb.

This is a smart change, for a build using only EG it’s actually a usefull thing.

I tried that, and it just roots your targets for a sec. The leap back causes the trail to break, and they run straight to you because the trail is dry.

I mean, it has its uses, but its synergy with the weapon isn’t as great as Super Elixir was.

Its synergy is great for multi-swapping, and forcing another second of damage on Acid Bomb, but it is damage we could do any other way. We basically lost a group heal (party members, NPCs, ourselves).

We lost another support ability for another movement control ability. We didn’t need another movement control ability.

The “fun” is what is important.

It was fun before without balance issues. Now, the fun is gone.

GoZero.9708:

While the new changes are appreciated, the 20 second cooldown across all kits combined with the short duration of the abilities themselves makes the trait worthless. Time to get a new trait.

Ruined the trait for me (personally).

Players can’t keep track of an invisible 20 sec cooldown. So effects go off when you don’t want them now.

Shared cooldown, between all kits? It seems that very little thought was placed into this decision.

Was the old way bad? I never saw people whining that Engineers “do too much”. Ever. No clue why the change occurred.

Some are better, like when using the Healing Kit, you want a shield most likely, not an explosion. Bomb Kit pulls people in.

Many are worse.
A mine (one, just one) dropped locally for the Ranged Grenades? What is the point?
Why does my ranged Elixir Gun get a local movement impairment effect? I miss my Super Elixir, but it wasn’t like it protected me or my group as a trump card (it seemed balanced already). Now I root people. I see the benefits, but I don’t see any synergy. It’s just “tacked on”.

Others are pointless changes. Neutral.
Tool Kit has a speed boost. We can melee more, theoretically, as we chase down moving players. Good enough, except the short duration. Cripple changed to “run fast”. Meh, apples to oranges, and see no difference in changing one to the other. In fact, we lost an instant cripple that would allow us to maintain melee range.
Flame Thrower now does a fire shield that only does damage when hit, and grants Might. Before, it inflicted 5 seconds of burning in melee range. Seems like we lost out, but I’ll call it neutral.

The rest of the patch seemed like fixes to Engineer. Kit Refinement though seems like Anet’s way of telling us not to use it ever, unless we are building around Magnetic Bomb or Glue Trail.

Necromancer pets die very very easy, but do a ton of damage before they die. You basically run in, everything is killing everything, and you mop up the left overs. Re-summon and repeat.

This is before you buff your pets with traits. Not sure how well or poorly that works, as I haven’t used that traitline.

But they don’t offer much in the way of support for others, or help in wvw. They’d die to AoE.

For both Ranger and Necro, I favor dropping traps/wells/marks on people. The pets are just added utility. The ranger pet can revive you, and if traited, can revive others.

Both have their abilities to support groups, but not really with their pets. Ranger would be better if you want to use your pet along with being versatile in whatever builds you decide. Necro versatility comes with not using the pets as much and using other skills more.

sostronk.8167:

For me personally, I have played all the PvE in the game. Most of the “dynamic events” I have done hundreds of times and just refined it down to a “fastest process”. This to me isn’t mentally stimulating. Players give me a random element to gameplay that PvE does not. PvE could keep me entertained if they constantly provided new content, but Anet seems clear they would rather people grinded the same content thousands of times rather than provide new and engaging content.

I still PvE because WvW is not rewarding enough. I need to farm PvE to fund my WvW.

That hit the nail on the head.

PvE content is slow. Look at how slow this Fire and Ice content is moving. The pacing is horrid. But Anet needs that time. It’s just sad that the new content coming (and the old content that is still bugged) is not enough to keep things going.

In the open world, there are not enough meta-events and regular events can go untriggered as you walk through a zone. Just not much to engage the player unless moving into pvp of some sort.

Zommoros will eat your Quaggan.

Don’t transmute the Quaggan over until you are ready with the final version of your Fractal piece.

Or, transmute the Quaggan off, just to safeguard it.

The combat in GW2 is stale because it isn’t needed as anything more. It is because the event coding is poor.

For instance, we can have all sorts of unique synergy with those around us (Dungeons and events where only small amounts of players show up highlight this), showing off some amazing combat fun. Doing a champion meta event with only 2-4 players is a lot more fun (depending on the meta, since most still suck from being too simple).

But the game doesn’t require us to do that. The game requires us to auto-attack number 1 while standing around, and if we fall, just get a revive from a neighbor. Almost all the combat events in the game are boring (like Temple of Melandru, any Dragon Event, Shadow Behemoth, etc) because they don’t require us to pay attention to anything. We just need to burst damage something or some group.

We don’t need to set up our skills, wait for opportune times, pay attention to our neighbors.

In fights heavy with conditions, I keep my Elixir Gun out and keep a light field down 100% of the time. Super Elixir and Fumigate. But do people bother to use it? No… cause there is no need. The few fights where there is need, people don’t bother since they never learned. They instead go down like bricks and just rely on being rezzed over and over.

The holy trinity was great at forcing Developers to engage players with each other and the combat. Removing it is neither good nor bad. It simply causes Developers to become lazy. The no longer need to think about player-player interactions.

With beta and 7 months of release, it is clear that content is not balanced well. I love the game, but I’m honest. The balance between event to event is just bad. Way too easy “get hit by everything and live” events, or Champion Sharks that 1 hit everyone to death. This is plainly bad design. We the players can’t do anything on our end.

But pointing out how boring it is, and how changes are needed seems to get deleted from the forums as “not helping”.

The game will be what it is, as long as Anet doesn’t want to hear criticism.

yeah, I afk auto attack while browsing the internet. It isn’t fun, it is just a daily chore.

I even use a second account on another computer to afk auto attack for my roomie. I just have to get up once to start, grab a glass of water, and go back to browsing.

The dragon content is just… well, let’s be blunt, poor design. They face one direction and don’t truly interact with the group. You don’t need to dodge anything (not really), you don’t need to combo with neighbors, you don’t need to do anything engaging.

Champion Drakin Cinderspire is an excellent example of content that engages the player. The event has phases, there is a lot going on, and you can’t just afk through it. Even then though, the giant Fire Elemental does nothing but stand in the middle stationary, like the Fire Elemental in Metrica. It could use improvement.

The Claw of Jormag is an excellent example of something meant to be challenging, but ultimately is just “find the right place to stand while auto-attacking”. It uses phases, but poorly. The mobs stay away from the core fight area, the dragon does a game of Frogger for damage, so you simple strafe left and right, and you don’t need to engage much of anything (except time).

Shatterer and Teq are not worth mentioning.

Anet is aware the events are lackluster, so hopefully the revamps end up more engaging. Or the future content if the old stuff is not worth spending time on.

Moral of the story is, scripted events suck because the AI is limited and human nature turns it into easy mode. The next batch of big bads need to actively move around attacking, like the Abominations and Giants in Orr. And avoid cheap gimmicks like “don’t stand on this red spot”. Instead, make the player need to do something with the surrounding environment/mobs to become immune to the AoE, so the player can inflict damage, and needs to engage multiple parts of the fight (but even more than that).

Hate to make a WoW comparison, but world bosses would hunt you down if you engaged them, not stand in one spot.

Corrigan.8091:

@Vermundr.7428: OMG! Thank you! I’ve been running around with these purple shoes I could not change, and finally I ran across this, which worked for me also. You have to undye everything! Exit char panel and then go back and re-dye.

Thanks much!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with the HoM Heavy Chest piece, on Charr. That color bug is just…. persistent

Seems a separate dye bug was merged with the rest….

Just so whoever reads this (if they bother to read this far) the Charr wearing HoM Heavy is not the same bug.

We can take it off without crashing. No problems there.
We cannot change the colors, as the stripe stays the Salmon color.
All of us have the exact same color bugged out on the stripe.
Urrid, Erick, and DevilLordLaser posted screenshots above. Notice the stripe down the chest? Notice the color?

That is the bug.