Guild Wars 2

Can’t really calculate the values properly, but seeing you’re all doing some research I figured I’d come by and post what I’ve seen while playing Scrapper and Berserker. Keep in mind this is in open world PvE, so it might be different.

- Breakbar ‘HP’ and regeneration rate might scale depending on player population, and some enemies might have different regeneration rates. I’ve seen Veteran Nuhoch(sp?) stompers having their breakbar broken , then burning them down for a good 20~30 seconds until they died, with their breakbar barely regenerated. Legendary Wyvern, on the other hand, is pretty easy to break if you’re prepared for it and solo; with a sizeable zerg, it’s impossible to solo-break it since the damage to the bar is pretty low.

- Playing as Berserker: Legendary Wyvern can be broken if solo/under 5 man via Wild Blow, Shield Bash/Tremor and Headbutt. Headbutt deals almost half of the breakbar by itself, could be since it’s a 3s stun.

- Playing as Scrapper: I can’t really assure it, but Blind and Weakness, being soft-CC’s that had reduced efectiveness against Defiant enemies before, seem to also affect Breakbars. I’ve laid down Endothermic Shell below an unbroken champion regenerating its breakbar but didn’t manage to halt the regeneration; however, dropping Flash Shell right after seemed to add up to the chill and started lowering the breakbar again, albeit slowly. Also, Slick Shoes can’t insta-break an enemy if they are not moving over the puddles.

I can kind of confirm Khisanth’s post. I too was doing events in Mount Maelstrom (need those Chargeds for Bolt!) and checked periodically the map to see the ‘next Reward’.

I’ve got to say you’re pretty lucky though! I got about three Ancient Bones in succession before it changed to 5 silk… Then back to Ancient Bones.

Also worth noting that Jumping Puzzles give you a non-reward event completion prompt now, which seems to count towards your Map Reward. You’ll roughly get a reward every two events – if doing Mount Maelstrom, you’ve got many opportunities via MegaDestroyer and Crucible of Eternity unlock event chain.

I don’t think you need to wield a Hammer to gain access to the Function Gyro – I play Berserker without Torch. It’s the first minor in the Scrapper tree, so if you’ve have Scrapper traitline slotted in and enough points in, you should have the Function Gyro.

I’ve got to say I use this little guy regulary in Maguuma, I’d say that even over 20 times each day. The only times I’ve had issues targetting it was in the middle of a pool of players (Verdant Brink’s Wyvern, for instance), though I do admit I’ve tried to deploy it many times while it was on cooldown. I like the detail of having it flying next to the Scrapper when it’s off cooldown, but perhaps adding a GUI element like it was in the Beta is in order – I don’t think it needs to be bigger.
A way to cycle through teammates could also prove useful, perhaps starting with downed ones? Could help the Druid target-heal allies, too.

I see the Engineer icon as an elixir bottle. The ‘fuse’ I’ve always interpreted it as simply a rope/thread to attach it to the armor for easier throw/consume access. Would make more sense to have them attached to the armor than in a pouch the Engineer has to rummage through to find the elixir he/she needs at any precise moment.

Additionally, while another icon could express the Engineer’s diversity other than a bomb/elixir (wrench would make more sense thematically, but you aren’t forced to run constructs or toolkit either), it’s not the only profession having this. An elementalist doesn’t just manipulate fire (icon should show all four elements); a Mesmer doesn’t have to actually wear a mask or be glamorous (a butterfly would represent the class more, as per shatter effects), Warrior’s class icon could be very well any other Soldier icon, etc.

We will have to wait to see the new Scrapper icon, and settle with it if there’s no more icon clashes. I don’t think ANet would change the icon more times ‘just’ because the class’ playerbase ain’t happy with it.

I play Berserker S/D Rifle engineer in PvP and I do take Utility Googles/Analyze for the 10% extra damage + lightning proc. I’ve found out that after the first encounter, Thieves have ways to counter my Analyze, be it Shadowstepping away for the revealed duration, frontloading their burst so Revealed doesn’t matter anymore since I should die soon or act as +1’s in fights and come from behind when my attention is focused somewhere else.

I really see it more as a, as much as I hate using the expression, learn to play issue. Toolbelt Analyze requires the enemy to be visible so you have to guess when it will be useful; Detection Pulse, albeit AoE with wide radius, will have to be saved for when you know someone’s in Stealth nearby and it locks out AoE Moa, Orbital Strike and AoE Healpacks, which I’d say is a big trade-off for any engineer. I won’t talk about Lock On since, as it is now, won’t even properly pull targets out of Stealth.

You have to consider that the builds that might run Utility Googles and Lock On are burst builds, so chances are they’ll have at most Self-Regulating Defenses and perhaps Vampirism Mistform as means of ‘reactive’ defense; if caught, they die.

EDIT: I guess I didn’t really answer your question directly; I’d say the Engineer skills are fair enough in what you have to give up to get the Revealed option: lose out one Utility Skill, on dual kit builds that means dropping Elixir S for instance; taking Lock On (which doesn’t ‘properly’ work as it does apply Revealed but doesn’t pull people off Stealth) over Power Wrench or Static Discharge; or losing out on powerful Elite skills (not counting we don’t even know how useful Sneak Gyro is yet).

Technically the trait does what it says it does – it Analyzes the enemy (applies Vulnerability and Revealed). The ‘problem’ is that it’s generally useless since the Stealth has been applied already and applying Revealed (“You cannot Stealth”) doesn’t remove Stealth.

Which makes me wonder if it will be changed to remove Stealth when HoT comes, since Stealth Gyro can remove Stealth.

Permanent regeneration? How do you manage that with only healing turret while keeping the 15~20 second CD? At most you could keep a 50% regeneration uptime I believe.

Also, as Phineas already said, chances are you won’t be able to get all three Leaps out of Cleansing Burst; it takes 1.5 seconds to complete, and I think Cleansing Burst’s water field lasts for less than 1 second – I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get two Area Heals out of Orbital Strike on Cleansing Burst. We’ll see in the BWE3 I guess.

I’d say it depends on what build are you using. If you’re going HGH, Elixir X for sure; if you’re non-Alchemy burst, Mortar Kit; if you’re bunker, go with either of the three since all are good options.

I’m currently running Static Discharge Berseker (Explosives/Firearms/Tools) and I use Mortar Kit to support my team on point. It’s fun to play like a Longbow Ranger in, say, Temple of the Silent Storm and drop 1.5k~2k AoE hits every half a second, or Orbital Strike.

The way it was worded seems to imply Function Gyros only function to revive or finish off. It’d be cool if they did other things, who knows, maybe we’re in for a surprise?

Wait until tomorrow’s PoI about the whole thing; chances are you might be able to deactivate/detonate the gyros prematurely if needed be.

From the post: ‘Each gyro model has a limited amount of fuel before it detonates or is destroyed’; could imply manual detonation.

Considering the Pact’s Fleet demise in HoT and the way the Gyros look, I’d say Scrapper is a fitting name.

Not much information in the preview, but some things were interesting. Triple leap finisher sounds nice, and a damaging block, very nice to have for a melee specialization. Kind of ‘eh’ about the group superspeed.

I wonder what ‘boons affect your gyros’ mean. They count as NPCs and mess up with the boon-target-cap? Or they gain the buffs the Scrapper gains? They’ll have health? It’d be weird if they could gain Regeneration without healthbar.

If you don’t want to feel ‘tanky’ you could try Berserker S/D build.

Those 9k Grenade Barrages ! Even better if you can proc Kinetic Battery for ~18k in 1 second against light non-protection targets.

If it goes on a ‘reduced’ cooldown it might be because you interrupted the cast (dodging, Elixir S), were interrupted by the enemy or your opponent is in a valid position respective of yours – for instance, trying to fire Overcharged shot when the enemy is at your back. All of the above will put it in a 5-second cooldown, except if interrupted by certain Mesmers with a particular trait. (That’s another trick, using Overcharged Shot to remove immobilize. Make sure to target something that’s in front of you or untarget everything to prevent the 5-second CD!).

You can cast Orbital Strike close to you to force people into taking damage or stop pursuing, then immediately drop Elixir Shell. If close enough, the water field will pop right before the first strike hits, giving you both blast heals. Also, long-range Frost Armor is great support during teamfights for your team!

I used to run Elixir S for a bit, then Elixir Gun. Now I’m rocking Utility Goggles for both PvE and PvP since I use Static Discharge.

Chances are you won’t get CC’d too fast in PvE so it’s possible to get around using a 40 sec CD stunbreak; in PvP I just try to not go too far in and save Goggles for either the stunbreak or bursting down blinding enemies.

Be wary of Static Discharge, there’s a queue bug which will unqueue skills while using SD or Bunker Down. Also, keep in mind Static Discharge pretty much misses with all non-target Toolbelt skills, so it will only reliably work with Throw Wrench – hence I suggested Power Wrench for extra block uptime. I’d say Static Discharge isn’t worth it unless you have at least two skills that can reliably hit with it.

Warrior might be pesky to fight against, as you have to check what buffs he’s got. If he hasn’t popped Berserker stance you can Flash Shell and wail on him (you’ve got the range and chances are he’s not Rifle Warrior), if he pops Berserker you will have to do your best to mitigate as much damage/heal up while running away until it expires and can blind him. Note that Rampage’s skills all come with around 1 second cast time, so you can stay in Flash Shell’s field with little fear of retaliation if he didn’t use Berserker stance when he entered Rampage.

Good luck too ! The hardest part of running multiple builds is knowing or trying to guess when each skill has come off cooldown and using them all effectively. Also, remember to use your combo finishers ! Elixir Shell lasts quite a bit and you should be able to blast it 3~5 (if you use HTurret and Big Ol’Bomb) times and leap through it before it expires, giving some extra healing while pressuring the enemy.

Chances are it might be able to do things and win you games, but if it isn’t meta it’s for a reason. However, unless you have super-high MMR you should be able to get away with pretty much anything, so you could give it a go.

This next part will be all theorycrafting since I don’t have the PvP experience or time to thoroughly test these builds, so take them with a grain of salt. And if anyone wants to drop their 2c feel free to do so, of course.

~~~~~~THEORYCRAFTING HERE~~~~~~
I’ll be ruling out Medkit since it’s kind of a pain to use in its current iteration, so if you want four kits, Elite will have to be Mortar kit. This pretty much implies one of your specializations will be Explosives to grab Siege Rounds, since it boosts the kit so much.

Running four kits also means you should grab Elixir Gun as support kit, since it is the only kit that offers a stunbreak; that leaves you with two open utility slots. I’d rule out Flamethrower out of the question if you’re running Power, which leaves Tool, Grenade and Bomb Kits. Out of these three, ToolKit has the very solid Gear Shield for when things get sticky since you don’t have Elixir S to get you out of danger, but you could forgo it and go nuts with both Grenade and Bomb kits, using whichever skill is off-CD but with only dodges and blinds as defense.

Since you’ll be taking many kits, Tools for Streamlined Kits seems a no-brainer, as well as Power Wrench if taking ToolKit. That’d leave you with one open specialization line: I’d pick either Alchemy for HGH might/cooldowns and some condition removal if you take Elixir H, or you could try Inventions for Bunker Down. Since you’re a glasscannon, you could even try out A.E.D. with A.M.R. and Gadgeteer – Gadgeteer doesn’t expire, so your A.E.D. would practically be on a 22~30s recharge (depending on when/if it fires off) with A.M.R. resetting it from time to time, giving you an option to turn the tide of a duel. Alternatively, just run Healing Turret and pick whichever specialization you like (Firearms for crits?).

So basically:
—> EXPLOSIVES:
1 .- Take Grenadier if using Grenades, Glasscannon otherwise.
2 .- Short Fuse if using Bombs, your choice of AARocket/Shaped Charge otherwise.
3 .- Siege Rounds.

—> TOOLS:
1 .- Power Wrench it using ToolKit, Reactive Lenses otherwise.
2 .- Streamlined Kits.
3 .- Gadgeteer if you want to try A.E.D. as your heal, your choice of Kinetic Battery/Adrenal Implant otherwise.
Note: It’s wise to learn which Streamlined Kit effect triggers which kit. The ones you want to aim at are ToolKit (2s of Superspeed), Elixir Gun (drop a glue trail that immobilizes foes behind you for 2~3s) and Bomb Kit (drop a magnetic bomb that pulls enemies towards its center).

If taking Elixir H heal:
—> ALCHEMY:
1 .- Protection Injection seems to be the best bet here.
2 .- Backpack Regenerator or Self-Regulating defenses.
3 .- HGH.
NOTE: Keep in mind Alchemical Tinctures (remove conditions with Elixirs) would only work with Throw Elixir H, Elixir H, Hidden Flask and Self-Regulating Defenses. HGH gives might and reduced cooldown to the previous four and Healing Mist (your only stunbreak!), Acid Bomb, Super Elixir, Elixir Shell.

If taking A.E.D. (With Tool’s Gadgeteer):
—> INVENTIONS:
1 .- Automated Medical Response.
2 .- Mecha Legs (you can change Tools-> Streamlined Kits for Takedown Round if you like).
3 .- Bunker Down.

If taking Healing Turret:
—> FIREARMS:
1 .- High Caliber/Armor Exploit.
2 .- Skilled Marskman/No Scope.
3 .- Modified Ammunition.

A different approach could be dropping Tools and run Explosives/Firearms/Alchemy to abuse Armor Exploit swiftness and Invigorating Speed procs for extended dodging, but I’m not sure if that’s as viable as it was before the Vigor nerf.

The grenade/bomb kit thing is up to you, really. If you play hybrid/condi, Bomb kit offers that sweet 8/10s CD fire field along with 5 stacks of confusion; if you play power, Grenade kit has harder hitting attacks (Shrapnel, Poison, Freeze, Grenade Barrage) and you got some range to lay down the pain.

Technically you can still run 4 kits and not take Medkit, since we have Mortar kit now \o/ Can’t really offer much advice at how a build like that would work, though.

You should use Flash Shell in specific scenarios. If you’re defending Waterfall against a melee class, dropping Flash shell right under you on point will give you a pretty big advantage, but might not do as much in Graveyard or against ranged classes. Also, make use of Endothermic Shell against classes reliant on cooldowns (Eles and Necros come to mind) and save Flash Shell for heavy hits (Ele swaps to Fire, Necro pops Lich), or use it to secure a stomp.

I think pretty much noone takes Grenades for the blind, it might boil down to a matter of positioning and experience. Also, Smoke Bomb is a poor man’s version of Flash Shell unless you need Stealth; it lasts less if you take Siege Rounds and ticks once every two seconds instead of once per second as Flash Shell does.

Exedore.6320:

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

If you’re a glasscannon and you get caught off-guard, you should be punished for it; if you get focused down, it’s either bad positioning, too much enemy control or too little friendly control.

Or you got hit from someone in stealth for 10k+. Kinda hard to dodge what you can’t see coming. Stuff like that is why vampirism runes are so common..

I consider that as being caught off-guard. Chances are a Thief/Mesmer/Engi won’t be throwing Stealth around every corner just in case they find another glasscannon and burst them uncontested, so you should be able to see them entering stealth (since they saw you) or you were busy fighting something else (so you got caught off-guard or that fight lasted longer than you, a glasscannon, would’ve wanted and got +1’d).

I think almost every Engineer, unless trying a new build, will pack either Elixir S or Toolkit (generally depending on if they took Alchemy or not), which give plenty of options to disengage/tank a Warrior for a bit, until their stances/Rampage run out. If you took Elixir X as your Elite, its F-skill turns everyone in the radius into a Moa for three seconds, even if they were in a Transformation – useful for Rampage War/Engis, Lich/Plague Necros, the oddball Tornado Ele/Engi.

Generally, Engineer is ‘balanced’ into using at least one offensive kit: Grenade Kit, Flamethrower and Bomb Kit; many builds run another ‘support’ kit: Tool Kit, Elixir Gun, Elite Mortar Kit. Depending on which role you want to fulfill or what traits you choose, you’ll pick one kit or another (or take the traits based on the kits you like).

Here you will find many builds for any mode, you might want to start with the ones running a defensive amulet while you get a grasp of the class’ mechanics.

A basic thing to know is that some toolbelt skills are as valuable as the support ability, if not more. I reckon the Flamethrower Burn build has Incendiary Ammunition (Flamethrower’s toolbelt) as one of the cornerstones; likewise, Grenade Barrage packs quite a punch (~9k on non-buffed light armor) and it is too a toolbelt skill. Learning how and when to use the toolbelt abilities effectively is a major part of Engineering too.

As for when to use skills/switch kits, it generally boils down to reacting to the battle. See an enemy getting knocked down? Throw a Grenade Barrage at him and go to town with Shrapnel, Poison and Ice grenades. Enemy overwhelming the point? Drop your Smoke Bomb and Big’ol Bomb in the middle. The biggest thing about kits is that they have virtually no swap cooldown; you just switched to Bomb Kit to deal some pain and suddenly you get immobilized? Feel free to instantly swap to ToolKit to soak up all the damage coming your way.

If they want more people running Bomb Kit, they should make the Smoke Bomb field pulse every second instead of every two, like Flash Shell.

But that might make the combination of both kits too good against melee encounters \o/

Isn’t it your team’s job to peel/defend you if you’re the one in charge of bursting people down? If you’re a glasscannon and you get caught off-guard, you should be punished for it; if you get focused down, it’s either bad positioning, too much enemy control or too little friendly control.

But that might be just me. I don’t like traited ‘passive’ saves either, like free Defy Pain/Balanced Stance, free Elixir S, free Shadowstep, Shared Anguish, Mirror of Anguish, etc. no matter how long their CDs are and what that class has to give up to trait it.

EDIT: This whole post was concerning Rune of Vampirism. As for the blocks/invulns, the first can be bypassed via unblockable CC or damaging through them; the second generally have the drawback of preventing actions or CPoint contribution.

Quickness increases any animation by 50%, including Stomps.

Beware when fighting Mesmers and soon Revenants though; both have access to Slow (Revenant in downstate) which makes stomping painfully slow, leaving you wide open for enemy retaliation.

Technically you can work around that with Alchemy. It might suck that it is the only decent way to get removal, but that’s the price to pay if you want to partially nullify one of the classes’ weakness. I see Forge more like a frontline bruiser with party-wide utilities than a condi-cleanser (not saying it won’t have one skill for condi clear, tho).

All of you were full-fledged level 80s? Did he pop Rampage or Tornado while fighting? He had food / utility buffs and/or Guard stacks?

Chances are he was using a HGH Elixir + Bomb kit build with something like Soldier gear and you got nuked by high-might bombs. How did he manage to kill ~5 people when 10 were hitting him is a mistery unless your 10 weren’t fully decked or missplayed. Were you all melee? He could have been just running around dropping bombs and letting you run into them.

My best guess is that ANet balanced Gadgeteer around PvP, where you’re bound to get hit many times in each battle (unless bursted down). I haven’t fiddled around with the trait, but Gadgeteer doesn’t state any internal cooldown so I assume you could get an overcharge, use the buffed Gadget, get another overcharge, use the buffed Gadget, etc.

Perhaps they tried the old version with 50% CD reduction and found, say Clerics P/S Gadget build be too good at bunkering with a potential ~12k+ heal using A.E.D. every ~20 seconds (or less, I think A.E.D. enters CD as soon as its cast, not when it heals?) so they changed the CD%.

Keep in mind with -50%CD, PBR would be 600 launch (~2s stun) every 12.5s, Mine would be knockback + boon removal every 9s, knockdown field every 22.5s. Yes, chances are you’d be dead if you could use all your Gadgets overcharged, but I like to think ANet thinks and tests things through before changing them.

Don’t ticking fields reapply every full second after field creation? You/your team has to cleanse the poison a split second before the Battle Standard hits the ground.

Of course, it might also happen that the poison field ticks during the time between cleanse and Standard hitting, but chances should be very low if you are using an instant cast cleanse (Shake it off, for instance).

Perhaps changing Throw Elixir C to gain 3~5 seconds of Resistance instead of converting two conditions could work. It would make some sense thematically, would give some extra time for Elixir C itself to get off cooldown and would make Elixir C more viable with builds taking Tools but not Alchemy, or at least taking it into consideration if the opposition is condition heavy.

Although technically, you could use Elixir C when you have Chill on you to convert it to Resistance.

@Renny: Even though I admit it’s a bit annoying having to pigeonhole oneself into one traitline/utility type to cover a flaw, I see it as some sort of balancing factor; if you want to be extra-safe in a condition-heavy environment, you have to take these traits and utilities; if you just want to blow people up with raw damage, you have to take these other traits and utilities.

Yeah, that’s the main problem A.E.D. has. I still don’t understand why Confusion isn’t removed, it clearly is a damaging condition (now even more so since Confusion ticks even if you don’t attack).

Perhaps we could ask for an A.E.D. buff and make it remove Confusion too, maybe even traited-damaging conditions (like Fear w/ Master of Terror and Reaper’s Chill), it could make all of the Engineer healing skills useful in some situations and I don’t think many classes can say that (counting Med Kit as useful since I’m sure someone uses it for selfish heal or interaction with on-heal runes).

Alternatively, if you want to run a burst build but die just short of killing the opponent, you could consider using A.E.D.

Condi users can’t force their conditions to stop ticking, so they’ll trigger A.E.D.s full heal and remove all damaging conditions (except Confusion for some reason) most of the time. If you run a Static Discharge build you could even pick up Gadgeteer as Grandmaster, since chances are you’ll get hit a lot to stack up kill-level conditions.

Heck, you could even try a full S/D Gadget build against pure condi users. Might work?

Thaddeus.4891:

You gonna need 3 builds then.

Depends on how effective he wants to be in each mode.

If you want speedrun dungeon clears then you will need a build for PvE and possibly a different one for WvW depending on your playstyle of choice.

(Or you could run the same build everywhere like I do for good (not optimal) results, though I rarely WvW)

@GrandHaven:
Good catch on Kinetic Battery/Lock-On interaction. Knowledge makes us stronger !

Thaddeus did most of the job already, but anyways:
1) Toolbelt CD reduction does work with Lock-On’s Analyze. I can’t say about Kinetic Battery since I don’t use Lock-On normally. I’d guess it would also trigger a Static Discharge proc if it does consume Kinetic Battery, since it’s treated as a Toolbelt skill for CD purposes.

2)For PvP Soldier seems to be pretty much the Meta. Keep in mind though, skills that don’t require a target (Throw Elixir, Healing Mist, Orbital Rounds among others) will fire the Static Discharge bolt in whichever direction you’re facing, generally downwards in front of you. Targetted skills like Analyze and Throw Wrench will fire the bolt towards your current target, so if your plan is using Static Discharge, chances are you want at least two low-ish CD skills to make use of it.

Small note: Best candidates for Static Discharge are probably Analyze, Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot (Rifle Turret toolbelt), Launch Personal Battering Ram, Rocket Kick. Also I believe there are two ‘variants’ of Static Discharge with different damage values depending on if the Toolbelt skill used was instant cast or not.

Just wanted to pop in to let everyone know (at least people that don’t follow Reddit) that the Forge skill icons have been datamined. Might shed some information on how it might work (and perhaps imply Forge will be the next Elite revealed, with Druid last) !

Still irks me that Smoke Bomb’s blind is every two seconds for three pulses, while Flash Shell is every second for five/seven pulses.

But hey, they got the radius fix! Also I’m unsure if it might cause problems to someone since it isn’t noticeable, but testing with the PvP dummies, the ‘out-of-range’ indicator showed on skills 1~3 while being at 240 range (Smoke Bomb could blind the golems). Unsure if this just happens when barely in range or the indicator/autoattack still calculates as if it had 180 range.

I’ve taken a look at some of the builds and haven’t found the one I’ve been using for like, 2 years in PvE? Which probably means it’s not optimal but it seems to work at my PvP level (<300 unranked games; slightly above 50% winrate, soloq) now that I do PvP for the daily (with some changes after the trait changes, of course):
Rampager S/D Hybrid
Googles are the utility I usually use, though it’s swapped around depending on what the enemy team has: they stay if there’s two or more total blind-heavy classes, otherwise bring Slick shoes for the quick stunbreak on CC comps or Elixir S if I foresee heavy burst. Mortar Kit is there to mess up Eles/Rampaging Warriors/Engineers as well as helping with the blind field, while providing long-range support in teamfights (you don’t want to get close with this little defense!).

I seem to be able to go toe to toe vs pretty much everything except condi-heavy builds (surprise!) or super bursty ones, but that might be lack of experience.

The issue here is that involuntary knockbacks are pretty much just a problem in PvE, not across game modes. In WvW it might be a problem if you’re duo-roaming flipping camps or something, but the knockback is beneficial in pretty much all PvP scenarios, excluding the odd situation in which you push the enemy out of range of an ally’s attack or something.

Either way, let’s say ANet decides to pack say, Thermobaric Detonation with Explosive Powder and moves knockback turrets further in the tree. What sort of GM could even compete with Siege Rounds or Shrapnel that includes a turret-related trait useful for explosives? It has to be pretty good, because as useful as a 20-second AoE knockback is, I don’t think noone would pick a GM trait. Knockback + turret effectiveness? Damage? Pack it all with Armored Turrets? That could be interesting, even if it spreads the Turret traits all around.

Since you’re talking about PvE, dungeons specifically, I’d assume you’re using Mortar Kit as Elite with perhaps Siege Rounds (neither Elixir X nor Supply Crate are that usable for PvE I reckon). If the knockback on turret explosion hinders you so much, you could always Orbital Strike onto the turret water field and pick the turret up for virtually the same effect.

Of course, that means you’ll take more time to heal up, but if your team is properly stacking chances are you won’t be in immediate danger when you heal up – and if it’s a life/death scenario, the knockback can work in your favor if you leave the stack and blast the enemies towards the wall/corner. I do believe deploy—>overcharge—>pickup for reduced CD gives out more effective HPS than deploy—>overcharge—>detonate too, but not quite sure on that one.

Also, please note I’m not against the change just for the sake of being against. It’s just I find the knockback very useful in PvP for some breathing room against classes that don’t respect my personal space C=

I’ve never been an avid PvP player (since it makes me feel very nervous), but I have a few years of Team Fortress Classic under my belt. Back in that moment (10? years ago) I could jump in any server and wish everyone good luck, have fun before the round started and be greeted with similar replies.

When I started playing GW2 PvP more regularly (a.k.a. since dailies are faster in PvP – such a disgrace PvPer, I know !), I used to do the same through mapchat, until someone called me out for doing that since the opposing team was ‘the enemy’. I was baffled by that reaction, and after a few more negative reactions from either team I stopped saying anything. I play unranked mind you, so I figured people would be more laid-back there and actually playing for fun, instead of acting like losing or winning was a matter of life/death or hundreds of dollars.

And note that I don’t spoonfeed victories to the enemy team when I play ! b=

Meanwhile I play PvE/PvP with good old Rifle + A.E.D., EGun, Toolkit, GrenadeKit and Mortar, Rampager Gear/Amulet, Explosives+Firearms+Tools/Inventions.

Don’t worry though, I only play unranked/hotjoin ! b=

Well, I’d say that if a dog says something bad about you, you will hear it no matter if stealthed or not? GW2 should get a new Deaf condition/buff to give immunity to Taunt.

Real answer now, tho: AoE CC skills care not about if whoever is in range can be seen or not. It shouldn’t ignore stability, block or evasion, though.

Edit: Had written blind instead of stealthed !

Welcome to Engineering ! It’s always nice to have new tinkerers in Tyria !

As for your questions:
– Best weapon set: Depends on your playstyle. Raw damage, go Rifle; Conditions, Pistol/Pistol; Defensive, Pistol/Shield.
– Realistically you can get away with mostly anything in PvE, but engineers are somewhat balanced around using Kits, so I’d go with those for leveling. Bomb kit and Grenade kit dish out good damage, while the other kits are more support/defensive tools. Take Healing Turret though, it’s more valuable in party configurations than Medkit !
– If you end up taking bomb/grenade, I’d say Explosives should be your first line, even if Grenadier is disabled. Otherwise, Firearms for main weapons/Flamethrower/Conditions, Inventions for support/turrets, Alchemy for defense/elixirs, Tools for class mechanic/gadgets (although I believe it’s our weakest traitline at the moment?).

I don’t think anyone can say it’s a detriment to the Engineers. Chances are grenades might have been tweaked in the patch even if they had left the Mortar as it was before (stationary, not a kit, etc), which I think noone ever used except in very specific situations. Now we have three Elites that can somewhat compete for the Elite slot depending on the role your Engineer wants to fulfill.

You don’t have to look at the Mortar Kit as a DPS kit, it’s a support kit. Poison, blind downstates, chill dangerous targets, heal allies, all the while keeping access to some nice long-range finishers (talking about Orbital Strike here) while standing at a somewhat safe 1.500 range. In PvE you gain access to decent duration pulsing Poison and blind for trash-mob killing, and have something to DPS with while closing in to the enemies. Yes, poison grenade was much better than Poison Shell pre-patch, but it would be insane against non-moving enemies if it didn’t get the field component removed.

Oh, it’s above not below. My bad !

Shows how much I’ve tried it (in fact I had to check it in the wiki to know what it did) x)

Can’t remember having this happen to me, but wouldn’t a Mesmer’s Feedback on the Engineer blast all the grenades on the Engi’s hands/paws?

It’s a very specific way to counter it and only available to one class, but at least it might force the Engi to move or stop attacking.

Well, at least there are now niche places where other heals can be used, so that’s always nice.

I’ve been using A.E.D. a bit after seeing the sheer ammount of condis and burst in PvP post-patch, and had some funny moments with it (like absorbing ~30k damage in Rampager and surviving). Today, playing Hot-join, finally found someone who knew what to do against it (not counting stun-locks here, since those would interrupt HT too): an Axe/Shield + GS Warrior who stopped attacking and stood at range as soon as I popped A.E.D., leaving me with roughly ~7k after the heal (and I died promptly after).

If the opponent doesn’t know how it works or how to counterplay it, A.E.D. does fine, sometimes making the enemy overcommit to the fight and finding itself in a disadvantage when you’re at 12k+ and they’re down at 6k. If they know how to play around it, well, it certainly is lackluster.

I haven’t used Takedown Round so can’t really state an argumentated opinion. It seems to be aimed towards control builds as finisher damage (or doing extra AoE when cleaving bodies, even. Downed enemies count as being <50%? ).

I do like Aim-Assisted Rocket. I get that it’s passive damage and some people might complain for that, but at least this one is dodgeable! If only it had 1500 range so it wouldn’t wiff when Mortaring people off points =c

I’m using practically the same build I’ve been using for about a year with some changes here and there, for both PvE and PvP (Though I don’t play PvP much).

Right now my PvE build is Berserker weapon (Rifle right now since I’m finishing the Rifle Master achievement, otherwise I spent about 2 years running Pistol/Shield), Assassin/Rampager armor/trinkets (can’t tell which is which from memory); Balthazar runes, sigil of Fire/Bloodlust. Running Explosives (Grenadier, Aim-Assisted Rocket, Shrapnel), Firearms (High Caliber, Pinpoint Distribution, Incendiary Powder), Inventions (AMR, Mecha Legs, Bunker Down). For utilities, Healing Turret, Elixir Gun (previously Elixir S; this is generally my ‘I need X utility soon’ slot), ToolKit, Grenade Kit and Mortar (previously Crate).

PvP build is practically the same: with Rampager Amulet, A.E.D. as heal and Slick Shoes instead of Elixir Gun; Rifle packs Sigil of Air instead of Bloodlust.

I wanted to have a hybrid damage build focused on criticals, hence Rampager. Assassin/Berserker mixup is there to boost the Power part.

@Darkothe: Best weapon set depends on what is your main type of damage/role. Power goes to Rifle, Conditions goes to Pistol/Pistol, Support-ish goes to Pistol/Shield. However chances are you will stay most of the time swapping kits around and using whatever’s off-cooldown/is required at that point in time. Kits also have somewhat defined roles, with Grenade and Bomb being more damage oriented (can work both Power and Condi), and Tool, Flamethrower, Elixir and Mortar being more supportive.

For PvE it depends on what playing style you prefer; I believe in WvW Power is king with Grenades/Mortar for zerging, probably Toolkit for the shield/magnet and Elixir S for narrow escapes.

Grenades/Bombs deal a fair amount of DPS be it Power or Condi (won’t be out-damaging an Ele or Warrior though) in PvE; if you want to be more supportive you can do a 4-kit build with Elixir Gun and Mortar for support, Toolkit for utility and Bomb/Grenade for damage. Engineers have access to ample Blast Finishers, so you should aim to support with those, be it granting Might (Fire Bomb field), Stealth (Smoke Bomb field) or Healing (Healing Turret/Cleansing Burst; Elixir Shell (Mortar)).

@LezardValeth: Chances are you’ll want to run Pistol/Pistol for Condi; Bomb Kit has Burning/Confusion while Grenade Kit has Bleed/Poison, so you might want to take either of them. Toolkit is always a nice addition to any build (Prybar hits hard and gives 5 Confusion stacks, as well as GearShield/Magnet). If you’re talking about PvP though, I believe someone’s been using an ElixirGun/Flamethrower condi build and has posted it in this subforum.

I’d actually like it if they kept the 13 grenades but halved the damage/scaling on each, so it would do roughly the same damage as a ‘proper’ Grenade Barrage (7 hits). More chances to proc Shrapnel/on-hit traits are always welcome and would prevent power-instagibbing I believe.

As said up there, chances are some people play it because it’s what’s strong right now.

I don’t do much PvP myself, but when I do it’s been almost exclusively as Engineer, since it’s been my main since launch (I believe my Engi Charr has about half the playtime across all my characters), no matter how good or bad it might be at that point in time.