Guild Wars 2

Amadeus.5687:

Beside the good point nakoda have, is the big problem with thread necromancy, that its an art best suited for the trainned necromancers not engineers! ;-)

The problem is that he dredged up our single thread with a red icon, so I got my hopes up about a dev post. :’(

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Edit:
I’ve gotten in some trouble before about giving hints and releasing info early… so I’m going to leave that up to the people in charge if they want to do those things :x

… Anet is quite possibly the most paranoid MMO developer I’ve run across when it comes to ANY sort of early hints about releases. I mean, compare it to other MMOs where potential changes are released and discussed weeks or months in advance, and balance feedback is actually taken into account..

Maybe I’m just spoiled by CCP’s practices. Pity about their community…

MatthewMedina.5419:

So, to answer 1, there’s certainly cases where this may be an oversight, or a bug, but there’s also cases where we deliberately give NPC’s knowledge of the player – the presumption being that you’re a hero and carry a reputation with you. It’s true that this might seem odd if you have a sylvari sapling barely out of the Grove, but to cover every possible contingency in NPC conversations would have taken a tremendous amount of time so this can sometimes just be a conceit we’ve used to give the narrative a bit more of a personal connection.

This one is almost certainly an oversight, as the NPCs treat you not just as someone they know, but as a fellow Norn with history there. This was rather awkward when I was apparently making jokes about my own race from an outsider’s perspective…

So, running the swamp fractal, every single possible path kept walling up the instant someone approached it, literally blocking off all possible passage. Note, this was a good dozen attempts, without a single wisp being delivered. What gives?

Habib Loew.6239:

Also, please don’t infer Mesmer changes from the fact that it’s my current main. I’m just a programmer – design stuff like that is somebody else’s responsibility.

Robert isn’t a designer either, but he still sits in as a class commentator for Ranger in balance discussions.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’m still here and lurking about (as is the balance team)

Would really, really appreciate some conversation from devs in the other class forums too…

Just a heads-up for people trying to do this, you can transmute onto purchased “back brace” type items as well, but the side of the transmute window that you drop the tool pack onto apparently matters. This seems to be a known, but low-priority, bug. I just recently successfully transmuted my pack onto a forest brace purchased on the TP, so I could finally have back stats and the upgrade slot, without losing my hobo pack.

So if it doesn’t work for you one way, try reversing which side the pack is on, and that may fix it.

Max Lexandre.6279:

The requirements can’t change that way, if you buy the game where you see that you meet the reqs., okay you play it, it can’t be a update saying “now it’s all updated and we increased reqs, soo go buy new pcs!”. It just can’t, ANet itself can’t say in the BOX when you buyed one thing, and then in the game other thing.

I’m pretty sure Blizzard did exactly just that when they upgraded WoW’s graphics with WotLK. Likewise, EVE Online has changed the requirements multiple times.

Granted, both those games did this for technology upgrades after running for many years, rather than being out for a mere 6 months like GW2. Still, there’s precedent.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’m a dungeon content designer who plays ranger at a high level, and that is why I am in the meetings, to be a representative for that sect (for lack of a better word).

This is something I always thought that WoW sort of did right. They had devs that played particular classes and would discuss specific issues regarding those classes. It doesn’t mean that expectations have to get raised unreasonably high, it just lets players know that their issues aren’t ignored. Right now, a lot of players feel left out in the cold, not sure if anyone even knows their problems exist.

Just saying… encouraging devs who play other classes to drop into their class forums from time to time can only be a good thing, and the goodwill earned, I think, would be well worth the cost of time investment to the company.

Robert, this has been a wonderfully enlightening and encouraging thread to follow. Is there any chance of seeing discussions like this from devs more often regarding class issues elsewhere?

What about the impact heal and pulse heal on Super Elixir, which I assume would form the backbone of an EG support build? I know that got buffed recently, but the wiki doesn’t list coefficients for that ability.

Is there any place to find more in-depth info regarding healing power scaling with engineer abilities? I’ve been thinking about making a EG-focused support build and gear set for a while now.

Goggles can apply vulnerability with the toolbelt ability, and isn’t half-bad otherwise. Cooldown may be a bit long to be worth it, though. YMMV.

You’ll probably want a grenade/bomb build. Focus on cycling between them to keep your enemies blinded, poisoned, burned, bleeding, and confused. Support through enemy damage reduction. Weakness isn’t too difficult, it just requires timing with dropping one of your blast finishers (destructed healing turret, good timing with bomb toolbelt, etc) on the grenade poison field.

You’ll come to hate ground-targeting, though. This is a real “carpal tunnel incoming” build. If you don’t feel comfortable hitting all the number keys WHILE running, dodging, and mouse-targeting you may want to opt for something less twitchy. Very high skill-ceiling, but very intense playstyle.

Spec down the explosives line first. Throwing 3 grenades instead of 2 is huge. Then aim for healing bombs for team support and survival.

Well, it would fix my problem of reflexively trying to swap to flamethrower with tilde, since engineer isn’t my only character…

No mention of the amazing aerobatic moas in Lion’s Arch?

I wouldn’t mind that particularly hilarious bug hanging around a bit longer. It had our guild in stitches for a good while after the patch hit.

I want to see the numbers, and some dungeon elements still desperately need review and rebalance, (and debugging; still end more runs on broken events than deaths) but on the whole…

I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I decried this change as horrible and dungeon-killing, but for the most part, the worst offenders that I’d seen were changed to not require res-rushing (first boss TA exp was the worst offender here), and there’s actually a point to teaching new players tactics now. I’ve personally helped three new guildies learn AC and TA this month, and my wife’s done the same with CoF and Honor… And that’s with not even playing that much.

Edit: One note… stalkers in AC still kill more players than any boss. Keep them in mind when you’re balancing? Long, high-damage stun against potentially low-level players is not a good idea. Not everyone has awesome stun-breaks. Especially when the stun is regularly chained.

Edit2: Hodgins is worse than useless and I hate him more than I hate Traeherne.

Paulytnz.7619:

Fix for the flamethrower missing – Stop moving before attacking stationary targets. There done. It only misses if you are MOVING and trying to target a stationary target. Dunno why this happens but it does.

There are plenty of times that I can’t hit a stationary target at all regardless of where I stand or how still I am. As my secondary kit is elixir gun, I’m regularly reduced to autoattacking to damage stationary targets.

Seriously, there’s a confirmation for salvaging a 1 silver uncommon item… but not for 10g worth of gems? I hate sounding conspiracy-theorist, but come on, are you just hoping to encourage more gem sales via bad UI?

For the love of God give me a confirmation dialogue for selling gems. I was flipping over to check the prices, and BAM! Whups! 520 gems gone. Hope you wanted to sell those!

C’mon, is a “are you sure” window too much to ask?

Edit: Or at least have the number of gems field default to 0 instead of ALL THE GEMS YOU OWN…

Dinky is also… well… unique. :P

Thanks for the ideas. Quite helpful! A focus on protection of warband sounds like it’ll work perfectly.

What can the pack be transmuted to? I tried transmuting it with a random back-brace, but that didn’t work… maybe because it didn’t have a model?

Phineas Poe.3018:

But we’re not talking about while leveling; my point was strictly about my experiences at level 80, with exotic Berserkers/Soldiers/Knights armor sets and exotic Ruby/Emerald sets. With the full capacity of trait setups that best complement each kit to the best of their abilities.

Right here it’s fairly obvious we’re playing different games (not literally, but in effect). Even my warrior doesn’t have full exotics yet (the character that coasted to 80, half-asleep). I don’t really put that kind of time into the game (highly distractable) and I enjoy playing different characters.

I’m glad that engineer can be functional in certain areas (spvp) in certain builds (bunker, control FT) with certain gear (full properly-statted exotics). The argument that keeps coming up though, is a comparative one. Engineers have to work twice as hard to get the same effect as the multiple better classes. Maybe three times with flamethrower. That the skill-cap for the class is high enough that our absolute best players can be well better than the average players for other classes is also good news. But you shouldn’t have to be amazing just to be functional. I didn’t see a “HARD MODE SELECTED” warning when I picked engineer. Do I just suck? Maybe. But in that case, my warrior, guardian, thief and elementalist should be having problems too (granted my mesmer has issues, so maybe it’s just incompatible play-style?).

Some minor post-processing or pitch alteration can create a different-sounding voice, without doubling your voice actor costs. It doesn’t have to be much, just enough to differentiate things a bit. Get one sound engineer on staff who knows their way around voice alteration (a specialization your current sound engineers may not have?) and give them a week to set up some filters… simple and cost-effective.

In a conversation with my guildies, we settled on “charr guardian” as the strangest race/class combination, so of course I had to go make one. Now I’m just trying to figure out the foundation for the character. I’m currently going for “Iron Legion Technomancer”, but I’d like to get some outside ideas here. What are your thoughts on a charr guardian?

People do the same thing with Flamethrower…

I don’t think anyone’s arguing that Greatsword isn’t really kitten good. I think the only real argument here is if ANYTHING ELSE comes close. Answer: “Probably, but it’s not as easy.” Basically, greatsword is the “I don’t want to have to pay attention” weapon. Or, put another way, it starts high, but the skill-ceiling is rather low. Once you know how to aim whirlwind for maximum hits, there’s little else to learn.

Flame Jet Area/damage: Sure, so FT can outdamage grenades if you have 4+ enemies spread out in a line. Against the common 1-2 you get in normal play, this optimal will almost never come up. I played FT/EG stubbornly from 30-70, trawling the forum for play tips and gear advice, then swapped to untalanted grenades, and the utility and damage was still depressingly better. Where I had to at least expend some effort to kill a single elite before, I could now take 2-3.

Also, napalm is a kitten to actually land.

Control: Grenade’s blind is targetable, where the flamethrower’s will miss if the enemy isn’t sitting on your face. Knockback is nice, but it’s also required because kiting is the primary strategy as things take twice as long to die.

Survival: Juggernaut is nice, but not as nice as the enemy never hitting you. FT/EG vs. Nade/Bomb is night and day.

But I’m willing to admit that it’s entirely possible I was still playing it wrong. As a 74 engineer, how does one go about tackling hard enemies in PvE?

My common cycle was open with napalm (assuming I got the drop), switch to EG for poison and slow, switch to rifle for jump/blunderbus/overcharge/net, then I’m at range with a stationary enemy for napalm again. A painfully complicated cycle for only moderate killing power, but it’s the best I ever found…

Edit: Also, I’m pretty sure it’s a 150 radius (300 diameter) circle vs. a 450 line, so the area is probably pretty darn close. And then you add in how often flame jet misses…

I don’t like engineer because I hate being forced to use grenades. One (and 1/2, bombs) functional kit does not a class make. Okay, yeah, other kits get some use, I’m just a FT fan and it’s deeply frustrating how much better at everything that grenades is. Better AOE, better control, better survival, better (ANY) structure damage, better single-target damage… the list is painfully long.

Banner of Discipline. Pick it up and give your party fury every 10 seconds.

And yes, the regen is good enough to be a major help.

I am a convert to the Church of Hammer as of last week. After falling off a jumping puzzle, I managed to run across a bugged event, with something like 10+ inquest golems just standing on top of eachother. I has my hammer on for long-jumping, so I thought… “why not?” and lunged in. If I’d been using a greatsword, none of the incoming damage would have been mitigated, and I’d have been a slimy red paste on the ground. As it was, the enemies spent most of the fight knocked down or stunned and died in short order.

Hammer4Lyfe

Edit: Dear god this thread is old. That’ll teach me not to read the whole thing.

Jezus, troll much? (to OP)

The mortar-building fight does seem a bit harder after the patch. I could just be imagining things, but it used to go really smoothly. Now since the patch I haven’t had a run without at least one wipe or near-wipe (though it did lead to a hilarious benny-hill moment with the guardian kiting 6 mobs around the back of the room while the rest of the party rezzed)

“Oh it’s the easiest dungeon ever (if you have the tactics memorized and assemble the right classes beforehand)”

Yeah, no. This is a story mode dungeon that’s harder than 90% of the explorables I’ve run. My guild still avoids it like the plague, while farming nearly everything else. Is it beatable? Certainly. Is it fun? Hell no.

This bug has been known for a long time now. Any word on it getting fixed? I have mail (like story-related messages) that I sometimes want to hang on to, and they’re not supposed to count against my inbox size.

Guardian has the potential to be more durable, and has better team buffs (though warrior isn’t bad in either) but lacks the versatility and damage output from warrior.

Kamahl makes a good point that flamethrower #1 is not something to rely on for damage. It is great at triggering on-crit abilities and extending existing burns, but – especially on single targets – its damage is subpar. Personally, I love flamethrower, but I think cycling kits is really the way to go. Flip between EG/FT/Rifle for abilities, maybe cycling TK into the sequence…

.. but then you’re back into finger-hurty-button-mashy territory, just with more buttons. :P

Power/precision/crit is a decent build for flamethrower. Carry a rifle for net shot to land more of FT#2 for burst damage. Vulnerability and bleed on crit talents will also help. Spec into Juggernaut for survival and the all-important might stacks.

I’ve had good success with a condition/burn build as well with my FT/EG hybrid, but that’s a lot more work for not much more return. It doesn’t take a lot of +cond to pull off. Though you will want more precision than power for it.

Also, while it’s not the most efficient of options, I recommend trying the Elixir B → Elixir U combo with Flamethrower autoattack. Massive burst potential on a 60 second cooldown. Great as an ‘ohkitten’ button in PvE. YMMV for PvP of any sort.

I would love to see the stats on how hard the number of people running dungeons tanked after this update. I know that my guild has been widely MIA this week. I understand what you’re going for, and I suspect that “Phase 2” will help a lot, but the multi-step implementation may be a poor choice if it damages dungeon running as a whole.

Also, for the LOVE OF GOD, CHANGE THE RES AGGRO PRIORITY. Seriously, there’s nothing more frustrating than getting insta-killed by a boss who HAD been ignoring you, just because you tried to help a teammate.

Here as well. My wife and I are seeing >1kb/s download rates, despite being able to download at 1MB+ from elsewhere.

Yeah, for structure attacks, flamethrower is still incapable of aiming up or down, meaning that some structures (notable recent observation: steam-beast portals) are simply completely un-hittable with flamethrower, forcing fallback of pistol or rifle autoattacks.

Ooh, I hadn’t considered the synergy of Net Shot and Napalm. That could be worth dropping my second signet right there. I’d just been running Air anyway; I think I can live without. What’s peoples’ opinion on elixirs/goggles for utility? I figure B is pretty much a given, being awesome and all, but U for ‘ohkitten’ burst damage? Goggles for extended fury?

As for the greater functionality of bombs/nades, I’m aware of it. I just don’t like the playstyle much. Flamethrower is fun enough that I’m willing to be a bit sub-optimal overall. I just want to optimize flamethrower itself.

Is the rifle worth giving up the second signet from dual wielding, then? May need more testing to see how the stat change interact with the kit now…

I meant that I get the grayed-out-button issue mentioned above when trying to transmute my engineer tool pack to any other back slot item. Did I have it on the wrong side?

Nicolle Rodgers.4926:

We are aware of this issue and are working to resolve it. In the meantime, you can workaround this by putting your plush quaggan backpack on the left side of the transmutation screen. If you do that, then the button will not be grayed out.

Does this apply to other back pieces, like the starting engineer tool pack? Did I just need to put it on the other side of the transmutation window to make it work? (not at home so can’t test this yet)

It’s depth of field. I can almost guarantee it. Sometimes this gets turned on by default after patches. I have no idea why.

Because of how this got implemented (distance from camera, not character; a poor choice, really), any time you’re not zoomed right up on your character’s butt, they get distance blur.

My engineer has been shelved for a bit, as much from distraction by other classes as any past nerfing. But I’d really like to get back into it. As a fan of flamethrower (BURN IT ALL), I’m looking for some recommendations on playstyle and spec/gear/runes while leveling. My current stat baseline is 20 firearms (fireforged trigger) and 20 alchemy (deadly mixture + fast acting elixirs for more U and B ).

I’m not sure where to go from here, or even if those alchemy points are worth it. Is 15% damage and some useful utility talents worth the exchange of 200 power from explosives (noting that the talents are mostly useless there)?

Edit: Stupid emoticons.

Transmutation stones don’t work on back items.

C’mon, at least give it an upgrade slot or something?

I really want to transmute my engineer backpack onto something that has stats, so I can keep my appearance without “wasting” that slot on something that doesn’t have stats.

That would certainly be better than nothing. Though you’d still be penalizing groups that run with two good bleed characters, or three halfway-decent ones, as those stacks would be at 25 constantly anyway.

Seriously though, condition damage is already penalized by removing any possibility for burst. Why is it limited even further? It’s not like bosses cap out at “X00 direct DPS” they can take at once or something. Why are conditions the whipping-boy here?