Guild Wars 2

You mean they ignored an underwater skill? The outrage, surely it’s just to spite engineers!

insanemaniac.2456:

the thing is, it’s not really lower budget any more. rabid is the good low budget alternative at an exotic level since you can acquire it without crafting. but once you say “I need ar” and you mean ascended, nothing is cheap or cheaper because mystic forge stat conversion makes all the prices about the same.

Good point, and even if crafting Rabid is cheaper thanks to the leather situation.

With Sinister needing charged quartz I’d imagine it’s about the same price as Vipers. Last I looked rabid is still a kitteneaper to make for ascended, then like 10-20g to convert it as soon as you can, or using reward boxes… trying to think of a reason you’d have sinister instead of vipers and I can’t other than if you had made it back before HoT.

It’s the best alternative but vipers is just better and worth getting when you can. Trapper/Nightmare combo with sinister along with a Malice sigil will put you at 99% duration.

mochang.8235:

Jerus.4350:

For those situations there is also the FT ‘plebineer’ build which is condi focused, not as good as the grenade based version but still decent. This is that build minus the gear (viper/sinisher combination as per meta/qt builds determines is best, also condi food): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhatYfXwqKQ7FLsF1XFmhHA4HWiBwYcMG/IA

Hey just going back to the ft plebineer. I decided ill go grenades on more serious situations but FT is just too fun to watch heheh. I noticed that the build you posted included the chance to bleed on explosions. Is that viable of ft builds as well? Im still building my viper set so I havnt started testing other traits too

Oops, yeah pretty sure flame blast doesn’t count as an explosion, so no, no use out of it. I just put it there out of habit.

Mix Dire/Rabid most likely. Personally I usually bring FT in my condi builds, something to be said for an initial burst that gets 6 stacks of burning from Incendiary Ammo as well as the other skills. 12 stacks total with incendiary powder and just using the pistol rotation in close range.

Yeah, small group/roaming usually translates well to pick.

Something a friend of mine and I have been talking about is doing a 5 engi pick group and stealthing in dropping double orbital → Thunderclap/Grenade barrage in a centralized location, pretty sure we could take out a few people in a couple seconds without being seen until the first orbital/thunder/barrage hits then invuln/block/evade our way out. Worst case we cause panic and force people to blow cooldowns, best case the zerg pushes in with there being 5 downs already.

Joshhh.2076:

Ghost thief pre-nerf, or the D/D condi-evade thief which seems to be popular nowadays?

Just curious. For me I actually sort of preferred ghost thief.

Dislike the evade thief more, but IMO that’s just poor design, where ghost thief was broken as doing that level of damage while remaining stealth was just wrong.

Famine.7915:

When we use engineers in our group we don’t really use them for support in the traditional sense. We usually have them in rifle and toolkit and build to burst, but mainly to provide opportunity and control over targets.

Small group/roaming groups I assume? If so sounds like a solid idea.

Famine.7915:

Jerus.4350:

Famine.7915:

As long as you aren’t a zero damage scrapper like we always see, we won’t laugh. We will probably even accept you!

Hey with the way mag runs through people they might as well just use their mops (FT) to clean things up and pick up the bags :b

Really though Engi’s should be right around most Revs in their damage output in my experience.

I agree. Just, not once have I run into one that I actually have to avoid the hits on my mara teef. :/

Yeah, well normally we’re in a bit more of a support type role with damage being an addition. But, we have condi and power options that can be pretty devastating. I’ll say again though, not that many well versed Engi’s out there, that and we’re just not specialists.

Famine.7915:

As long as you aren’t a zero damage scrapper like we always see, we won’t laugh. We will probably even accept you!

Hey with the way mag runs through people they might as well just use their mops (FT) to clean things up and pick up the bags :b

Really though Engi’s should be right around most Revs in their damage output in my experience.

mochang.8235:

Jerus.4350:

Flamethrower, simply put, you’ll use all your FT skills minus the blind, use your pistol 3, 4, 2 skills, and rocket kick all on cooldown. Do your best not to interrupt a FT1 skill as the burning is at the end. Turret you’ll want to keep up but use the toolbelt skill when it’s available (drop the toolbelt skill before dropping the turret, then when it dies use it and get that turret back up asap). Little tip is you can drop FT and the 1 will still go through if you use the utility skill to drop the kit rather than weapon swap key. This lets you swap early and check pistol skills without a loss if you drop as soon as the auto goes off, but best just to learn the pistol timing.

Sweet. Ive tested the rotation and I was able to reach 30 burn one time (tested with balthazar runes). I can see why its not meta but for me its more fun. Thanks a lot. I guess ill run this and can easily change to meta condi builds if needed.

Yeah it makes for a great entry level gear option using balth runes and something like rabid or rampager stats. That said, you will do better with the full viper + berserker runes (1 ring and either foot, head or shoulders sinister) as bleeding duration matters too, especially if you swap to one of the better skill sets (grenade version or full kit version).

In fractals, especially higher level ones it might be worth using Bomb instead of the turret as well, and Mortar (which I think I put on there though the ‘plebineer’ build xyonon came up with is using supply crate), just for the 2 blind fields those skills give you, but might as well work in the fire bomb/concussion bomb and poison shell as well if you have them.

Anyways now I’m just kind of rambling, but glad I could help.

Flamethrower, simply put, you’ll use all your FT skills minus the blind, use your pistol 3, 4, 2 skills, and rocket kick all on cooldown. Do your best not to interrupt a FT1 skill as the burning is at the end. Turret you’ll want to keep up but use the toolbelt skill when it’s available (drop the toolbelt skill before dropping the turret, then when it dies use it and get that turret back up asap). Little tip is you can drop FT and the 1 will still go through if you use the utility skill to drop the kit rather than weapon swap key. This lets you swap early and check pistol skills without a loss if you drop as soon as the auto goes off, but best just to learn the pistol timing.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhatY1Vw8KQ7FL3FF4CGhBA9tH75uYB9D5AA

I usually go with something like that. I generally just use it when I’m too lazy to swap into a true PVE build after coming out of WvW so it’s with my WvW gear, but the point of the build is mainly a high uptime of quickness/fury with basically max might while you do mediocre base damage it buffs up to be pretty decent and permanent stability which makes for easy play.

It’s a general PVE play build, not something I’d bring into a group situation as it’s strength is personal buffing which will overlap with what your PS warrior and Chronomancer will give you to the point of being pretty useless. For those situations there is also the FT ‘plebineer’ build which is condi focused, not as good as the grenade based version but still decent. This is that build minus the gear (viper/sinisher combination as per meta/qt builds determines is best, also condi food): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhatYfXwqKQ7FLsF1XFmhHA4HWiBwYcMG/IA

Chances are people would complain seeing that build but realistically you can do 28k (optimal) vs the grenade variation at 30k, and full kit build at 32-35k (depending on the ‘rotation’ used). So it’s not horrible just sub-optimal, not something I’d suggest but it certainly is viable.

Simply put, rifle is too low of damage to really call ‘viable’ for higher end PVE play as a primary weapon. But, your best bet would be to focus on a Static Discharge build using Rifle Turret and Grenades for Barrage, and Launch Personal Battering Ram.

Kitless builds are just sub par because we’re designed where our actual weapons are meant to only be a part of our build, not the driving force, at least for non scrapper builds (hammer is an ‘ok’ option).

Wish I could give you better news, but that’s the truth about it. For general PVE play it’d be fine, for lower level fractals it’d be fine, and hell for a bad pug group you still might do the most damage in t4, but realistically you could get a LOT more damage if you incorporated a ‘primary kit’ like bombs, grenades, or even FT as your ‘auto attack’.

Lahmia.2193:

Jerus.4350:

Lahmia.2193:

insanemaniac.2456:

at least, laziness is my justification when i do this

Glad to see someone admit this. Too many peeps that demand passive 25% (cough cough guardians) try to justify it despite the obvious signs of laziness. Kudos sir.

Not really a fair comparison to guardians who have big opportunity costs to get decent speed(traveler runes, or at least 2 of retreat/save yourself/waiting in staff symbol) where we have various options all with overall minor costs (streamlined kits, mecha legs, or just lightning field blasts with scrapper).

Point being, I’d be more sympathetic to guardians if they just straight up said they are lazy and want a passive 25%.

I feel you on most of the arguments being pretty weak and dishonest (previous guard main myself) but for them it actually is a point of being a power increase to get one as it frees up at least one utility slot or gaining a better rune choice. For us we can just slot mecha legs, or we can stack up a good amount with streamlined kits or various blasting of lightning fields (which can be done using a lot of ‘swappable’ options so we don’t blow cooldowns on what we need).

Blacksarevok.8104:

As power engi, which would be less of a DPS loss if I wanted to get 25% passive speed increase?

- Drop Tools in favor of Inventions (for Mecha Legs)
- Drop Scholar runes in favor of Traveler Runes

Please let me know your opinions.

Min/max I wouldn’t be surprised if Traveler won out (tools has the 10% bonus as well as static discharge and either takedown round or streamlined kits) but practically I’d say leave gear alone because swapping traits is an easy on the go swap as needed without any cost. When you want the 25% base speed you can do that, then when you’re willing to utilize streamlined kits, or don’t need to (outside swiftness) you’re not at a loss.

Lahmia.2193:

insanemaniac.2456:

at least, laziness is my justification when i do this

Glad to see someone admit this. Too many peeps that demand passive 25% (cough cough guardians) try to justify it despite the obvious signs of laziness. Kudos sir.

Not really a fair comparison to guardians who have big opportunity costs to get decent speed(traveler runes, or at least 2 of retreat/save yourself/waiting in staff symbol) where we have various options all with overall minor costs (streamlined kits, mecha legs, or just lightning field blasts with scrapper).

BloodMoonASURA.3564:

Vagrant.7206:

WvW: Play a different class. We don’t even show up under the meta category of metabattle.

Now this is just false. The reason why Scrapper isn’t under “META” on metabattle, is because the class isn’t really worth taking over other classes in large scale groups (+30)
If your group is running around 20 players, Scrappers provide a ton of utility and support, especially in the highly optimized groups, GvG for example.

Also let’s not forget, zerging isn’t the only option in WvW. Scrappers are currently doing really well in roaming and dueling, AND especially in smallscale combat (around 5-10).

Also please keep in mind that metabattle isn’t dictating what is useful in WvW and what isn’t. The META builds are all large scale zerging builds. If you look at “Great” category, you find 6 roaming builds. Go figure.

Rather than blindly copying builds from internet, maybe you should try and figure out what is effective yourself.

Can’t really say anything about other gamemodes, but after spending over a year playing Scrapper exclusively in HoT, we are still viable and a great asset to any WvW group. Just keep in mind that in large fights Scrapper does fall off somewhat.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, because yes Engi’s can be pretty darn useful in WvW, just not seen as meta as there’s no commonly sought after role where we are the top. That doesn’t mean we can’t meaningfully contribute through various avenues (desiege, condi cleanse, rez/stomp, pick, decent damage and other things like superspeed). Even in large scale we can be very useful and especially in less organized groups where not every party gets the full carry of support roles as we can be pretty self reliant. In the end we’re very viable just underrated because honestly how many good WvW Engi’s are there out there, and how often would another rev/guard be wanted?

Keefe.3821:

The only class that needs a nerf is warrior. It’s bad enough that they have a stance that resist conditions and are able to remove them using burst skills. Now with berserker they can remove them even faster and have resistance on their signet. Its ridiculous. No point in fighting a warrior with conditions anymore. As always, good kittening job bringing balance to guild wars anet.

Obviously you play Necro.

Tom.6478:

When there are 2 rams pounding on a door, is it appropriate to use your personal skills to damage the door?

I see some doing nothing, and a few that are attacking with sword, bow, or whatever.

Is it just helpful in a very small way?

Also, if its only a very slight helpful thing. Do you get some kind of benefit if you do some damage even if very slight?

It’s a matter of orange swords. When you have I think it’s 25 people in combat in a certain radius orange swords will pop on the map. So if you have a large number of people and they’re all attacking the door, the enemies know you have that large force there. If you don’t pop orange swords all they’ll see is white swords on the objective which could also be triggered by a single individual ‘tapping’ the keep (kill guards/damage door a bit, basically getting the objective ‘in combat’).

So if you’re running with a large force, generally don’t PvD (attack the door) unless the commander asks for it to speed up the destruction.

insanemaniac.2456:

engi has always had good cleave forever….

I think he’s talking about the base weapons which pistol and rifle did pretty poorly… but that’s all the more reason why I think the idea of a kitless build is unrealistic. We were built with at least using one in mind hence no weapon swap and overall weaker base weaponry.

To be fair there is plenty of synergy with Scrapper, and it’s very nice in WvW as well as PVP. The problem is it’s just underpowered all around for PVE and Function Gyro is just pitiful there. Stab on dodge, stab = might, gyro = stab, lightning field and superspeed, superspeed = higher regen, lightning field blasted = superspeed… lots of synergy options, just lots of them are weak, impractical or nerfed like daze/stun increase when most of those were taken away.

Not able to hop in to check, but do Supply Crate turrets overcharge?

XenesisII.1540:

Jerus.4350:

Tournaments were too long and draining. Doesn’t mean they can’t do something. Bonus XP weekends would encourage people to jump in and either give it a go or try again. Put a temporary reward track that comes in every few months for the tournament claim tickets so people can get mistforged weapons, maybe make the winners of the skirmishes get a lump of the tickets as well. I’d still like to see more “golem rush” type weeks.

Month long tournaments that push us to play overtime to get the win is too much. Giving extra incentive once in a while to potentially bolster WvW could help though.

You mean like this?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Proposal-Tournaments-and-Seasons/

Yeah good luck getting people’s heads out of the old system.

That’s much more well thought out than what I’m proposing. I like it, though having special weeks would get more play throughout the entire week which is nice for people who don’t just play on Fridays (or can’t play on Fridays). I’m more just thinking something to change it up or bolster population once in a while.

Tournaments were too long and draining. Doesn’t mean they can’t do something. Bonus XP weekends would encourage people to jump in and either give it a go or try again. Put a temporary reward track that comes in every few months for the tournament claim tickets so people can get mistforged weapons, maybe make the winners of the skirmishes get a lump of the tickets as well. I’d still like to see more “golem rush” type weeks.

Month long tournaments that push us to play overtime to get the win is too much. Giving extra incentive once in a while to potentially bolster WvW could help though.

MrTJpwnz.4710:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I don’t want to press my heal 3 times.

Drop.

Overcharge.

Blast.

No.

you had to press 3 buttons before patch already, but now it is the same button. I honestly don’t see the problem

As a WvW player where you often have to spam your heal skill and pray it triggers it could be an issue, especially if you could detonate before the overcharge went off. On the other hand for Rifle Turret being able to quickly detonate on demand is meaningful (CC mainly) but if I had to wait for the overcharge to go off could be an issue. I think as long as the detonate didn’t cancel the overcharge I could deal though, just have to proactively use the overcharge so you can detonate on time.

Yup, still less reliable, still less stability, still shorter duration, and still not instant cast. It would be nice to have toss elixirs “unblockable” but radius alone would go a LONG way.

Can we get at least Toss Elixir B radius up to 600? These are designed team skills having 5 target ability but the 240 radius is unreasonably small to use in most situations. Elixir C I think could use the same without it being overpowered. It’d be nice if these team skills could be counted on to hit our team.

As a WvW mainly Engineer I see a decent radius Elixir B as a huge potential gain for our viability in team play which is something that is not high on the list. We could be a viable ‘stab 2’ for parties. Not sure how it’d affect PVP but for PVE I can’t even remember the last time I thought Elixir B would be good even if it has 1200 radius. So I don’t think it’d be an issue (split skill if it is for PVP!) and would really help the WvW Engi.

EcoRI.9273:

I am currently a bit too casual to get into raids. Ideally I would love to just PUG and get kills within the first 3 tries. Obviously this doesn’t happen so I can’t be bothered with raids. SAD

Same situation for me a while back when I was looking to raid. PUGs being generally frustrating not due to losses for me but the reactions to them (I was happy to smash my head for the hour or two I set aside as long as I was having fun trying instead of dealing with whining). My answer was to get on as many friends lists as possible to get invites as an alternate, it worked fine by me and I was getting most lockouts weekly without too much trouble. Then I went full WvW and lost my spot on those lists.

Aldath.1275:

Ok guys, trying to get into the Engi, as I’ve read he’s got one of the few and still reliable Power rotations for Fractals, and they say it’s a very fun and damaging class!

However I can’t seem to get past level 10 with him… Here are my questions.

1.- Which is the best kit to level him up? I find I take a long time to kill anythig with any weapon…

2.- How viable is Scrapper for “casual” PVE, like low level fractals and open world? Is the damage higher or lower than power Reaper?

3.- Is it worth to invest in Rampager gear while I grind to get the condition gear?

4.- Outside of Raids, is it needed to have a “pianist” rotation to be good?

Most of my questions surround zerk Engi/Scrapper btw.

Thanks!

1) Bomb kit IMO, the blind fields are great. The last Engi I leveled I did it all by killing things with xp boosters, just gathering a swarm of high XP enemies rotating blind fields and dpsing with a condi build. You can also pair with blast options to keep decent might through firebomb’s field. Then there’s always the easy mode bomb kiting where you just run in circles and the bombs explode on the enemies in chase.

2)Very viable for casual PVE, scrapper is basically a tankier alternative to our core options giving a huge increase in quality of life/ease of play having free stability and such.

3)Invest, naw but take it as it comes, sure. I’d say go Rabid as the early game alternative for condi builds. It’s a cheaper craft as it comes from salvaging and doesn’t have that new ridiculous leather cost involved. Either option will work until you can shift to the obviously superior Vipers stats.

4) no, check out Xyonon’s Plebineer build, doesn’t get much simpler than that for a DPS rotation outside of power Engi’s bomb build (which isn’t all that great in casual PVE just fyi). Having some combinations down is huge though and knowing when to swap to a kit for a specific skill. Blind field rotations is usually what I start with when a friend asks me for help with their Engi, rotating smoke bomb, flash shell, and then the various single hit blinds. Learning to might stacking rotations or get the timing to blast water fields multiple times is important. Overall the piano play is only for maximizing damage but there are plenty of alternatives that are acceptable. There’s even a simplified max kit rotation that’s less than 10% less damage but is simply facerolling down the kits in order.

Overall outside raids it’s more about knowing when/where to use certain skills and tools rather than doing the piano concerto.

bulauchenka.5382:

Caeledh.5437:“They’re all viable…” orly?
Elixir gun / med kit / Tool kit for PVE lvling? U made my day))))

IIRC you get access to med kit early and using it as your swiftness option is worthwhile until streamlined kits.

EG is great for condi cleanse as well as providing a stunbreak and quality damage with acid bomb (and a blast). So it’s not shabby at all though probably not something I’d use as a primary kit.

Toolkit, like EG something I liked to have on my bar using Magnet to pull an enemy into my cleave/blind fields, decent damage with pry bar and the block to avoid getting in combat while skipping areas. Also the superspeed trigger with streamlined kits has gotten me out of more than a few tight spots.

So yes they each have their points even if it’s very fringe like med kit.

And we wonder why they’re hesitant to do much with WvW. Make a change, people complain, don’t make a change, people complain.

ima kong fu ninja.3052:

Finality from GoF

The guy who got me interested in organized WvW play. Not sure if I miss him or that old game play more at this point, and I miss him for sure.

Lightsbane.9012:

Ardid.7203:

wolfyrik.2017:

Holograms? I’m calling it, new class utlity will be third set of utterly worthless AI.

That’s my fear, too. I hope they instead make it more like armors, barriers, limb extensions and the like.

that’d be pretty sick, like the melee attacks in ME2/3.

I’m thinking DC Lantern type constructs but with more a magitech flair from GW2 (instead of a bubble it’s a ‘soccer ball’ type collaboration of hexagonal panels)

There is a risk to condi’s it’s called resistance, which is a heavy handed answer to the condi spewing crapshoot that is called HoT. Thing is that means revenants are the new guardians in that they dominate the game mode for organized play. They could expand on that or increase access to condition clears that would likely have negligible effects on PVE play, but that’d take far too much work apparently.

In the end WvW players have to accept that what they get is what they get, and any dream of anything more is simply a delusion that will lead to frustration and anger. So it’s best to play when it’s fun and walk away when it’s not.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Palador.2170:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

But…. none of my female characters or my male Charr looks good in a beard.

Charr could use some more horn options, while we’re at it. But beards first, then horns. Then more norn tattoos.

And what do human females get? And female Asura and female Sylvari.

Give them beard options too, screw it, if you’re going to complain go ahead. Doesn’t change that more customization would be nice.

Fiddle Irk.9710:

sooo… Dragon Hunter’s Spear of Justice reveals, along with base necros shroud four , Rev’s taunt thingy and whatever other skills that “tether” people but not Engi’s Magnet? sure as kitten looks like a tether to me. did ya forget about it devs or what?

Should Mesmer GS1 also reveal, and Druid Staff1? Magnet is a channeled skill not a tether. The tether skills hold that line beyond the channel, magnet does not.

Simply put dominating one time zone has too much impact on other time zones play and that is bad. The structural advantages of higher tier objectives is enough to make us want to upgrade them, the points are overboard and in some ways ruin the skirmish idea that you can compete in your time zone as previous time zones have too much impact.

I got ya, sorry usually when I see people asking for kit ‘fixes" it’s more ’nerf this down so that my preference is more powerful", my apologies.

I agree for the most part, my only disagreement comes in that grenade changes would require a lot of work on other skills to bring us back into the state we are now and I don’t trust ANet to make that transition at all, or at the very least not smoothly (6 months of negligence at best). As I see it FT, Toolkit, and Mortar are solid as they are. Med kit obviously needs work, and Bomb kit could easily be shifted without much trouble, especially if they put some effort into making gadgets work and rocket boots got a boost (thinking something like when gadgeteer is active add burning stacks to the use of the leap and the toolbelt skill).

I do think FT could use some work in usage though as flame blast has issues with overall timing and practicality of use, I’d like to see it changed into something similar to the Elementalist warhorn Lightning orb skill so it doesn’t get lost in the ground, from there either make it detonation or not and just have the blast when it reaches the target… or something else but usage is an issue with that skill.

Anyways, not in much disagreement on this last post, just mainly a concern on if they would actually give us back what grenade changes would lose to achieve what should be it’s right spot.

Med kit’s main strength is not the med kit itself but the 33% increase to outgoing heals through the trait. With that and Super Elixir + Elixir Shell you can actually do very respectable healing.

In an overall healing build you can theoretically do pretty decently, it’s the practicality of that use that’s the problem. If you have med kit equipped and toss a few blasts into a water field it can be insane between Soothing Detonation, Health Insurance, and Medical Dispersion Field.

Again though the practicality of that potential is just not there, first with med kit you only have access to a single water field (Elixir Shell) and with the field abundance rampant in most game play it’s just not reasonable to expect to be able to pull it off.

Overall I’d like to see a water field and a blast added to med kit, and with that drop most of the ‘packs’ as they’re just impractical. There’s so many ways to make med kit viable that I don’t want to get too much into it, but I will say any changes should focus on ally healing not personal healing. We see that with the Druid’s self heal where it is a solid self heal in normal state and a weak self heal but solid group heal in Avatar state (now I’m thinking about the cartoon). We don’t need more sustain, we have plenty of solid options there, but something that allows us to benefit the team would be great.

TL:DR we have the traits to make our healing quite powerful, but the practicality of use needs some attention and med kit 2-5 are a good example of that lack of reasonable usage.

Nerfing kits wouldn’t get you the result you’re looking for though, buffing gadgets/turrets would (and they’re not even that far off). Elixirs are a different thing, they’re actually pretty solid overall. Elixirs however only shine when self buffing is valuable, so they’ll never be part of a group PVE meta unless we got some kind of boon sharing (applied force + Elixir U with sharing would be a nice alternative to Chronomancer but not as good).

So yes, I mention gadgets/turrets needing upgrades because they do. If our current kits were lowered to rocket kick and flame turret levels we’d just fall out of the meta not gain a viable option.

As for wanting new options, sure I’m all for that, but that doesn’t mean nerf the old ones. If they made holosmith a power build I’d be quite ok with that (I personally would prefer a heavy support build though). If they did something like having a trait where every holosmith utility skill used places a damage buff on yourself for all sword skills it’d be a self contained system that would take a loss if you jumped to kits.

There is no need to destroy the old to get something new.

leviathan.2148:

Jerus.4350:

So scrap the Engineer that we’ve all been playing for 4 years and give us something different? No thanks. I don’t see how that’s even an option.

So it’s better to play the same kit build for another 4 years? No thanks.

Strange, pre-HoT I ran a 3 kit Nade/EG/FT build with power gear. As HoT approached condi became viable with sinister gear and the rework to conditions. We also gained mortar kit and the current 4 kit build came out. HoT gave us quickness/alacrity which put that build into overdrive to actually play. Rocket boots is a solid alternative especially on mobile enemies, if we got a rework to gadgets it might see a lot more use. The same can be said for Flame Turret, if turrets got a real upgrade in functionality that might also get a chance to sit in the spotlight.

But, if things stay like they are for condi builds for 4 more years that’d be fine by me. I’m hoping we have other roles open up for different play styles. I want to see a damage/support build like warrior has, or a healing/support build like druid, and maybe a damage/healing build. I want to see meaningful growth in the area that Engineers are supposed to excel, versatility, not change just for the sake of change.

leviathan.2148:

Lonami.2987:

They should redesign the kits … Right now it’s restricting the potential of the profession and its future elite specializations.

FTFY

So scrap the Engineer that we’ve all been playing for 4 years and give us something different? No thanks. I don’t see how that’s even an option.

ArthurDent.9538:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I feel like ANet really missed the ball here, more-so than has happened in the past. Not only did they destroy power classes in the meta, as that damage lost cannot be recuperated by any means, but they also didn’t even get rid of the movement modifier on seaweed salad.

Seriously, the following change would’ve been so much better in every possible way:

Seaweed Salad
+10% damage while HP is over 90%
Swiftness Whatever

It would’ve fixed the movement problem they cited, would’ve kept power builds relevant, and would’ve not thrown the Seaweed Salad TP market into mayhem. There would’ve been no downside whatsoever.

Doesn’t even need the extra requirement at all. Even before the nerf Condi food gave a comparable boost without any requirements.

No, it needs something so the other foods make sense. With what RisingDusk said as someone who uses seaweed in WvW a lot I’d probably have gone a different direction. That is how things should be done, an optimal option given a set of criteria with a different optimal option given a different set of criteria, otherwise what’s the point of all the options other than to waste the money of people who don’t know?

No thanks. Mortar is actually one of our most powerful skills in WvW. Desieging is important and Mortar 1 with it’s nice arcing shot allows us to hit a lot of arrow carts and such that could not be hit otherwise.

I have a video for guildies but I don’t have a good video editing so it shows a lot of chat and has TS chat in it, so I’m not sharing it. Nearly every wall has some angle you can hit the arrow carts up top with. Most notably for anyone desiring to learn is the Hills arrow carts on Cata wall. If you aim correctly to where your cursor is or would be on top of the wall you can land the attack up there. It’s just a matter of finding the right personal elevation and angle to get that shot over the wall.

If it became an auto attack what would the benefit to Engi be? The only real benefit would be easier use of combo fields on a stationary enemy. Without a massive increase to travel time people could still side step it easy (especially at 900+ range) so yes, stationary is required to get a realistic benefit. When an enemy is stationary though it’s easy to get the combo fields, you just have to aim a little past them so the projectile passes through the target.

So no, we’d get no real benefit while losing something for WvW Engis.

As for it seeing currently little use, or being too hard to hit with at range again, I disagree. Lately I was using grenades and Mortar kit in my WvW build (change to light fields really opened up options for us with less retaliation up time). When chasing opponents I’d try to land grenades and especially freeze grenades as they ran. If they still kept going (warriors anyone?) I could swap mortar and lay down a chill field ahead of them and continue to lead them with mortar 1 until I was able to catch up with superspeed or rocket charge (pitiful but it’s something) and get them at least back in grenade range.

So again, we gain nothing, well unless afking from 1200 range is something people find desirable.

Ivantreil.3092:

Jerus.4350:

I think everyone always fears an awful AI spec. I don’t think ANet would do that to us. I mean if they did it’d just be undeniable proof they’re either kittened or hate us. I’m with you on barricades/shields, when I just heard the name I was picturing Wall of Reflection type skills. Throw up a holographic barrier to protect the team, or augment a weapon with a holographic edge. Personally I was/am hoping for a healing + support spec, but to me holosmith sounds more like a more strait support spec. We’ll help the team by blocking attacks for them while augmenting the damage, and I’m ok with that.

I just really hope it’s not more personal sustain or strait DPS. We have those covered with Scrapper and Condi/power core Engi.

This spec still could go as a power dps spec, true we have that covered, but you have to admit it, its silly we have it covered just by a plain and single AA, when our class should be about complexity with a rewarding playstyle.

It’s more than just a single AA, though heavily just a single AA. My biggest gripe with the profession right now is that our versatility just doesn’t seem to be there like it used to. The game evolved and left most of our peripheral talents behind leaving us with being primarily a DPS.

Can I put a bounty on the heads of my guild leaders? I don’t really care if specific people die on other servers, but I could use the chuckle for getting people to kill my friends

I think everyone always fears an awful AI spec. I don’t think ANet would do that to us. I mean if they did it’d just be undeniable proof they’re either kittened or hate us. I’m with you on barricades/shields, when I just heard the name I was picturing Wall of Reflection type skills. Throw up a holographic barrier to protect the team, or augment a weapon with a holographic edge. Personally I was/am hoping for a healing + support spec, but to me holosmith sounds more like a more strait support spec. We’ll help the team by blocking attacks for them while augmenting the damage, and I’m ok with that.

I just really hope it’s not more personal sustain or strait DPS. We have those covered with Scrapper and Condi/power core Engi.

hlaraujo answered pretty well but just wanted to add a couple things. When leveling in your training points go get kits and tools trait line so you can get streamlined kits. Any kit + Streamlined kits = perma swiftness, great for leveling and in general.

As for condi rotations, there are a variety of rotations that scale pretty well, single kit builds at 85% of max and a few in between those two scaling up.

Infusions make a decent difference, Geomancy sigil is like 1k dps itself, and then some lag/delay and that explains it pretty easily. It’s pretty surprising how fast fractions of seconds add up and drop your damage.