Guild Wars 2

That video is ridonculous. Look I actually enjoy the spoken words by glint. At first I was put off but then after a while it grew on me. I mean who wouldn’t like there grandmother to turn into a Dragon and give you sage like advice? The roars are fantastic and make battle that much more epic. The other noises…….who gave the thumbs up?? Seriously they need to come forth and defend this decision. I don’t care if it’s canon to the GW story because it’s awful. I’d actually have to rate those sound effects as quite possibly the worst I’ve ever heard for a game of this scale. I’m pretty sure if Glint wasn’t already dead I would campaign to get rid of her if she made those noises on the reg. Please, please, please change.

That’s the Fix R Upper which is the ascended unlock you can get from completing achievements for the scrapper

My eng Phosphor. Can’t wait to put a hammer in his hands

I still cannot fathom why they went in the direction they did with this. Its an excellent example of the developers not listening whatsoever to the community. In fact, the community loved this trait and was one of the few things that wasn’t constantly under attack by angry players. From beta up until the point they trashed this trait I loved running various kit builds that all become so much more interesting due to their refinement powers. Was some of it on the verge of being too powerful? Maybe, but is it too much to ask that you just MINORLY tweak it. You could have just made this a grandmaster trait and I would have been happier. Shame on you Anet someone somewhere in you building should be ashamed of this. I will go and enjoy my Wildstar Engineer now, but I will always remember the good times we had.

I like the idea of having the kits create a signet type effect. It would need a good amount of work to make sure it wasn’t overpowered as those who run 4 kits would get signet effects, a kit refinement power, and the kits powers to boot.

I was one to run 4 kits back when kit refinement wasn’t the lackluster trait it is today. Of course I also used to double barrage people so maybe I contributed to the change. People used to complain about medkits refinement but looking back…I would take that stupid explosion any day to get back the super elixir, grenade barrage, and even the freakin caltrops back to back.

50% chance on kill to grant a random boon.

Some of you may have been experimenting with this as well so feedback would be great. This is a very situational sigil as if your not killing frequently then you are getting relatively nothing out of it. If you are killing frequently though, you get access to some nice defensive boons and there is no cooldown on the sigil. The wiki lists the boon supplied and there durations; Aegis (10sec), Protection (3sec), Regen (5sec), Retaliation (5sec), and Swiftness (5sec). I though I saw vigor as well but my current build runs invigorating speed and infused precision so it was hard to tell what was granting the vigor. I am not running a boon duration build so I can’t speak to if increased duration affects the boons granted by this sigil but I assume it does. The sigil is not activated from killing abient creatures so you will just have to enjoy lighting bunnies, birds, and armadillos on fire just for the sake of it. I have not tried running two of these at once so if someone has it would be nice to see the results. The RNG nature of the rune will probably make some of you wince…myself included at times. But there are certain traits that can take advantage of this, not to mention boon stacking if you run an elixir/boon duration build. Let me know what you guys/gals think.

I use a mix of both. Typically I split between carrion and rabid so that I have the equivalent mixture of crit, health, armor, and cond damage that I am shooting for. Since the magic find change I am trying out the runes of the scavenger so I have built more heavily around carrion for the moment to get the most of the of the 6th rune and the vitality to cond damage trait. If I had to value one defensive trait over the other I would pick toughness though, just my opinion.

I tested these briefly on my eng last night. As several threads in different class forums have agreed I think the best aspect of these runes is that you can then opt out of traits or abilities you felt were necessary because they granted swiftness. Swiftness is a 33% boost and this is 25% so its up to the player if the extra 8% is worth it. Personally, I was addicted to speedy kits and as such I had a hard time not having it in almost every build….especially a WvW one. So this rune is an alternative, albeit a currently expensive one, to get away from having to actively apply swiftness. Boon duration and condition duration on the same rune is pretty awesome…not to mention a modest stat boost to boot.
Ill be honest, after a years worth of speedy kits addiction it feels kind of refreshing to have a passive mobility boost. Kind of like driving a manual car for a long amount of time and then switching to an automatic. Ill be testing the runes more tonight so if I find something interesting I will try to post it.

The changes to KR feel much like every change thus so far for the engineer. Yes there are positives but there is an equal amount of head scratching. Bomb makes sense, elixir gun does not. Med kit makes sense, tool kit does not (I haven’t tested the superspeed but seriously 2s???.) Fireshield for 4s is nice…I would like it to remove a condition as the old FT KR did. Replacing the barrage from grenade kit is fine with me but I would have prefered a mine field rather than just the one mine. My reason for this is that the boon removal is what I am really wanting from a mine not really the damage although the knockback is nice. I used to love juggling kits with KR…it was so frantic and exciting. The 20s global cooldown really killed it for me. I would have preferred weaker refinements and a negligable cooldown.

We need a visual KR timer as well.

It really is just a fantastic kit. For a while I felt like i just forced it into my builds because I liked it. Now I realize its there because almost every build can benefit in some way from it. Not to mention its traits fall in a tree that, taken as a whole, is probably my personal favorite tree. There really is something very satisfying about a kill shot with the prybar too.

Adding poison would definitely up the value of the trait. Unfortunately I don’t think much of anything other than a total rework could save this trait. In addition to the pathetic damage the trait was added to the explosives tree which basically sealed its fate.

I have always thought that they should combine this trait with that of acidic coating in the alchemy tree. Each thrown elixir does a base amount of damage and then “coats” you. Then for however many seconds any enemy that melees you will be poisoned for several seconds. Another possibility would be for the elixirs to grant you retaliation for 2-3 seconds, cause damage, and add whatever random buff they normally do. What about every thrown elixir creates a fixed radius lower duration version of the elixir guns acid bath? Given that the damage is so low there really is a good amount of buff room within the trait.

I normally just swim around frostgorge and kill salmon. I don’t really care about the rabbits but for some reason i cant shoot the armadillos

waka.9826:

It now makes a “PUH SHHHHHHH POW”

noise

the SHHHHHHH was never there before, thanks anet. No longer upset about the kit refinement nerf.

I too noticed this. Then I saw another eng and it was the normal sound. Maybe coated bullets changes the sound now? We all know it’s not the legendary pistol either because if you have had the misfortune of being around someone with quip it’s just pure nonsense

Azimuth.7091:

Who why when i read your post you sound mad, im just trying to be fun on my free time with ideas

I wouldn’t take the response personally. People are frustrated because it seems difficult to rationalize putting the mine into a build. As one user pointed out it is not a kit which would give multiple functions and neither is it a stunbreaker that would give some defense. The dps is not altogether terrible given the fact that it is paired with a knockback, boon removal, and short recharge time. As a toolbelt skill the minefield leaves much to be desired. Although it can potentially remove 5 boons it is incredibly obvious to human players and against mobs they can sometimes run right over them and not set them off. You do have the ability to detonate them but a reliable setting and forgetting would really be a crucial feature to me. Paired with static discharge you can actually get 2 discharges from the minefield. One from the initial laying and a second from the detonation. This will only be effective if you lay the field when you are surrounded as the discharge goes in whatever direction you are facing, not necessarily towards a mob.

Whenever I run non Orr map content I make sure and get the mine out as it really is a fun tool to use. It’s unfortunate that its application in higher difficulty content seems to be diminished. Unstoppable champs will just romp right over your mine.

Alquinon.2957:

Yes, you have a lot of options. To list a few that I know of.
- Elixir S gives invulnerability and throw Elixir S can give you stealth (which is great) or stability (not that great, but still helps)
- Supply crate – stun and distraction, since a lot of mobs go for your turrets
- Bring a shield for its block and maybe its push-back
- Equip a toolkit for even more block
More situational:
- Elixir U is ok for its stun break and endurance recovery
- Elixir C for condition removal and also stun break

Just wanted to point out that its elixir R that provides the stun break and endurance recovery. Elixir U provides quickness/haste and the projectile defense from the the throw. Elixir U’s throw can be used either before or after entering the mobs. If it gives you the veil you will be able to stealth. If you wait until your out of the crowd you can throw it down and pretty much all three effects can be used to escape.

Flamethrower has an AOE blind that can be used to maneuver through enemies. Often you can shoot static shot from the pistol at the group of enemies, switch to flamethrower as you enter the crowd and vent smoke to blind them yet again. If they are tailgating you can drop caltrops from the toolkit, glue bomb from bomb kit, or even throw grenades behind you as you run. One of my favorite part of the engineer is all the tools we have to escape. Don’t forget traits that can allow you to get through enemies such as cloaking device and, if you are really getting beat on, self regulating defenses.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

zugly.9035:

is bomb kit good ?

thanks in advance

It seem that all of you forgot to answer this question !!
My answer >>I believe that the bomb kit is the strongest kit we have now. ( even stronger than traited grenade ).

Bomb kit is indeed a great kit. Bombs will out dps grenades but you will also have to be in the fray for them to be effective. If you build the power tree to 30 then you can switch between bombs and nades depending on the situation which is what I like to do. The bomb kit also comes with its own set of combo fields and a blast finisher.

Light.6095:

Kai.3680:

With a mixture of knights/PTV armor and zerker jewelry I feel I run a very nice balance of defense and offense.

Just curious: since you’re emphasising condition damage so much, wouldn’t it make sense to use rampagers instead of berserkers?

My strategy was more towards condition duration instead of damage. Since I already had +30% in the power tree I figured I would just add to the duration and get 50%. This was to get more out of chill, blind, and poision. Poision I use more for healing reduction than the damage it could apply. The added duration also works well with vuln stacking which steel packed powder allows us to do extremely well . I run with the sitting duck trait so net shot combined with one of the condition grenade skills means instant multiple stacks of vuln + whatever condition grenade you used + potential on crit cond. Just to make whiping conditions that much more frustrating

I considered the crit damage to be more valuable than the condition damage so instead of pursuing the precision tree and equipping rampager gear I went with the tools tree and got berzerkers. This is partly due to me also having kit refinement and always waiting for an opportunity to get a double barrage off. You can run a grenade build either way and have great results. Not to mention bombs can lay out some serious condition damage as well. I use my grenades more for burst damage/control and my rifle as my main weapon.

If I would run condition damage I think I would prefer bombs and pistols to grenades though. Just because the base damage of bombs is nice and you get burning and confusion which are heavy hitter conditions.

Personally I love grenade kit. When fully traited you get an AOE long range artillery attack that comes with great conditions and potentially stacks vulnerability extremely well. I favor going all the way to grenadier but I have also run builds without where I really just use the conditions and grenade barrage. My build currently is 30/10/0/10/20. With a mixture of knights/PTV armor and zerker jewelry I feel I run a very nice balance of defense and offense. Typically I am not just sitting in the grenade kit though. I have always felt the kit looses effectiveness when you stay in it instead of rotating to other ablities especially ones that immobilize/knockdown/cripple. Between my runes (4 lich and 2 lyssa) and my +30% cond duration from the power tree I get a total +50% cond duration. With food you can then have a +90% duration…if anyone knows how to achieve the full 100% condition duration while in a kit please let me know. I feel this compliments the grenade kit well especially adding duration to the chill which can set up barrages, slow unstoppable mobs, and help control the zerg front.

I always use rifle with nades but it is justifiable to run pistols as well since the conditions synergize well.

MrSilver.5269:

I played with a gadget build for the longest time, and came to terms with the fact that the alchemy build was better for me.

For my playstyle Elixir B and U are absolutely must haves, and as much as I LOVE slick shoes, I found that Elixir S has way too many uses. As such, I generally trait for the reduction of cool-downs for Elixirs, condition removal, and either self-regulating defenses, projection injection, or invigorating speed, or potent elixirs. All of those traits are so good, you could make an argument for all of them. IMO, alchemy has the best traits of any that we have.

It would be nice if they would merge potent elixirs together with fast acting elixirs into one traid (reduce cool-down AND increase duration).

Just my opinion.

The merge would be a dream for elixirs. I always hoped there would be a trait that would allow a 0 cast time for all elixirs such that you could activate the elixir the same as a guardian or warrior would there shouts. It could be something along the lines of injected elixirs or whatever. Being able to vent the elixirs just like the regen mist of the elixir gun would also be a nice option.

I don’t want the OP to not play the engineer because of misinformation. Neither do I want them to play a class that they might not get the most out of. We likely are not going to reach an agreement on the main topic at hand and there is no point in bickering. As you suggested and I agreed going to the mists would be a great idea. We can both agree that the more engineers the better. I am flattered that you want to get me one on one and record it but I will pass.

coglin.1496:

Victros.8154:

I’m looking for a class that, simply put, doesn’t have a huge number of buttons to push. Does engineer work? Do they have to swap weapons often? Thanks!

If you use kits, you will have buttons. Each kit replaces your weapons skills, with 5 new ones indicative to the kit.

If you wish to run gadgets, you will have an easy play style and be able to control the battlefield well.

If you use elixirs you have great self buffs, the ability to have nice stun break and condition removal, and buff your party to some extent.

The problem with a lot of the previous post is that they got stale on certain notions. They mislead you and tell you that you need a lot of button and must use kits. Be wary of such ideology.

The class is not hard to learn. None of them are. You can take any class with in 5 minutes of creation and go to the mist and learn the basics of any class, doing this with all classes would help you miles more then asking here.

How long do you think someone would run an engineer without using kits and THAT notion not get stale. No class is hard to learn but the point of leveling it and using it in different aspects of the game is to feel competent and like you have done well with the class. The engineer simply requires more button pushing to take advantage of what makes the class unique. Would you enjoy only running gadgets and achemy to avoid button pushing? I agree that taking the class into the mists immediately to get a better idea of what the class feels like is a good idea. It still does not replace thorough gameplay in multiple situations though. What part of the mists is going to replicate dungeon play?

I use sigil of earth and sigil of force for the flat out +5% damage. Stacking is great but effectiveness is diminished if you are somewhere that going down is somewhat inevitable. Dungeons are the culprits of this usually. COF is an easier dungeon where I usually go in with a sigil of corruption or perception. If I am going to run Arah then I usually just run with sigil of earth and force because going down just happens. Sometimes dungeons will have parts where the environment will take you down with one misstep. When you have the resources consider having in your pack a weapon with force/accuracy, whatever stacking sigil you prefer, and whatever swap sigil you prefer. Even in hard dungeons there may be a segment where you can quick grab some stacks on trash mobs then swap out your stacking sigil weapon for tougher parts. But if I had to pick 2 sigils to have permanently it would be sigil of earth and force.

I have always gone for condition duration over con damage mainly because I value conditions such as confusion, cripple, freeze, blind, weakness, and vuln more so than burning or bleeding. Poison is an all around great condition as well. I run grenadier almost exclusively to apply some of those conditions then switch back to rifle for direct damage. I switch to elixir gun often so that after applying the grenade conditions i can then keep up weakness if i don’t mind taking a hit on direct damage. I am a constant switcher of utilities almost for every given battle. It seems the only way to be truly effective as the engineer. This is also why I avoid things like the elixir bombs simply because 1. it puts you too far into the toughness tree which I really don’t like and there really are not many great substitutes for that trait if you are somewhere that bombs are not effective. 30 into a tree is a lot…so for that investment I want to be able to switch into multiple useful traits. I run a 30/10/0/10/20 build based on cond duration, direct rifle damange, and bursts from grenade barrage/jumpshot/blunderbuss etc that I really love. Kit refinement really does redifine the use of kits and encourages swapping.

This build has worked well for me in fractals as I have a high degree of survivability, decent damage, and consistent direct cc and condition based cc. If I didn’t swap my weapons, utilities, and traits frequently it wouldn’t matter though.

Silver Chopper.4506:

@ elitegamerz – I play mostly PvE on engineer. And targets seem to have higher armor there. (in dungeons, at least). Can you balance out some survivability and hit above 1k crit?

@ Medazolam – what utilities do you use? how many points do you have in firearms?

thanks

Currently I run a 30/10/0/10/20 build and get 1200-1500 crits pretty reliably. I have all zerker accessories/jewelry and PTV armor and back piece. I have just over 20k health am very hard to kill given I use elixir s and toolkit. Grenades out dps the rifle when used well and bombs can crit well over 2k. Try static discharge with the rifle too, you will see a good spike in damage. Also go for straight damage sigils like force with the +5% increase in damage. If you have lots of moolah then grab runes of the scholar or ogre for an even larger damage buff

The guys posting on this have the right of it. Engineers are tough to learn without having some finger dexterity and a reliable knowledge of the keyboard. Between my mouse and keyboard I have rearranged control bindings and have made things much easier on myself. Honestly, other than dungeons you could get away with the eng in pve without too much stress on yourself unless you just had to use grenades. Once you get to pvp and wvw though you will be tying your fingers in knots if you don’t have a good setup going on. Post 80 eng probably wouldn’t be too rewarding for you either since most people begin settling into a routine of WvW, dungeons, and PvP which will be more difficult for you than just exploratory pve.

I would pick a guardian over warrior but that is just my personal preference. Warrior’s are beasts and they run a rampage through pve without hindrance. Warriors also get access to the rifle which is nice if you prefer ranged combat. You can still get above average dps out of a guardian and maintain high survivability but provide good support. Ranged is somewhat lacking in guardians. Good luck!

People’s perception of the engineer being underpowered has been blown completely out of proportion. There are some definite issues with the class but I have ran nearly everthing except for upper level fractals and thats because I really just don’t have any interest in running the same things over and over and over again. I typically run a power rifle grenadier build and when in groups I opt for healing turret because the healing and condition removal is of great value. I cannot say enough about a well played grenadier engineer. I almost always run with my guild because PUGs can go from being great to horrible in seconds no matter your class.

If you are truly worried about being a detriment to parties just run with kit refinement major trait, elixir gun, and healing turret. There shouldn’t be any situation where you cannot provide AOE heals and condition removal on very short cooldowns.

The boss aggro thing is something that has happened to me before but not recently. When it did happen it was like the boss would go through the bowels of hell to find me and kill me. If this same scenario happend to just about any build of any class then they too would likely go down. Especially high condition/AOE champs. I have seen this happen to other classes as well. The mossman sticks to the thief in my party like he has waited his whole life to kill him a thief. Inevitably the thief goes down because unending champ agro is ridiculous.

I hope you decide to stick with the eng. I have 3 toons at 80. Ele, eng, and guard. I like the ele and eng much more than the guard and for the same reasons. They are versatile classes that have bountiful options for any given scenario. The ele was an overall more fluidly designed class but the same charms that I like about the ele also are evident in the eng. Good luck! And remember, abilities that proc on heal use are the eng’s ace in the hole. Noone does it better.

Runes of nightmare are awesome for building duration. Don’t forget food! That alone can jump your durations up significantly. I cannot argue the effectiveness of grenades. Despite all the bickering people do on this forum about feeling useful it is hard to not feel effective when using grenades well. Few classes can apply such a consistent volley of artillery that also stacks some great conditions. Chill cannot be underestimated as it is often the only way to effectively deal with dual dagger elementalists, thieves, and any significant bunker build. Outside of staff ele AOE I haven’t seen any other class than can hold back a zerg as well as a couple grenade launching engineers. I personally run rifle with my grenade build just to have a more frequent immobilize for grenade barrage…which does huge damage when planned well. In addition, steel packed powder minor trait with grenadier major trait and utility goggles means you can spread decent stacks of vuln on multiple targets and huge stacks on singles. Shrapnel grenades combined with a rune of earth and the shrapnel major trait and minor trait in precision for bleed on crit just gives overkill stacks of bleed. Building the explosives tree also gives you access to improvements to the bomb kit which makes Orr go from being incredibly annoying to bomberman fun times. Everything is going to chase you anyway so you might as well have an infinite trail of bombs combing out from behind you.

Nice build, I run something very similar with 30/20/0/20/0. Grenadier, increased explosives damage, and shrapnel from power tree. Infused precision and sitting duck from precision tree. Invigorating speed and fast acting elixirs or cleaning 409. I love having almost 100% vigor uptime as I’m pretty liberal with dodge rolls. I like your combo of hgh and enhance performance. Honestly, hgh by itself is disappointing due most of our elixir cool downs but with enhance performance and the runes of altruism it forms a nice synergy. Will have to try this out, thanks!

I guess it would also depend on who you are running with and if it is pve, pvp, or wvw that you are participating in. 6-10 sounds right as its rare that you would not have one of those situations pointed out by Casia happen. I go for longer durations not to stack it on single targets but so that when using AOE I can try to get longer durations on groups. For burns, you can’t always apply them exactly the same way with exactly the same duration. When all my skills are off cooldown I have the opportunity to apply the burns with the greatest frequency and greatest overall duration to a group, not just a single target. If I wind up stacking 20 seconds of burn on someone and they drop it, fine. The point is, if i only get half hits from dodging/blocking, the remaining stack will still be decent. I haven’t looked far enough into the mechanics of condition application to know if I am being overly redundent or not.

For your build, I personally wouldn’t go that far into power but thats really just my choice. I would take out the extra 10 in power and put it either into the alchemy tree or the tools tree. However, I get my condition duration from a sigil and runes. If you were looking for help from the explosives tree then by all means go for it. I just can’t get away from how useful both the tools and alchemy tree are. Ayden mentioned above how you can drop conditions with both the kit refinement of the FT and EG. What should be noted on this is you can drop conditions even when feared, immobilized, etc due to the nature of kit refinement. Really a nice feature.

Ayden has the right of it, reapplication of burns is really very easy. Not to mention people panic when they see they are burning because it is a very damaging condition. So they will often blow there condition removals quickly which leaves optimal opportunity to reapply. I found running with sigil of fire, burn duration, and the trait to cause burns on crit to apply burns often enough to have a constant stack. EG synergizes well with flame thrower since it helps apply more conditions while also having defensive qualities and many traits pair the two together

Neverwinter nights is coming out with a MMO isn’t it?

But seriously, guess i’ll just keep on trucking. What else are you going to do? Despite the complaints this is one of the best MMO’s available and I typically stay loyal even if I do so grudgingly sometimes. I also get attached to my mains which makes it doubly hard to act like I would just abandon the class. I wouldn’t mind joining an engineer guild to start being constructive with gear, skills, builds discussions. Sooner or later all classes get nerfed. Either that or they lay down a big OL’ universal nerf.

I gotta get my flamethrowing fix somehow….right? (starts scratching neck)

You can bring classes down in damage but they will still have better mechanics for pulling off consistent dps. Kits are clunky and I still am not sure why they just didn’t set our kits up like they did the ele’s attunements. When you have time to plan your attack they work fine…sometimes they are perfect. But if you get jumped and start swapping all around it can mean you either pulled off a great combo or just switched your backpacks around before dying.

It seems to me that they are going to try to balance all the classes with universal changes instead of taking the time to truly refine individual classes. This is usually the case for most high profile MMOs as to make changes to a class only fixes the class and not potential underlying problems to the game itself. Does this bode well for the engineer? Who knows what will truly happen but my money is on the class remaining relatively as is until the game itself becomes more balanced.

Yeah the warrior soloing that stuff is just ridiculous and if I was on the dev team I would be a little embarrassed that this was even possible. Congrats to that guy though…it was an epic feat nonetheless.

I have been gaming for many years even so long as to know what it was like to game the very first MMO’s. Granted I was really young and just ran in circles half the time or had adult players gank me and steal my loot. Anyways….there are always classes like the eng in every one. No manner of complaining or stressing is going to change it. There has always got to be the one class that just doesn’t perform. It’s not to say it isn’t a fun class but it struggles to hang with the elites. Often what changes in the game is a universal “balancing” or nerfing of general game features in an attempt to bridge the disparity. Unfortunately this doesn’t really a make a class better…it just makes the game easier. Look what happened to WOW, it became a game you could run basically on autopilot. I wouldn’t say I am content with the engineer since I am a paying customer like everyone else and deserve to play my class without bugs. Yet I don’t get hopes up that things will dramatically change.

Only an engineer would have bugs fixed on things that the majority has not asked for(underwater)

Only an engineer would have the elixir gun be a viable healing option for those not wanting to full out spec in healing and then have it “fixed”

Only an engineer would be anticipated as the siege master and then get upshown by magicians in pajamas and masquerade masks

Only an engineer would be a great way for a fresh new class design to enter a typical fantasy medieval type MMO and then not get a fair shake at design time.

Only an engineer would advertise wearing heavy armor then show up trying to pull off a vanhelsing immitation.

Only an engineer, despite all this, would be my favorite class O_o

Vol.5241:

Groonz.7825:

It’ll be interesting how you will do this, considering that there are some people who exploited a method to gain insane amount of achievement points at the cost of nothing (only time spent repeating same actions, not referring to the salvaging achievement).

Hope those people won’t gain immense amount of crowns due to said exploit.

1.) It’s not an exploit

2.) At the cost of nothing? It cost a ton of money to get those stacks of salvagable items. To get one point achievement you need 200. That costs a lot if you want 20,000 points.

The person posting made a point to say they weren’t referring to the salvaging exploit. And exploit is exactly what it is. It’s not a matter of opinion it fits the exact textbook definition of an exploit. You are taking advantage of a system beyond expectations to further your own personal gain….an exploit. I am not saying its unethical but regardless of the time or money spent that doesn’t change the nature what was done.

Dungeons have only ever been a major issue for me when I ran with pugs and there are numerous reasons why this may be both class related and not. When running with the guild, on teamspeak, and communicating there are few if any problems. Upper level fractals are an issue but those are an issue for players in general not just class dependent. In a game where there are not supposed to be specific roles and the “trinity is broken” we have seen people naturally aggregate into dps and defensive builds. This is more of an attempt at tanking than being defensive in a healing type of way. This has left the engineer in a precarious situation because they are neither the hardest hitting or the hardest hit taking class so we fill neither of the popular roles.

General PVE you should be able to succeed at nearly everything with the eng. I actually would much rather play then eng because the content remains playable even after 80. With my warrior I can run in and annihilate everything in pve without having to even use much more than my autoattack.

41) Combining lifesteal on crit food with the flamethrower produces considerable healing. Omnoberry pie anyone? This in combination with elixir gun toolbet regen, backpack regen, and kit refinement elixir gun means you are a very hard target to kill outside of a serious burst. You could add in healing turret as well if you really want to maximize your healing over time. If you realllly want to make this ridiculous then spec for boon duration, full 30 in alc and a rune combo, and your healing over time becomes long and strong. A nice rune set to check out would be dwayna’s. Adds healing power, boon duration, and regen proc on use of heal (this is my person fav combo). I havent even check out what would happen if you had the givers armor set on but I assume it would a nice boost to boon duration.

aydenunited.5729:

The thing I have found that makes it VERY hard for me to get away from as an Engineer is that we can do significant burn damage with significant duration in just a few moves, and we don’t even have to spec for condition damage at all for it to be useful.

I agree with this completely. In fact, I ran a build based on burn duration, rather than damage, and noticed a far greater damage outcome than when I was spec’d for cond damage alone. Having a trait within the precision tree for 20% duration was an easy pickup, not to mention all of the +burn duration runes and sigils are cheap. 2xrunes of flame legion, 2x runes of baelfire, 2x runes of balthazar= +45% burn…with trait =65%….with sigil of smoldering=75%…with power tree built up 20 points =95% burn duration…with super veggie pizza I believe I was around 130-140% burn duration. It could easily be argued to run with +cond duration runes and then pick up the burn duration sigil and trait as a kicker. I ran p/p with sigil of fire in addition to the sigil of smoldering. In the power tree I also picked the trait with 33% chance burn on crit. Between the sigil procs, trait procs, and natural burn abilities I was easily able to stack 15-20 seconds of burn on people. My typical utilites were flamethrower, rocket boots, and either an elixir or toolkit. I am not a fan of flamethrower in general but it added to the ability to add burns so I kept it. Not to mention it was fun rocket kicking in and then venting the exhaust to blind right when I reached the target. All in all, I found more rewards from burn applications than bleed but it also felt like a more specific build than the bleed one. It also felt easier to apply bleeds in an AOE fashion than I could with burns. I guess this would mainly be the case because of nades and there ability to spread bleeds to groups with relative ease. Flamethrower was an AOE burn spreader and if it’s bugs weren’t so prevelant I could see it really becoming a premier applier of crit based conditions in general.

Anet vs Eng….FIGHT!!
MORTAL NERFBAT!!!
badabadabadabadadada (repeat way to much)
MORTAL NERFBAT!!!
Eng misses with flamethrower, lays a turret and some voice in the background goes (WHOOPSIES)
Anet takes nerfbat and striketh eng down…NERFALITY

Time of my life ( Anet and Eng duo rendition)

Anet: Now I’ve had the time of my life
No I never felt like this before
Yes I swear it’s the truth
and I owe it all to nerfin you

Eng: ‘Cause I’ve had the nerf of my life
and I owe it all to you(ANET)

ANET: I’ve been waiting for so long
Now I’ve finally found someone
To nerf and its youuu engineer.

Eng: We saw the writing on the wall
As we felt this magical fantasy nerf

Both: Now with passion in our eyes
There’s no way we could disguise it secretly
So we take each other’s hand
‘Cause we seem to understand the urgency of nerfin

Anet: just remember

Eng: I’m the one who

Anet: I can’t nerf enough of

Eng: So I’ll tell you something

Both:This could be nerf love

(CHORUS)
Both: I’ve had the nerf of my life
No I never nerfed this way before
Yes I swear it’s the truth
And I owe it all to you
‘Cause I’ve had the nerf of my life
And I’ve searched through possible build
’Til I found the truth
And I owe this nerf to you

insanemaniac.2456:

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

Avoid using the MISSthrower in wvw, elixer gun will tragically serve you better with the correct specs. Even when using flamethrower against enemies behind a gate, as soon as they get a retaliation buff, you kill yourself faster than you kill them.

omnom pie/ghost 2 win
laugh at retal

this is indeed an excellent way to combat retaliation, not to mention become very survivable. A looming nerf might be in the works for the life steal food but who knows. A nice way to combat retaliation in addition to life steal would be to run with a superior rune of nullification. It has 10 second cooldown but if you also use mines with your build you can do a nice job of boon removal and therefore typically negate retaliation completely. Of course that means you have to use mines which many don’t like and against ranged enemies they are pitiful unless you magnet someone into them.

17) scope flat out doesn’t work, unless something has changed very recently
18) rifle #5 jump ability is great for jump puzzles as it is guaranteed as long as you are not changing elevations
19) static discharge range appears to be based on equipped weapon range not the particular utilities, outside of ground targeted failures. For instance, rocket kick discharge will go the range of the weapon not the kick, useful for dangerous foes
20) stability will keep you from falling down from overcharged shot and rocket boots. I tried -stun duration runes to negate knockback of both and noticed nothing. Maybe -condition duration?
21) mines remove a boon as per description. However, the toolbelt skill says nothing of boon removal yet removes up to 5 boons from foes

Phuriocity.9218:

When I’m spec’ing my engineer, I COMPLETELY ignore the stats that come with the traits. They have absolutely no correlation to the traits they work with, EXCEPT for the fact that firearms is conveniently perfect for engi condi builds (pres/damage).

I often do the same. I rely far more on gear and consumables to take me in the direction stat wise that I want. For example, even if I don’t go precision I still build the tools tree that has crit damage mainly because I find it to be one of the most useful trees the engineer has. Toolbelt recharge is awesome too. I hate that I feel compelled to always include the vitality tree too…simply because the toughness tree offers very little outside of the first major trait selection.

Kalan.9705:

Interior A-net APC
A-net devs watch the screens as classes enter the BWE1 heat exchangers

Ripley: Lieutenant, what do those engineer pistols fire?
Gorman: 10 millimeter explosive tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round, why?
Ripley: Well, look where your enginners are. They’re right under the primary heat exchangers firing at non-engineers.
Gorman: So?
Ripley: So, if they fire their weapons in there, won’t they stand a chance of applying conditions like other classes?
Burke: [interjecting] Ho, ho, ho. Yeah, she’s absolutely right.
Gorman: [turns round to Burke] So? So what?
Burke: Look, this whole balance situation is basically a big ego-trip reactor for the classes A-net actually plays…
Gorman turns back to stare, horrified, at the screen
Burke: …right? So you’re talkin’ about a thermonuclear explosion and “Adiós, muchachos.”
Gorman: Oh, great. Wonderful. kitten!
Gorman: Apone! We can’t have any engineers having fun in there… I want you to pull everything that isn’t already broken from the engineers immediately, pistols, medpack #4, smoke skills, bomb radii, grenades, juggernaut, everything, collect the viable engineer builds from every patch… Leave em with flame units that miss only, unfinished kits that miss finishers/leaps/stats/swaps/remove utility slots, the crowbar skill, laughable comedy broken turrets and 500 bugs.
Hudson: Is he kittening crazy?
Frost: What the hell are we supposed to use, man? Harsh language?

— Aliens

That was great. Favorite movie and favorite quote from this thread

If our rifle was actually a rifle then I could understand precision. You wait for the right shot and take it and if your precise you pay off huge. As its stands that is not really what we have. We have a confused shotgun/rifle. If they the devs would just go ahead and commit to either then the approriate tree would be more obvious. Unfortunately though, if they put rifle in the explosives tree then you would wind up with rifle, bombs, nades, and whatever else traits all in one tree. As if I don’t have enough problems picking traits that synergize as is.

With those runes you are going to have about +~45% cond duration. For some skills this will be good but for others you might not see a difference. It will all depend on how long of a duration the condition is applied for. In addition to those runes you could build some of your power tree which has cond duration in it as well. That way you know you have at least a 50% or more cond duration and are getting at least another second out of your conditions such as pistol #1’s bleed. I believe there is food out there that adds cond duration as well but I could be wrong. I just posted a build based around burn duration that is pretty fun. Reason I went strictly for burn is that in the precision tree you have a trait that gives you access to +20% burn duration which an easy snag.

Hello fellow eng’s. Im sure a build based around burn duration has been made but I haven’t seen one recently and was interested in discussing it. I usually run a 0/20/0/20/30 rifle SD build with PTV armor and Zerker Jewelry. That build is great and probably my go to build but I wanted to mess around and have some fun trying something different. Please help by commenting on this build..trashing the build..finding me in WvW and running circles around me when I try to flame you..whatever.

The following runes were used.

2x balthazar 15% burn duration, 2x baelfire 15% BD, 2x fire legion 15%BD…they all gave a power bonus as well if I remember correctly.

Sigils on dual pistols: **I might have the names of sigils screwed up so correct me if I am wrong.
Sigil of fire: 33% chance on crit AOE fire burst
Sigil that grants +10% burn duration

traits were picked as such:
10/30/0/20/10…….I also ran some with 20/30/0/20/0 but i love having acces to SD, speedy kits, and kit refinement. Although it is nice having the extra condition duration from the power tree in addition to enhance performance.

Trait skills to point out:
*+20% burn duration in precision tree, Vul on crit trait chosen but will be changed, doesnt last long enough for me to think it’s better than sitting duck much. I will probably take sitting duck because its an instant 5 stack that actually lasts. Juggernaut was chosen as well.
*33% chance of burn on crit from power tree
*+15% damage from FT in vitality tree
*One of 3 traits from tool tree depending on situation: Static Discharge, Kit Refinement, Speedy kits

I considered going all the way in Vitality for HGH but after trying HGH in many builds and scenarious I really don’t like the trait. Sure it adds some needed might but you have to constantly reapply it by chugging Elixirs (does anyone else want a trait where they insta inject into your bloodstream…or something like that) Ya know…kinda like how guardians and warriors can just run & shout, spin & shout, dance & shout, program a super complex computer and shout. Most elixirs have too long a CD for me to want to use. In any event, the point of this build was burn duration anyway so raw damage was not my intent.

Utilities:

Flamethrower, rocket boots, tool kit….and of course supply crate for my elite

• tool kit was taken to compliment rocket boots when I use Static Discharge.

Gear:

Right now I still have my PTV set of armor because I didn’t feel like crafting a set of Carrion or Rampagers for a whim build. I did have a set of rampager exotic jewelry I had from a previous build so I used that in place of my zerker stuff.

Build Observations
I haven’t done any serious math to figure out anything more than what I have observed plain before my eyes.

So with all sigils, runes, traits, and stats combined my burn duration should be at 85%

Sigil: 10%
Runes: 45%
Trait: 20%
Trait Tree (power): 10%

I know there is food you can eat as well…might to nom nom some of that and see what happens because I would really like a 100% increase.

So…down to the burnt meat and potatoes…what happens when I take this for a test drive?

If I just sit there and blast away with my FT on a stationary target then I am subject to the chance of adding addtional burns through crits. So if all that happens correctly I see burn stacks ranging from 5-10 sec, 10-15 if I keep getting my burn crits in sequence. Now comes the fun. If I use rocket kick, blow torch, coated bullets and FT 1 in cycle I have seen burns propelling into the mid 20’s and higher. Not a bad stack. On the side, a neat combo to do is rocket kick into a group of enemies and as your connecting hit smoke vent and blind them all..dodge roll backwards so you set a bomb.

I am not sure but it seems like certain burn applications tick at different rates of damage. For instance…the duration of burn from rocket kick and coated bullets is different but it also seems the damage is different. Is this true or am I just majorly confused (me no good at maths)? Anyways, it seems like each tick does ~550 damage as it stands. Not too bad if that burn just sits there and ticks away for a while. Add in some other conditions and things are hurting pretty badly. I know human players can drop conditions easily enough but so too can this build reapply them easily enough. At some point the removal will be on cooldown. Now you just have to figure out how to hit the broad side of a barn with the FT and you will be cooking

Let me know what you think!

Hello fellow eng’s. Im sure a build based around burn duration has been made but I haven’t seen one recently and was interested in discussing it. I usually run a 0/20/0/20/30 rifle SD build with PTV armor and Zerker Jewelry. That build is great and probably my go to build but I wanted to mess around and have some fun trying something different. Please help by commenting on this build..trashing the build..finding me in WvW and running circles around me when I try to flame you..whatever.

The following runes were used.

2x balthazar 15% burn duration, 2x baelfire 15% BD, 2x fire legion 15%BD…they all gave a power bonus as well if I remember correctly.

Sigils on dual pistols: **I might have the names of sigils screwed up so correct me if I am wrong.
Sigil of fire: 33% chance on crit AOE fire burst
Sigil that grants +10% burn duration

traits were picked as such:
10/30/0/20/10…….I also ran some with 20/30/0/20/0 but i love having acces to SD, speedy kits, and kit refinement. Although it is nice having the extra condition duration from the power tree in addition to enhance performance.

Trait skills to point out:
*+20% burn duration in precision tree, Vul on crit trait chosen but will be changed, doesnt last long enough for me to think it’s better than sitting duck much. I will probably take sitting duck because its an instant 5 stack that actually lasts. Juggernaut was chosen as well.
*33% chance of burn on crit from power tree
*+15% damage from FT in vitality tree
*One of 3 traits from tool tree depending on situation: Static Discharge, Kit Refinement, Speedy kits

I considered going all the way in Vitality for HGH but after trying HGH in many builds and scenarious I really don’t like the trait. Sure it adds some needed might but you have to constantly reapply it by chugging Elixirs (does anyone else want a trait where they insta inject into your bloodstream…or something like that) Ya know…kinda like how guardians and warriors can just run & shout, spin & shout, dance & shout, program a super complex computer and shout. Most elixirs have too long a CD for me to want to use. In any event, the point of this build was burn duration anyway so raw damage was not my intent.

Utilities:

Flamethrower, rocket boots, tool kit….and of course supply crate for my elite

• tool kit was taken to compliment rocket boots when I use Static Discharge.

Gear:

Right now I still have my PTV set of armor because I didn’t feel like crafting a set of Carrion or Rampagers for a whim build. I did have a set of rampager exotic jewelry I had from a previous build so I used that in place of my zerker stuff.

Build Observations
I haven’t done any serious math to figure out anything more than what I have observed plain before my eyes.

So with all sigils, runes, traits, and stats combined my burn duration should be at 85%

Sigil: 10%
Runes: 45%
Trait: 20%
Trait Tree (power): 10%

I know there is food you can eat as well…might to nom nom some of that and see what happens because I would really like a 100% increase.

So…down to the burnt meat and potatoes…what happens when I take this for a test drive?

If I just sit there and blast away with my FT on a stationary target then I am subject to the chance of adding addtional burns through crits. So if all that happens correctly I see burn stacks ranging from 5-10 sec, 10-15 if I keep getting my burn crits in sequence. Now comes the fun. If I use rocket kick, blow torch, coated bullets and FT 1 in cycle I have seen burns propelling into the mid 20’s and higher. Not a bad stack. On the side, a neat combo to do is rocket kick into a group of enemies and as your connecting hit smoke vent and blind them all..dodge roll backwards so you set a bomb.

I am not sure but it seems like certain burn applications tick at different rates of damage. For instance…the duration of burn from rocket kick and coated bullets is different but it also seems the damage is different. Is this true or am I just majorly confused (me no good at maths)? Anyways, it seems like each tick does ~550 damage as it stands. Not too bad if that burn just sits there and ticks away for a while. Add in some other conditions and things are hurting pretty badly. I know human players can drop conditions easily enough but so too can this build reapply them easily enough. At some point the removal will be on cooldown. Now you just have to figure out how to hit the broad side of a barn with the FT and you will be cooking

Let me know what you think!

Am I the only one or did you think that the saving graces for the engineer armor where going to be both the charr and asura? The asura have some pretty neat stuff but you have to be asura to get it and they aren’t my style. Charr are awesome but their t3 racial medium armor looks like something from the flintstones….seriously. I like the diesel punk look too. Reminds me of fallout. I would like a set of power armor for my charr…..tesla power armor to be exact…with a tesla kit. One can always dream

Honestly very little of the engineer matches the engineering theme at all. Explosives are not necessarily an engineer..its a demolitionist. Alchemy is not an engineer its a chemist. Flamethrowing is just that…its a flamethrower that has probably been used by soldiers more than anything. The tool kit matches the theme well. Turrets are the true skill of a ‘core’ engineer and they are bogus. Remember turrets from TF2? They would ruin your day if you didn’t know better.

During pre-release artwork I was under the impression we were going to be a heavily armored soldier/engineer and was loving it. The steam punk stuff goes well I guess…I am just not really that into it.

Anyways, I want heavy armor as much if not more for the stats than the style. I feel Anet could make a really unique class out of this but right now there is just too much going on.

I had this dream that I was an engineer in full plate metal with an actual shotgun (not some weird rifle shotgun mix) and was barreling into enemies just blasting away (Wrex or Grunt come to mind?). Then I continue by pulling out a prybar and smashing someone across the face, getting my shotgun back out and continuing the barrage. Then I switch over to biotics and things get really awesome…oh wait

Medium range? Give me an assault rifle or semi auto something if you want medium range. If the devs don’t want to modify the damage we produce then let us take damage well via heavy armor. Medium range is a trap unless you can rapid burst fire to take account of numerous enemies. Heavy armor would also allow us to maintain decent dps without having to sacrifice so much to get protection.

I have played the eng for many many hours and I am not going to rant and rave about problems. I love the class despite the problems. However, heavy armor combined with a fully functional shotgun that had a spread auto attack would be a dream….just sayin. Pump action of course