I would like to see more weapons on the Engineer have additional mechanics when the Engineer has 50+ heat. E.g.
While above 50 heat do the following:
Pistol – 1 Skill – Apply another bleed stack
Pistol – 3 Skill – Gain ammunition (max 2, clip reload 1s) for this skill
Pistol – 5 Skill – Knockdown for 1 sec all moving opponents
Shield – 4/5 Skill – When struck while these skills are active drop Throw Gunk at your location. Only happens once per skill activation.
Rifle – 2 Skill – Apply a Timed Charge on opponents who are hit by this skill.
Rifle – 3 Skill – Gain up to three ammunition, ammunition reload (time between when you can fire the next shot after first using this skill: 0.5secs)
Rifle – 4 Skill – Pierces and is UnblockableI believe that some changes like this would be appropriate for the Holosmith’s design concept.
A lot of buffs, would probably have to accompany nerfs to the Photon Forge
If that needs to be the case then increase the damage if I overheat, personally I wouldn’t mind.
I believe that the less than a handful of weapons that we as Engineers do have could benefit from having the same treatment as sword. Shield could become more relevant to a condition spec and pistol / shield wouldn’t be lackluster anymore. Rifle can better fulfill the hybrid role that it once had or better be able to punish players for grouping and trying to rez a downed ally (Rifle 5 is purportedly supposed to be aimed at doing) and all this chatter about build diversity could become more relevant to Engineers. Most importantly PF could actually have a standard theme across all set ups (better heat maintenance means better performance or bust). #PurityOfPurpose
As fun as it was to play one build for two years straight, I think I want to take as many steps as possible to avoid that happening again.
I would like to see more weapons on the Engineer have additional mechanics when the Engineer has 50+ heat. E.g.
While above 50 heat do the following:
Pistol – 1 Skill – Apply another bleed stack
Pistol – 3 Skill – Gain ammunition (max 2, clip reload 1s) for this skill
Pistol – 5 Skill – Knockdown for 1 sec all moving opponents
Shield – 4/5 Skill – When struck while these skills are active drop Throw Gunk at your location. Only happens once per skill activation.
Rifle – 2 Skill – Apply a Timed Charge on opponents who are hit by this skill.
Rifle – 3 Skill – Gain up to three ammunition, ammunition reload (time between when you can fire the next shot after first using this skill: 0.5secs)
Rifle – 4 Skill – Pierces and is Unblockable
I believe that some changes like this would be appropriate for the Holosmith’s design concept.
<Cracks knuckles in guardian> Time to def my spec…
Okay I’ll give you that, our burning is stupid high… but overall FB’s so said support is non-existent in the face of how much power damage some classes do (holo included).
The concept of holo is jolly, but the numbers are too high. But… 55k burning in 3 sec? That’s for a target that is stationary, doesn’t dodge and doesn’t know the meaning of condition cleanse. Besides the highest condi damage on FB is achieved on the first condi burst, later on it’s just decent re-stacking of burn. If you let yourself get killed like that it’s just pure l2p.
The irony of this comment is that it also applies to Holosmith as well. There is a specific rotation that if you are
stationary, doesn’t dodge and doesn’t know the meaning of condition cleanse.
you can die from. Just dodge or condition cleanse, notice when the Holosmith goes into Forge ‘mode’ and assume it means that a burst is coming and act accordingly.
At this time Weaver and Spellbreaker can 1v1 Holosmith successfully the majority of the time, and it would be ignorant of me not to mention Scourge as well on that list. Potentially even condition SoulBeast can do it too. If you are losing to Holosmith at this point in time it, from all the live streams I’ve seen so far, is most likely because you don’t know yet know what the key signs are that a burst or flurry of attacks are coming your way from a Holosmith. That said most players that recognize what to evade aren’t having a hard time fighting it and because the Holosmith will risk exploding (lose a bunch of HP) and go on a long cool-down after a missed spam of attacks means that he can’t keep bursting any opponent who recognizes the rotations and evades it.
Berserker does insane damage as well on stationary targets, that don’t dodge and don’t cleanse. The difference between that and Holosmith is that Holosmith does not have the means to sustain itself under pressure (no ‘no dmg’ stances, no passive regen while being aggressive and no resistance spam).
That said, if Holosmith can’t burst people down (who don’t dodge, recognize that a burst is coming or don’t use condition cleanses) as an Elite Spec who’s sole purpose is to burst people down then what is the point of it? It certainly can’t support, it can’t be a rez bot like Scrapper can and if you think that you’ll stand on a cap forever like a Scrapper could then you have another thing coming.
It’s day one. Everything hits hard until you figure out what you need to dodge, block, invuln or reflect and what these things look like. Holosmith on the Engineer feels like it has a spot to fill and my only fear is that once everyone get’s accustomed to the rotation (and don’t try to face tank everything because they want to kill the new thing) that it won’t be as thrilling as everyone currently thinks it is.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
You don’t get Might from blasting Mortar Kit fields with Rocket Boots.
I have some ideas for the new gadgets + shield condition build. It’s still a bit too early to make any calls though.
I don’t understand this line of thinking at all.
You’re going to be spending far more time in combat at any number less than 100% endurance than at 100%, even with boosted regen on other traits. Even with the endurance regen boost, it still takes, what, 4 seconds or so to get back to 100% endurance? That’s quite a while in the fast-paced GW2 combat.
If you’re doing something where you can completely avoid dodging for any significant period of time (and that’s what you need to do to keep 100% endurance), you’re not doing content where that 10% damage is actually important anyway. That means either the enemies you’re fighting are so unthreatening that you never need to dodge, or you’re killing them so fast that they never get to attack you, and either way that’s pretty easy combat. Not something where you need to min-max a 10% damage boost.
And even in such a case, maybe you say “Well, I don’t NEED the 10% damage boost, but I WANT it”. OK, so… dodge and get it? If you don’t need to dodge, then what difference does wasting some endurance make? You should have no problem “wasting” your endurance for that 10% if you don’t need to dodge, that’s literally all endurance is for.
Preach it brother. Preach to the choir! They gon’ lurn today!
I have to admit, I have given you guys a lot of flak as of late but first day feels good man. Color me impressed. Power feels good and even some wonky ideas I had feel good.
I now have something else to play on my Engineer (Power) and get accustomed to. I feel like I can try to chase / keep up if I choose the right time to set up my burst.
We’ll see how things go as the weeks go on but this is probably a better gift to Engineers than any Expac. Why can’t this happen more often? This feels.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
People tend to use this ‘jack of all trades’ term to describe Engineer as being average at everything but it wasn’t, it was good at solo play and dueling. Somewhere people seem to have lost the true spirit of the Engineer, believing that it was solely used to tank content but instead through a bit of player ingenuity with traits, the right gear and a little practice tanking was just ONE of the MANY things that Engineer did well pre-HoT.
It is sad that it was arguably at one point the best example of a class that could be used to select a singular role and stick to it. Now as opposed to what it was Pre-HoT it is REDUCED to a singular role that YOU have to stick to (different flavors of tanking).
The traits don’t look bad. I think we have some ideas as to what can be run (Condi, DPS, Hybrid DPS). Question we will have answered soon is if it is competitive DPS. Spreadsheets and optimal skill rotations don’t translate to actual effective DPS in real world scenarios.
The dolls in PvP are nice to throw things at and watch the health bar go down but they don’t fight back or try to avoid anything.
Engineer builds are basically you taking as many traits as plausible in order to just survive to be relevant. This is going to be… interesting to say the least. Either we are going to be so loaded that it gets nerfed for being OP or you are going to be the one getting blown up if you get engaged on first.
what the
how are you slower than a necro
‘Necros’ go reaper shroud and press 2 and you can’t get away.
Yeah, Scrapper ain’t getting no buff. Good luck with that idea.
Perhaps base Engineer for the niche shield users out there?
Sounds like every issue you have is with the core class and should be solved with a balance patch, not a new elite spec.
That’s kind of my point, actually. Since elite specs still make use of core specs, they’re still slapping a bandaid on top of an existing issue. Without fixing existing issues, our shiny new toy will simply feel hollow.
I see what you did there at the end… still. Base Engineer used to be really good at dueling as opposed to stalling. Can we get back to that? The good at dueling part not the camping. I keep hearing this jack of all trades talk which there is some truth to that but it was good at something (blowing people up in 1v1) and people seem to forget that.
Bomb kit, obviously.
They could NERF THE BOMBKIT AUTO-ATTACK DAMAGE IN THE PATCH ON THE 8TH.
Where is my holy water?! I need a Protection Injection against this becoming a reality… although that just lightens the impact…
Only thing wrong with Med Kit is the AA. I don’t know that barrier would make me want to put it on and press the 1 key at my friends. If my friends wanted to be healed they would have looked for someone who plays Ministrel Ele instead.
As much criticism that people are giving DeadEye, we all know it’s going to be quite the experience for the enemy when this thing +1s in WvW. Even if you aren’t worried about it on it’s own (which you should be) you will learn to worry about it in a half competent party.
I disagree. The expansion date is set, let the constructive criticism begin. The faster we get on this ball hopefully the less likely we are to repeat what happened to the Engineer in HoT.
I don’t have much hope for this as a DPS Spec because last time Orbital Strike used to do damage people turned into apes and started throwing crap about getting hit by something that takes forty seconds to land and has tells on par with the Icicle on staff ele (which hits no-one) and when Mortar used to do damage instead of making it like Long Bow on Ranger AA and changing the damage to something like +10% damage to opponents farther than 600 range, they just nerfed it to the ground because people could AA their feet with zero flight time (so now you can AA at range and do negligible damage assuming your opponent can’t walk away from the shell).
I will be surprised if this thing lasts as long as a snow cone in the desert (after the first 6 months) after PoF drops and then you won’t have much of anything left to play with (condi doesn’t look bad though).
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
Engineer/Scrapper is lip-stick on a pig in WvW. You’ll fool somebody, sometime. Just don’t wind up fooling yourself that it’s pretty; it’s nasty.
The last few balance patches show that they are fine with it’s current state. Good luck arguing that isn’t the case. Maybe if they added 60 or so random 400 radius cap circles all over the place on each map that you had to 1v1 in you might have a chance at being viable again (besides commander pulling). (Maybe even start a Pokemon battle too once an enemy sneaks into your neck of the woods)
They could just mention that they would consider adding WvW to the skill balance rotation for the next expansion. But since they still think that ‘WvW players love PvE’ it kind of goes to show why we still have PvE traits. I thought ‘open world PvP’ or perhaps ‘Realm vs Realm (RvR)’ were terms but clearly, half a decade in, neither of which exists within their vernacular.
Perhaps what we require is either a change of game or change of Game Director to help plead our case. Currently neither the GW2 product nor the man have 20/20 vision and especially, certainly no fore-sight or knowledge into the operations of RvR (WvW aka perhaps what they affectionately refer to as PvE Player vs PvE Player).
Can someone from ArenaNet simply state what the company believes it’s vision of WvW is like? Perhaps we, the players, have a different understanding of what we should be expecting out of this game mode. I personally would like to see the two (visions) married.
Alliances are trivial, will act as a minor distraction and is at best pure dribble until the topic of skill balance and how important it is to WvW/RvR aka PvEPvPvEP is approached and addressed.
IMO, the best tool we have in the jungle is very simple: outrun them. Streamlined Kits perma-swiftness is simply the best we have against HoT creatures, because it lets you escape when needed, engage when it is best, and in general, helps you avoid fights you don’t want to do, and get where you want to. In the jungle, knowing when and where to be is more valuable than just killing things.
So let me get this straight….
1) Buy expansion with your money
2) Select the class that you want to play
3) Run from mobs
4) ???
Doesn’t work for Mortar Kit for some reason. Could be pretty cool with hammer #5 with a little imagination. Explosions could also do something with quicksilver… Hammer #2 isn’t interesting, Hammer #3’s landing could be awesome too with a little quicksilver on landing. Hammer #4’s block could be quicksilver shield/drill that pierces the heavens.
Opportunities lost. Nothing ventured… nothing gained.
Nothing is scary about Scrapper. It’s annoying if you are playing Player vs Cap-Point against one but it can’t kill you if you are playing PvP, you have to let it kill you.
You may get a look at during the (first two weeks leading to the) expac. May. Good Luck with that.
I just pull them to me so they can stomp me out faster. Isn’t that what the 2 skill is for?
seemingly random immobilize spam would prolly be enough of an annoyance to make 2/3 of the playerbase quit
The problem with immob is that on some other classes out there it’s base is three seconds(). Add a little condition duration onto that and when it ends up to around 5 seconds things get completely kittened. May as well play Gandalf.gif when that happens and gift the other guy the score. When your class doesn’t have good mobility (relative to the others) to begin with these things (inclusive of chills that last 5+ seconds) are soul crushing.
To be honest, I would recommend that you not main Engineer. There isn’t much of a direction or a prayer for the Engineer at this point in time.
Just play it on the side if you care to. Given its track record since HoT, it’ll only get worst.
My Suggestions for Rifle:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Rifle-Engi-help-wvw/6623774
Probably when the expansion comes? We still have a separate fall damage trait in a mediocre trait line for Power builds, that just shows the devs know exactly what to do with the Engineer.
At this point I believe that Rifle needs the +10% damage (through increased firing rate) removed from the rifle trait in Firearms and made base (not in the form of +10% firing rate but in the form of 10% more base damage). Replace the lost (from the Rifle Trait) 10% damage with a 4 second cripple every 10 seconds on critical hit (50% chance). This may help the weapon with being able to zone opponents such as warriors or to simply keep them from simply walking away from an Engineer as most classes can.
Static Discharge’s damage should be buffed by 10% as well since it still does not do enough damage to make the choice between the other traits in it’s line a worthwhile debate. And its number of bounces increased to 3 instead of two in order to allow it to perform versus Mesmer Clone farms.
Rifle 4 (Overcharged Shot) should be changed to a 1/2s Daze to the Engineer with a 750 distance knock-back. This change would maintain the synergy it has with the Tool-Belt traits as well as improve Synergy with the lesser used GM trait for Scrapper called Impact Savant.
Rifle Turret needs either a 30% damage buff or the ability to apply two stacks of vulnerability per hit when over-charged in order to bring it’s burst on par with what would be necessary to act as competitive spiking/burst damage. It’s cool-down should also be reduced to around 16 seconds normally and 12 seconds when picked up. This would allow Rifle Turret to provide stronger or more consistent pressure against targets that have low heal cool-down.
And finally, it would help if Gear Shield got it’s 3 second block back or rather that an appropriate Rifle Skill got access to the ability to apply a brief duration blind so that we could instead use player skill to avoid the more deadly attacks out there.
After the majority of these things happen then we can perhaps visit the idea of a viable Rifle build for solo or group roaming. Current builds can kill a few of the young ones who don’t know much about what they are doing in the first place but against any veteran of WvW, you will be easy bags to collect.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
Shield looks like it could be good but if it is meant to be taking the roll of supporting group play then push it’s traits farther in that direction than they currently are. We can’t just sit there and blast all day and collect med packs that heal for 1/10 of an opponent’s auto-attack (Thief). Shield either needs to go hard-core gimmicks or needs to punish opponents harder when an Engineer uses it effectively.
Traits are garbage, let’s take the Explosives Traits line for example. Why do we have Two Grenade traits on the same level as each other and why as they split when one is a fall damage reduction trait? Merge these traits and return grenade speed back to the kit itself so as to not make Grenade Kit users curse in absolute disgust as your enemy casually walk out of range of your THROWN grenades. Add a new trait such as Timed Charge (the same skill as Harpoon Gun #4 on the Engineer) that would bring meaningful, themed damage to the trait line. Now finally if you take a look at the GM options for Explosives what am I supposed to take as a Power Build? Orbital not only takes forever to land but it hits lands like a Trump Policy, absolutely pathetic. WP said enough about the rest of the traits here, I may as well leave the GM slot empty because it doesn’t make a difference.
Do you know what else is sad about the GM issue in the Explosives line? It’s practically the same issue in every other line as well. You have one real option that everyone knows you don’t even have to spend a quarter of a second thinking about (if you are playing condi you are screwed out of a GM option in some trait lines and the same goes for power) and maybe a second if you look really hard or try something outlandish. In the cases of those with second options you often take it because frankly what else are you going to take? It’s the only other option that’s relevant to what I’m trying to achieve but it certainly isn’t what I would’ve really wanted. So when the stats get checked the desk jockeys see a bunch of traits being used that are essentially ‘all we can do’ and probably assume that it means that they are in a good place when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The upside to all of this folly (static discharge still hits like a baby and probably does more damage to the ground than anything else unless you’ve selected the chosen few traits or aim like an FPS… and how long has it been doing this?) as well as what appears to be the complete disinterest in solving (or perhaps the lack of knowledge/appreciation for the fact that these issues, still, exist) is that I am playing other games now and having fun. I’m just collecting dailies at this stage but at some point I may realize that there isn’t much point in collecting dailies for a game that I essentially no longer (have fun) play(ing).
To be honest and a bit frank, it is sad that this video even had to happen. The volume and wealth of feedback that kept coming for quite a while after the expac, with fingers pointing at those areas that are under performing (traits, rifle, shield, gadgets, turrets) which when you look at those things is perhaps over 50% of the Engineer’s available kitten nal.
Unless you only ever used Kits, these issues would never come to light. Whenever people think of turrets they always assume that the turret themselves should be focused on. I suggest looking at perhaps reducing their cool-downs, returning the rifle turret to the Elite Supply Crate and then focusing on buffing the performance of the tool-belt skills associated with them rather than making turrets themselves do more. Turrets should stay as Utilities and the Tool-Belt skills become more spiking pressure and power oriented.
Gadgets come up often but their problem is that they are so niche that they don’t often fit in well with many builds. Rocket Boots needs a stun breaker. Personal Battering should perhaps Fear opponents off to your sides and back just like a real battering ram. Throwing Mine is a projectile that takes a while to arrive at point and when it does everyone knows where it is, It needs to do more damage than it currently does OR passively every 9 seconds pull opponents in towards it. The Goggles do nothing really even though the buff to it’s cool-down time is greatly appreciated, instead if it breaks stun it should give quickness, otherwise grant 5 stacks of might (as well as fury and blind resistance).
Rifle skills need cool-down reductions OR damage increases. Rifle 4 needs to do more, perhaps drop a blind field OR evade backwards. Rifle 5’s animation needs to give you more range OR cover ground faster so that you can actually kite with the weapon effectively. Rifle AA does nothing, synergizes with nothing and does not scale well with power, as a result targets with significant armor simply feel as though they out-passively-heal your ‘pressure’ and it’s even worst than what is being said here because it doesn’t apply anything else to create any other kind of pressure.
Alright. I have played for a bit and here’s my feedback:
1) Blunderbuss changes are welcome, as well as the changes to rifle where power was shifted to the final hit. Good, appreciated changes so far. Unlike the others that frequent this forum I do not support any high damage skill carrying evade frames, players should not have relative immunity while preparing to land a devastating hit (I feel the same for thieves as well). If you commit to these types of skills you are saying that I want to take BIG RISKS for BIG REWARDS.
2) Fragmentation Shot’s increase is towards improving performance vs Elixir Gun (imo) however this change does not help the case of P/S weapon combination when untraited (Chemical Rounds).
Suggestion: Change Pistol AA to an explosive, allowing it the potential to stack more vulnerability as well as distinguishing it from other weapon skills such as Elixir Gun. While this is shy of double bleed stacks it does have the potential to add more meaningful condition application for P/S combinations.
3) Pistol Blowtorch changes return it back to it’s prior performance level before the swap to the new traits system. This is good because this skill is hard to land and previously was not as rewarding.
4) Elixir U (Toss and Otherwise) – Good.
5) Shredder Gyro – Have not used or considered it.
Suggestion: Change the tool-belt skill to something more interesting.
Vent steam: Release a smoke field that burns opponents.
Blind: 4s on first pulse
1x Burn: 4s
Radius: 300
Duration: 4 Pulses
Combo Field: Smoke
Change promotes more synergy with itself and makes it a more solid PvP/E choice for players.
6) Glue Bomb – Logical. Good.
7) Big Ol’ Bomb + Short Fuse – Good.
8) Glass Cannon – OK, really helps it’s case (now when elixir b procs, you know it is lost)
9) Shaped Charge – Damage boost is nice however I would have loved to have seen some boon stripping and high vulnerability stacking on Gadgets here instead of a flat 10%.
10) Static Discharge – Unfortunately still mediocre performance. Still not strong enough to be worth this choice over it’s competitors.
Suggestion: Make GM, move Gadgeteer to T2 in-place of Lock On. Move Lock On to T1. Buff SD damage by another 20% as a GM. Reduced CD on Lock On to 20s.
11) Shrapnel – now more useful. Should make it possible to proc on Blunderbuss in order to give Rifle more control options.
12) Explosion Changes – Logical. Make Blunderbuss and Homing Torpedo an explosion.
13) Pinpoint Distribution – Changes fundamentally how Engineer builds for condition damage. Allows for wider range of stat choices when building P/S Engineer for survive-ability.
14) Flamethrower Changes – Logical but pinches out prior power builds.
Suggestion: Change scaling of Flame Blast so that it also now scales off of Ferocity as well as Power so that power builds can still use this tool effectively and condition/power hybrids do not acquire a tool that is stronger than it should be.
Few things I want to bring to focus to be looked at:
1) Merge Grenadier + Explosive Descent. Replace Explosive Descent with Timed Charge (Engineer Harpoon Gun #4), increase it’s damage by 20%, keep other stats, procs on critical hit.
2) Shocking Speed changes.
Suggestion: Blast and leap finishers in Lightning Fields causes arc lightning (5 targets in AoE range of the Lightning Field) and grants superspeed (5 Allies). 10s ICD. (Yes I know leap finishers already daze)
3) Turrets – Lower the cool-downs, stop focusing on people talking about making the turret themselves better and let’s pay more attention to their tool-belt skills. Make tool belt skills on Turrets their true focus/potential and turrets themselves as purely utility.
4) Gadgets – Reduce cool-downs significant (except those that are already in the < 20s range). Increase duration of Stun Duration on AED’s toolbelt skill, Make Rocket Boots a stun breaker. Also very interested in seeing your rework for Gadgets.
I think this is the “purity of purpose” part of balance part : the majority of blocks in the game are 2 seconds long so they upped shield and decreased toolkit duration to homogenize things.
I think this here is the problem and why these ‘balance’ patches are frustrating. Engineer Static Shield is not about blocking for an extended period of time (stalling). This skill is about interrupting and CC’ing an opponent during a singular key moment. The real problem with this skill isn’t that it does not extend on for 5 seconds it is the fact that it was never available for more than maybe twice in a singular fight, the Stun Duration (vs CD length) is pathetic and finally now classes such as Thieves can (through no traiting effort of their own) give their entire krewe Basilisk Venom (BV) and render it completely useless (unlike before when BV was not unblockable). This meant that you could interrupt a thief’s steal + burst combo, but you can’t now and when they (not just thieves) punch through you wouldn’t have gotten it back to use before the end of that fight.
Static Shield does not need it’s block duration increased. It does need the CD decreased and the Stun time increased to 2 seconds instead. What is the point of a 2 second block duration with a 1 second Stun if I stun them on initiation of this skill? This change demonstrates that they just read the tool tips and don’t actually know how this skill is used and for what reasons you would want to take Shield off-hand.
Now thanks to this change a nerf absolutely had to happen to Gear Shield’s duration which puts Rifle Builds that don’t take Elixir S (traited or utility) further out to sea with regards to their defensive options. I do not mind a CD nerf on Gear Shield raising it to about 16 secs but there is a reason why it was at three seconds in the first place.
If one skill can be traited to reflect, another heals, another counter attacks and another simply has a low CD instead, ‘Normalizing’ skills because 5 other classes have a similar skill does not demonstrate any depth of knowledge with regards to the purpose or use of these skills. Ultimately how does this help ‘Build Diversity’ if you feel like you now have to take Elixir S and if you want that to be more reliable you also have to go down the old Alchemy Line and eventually we’re back as square one… just use Hammer instead.
But that might be me putting the cart before the donkey since it could be that the increase of block duration to shield made it necessary that something core with blocks needed to be trimmed to reduce over-all plausible up-time on blocks (at the detriment to another core weapon). So why don’t we get reasons why these changes are made? It would be enlightening if there was a train of thought that could be followed or just a train.
Yeah, I’m going to go play something else for at least the next three-four months. Hopefully by then I remember this disaster still exists. If not, it was fun!
What are you saying?! Camping Staff AA on a certain class promotes camping and is a better heal because it has 1200 range, can’t be reflected, heals a number of targets AND does damage?! Med Kit #1 is hardly an offender in comparison to some other things currently happening in the game.
Med Kit AA requires you to stand in proximity to what you want to heal and does 0 dmg but if Med Kit AA was 25%-50% as good as the aforementioned Staff AA, Med Kit would be nice-r.
Traits such as Stimulant Supplier could be changed a bit: Bandages/Packs of all styles and fashions (those offered by med kit skills 2-5, bunker down, Bandage Self, etc) apply Regen for 5s, Fury for 4s and 1 stack of Might for 5s to 5 targets within 240 range, 6s ICD. Whenever you break stun you consume a Throw Antidote, 20s ICD.
That could make Med Kit more interesting eh? A 600 range AA that does a little damage (120 base dmg, can crit) every 0.65 of a second, pierces and heals a bit. Bandages that when traited offer your team some actual support with Med Kit and a bit of synergy across trait lines and such. Only players who collect the bandages get the condition cleanse + main effect of the bandage, everyone else (4 targets) as well as the original person gain the might+fury+regen.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
Maybe gyro skins? Guild gyro skins?
I like what has been suggested here but what I would add is that instead of a straight DPS increase for blunderbuss that it should be changed to as follows:
3) Blunderbuss: if you hit a target within max damage range (0 – 250) this skill is repeatable every 1/2s for 2.5s before going on full CD)
As for the AA, I recommend:
1) Ranging Shot x2 (1 stack of vuln per shot), Semi-Auto Fire (3 shots in a 0.75s animation, 1 stack of bleeding for 3 seconds per shot)
As for traits. Skilled Marksman applying cripple for 2s on crit with a 7 second ICD. As well as Modified Ammunition applying unblockable for 3 seconds when your next skill is blocked on a 20s ICD would help Rifle + Firearms. Heavy Armor Exploit actually increasing damage (via tripling applied vulnerability from this trait) if the opponent has Protection would benefit Rifle as well.
SD has needed some love for a bit now. It would help its case if this skill could actually go towards the target every time. It is competing (in PvP/WvW) with wrench kit’s trait though…
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
Shield requires more than a CD reduction and a trait to improve it’s performance. I am not however on the bandwagon with swapping pistol 3 with pistol 4. There are significant disadvantages to doing that and also further weakens the performance of the Shield.
Shield can no longer stop thief basilisk venom and unfortunately for it, the list of unblockables goes on per encounter. Shield needs to have an effect that makes it meaningful in combat by protecting the Engineer or offering advantageous situations for the Engineer. Until it is capable of not getting you killed during casting and being 1 time use per engagement, CD reductions (while ultimately necessary for the skills in their current format) will not be enough.
Engineer’s Rifle needs more than a buff to net shot speed to bring it back into play. Traits need to change and skills need to be improved to bring it up to speed. Yes you can kill people with it in a group of players (you are probably being ignored for the most part). Irregardless of all the CC builds that you will see popping up here in the forums the weapon+build is sub-par, easy to understand, some classes profit from your CC attempts more than this weapon harms them (and associated CC skills that make up those Engineer CC builds) and this weapon provides no mobility or defensive advantages. CC builds may work the first time on an unprepared or inexperienced player however does not perform against moderately competent players unless in a group setting where they may lose track in the visual fx spam (because these builds lack a similar or comparable burst capability as the Berserker). The Firearms Traits does not add meaningful value to Engineer’s Rifle for PvP/WvW.
In PvE these issues are less of a problem than every-where else, since nothing intelligent is trying to kill you.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
Engineer does provide a moving reflect field and some potential as a ganker. Generally speaking though you are correct in your assessment and would probably be better off looking elsewhere, if you are trying to add value to your zerg/blob/wvw group.
Alternatively it could apply resistance for 8 seconds if you would have died.
Again, too much. 3 seconds at MOST
Unfortunately 3 seconds does not stack comparatively to those other healing skills that are providing similar benefits. Also 3 seconds is statistically insignificant in WvW and why MedKit (for skill 5) still does not see use. 2 – 3 seconds of resistance is just enough time for you to look at your bar and acknowledge which specific conditions will be the end of you. It is also important to note that we are going from completely removing conditions to making them inert with a boon that can be stripped (Counter-play exists in this case).
The tool belt skill of AED is just weak-sauce in my opinion. In order to use this skill to interrupt a heal you would have to begin casting this before your opponent thinks to cast. The CD on it is also questionable given the benefits and the fact that you need to be a mind reader and your opponent has to still stand right next to you and cast their skill even though they see you winding this thing up for years.
AED isn’t in and of itself bad in certain niche circumstances but it also needs to give you 100 endurance as well as, clear immobilize, cripple, chill and confusion. It’s supposed to be a reset button if you take fatal damage. Right now you take Fatal Damage get your HP restored and still have that +3 seconds of immobilize and +5 seconds of chill applied so you still might as well be dead (you will be shortly, just give it a moment).
Alternatively it could apply resistance for 8 seconds if you would have died.
A way to apply ‘unblockable’ for a period of time
Yes pls. Utility goggles is good candidate for this.
It has always been a wonder of mine, since HoT came out, why Analyze (a single target skill) was still on such a long cool-down. Adding an Unblockable debuff skill fact for a period of time (that your allies can also take advantage of) would justify this and make Utility Goggles a better skill to take in PvP.
As for Utility Goggles itself. I’m not sure 40 seconds base cool-down is a very balanced affair. Especially since this skill + utility is almost, benefit for benefit, a direct replica of Revenant’s Facet of Darkness + Gaze of Darkness which for some special reason has only a 20 second cool-down (50% less than Utility Goggles at this moment).
Edit It is also worth it to note that Revenant also gets high fury up-time relative to skill cool-down, as well as AoE 5 target reveal on half the cool-down vs the Engineer’s single target reveal with a 25s CD even when not mentioning the other replicated abilities.
A CD reduction for Utility Goggles should therefore, in my opinion, at least be on the table as well as the bug fixes for the issues listed on the Wiki.
If Unblockable skill fact is added to Analyze consider changing the Trait in Tools (Lock On) to also proc on blocks as well. Reactive Lenses should also be changed to reflect any other changes as well.
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
I have been casually following this trend. First of all I wish to say that I agree with the OP for the following reasons:
1) Commander Gear + Commander Weapons + Boon Duration food + Durability Runes on ranger results in some ridiculous returns on investments for rangers. All of a sudden Zephyr speed is pushing out almost 6 seconds of Quickness, you AND your pet have 25 stacks of might, you have swiftness for 2mins, fury for 1min and a half, regen for 2mins and protection and resistance up practically every time you get bursted and for extreme lengths of time.
2) Staff AA – It is interesting how much damage you can do in a short period of time with a pet swap, 6 seconds of quickness, 25 stacks of might and fury + F2 pet skill, during this burst of yours this skill can not be reflected or destroyed since it is not a projectile. In-fact you have quickness for so long that even if your opponent spammed both dodges they’d still get creamed by 50% of your ‘aim-bot’ damage train. If they stealth it does not matter either since Staff AA is a channeled skill and will continue to cleave great chasms of HP off yourself for several AAs later.
3) Pets with 25 stacks of might, Fury and Swiftness and Regen are not only hard to kill if you’ve spent the last damage rotation creaming the first pet before the Ranger diligently swaps it out for the next pet but it also hits you hard if you don’t focus it down.
4) Ranger Stealth. It seems as though even if you manage to pierce the seemingly ludicrous protection up-time, weather the 25 stacks of might on both it and it’s pet and managed to carve 50% of a Ranger’s HP off they can either 1200 range away with Ancestral Grace into a smoke cloud from their pet or go Celestial Avatar and quickness walk away from you in a diligent direction. Of course if you take Greatsword on ranger you have another option for increasing the distance between you and the enemy, so add satisfying 1100 range on top of that and the scary thing is gone. But that’s not really necessary because of the next thing we’ll talk about…
5) Heal As One. 16s. 7000hp heal. That copies boons and distributes those nice boons you’ve been getting from all those shouts and those traits (Clarion Bond, Zephyr’s Speed, Resounding Timbre and Brutish Seals). Due to it’s low cool-down it’s always up and always ready to turn that modest 12 stacks of might into an Orrian Gorilla of 25 stacks of monstrosity.
So when are all done with it you end up sitting on a nice 3300 power (might + bloodlust stacks), 3300+ armor (ignoring boons), 50% crit chance, +180% crit damage. That’s only on yourself, not your pet. Both you and your pet have access to 25 stacks of might, stability (10 stacks at a time if you so desire), Fury, Regen, Swiftness, (6s on 15s cool-down) Quickness, Protection and Resistance… all by yourself… and all of which you can spread around freely like Santa Claus with Heal As One.
Any-one who thinks that because Ranger ’wasn’t good’ for ‘insert duration of years’ and therefore ‘it is now time to let Rangers have a free run’ is being completely daft to the reality of what this really represents. Not only is this over-powered but it is disrespectful to other players to imply that this is some-how OK. The fact of the matter remains that I have not talked about the passive healing granted by taking Druid and Natural Healing, the fact that you also have access to a massive condition cleanse (this build does not compromise anything to gain damage), nor have I made any comparisons to what was unacceptable for other classes but seems to completely pass through customs (with much heavier luggage mind you) every 4 months when it’s in the company of a Druid.
Second of all:
Let’s stop deflecting by bringing other classes into this discussion. They will get their own spot-light in a discussion labeled precisely for them, all in due time.
Thirdly:
Should we even need to talk about this thing in a group? Do we even need to at this stage?
(edited by LilBiM.3581)
My recommended Gadgeteer GM trait change is as follows:
While maintaining 5 charges toolbelt skills now release static discharges (stacks with static discharge minor trait).
In the spirit of Med Kit’s previous usage (which was to set up before combat) I suggest the following:
Med Kit #1 applies a buff on the Engineer and affected targets that doubles might gain for 4 seconds. (so each time you would gain 1 stack of might, gain 2 instead)
Med Kit’s packs (skills 2 – 5) should apply 2 stacks of might for 5 seconds to a single target.
Buff Throw Antidote’s Resistance to 5 seconds from 2.5 seconds.
Buff Throw Accelerant now removes cripple, chill AND immobilize.
Change All packages that previously removed a condition now instead pulse (1 pulse after 1 seconds) that singular condition(s) to 5 opponents within 150 range of the player, that condition is also removed from the user. N.B. Condition is immediately removed from the target of the package but is later pulsed out 1 second later. Downed ally targets can now collect Med Kit packages.
Now you have a reason to use Med Kit’s Med Blaster, and the kit allows you to make the decision of do I want to drop all my packages to set up with might stacks or keep them for more strategic play. It may also come in handy while trying to get a downed ally up, no promises.
Can this skill also strip three boons from the struck target as well? Again just a QoL improvement to make this skill more useful in places other than EotM for trolls.
The recent reduction in cool-down for A.E.D is appreciated however the additional modifications listed below could encourage it’s use:
AED:
Removes Chill,
Remove Immobilize.
Why?
Ultimately if you are immobilized and or chilled with builds that would typically take this heal then you are only delaying very briefly.
Static Shock:
Cool-down reduced to around 11s.
Cast time reduced to 1/2s.
Why?
The cool-down on this is too long for the benefits provided imo. Also it takes too long to cast to be able to interrupt some heals.
With regards to Heavy Armor Exploit, I do not see this as an issue in PvP land. Only corpses let you camp FT#1 and grenades on them. In PvE land there are better skills than FT#1 (mainly grenades) that people are already camping and easily vuln capping without taking this trait and no one in their right mind would take this instead of the other options for the Engineer.
With the ability to immobilize in WvWvW FT has saved my life a number of times plus it goes with perma-quickness builds. In essence those 10 strikes will go over very quickly. I should have differentiated in sPvP and WvWvW where there’s a huge difference in map and gameplay mechanics. My error.
On your issue with High Caliber, it is worth-while to note that none of these bonuses exist while your opponent is any-where outside of 240 range. In order to keep the benefits you need to play in melee range with your opponents. The condition duration bonus has no such limitations.
Can’t use bomb condi (burning) in the rotation outside of that radius; you’re not going to be 900 off or anything.
I agree with you on Skilled Marksman and adding kitten ICD onto that skill seems appropriate.
I know, and I’m sorry, but it has to be done. If it were done.
Changing Modified Ammunition becomes:
Targets with Vulnerability receive 2% more damage per stack of vulnerability (power/condition). If your attack is blocked, your next three attacks are unblockable, 20 sec ICD.The second portion is rendered useless if your opponent doesn’t block though. I don’t think people take that trait even for the Revenant very often. PvE no.
And +75% damage is awesome but also way, way too high. Very one-player game.
The changes to Heavy Armor Exploit are in an attempt to benefit condition based builds used by the P/S combination where shorter duration conditions often drop off before an opponent feels the need to attempt to cleanse. This means if you are attentive you can simply wait out the conditions applied and effectively and easily cleanse only the longer lasting, high damage conditions that would make those builds effective.
As for Skilled Marksman I meant to say a five second ICD but that got censored?
On the topic of Modified Ammunition I’ve been through this before and basically the vuln section of this makes every stack of vulnerability worth 2% dmg instead of 1%. So this skill still stacks up to 50% more damage. The previous trait could stack up to 52% more damage if you applied every single condition.
engi rifle need some unblockable skills. thats a fact (or at least a redesign of its skills). an evade on the 5 would be great too. i would change completly the net (2) with a special projectile that will immobilze the target after some time after it touch it.
and we need a better trait for rifle user.
but if we would add a nice feature to rifle it would be overcharged skills.
when the overcharge is ready our skills change.
_ auto stay the same
_the net immobilize but also severly cripple the target.(or make him fall down while immobilized)
_blunderbuss become unblockable and/or push back.
_overcharged shot become a little aoe or pierce
_jump shot make you evade while jumping.
I agree that rifle needs some unblockables and my proposed changes to Rifle and Modified Ammunition would provide just that. As for Evades on Rifle 5 that may be too strong; even though Staff Thief would have something similar but spammable.
The majority of your other suggestions have been covered by my suggested changes to Firearms Traits and Rifle. Skilled Marksman = two second cripple on five second ICD. Blunderbuss unblockable after successful evade w/ perks and increased cool-down after. Overcharged Shot improvements, etc.