I agree its very stupid, its the same thing with zealot’s and Keeper’s ascended armor. Like 500+g just to get the recipes to craft a full set of ascended keepers armor. Ridiculous.
1. Fix Dredge
2. Make Fractals more rewarding
3. Able to Salvage Ascended Ring for Mist Essence
This sums up 90% of posts so far. And I think is agree’d by all. But doesn’t really address the ‘Evolution’ of Fractals. These are more balancing/bug fixes we have been begging for.
Once these are addressed, here is how I would ‘Evolve’ Fractals: Overview
Reduce RNG of getting certain fractals by making smaller pools of fractals to pull from at each tier. Functionality
Every 10 levels brings new fractals into the rotation. At higher levels easier ones may leve the rotation. Goals
This would keep fractal newbies from getting ovewhelmed, while giving incentives to progress to experience newer content. And allow even more fractals to be added to higher levels. Risks
Certain Tiers may be abandoned if fractals there are not balanced. (i.e. nobody does lvl 20-30 because the dredge fractal is there) Lazy people will backlash saying getting at the new content is too hard.
you didn’t even circle the big hit at the top =P But yea that’s one of my favorite fights, and one of the few times I drop h-turret for med kit so I don’t cleanse everyone’s DPS
The only thing I’m hopeful for is fixing the hitbox honestly. This is assuming they can fix it without introducing some other bug. Actually scratch that, we already know its going to introduce a whole new round of bugs. I’m just hoping they will be something gamebreakingly exploitable, so that they will be forced to actually do something
it won’t allow conditions you apply to have a bonus of more than 100% (double)
BUT if what I’ve read from dev posts is correct, then if an opponent has -condi duration bonuses, then it will not subtract from 100% but from your actual bonus. Meaning if someone has melandru runes, you could still apply +100% duration conditions to them. (126 – 25 = 101)
Here’s my theory crafted idea for you. E-gun gives you a ton, stun break, on swap procs, condi-clear/heal, blast finisher, and has a better auto attack than pistol. Flame Turret gives you more burning and a fire and smoke field and a blast finisher, all on a relatively short cooldown. Rocket boots is just plain awesome and with more fields gives it more utility.
I also changed your runes to give you a more general 97% condi duration, also the slots on your trinkets to exotic jewels for more stats, but I would recommend getting ascended amulet/rings at least.
Also if you go HGH you need at least 3 elixirs and runes to support might like noble runes and probly a sigil of battle/strength.
EDIT: Undead might be better choice for runes, cheaper as well.
I’m not familiar with xpadder so I can’t help there. But I will say even with a mouse grenade kit takes a bit of learning.
As Phy said changing the ground targeting options can help, there are actually 3 options now. I personally love the new one “Fast with Range Indicator”. Meaning it gives you the green/red circle while the button is pressed and casts it upon release. So I can hold the button down to aim if I want or just tap to cast. Also if you aiming and want to cancel you can drop kit or aim out of range.
5-6 bleeds max with 100% condi duration. Necro Dhuumfire doesn’t even compare, that was a whole new trait opening up a whole new very damaging condition. For a condi build, giving Explosive shot explosive trait support would give 1 maybe 2 extra bleeds at the expense of not using more damaging skills, and a few stacks of a cover condition for a 25 trait point investment. AND clear up the vagueness this thread is suppose to be talking about.
EDIT: I just realized it would make coated bullets very strong against groups of opponents, but again that’s 45 trait points to make pistol auto comparable to grenade auto with grenadier.
8 bleeds? How to do you get 8 bleeds from a 2 second bleed every 3/4 second? Also I don’t know where all these extra bleeds your talking about would come from Shrapnel has a 15% chance which would be 1 extra bleed about every 6 shots, hardly OP. Perma burn, confuse or poison has nothing to do with pistol auto at all. The only thing it would do is open up power builds to actually get some usage out of the auto attack
I’m pretty sure most people would agree that in PvP is sucks pretty bad too, I still don’t get how giving it explosive traits would make it OP. E-gun gives 2 condi’s for no traits on auto, if I’m putting 25 points in and expecting something good outside of a kit, is that OP?
Anyway without derailing the thread my point was more that Explosive Shot doesn’t count as an explosion. It’s almost as if the whole Engineer profession was designed in another language and then poorly localized to english.
whats really gonna boggle your mind (and is something thats bugged me since beta) is if you look at the pistol auto attack skill name, here is a link to the wiki for it
EDIT: oh and while your at it, think about howAcid Bomb should interact with traits (but doesn’t
MonMalthias has it right, the irony of the hundo nade was only half of the damage was non telegraphed, and you had to be standing inside the other person. And if it failed you were essentially dead. Hell I remember getting downed if my target had retal sometimes, even if I pulled the combo of perfectly.
The nerf was justifed imo in the end, but the replacement is just as imbalance as it was before. Now its the bomb and e-gun that have OP effects, but the clunky anit-synergistic GCN keeps them in check.
Then chill should also not apply to death shroud cooldowns, shatter cooldowns, kit and toolbelt cooldowns, pet cooldowns, virtue cooldowns, burst skill cooldowns…
That makes no sense at all, switching ele attunements is actually comparable to switching weapons. And while I don’t really agree that making them immune to chill is the answer, and instead making weapon swaps affected by chill. I also think that the amount of chill being thrown around should be toned down.
Pistol + Shield >>> Rifle, since for damage Bomb 1 hits as much as Rifle 3 or 5. So you simply change the appearence of your damage skill for nothing. Better keep the shield utility.
Absolutly untrue Bomb scales 1.25, while Jump Shot scales .9 and 1.8, Blunderbuss scales 1.6 at close range. (These skills will hit for approx. 5% more as well with an ascended rifle) The rifle also offers utility with net shot and overcharge shot, and ups your DPS considerably over P/S.
Also Jump Shot is leap finsher giving you a fire shield, which could potentially give more might than just a single blast could.
If I recall way way back in the day it removed all conditions. But I agree removing 1 condition every 15 seconds on top of a cast time and having to run over it before someone else is pretty clunky and horrendous. It should at least remove 3 conditions possibly or just remove certain ones like all damaging conditions.
Anyway if you need more condi removal in PvE and WvW you can use this food: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Saffron-scented_Poultry_Soup I’ve had mild success with it in conjunction with other on-heal or weapon swap procs for massive might stacks and condi removal every 10 secs.
Medkit + altruism runes + enhance performance + sigil of battle. I’d take leg mods and poultry lemongrass soup for anti-immob and anti-cripple. Just my .02.
You can also look into kit refinement on medkit.
Altruism runes are a 15 second cooldown, even though the tooltip says 10, been tested thoroghly. Noble Runes are better, as the 6th bonus actually is 10 seconds. Also gives you more duration on the might.
I would LOVE some stability on bomb kit, but I think that may make it a teensy bit OP, and with the time delay on the bomb make it clunky at best.
BUT offhand pistol could sure use a buff, and this seems perfect +1’d. I mean the class design philosophy from forever ago stated that engineers use boons for defense. And while we have access to protection, aegis, and stability, its very limited and situational.
Phineas’ advice is good, but after having grinded out a set celestial exotic armor I felt it was lacking compared to my berserker. That said I’m still trying to accumulate enough damask for a full ascended armor set. And in the mean time, I’ve gotten to lvl 40 fractals easy enough with just trinkets and a rifle ascended.
I will hold off until the feature patch to make the armor. But the crit damage nerf isn’t what worries me most, it’s the balance pass on all runes/sigils. I’m quickly filling my bank with 6+ sets of all the reasonably prices runes. And stacking up sigils. Also saving up some karma and dungeon tokens for the other sets.
I was skeptical / intimidated by having a ton of buttons on my mouse. But I really wanted a durable laser mouse. So on a whim i bought the Razer Hex from best buy on clearance. Best purchase I’ve ever made for guild wars. I put all the f keys on 4 buttons so using toolbelt skills is a breeze. The other two i put to look behind and about face. It’s perfect because I have a fat thumb and tend to get pretty crazy with mouse turning, so I can still pinch the mouse with my thumb and just roll it in a direction to hit one of the keys.
decent build, I’ve recently come across a post about using potent elixirs with boon duration runes (2xTraveler,2XMonk,2xWater) to extend the duration of the stability on Toss B to 8 seconds. That along with 20 points in tools gives you about 33% uptime on stability for 5 people, even more if you take advantage of Inertial Converter.
He was also using the magnetic bomb from kit refinement, using it in conjunction with BoB to pull people and launch them. I wanted to try it but am worried about the coming rune rebalance, it may make boon duration stacking like this impossible.
learning these combo’s is a necessity for engi’s. Once you get the timings down, using them mid combat is massive group support. Also improvising can help quite a bit, learning the timing on BoB so you can deploy the toolbelt water field is challenging and fun, but I’ve also used it with rocket boots for a clutch getaway heal.
I agree buffing healing turret would be a mistake. Honestly I’ve been expecting a nerf to it for a while. BUT I would like to see a few evade frames on rocket boots, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been downed mid-air trying to outrun some massive boss hit.
Maybe the solution to both of these questions is really an issue of platform rather than anything else. Forums are definitely good for fostering discussion, but might not be so good for this in-depth of a collaboration effort.
It would be cool if there was a page (outside the forums) where we could post suggestions (word limited) and be able to up/down vote. From there, the GW2 team could take the top up voted suggestions or others of interest and do shorter CDI runs on the forum, again with a limit. Personally, I didn’t participate in any of the CDIs so far because whenever I tried to check it out it all looked a little… eh, you know what I mean!
If you had a separate page with up/down votes, it would be easy to see what has already been suggested too, I know there were a lot of repeats in the CDI threads now and then.
If not that, make a page that just gets updated so we don’t have to fish through the thread to find the summary!
Appreciate all the work you guys are doing.
This format already exists somewhat in the form of reddit, it really helps being able to comment on a comment and have branching discussions. Along with voting so instead of repeated suggestions there can be more focused discussions on really good ones.
I personally haven’t participated in the CDI’s because the huge wall of text is so burdensome to get through.
Tbh, when I see engi’s who run bombs as their main damage kit, I laugh a little because they have to be in melee to do any damage.
Bro being melee as main damage is fine, as long as you have enough CC and mobility. I mean hammer warriors have been doing for a long time. I would agree though that bomb kit as your only kit leaves you a little lacking. Although using it with slick shoes is good for a laugh
Hey Phineas, just wanted to thank you for this extremely detailed breakdown of this ‘meta’ build. Also I would propose a sticky, as I’ve redirected many people here before.
Having played warrior, guard, and mes in the past simply because nobody wanted and engi in there dungeon group, it feels really good now that I don’t get insta-kicked just for being and engineer. There really is no better profession for combined utility and damage.
This sums up maximizing DPS currently in PvE, and can be used as a base to tweak to personal preference. I usually take bomb and nade kit to go in and out of melee and stack up a ton of conditions to maximize modified ammo. Full zerker exotic with ruby orbs is very cheap i suggest giving it a try. I am addicted to the damage now. Also I have a feeling this build will get even stronger from the crit damage nerfs (by that I mean it won’t lose as much DPS as other professions)
Okay, but this isn’t going to be a high crit build either way. I like to have my cake and eat it too but realize I can’t make a build that’s both high defense and high offense.
I know perplexity runes are powerful, and considered them for my mesmer. They do seem to make a lot of sense here. I’m not sure how many interrupt-generating effects I have though. There’s BOB, shield #4, and if I use tool kit, the pull ability there. I guess also some other utilities but.. so few slots.
Seras is actually quite right, the armor stat Rabid (which was mostly forgotten when Dire came out) is arguably the best for a condi engi. Just look at the firearms tree, precision and condition damage. Sharpshooter with grenadier is amazing synergy. You really only need about 30-40% and some fury. All while healing like a beast and having close to 3k armor. Also remember that even with 0 prowess (or ferocity?) critical hits will still do an additional 50% damage. Build example
But you want to do healing bombs, sorry I got off track. Here is a power based healing bomb build I was trying out for a while. It didn’t work that well outside of the zerg, but was fun. With 15-20 stacks of might your autos can crit for respectable damage, but its more about supporting your teammates and healing for obscene amounts.
EDIT: New patch has new stat combo that could open up some interesting choices for power healing bombs!!!!
Honestly the cast time kills it, especially since stability is hard to come by as an Engi. Also, as had been said, there really isn’t any incentive to take it over a more reliable heal.
I think if the cast time were halved, and it gave Frenzy for the duration of the buff, it would fit into a ton more builds. Even then the toolbelt is pretty weak.
I think the condi removal on gadgets should be different for each one. Similar to how rocket boots removes cripple and immob, and goggles gives blind immunity. Each gadget should supplement condi removal. Or work if all gadgets are taken.
I was just using your second build ellesee with a couple changes: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIq6ZX3SdF17IRoH2/+qV0D9bZH/pgcB-ToAg2CrIaS1krJTTymsNNAZuA
It was soo much fun, practically immortal. And if you take Elixer B and use it properly, along with healing mist you can keep from being decapped. I found it fun to assault mid or far point with someone else and just camp it for the whole game, you can easily hold off 2 or three people yourself.
I can attest to the damage bombs put out in a 30/30 build, I regularly PUG fractals 30+ and various dungeons. I’ll just tell everyone they don’t even need to do damage, just drag the mobs to me. Some bosses can be problematic, but I usually camp grenade kit until I see an opportunity to dive in and lay on the hurt with a Jump Shot > Blunderbuss> B.o.B. I do go down a lot, but can usually get a rally.
I would argue that this engi build does more DPS than a full zerk warrior, while bringing great group support from heal turret and bomb combo fields.
Kits make engi’s fun, the 1 second cooldown on kit swaps makes for a massive amount of skill combos. It just takes a while to get used to, I personally have a hard time going to other professions with that excruciating 10 second weapon swap cooldown.
As a new engi I recommend bomb kit, grenades can be powerful but you need a 30 point trait to take full advantage of the kit. Also the ground targeted auto attack throws people off.
Let me help you out here Bro. The way turret overcharges work is they change the attack it performs next, so instead of a wimpy cripple its a big ol bomb like thump. But if there are no targets in range the turret wont attack, giving you no blast finisher.
Also somewhat on topic, when you detonate a turret the blast finisher is centered on the player instead of the turret. So you can do some interesting things. For example say your running from a thief, you drop and overcharge the turret to get him off your back while still running forward. You can then drop a smoke bomb and detonate the turret to stealth even though the turret is half a mile behind you. (So the thief can’t steal port to you)
I’ll try to be a little more constructive, although I do sort of agree with Mork. Stat wise its very hybrid damage, focused too much on CC. Which is fine if you want to be the very annoying engi roaming with some thieves. But if you want to be able to kill someone you’ll need more sources of damage (which is why kitless builds hardly ever work).
If your very anti-kit, I would at the least suggest taking an off-hand pistol. You could also move 10 points from firearms to explosives for forceful explosives and fit bomb kit in there (bomb kit and slick shoes synergize well).
One last note is to look at toxic focusing crystal for the extra 10% condi duration
Here is as close to an official response as we got. When ascended weapons first came out there was an ‘unintended’ increase in damage for engi kits, ele summons, and warrior banners. This was hotfixed within about a day or so. I tried to bring this up again when ascended armor came out, now that people can get a furthur 5% base armor, our kit damage is falling behind even more.
I’ve been using healing bombs in zerg fights with my guild lately and have been loving it. Here’s the build, its for frontline play and will usually get you and your team mates through some fairly heavy fire. And it definitly hits harder than a wet noodle, not much though, more like a dry noodle, actually that’s not a bad name for the build. Sorry for rambling.
Anyway those two conversion traits in inventions can add up to a decent amount of power. But in sPvp I’d still take Settler’s for a condition build.
I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure they said it was too powerful to have a push and a pull on the same bar, and I can’t find anything about it in the patch notes. The earliest one has the Juggernaut changes. And I do specifically remember them saying Smoke Vent was a ‘placeholder’ until they could come up with something better.
When did Backdraft get removed? In beta? Almost a year and a half ago
I have made Atherakhia’s #2 suggestion before may times from the start of the game, making it work similiar to aegis but stacking intensity instead of duration. Then they could possibly buff the damage back up, and nothing would change too much though, just forcing people to stack retal up.
Ideally I would like to see the #1 change, as it would still Instagib glass cannons that recklessly spam attacks, but not instagib a full on tanky person dealing out piddly damage
Hopefully people are finished bickering over EIB, I just wanted to share my experiences with a couple of the new changes.
Power shoes are great, opening up a minor slot in tools of which I took speedy gadgets to try out the new heal AED. Which is terrible, not just terrible, but MONSTEROUSLY TERRI-BAD on an epic scale. The one second cast time just murders this skill, and the 3/4s cast with however long aftercast of the toolbelt is god aweful.
Now the new Transmute was kinda fun at Jormag, making me practically immune to his long fear chains. But its use in any PvP setting is completely demolished, I used to be able to tank even the heaviest of condition appliers (other engi’s, sometimes necros) and now they just destroy me, even with Automated Response. Engineers condition mitigation is a joke now
I like it, could switch mines to rocket boots for more mobility, and bombs to nades for peppering walls and back lines, very flexible. Remember that the bomb fuse can somewhat work for you if your in stealth, laying down a BoB and getting out of there before it goes off.
I’ve been rolling Full Dire in WvW for a while now and I think Engi’s are really the only class that Conditions can work in a meta of constant cleansing, the idea being that you put out so many conditions that you overload the cleansing, and even force them to cleanse. Poisen grenade is wonderful for this, as most guards will try to cleanse poisen so their heals aren’t nerfed, but because its a field it will get reapplied.
Unfortunately is seems you ran into a highly specialized ‘zerg busting’ squad, which prey on blobs of pugs all the time, conditions wont do much to these guys, instead focus more getting CC skills off to pick them off one at a time. Typically they will go straight for squishy backlines. Which is where I feel engi’s excell at, backline defense/offense.
I don’t know who edits the patch notes. The language is inconsistent all the time. Take a look at the following example copied directly from the last patch notes
Inventions XI—Elixir-Infused Bombs: Scaling with healing power has been increased by 50%.
Zeal VII—Zealous Blade: This trait now scales with healing power by 2%.
Honor VI—Pure of Heart: Increased scaling with healing power from 25% to 40%.
All three of these examples are changes to basically the same part of a trait, all said in a different way
Here you are my friend; http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAq+kIq6ZX3OSE6BAAgaF9AAAwxfKIXA-jUCB4hBkaAkoGILqIasFho1NERjqZER16kYWcFRrWKgvVGB-w
2035 heal powa, as high as I’ve been able to get that calc to go. With ascended armor you should theoretically be able to reach 2048 and putting +5hp infusions in weapons and armor would be an additional 40 bringing theoretical max to 2088, basically sacrificing everything to heal power. With this build you can get a decent amount of power thanks to the conversion traits, but without crits you won’t be doing very much damage (thats really not the point of the build though)
Also I wanted to point out that for any profession heal power is only good if you can get a lot of sources of heals to take advantage of stacking the stat, keeping regen up 100%, spamming bomb autos and keeping super elixer on cooldown, using the sigils/runes that heal, and finishing water fields with blasts/leaps, oh and using backpack regen trait. All those are really the only way for engi’s to take advantage of heal power, whereas ele and guardian can almost outheal engi’s with just there on-dodge heals(which scale 100% heal power)
your looking at the attack rating on the hero sheet, that is base weapon damage + power. Which suprisingly has nothing to do with how actual damage is calculated.
Kits have the same base weapon damage as the lowest exotic base weapon damage, as you can see from the same attack rating when switching from pistol/shield to a kit.
If your talking about the trait Energized armor, which would seem it should benefit from the extra 200 toughness from Juggernaut (which should give you an extra 10 power, while in flamethrower), I have no clue if this actually works. Ill go test and report back later
