Guild Wars 2

I’m surprised that nobody’s talked about the new GM in Explosives. Yes, alone, it looks a bit underwhelming, especially if it only applies to strict knockbacks, and not launches and the like, but I can already think of a use for it, and that would be with the FT. Yes, the FT is still a bit subpar, but the new trait can help compensate a bit, since Flame Jet is about the only skill I can think of on the Engie that really benefits from quickness, and the FT also has a knockback to proc the quickness. Still not the most amazing thing ever (retal will still murder you), but with, say, a 30/30/0/10/0 FT build, it could be decently strong, especially if paired with Accelerant-Packed Turrets and a crate.

Another, more crackpot, idea I’ve come up with for this trait is quickness Elixir-Infused Bombs. You knock someone back with the shield knockback, which will give you some breathing room, then switch to the bomb kit and start dumping bombs at your feet. It would result in a lot of small heals going off at just about the same time, which could be quite strong.

These are just a couple of ideas for the new trait from an Engie that loves trying crazy builds, and likes to try to see the possible combinations of traits and skills that could work. However, if the new GM trait has a silly long cd (30 seconds is about the highest I would like to see it be), these ideas will be dead in the water, which would be sad, because personally, I would love to see an Engie drop healing bombs rapid fire.

Aridia.3042:

Prysin.8542:

Best solution is to nerf warrior and remove fast hands altogether and give it to engineers.

Fixed that for ya.

You’re welcome.

Double fixed, because I want half second swap times.

There is one class that they’ve made better progress with in that regard than the Thief, and that would be the Ranger, which they nerf even though it’s weak as hell…

I have to say, this is a hilarious thread, and I’m an Engie player. So, I figure I might as well add to this thread.

What: Blinding Powder
Why: One time, this Warrior hit me with Kill Shot while he was in stealth because of a Thief, and instant killed me, made my cat bite me, and stole my lunch money.
Suggestion: Make it so that, instead of granting allies stealth for 3 seconds, it gives allies revealed for 3 seconds, because stealth Kill Shots are mean, and make you a bad person.

Interrupt the Thief while he’s doing HS. At least, that’s what I do, and it seems to work.

You know, I half wish that people would cry OP on Rifle Engies, just once in a while. It would make me feel like I’m not the only Engie using the Rifle.

On topic, 17k over 6 hits is pretty kitten slow, considering Warriors can hit much harder than that with their autos. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the Necro’s Dagger auto can hit similar DPS, but I may be wrong in that.

Honestly, in a fight between a Condi Necro and a Condi Engie, I’d have to give the edge to the Necro, because of the condi transfers, eating condis for heals, and they can keep their condi pressure up better than Engies can, for the most part. Sure, Engies have quite the impressive condi bomb, but once they’re done with the bomb, they’re stuck stacking one or two conditions, and small stacks at that. Also, the Bleed and Poison on Plague can really do a lot of damage.

The projectile isn’t visible, but yes, it can be reflected. I know from experience. When that happens, not only do you get hit with the self-knockback, but you get hit with the launch as well, which means you still create a gap between you and your target, but not how you wanted to.

That makes a lot more sense.

Anyways, back on topic, Overcharged Shot, in my opinion, is one of the best launches in the game, and doesn’t need changing at all. Well, they could change it so that it can’t be reflected, but that would be stupidly OP.

But you were saying that, compared to the other Quickness skills, it has no downside. I’m saying that the downside to it is the much longer CD than the other Quickness skills.

Time Warp has a downside, it’s an Elite Skill.

Good point. My biggest issue with the pull is when the victim appears to rubberband, teleporting back to where they were originally, then back to where they’re supposed to be.

1.25s cast time, but your point still remains the same Mon. It’s amazing how few people know how to dodge Magnet.

Oh I agree, the Tool Kit’s absolutely wonderful, especially on a glass Rifle Build. I didn’t realize they had buffed the block time though, I thought it was always 3s. I do love that they buffed the throw for power builds.

My question is, when did Tool Kit become OP?

Why not give us a Mace? We already have a Mace auto-attack set up, and I think Mace/Pistol could be interesting.

For Elixir C, in my opinion, one way they could make it more appealing is to remove the cast time from it. That way, it would be good as a soft Stun-Breaker, dealing with Fear and the control Condis, as well as making sure you don’t melt from condi burst in the time it takes for you to drink the elixir. It would still be a worse Contemplation of Purity, but it would make it a contender for a slot in non elixir-builds, and help Engies somewhat with their condi issues. You also still wouldn’t be able to guarantee what boons you get, but it would be nice to deal with a Necro dumping condis on you, be it through their burst, your burst, or corrupting your boons.

In my opinion, R has taken quite a few really severe nerfs, making it really worthless as it currently is. ANet needs to either revert the CD change on the toss, since it’s not a guaranteed rez, or make R instant cast. I don’t know what much more could be done to R to improve it without making it almost a must have again, although I always prefer S.

With U, I wish they had gotten rid of Frenzy instead of Quickening Zephyr, because the receiving extra damage, on the builds that would most benefit from Quickness, kills the elixir more than not being able to heal does, because a lot of times, U would be used when first engaging a target, when you shouldn’t need to heal. Haste isn’t as bad as Frenzy, because the Engie has traits that benefit from not having full endurance, and Engies have ways to easily get endurance back once Haste ends.

Elixir X is getting closer to being decent, considering it can be traited down to an 84s CD. One of the best ways to buff it would be to buff Rampage and Tornado, because those skills are seen as lacking by their respective professions. I do like your first suggestion for changing Elixir X, but they would have to increase the CD to compensate. I would rather get away from transforms in general, because losing weapon skills and utilities is extremely detrimental for Engies. The one issue with your first proposed change to X is that it could make decap Engies much stronger than they already are, because giving them any length of Stability that’s easily accessible and letting them keep their skills could make them nigh impossible to get off a point. Also, your first proposed change to X makes it extremely similar to Rampage as One, except without the Swiftness.

These are my thoughts on both the underused elixirs, and on your proposed changes to some of them. Feel free to tell me that my ideas are stupid and that I should uninstall, or whatever sort of response you have to them.

I think he’s talking more about Engies pulling while in stealth, but still, either they’ve wasted some finishers with a smoke bomb or the 5 skill on the FT to get that stealth, or they’ve used up Toss Elixir S, which removes one of their best ways of getting out of a bad situation. Also, Stability screws over the Magnet, like it does all pulls, and, as mentioned before, Stun Breaking in the middle of the pull stops it dead. If the Engie isn’t in stealth and starts the pull, and you see him starting the pull, it’s your fault if you get pulled because, as stated before, it has a 1 1/4s cast time, and the Engie’s holding a magnet in his hands while he’s casting, and there are the lines between the Engie and the target. No good Engie should be getting hit by Magnet except if they’re distracted fighting someone else. As for Ele and Guard, they should have more than enough Stun Breaks and teleports to get away from the Engie, and the Ranger has a ton of evades, aside from the fact that they have really easy access to Vigor. If anything, the Necro has the worst time with Magnet, but that comes from the fact that they don’t do well with CC at all.

I would like to say, as a long time Engie player, Engies can have just as many weapon skills as Eles, have them all be on 1s CDs, have them all proc multiple effects, and not really have to worry about chill. The argument that only the Warrior and Ele can make wide use of weapon swapping is flat out wrong. The downside for the Engineer is that they lose multiple weapon sets, and they have to use up utilities and their heal for kits, but that’s covered by the Tool Belt, which, like all skills should be, are affected by chill.

And the Engineer, on top of being able to slot up to 20 weapon skills, has extremely short CDs on those skills as well, with not many going over 25s, and many being sub-10s. So, it’s okay for an Engie to be able to have that many skills, with just about no penalty from chill, and with short CDs, while Eles have to suffer?

I’m not going to even mention the trait changes you’ve proposed because I see way too much for me to talk about in a single post, so I’m going just talk about some of the skill changes you’ve proposed.

The change to Analyze, as mentioned before, makes it strictly worse than its current version, going from a 10% direct damage increase to a 10% increase in damage for crits, which only serves to lower your damage output if you don’t have 100% crit chance, and keep it the same if you do.

The change to Personal Battering Ram is pointless, in my opinion, because it’s still going to have a longer cd than the version the Warrior has, and won’t be a stun breaker like Stomp currently is.

The change to the Tool Belt for Slick Shoes is infinitely worse than what we currently have, and is way too specialized to actually find a lot of use. The change to Slick Shoes itself, while interesting, is worse than what we have currently, and would run into the same problem that the Ranger’s Lightning Reflexes currently has, if you’re immobilized when you use it, you won’t go anywhere, and if you’re crippled or chilled, you’ll only go a short distance. Also, knowing ANet, they’d just make it function similarly to the old Rocket Boots, self CC and all.

I don’t understand why you’re changing Elixir U at all, considering there are already reflects on the toss, but your proposed change would see the skill only be used for the stability, which toss B already gives, and if there’s no tell for when the Engie has used the skill, the counter-play will be non-existent, which isn’t fun, and having the reflected projectiles strip boons makes no sense in terms of what the skill is.

Finally, your change to Elixir X. Oh, your change to Elixir X. In my eyes, what you’re proposing is not worthy of being an elite skill, at all, and would send Elixir X down to the same place that the Mortar currently is, the worst of the worst elites. The Daze and Boon converting does not warrant the 105 second CD, and the converting 3 condis to random boons in a PBAoE also doesn’t warrant the 105 second CD, and all that together doesn’t warrant the 105 second CD, because Daze is one of the weakest CCs in the game, in my opinion. Also, considering there’s that 1 second cast time and obvious tell, you’re never going to hit anyone with it, or you’ll just be interrupted because they know you’re trying to clear condis, or you’ll just die to the condis before the skill goes off. 1 second is too long to wait for condi clears, and if I have to wait 1 second, I want the skill to do more than just convert 3 condis into random boons. In my opinion, this version of Elixir X is all but strictly worse than Elixir C, and barely anyone uses Elixir C.

If you wanted more build diversity, the last thing we need is randomly nerfing skills that aren’t even used much into oblivion, while buffing traits that are already constantly used. Also, I’m surprised you didn’t even try to change Mortar, I would’ve thought that would be the go-to elite to change if you were going to change an elite.

TL,DR: I think that most of your proposed changes need a lot of work, or are just out right pointless, especially nerfing Elixir X to hell.

Some of them would be really hard to come up with a reason for, such as most of the traps.

You mean random condis breaking stealth OP.

Half of the current KR skills are just copied skills, although from other professions. Hell, the only two that aren’t are the Bomb Kit and Elixir Gun, and you can argue that the bomb is similar to Into the Void, and the Elixir Gun is just a modified Slick Shoes. There is just about no originality in the new KR, nor are they that interesting, at least in my opinion.

Yes, they do remove a boon per mine, per person hit. It’s annoying nuking off an explosives Engie and losing the 2 minutes of swiftness I had built up because I touch one of the mines.

Chaith, you are beautiful.

Also, did the new armors need to have those transparencies?

On the question of the tool belt being affected by chill, it is indeed affected by chill, and honestly, the tool belt should be, because those are four more skills that the Engie gets.

On topic, I can easily see how chill can utterly destroy an Ele, especially when most of their condi cures are on one attunement, but I would like to say that if it’s changed so that Attunements aren’t affected by chill, then Engie kits shouldn’t be affected by chill either.

I’m also pretty sure you only get the effects on Barrage if you’re traited with Grenadier.

Isn’t the state of this trait somewhat indicative of the state of Engineer as a whole though? Half the time, we don’t make any kitten sense.

Honestly, I think it’s better off how it is now, it actually helps the Engineer out while he’s downed, if he has teammates around.

It’s shocking to me that they would have it so that the med kits heal the Engineer that dropped them, yet not actually say that is how the trait works. That being said, having the med kits heal the Engie makes this trait slightly less worthless than it appears, because, if your teammates are nice enough to walk over the kits, that’s 10% of your downed health per kit, if the trait’s tool tip is to be believed, which is a decent amount of health.

Elixir B only gives 13s of Swiftness with my current build, and I like having Elixir S for both the tool belt skill and the guaranteed spikes. Also, I like having my heal skill available when I need it.

I may think about swapping out the Oil for Sharpening Stones, that may make it so that I don’t have the 107% crit chance with fury.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will definitely look into them, although I’m still not sure about HGH.

The issue with AMR is that, since I have Fast-Acting Elixirs, it doesn’t really combo with Self-Regulating that well, because of the semi-recent change.

I may look into dropping a bit of crit chance, but Zerker gear really won’t do too much more for me, considering I’m still getting more Power than Precision from my gear.

I do appreciate your thoughts, and in my experience, the auto pop on Self-Regulating has saved me more times than I would like to count.

Also, I’m glad that you like that it’s not FOTM condi build. I personally try to avoid the FOTM builds, mostly because I don’t find them fun to play.

The build already has perma-swiftness, so Power Shoes is kind of pointless, and I’d rather not lose the extra damage to bleeding foes. Also, in my opinion, there aren’t really any other trait lines I feel are worth investing more into. If I were to put points into Explosives (a trait line that I feel is way to specialized for its own good), I would grab Accelerant Packed Turrets, just to turn Supply Crate into a nuke.

I’m not running HGH because I find that HGH makes you a bit too reliant on cycling your elixirs, causing you to not have them up when you need them. I’m running Modified Ammo because when I get to the end of my burst rotation, I should have 3 to 4 unique conditions on them, which is an extra 6 to 8% damage boost, as well as causing me to have some damage build up the long a fight goes on, and because most of the other traits in Firearms are not that great.

I recently came up with this build for use in WvW. I feel that it does pretty well, considering I’m able to survive quite a long time even though I’m glass, but I wanted to get your opinions, so any comments and criticisms would be welcome.

The build is mainly focused around the Rifle, with the Tool Kit being used as neccesary, be it to pull someone, block, or smack someone with a Pry Bar. Speedy Kits and Elixir B give me more than enough swiftness, and the retal and fury from B are nice as well. Elixir S gives me survivability, as well as safe spikes on downed players. The Supply Crate is the Supply Crate.

I went with Assassin’s instead of Berserker’s because I feel that the Rifle depends on consistently critting, since it doesn’t have the fastest attack speed, and the reason I don’t have anything in Explosives is because I feel that it’s a dead trait line if you aren’t using Bombs or Grenades. I didn’t go for Static Discharge because the only Tool Belt skill I have that would work with it is Throw Wrench.

If you want to try the build out yourself but don’t want to go through the trouble of getting Ascended gear (I don’t blame you), Exotics should work just fine.

You see “Block” pop up, just like you would see “Invulnerable” or “Evade” pop up. It’s funny seeing “Block” appear four or five times in a row because a thief keeps on trying to backstab me while I’m blocking.

Super Kruegs.8967:

NinjaYoshi.3429:

Super Kruegs.8967:

Dhampyr.2104:

Fun night running yaks from N Camp on TCBL! FA’s [WS] guild group – you guys were persistent. Great fights all night long!

Agreed reset night fights at TC N camp was never ending glad you enjoyed our blood lust for those tc yaks. It’s pretty common knowledge that TC will defend the hell out of whatever is their main camp on map, so it’s always a great place to find outnumbered fights. I remember hitting a mez every time we tried to hit that east yak so your persistence is to be praised too you defended them till someone died Also shout out to YOHO. There is some irony that the best havoc group on TC is ex/IOJ/FA, but i was glad to fight some really skilled, strong builds you guys brought to the table. Never got a real good even fight you mugged us with some friendlies we mugged you when we found you guys alone, but overall great fights hope to find you guys again sometime this week. TC still tower hugs way more than any server we’ve fought, but this weekend was packed with fights so thanks for coming out and bringing it those that did.

I have to say Kruegs, those fights we had on FABL on reset were quite fun, even if it was only 2 YOHO vs. 3 WS and some pubs, or 3 WS vs. 2 YOHO and some pubs. Or that one terrible time where it started out YOHO vs. WS and turned into TC Zerg vs. WS. I did quite enjoy diving into the middle of a zerg fight to try to kill some of your guys though. We do need to meet up on more even footing sometime this week, or we can always do the diving into a zerg fight to kill each other routine again. Either one works for me.

That kitten was sooo funny from our side. I saw you guys and i got the blinders on that necro, and then all of sudden PM from one of you guys “run”. I’m like this guys got some nerve. Then another “Our zerg is coming for you” or something and then just a kitten ton of TC all over us. THE Horrorrrrr!!! You saved like half of us, but i was in way too deep to get out.

Was it a Charr Necro you were going after? If so, that was the one that PMed you. We actually backed off when we saw our zerg going after you. There’s no fun if a zerg helps one of the sides win.

Super Kruegs.8967:

Dhampyr.2104:

Fun night running yaks from N Camp on TCBL! FA’s [WS] guild group – you guys were persistent. Great fights all night long!

Agreed reset night fights at TC N camp was never ending glad you enjoyed our blood lust for those tc yaks. It’s pretty common knowledge that TC will defend the hell out of whatever is their main camp on map, so it’s always a great place to find outnumbered fights. I remember hitting a mez every time we tried to hit that east yak so your persistence is to be praised too you defended them till someone died Also shout out to YOHO. There is some irony that the best havoc group on TC is ex/IOJ/FA, but i was glad to fight some really skilled, strong builds you guys brought to the table. Never got a real good even fight you mugged us with some friendlies we mugged you when we found you guys alone, but overall great fights hope to find you guys again sometime this week. TC still tower hugs way more than any server we’ve fought, but this weekend was packed with fights so thanks for coming out and bringing it those that did.

I have to say Kruegs, those fights we had on FABL on reset were quite fun, even if it was only 2 YOHO vs. 3 WS and some pubs, or 3 WS vs. 2 YOHO and some pubs. Or that one terrible time where it started out YOHO vs. WS and turned into TC Zerg vs. WS. I did quite enjoy diving into the middle of a zerg fight to try to kill some of your guys though. We do need to meet up on more even footing sometime this week, or we can always do the diving into a zerg fight to kill each other routine again. Either one works for me.

Hell, a well coordinated group of 4 people can take a keep, under the right conditions. It’s not always about the large groups.

So, the new build was to nerf the Ranger. Good job ANet!

Could it be that you were hitting an Ele using Shocking Aura, or someone that had retal up? I know Retal goes through evades and still does damage, and although I don’t know for certain, I think the effect of Shocking Aura goes through evades as well.

Phineas, while I agree with you that Elixir C should be a stun breaker, although I may be a bit biased since I use the skill myself, I must correct you on the Contemplation of Purity and Elixir C comparison. There is a minor, but significant, difference in these two skills. With Contemplation of Purity, each condition converts into a specific boon, while with Elixir C, each condition is converted into a random boon, so Contemplation of Purity and Elixir C aren’t the exact same skill.

Lurock Turoth.9085:

[FLOT] would like to send a big thank you to [CERN] for the use of their Heroes Banner on TCBL last night, very civic minded of you guys! cheers.

We would also like to request that you guys stop hunting us, as all we want to do is peacefully flip a camp or ten, and then we’ll be on our way.

Hickeroar.9734:

NinjaYoshi.3429:

I was with Helly for those North camp fights, and as soon as the camp would go contested, 20 to 30 TC would show up to try to keep the camp. It was actually quite impressive how dedicated you guys were to keeping that camp.

I think you misunderstood. It’s a TC time-honored tradition to engage in north-camp fights at every opportunity. North camp fights are awesome and huge and take place in a large circular arena with terrain and structures you can use. So much fun.

FA tends to do the same thing, so we often go there, contest the camp, don’t cap it, and wait for people to flood in for an epic fight. Often times we do this when we know we’ll be outnumbered, then play a game of “zombies.” Last one to die wins. You must die to win (running away is disqualification). It’s hilarious, great fun. xD

(As far as the Garri cap goes, we actually cheered for KN over in KNBL when they capped it. I think it’s hilarious that the commander put a bounty on your heads, and I’m sure it was done in good-natured jest.)

I kind of figured that the bounty was in jest, but I still think it’s kind of awesome that my 5 man group managed to cause that commander so much trouble.

Also, I hope Kain enjoyed the unintended distraction caused by my group. We just wanted to see how many people would keep on coming to north camp each time we poked it. We were actually sad when we actually took it, because no one responded that time.

I can confirm that the regular use of Elixir C does not convert Torment into a boon, or do anything to it at all. However, Toss Elixir C converts Torment just fine, which is odd, since it should be basically the same code as Elixir C.

Nyta.4769:

Helly.2597:

Enjoyable fights tonight on TCBL against TC and KN. TC you guys defended that north camp like it was garrison (better actually when I glanced at the map =P)

I—wait, what? We defend our north camp like it’s garrison? And this is coming from someone in FA?

He he, <3. We’ve often joked that the best way to take your garri is to hit your north camp with the main zerg while another group sneaks into garrison since your server’s so good at noticing when that camp is about to get hit. Some of our commanders attack it because even if we can’t win, it’ll be a fun fight because your side fights tooth and nail to defend it, and even many of your militia seem to understand the importance of contesting the circle.

The fact that the servers we faced the last two weeks didn’t really pay attention to that camp or contest it, even if they had people there, was one one of the reasons I felt that our little havoc group was going to go soft if we didn’t face your server again soon.

I was with Helly for those North camp fights, and as soon as the camp would go contested, 20 to 30 TC would show up to try to keep the camp. It was actually quite impressive how dedicated you guys were to keeping that camp.

I did, however, hear after one of our attempts at north camp that we ended up causing you guys to lose garrison, and, according to an unnamed source on TC, had a commander put a bounty on our roaming group. If that part about the bounty is true, it brings a smile to my face. However, if fun fights at north camp causes bounties, I welcome them, because those were some of the best fights I’ve had so far this matchup.

Let’s not get this one locked. We don’t want to turn into Maguuma.

It would be interesting to see if I have gained a reputation on the other servers, but considering I’m an Engie, I doubt it, since Engineers don’t seem to be memorable to other people.