Guild Wars 2

Speaking from a PvE standpoint outside of raids and high end fractals.
Revenant doesn’t lose that much with a sword/shield instead of the usual sword/axe build.

Agreed. As far as i can remember, it’s always been this way since launch.
Kind of silly that nothing has been done in over 4+ years.

I’d like to see napalm behave similar to a skill like the Revenants searing fissure and a change to how flame jet applies burning. Maybe even a slight attack speed increase.

But i think the flamethrower engineer only appeared in that trailer because they wanted contrast to the cold and icy theme.

Felahr.9830:

who cares? its not like theyre farming ectos in tarir like living breathing real people are doing. who cares if a bot wants 50 stacks of copper ore for cryin out loud

What type of twisted mentality is this?
Do you seriously think it’s ok for somebody to cheat?
And I’ll tell you who cares. ArenaNet and any sensible player.

I think cosmetic inspections would be a very welcome addition.
I’ve always found it strange how much of the endgame revolves around fashion, yet there is no quick and easy way to know what exactly others are wearing.
I see no downsides to inspecting what skins and dyes another player is using and being able to preview each piece on your own character.

Some of them play the game of hanging out near banks and annoying people by repeating the same lines.

I was able to force my way through every lvl 10 story step with only a few crashes, but i can’t get past “The Wolf Havroun” loading screen.

Personally not that big of a deal for me, but I can only imagine what a new player would think of this invisible floor and crashing issue.

Did the changes to quickness stacking affect Impossible Odds? Particularly with high boon duration builds.

If you’re going for a pve solo flamethrower build try using Fried Golden Dumplings. 20% boon duration and might on crit with no icd.
You’ll hit often enough with 30%+ quickness uptime to easily reach 25 might even without a sigil of strength and strength runes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoCFpi1aBmXB0ehl7iS8g+hcAcBjwAg+2j9cH-TxRBwAeugAo0RERJIgHEw19HlfIMBdT9HRBEYA-e

This is what I’ve been using. Just swap out bulwark for EG depending on the fight and use sneak gyro with toss elixir s to sneak around.
I’m sure a few tweaks can be made (like the rage sigil), but this build has worked very well for me so far.

You’ve got to be kidding me.
Bulwark Gyro was really the only reason i continued to use Scrapper in PvE. It gave my engineer a great way to support a team and myself for a limited amount of time and now they’ve taken that away my making this thing incredibly flimsy and barely able to take a hit from a regular single trash mob.
I guess it’s really time to scrap the scrapper and go back to a regular power build.

Synosius.9876:

med kit was nvr meant to be competitive. its great at low lvl and dont have access to good traits which later replace all the boons this kit provides.

I was under the impression that it saw some use in PvP before the patch that butchered it.
Also it being good for only providing swiftness before lvl 21 is rather pathetic. It’s not even permanent swiftness.

I guess you could add on super elixir, elixir shell, healing turret and regeneration. All of which are group wide.
Backpack regenerator can also be counted if you go alchemy.

I won’t sink $50 into a game that may or may not be good, and it’s not like they’ll run out of digital copies of HoT at any point.

I’ll wait for legitimate reviews and gameplay demonstrations/information after the game launches to make a decision.

I also have little faith in ANets competency in developing challenging lasting content or to follow up on issues that have been plaguing this game for months and even years.

There’s a point to the Medic Gyro.

To more easily distinguish the good engineers from the bad engineers.

I’m hoping that at least one of the drones provides a good unique group buff. Something that may make people consider taking an engineer rather than just another elementalist.

How unfortunate that they consider dungeon faded content, although it’s no real surprise that they’ll continue to expand fractals.
Fractals is a loophole that allows Arenanet to pull from any somewhat significant point in history and make it content.
They may as well reconstruct the FOTM gate to be a DeLorean.

In typical Arenanet fashion, they’ll let this type of crap go on for months, years even, before finally addressing the issue with a more than likely half baked solution.
Just look at things like CM mountaineering and Fiery Rush. It took them forever to fix those gigantic issues.

In my opinion, i think it all comes down to money. Does it directly impact Arenanets cash income in any significant manner? If the answer is no then it sits low on the priority list and constantly gets overwritten by other things Arenanet deems more important which is why it takes so long for some sort of fix.

I don’t think you should rely on people to stand around in your napalm for burn damage, and incendiary ammo, while nice, is held back by being a 50 second cooldown and single target.
Flamethrower auto is rather weak, and you’ll get eaten up by retaliation using it.
I would highly recommend using a rune set.

Also fix the grenade barrage effect while you’re at it.

My solution would be to remove ground targeting and make the 2-5 skills a 5 or 10 second interval 180 range pulsing aoe that grant short duration boons(regen/swiftness, fury, 1-2 condi removal, resistance) to up to 5 allies inside the aoe and a small amount of healing (100-150/200-300) for each pulse.
Give them a decent/permanent uptime period and improve the healing along with reducing the channel time of med blaster and maybe engineers would start using med kit more often.

For $50 I’d expect it to have almost as much content as the base game, which I highly doubt it does.
I sincerely hope that’s the price of a collectors edition (if there is any) and that the price of just the expansion is more reasonable.

A Black Lion Chest Key from some random bandit in Kessex Hills.
Of course I got nothing out of the chest I used it on.

Elementalist (PvE)
+ Best aoe damage
+ Very good support
+ Best ranged class in game
+ Can carry bad pugs
+ Very welcome in groups
+ Flashy gameplay skills
+ Has access to 2 tanks for solo content
+ Good mobility
+/- Staff rotation is very simple
- Can’t take much punishment

Necromancer (PvE)
+ High health with the help of deathshroud
+/- Ok damage
- Not great in dungeons
- Poor support
- Some sources of damage and support are dark fields
- Not the fastest of classes

Out of the 2, Elementalist comes out ahead by far in PvE. The only reason I can see for playing necro is if you really adore the aesthetics, find the class more fun than the others, or are into PvP.

I’m not sure if reinforced shield works when using a kit.
If this is the case I’d just put 2 points into firearms and pick up modified ammo instead.

For armour, berserkers/assassins is always a solid choice for most pve related things.
A tip would be to learn about combos. The engineer can be a very heavy combo using class.

Other than that, it’s a build that’s better than what most newbies plan on using.

Some other leveling tips :

I found Glyph of Storms (sandstorm) a very good option when fighting multiple opponents. It’s a 10 second pulsing blind field which effects up to 5 targets.

I also found the earth elemental from glyph of elementals (both the lesser utility and elite) to be extremely valuable whenever I needed a distraction while grabbing a skill point or to tank a difficult mob while I nuked it with fire staff.

Food and utility buffs are a good and cheap way to gain extra experience from kills. There’s some cheap food and potions out there that can give you +10/15% exp each from kills.

I’ll second the pick for a staff elementalist.

A single primary character that receives 95% of my attention.
That one’s up to you.

Ability to solo or not rely on others. Self sufficient.
A staff elementalist can kill things before they can touch you. Can use earth and ice elementals to tank harder solo content.

Be a valued asset to a team or guild.
High aoe damage, conjure weapons for the team, provide good offensive boons, mitigate damage with blinds and CC, clear conditions from self and allies, long duration aoe swiftness.

(Contradictory? Solo & a team player? Lesson learned from other mmo’s)
Very good in both solo and group play.

Not fond of close melee combat (ex: tank in other mmo).
All damaging staff skills are 1200 range.

I like glitz, pizzaz, fun, and exciting abilities & utilities
Fireballs, flames, meteors, frost, lightning, arcane explosions, ice storms, lightning storms, sandstorms, elementals and so on. Plenty of glitz and glamour for an elementalist to show off.

You don’t need berserker gear, but if you want to be contributing as best you can in group play you will want it.
As for runes, scholar would be best, but there are cheaper alternatives like ogre and eagle runes.

Exotic berserkers armour can be obtained a few different ways :
Trading post.
Karma vendor in the Temple of Grenth found in Cursed Shore (42k karma a piece).
CoF, CoE and Arah armour vendors in Lions Arch.
Crafting.
There may be other methods, but that’s all I can think of right now.

I’d highly recommend looking into consumables for dungeons.
Strong and potent slaying potions that correspond to the dungeon that your doing can be bought cheap from the trading post. My personal preference for food is blackberry pies (50 precision, 325 life steal / health regen at lvl 80 and a 1 second internal cooldown)

In PvE, a staff elementalist is the best choice you’ve got for a good pure ranged class.
A grenadier engineer is also a somewhat viable choice but can suffer from delay and spread on their grenades at long range, plus having to close in to use their big hitting skills.
Unfortunately I’m not well versed enough in PvP to say anything about it.

For solo pve I’d say thief.
They can solo most non unshakable enemies with the help of off hand pistols black powder while doing ok damage with sword or dagger main hand.
They also have access to a lot of stealth techniques for getting away or passing unnoticed.

A phalanx strength warrior provides an incredible amount of offensive support for the team and is welcome in dungeon groups that lack a warrior or don’t have high might stacks. Warriors are also typically easier/more forgiving to play than some of the other classes.
The only real downsides is that it’s not a good solo build and that you can only pick up the phalanx strength trait at level 80.

In my opinion, it’s staff elementalist. Especially at level 80.

A level 80 staff elementalist has so many advantages such as :
Constant heavy aoe damage.
Permanent aoe swiftness.
1200 range on most of your weapon skills.
A good variety of combo fields (water, ice, fire and lightning).
Good support with might, fury, vulnerability, aoe blinds, conjures, condition cleanses and some minor heals.
Can chain up to 3 earth/ice elementals to tank for you for 3 minutes (before cooldowns apply). This makes soloing a lot of open world champions a breeze.

The disadvantages:
Low vitality and toughness. This is offset by dodges, CC, blinds, earth/ice elemental tanking and killing mobs before they can even touch you.

As for which race to pick, any will do. Although my personal preference is Asura for their animations, voice lines and tier 3 cultural armour.

I’d get it if it was an armour skin or if it came with its own fun toy.
As it is neither of these, I won’t be buying it.

Here’s a solo pve flamethrower/SD build I quickly made up.
Tweak it around however you like.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUpmqNexWLseNSdBNyvEFQHgAWARmwYA-TBSBwAUegAFV+Rb/hIKBvp+DK9EIM/B4EBIIgxB-e
It’s far from the best, but it’s all I could come up with that had duel pistols and flamethrower.

I know it’s a boring choice, but it’s got to be the Bearbow.
It’s just the huge amount of newbies that pick up the class and think that it’s a WoW hunter/good ranged class and that they can just lazily sit back and let their pet/team do all the work for them.
Couple that with the low cooldown knockback and you’ve got yourself a build that is likely more of a detriment to your team than a boon.

It’s one of the changes that was pretty much shunned by most of the community that cared about town clothes.

It’s been this way for some time now, and unfortunately I don’t see ANet changing the system anytime soon or at all.

A few extra tips to help your leveling process :

Buying upgraded berserker gear at the TP every 5-10 levels is a good idea. Most notably at levels 21 and 60. These are the levels when gear gains it next set of stats (1-21 power, 21-60 power/precision, 60+ power/precision/ferocity)

Look into power runes to slot into your gear when leveling. Even cheap +10 power minor runes will be better then no runes at all.

I personally used sigil of air and fire when leveling. The minor and major versions are real cheap, and they’ll proc often enough once you can start picking up precision stats.

Go to the trading post and buy +10% exp potions and +15% exp food. These are both extremely cheap at 3 to 4 copper each and the food will give you extra benefits such as extra damage/health regen/etc.

I’m getting the same issue here.
Before patch : 50fps
After patch : 30fps
This is in a quiet area of a map. In dungeons I’m sitting at around 15-20fps.
There’s a very noticeable difference in fps gain/drop when hiding/enabling the UI. Same with the inventory screen.

I suppose I should be concerned by there being no official/red post response on this issue several days later, but then I remember that ANets PR isn’t exactly the best in the business.

Remove the Hobosacks. Replace them with an icon, just like the elementalist.

Truthfully, I’m expecting this to become the new 25+ page is complaints about the Hobosack as ANet continues to make excuses as to why they can’t fix it.

For solo PvE, whatever you find fun will do. No sensible person is going to bash you for doing things your way in solo content.
Where you may be criticised is in teamwork content such as dungeons, where you could encounter people who will expect a level 80 to be able to pull his/her own weight.

There really aren’t different builds for different gamemodes as you can run the same build throughout all modes, but rather it’s about how efficient a build is.
A tip for most pve content : every class performs best in berserker/assassins stats, and an 80 engineer performs best when their build is centered around explosives (primarily grenades).

We’re really going to need to know what gamemode you’re aiming to play with that build. Solo PvE, dungeons or WvW?

Why would you need celestial stats to be supportive?
Engineer brings tons of support through might/vulnerability stacking, group stealth, group condi cleanse, and loads of control.
In my opinion the stats are a complete waste in a dungeon setting. In solo pve, use whatever you want.

Are you planning on balancing the game more regularly after HoT hits?
Will engineers ever be released from the Hobosack oppression?
Those are my two questions.

Just use bomb kit with power/precision/ferocity gear when levelling.
It has solid aoe damage, survivability and swiftness (with speedy kits).
Grenades come into play at level 80 when you can finally pick up grenadier.

/sarcasm
Isn’t it obvious? The predictable conclusion and poor simple writing must be there otherwise new players may get confused.
/end sarcasm

I don’t understand why they came out of the gate so strong, but stopped for lunch a quarter of the way through the race. Perhaps the next instalment will be better, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Another brilliant move by ANet.
It’s hard to believe that a group of people tested this and gave the thumbs up.
Looks like I’ll shelve my warrior for now and play something a little less frustrating.

Speaking PvE.
The extremely low cooldown blast finisher meshes well with fire bomb, and the long fire field and blind is an added bonus. I think it’s still better to spam bombs/grenades for damage though.
I can see it being used alongside grenades and bombs in dungeons if elixir gun support isn’t required and you want to build might easily.

An engineer is only as good as the person playing it.

Solo open world pve, you’ll be fine.
The typical zerk 6/6/0/0/2 HT/bomb/grenade/whatever build will work throughout pretty much all of open world pve.

What’s this for? PvE, PvP or WvW?

I’d be perfectly content with having a punt command appear whenever we’re near him.

I’ll just echo what others here have said.
Can’t go wrong with Magitech.