Guild Wars 2

Velran.1052:

lol more people using their salt over daredevils to justify bad game mechanics. Movement speed is part of DD balance (or unbalance), and regardless of if it needs to be nerfed or not, you should not be inherently allowed to escape fights that easily.
Kittening hilarious when zerglings call roamers bad and demand not fighting anything that they cant win over. Guess this community will continue to be a cucked downhill spiral into casualness. Might as well replace other servers with AI that cant fight back so even with the crappiest zerg build you wouldn’t stand a chance of losing.

If you run a zerg build that can’t fight 1v1 then don’t go around alone. Otherwise you deserve to die. And this isn’t about people running away. This is about people waypointing the moment i render on their screen. I’ve had people WP away while outnumbering us, leaving their friends to die.

When people WP before they’re in a fight to prevent getting caught in a situation they’re not prepared for they’re besting you in terms of awareness. DD has probably the best mobility and access to stealth on top of that. If you can’t surprise people you’re not playing the map right. Also, people who WP when spotting other players always pay a price for that: their position on the map. Porting will make them invest another couple of minutes to go where they wanted to go, team up, and maybe get caught anyway. In my opinion WP’ing is a move that requires skill to do it well: awareness of surroundings, judging your own capabilities and that of the foe(s) spotted, estimating the chance that more friendly or hostile players might show up, calculating if not giving up your position is worth the possible death and points for the other server, always keeping in mind what your escape routes would be….
It also has counter play: hiding out of line of sight, stealthing, using ranged skills for tagging, putting traps up / attacking when the player took some fall damage or got hit by some mob, baiting by appearing weak (no bufffood, playing a spec that doesn’t tell others that ganking is what it is built for, appearing engaged in something else like crafting, faking afk status or killing some mobs….), predicting your opponent’s movements and goals on the map.
Seriously, this mechanic is part of an interesting metagame that contributes to making roaming less dull.

Pre-HoT: Many viable ways to play, lots of options to adjust playstyle during a fight, well rounded balanced builds possible, lots of combos and setups, decent reward for skillful play but punishing when making mistakes.

Post-HoT: individualism, stubbornness, not wanting to master another class, a bit of self-hate I guess.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUhusYfXwdLQ7FLTGUY/SWYFfWBCw46b/ZB-TFyHABCpcAgHAATKB7RJnyXAAV2f4d1f8SHwmhBgRAAzMzMNiIiQKgqUGB-w

For small scale, you can also zerg with it but it will mostly be tagging. You can try to lay some mines and EG4 in the enemy zerg’s path and then pressure with mortar.

It can actually sustain itself quite well (water blast combos, double rocket boots when in trouble) and troll with mines. Double mine is very strong against melees and provides some defense vs thieves trying to gank you. Some will literally instantly blow themselves up when porting to you.

Seconded. Since HoT (or even the traitline changes before it) everything is just getting overloaded. Spam against spam, more heal vs more damage, more boons vs more boonrip, more conds vs more cond remove. Even small fights can become an incomprehensible mess of procs and overdone effects.
Spellbreaker’s mechanic, for me, is the first glimpse of light regarding gameplay. It’s clear, it’s effective, it makes people think what on when to use it. It’s punishing in the right moment, it can be wasted, even if procced it can be counter-played. When adrenaline is sparse it’s an interesting decision whether to use it for counter or burst. Also, Spellbreaker, in contrast to most other elite specs, feels more like a side-grade to the class and I think that’s what elite specs should be. It comes at a cost (no stage 2/3 F-skills) and in return others something else.

Cheers for more changes that encourage mindful gameplay instead of over the top capabilities in specific areas. Hands down my favorite new thing since pre-HoT.

Edit: typo

I’ve setup an Excel sheet that calculates a “perfect” (trying to maximize effective power) combination of ascended gear pieces according to predefined stat minima (e.g. at least 20k health and 2k6 armor). It’s still a bit clunky but it works, if anyone is interested pm me. It would be good if you’ve used Excel before though^^

@ PvP Hammer vs. Rifle

Rifle is/was an amazing weapon that has been quite consistently working in it’s own unique way. It’s less specialized than pure melee or range weapons but with a mix of ranged pressure, single lockdown/CC and PPAoE burst it has a well rounded skill set.

Rifle hasn’t changed directly. With the trait work and now HoT release however the overall context has shifted quite a bit.

It might be me but I’ve always felt the engi profession performs best when it gets to use all its tools and play its strengths. This won’t happen if you get taken out at range while not being able to do more than auto-attacking. This won’t happen if you are stuck in melee all the time. I’ve always seen pre-HoT engi as “alternating range” class. You have to create a battle with fluid transitions of distances in order to not be outperformed by ranged weapons at range and melee weapons at melee.

Overcharged Shot is a (if not the) core of this gameplay, being able to influence the enemies position plus the few sec you have to reposition yourself while the opponent is CC’d. You could call it a positional reset of the combat to your liking. The problem of this important tool: there are many ways to fail. Blind/block/stabi/dodge/reflect/minions inbetween/positional desync (it fails due to your opponent not actually being right in front of you) plus you always have to deal with the drawback of the self KB.
These things used to be interesting having to be played around in the past (sometimes frustrating, mostly interesting though in my opinion). But trait patch and HoT just added so many counters to OS that it’s barely worth the risk anymore. All professions have gotten more tools to deal with CC, block projectiles or perform better at range. There’s more “random” blind flying around, more stability, more and shorter CD stun-breaks, more CC in general (making OS’s single Launch worse in comparison) and more attacks with evade frames etc. . It’s much harder to hit OS now than it was in the past and it hasn’t got more rewarding.

And OS aside, what else has Rifle to offer compared to Hammer?
Ranged pressure (which can also be done by kits) and a clunky Immobilize.
Hammer on the other hand has more defensive utility, more mobility, more PBAoE, more combo potential and an inbuilt CC-chain.

tl;dr: many new skills/traits function as counter to Overcharged which is arguable Rifle’s best skill so risk/reward is a bit off. Hammer easier and more rewarding to use.

David.5974:

Big burst, nice timing, no mistake. I with static discharge build can beat him. But i must have a bit lucky

Actually your best bet is to not rush things. With stunbreak, DS, spectral armor & signet proc the necro’s likely to survive the burst and if you’re “in touch” for too long, you’ll likely be the one downed first. SD’s strength is that it does it’s damage fast but it won’t be enough (depending on how much LF the necro has), so better poke at range, kite when they DS, be aware of signet CDs, don’t hit spectral armor, try to LoS when your cond removes aren’t up. Basically make use of your mobility to carefully get rid of their LF force and then go for it. However, always be ready to draw back a bit as a single fear can ruin your day.

About Function Gyro:

AI misbehavior:

• you command it to finish, it instead moves to another living enemy (it wants to attack them?) then turning around, moving back and starting to finish way too late.
• you command it to stomp, then move away (sPvP, back to the point to cap): it doesn’t stomp, instead moves back with you which makes zero sense.

Overall issue:

• you want to res alone (& save gyro CD) but summon gyro in “melee” range of your downed. Might be a double click / latency issue, can anyone confirm yet?
• Which brings up the question what it actually behave like in this scenario, with both normal finish/res and gyro summon on the same key. You might want to use one or the other or both.
• it’s quite fragile in any fight with more than 1-2 enemies (you can occupy one while the gyro stomps, but there might still be AoE around). Maybe change Stabilization Core to only give one stack of stability to the gyro, but also 2-3sec direct dmg invulnerability (effect on player staying as it is).

20% would be good, but not really “Grand” yet imo. Basically it’s a 20% increase for outgoing group heal while also giving a bit of group heal on pure self heal. Not quite confident yet that it’ll make healing builds viable.

What I like:
- “Minion army feel”: judging when and if you want to send out one of your gyros to do a job for you or stay for passive boni
- Possible visual scrapper appeal

Concerns / questions:
- 2 new hidden CDs instead of one. Might need an additional UI element to manage gyros.
- Will gyros come back if not killed after finishing/res? If yes, one might want to call them back even before they do because of incoming damage. This would require another key or overload our already multi-purpose interact key even more (with turret pickup and function gyro command it already has 2 more functions than on other professions and even with just turrets there’re conflicts).
- Will they be able to be damaged while circling around you?
- While it’s interesting to manage resources, in a continuing fight with these numbers where you want to res/stomp often, your “gyro-rate” will be 60s instead of 30s while possibly loosing all passive benefit from the traits. As a tanky (primary) melee spec I’d prefer a mechanic that rewards being and staying in the midst of things.

Raven.9603:

as far as balance, a couple are people claiming ridiculous nonsense like “Anet doesn’t balance around 1v1.” Thats not how it works. Its rock-paper-scissors-mushroom, where mushroom is the wrench they throw into the system to keep the meta moving around and the game interesting. the problem is when something gets so overtuned that it cant realistically fit in the rock paper scissors model, like the current cele ele or pu mes. when builds lack counters, players gravitate towards them and it kills the experience because everyone is running the same thing.

The problem is that people like to think they only lost because the enemy had some sort of advantage or runs a counter / op build. Then they rant about it in the forums. Then other people think these are the only viable builds so they play them.

GW2 builds aren’t really RPS. Maybe “Rock-ish / Paper-ish / Scissor-ish / balanced (in the sense of the set of tools it has to fight other builds)” with all the combinations and nuances in between.
There are builds that will do specifically well vs. a single build but very few will run these constantly since it will make them less effective overall.

There are builds that are easier to fail less with generally but they aren’t the apex predators people think they are. You’re part of the increasing amount of players playing these builds if you give them too much credit, not mentioning their drawbacks.

Blaine Tog.8304:

That isn’t going to do anything to the Toolbelt skill that reveals stealth. There’s 0 counterplay to that.

wolfpaq.7354:

Did you read my post at all? Destroying the drone does nothing. The BELT skill is unaffected. Detection pulse can still be cast every 20 seconds for a free 6 second reveal in a massive area.

It has a cast time and a pretty obvious animation (assuming the puls actually reveals when it reaches the players, not instantly in the whole radius). Pretty much everything in GW2 is dodgeable, why shouldn’t this be? And forcing a dodge on stealthed players once every 20sec isn’t game breaking for them. It probably would be more useful to lock someone down and use this to prevent them from stealthing. In this case however, you’re wasting time you could use to dps or chain CC so it’s a tradeoff.

Tl;dr: guess it’s dodgeable, ergo not as op as people think.

Random thoughts:

• Function gyro actually seems pretty interesting. Also, what if the people you’re about to stomp/res move/get moved? Will it attempt a second res/finish?
• Still not sure if gyros are affected by attacks or not (old spirit weapons), does fuel get depleted by moving/TB skills or just over time?
• Can’t help but notice that gyros are turrets on steroids.
• Traits definitely make engi a more potent melee, though I’m a bit worried about how it’ll do vs kiters.
• Detection puls will be hated.
• Synergy with “not 100% Scrapper playstyles” seems a bit meh, would be nice to have a lightning field outside of Scrapper and let Expert Examination trigger on KBs/launch since engi CC mainly consists of these.

Tao.1234:

Pretty much if a guy is doing dodge jump all the time which in combat is impossible to do it every single time.

Nonsense, just because someone can do things you can not, doesn’t mean he’s macro’ing.

Saiyan.1704:

So like, the majority of the players who use a gaming mouse. That doesn’t count anyone else with a non gaming mouse who uses programs like autohotkey to simulate macros similar to the performance of a gaming mouse.

Binding a key to a additional mouse key is no macro. Just because there’s software that can perform macros, doesn’t mean people are using it. I’d say most people are just binding things to their mouse.

Saiyan.1704:

Arenanet can’t enforce people to not use macros.. you can suspect some one using a macro in play but you can never know for certain. Only way Anet can know without a doubt is in WTS when people are literally watching players set up their gaming mouse keybindings.

Usually there are things like logs, which among other things let devs lookup player inputs. If there are multiple skills activated at the exact same time, activated with a fix interval or repeated exactly every x seconds this indicates macro usage. If these intervals stay the same or change in a systematic matter for an extended period of time, you can almost be sure someone is using a software to produce inputs.
Macros aren’t something to be spotted or reported by players, imo. People are just to subjective about it and tend to assume that others have an unfair advantage way too fast (see the first quote for reference).

About WTS I don’t know, but my guess is that players just bind (single) skills to their mouse keys.

It may be me, but imo roaming is just as good / bad as it ever was.

Are there bad players running rewarding builds that require little experience and give solid results? Yes.
Are there good players running such builds? Yes.
Are there players who run original / non meta builds? Yes.
Are there respectable gamers you look forward to meet again? Yes.
Are there immature trolls that disturb duels / jump / teabag / flame / report you for beating them / gank outmanned / hack and / or any combination of these? Oh yes.
Will people team up to kill you? Yes.
Is the behavior of players somehow related to the server they’re on? No, hardly ever.

The only thing that changed is that there are more people that can somewhat handle the game now. Everyone left in WvW usually has at least a bit of an idea how not to instant die or runs a build that makes it hard to do. Thus fighting outmanned often seems harder now.

Ross Biddle.2367:

“A scrub is a player who is handicapped by self-imposed rules that the game knows nothing about. A scrub does not play to win.”

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/introducingthe-scrub

Play to win. Use everything at your disposal. Be a truly good gamer.

This goes for every class, in every game, for all time.

“[…] If you want to win over the long term, then you can’t play every single game as if it were a tournament finals. If you did, you wouldn’t have time for basic R&D, you’d never learn the quirky nuances that show up unexpectedly at tournaments, and you are likely to get stuck honing suboptimal tactics.”
https://sirlin.squarespace.com/ptw-book/love-of-the-game-not-playing-to-win

There’s a difference between playing good and becoming good at playing.

Also, while Playing to Win is an interesting read and there’s much to learn from it, don’t simply tell people to play to win. The book was written for people with the ambition of becoming high level tournament (professional) players in competitive games who are willing to put a majority of time and energy into that endeavor. It’s not for everyone, it’s not for every game and it’s not for all time.

Optimized Activation grants Vigor, even when you don’t finish casting the TB skill. You can start casting, interrupt it yourself (stow kit / stow weapon / esc) which puts the skill on 4sec CD and you still get the 2sec Vigor. Doesn’t seem to be supposed to work this way.

http://i.imgur.com/VLLfT9L.gif

Mogar.9216:

TheFamster.7806:

Mogar.9216:

man it looks like people don’t know about stun breakers. If I as a mesmer can learn to use stun breakers to save myself from basilisk stun burst why shouldn’t you people learn how to do the same vs a daze shatter burst??

Because daze mantra has cd of 5 seconds and most stunbreakers have cd of well over 30 seconds? Also basilisk venom can be evaded/blocked as thieves have to land the attack as well as it being over 40 seconds of cd and its not an instant cast?

how do you dodge a steal from stealth? Same way you dodge a daze from stealth maybe?… Daze mantra has a cool down of 30 seconds not 5 seconds. Maybe get your facts straight before QQing next time.

He probably meant Power Lock http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Power_Lock

So I’ve been looking through the update notes, livestream etc. in the last days. Partly really interesting stuff I’m eager to test and some nice ideas.

The only thing that really bugs me so far (personally, from a SD point of view) is how ANet is planning to change the Tools traitline.

1.) 3 traits that scream for use in a SD build are in adept while everything in Master is situational / clunky imo:

• Streamlined Kits: will probably suffer the same problems as the “new” Kit Refinement (out of combat trigger, global ICD). No perma speed so for that you’d have to run other options anyway (med kit / runes / mecha legs).
• Lock on: potentially very strong vs. stealthers but useless vs anything else. Too situational for a default pick
• Takedown Round: just seems like a worse version of Aim-assisted Rocket / SD to me. Nice to have extra dmg which might not hit much vs. mobile enemies while not featuring any essential utility. With an Overcharged Shot opening or sometimes midfight (unless you remember the CD perfectly) you might even launch enemies out of the radius yourself.

these seem inferior to all Adept traits:

• SD: well, kind of needed for a SD build. Reliable and frequent extra damage.
• Reactive Lenses: auto Stunbreak on 40sec CD? Hell yeah. Would be incredible for burst setups with Overcharged Shot (Goggles instead of self KB)
• Power Wrench: More dmg for a strong spike skill. Less CD for that, one of the strongest defensive skills (Gear Shield) and engi’s infamous pull. This is part of the SD backbone. Why would one put it in the same tier? sigh

2.) Inertial Converter loss without any actual compensation. Mechanized deployment just makes up for the lack of Ingenuity. Kinetic Charge might make up for the loss but takes the Grandmaster slot in return. Reactive Lenses could replace the recharging stunbreak but takes the Adept slot.

3.) Optimized Activation is just a nerfed Adrenaline Pump. Well, it goes along with the general endurance generation nerf so I’m not really complaining about that. Just mentioning it.

They added some interesting and strong options but due to the new restrictions and Inertial Converter loss Tools looks quite shaved to me overall.
And no, Engi won’t be weak because of these changes. We get a lot of ridiculous (strong) stuff elsewhere. It just feels like Tools isn’t meant to be for SD anymore. Offensive naders will get the Reactive Lenses+OS opener with little thought. Tankier frontliners (future hammer engis and/or bombers with Short Fuse) will be able to make better use of Takedown Round.

Proposal: switch SD to Master. Or just swap any single Master with any single Adept.
Also, I’d like Inertial Converter to stay, but with the option to trait Kinetic Charge and another TB skill added I can see it probably being too strong.

tl;dr:
All adepts make more sense for a SD build than any master in tools. New trait system’s restrictions = meh. No more inertial converter ;(
Please rethink adept/master trait distribution.

Imo, as long as the server rules don’t say otherwise play what you want.
There are different servers with different rules. Angz is usually the most popular duel server and has more specific (& restricting) rules. However, it’s not uncommon to see it full around prime time / you never get in to fight. That leads to people trying to enforce these rules on other servers too, some even think these are the official duel rules everyone must follow everywhere. Got in some arguments about that as well. I usually tell people to check the server rules. There’s no reason other than courtesy to fight how your opponent wants you to.

Did you try contacting the server owner? Maybe he can help in that matter.

Deicide.5178:

What’s the reasoning behind the swap from Hair Trigger to Fortified Turrets? I’m kinda mixing your old build with another SD build I played with recently with amazing results. Very curious about that one change.

Basically it helps a lot in problematic matchups (power ranger), is a nice to have in quite a few others (vs any Thief, when they fall back on SB, war with LB, medi guard with scepter, cond mes pressuring with staff clone autos, power necro DS auto) while not crippling the build too much elsewhere. Ofc sometime you’d prefer the points elsewhere, but these matchups are often ones I feel comfortable handling even when investing in Fortified Turrets.

Ocelot.4278:

[…]

Overall going for alch and the Speedy kits / inv. speed combo is just as fine.
As for the free utility I see slick shoes as a good alternative, but I don’t like using elixir s. cooldown is huge for the stunbreak, it doesn’t recharge with inertial converter and you can’t counter attack after breaking stun or stunbreak offensively (breaking self kb of OS to enhance your burst combo after launching an enemy). Utility goggles partly suffers from the some problems plus it doesn’t give you any defensive utility on top of the stunbreak (the offensive gain is very rarely worth the defensive loss imo). Personal battering ram and rocket boots are a no-go for me, no stunbreak at all is just careless.

@ 1st actual build:
I don’t really get why you’d run adrenal implant on top of invigorating speed, endurance regeneration doesn’t stack so you get little out of adrenal implant. Just go for armor mods or power wrench.

@ 2nd build:
Offensive version, not much else to say.

@ 3rd build:
Inventions isn’t that great when you don’t reach out for AMR. The def proc is nice, but since it’s not uncommon to receive a crit at any time and get spiked sometime else when protective shield is on CD I haven’t found it to be very reliable. That build already features protection injection which outshines protective shield most of the time. Instead of putting 2 in inventions you could max out alchemy, get backpack regenerator and Energy Conversion Matrix along with it. With frequent access to swiftness, regen, vigor, fury and might it’s a solid DPS boost.

@ 4th build:
Again protective shield. Investing that much into inventions screams for power shoes + adrenal implant instead of speedy kits + invigorating speed. Drop alch, put the points in tools to get adrenal implant as gm, get power wrench as master instead of speedy kits.

Imo it would be interesting to see each conjure just replace one of the attunements:
axe replacing Fire skills, bow water ones etc.

That way you could still switch attunements and use other basic weapon skills in between, the conjure wouldn’t lock you out of using 20 skills but 5. So you can keep using it for a longer time (using other attunements while waiting for conjured weapon skill cd instead of spamming a sub par attack).

Many ele weapon skills have a long CD, so I could see a good use for conjures filling that gap. For example you already used your high CDs on earth focus and don’t have many options in that attunement. You use Earth Shield, for x seconds your earth attunement skillset gets replaced by the earth shield one’s and get access to another set of useful CDs.

Also, this would give eles the option to be more flexible about range.

The summoned weapon picked up by anyone else would work as it is doing now.

You got some good points, but I think you’re drawing the wrong conclusions.

It’s about the heal decrease, right, so one second of poison isn’t worthless when you can get it on the opponent right when he’s about to heal.

Few people are going to cleanse a 1sec poison, right, but that’s why it is so good.

The current implementation of Fumigate allows the engi to quickly apply poison when a heal is cast, cancel the channel after applying enough poison (1-2 ticks usually do the trick) and get back to casting harder hitting skills. Also, due to the rapid re-application the poison is basically unremovable as long as it’s channeling.

With the change proposed you couldn’t apply poison on the fly when seeing a heal channel, the poison would be easier to get rid off (due to being applied in one go) and you’d always have to fully channel a skill with sub-par damage coefficient for 2 1/4 sec to get a poison effect. Imo, you’d just nerf it.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Wolfield.9812:

If you block a thief, 90% of the time he is behind you. Attack into that space and eat a front backstab. You have won the fight.

Glad I could help.

Not necessarily. He might have attacked you at front so that you would do exactly what you said — turn your back from a Thief for a backstab.

Woah there, now we’re getting into some advanced physics metagame kitten

It’s called yomi layers:

David Sirlin”

Any decent competitive game needs to allow you to counter the opponent if you know what he will do. What happens, though, when your enemy knows that you know what he will do? He needs a way to counter you. He’s said to be on another level than you, or another “yomi layer.” You knew what he would do (yomi), but he knew that you knew (yomi layer 2). What happens when you know that he knows that you know what he will do (yomi layer 3)? You’ll need a way to counter his counter. And what happens when he knows that you know . . .
[…]

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/7-spies-of-the-mind (scroll down to yomi layers)

Update after, well, quite some time playing this build plus a half year break:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseNCdBN6w0lnE6eewQ/pAA-TFDFABLpsKFVBA4BAUoKBIpUhgLAQa6AqZ/hBUCmoaEqoiSXmgCAgAczbGAOaMa25Ov5NvZSBskyI-w

Will write more about it when I have more time.

My concern would be that in short fights the heal gets wasted due to getting procced when you haven’t received any major damage yet. In theory, you should have enough blocks (heal & gear shield) to use the rune without Armor Mods. Though I have to admit, double Aegis proc seems funny.

That Charr.2180:

Awesome suggestions thanks all, keep them coming. Anybody know what happened to Silinsar?

Studies. Not sure if I’ll ever get it going again as I was in my best times. Still I thought SD engis would have taken over the world by now. Why isn’t that so?

MonMalthias.4763:

I think there’s been a little misreading here; I was intending Stabilised Armour to still be an Adept Major trait to avoid CC locks instead of the passive CC damage mitigation as it is now.

Arg, yes. I confused Energized and Stabilized Armor… I thought you’d want to implement your new stabilzed armor suggestion as minor. Awkward mistake on my part, sorry for the inconvenience.

MonMalthias.4763:

I think that with the universal failure that was Scope providing bonus precision while not moving should have been enough of a lesson to Anet to not emphasise Immobility in an action MMO.

Scope just didn’t function properly (or not at all…). Since there’s torment, which seems to work just right, I think ANet won’t have problems to differ between moving/not moving anymore.

MonMalthias.4763:

If we must get into unreadable passives […]

We don’t have to. I’m all in for more active traits, I just think adept minor is the wrong spot for it. I feel like these spots should have basic, simple and generally useful effects since you kind of have to take them. Stat boosts are boring but the most efficient way realise this. With a on/off condition I think there’s enough “active” play in there for the first minor. I like your initial idea but it looks very “major trait” to me.

Also, as long as it is just about little amount of extra stats I think it isn’t mandatory to display them to enemies while strong/deciding procs like stability should be telegraphed.
There a quite a few important traits/procs the game fails to show but ANet also has to be careful with adding new special effects once they get onto this topic. Imagine they designed all minor traits to have such special effects and that there’d be an icon and animation for every rune and sigil proc off CD. Everyone would be running around with numerous icons and you couldn’t tell their skill animations even in a 1on1.

I think it’s fine to have undisplayed passive effects as long as they don’t turn the fight around in a moment out of nowhere.

I’m trying hard to express this and I don’t think I’m doing it that well… Maybe it works better with examples:

Small effects with easy requirements to fulfill which work long term / take time -> no need for a special telegraph:

• +1% damage / boon
• +5% damage on bleeding targets
• vigor on crit
• + xx armor while these or that

Procs with intermediate to high CD which activate effects that grant a comparatively great advantage over a small timeframe OR very strong (passive effects) that are only effective under specific conditions -> are or should be more telegraphed (/have an icon when ready/active or on CD) imo:

• Auto stunbreaks/stability/skill recharges
• Strong offensive procs (Quickness on crit, Chill of Death, Perplexity/Nightmare runes)
• special skill activations a la Kit Refinement
• Stone Heart / Diamond Skin / Automated Response

(Of course the line between them isn’t always clear. )

I think having a good balance between both of these types of procs/bonuses tied to traits, gear etc. is important: Too much of the first and combat will lack interesting procs/effects and customization options, too much of the latter and there’ll be to many effects and the base skills’ functions will loose their meaning.

And now back to the point I actually wanted to make:
I think minor adept traits should mostly belong to the first category. Effects of the second one should mostly be found in major traits or at least at master/grandmaster level.
Also, minors in general should have effects that will more or less help you in any fight. They shouldn’t be something that doesn’t help you at all when you’re fighting build xy and they shouldn’t result into disadvantages (hello last refuge…). Taking a look at the traits ingame they’re mostly (not close to 100% though) distributed/designed that way.

So that’s why I’m not too fond of your initial idea being implemented as minor adept trait. It’s a CD, situational and potentially very powerful.

MonMalthias.4763:

To be honest, Engineer really lacks good traits in the Adept tier of Inventions. It’s hard to justify putting points into the otherwise “okay” Inventions line for the Master Tier because the general non-turret traits outside of Power Shoes and Reinforced Shield just aren’t that good.

Moving Power Shoes to Adept basically reduces the opportunity cost of not going Speedy Kits. Right now you can run Power Shoes/Adrenal Implant for almost equivalent functionality as Speedy Kits/Invigorating Speed; yet one costs 20 points, the other costs 50 (!!!). Reducing some of that disparity; even if only by 10 points would help diversify builds.

It isn’t like you don’t pick up other things too with these 50 points. Imo Power Shoes isn’t in a bad spot, it’s just that Speedy Kits is more available and in a more popular traitline. Also, there are barely builds without kits so kitswapping is a requirement that is easily fulfilled.
Power Shoes is not in need of change. It’s a plain unconditional unremoveable speed increase that does it’s job.

MonMalthias.4763:

I think what should happen for Adept Tier (in my opinion at least is):
Move Energised Armour to the 5 point trait, to replace Low Health Response system. 15 Inventions already doubles down on the 25% HP reset heal and this functionality is redundant considering how many sources of Regen we can get through our utility skills anyway

Agreed. Any ideas what to do with the major LHRS then?

MonMalthias.4763:

Stabilised Armour needs a different mechanic to differentiate it from Protection Injection; and also to prevent “doubling down”. -53% damage on stuns is kind of broken, if hilarious

• Honestly it’d be good for Engineers to actually get some Stability and use the name of the trait. I was thinking about Predictive trait mechanics the other day and here’s something I’ve been spitballing:

Stabilised Armour

• Gain a unique buff – Stabilised Armour – for 2 seconds after using a Toolbelt Skill. If you are struck by a hard CC effect during this time, gain Stability for 2 seconds. (ICD 30 seconds). Does not block the initial CC effect.
  • The goal of this trait is to essentially prevent stunlock combos for Engineer. However, the initial CC isn’t blocked, so if you don’t stunbreak, you’re still liable for big damage.
  • One could make it more powerful by simply making Toolbelt skills stunbreak every 40 seconds; which is more reactive than predictive. It kind of invalidates Regenerating Mist and Rumble though; and at Adept this kind of thing is quite strong; whereas a predictive trait can be counterplayed by enemies simply with-holding their Ckittenil the telegraph ends; just like Block frames are dealt with now.

First impression: Interesting but too specific and a bit clunky. Minors, especially adept ones are better off with little but more generally useful effects. It seems more like a possible counterpick for fighting chain-CC’ers.

My suggestion for Stabilized Armor as 5/1pt minor: +160 toughness while not moving.

MonMalthias.4763:

Cloaking Device

• Gain Stealth when you attempt to Stomp a foe, or Resurrect an ally for 3 seconds.
  • Not sure about an ICD for this one. As it is, however, it already kind of treads on Thief’s toes; but Thief has far more tools to enter Stealth for Stomping anyway.

Should stealth (only) the ally when you are ressing and stealth yourself when stomping. Definately needs an ICD.

Counter proposal: give dodges a casttime. Isn’t it pretty skillless and unfair that you can’t counter dodges because the enemy will get an invulnerability timeframe instantly?

Don’t take it too seriously, it would be interesting to see though.

QoL-improvements:

• No minimal range requirement
• No camera angle adjustment when “equipping” it (always points towards the sky which is really annoying since you have to target the ground)

Plain buffs:

• global cooldown down to 1-1,5sec from 2.
• CD and max. duration 90sec instead of 120.
• Flight path set to the one of nades (lower, a bit faster)

Ideas for a different implementation of the stability:

• 5-8 sec on use
• 10-15 sec on use, lost when mortar gets destroyed
• pulsing 2sec AoE stability for up to 10sec or until destroyed (about 300 radius)

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Certain Skills and combinations with engi really annoy me. I hate losing or having a difficult time killing engis that are just doing stupid stuff that are way easier to run than what I run. Not all of this is OP. Not all of this is even viable in high level PvP (at least to most). Instead, this is about counterplay and creating skillful builds with little cheese.

Just asking if I understand this correctly… you want to apply major nerfs to a class and even its balanced/unviable builds because you are under the impression that you are loosing to worse players and/or simply don’t like how some skills function?

There are unfun and “skillless” skills and traits for every class, plus runes and sigils which aren’t good for a pure skill-based environment, but unless you’re getting rid of it all at once slowly gimping one profession after another will just result into poor balance states that won’t be any more fun than what we have got now (unless you’d enjoy being the latest one brought to the ground). Realistically, ANet would have to change so much about/in this game that they simply aren’t going to do it.
Nothing against your will to get rid of “toxic” skills and mechanics, but not at the cost of balance which will probably take years to recover.

@Unwritten rules:
The thing with unwritten rules is they are quite fishy, at best. Guild Wars 2 has one basic ruleset: the game itself with all tools given to players. These are the “written” rules everyone knows and agrees to by playing the game. If you want to alter these rules, tell the people. There are 1on1 servers in sPvP with their own rules and ones without them. Play by the rules given by the admins. If you don’t like them, don’t fight there. If you fight on a random server or a random 1on1 in WvW state your rules and see if your opponent agrees to them. If you and/or your opponent don’t want to do this fight by the rules of the game and not by those of a stranger or a server far away from your fight. If you really want to, play by these rules for yourself, but don’t expact it from others or blame them for not doing so.
By the way, I remember “no elite” being an unwritten rule. I remember “no los” being an unwritten rule. I remember “no elite >60sec CD” being an unwritten rule and last but not least “no elite >90sec CD”. For necro’s death shroud and warrior’s adrenaline % at the start of a fight there have also been different values floating around in the mystic realm of unwritten rules.
Here you can see my unwritten reference.

@Bans:
For banned elites I’d argue that at least one of the main reasons isn’t their strength but their CD. People are usually waiting quite a while to play on a king of the hill server but also don’t want to fight an unprepared enemy so the less high CDs you use the less people have to wait.
Also, the best counter-tactic for many of these high-CD elites (given you’re not screwed by their effects initially) is delaying the fight by kiting, getting out of range etc. An extreme example here is crate: people will just stand back out of range since they’d be at a disadvantage fighting among the turrets and a stubborn engi will stay near them, resulting in a minute of well… an awkward fight pause nobody enjoys watching or playing.
Moas will kite/los/get out of range till they get their skills back. Vs lich people will kite/los. Fights with/against PU mesmers/SA thieves tend to be very long and aren’t fun watching for most of the people I guess. For the same reason there are servers banning tanks / def. amulets.
So these elites aren’t primarily banned because they are OP but for the sake of a better time for everyone on these servers. 1on1 servers are mainly for fun, praticing, experimenting and watching fights.

@Crate:
Yeah, it rocks when it hits. However, it has a pretty long casting time and is quite telegraphed. Also, if countered/evaded you have to fight without it for 3min. There are enemies/builds which can do less against it than others, but it’s far from an “Iwin”-button.

• CC and damage wise flesh golem’s charge is just as devastating (and comparable telegraphed) while not even having a fourth of the CD, basilisk venom forces as many dodges / stuns longer than crate after the second activation (which is usually given by it’s short CD).
• For self-defense both Mass invis from mesmer and guard’s Renewed Focus surpass Crate in many 1on1 scenarios.
• Both Signet of Rage and Rampage as One are potent offensive buffs, the latter can be quite riduculous in matchups vs. CC reliant builds due to 20sec(+boon duration) of stability.

Crate is another strong skill on your bar with good potential and can decide a fight. But so can other elites, other weapon and utility skills and even certain traits. GW2 has a great skill-based combat but when both fighters have reached a similar skill level builds will be a deciding factor. So Crate might be overkill in one matchup (build x vs build y) but might actually be useful for balancing another (build x vs build z).
Special rules or the lack of them will favor certain builds and handicap others. Sometimes they’ll lead to a more balanced fight, sometimes to a more unbalanced one. I know it’s frustrating to be crated to death but loosing a fight because you obeyed someone’s rules and handicapped yourself isn’t fun either.

Do I use crate in 1on1’s?
Rarely. You don’t have to crate people you’re beating without it (“overkill”). Also, it’s on 3min CD. When roaming in wvw, you want to hold your trump card back for the moments you really need it in. And if you used it shortly before you have to fight without it, so no matter what, you should learn to not rely on it just like others should learn to deal with it in case you use it.

OP, remember there’ll always be people raging. You can play on a gameboy with a 1 button mouse and 2sec ping using a 0/0/0/0/0 build while a parrot is dancing on your head, if you manage to beat them some will still get mad.

tl;dr: Here’s a list of special unwritten rules you have to play by, everything else is voluntarily.

Still remembering “Meownardo Da Vinci” from the beta tests. (Charr ofc)

Mnemesis.8257:

Overall I find that most of these changes are a step in the right direction to increasing some viable build options and utility selections. Yet, I am sorely disappointed that once again trait(s) we can only really utilize in a niche environment are being punished without some form of compensation, especially for what is entirely due to the lack of actual PvP content through being force fed King of the Hill under the guise of PvP, WvW, and EOTM.

The basis for vetting this trait’s current functionality reveals a deeper problem that I feel the development team refuses to acknowledge; this King of the Hill environment that undoubtedly encompasses every form of their PvP based domains is both impeding and negatively influencing their concept of “balance”. This is a trait that is entirely build and environment specific, providing little to no application outside of said realm. We have just been told that this is/was meant to be an “interruption” rather than manipulation of our enemies, which is entirely justifiable in my mind, but the problem remains that there is no form of compensation being provided for such a severe handicap as reducing kb by 50%.

Do I feel that this skill functions too well given the current environment that it is being used most? Absolutely. However, it took two years for turrets to reach an “OK” status despite remaining bugs, which makes me believe this will only set a precedent for satisfying future demands to inhibit their functionality once more. Therefor, due to the reduction in KB potential there should be some sort of compensation in the form CC, such as Immob/cripple, Daze, or Blind. This is a trait that (I feel) was truly intended to punish other players for targeting turrets when applied in a build theme, but has since been abused in an extremely stifled setting(s).

I guess you’re refering to Accelerant Packed Turrets. As someone who’s been using this trait ever since it was moved to adept and ran it in experimental builds before, I can tell you I was afraid of the “turret engi nerf” carrying over to offensive CC focused builds. Like moving APT tiers up again or even total removal of the KB.
In my opinion, reducing the KB distance is one of the best nerfs you can apply to this trait. It limits your influence on your opponents position but it makes it easier to follow up with close range attacks and will allow for better focus damage since you won’t knock your foe out of every allies’ AoE effects.

Regarding “compensation CC”: KB’s are basically stuns which move your opponent. A knockback disables casting and movement/dodging for about 1,4-1,5sec (afaik it’s the same for every KB, no matter the distance, at least War hammer #4 disables as long as engi rifle self-KB). CC effects don’t stack. So there’s no need for a compensation CC when the original one is still working like before.

The good thing about this nerf is that it isn’t just a nerf. It’s a change, it lowers this traits potential in areas and situations where it may be too strong while still maintaining it’s disable capability and even making it more useful in different situations. It makes it less of a knockback but more of a lockdown. Imo a very well applied nerf/change.

Overall I think the announced changes are pretty good. Surely also depends on what the other classes will get and what we’ll have to deal with, but so far I’m positively surprized.

My personal view of the current leaderboards:

- being low/not on the leaderboards doesn’t mean you’re bad
- being in the upper quarter of the leaderboard doesn’t prove you’re good

however:

- being low/not on the leaderboards doesn’t indicate you’re good
- being in the upper quarter of the leaderboard certainly doesn’t indicate that you’re bad

So even if the system is flawed, even when soloQ is 90% luck/4vs5/unequal teamcomps, over 100s of games the 10% personal skill should get you above those who are lacking in these 10%. Generally you’ll find better players at the top and lesser experienced ones at the bottom. The leaderboards aren’t accurate for single cases (esp. not for people with a little amount of games played) but they aren’t wrong. Just learn to interpret them

Wolfar.6508:

Then still, it would have been nice if they asked if it was ok if they got placed on there and if they were actually meta builds. The commander build is in no shape to act like a meta build.

Of course, I just didn’t want you to get angry at the wrong guy.

@wolfineer
It’s not his site (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Meta-Builds-Website-sPvP-tPvP) and the one who’s made it has added a reference list.

It’s a mystery.

We actually had this before, at launch as far as I remember. Not with a series but just 24h matchups so that the servers would get their appropriate rank faster without being stuck in onesided matchups for weeks.

It was quite fun imo. Of course a lot changed since then, but I think it would still be more interesting than 1 week matches. More variety and no everlasting “impregnable” t3 forts owned by the dominating server.
Also, after 1-2 days there’s usually too much supply available (at least for my taste) – too much siege and golems can be build without risking a shortage of supply. It’s much more fun managing and “destroying” supply when you now you/your enemy can’t just port to the next storage and refill.

For 24h matches to become the actual gamemode however, ANet would have to adjust upgrades (cost, speed, eventually gate/wall hp etc.) and probably seperate eotm / normal wvw supply “bag” of players. So I like the idea and would like to see 24h matchups come back in one way or the other, but I don’t think it will ever happen^^

I’d just advice you not to run double melee, otherwise you’re too prone to kiting and AoE while you’re focusing on a single target.

SD is awesome. Probably the fastest paced engineer build. Very active playstyle with huge potential imo, just don’t limit yourself to that opening strike.

@OP:
You can check my signature for SD play.

Carpboy.7145:

A SD build is basically a thief without stealth or blinds

Some thoughts on how they differ:
Basically they just fight unlike each other. One could say Thieves mainly setup bursts with mobility/stealth and defend themselves with additional dodges/stealth/port (correct me if I’m wrong, not an expert thief) while Engis setup burst with CC while defending themselves with CC, kiting, block and healcombos. Also, SD burst is partly AoE and ramps up further if it can bounce multiple times.
Thief has less CC and minor (if any) AoE in spikes (I know cluster can rock but you can rarely spike with that reliable) while Engi has less mobility and minor stealth compared to Thief.

It’s a matter of play style / preference. You have to decide for yourself what is more fitting for you.

New video (OS duels):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKJmglwqqGI

Yamsandjams.3267:

What adjustments do you make for sPvP? Any trait differences? Zerker amulet?

You might also want to mention that surprise shot doesn’t require you to be facing your enemy, so it’s a good way to attack your foe while kiting them or are CC’ed.

For spvp: no adjustments, zerker amulet.
True, didn’t even think about highlighting this. It’s kind of included in “instant”

New video (duels vs. Hammer War):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0nhivZmfHc

Also began to write a guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Guide-WvW-SD-Control-Build-Roaming/first#post3935536
Take a look!

Hope it doesn’t get this long but “Reserved for future use.”

Reserved for future use.

Reserved for future use.

Armor

See build link. Don’t want to scroll up? No problem: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseRiM6BpJabWIFS49BqQe9pAdB-zEyAYLAKEQCsIasVyioxqXwUuLqW/C4NwIFwSKjA-w
It’s the original setup so it might look a little random. As much as I’d like to write stories about reasonings – why this and that and not the other stat here or there, it boils down to this: I feel comfortable with this stat distribution. Feel free to fine tune it yourself to your liking.

Gameplay

Oversimplified:

CC -> damage. Block, evade, kite and CC to stay alive. Turn defensive CDs into spike initiators to catch enemies off guard. Use your turret detonation offensively for deadly CC chains. Use them defensively when you’re in trouble (water field blasts). Auto attack and surprise shot in between to keep up damage. Use LOS to your advantage. You want to keep distance to melees. You want to get close to ranged fighters.

Approaches to a fight/Initiators

First of all, try to switch utilities to gain a free stealth from throw elixir s and free burn from Incendiary Ammo pre combat. Be careful not to be forced into combat while having the “wrong” skills equipped! Mind initiators can also be executed on the fly mid fight, but it’s usually harder to follow a strict rotation then. I’m not a fan of rotations, I actually “chaos-play” most of the times. Trying to nail down reasonable skill chains my subconscious comes up with here.

The “Instagib”:

This won’t work often, but to cover it up: your opening spike vs. single opponents will be Pull, Pry Bar, Overcharged Shot optional stunbreak), Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot. Net Shot as follow up control, you can jump shot to get near or if you broke self KB fast running should be sufficient to get a close range Blunderbuss/Jump Shot off.

• Good vs. squishy and unaware opponents.

The “I knew you’d dodge magnet”:

Run forward while you cast magnet, let your enemy dodge it. If possible, cancel the cast to safe the CD. If your opponents is offensive (aka dodged forward to get in range) follow up with Net Shot (he should be close enough to ensure a hit). Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot, Overcharged Shot (auto attack when you stunbreak it), Magnet (it’s ready again at this time when you interrupted it) and Pry bar or rifle turret + detonation for another follow up CC. If the enemy also dodges the Net shot at the beginning, no problem. He just double dodged and has no endurance left. Feel free to use OS or any other CC or damage skill because he probably has to eat it up.

• Good vs. aggressive melees who try to close the gap via dodging.

The “Anti-blocker”:

Often enemies will try to get close using a block skill to prevent potential CCs. So don’t throw Net Shot or OS on them. Use box of nails and Acid Bomb for kiting and unblock-able damage or interrupt the block with Magnet. The latter makes it possible to follow up with the “Instagib” but it’s more risky since it allows your enemy to come very close uncontrolled while you’re vulnerable casting Magnet. Acid bomb regains distance and maybe even makes the enemy use dodges while keeping all usual spike initiation skills off CD.

• Good vs. melees channelling blocks.

The “Anti Range”:

Fighting ranged opponents with this build is by default harder (usually). Basically this build can’t to anything dangerous besides auto attacking at high range and its best cap closer can be dodged. So you really want to get close in stealth. Start with net shot, Pry bar and Blunderbuss. Then the enemy will probably dodge. Jump Shot to where his dodge ends. He’ll probably dodge another time or get high damage, win-win. When he dodged a second time OS, Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot. Or pull him right back, depending on how durable he is. Or jump towards him with [turn around key] and Acid Bomb. Put up RT for some sustain ranged damage. But oh well, we’re way beyond the initiator by now.
When you didn’t stealth pre combat, try getting close enough to hit with net shot. You may need block for that. Watch out for hostile “anti-blocker” tactics

• Not really amazing but a solid way to start a ranged combat.

- to be expanded -