Guild Wars 2

. . . nevermind. I forgot the drink gives you all three.

It’s been a while since I’ve played the game, but I looked at the change to Toss Elixir B and thought to myself, “Why don’t we get Stability with the drink? Why do we give it to everyone with the toss?”

Usually your toolbelt skills act a little differently (or less powerful) than their mainline skills. But in this case, Toss is exactly like Drink except that it gives Stability as well as one of the other boons.

Would adding Stability to Drink Elixir B imbalance the main/toolbelt skill synergy?

I agree with Nakoda on this. The 15 second CD gives you a small heal, condition removal, and a 3 second water field.

Also count in the fact that the CD on the toolbelt has been lowered too.

Even if they reduced the initial healing, this turret is better by far.

I’d say that Hidden Pistol is a good attack, being an extra evade for you with a little damage. I wonder what the Power coefficient is on this skill. Probably equal to #1’s damage.

The toolbelt skill is similar to the thief’s p/p Unload skill. If you have the Tools 15 point minor trait, you get this skill renewed.

Warband support can be interesting, especially since the sword-n-board warrior has a rushing stun. The damage isn’t great, but having an extra stun (and occasional knockback from the bowman) is helpful.

Charrzooka? The name means awesome! Its range is fair, being 1200 and a lot of fire condition damage. I swap this out with Supply Drop often enough to watch people run around on fire.

Working as intended, probably, if you consider that any speed boosts (such as from leg mods) don’t stack with swiftness either.

MrSilver, this seems more like something you would see in the Inventions line. The inventions line seems to offer the most benefits to players who use multiple kits. Or did, anyway.

Since the devs are set on making KR act differently (I still don’t understand a 20 CD), why not remove it, put this idea where Adrenal Implants are, then move Adrenal Implants farther down the line?

One thing about Sitting Duck and the net turret: I don’t think you can proc vulnerability off the turret itself. However, the best application is to drop net turret and immediately trigger the overcharge so you can stun an opponent.

Knee shot is a good one, especially if you have some condition duration buffs.

If you are trying to maximize vulnerability, you could replace Rocket Boots with Utility Goggles.

The main has a stun-break and fury, while the toolbelt skill gives you a 10-stack of vulnerability. The Analyze toolbelt skill combined with net turret, net toolbelt skill, and rifle net shot can give you around 15-25 stacks of vulnerability on a target.

You can always use Rifle’s Overcharge shot to get out of the way of immobilized, although it would stun you for a second.

If a large death:kills ratio is what you need, I might be in the top 100.

That I haven’t noticed. I’ll have to pay more attention when I’m firing at enemies on the towers in WvW. That’s the only time I take advantage of that characteristic.

You won’t get a ton of conditions for proc’ing. You’ll get a ton of chances to proc from the crits you get.

All your proc-on-crit applications will still only affect 1 target, which will reset the CD.

A pistol with Coated Bullets and an Elixir Gun, however, make for a mean way to apply poison to a LOT of players. Each shot of Pistol’s Poison Shot can affect up to five people.

If they ever give Coated Bullets to Static Shot (doubtful, but I always keep my fingers crossed for it), you could turn your pistol into the ultimate condition weapon.

As is, P/P is a good way to stack up conditions on enemies, and coated bullets means you can stack poison and bleed on multiple enemies with ease.

The bleed effect could also be from critting on the explosion, which will have a 30% chance to cause bleeding on crit.

If you have a Sigil of Earth on your weapon, that’s another 60% bleed on crit.

1 Question: Do you have the major Trait “Coated Bullets”?

If you have “Coated Bullets” then you can score double hits on enemies who are near the pistol’s range limit. Very effective use of Coated Bullets, too!

I know this is related to something other than the engineer class in general, but this has our name and by the Mists, I’ll talk about it here!

Alright, Rune of the engineer seems to be used for a condition/toughness build. Right?

Then, why in the world would you make the 6th rune a 5% damage bonus instead of adding condition damage or some condition effect?

I don’t want to mimic any other rune, and the idea of getting a boost when carrying a bundle is kinda cool.

Here’s my idea to make the Engineer rune more . . . Engineer-y.

+200 Toughness when carrying a bundle; OR
+100 condition damage when carrying a bundle

Anyone? Eh? Eh? Sounds like an improvement to me. Right?

I think Net Turret’s Electrified Net is the only one that stuns and immobilizes opponents now that Basilisk Venom no longer does it. This would be an evil combination, stunning and immobilizing then immobilizing again.

I like that idea.

I agree with the healing and knockback being 0-range minimum.

The GCD is something I always wondered. Why do we need a GCD on an elite kit when that kit is already severely hampered by range and travel time?

Mortars have the ability to be a very good tool, but the problem is they have so many hindrances that they seem unusable.

If they don’t reduce the travel time, we should see a radius increase of the effects.

I dunno if they would let us have CD reduction of overcharge AND instant activation.

Which one would you people want more: Overcharge CD reduction or Instant Overcharge Activation.

The Instant Overcharge Activation, in my belief, shouldn’t reset the RoF of a turret, rather being a separate entity if we use this.

All these answered my question very well. The first one gets the A, though.

Thank you all for your responses!

This is a trait idea that I think might help us out, and would replace Autotool Installation since it seems that people think this trait is rubbish.

This trait reduces the RoF of turrets as well as the overcharge CD of all turrets. The overcharge could be 20%, like most special ability CD traits.

The RoF could be trickier, because it increases damage for the damaging turrets (which we already have a damage increase trait) and effects of the other two (Net and Healing).

Maybe instead of an RoF increase, there could be a CD reduction on the turret drop skills.

I’m open for discussion here.

I can see many people tossing Thumper Turret out, Overcharging it to knock people back, and then watching as people destroy it only to be knocked back again. It’s actually a hilarious idea when you think about it.

Many people would start using turrets at choke points like the Borderland Southeast Tower underpass. As soon as people would focus on it, they would be knocked back by the explosion.

If this trait were made a basic effect of all turrets, this would give us a good improvement in fights.

The title asks the basic question, but I’ll be more precise.

If you have two engineers fire SE in overlapping circles, does a person who stands in the overlapping area get both healing effects?

I haven’t tried the condition duration extension to 100% all the time. I have experienced temporary 50% duration bonus with 10% from Explosives (Incendiary Ammo is a must for conditions in my opinion) and Veggie Pizza.

I’ll have to try this out!

Zerg stupidity is epic, but it doesn’t take but 3-4 people to intelligently stack retal in groups. You do have those people in zergs. A lot of times they purposefully do it so the stupid people that charge forth actually cause some damage to folks rather than just charging in and dying.

Retaliation is intelligently used in specific situations. I’ve seen it time and again as an FT user. A lot of players will stack retal before storming a tower, keep, or garrison. Some will pop it as soon as they see a flame plume, a grenade barrage, or an Arrow Cart.

We need an “I-Win” button with FT. If you hit someone point blank with Flame Jet, the player of the opposing toon should lose control of his or her toon. The toon will run around screaming while on fire, yelling “Fire! Fire! I’m on fire!”

If the toon touches any other of its allies, they catch fire and do the same thing. This will continue until there is noone for the burning toons to touch. The burning toons will eventually die, reduced to a pile of ashes.

Jester.1236:

The thing i do not like about the Turret is, the detonate/overcharge mechanic. Most heals in the game, you push the button, then when the timer is up, you push it again for another heal. I dunno, i just havent gotten used to dropping it and picking it right back up. It feels clunky in WvW. And if i forget to pick it up or detonate it, i feel like i have to wait a long time to actually heal myself.

That is the big setback with Healing Turret. You have to either pick it up or detonate it before you can use it again. Smart enemies will ignore your turret and go after you, keeping you from using your heal longer.

I gotta say I’m guilty of using Elixir H a lot. I shouldn’t, though, because it’s not a powerful as the other two.

The biggest benefit of Elixir H is the “Use and forget” aspect. With Healing Turret, you have to pick it up if you want that quick cooldown. With Med Kit, you have to use the toolbelt skill for the direct heal.

If you are going for an elixir build, especially with the CD reduction trait, I would recommend Elixir H. You drop to a 19 second CD and it heals the most out of all the others.

The big drawback to Elixir H is the amount of time it takes for it to heal you from the time you hit the button. A full second, which can be an eternity in a battle. You can be interrupted easily, which can hurt you for the 2-3 seconds of time it will take before you can cast it again.

You can recognize Retal on FT faster than you can with Grenades.

With a grenade explosion on a retal group, you can be hit for retal 15 times at once. This is a pretty big surprise for a grenade build. By the time your first volley lands, your second volley is in the air. That’s 30 hits from retal.

An FT user who recognizes Retal damage can dodge out of his FJ and not worry about damage as bad as the Grenade thrower. The grenade thrower is usually deep in his tosses before he realizes he’s hitting a retal group.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Sporadicus.1028:

With this trait, you are rewarded for staying in the FT kit. If you are rewarded so, shouldn’t you be able to make it a stand-alone kit?

If you go the Condition Damage route with the FT in sPvP, wear a Rabid or Carrion trinket with Sigil of Earth and Sigil of Battle. You’ll get a good stack of bleeds easily on top of good burning damage because of all the added Might.

I also make a point to swap out of it quickly for Static Shot + Poison Dart Volley, which synergizes well with Sigil of Battle.

I’ve done that before. It’s very effective except that Battle and Earth don’t synergize well. One resets the other’s CD.

I usually grab either Battle and Accuracy or Earth and Accuracy. That extra crit chance helps out. I’m usually high 30s crit chance. This puts me over the edge in the 40s with extra might or bleeding.

Ayden hit it right on the head when he talked about Juggernaut. To me that trait actually seeks to hinder you (and the sense of what they expected engineers to do with kits) rather than reward you.

Sure, ANet has tried to add things to make you stay longer in FT: Bonus #1 FJ damage on burning foes . . .

Actually, that’s it.

Like Ayden said, I will use Blowtorch to apply burn before I focus on FT’s #1 FJ. Once I do that, I shift to FT and use Air Blast to give them another 2 seconds. Even Incendiary Powder influences people to not stay in FT that much. You get 3 free burn shots without being in FT.

Most of the abilities in FT direct you to only hop into it and then hop back to something else. Juggernaut TRIES to get you to stay, but in my opinion the buffs it rewards you with just aren’t enough to keep you there.

Truthfully, if I use Jug, I pop FT on until I have 6-7 stacks before combat, then pop out and start doing damage in other weapons. I might stay in long enough to pop out a #2 FB.

I stay in EG longer than I stay in FT. I think that one’s a more viable long term kit than FT was made out to be.

I accept that rebuttal. Many topics do this, and it’s hard to figure out when it is derailed sometimes.

I feel if we are to make FT viable, then we should also look at every trait that affects it directly as well. This is why I included Fireforged Trigger, Volatile Mixture, and Juggernaut.

Very good announcement, Ayden.

If someone doesn’t think the FT is viable, then shouldn’t they also list how they think it should be viable? I don’t think the OP is looking for just a yes/no answer to this topic.

He (and to a higher extent the forum moderators) are the one who makes end judgement. Until then . . . add comments that apply to the topic and not less-than-witty criticism of others.

I do have to agree with Zinwrath on what he said here:

“To further back this, the juggernaut trait rewards you for keeping the FT out instead of quickly using an ability and stowing it away. So, since it is supposed to be more of a weapon alternative, it is perfectly reasonable to compare its balance and design to a weapon.”

With this trait, you are rewarded for staying in the FT kit. If you are rewarded so, shouldn’t you be able to make it a stand-alone kit?

My idea is that the Juggernaut trait should have an increase in Toughness by at least double its normal trait amount.

Also, Fireforged Trigger and Volatile Mixture shouldn’t be spread between two kits. Here’s my idea.

Fireforged Trigger should give a 20% CD reduction to FT skills while also giving a 15% bonus to FT damage (and possible burning conditions).

Volatile Mixture should give a 20% CD reduction to EG skills while also giving a 10% bonus to EG damage (and possible bleed and poison condition damage).

I like the FT. If you spec swiftness and vigor effects (Infused Precision and Invigorating speed are a great combination) this allows you to maintain speed with an opponent as well as having extra endurance regen.

I often use the FT with either a Net Turret (for more mobility restrictions on them) or the Elixir Gun (for added healing, condition, and also mobility).

If you’re a power FT user, I’d recommend Utility Goggles due to their stunbreak nature with added fury (always helpful!) and the toolbelt ability to apply a 10 stack of vulnerability on an enemy (+10% damage!). Elixir U is still viable even with the reduced effectiveness of Quickness, because the Toss Elixikittenll is now a powerful defensive ability. Toss it, then drink it for maximum effect!

Edited: I took out my “just fine” because I am also offering ideas to balance it vs other weapons.

In fact, using the “Stow Weapon” key lets you bypass the 1 second GCD for using the same utility repeatedly.

This helps you pop out of your kit to use your weapon once, then move back to the same kit.

The “Stow Weapon” key, when you put on a kit or pick up a bundle, turns into a “drop item/bundle/whatever” key.

For the OP, I’ll try to summarize the situation before and after the last two major patches that have affected Kit Refinement.

Before the February patch, KR used to have no cooldown but the one related to each kit. You could cycle through kits and trigger the effects of each kit one after another with only the separate cooldowns for each kit KR trigger limiting you.

After the February patch, KR gave a global cooldown for all effects if you chose . . .I think it was EG and toolkit . . . while still having each kit’s separate cooldown for its respective KR trigger effect. When EG’s KR effect was triggered it would cause a 20 second global cooldown.

After the March patch, KR was revamped with new (and some reduced) effects. On top of that, the 20 second global was extended for all kit’s KR triggered effects. This severely limited the playstyle of KR players, and now most people abandon KR entirely.

I think there should be an extra button called “SCIENCE!” (put in all caps just like I showed). This button, when pressed, does one of several random things. I’ve not decided what those things are, but I’m sure that we can think up some amazing (and amazingly disastrous) effects.

Don’t just give buffs or super huge damage, though. This should include both breakthroughs and backsteps.

And it should be extremely random.

I didn’t think about that combo. Toss U and Drink U = nice rapid fire while effectively being immune to projectiles from the other side of the wall.

The drop in quickness attack speed is a bit of a letdown, though.

I was wondering if the SE buff was an accidental carryover from the last major patch. I’ve seen no difference between SE before and after patch.

Hopefully the reason for the patch was to give us a little boost since we lost our KR SE pop.

And hopefully we actually see this buff.

Hidden Killer is much easier to fix than Scope would be. Hidden killer has an active trigger (stealth). This is as easy as “Oh, I mis-typed an if/then statement.”

Scope, on the other hand, requires a little more. Especially since it depends on latency. Something as simple to the player as run-stop-pop-run can be missed by Scope’s watching script. Since it doesn’t take but a half second to shoot, by the time you stop and shoot, Scope would apply the +10% too late and the quick shot would be missed.

This is just one theory why Scope doesn’t work and is harder to fix than Hidden Killer.

I know this sounds like I’m rooting for another team, but Blizzard had the right idea to apply a test server where players can visit and try out possible patches.

• It lets the devs get active feedback from players who have experience with the classes they enjoy the most. Let your consumers work for you (for free, of course) so you can bring them balanced changes that they accept.

• It lets players know of possible nerfs or buffs and gives them a chance to formulate plans based on these changes.

• It limits the whining and complaining (even a little less complaining is good!)

I’m not sure exactly how hard this would be for them. They don’t automatically get money from players every month like Blizzard.

But this would be the best idea in my mind.

Portable rifle turret kit:

If you pick up rifle turret before it’s destroyed, it turns into a kit that works exactly like your rifle … except that you cannot control who it shoots at.

This combines the wonderful rifle with the great random targeting of the rifle turret!

What could be better?!?

Every weapon can be improved. Heck, everything can be improved. But an improvement doesn’t make it balanced. There are plenty of improvements that have imbalanced an item or weapon in games.

It’s not “how can we improve this weapon”, but “how can we balance this weapon” that needs to be discussed.

I think they nerfed KR back into the stone ages with both the changes. Something I still don’t understand about the changes developers issue out.

The 20 second CD isn’t really needed, but the changes to the effects from KR are . . . novel.

Vague.1602:

The patch notes also failed to mention that turrets now explode after 5 mins…

Yes, they did announce that all Utility Turrets explode after 5 minutes. It’s in the section of the patch notes labeled “Engineer.” It’s about midway through the Engineer section just above the Thumper turret changes.

I just get cranky sometimes when people act like kitten on a forum.

I’m with Phineas as I’ve never heard any group say, “If we had a blah, we’d do better.”

Okay, maaaaaaaybe a mesmer for the swamp fractal of FotM. That is the most annoying scene that takes a lot of maddening coordination.

Everyone brings something unique to the table. But the classes are close enough in respect for everyone to switch roles.

Wow, Ezriel. You just earned the kitten award. But it’s easy to be the kitten when you can’t get a fist to your face.

For the people that have used FT for quite a while, they’ve learned to incorporate it with other kits, utilities and weapons and they’ve survived fairly well.

FT has offense, defense and support. A player who knows how to use it will survive.

I suck at PvP, but I find I like FT better than I do grenades. For Forestnator: Grenades >> FT. For me: FT/Pistols/EG >> Grenades

I don’t even know why you people are complaining about FT being unreliable.

Like we’ve discussed in topics before this, FT is still a viable weapon. Players have decided when and how to use it to the most benefit possible. It still is able to proc effects-on-crit a lot faster than other weapons. It still has the benefits of detonate-on-command, added burn on airblast, and 10% bonus damage on burning enemies for Flame Jet.

Double Detonate is a bug, which was destined to be fixed anyway.

It was a bug. It got fixed. FT felt the same with and without it. Get over it. Focus on other problems.

My version of elixirs! (not really serious)

Elixir S (CD: 30 seconds)

• 65% chance: Gain Swiftness for 20 seconds
• 25% chance: Gain Swiftness AND Stealth for 10 seconds
• 10% chance: Gain Cripple for 5 seconds

Elixir C (CD: seconds)

• 65% chance: Convert all conditions to boons for 5 seconds
• 25% chance: Convert all conditions to health (200 base heal for each condition)
• 10% chance: Gain all damaging conditions (at condition damage bonus of 1500) for 5 seconds

Elixir D (CD: 60 seconds)

• 65% Chance: Next attack damage increased by 200% (subject to misses, dodges, and blocks) Only applies to one target.
• 25% Chance: Next attack damage increased by 400% (subject to misses, dodges, and blocks). Only applies to one target.
• 10% Chance: Become a paper target for 3 seconds. Armor and Toughness becomes 0 and lose all endurance.

If engineers are supposed to be tanky, then why don’t we have more ways to lower damage?

We don’t have a manual way to trigger protection. Don’t respond with Elixir H because that’s an unreliable RNG effect. We do have auto-triggers, but I don’t count those either.

We may have more ways to block, but one way gets immediately stopped if any enemy is within melee range.

We don’t have a way to create Aegis, which is definitely a Tank-style effect.

We do have ways to give us constant vigor, as well as traits to increase our Endurance regen. That is a part of tanking, but for many it doesn’t seem like it matches with our leather-wearing compatriot the ranger.

All in all, it doesn’t seem like we are as tanky as they mention. If they want us to be more tankish, then they should give us an armor bonus since we don’t have guaranteed protection.

So . . how are we tanky again?