Guild Wars 2

If they do make a “minion” category of enemies, it would be nice if there was a universal rule on whether minions grant rallies. That said, I fully support this idea. More knowledge about what you’re fighting is always useful.

It would definitely require a rework, since it’s currently tacked on to so many skills that hitting the cap would be trivial. However, I think this would do a lot to make it more useful and increase build diversity.

As an engineer, I can swap to up to five different “weapons” (though in practice, I usually only use three or so) with no cooldown. The ability to have a second weapon set is fairly unnecessary (especially since our kits are better than our weapons) and would likely require nerfs in other areas.

As such, I would actually prefer to not have a second weapon set.

Edit: misunderstood what I quoted

Personally, I’m all for instanced hard modes, but new game + simply doesn’t work well in massively multiplayer games due to the nature of persistent worlds. It works so well in single player/limited scale co-op because:
it doesn’t divide the players in the world (either the entire world is, or isn’t),
players in hard mode are unable to interact with those in “easy mode”,
the games have no post-story gameplay (once you finish the campaign, you reboot in ng+)
it’s typically used in games where players will either play once on normal and never again, or play through at least one instance of ng+.

If you make it so ng+ players are in the same world as normal players, it’s the whole mf gear debacle over again. Some players reduce their effectiveness to increase their rewards, and other players just have to pick up the slack. If you make a separate ng+ server, one of two outcomes happen. First possibility is not enough people are interested, so meta events never happen, and you just end up doing instanced content solo or in small parties anyways. Second possibility is that enough people move over to the ng+ server, which acts to further fragment the already-divided playerbase.

Gw2 has plenty of post-story gameplay. In many ng+ games, the final mission is final; in gw2, I’d wager the majority of level 80 players have finished their story missions but are still happily playing.

If you want harder content, why not new content? Instead of just artificially inflating old content difficulty, why not play the new hard stuff like fractal level 100, raids, or even not-so-old aetherpath?

As a friendly PSA, superspeed can be applied to friendly siege golems, and properly gives them a speed boost. If you want to help transport siege, start blasting dem lightning fields!

Elite spec idea: Saboteur

Spec Role:
Either DPS or “offensive support” through debilitating conditions

Bonus Weapon Proficiency:
Both dagger and torch for either mainhand or offhand could work. Of the four options, dagger mainhand is likely best because:
-Engies already have access to 2 offhand weapons but only one mainhand
-Torches are currently restricted to offhand only, and may require some code rework
-Dagger fits better thematically (in my opinion)

New Skill Type:
Traps fit this spec perfectly. Arguments could be made for other skill types, but nothing says saboteur like walking through a minefield to reach them.

Example Trait Ideas:
Minor:
Explosive Acumen: All mines (Bunker Down, Throw Mine, Throw Mine Toolbelt, ect) benefit from skills, traits, and effects that refer to traps. On activating a toolbelt skill, place a small mine (Similar to Bunker Down mine) at your feet.

Major:
Disorienting Traps: Traps apply weakness for <?>, and your conditions deal <?%> more damage to targets with weakness.

Example Skills:

Utility Skill and corresponding Toolbelt:
Aetheric Jolt Trap: Place a trap at your feet. When detonated, this trap fires a lightning bolt at the triggering target for <?> damage that bounces to an additional 4 targets. The first target struck is stunned, and all targets struck gain <?> stacks of confusion for <?> seconds. If detonated prematurely, this trap fires at the closest target within <?> range.
Aetheric Resonator: Break stuns and gain a shocking aura for <?> seconds.

Elite Skill and corresponding Toolbelt:
Remote Detonation: Prematurely detonate all traps you have active, and gain <?> might for <?> seconds per trap detonated. (Note, small landmines would probably need reduced might from this ability, otherwise you’d be able to Throw Mine toolbelt -> Remote Detonation to have stupidly high might)
Mark Target: For <?> seconds, target is revealed and marked. Marked targets take <?%> more damage from your traps, and traps apply bonus conditions against them.

Any thoughts?

I certainly see your point. The main place I see it as useful is something like the silverwastes, where you have to keep an NPC alive. Since they lack healing of their own, and have very predictable movements, you can use this build to keep them alive longer.

As an engie main, I feel that this specific change is a long time coming; turrets are not used in PvE for completely different reasons. However, at the same time, I’d like if turrets weren’t useless against any boss that has a floor-based AoE attack like so many of the newer ones do.

Hey all! Just wanted to share a build I’ve been enjoying lately.
Disclaimer A: This build intentionally gimps its damage for the sake of healing. While I feel that it’s a worthwhile tradeoff in most of the content I run, and I can typically pull my own weight, this build isn’t good everywhere. Try to do a zerker speedrun with it, and you’ll be kicked from group before you can say “medkit”.

Disclaimer B: THIS IS NOT A DEDICATED HEALING BUILD. NO SUCH THING EXISTS. You will have significant healing ability, but that is no substitute for intelligent play.

I change up small elements of the build frequently, but here’s my current default:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlsTpCrlXxdLkfNyjxM6OKpiQ9soDYgHA-TxwGABA8AAy9CAI0+DAA-e

Here’s my thoughts on the choices made:

Weapon: Rifle and P/S are both solid choices, and have solid utility. I pick rifle largely because I prefer its “feel” to P/S, but P/S honestly would probably fit this build better.

Healing Ability: Healing turret is a wonderful skill, don’t get me wrong. However, I prefer the medkit for a handful of reasons. First, it has wonderful synergy with on-healing-skill procs. Second, since I’m going fully into Tools, it has the lowest CD of any heal. Third, because of boon duration and Packaged Stimulants, #5 offers 19.5 seconds of swiftness and fury on a 20 second cooldown. Due to this, I can give an ally upwards of 90% uptime on those two boons as long as I don’t miss / they actually try to pick the stimulants up. While it’s harder to heal people with this than the healing turret, I feel that its tradeoffs are worth it.

Single versus Multi-Kit: I prefer single-kit builds because I’ve got less I need to manage. Additionally, our elixir abilities are good enough that I feel you can justify taking two of them and a kit.

Elixir Gun: This is what you’ll spend most of your time using. You can heal allies for a decent amount using its #5, you can weaken enemies with your autoattack, you can cure up to 5 conditions on allies using your #3, and you even have a stunbreak.

Elixir Abilities: I like the insurance of a second stunbreak, so I typically take R and U. R provides a powerful AoE rez field, and its immobilize removal / dodge refill is handy in a pinch. U gives a wall that either reflects or blocks projectiles, both of which are handy, and quickness is always wonderful. One useful tip: if you have quickness, then your autoattack with EG fires off fast enough to build weakness duration on champ+ mobs.
If I trade out an elixir, it’s usually R for B when I know my party will need stability or when they just aren’t dying enough to warrent R. Rarely I’ll take S instead of U, but I find that S rarely offers the utility that U does.

Elite Ability: Supply crate is arguably our best utility. However, I honestly love elixir X. Due to elixir-boosting traits, we can have an elementalist’s or a warrior’s elite ability on a significantly shorter cooldown and longer duration. Furthermore, their CC is often quite handy, and the doubled health makes emergency use Elixir X to survive high damage an option.

Traits: I typically dump points into Alchemy and Tools, and put the 10 left over in Inventions or Firearms. Alchemy provides wonderful boon duration, and Tools gives that awesome CDR on toolbelt skills.
- I like taking Backpack Regenerator for the passive healing. It’s not that much, but it’s pretty handy.
- Armor Mods gives better Aegis uptime than most Guardians have, and makes you much harder to kill. Since I’ve also got the Alchemy minor that converts incoming conditions to boons, this gives significant defense against slow enemies.
- Elixir CDR and duration increase are great with an elixir-heavy loadout. The CDR makes R, U, and X available more often, giving you better quickness uptime and more frequent transformations. The duration increase gives you a longer-lasting everything, which is especially nice for both elixir tosses, Elixir U, and Elixir X.
- Packaged Stimulants provides 50% more outward healing with medkit, as well as significantly increased uptime on swiftness and fury.
- Speedy kits are awesome. ’Nuff said.
-Last 10 points should go into the 20% reduced damage while disabled, 20% CDR on elixir gun skills, or in rare cases the reduced fall damage.

Gear: Sigil of Renewal and Runes of Water synergize wonderfully with medkit. Sigil of Water is a nice addition to your healing capabilities. Sigils of Life and/or Benevolence are valid replacements, and any of the +Healing Power runes with an on-healing skill proc are valid options instead as well. In particular, if you want to play a more offensive support, Altruism is a solid choice.
In terms of stat suffixes, I personally run celestial, but that’s mainly because I only have the patience for one set of ascended. Whatever floats your boat will probably work.

In terms of build, as long as you have traits that support whatever kits you use, you’re solid. Open-world doesn’t require especially rigorous builds.

I’d advocate trying Flamethrower. It’s less DPS than grenades, but IMO more fun and intuitive. Bombs are another solid choice.

While Elixir Gun and Toolkit are amazing kits, they don’t have especially amazing DPS, so I’d probably avoid them in your case.

I run cele armor with all of my builds, for two reasons.
One, it’s easier to make significant build changes “in the field” if you don’t have to change armor. I can go from condi DPS to direct DPS to tank to support by changing only traits and utilities.
Two, I only have the patience to make one set of ascended, and I’d rather have the insurance of celestial (Never amazing, but always OK) than try for zerker (Currently top, but not necessarily always that way).

My rule for WvW is that anything short of exploits/cheating is fair. If your server doesn’t win, it doesn’t matter why; you didn’t win. You might have been outnumbered, you might have been outplayed. Regardless, you lost.

Siege in an open field, to me, is a question of tactics, not of ethics. Is the result worth the blueprints and supply spent on the siege? That depends on the situation, so there isn’t a blanket answer.

1v1s are for “fair fights”. WvW has no such restriction.

In PvP and WvW, I laugh at people who complain about me “playing unfair”. Yes, I will knock you off a cliff if it will kill you. Yes, I will run away if losing, heal, and return with friends. Yes, I’ll try to lure you into NPCs that are friendly to me and hostile to you. While I don’t often run it since it’s honestly pretty boring, if I run quadturret, I will laugh as I leave you stunlocked.

You want a fair 1v1, find a custom arena for dueling. Anywhere else, I’ll use every dirty trick (aside from actual cheating or exploits, those are a no-go) that I can to win. And if you angrily whisper me about how you could kick my no-skill behind in a fair 1v1, I’ll laugh because true or not, it doesn’t matter. Arenas are 5v5 for a reason, and WvW can have hundreds of players active. 1v1ing is just stupid.

Charr only for me, thanks. I’d love to have sylvari players around that I can speak to and interact with, but I’m Iron Legion for life.

I already play engie only :P

GW2 ruined WoW for me. I used to play a fair bit of WoW, but after GW2,
-The healer/tank/3dps setup felt annoying and corresponding dungeon queues were just too long
-The lack of self-healing and dodge rolls made me constantly leap into suicidal situations where I thought I could survive with intelligent play, when in fact I just didn’t have the health for it
-The moving or casting (instead of moving and casting) made the entire system feel slow
-Having many un-fancy abilities (How many direct damage nukes can one character have?) felt exceedingly clunky after having a few interesting ones
-Flight paths instead of waypoints

I’m sure if I sat down and thought about it for longer I could come up with more. I won’t begrudge WoW players, since everyone has their own preferences, but GW2 just fits me so much better.

On one hand, I love mixing and matching so I wish they’d do more armor sets and less outfits.

On the other hand, I’ve got to imagine that making an armor set is much more involved and difficult than an outfit. With armor sets as opposed to outfits, you need:
-In most cases, you’ll want a unique skin for each armor weight. 3x the work.
-You have to make clear demarcations of where each piece starts and ends, since they need to be individually equippable.
-You need to make sure that new armor pieces don’t clip too much with old ones. Some clipping is inevitable, but you always want to minimize it.
I’m sure there are more working differences, but I can’t think of more at the moment.

Favorite owned: Combat Healer. Sure, it’s easy to get, but I like the message: “Stay next to me and I’ll make sure you don’t die.”

What I wish I owned: Ultimate Technician. I almost exclusively play engineer, and I’d like an engineer-y title, but Champion Genius sounds trite.

Like to see: GWAMM. To get that, you need time, effort, and skill. +1 respect.

Don’t like to see: The Be All And The End All. Long, overly dramatic, and a better title than the actual task warrants.

If I could make my own: Medic or Support Specialist or something to that effect, obtained by healing, rezzing, applying boons, and removing conditions. I generally play a support-heavy build and would like to advertise that standing near increases your life expectancy.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Pear skin for staff? Wut? That’s obviously much better as an engie bomb skin.

I wholeheartedly support the pear-bomb movement.

I want to see the skills before I make a decision personally, but depending on how much I like the weapon I’m either going for Legendary or for Mecha Anchor.

Repost from similar thread:
I don’t see this happening solely because FT#1 deals 10% more damage to burning targets. If it applies a small amount of burning on each tick, that’s changes to just be 10% more damage period.
Would it be OP if overall burning uptime wasn’t changed much? Probably not. Would it entirely negate a mechanic that was introduced to make the #1 more interesting? Yes.

I don’t see this happening solely because FT#1 deals 10% more damage to burning targets. If it applies a small amount of burning on each tick, that’s changes to just be 10% more damage period.

Would it be OP if overall burning uptime wasn’t changed much? Probably not. Would it entirely negate a mechanic that was introduced to make the #1 more interesting? Yes.

Any events except for ones that need high pop, like Silverwastes.

All classes are viable in all content areas. Some have specific skills better than others, but it overall balances out.

Disclaimer: I don’t extensively play any of these classes, so I may be completely wrong. I do group with them a lot, however, so I’m not clueless.

Ranger:
I see rangers primarily as a DPS class. I’ll trust someone if they tell me you can have ranger tanks and ranger support, but generally all I see is DPS. They tend to have less party buffs and higher personal performance than other characters, and while they’re no slouches in melee, they’ve got especially strong range.

Warrior:
Good defense and damage both, almost regardless of spec. I typically see warriors that bring solid personal DPS while using shouts/banners to amp up the rest of the party’s DPS as well. One thing to consider is that the warrior is extremely offense-focused. They have OK DPS regardless of build, can spec for ungodly DPS, and even their support focuses on improving ally DPS rather than preserving ally life. Not playing a warrior myself, I don’t know whether this is true or not, but warriors are stereotyped as the “easy class”.

Guardian:
Guardians often serve as the defensive backbone of the party. They can be build to have good DPS, but what I see most often is guardians that have higher-than-average defense and group support. Almost any guardian build is going to have some semblance of support, and their innate abilities make them harder to kill than most.

My $.02:

Jory: I like her. Of all the companions, I feel like she’s the most capable in a fight. She’s got a good sense of humor, and while her voice acting isn’t the best I’ve heard, I don’t think it’s as bad as other people seem to. She manages to be confident and in charge without detracting from the PC’s leadership. I see her largely as my “second in command.”

Kas: Meh. I don’t dislike her, but she doesn’t do much for me overall. She justifies her role beyond eye candy, but the fact that she still looks so much like eye candy makes it hard for me to like her.

Kas + Jory: I don’t mind how it’s written; it’s not a perfectly crafted fantasy romance but that doesn’t bug me. I’ve seen better, but I’ve seen way worse. I do wish it was a bit less prominent, though. At times, Kas acts like her sole purpose in the world is to be Jory’s girl. That bugs me.

Rox: Ok character. I like her personality, but those eyes. Eugh. Too anime-esque for how I envision a dangerous Charr ranger. Her interactions with Braham are nice; there’s a hint of romance without it being openly acknowledged, and I want to see if that develops further.

Braham: Ok character. To me, he’s like Jacob from Mass Effect 2. He’s a solid character, with a likable personality. He’s got some issues, but he’s got a pretty solid handle on them himself. However, the fact that he’s got a good handle on life also makes him less interesting, since his problems don’t butt into your adventuring. As I said above, I want to see how his relationship with Rox develops. I also like how protective he is of Taimi; it adds a nice extra dimension to his personality.

Taimi: My favorite. She’s well-written for her character. She’s exceptionally intelligent, even for an Asura, and doesn’t let us forget it. Despite that, she’s still a kid, and her demonstrated maturity level doesn’t let us forget that either. Sometimes I just want to pick her up and hug her, and other times I want to punt her off a cliff. Because she’s able to evoke such a range of emotion from me, I would argue she’s the best-written.

Canach: Can I have him officially in my group yet? He’s competent and dangerous. He knows his way around a battlefield, and is useful anywhere from an open battle to stealth and subterfuge. He’s keen on getting the right end, even if he disregards the morals of the means. While I disagree with his methods, he’s proven that he can get kitten done. Also, his morally wayward stance makes him an ideal final party member to round out the cast. Every group of good people needs the token person willing to do the dirty work, and Canach is perfect for that role.

Overall, I like the group. Kas + Jory is a bit forced, and Braham and Rox fall flat sometimes, but it isn’t that bad, and Taimi and Canach make up for it.

I do Charr t3 chest since it’s just about the only available non-trenchcoat skin available. Coupled with that, I elected to use the CM legs since they’re one of the few skins that don’t leave half my buttocks hanging out in the air below my tail. Surprisingly, they mesh together well, and go with a number of good other skins. Will post screenshots later.

Edit: Screenshot! Forgive the kittenty image quality, I don’t have the best computer.

(Repost from another thread)

I do Charr t3 chest since it’s just about the only available non-trenchcoat skin available. Coupled with that, I elected to use the CM legs since they’re one of the few skins that don’t leave half my buttocks hanging out in the air below my tail. Surprisingly, they mesh together well, and go with a number of good other skins. Will post screenshots later.

Edit: Screenshot! Forgive the kittenty image quality, I don’t have the best computer.

Because this update convinced me that I should’ve been in the Priory.

First priority, B. I obsess over every LS/festival release.
Second priority, A. I don’t min-max to the detriment of having fun (I near-always run celestial gear with mercy runes), but I do enjoy trying to tailor a build to a situation.
Third priority, C. I like dem skins.
Not even a priority, D. I like PvP, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve never felt a need to “beat another player” in any area of the game. I like doing my best, and so be it if that’s either better or worse than others.

Dalanor.5387:

FrostSpectre.4198:

Good examples of more varied mob design are Mordrem so far[…]

I don’t find high damage attacks and retaliation more varied. Bad players still find it hard, decent and good ones still breeze trough it.

They have more than just that, IMHO.

Mordrem Husk:
Trait: High Toughness
Result: Encourages conditions

Mordrem Wolf:
Trait: Exceedingly high damage when flanking
Result: Encourages control and positioning

Mordrem Leeching Thrasher:
Trait: AoE damage that heals proportionally to damage dealt
Result: Encourages poison, range, control, and positioning

Mordrem Vile Thrasher:
Trait: Leaves condition-dealing trail, takes more damage from behind
Result: Encourages condition removal, range, control, and positioning

Mordrem Vine:
Trait: Immobile, but long-range attacks
Result: Encourages melee in a roundabout way (You’ll get hit regardless, might as well be up close)

Your mileage may vary, but personally I found that they strongly encourage build diversity. Can you kill each of them as a cookie-cutter zerker warrior? Sure, if you play right. Is it easier to deal with ones suited to your build? Definitely.

I like going for Mercy any time I’m not specifically runing for maximum damage or a specific proc. The extra rezzing isn’t going to be uber-powerful, but it is handy in group settings.

On one hand, I don’t mind the music. On the other hand, it really doesn’t fit the video used. Maybe another video could work, but I feel that the video in question needs quiet, creepy classical. Just my 2 cents.

Haralin.1473:

Engi is by far not an combat medic this are guardians, ele or even warriors are better in healing for the group.

I’m sorry, but engies have some pretty kitten impressive healing potential. I distinctly remembering an ele main coming to this forum asking questions about it, and being surprised at just how much we could offer.

EDIT: This thread has a wealth of information on the support an engie can bring to the table. As it turns out, it was a mesmer, not an ele.

My biggest problem with the wings is that they don’t seem to react to what you’re doing. They flap the exact same way if you’re walking, running, sitting, standing, falling, jumping, or whatnot. Plus, I’m not particularly fond of any of the available visual styles.
If I’m going to have wings, they’re going to a) be big, and b) respond to my character’s movements.

For what its worth, I feel that these changes are mostly good. The inability to get perma-vigor on demand is in my opinion deserving of change, and any build with crit chance can still get mostly perma-vigor in combat. The incendiary powder change is regrettable, and I don’t especially see why that needed to move to the next tier up. However, accelerant-packed turrets being moved down is great. The buff to armor mods may get me to actually use it now, and the buff to modified ammunition looks wonderful. I’m as of yet undecided on the Transmutation change; it’s gone from a small condition mitigation technique to a mechanic to pay attention to.

Regarding engies:

When used properly, healing turret heals for a bit under 1k more than this ability’s maximum, has 10s shorter of a cooldown, provides a water field for additional healing, scales better with healing power, and can cleanse non-damaging (or other damaging) conditions too. The ONLY benefit this skill has over healing turret is that it cleanses 3 conditions, not two. However, the number of cases where you will have significant confusion and torment both are relatively rare, and as such I consider healing turret to be better in practically every way.

TL;DR: Healing turret is better than the new skill in 99% of cases.

The numerical cooldown stays the same, but the time ticks faster for finishing it. It’s like a reverse chill. Test it out, you’ll find that skills come off cooldown faster with quickness.

Rule of thumb is that Anet does a release that lasts 4 weeks, followed by a 2-week release so that both end at the same time. This is the second of the pair, so I’d wager that its only 2 weeks.

Nilkemia.8507:

Doggie.3184:

She is a bad Necromancer. She got owned during the first instance fights.

Really? Only Kasmeer went down once when I did it, and only because the Oratuss decided to focus AoE on her (even when she blinked out of it, he’d just put another one down on her right away). Or is there another instance besides the intro that I haven’t seen yet?

While the effort Kasmeer and Marjory make still isn’t much, I was surprised by them dodging/blinking around and actually using more than just basic attack skills, more effort than even Destiny’s Edge tends to give.

In my case, neither went down. The boss was far too fond of me and my turrets for that to happen.

That is true. However, the coordination required to cycle the skill wouldn’t be something you’d find outside organized groups, and organized groups can easily set up a cleanse cycle of some sort. Every class has the ability (not necessarily strong) to remove allies’ conditions.

coglin.1867:

EH, I will have to spend the evening in WvW and see how it plays out. My main concern isn’t the individual cleanse. It is when they collaborate and several have antitoxin and use it in a rotation. in small group battles for example.

I would wager that it would be no different than a group of engineers cycling healing turrets, or a group of guardians cycling condition-removing shouts.

I could be wrong, but it looks to be as effective as most racial healing skills. It isn’t extremely weak, but it isn’t especially strong either.

According to wiki, its base heal is ~4k, plus a little under 500 per condition cleansed. It can cleanse 3 different conditions, thus healing for a max of 5.5k. Healing turret heals for a little over 5k and cleanses 2 conditions, not including the detonation. Detonation adds a water blast for 1320 health, bringing the total to 6k+. The new skill also scales worse.
So the new skill heals for ~1k less, has 3/2 of the cooldown, and requires you to be suffering significantly for it to be effective. Its removes an additional condition, but cannot remove a large number of other conditions. In short, there are very few cases where you would use the new skill over Healing Turret. I’m assuming that other professions have equally powerful healing skills.

coglin.1867:

You need to go search the engineer forums, there are two well known techniques that have been around near a year that explain how not to miss. Sorry, As far as I knew it is pretty common knowledge so I thought you were being sarcastic. But this is geting off topic.

Thanks, I just did that. Can’t believe I never saw that; I constantly strafe while fighting.

Astralporing.1957:

Astralporing.1957:

It will either change nothing (in case of people not using those skills), or make the targets easier to kill (due to weaker healing). You have nothing to worry about.

You think so ? I do not see the heal being all that much lower then some of the others, but you may have a point.

It is significantly lower unless you’re cleansing a lot of conditions. I can’t log in to check the numbers at the moment, but I recall the base heal being comparable to somewhere near 2/3 the total healing of a healing turret doubletap/detonate with 3/2 the cooldown. When using it in combat during the new events, I noticed that it was significantly less effective at keeping my health up than my turret, even though my turret was incapable of removing the new DoT.

Minor edit: forum quote thingie is currently out of whack.

coglin.1867:

Yup, my mistake on endurance regeneration.

If i have to explain to you how to land your skills, we need to make a different thread for that.

And your correct, it doesn’t do 3,322 poison damage it is 3425. Thats is only at 50% condition duration with 10 points in a condition duration line and say, rare veggie pizza. I personally run 100% condition duration.

Thanks, I forgot to factor in any condition duration. If you’re running 100%, then you would also deal double bleed damage. The fact that it isn’t massive impact still stands. You can also shoot your volley 3 times per one of their heal without any kind of cooldown reduction. Only one of your 3 volleys would be reduced in damage.

And I’m quite serious on the landing poison dart volley. That skill’s attack spread is bizarre. I honestly do not believe you are capable of landing more than half its shots on a moving target outside of melee range. It fires randomly in an arc the size of the FT autoattack, for goodness’ sake.

coglin.1867:

Sylentir.8913:

Yes, I am aware of that. Compare the number of maintained stacks of Confusion on the next champion mob you see to the maintained stacks of Bleed.

I am concerned about how this skill will effect condition build damage in WvW, not PvE, sorry if I was unclear on that. I thought the tittle inferred that, as it is no concern to condition builds in PvE

I used champion mobs as an easy way to see how often the skills are used. Players tend to die too fast to notice maintained stacks. The rate of application is still similar.

coglin.1867:

Sylentir.8913:

-poison, which does very little damage

My pistol #2 does 3,322 poison damage if not cleansed, debuffs heals (great for guardians in particular) and reduces endurance regen.

The new heal will effect that.

Um, how does it deal that much damage? If every shot hit a single target, it would apply 10s total of poison to that target. That isn’t 3222 damage by my math.

Furthermore, how does it reduce endurance regen? That’s a property of weakness, not poison.

Finally, how are you actually hitting every shot? That thing has the aim of a drunken hobo.

coglin.1867:

Sylentir.8913:

-confusion, which is rare outside of Perplexity,

You say this and suggest you know a bit about engineers. So you must know that a very popular build uses static shot, pry bar, and concussion bomb.

Yes, I am aware of that. Compare the number of maintained stacks of Confusion on the next champion mob you see to the maintained stacks of Bleed. Confusion tends to be applied for short times, has low uptime, and moderate to long cooldowns on the abilities. In contrast, bleeds are regularly applied for several times longer with shorter cooldowns, and I have yet to see a non-perplexity condition build that fails to maintain 100% uptime on bleed.

The only damaging conditions are:
-confusion, which is rare outside of Perplexity,
-bleed, which is not cleansed by this skill,
-burning, which is not cleansed by this skill,
-poison, which does very little damage,
-torment, which is rare in its use, and
-fear, which isn’t always a damage condition, is very rare, and isn’t cleansed by this skill.

Absolute highest condition damage obtainable, disregarding food and maintenance, is 1671. This requires full ascended, exotics filling the gaps, condition damage runes, and malign infusions. Let’s round this up to 1700 for convenience.
With 1700 condition damage, you deal:
127 DPS per stack of Bleed
254 DPS with Poison
753 DPS with Burning
385 DPT per stack of Confusion in PvE, 192 DPT per stack in PvP/WvW
95 DPS per stack of Torment on a stationary target, 191 DPS per stack on a mobile target

I’m most familiar with Engineers, so I’m going to use a sample pistols/grenades build that gets 100% poison uptime, ~15 bleeds, ~50% burning uptime, and 2 confusion for 3 seconds with 15s cd. I’m assuming this in WvW, and saying that a person will activate 1 skill per second (obviously, that varies a lot depending on situation).

Case A: Damage in 10 seconds to single target, no cleansing of any sort
(10s)(254 DPS) = 2540 Poison Damage
(15 stacks)(10s)(127 DPS) = 19050 Bleed Damage
(5s)(753 DPS) = 3756 Burning Damage
(3s)(1 tick per s)(2 stacks)(385 DPT) = 2310 Confusion Damage
Total condition damage dealt: 27656 Damage

Now, I’m assuming that poison uptime is reduced to 30% and that confusion damage is negated. Keep in mind, you can usually apply poison a lot faster than they can cleanse it. The 30% is an underestimation.

Case B: Damage in 10 seconds to single target, one use of ability
(3s)(254 DPS) = 762 Poison Damage
(15 stacks)(10s)(127 DPS) = 19050 Bleed Damage
(5s)(753 DPS) = 3756 Burning Damage
(0s)(1 tick per s)(2 stacks)(385 DPT) = 0 Confusion Damage
Total condition damage dealt: 23568 Damage

Case B deals 85% of the damage of case A. However,
-The 30% poison uptime is likely a huge understatement.
-This is only valid if the target had no cleanses whatsoever in case A, and if the new skill was their only cleanse in case B. Every cleanse they have reduces the comparative impact of the new skill.
-The cleanse can only happen once every 30 seconds. This was an examination of 10 seconds. Therefore, you will deal higher damage on average than 85% of potential maximum.

EDIT: Disclaimer: These are very very ballpark figures. They aren’t especially accurate. You will likely apply more conditions than above, and your target will likely remove conditions more than once. These are meant to serve as a quick example, not a thorough investigation.

Basically, with Quickness, time passes faster for your character. Cooldowns finish sooner, ability animations are quicker.

In general, you will do 40-50% more damage with Quickness up than without it, regardless of your profession, build, gear, or whatnot. This isn’t a perfect statement, but is usually true.

I actually use them a good deal. Rocket Boots are amazing (gap opener/closer, travel utility, blast finisher, hard-hitting toolbelt), Slick Shoes are awesome (stunbreak, improved swiftness, AoE knockdown usable while stunned), and Throw Mine is great (AoE knockback, blast finisher, boon removal). I don’t use the goggles or battering ram much, but I can also see how those could be useful.