Guild Wars 2

Hi,
has anyone been able to try what happens when you combine Beastmode aura with Aurora effect?

Hi,
so I have been playing heavily with my Engi for over a week now – saved some vacation days for HoT launch – so I thought I write down few (well more than few) thoughts. Since this point I have been playing PvE only, so I will focus on that and sorry for any typos and/or bad grammar.

Hammer
Feels great! One little problem I have been having (might be just me thou) is that sometimes when foe dies/stealth suddenly I lose target and the Rocket Charge takes me way off – in HoT even of the edge sometimes. I would be nice to have some way to cancel the skill if necessary; OR make it work so that if I do not have active target, each separate jump would take me in the direction of camera (action camera) or keys I am holding.

Gyros
I have very mixed feeling about gyros – I like the idea of “mobile turrets” but at present state it just doesn’t work. I have tried them all but the most useful seems to be Bulwark Gyro and Sneak Gyro. Nevertheless there is huge problem – they can’t keep with me and my party. They are either stuck (moving around something) somewhere or generally behind, not mentioning when you jump around alot (jumping puzzles, different map levels in HoT, uncategorized fractal, etc.). Making them follow you properly would fix a lot of issues.

Bulwark Gyro
In my opinion, the most “usable” gyro. Has nice large aoe and since you activate it in specific moment – expecting to get hit big time – its effect is the most reliable for you and your party. Also tool belt skill is great.

Medic Gyro
Very, very small aoe. As soon as you move just a little bit, you don’t get periodic heals, basically not beneficial to your party (unless you all are melee and stacked at one spot). Also seems to die a lot quicker than other gyros. Tool belt skill is OK.

Blast Gyro Tag
Generally unreliable (standing at one place, not following target, not exploding) at range; in melee situations seem to work better. Unless you specifically trait it with Shocking Speed, Rapid Regeneration and Final Salvo it’s not usable – just extra autoattack on 15s cooldown; not worth the skill slot. Tool belt skill doesn’t seem to fit theme of gyro (again, not without traits) and have long cooldown for what it does. Probably the most underwhelming of all gyros.

Purge gyro
If the gyro would follow properly with reasonably large aoe so that the party would also benefit it would be good. Again, at the moment gyros doesn’t follow properly, so the gyro effect is wasted after 1st use. Tool belt skill seems a bit underwhelming.

Shredder Gyro
Not mobile, might as well use turret instead. Tool belt skill is great thou.

Sneak Gyro
Surprisingly good even in PvE – I was skeptical after beta weekend but I am happy with it now. The use is however limited by, again, follow issues. It’s great when you want to mine an ore node/get chest/take mastery point and don’t want to fight foes, but when you move you stealth and de-stealth all the time. Tool belt skill is total lackluster in PvE. Not only it have almost no use, but when you have opportunity to use it (basically in HoT only) it does not event work on some enemies – probably because of stealth detection mastery.

Traits
Traits feel well balanced; except for traits related to function gyro (see below).

Function Gyro – As a Scrapper defining mechanic, it is complete fail. Since HoT launch till now, I have used Function Gyro like 7 times max. Does not revive defeated allies, only downed ones, works like 50% times at best – usually it just stands at place doing nothing and it is almost impossible to use because you have to specifically target downed player; not easy to do in PvE events (15+people and mobs at the same spot) – unless you have specific person in your party and target him from party UI, you will probably not be able to res anyone and to my knowledge it does not work on NPCs. Also, “finish foe” is nonexistent in PvE – that’s half of the mechanic gone. In organized party I much rather go and res party member myself than rely on AI gyro mechanic – it is too important to res people to let it on chance.

Shocking Speed – OK.
Stabilization Core – tied to issues with Fuction Gyro (see above).
Recovery Matrix – fine, but it could give stability as well.

Decisive Renown – partially tied to issues with Function Gyro. It activates when you do it yourself but there are not many situations you will benefit from this in PvE. Would be a good trait if it was optional (Major) trait, but as mandatory (Minor) trait it feels not so useful

Rapid Regeneration – OK, but it could heal a bit more on swiftness.
Expert Examination – very nice trait.
Mass Momentum – solid DPS trait.

Impact savant – great trait

Adaptive Armor – great event after nerf – I agree that 100 per struck was too much.
Final Salvo – fine gyro related trait.
Perfectly Weighted – solid DPS trait.

In general, I am enjoying Scrapper very much and I am glad that engineer finally got some melee combat alternative. I have few more thoughts but about HoT gameplay in general, so I will write another post in different topic.

Hey, thanks for the info and changes – feeling more optimistic already :-)
Thou I still feel that Function Gyro needs more work (or complete rework), I fully understand that there is not enough time before HoT launch to make such large changes.
I just hope you make some changes post launch – Chaith’s idea seemed very solid and interesting to me. Just please don’t leave us waiting too long (/me conspicuously pointing at past kit/backpack issue).

Hi all,
here is my feedback from the weekend – I played PvP only (didn’t like to spoil PvE) so pls keep it in mind.

Hammer in general feels awesome, but…
Rocket Charge misses almost every time, unless I stun/root player in advance and even if, it still does not hit very often
Shock Shield’s attack part has way to short range – I would give it between 240-500 (700 even)
Shock Shield’s blocking part seams to block only attacks from in front of you – which does not help much in close combat (or vs aoe) since all the moving around

Gyros:
In general, gyros seams to weak (HP wise), underwhelming and has weird behavior/pathing. When you move around (walking/dodging in combat), they are too far behind for you to be affected by their effect. Self-destruct command take too long to activate – should be instant like in turrets.
Medic Gyro – as you are rarely affected by its secondary heal pulses, not so good
Blast Gyro tag has very weird behavior, moving strangely, siting in one place or generally not working at all. Also its basically (if it works correctly) “deal” damage once in 25s – a bit underwhelming if I may say so.
Shredder Gyro – useless, just useless and need complete rework; toolbelt skill (Spare capacitor) is nice thou
Purge gyro – the same as for Medic gyro
Bulwark Gyro – the same as for Medic and Purge Gyro – also dies way to fast, for “damage soaking thing”
Sneak Gyro – generally underwhelming; thou I see some limited uses in PvE, seems to be heavy PvP focused; tollbelt skill (Detection pulse) looks useless in PvE.

Scrapper traits:
First of all, Function gyro and Decisive Renown traits are useless!
Function gyro dies from autoattack before it can “stomp” downed player, dies to random aoe, etc.
Shocking speed is waaaaay to specific for my taste (lighting field + leap) – obviously hammer 5+3 skill combo (+ final salvo trait), but still way to specific – make it leap into any field
Stabilization core – looks useless (especially in PvE) but as you can choose not to take it, I gues its ok

Here are some of my suggestions if you are interested:
As Function Gyro and Decisive Renown are minor traits, and therefore mandatory, they could use rework as I do not see much, or any in fact, use in PvE – I mean, for first minor trait Daredevil has endurance increase, Reaper and Berzeker have modification of their skills and Chronomancer even gets extra skill!! And I am not even talking about second minor trait… Even in PvP I hardly ever used function gyro for sake – it just sucks and you are forcing it on us. Sorry about this, but Engi is my main and I am very passionate about it.

Shock shield – make it block attacks in general not just in front of you and make it attack for longer range. Animation idea :-) – dome around engineer that channels energy though the hammer into “beam” attack

Gyros – make them stick to the player, giving engineer fixed area of effect around him/her. I also like the idea of “fuel” (more gyros the faster the fuel goes down = longer/shorted duration of gyros depending on the amount of them) others are talking about.

Sneak Gyro – make it stack Might and/or Fury as well as stealth (think of ambush). Detection pulse – could cause Vulnerable / Weakness / Confusion (or combination) to affected enemies (not just the revealed ones, all affected)

There is a cloud (after 2nd teleport platform you encounter if I am not mistaken) that does not activate when I reach it = blockes my “Baby’s second adventure” achievement.

See screen.

+1

/15 chars

I was able to get all the way up to final boss (did not beat her yet, she is very tricky) with standard SD build – with some minor variations depending on boss.
But I believe that it can be done with pretty much any build, you just have to know that skills each boss have and adjust your tactic accordingly. A lot of CC also helps :-)

Getting massive lags starting around 20:00 – 21:00 (GTM+1). All other Internet services runs perfectly – TS3 (11ms, 0% packet loss), League of Legends (and I am playing on American servers) on lags what so ever.
Enclosing log.

Just got disconnected while waiting for the race to finish which resulted in loss of 50 silver – my friend and I bet on the same moa – it finished second; he got his 3 tokens I got nothing.
50 silver just when out of window, great.

Edit: Correction, he is immune to all condition after first shield pops up and get destroyed.

Mine is bugged at 10 points for some time now.
I sincerely hope that they have some background statistic because I am running various dungeons with my guild mates on daily basis so I lost a ton of achievement points on this. I would hate to see these points lost, especially now, when there are leaders.
PS: Hint completion achievement still bugged, just saying.

Hi,
1. As NevirSayDie wrote, engineer was originaly heavy armor class, dunno why they changed it but when playing my engi, I very often got feeeling like I should be wearing heavy armor, cuz my skills, in certain situations, forces me to get very close to the enemy yet I don’t have much of protection or escape mechanic. Anyhow, that is what they decided so we have to deal with it.
2. As “mid-range” class the shot gun like feeling of rifle seems ok, thou a lot of rifle model’s (including The Predator) is long rifle not short shotgun. Yeah, I would like to see hammer on my enginner as well.
3. I have this issue as well. The best I could found is Commando armor – see pvp locker (minus the shoulders and helmet; they are terrible).
4. Can’t help you with that, sorry.

Personal lvl 48 here :-)
I run FotM solely with my engi – heavy condition damage build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqal0piYH5SfF17IyoCdGoH6VexXfewWvFEC;ToAAzCpoay0koJbTumkNNqYKC
The stats are not purely Rabid, I mixed it with it with some power + vitality + crit. dmg stats as well. Bleeding’s base dmg is 103, but with constant 6 might stacks (superior sigil of battle) and some food (Lotus Fries + Tuning Crystal) it is around 125dmg.
If you are good with micromanagement you can swap Shrapnel for Enhanced performance witch basically means 9-12 stacks of might if you play it good.
However, the most important thing to know is what you are doing and what you are supposed to do! Nothing can beat that! At high level (meaning 40 and above) fractal runs you are expected to know certain things.

Few personal tips (some you probably already know):
Elixir S can negate any agony damage – except the agony received by Jade Maw.
Gear Shield can block literary any attacks, including boss’s attacks dealing agony – again, except agony from Jade Maw.
When using Greande kit, throw all grenades out with Poison grenade being last – it creates combo field; quickly swap to Pistol and “autoattack” (skill 1) through field.
Box of Nail can be used to slow charge or the warriors in Ascalon fractal.
At lvl 48 and with 45 agony resist (current max) you will go into downed state at Jade Maw. You can use Throw Elixir R to revive yourself and team mates.
With Grenade kit you can kill harpies on platforms (Uncategorized fractal) by targeting bottom side of the platform.
You can block “wind-blowing” and exploding traps during Clifside fractal with gear shield.
With Grenade kit, and careful targeting, you can destroy defense towers in Underground Facility Fractal from safe distance.

Good idea! I have been thinking about something similar as well. RNG is the only thing that I hate while playing with my engineer.
Need to stomp guardian? BAM, stealth!
Need to get away? BAM, stability!
Could use swiftness to get to teammates? BAM, protection!
Need some regen? BAM, swiftness!
And what gets me the most? Converting 5 conditions into x second swiftness while point holding!
Seriously……. either set some rules, as suggested by OP (something like Guardian’s Contemplation of Purity for Elixir C), or get rid of RNG in skills completely.

Hi,
I play the engineer basically since the release and very important thing to know, in my opinion, is that engineer does not have any reliable way to get stability. Now, he can have stability but it is either from a teammate or from random chance (Elixir C/toss Elixir C – 1 in 9 chance, toss Elixir S – 1 in 2 chance, transmute – 8% chance to converting conditions into boons AND 1 in 9 chance for stability). Since most of the engineers will have only 1 stun breaker (Elixir S or if the engineer is bunker Elixir R – thou I did not saw any engi bunker in some time) repeatable CC is way to go – hammer warriors are extremely annoying!
Also, in my personal experience, the engineer is weak against conditions that are applied repeatedly, i.e. it is better to have a way to apply several conditions (2-3 different conditions) multiple times rather than applying/stack one condition for long duration. Necromancer’s wells, Mesmer’s Chaos Storm or Ranger’s traps are good examples.
When fighting engineer, do not use burst – clever engineer can soak it up very well. Deal continuous damage rather that throwing everything on him at once (Rapid Fire or Unload for example). Watch for CCs and if possible use ranged weapons. 99.9% of all Engineers in sPvP will have Supply Drop (most OP elite skill in the game IMHO) – unless you are certain you can kill engineer VERY quickly (and I mean like in 2 or 3 seconds) never go after him when he is between his turrets! With this elite I can easily chew anyone even in 1vs2 fight.
From the builds you mentioned, and for the situation vs Engineer, I would suggest trap ranger. Shatter mesmer is cool but it relies too much on burst to kill enemy. But be smart about placing your traps; I remember one time I went vs trap ranger. That poor guy started laying traps in front of me – knowing where the traps are, I knocked him back (Overload) jumped over the traps (Jump Shot) and killed that guy in few seconds while laughing like a maniac :-)

It has some nice situational skills (fire field, aoe blind, knockback); its nice to have in certain situations, but I would not run with as “main” weapon.

125HP per second
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Backpack_Regenerator
Usefulness depends on your build ;-)

I agree with TimeBomb, you hit him pretty hard, which was pretty obvious, but with the use of protection he was able to withstand that – I don’t see any bug here.
Also, I noticed that you took damage while he was casting Earthquake – which you should not since it is channeling skill – so I would suspect some hidden skill like Magnetic Aura (reflect projectiles) or Arcane Shield (blocks up to 3 attacks then explodes). Both of these are available to Elementalist and both can be passively triggered (trait or rune + Arcane Shield is instant cast utility skill) so it might help him a bit – but I might be wrong, it is hard to see in all those effects.

I agree completely, there should be a vendor selling weapons like for every other dungeon.
I am running lvl 38 FotM daily and in several weeks I got staff, spear and long bow (none of which I can use on my Engineer BTW) + bunch of useless rings.

Totally agree with this, my friend got The Predator on his engineer and it totally stupid.

+1
And as my post must be at least 15 characters long I am adding this sentence.

Mine affected achievements:
all I have already completed under “Weapon master” (4999/5000)
Master of Overkill (299999/300000)
almost all I have already completed under “Slayer” (999/1000) (Zaitain bane and Ghost buster were not affected)
Gold Hoarder (1999999/2000000)

Lifetime survivor was not affected and Hint completion still bugged (82/83).

Just noticed this too, stuck at 82/83 competition but all hints are completed….

Here are few of mine.

Hi all,
I have found out something really strange. During recent Lost Shores event I have been experiencing huge lags and disconnects (or stuck in loading screen) but only during one time event that were occurring.
The game ran very smoothly, no lags disconnect or so, whole weekend and the very instant a one time event started (21:00 CET), at this exactly moment (almost to the second) I lagged out or get disconnected by the server. No matter how I tried to reconnect, it was always the same – lag out or disconnect. As soon as the event ended I was able to play normally again.
What is strange is that apparently it was due to my internet connection because when I connected to my brother’s wifi (very, very old and slow connection), everything was suddenly runny like a charm. What puzzles me is that I have ADSL internet connection (O2 Czech Republic) with a 8MB line (basically one the best home internet connection that is available in my country), I have never ever experienced any lags or disconnect (expect for launch), I can play massive WvW sieges without any lag and I was able to play during whole event without any connection problem, but as soon as the event started, the problems began and as soon as the event ended the problems ended – almost to the second!
Now, I know it was not due to my personal internet connection because I was talking with my friends on TS during all events and most importantly I was not alone! A friend of mine, was having exactly the same problems and he has the same type (provider) of internet connection as I do! Except for this, we have nothing in common, but for the some reason we were experiencing exactly the same problems.
As the problems should not be on my or my provider’s side, my guest is that the problem might be on server side or somewhere on the line between provider and server (Seafarer’s Rest btw). As these are the option I am not able to investigate, I could use some help. Currently, I have no problem with playing what so ever, but I am afraid that these problems might come back in next big event.

Everything was OK, the animation started and then everything just froze a loading screen poped up and that was it. I was just hanging in loading screen for like 10 minutes, then I closed the game and restarted and again it froze in loading screen. On my third attempt I managed to actual load into Lions Arch just to find I am dead and when I choosed a waypoint to respawn, I got stuck at loading screen again. I restarted the game over and over, but in the end I gave up.
Now that the “one time only epic event” is over I can finally log into a game just to find out that I missed everything. I wanted to be there, I really did and it just saddens me I wasn’t.
To more, my guild mates were talking about the event and showing the great stuff they got – for standing still during the whole vent, because they supposedly want able to do anything meaningful – and I am happy for them, I really am, but the only thing I was looking for, to simply be there, just vanished.

I am really hoping for:
- fixing 20% cooldown reduction on Mist Form
- reducing/eliminating attunment swap cooldown – I play engineer now and it is insane, I can swap to DPS (Rifle), AoE (Grenade kit), Support (Med kit), Utility (Elixir Gun) roles
- improving conjures to be usable

I agree. The kits (as well as turrets in my opinion) look rather dull on higher levels (cooler looking armors). Now, the design of the kits is great – planks, bags, barrels, bottles, cylinders and such mixed together in historical fashion – but considering fantasy setting of GW2 with races like Asura (sci-fi technology like theme) or Char (heavy metal machinery themed) – not mentioning pact weapon which look very sci-fi/technic – having the same old wood/leather/glass kits and turret all the way to your exotic/legendary items seems “not progressing” indeed.

Also, if I may add, having Asura engineer run around with plain “old” plank/black powder thing on its back seem rather strange. The same goes for Sylvari.

The options suggested by Turbo Whale seems very interesting, thou I would not like to see “buy kit skins in store for gems” as it would make Engineer the only class which would have to buy “better” looks for gems – all other skin items in store are not profession specific, so I do not count them as “have to”. Cool thing would be to have individual kit and turrets for each race – with option to acquire these race skins even if you are not from that race – plus one general “end-game” pact like skin.

Sina.9208:

Has anyone encountered Simin since the patch yesterday? Any changes? (Anet definitively changed something, since path1-2 are broken now:p)

We (guild) tried this just now – still broken. Sometimes the sparks does not “lock” in place even if we lead them exactly through the designed space, sometimes there are 6 sparks preventing the mechanic completely, sometimes it takes only 1-2 sparks to unhide the boss…….

Getting the same as well – disconnect every 30 minutes or so.

/signed

And as I need to have at least 15 characters I am adding this sentence :-)

Great post, funny yet sad at the same time.

If they nerf the ele I will… be very sad and roll a warrior.

Rainshine.5493:

Talsi.1469:

Well, it was not listed……

It was already on there. For future reference, I separated out skills and traits. Each one is alphabetized.

Awwww, sorry. Totally missed bugged trait part. My bad.

Novalight.7568:

No cantrips benefit from the cantrip mastery for idk how long now, so you didn’t find out anything new.

Well, it was not listed……

Congrats!
Sadly, the staff does not look good at all (judging from the screens and video).

Hi all,
just found another bug.
Mist Form has fixed 75 second cooldown despite of 20% cooldown reduction via Watter Magic trait Cantrip Mastery. Tooltip is updated correctly to 60 seconds but actual cooldown is still 75 seconds.
Can anyone confirm my finding?

Hi all,
dunno if it is reported already, but there is a bug related to Winged armor on human female character, where the belly is “cut” in half. It is especially noticeable during idle animation when character stretch hands upward and lean back a little bit – but it is visible other situations and angel as well.

Here is mine Elementalist.
Winged set (T4 Tailor) + CoF shoulders).

Soooo true. Why the hell did I rolled Elementalist.

Hi all,
I would like to add few thought as well. Just one note before I start: I did not read every posts in this topic, so something might be already here. I am not copying things, it just mean that we think alike.

General changes:
Elementalist should have passive ability that will add a percentage of corresponding to elemental magic trait while in specific attunement. While in Fire, there should be bonus of to Power and Expertise; while in Watter bonus to Vitality and Compassion and so on. It should also be affected by Lingering Element trait. This would allow for very specialized build around one or two elements and help with adapting to the situation as well.

Elementals (both elite and utility):
While elemental is out, the corresponding skill slot should be equipped with “detonate” skill (think of Necromancer’s minions or Engineer’s detonate turret). When this skill is used, elemental gets destroyed, small aoe damage and/or a condition should be applied. The conditions should be: Fire = burning, Air = blind, Watter=chill, Earth=bleed. This would help us with extra damage/control as well give us, to small degree, control over skill’s cool down – now we have to wait for elemental to die naturally (if he is not killed in combat) and then actual cooldown starts.

Conjures:
There has been a lot of comments around conjures and I have to agree with the most people, conjures are not much worth having in skill bar at this point. Therefore I suggest some mechanic changes for conjures. Remove “charges” mechanic, add “toggle” mechanic and divide conjures to active and passive effect:

Toggle mechanic would indicate which conjure weapon would be in swap position (see below). Ementalist would firstly “toggle” conjure weapon skill to indicate which weapon he/she want in swap position by using it – with obvious limitation of one toggled conjure weapon at time. If the Elementalist wants to switch to another conjure weapon from skill bar he/she simply uses the new conjure weapon making it “toggle” and the previous conjure weapon goes to full cooldown (60 seconds or 180 seconds for Firely Greatsword) – this should be available even if the active effect is on cooldown.

Once the skill is set into “toggle” mode, it will provide:

Passive effect would grant Elementalist option to swap to conjure weapon. The passive effect would be indefinite (and not lost upon skill activation) and the swap mechanic would work the same way as in other professions. The swap should have the same cooldown as element attunments including reduction via Arcana trait; the possibility to swap element while holding cunjured weapons should be kept as it is now.

Active effect would work the same way as it does now including cooldown and lifespawn (60 second), but minus the charges. Also, all weapons should have the same Fire axe and greatsword – effect at conjured location. Fire axe and greatsword already have this, lighting hammer = aoe blind, frost bow= aoe chill, earth shield=aoe cripple/bleed.

I believe that this would preserve original intention for these skills and add new variability since the Elementalist could now make build around specific weapon, conjure weapon/weapon combination or around swapping weapons all together.

With charges removed, the trait Conjurer needs to be updated with “Weapon-swapping recharges x seconds faster” – the same aas Warrior trait Fast Hands.

Also, I suggest tiny changes to certain conjured weapons:

Firely Greatsword:
Change 1st skill Flame Wave to Flame Blast – combo sequence with increasing damage. First use = shoot fireball at enemy, second use = shoot bigger fireball at enemy, third use = shoot exploding fireball at enemy + burning aoe.

Frost Bow:
Make all skills 1200 range. Change 1st skill Watter Arrow to Frost Arrow, removing healing effect and buffing damage little bit – possibly adding a chance to chill enemy for 1s but that might be an overkill.

Hi all,
here is my list:
1) Item prewiever for trading post
2) Add filter to divide light/medium/heavy amor at treading post.
3) Guild “message of the day” showing in chat as soon as I log-in (used to be in GW1)
4) Character makeover (gem store service) and add more options for character customization (hairstyle, beards, tattoos etc.)
5) Add “Transfer orders” gem store item allowing you to change Priory/Vigil/Whisper fraction or make their specific armor and weapons account bound (not soul bound) so that I could buy the armor with alt.
6) Add overview on “in progress” events to map (m), so that it is visible from any point of the specific map, not only from specific area of the map.
7) Better loot from explorable dungeons and world bosses.
8) Make dyes account bound.
9) Characters appearance should be the same in-game and in character selection – i.e. in character selection, the complete armor is always visible, regardless of my option on hide/show head or shoulders
10) Add Inspect function and add filter who can inspect us (friend, guild mate, everyone).
11) Add skin variety (skins, stats, rarity) to Armorsmith and Weaponsmith vendors – it is the same from lvl 1- 80). Also, unique Armorsmith skin at Granite Citadel would be sooooooo cool.
12) Add save/load template for equipment, skills and traits for sPvP – as it was in GW1.

Pistol (main and offhand) and Sword (main hand only) would be cool (and relatively reasonable) for an Elementalist!