Guild Wars 2

So which is it? Useless AI junk, or fair enough? X)

Increase its radius, or make it move more often, or something. Most of the time when I place it, it just sits there as I run, missing me with the first and often second pulse of stealth. T_T And if it manages to catch up to me due to Cripple, or Immobilize, or changing direction, it stays put for another few seconds, causing yet more of its stealth to be wasted.

I don’t recall Grenades hitting frequently enough to cause it, but Flamethrower is notorious for the fact that the damage accumulates on the floating number even between autoattacks, resulting in huge numbers that mislead people into thinking it has much better damage than it actually has (that is to say, “worthwhile”). Same thing may be happening with Grenade Kit (though that damage actually IS worthwhile).

To be fair, how often do you see successful core Guardians, either? Rangers? Thieves? Just about everyone utilizes their elite specialization.

Our Toolbelt helps to offset that to a pretty substantial degree, I feel. Perhaps some aren’t really an equal trade (Orbital Strike is pretty basic, for example), but the Toolbelt skills often provide plenty of extra functionality that other classes don’t get to see out of their skills, such as Elixir X; you get a Rampage or Tornado, as well as Moa. That’s two elites in one skill. I certainly wouldn’t object to getting more options, but I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem.

It’s not like we have anything to switch to.

I don’t know about this specific approach, particularly in terms of actually programming it to work that way, but I agree that it needs to incorporate Burning on every tick instead of just the last one.

Corwin.6397:

(bear gives 8sec of invulnerability for example)

It’s not nearly that potent, I’m afraid, at least according to the Wiki’s information. It’s 3 seconds of immunity to physical attacks; conditions and crowd control can still slam you. You can get another damage-immunity ability by taking a Stout pet (in this case, Black Bear), but it’s 4 seconds of the same thing.

Absolutely. I’d definitely end up buying more slots, too, as I’m a fairly flip-floppy fellow.

Y’ever seen a real sniper in a ghillie suit? Sylvari is a fantastic fit!

Dardamaniac.1295:

“Emergency food supply” on a bear..the best ive ever seen so far…

Cormaq.1742:

Mine are both called “Golem Gone Wrong”, I’m Asura ofc

Bombsaway.7198:

“Please Work”. That was funny

Henry.5713:

Tiger – Charr In Training

These ones all made me laugh. XD

My pet names are heavily themed after my “Toolbox” moniker.

Blue Moa – Unmanned Jackhammer
Brown Bear – Wheeled Anvil
Polar Bear – Mobile Refrigerator
Arctodus – Walking Workbench
Lynx – Springloaded Drill
Jaguar – Pneumatic Holepunch
Tiger – Gaspowered Hammer
Carrion Devourer – Rusty Leafblower
Lashtail Devour – Motorized Staplegun
Sylvan Hound – Aspercreme Shooter
Hyena – Replication Device
Wolf – Rickety Woodchipper
Marsh Drake – Automated Tablesaw
River Drake – Robotic Generator
Jungle Spider – Tetanus Nailgun
Boar – Slow Charging Taser
Warthog – Compact Septic Tank
Siamoth – Gas Engine Exhaust (Apparently “Pipe” is censored in pet names! What a joke!)
Pig – Chemical Scanner
Electric Wyvern – Tungsten Arc Welder
Fire Wyvern – Oxyacetylene Welder
Bristleback – Rapid Fire Nailgun
Smokescale – Modified Shopvac

When I tried stacking up Choking Gas on the testing golem in Fractals of the Mist, the Break Bar didn’t go down any faster when using three fields versus one. I don’t think multiple fields take effect.

Vitali.5039:

Seems nice, but for the stealth attack?

I hadn’t considered that! Perhaps a combination Boon Removal + Stun with low damage, firing automatically if Stealth is lost mid-charge (can the game make that distinction? Perhaps another approach would be needed). One Boon removed and 1/2-second Stun per Initiative spent.

When the ability is just tapped quickly, it’s a pretty basic interrupt ability that, due to Boon Removal, goes past Stability. When charged up, it’s a substantial wrench in the works for the enemy. If they lack a Stunbreak, it could easily spell death if they’re currently locked in combat with one of your teammates.

However, charging it high enough to have such a large impact requires either spending your long-cooldown Shadow Refuge, or taking a chunk of time to set up with Dagger/Pistol’s stealth combo (which then means you have no Shortbow).

Esquilax.3491:

The thing is both Rev and DH had bursty long ranged attacks with the intro of HoT and elite specs via coalesce of ruin and True Shot, they were both promptly and repeatedly nerfed into the ground thanks to pvp.

So I can’t for the life of me even begin to fathom how Anet plans to implement a sniper spec which the very identity SHOULD be long range bursty attacks.

I fully expect the weapon to be underwhelming like Hammer or Bow for the respective classes.

Which is why I’m thinking any spike ability should have a very obvious tell on it, as shown with the laser sight and delayed-fire/crosshair-warning. I don’t do much PvP in GW2 (at least not successfully), but having playing numerous other PvP games, I know that the most infuriating thing to go against is a sniper, as there’s typically no counterplay whatsoever. That’s what I was hoping to prevent with how I offered up the spike damage ability here; obvious warnings and indicators of an incoming shot that tell you exactly when to dodge or take cover (and where to take cover from as well), and take an acceptable amount of setup and/or teamwork to be able to hit with.

Swiftwynd.1685:

I think you will love my headcannon Deadeye spec im putting together. Ill share you the google doc in a PM later when i get time after work. Interestingly we have similar ideas on several of the rifle skills, but my minor traits and major traits are where the actual healing and supportive elements of the spec are found. Basically, a bounty hunter mechanic of healing allies and granting boons on a successful kill. Also 50% bonus damage on Downed foes, making it an excellent elite spec to assist with killing people in PVP and WVW from a distance rather than traditional stomping, and against Downed foes in PVE if they ever revusut that mechanic.

Looking forward to it! The main thing I’m concerned about in how you presented it is the requirement for a kill to provide support; if you’re up against a big Legendary enemy or something, your support won’t ever come into play. And who needs support against smaller enemies? As a selectable trait, perhaps, but it’s got its flaws if implemented as a core method of support.

YuiRS.8129:

Which is why I don’t think it will be a bursty sniper, but rather a utility based E-spec. Engineer 2.0 teef edition.

Well, that’s pretty much what I’m hoping for! Just with one ability that IS set up for being bursty. :P And not little baby peashooter damage like Warrior’s Killshot; I’m talkin’ insta-down if fully charged. X) The major tells would, I believe, keep it from being at all overpowered. Heck, I’d say that much warning makes it borderline-unusable for PvP stuff, unless you’ve got some major cooperation going on with your teammates. o_o Unless your Utilities work out well for it.

Which is why I was thinking of turrets as a new utility, actually, though the loss of Overcharge on Engineer turrets is a potential disruption. If the turrets can be set up to give some crowd control, either as an Overcharge or a detonation (both things that can be used mid-ability, such as charging a shot), that provides the Thief with a way to make use of their shots without depending entirely on teammates.

I’m quite hoping for a support/DPS setup on the coming elite specialization. Something with a good amount of supportive options for various situations, and a unique way of going about applying them. To that end, the setup I’m dreaming of is…

All five rifle abilities take Initiative. Even the auto-attack. Most are also chargeable, consuming one Initiative per “tick”, and multiplying their power by the Initiative spent. 1500 range, but able to go beyond similar to Ranger’s Longbow.

- Ability 1: Create Opening: Does moderate damage to an enemy, and inflicts a debuff basically identical to Vulnerability in function, but being able to stack with it, giving Thieves a class-specific contribution to fights outside of their maddeningly high damage. Charging it multiplies the damage, as well as both the debuff stacks and duration, meaning that full charges will give higher effectiveness and uptime. Or not, who knows? :P
- Ability 2: Cover Fire: Rather than charging, holding the button attacks repeatedly, dealing moderate damage and giving the enemy a debuff that reduces their outgoing damage and condition damage.
- Ability 3: Healing Round: Does low damage to an enemy, and heals all allies around them similar to Elementalist’s Water Staff #1. Charging it multiplies the damage and healing amounts, as well as increasing the healing radius.
- Ability 4: Explosive Round: Does moderate damage in an area centered around the targeted enemy. Charging it multiplies the damage, and increases the damage radius.
- Ability 5: Line Up The Shot: Does high damage to the target. I mean high. Charging multiplies the damage. While charging, a beam shows up between the Thief and the target. Once finished charging, the beam disappears and the target gets a crosshair above their head for one second before the shot actually fires.

As for the class mechanic change: Initiative no longer regenerates automatically. Instead, the Thief gets an F3 ability, Reload, which replenishes all Initiative on a two-second cast time, no cooldown.

Utility skills, there are so many cool ones available. XD I kinda like the idea of Turrets; supportive debuff-ones that can help set up enemies for rifle kills, with ranged deployment like the old Engineer trait used to give.

That’s my dream! Time to be berated by every single PvPer and raider out there. FLAME ON!

Since the start of the game, all Turrets have been less of turrets and more of single-use gadgets that you slap down for the Overcharge and/or detonation, not something you set up to help you hold an area. There was one very small reason to leave them down; Overcharge cooldowns were sometimes faster than the Turret’s cooldown itself.

Now, even that incredibly small reason is gone.

Might I propose something to make it worth leaving your Turrets going instead of detonating them immediately? Give the Overcharge a cooldown once more, kept track of by the Turret itself instead of the player. Every time the Overcharge comes off cooldown, it triggers again and gets a stacking buff that reduces the cooldown the next time around. Leave it up long enough, and it’ll be in permanent Overcharge mode. This makes it slightly dangerous to leave an Engineer to their own devices for too long, but not very since Turrets are still fragile little heaps of junk that can be pretty easily removed when it comes times to do so.

I’ve been waiting since the game’s release for some kind of change that makes it worth keeping Turrets alive, and with this step backwards, I’m definitely a little frustrated.

Sly.9518:

Why would Thief have to have a large Tell for Burst from range when no other class that can burst from range have anything similar?

Because I’d imagine a Thief burst attack that can consume as high as 15 Initiative to power it would do a lot, lot more damage than something like Warrior’s Kill Shot. In a PvP situation, that could be infuriating if it has no counterplay, even if it does take a while to charge up. I’d much rather have tells of that sort and have to have teammates keep the enemy locked down to really thrive than have some relatively shoddy peashooter than only nicks their health bar.

I’ve always figured that “the” spike damage skill of a Sniper Thief would be something that’s charged over time using Initiative, draws a blatantly obvious sniper laser of sorts between the Thief and their target, and then takes a second or so to actually fire once the charge is complete, with some sort of indication during that second that they’re done charging; the laser goes away, or a target appears above the victim’s head, something like that. Huge warning that it’s coming, super easy to dodge if you aren’t just spamming your dodges, the laser makes it clear where you can move to for cover even without dodging. Other Rifle skills are then more suited to crowd control and debuffs, which can make it easier to land the damage skill, but use up the Initiative that might otherwise make it truly deadly.

At least, that’s how I’ve always envisioned it and hoped it to be. I’m not nearly as worried about it being imbalanced as everyone else, here… What I AM worried about is it being really disappointing, missing the things I’m really hoping for which are Ranger-Longbow-esque range, spike damage, and supportive capabilities. It’s a lot to ask.

I have faith that they’ll work out how to make it balanced. My hope is that it is indeed partially focused on spike damage, but also a good deal on support. A unique type of Vulnerability, for instance, stacking with existing Vulnerability to give them a supportive approach to higher-end PvE content. And of course, I pray that it will have extended range similar to Ranger’s Longbow, because I’d have a hoot with that.

Might sound like too much to ask, but there’s always a way to make things balanced. The single-dodge seems like one effective way; gaining offensive capability for a severe reduction in defense.

I used to main Engineer, as well as occasionally hopping over to Ranger and Elementalist. Then I finally played Thief, with its absolutely ridiculous movement speed and the Initiative system and its usage of my two favorite weapons, dagger and pistol… And now I can’t bring myself to play anything else.

If you’re looking for a passive ranged class, you might actually quite like a Condition-based Scepter/Pistol Mesmer. It’s certainly not “meta”, as its damage falls behind amongst fully-buffed individuals and Mesmers are expected to play supportively in Raids and the like, but when you’re in smaller groups, open-world groups, or solo, it can actually put out a very large amount of damage comparatively.

It takes a short time to get your Pistol’s Phantasms out, but once they’re all spawned, you don’t have to do much else except respawn one in the rare occasion that it dies.

Main problems with it outside of its non-Meta status… Mesmers as a whole have pretty low movement speed due to a lack of Swiftness (though taking Signet of Inspiration and a Focus in your second weapon set can get you just shy of 100% uptime), and it can be rather slow to defeat groups of small enemies when simply traversing the map due to a lack of AoE functionality mixed with its need to build up illusions for maximum damage.

If your wife focuses on Druid and uses a nicely survivable pet, you should be able to pair up well with her pet keeping the enemy’s attention, her keeping the pet going, and you unloading relatively high damage on the enemy, at least in boss situations. You yourself won’t be super durable, but with the distraction of your wife’s pet and your own illusions, you hopefully shouldn’t have to even worry about the enemy trying to attack you.

Here’s the main framework of the build I’d used: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAra8NnsICFohNoBWoBlcDpMAo/WOD-TRhPABZq+DS6BAY/hNV+lvSQA-e Anything not filled in either isn’t terribly important, or has a number of options. For example, the third specialization could go to any of Chaos, Inspiration, or Chronomancer, as they all have their own benefits.

Chaos helps to simply increase damage and survivability, as well as stealth capability if you take Prismatic Understanding as well as use a Torch instead of the Focus… This can help with group damage a little bit, as the Phantasm on the Torch fires a bouncing projectile that Burns enemies. Still not super high damage in the short term, though, and you may be better off using the Focus’ ability to clump up enemies with Temporal Curtain and the Sword’s #2 ability. I know that’s not ranged, but smaller enemies tend to be easy enough to deal with, and the process is still pretty simple.

Inspiration can give your Focus improved functionality by reducing its cooldowns and giving both abilities projectile reflection, useful for certain bosses and for hitting the 100% Swiftness uptime mark. It also has a number of healing-oriented traits. Beyond those, though, it’s not super-impactful to the build; it’s mostly the Focus part that stands out.

Chronomancer has a few benefits; for one, you get a passive 25% increase to your movement speed, largely negating the need to the Focus to give yourself Swiftness, and opening up the Signet of Inspiration slot for something like Blink to move around a tad faster. If you’re willing to dance your fingers around the keyboard a bit, it can also let you get all of your Phantasms out right at the start of a fight by using Continuum Split, Phantasm, Phantasm, Signet of the Ether, Phantasm. And there a number of smaller potential benefits that I’ll leave you to explore on your own, as they’re all largely a matter of preference.

Hopefully that helps. X)

Vudoo.9405:

My Charr thief, Zuko Balefang! I tried to go for a hunter/bounty hunter look

Can’t let you do that, Star Fox!

Are there any consumable items better than the Pot of Hylek Poison (10 seconds on a 15-second cooldown) for movement speed? Higher uptime, or especially, lower commitment. Even if the speed boost is just 25% instead of Swiftness. I’m using Mesmer, and it takes a substantial amount of effort and sacrifice to get around unless I take Chronomancer, which I don’t want to do for everyday play.

I’ve recently taken an interest in Mesmer, so I looked up a few guides and found that they all say Power is absolutely the way to go.

But, that’s definitely not what I’m finding. In testing between the two in the Fractal lobby using an idle champion-rank training golem, the condition build doles at damage at a good two-to-three times the rate of any power variation I attempted… It even deals around 150% of my full-Berserker Daredevil.

Now, admittedly, the power build is at quite a disadvantage; because I can’t really afford to spend frivolously, the body equipment is exotic Rampager’s gear, and the runes are Runes of the Krait. Additionally, the condition build gets exotic Giver’s Scepter and Pistol, whereas the power build gets lowly green Berserker weapons. The trinkets, at least, are full-Ascended Berserker for the power build, and Sinister for the condition build.

Condition build’s traits are…
– Illusions
– - Compounding Power (+3% damage and +50 Condition Damage per illusion)
– - Phantasmal Haste (Illusions attack 20% more often)
– - Malicious Sorcery (Scepter attacks 20% faster)
– Dueling
– - Duelist’s Discipline (Phantasmal Duelist gains 50% chance to cause bleeding per hit)
– Chaos
– - Chaotic Transference (Gain 10% of Toughness as Condition Damage)

Power build’s traits are…
– Illusions
– - Compounding Power (+3% damage and +50 Condition Damage per illusion)
– - Phantasmal Haste (Illusions attack 20% more often)
– Dueling
– - Phantasmal Fury (Illusions have permanent Fury)
– - Fencer’s Finesse (Basically 150 Ferocity)
– Domination
– - Empowered Illusions (Illusions deal 15% more damage)

I’ve got the Condition Damage and Duration Signets slotted in both cases, as well.

In both cases, I’m simply summoning the relevant Phantasm (Pistol for Condition, offhand Sword for Power) and autoattacking. I’m sure there are more potent ways to go about it, but I didn’t see anything particularly impactful to incorporate into a rotation.

Now, I know it’s far from optimal, and the Power setup definitely has a disadvantage due to the gear, but I find it hard to believe that the gear can be the reason for such a huge difference between the two. What all am I doing wrong, here? What makes Power builds so much more favorable?

Engineer has so much ability and potential to go against the grain… I want to see mainhand shield.

I used to use such micromanagement on Ranger’s Greatsword autoattack all the time for an extension to the evade frames. X) Figured Thief’s reflection could be used the same way, but have not made good use of it just yet. :P

Langdon.9738:

No I this is not adept ripoff from MonsterHunter.

Exactly what I was thinking it was. XD Liar!

Supposedly, the next Elite Specialization (whenever the blazes THAT comes out) will use a Rifle. I’ve been hoping that it’ll have some nice support abilities tied into it, primarily in the form of unique enemy debuffs tied in with the weapon skills. Like an anti-Might and/or a unique version of Vulnerability that stacks with the existing Condition.

Midontto.5847:

Now for utility…I was thinking of Stance as an option but it would feel pretty awkward for continually taking Warrior’s skill types. So I would say something completely new that I don’t know yet.

Kiiiiits.

It only applies to your next hit after using the Venom, and the next hit of any allies affected by it. I’m not sure if the duration stacks between players, I’m afraid, but I know it hits Break Bars pretty hard when you have a team around you.

Azukas.1426:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Azukas.1426:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Sorry but nice try. Seeing how you can’t perma stealth with staff or perma evade with it either because punish frames are a thing

Good players running staff don’t vault but abuse the dodge > 3 combo along with proper use of 4.

How does that apply to what i you quoted me saying?

I’m not spelling it out for you. Figure it out on your own

Yeah, no, I don’t get it either. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to be responsible for communicating clearly.

Yes yes yes yes yes. XD I’ve been disappointed with turrets since beta. And I’ve made quite a few suggestions myself about letting them become more powerful the longer they’re alive, so that you can actually utilize them as a form of pre-planned area denial. I would LOVE to see this.

Oh, I certainly agree, I was just pointing out that there was slightly more against Stealth Gyro than you had brought up. X) Not enough to offset it, but just an “interest of fairness” sort of thing. I don’t think Shadow Refuge needs to be mobile, either, but making it so that it doesn’t give away your position quite so forcefully would certainly be a good thing. And, again, wouldn’t complain about a reduced cooldown, either. :P

Well, let’s be fair here, Fyre. Sneak Gyro is also highly visible, and destroyable at that. However, I do agree that the reveal needs to go, and maybe get a lower cooldown as well.

I didn’t want to cause a quarrel… ;-;

I’ll certainly check one out. Though, I always love getting more information, so if anyone else has something to add, it’d be greatly appreciated! ^^ Especially if I’m wrong regarding Thief’s support/control/durability potential. X)

Fluffball.8307:

Banners and Phalanx Strength are staples of group support. They also have good damage. And you can trust a total noob to play a warrior well since they’re so simple. Really warriors have excelled at nearly everything since launch.

Huh! I’ll be honest, Warrior didn’t even cross my mind because I knew their team-healing was really low. Hadn’t thought of the OTHER aspects of support. X) Thanks for the suggestion!

Fluffball.8307:

Warrior. It’s been the most consistent profession in GW2’s history. Very rarely is it out of meta in any game mode.

Really? o.o Is it just for their damage, or can they provide good support?

I always like to be useful. In other games, I do this by going with the most versatile class, where I can switch off between damage, tanking, support, and control on-the-fly. With GW2, though, it’s hard to figure out which class qualifies for that. X) Engineer and Elementalist are touted as the masters of versatility, but I’m not so sure they really can handle the various roles that might need to be filled in dungeons, Fractals, open world, raids (which I’ve yet to partake in), WvW, etc.

So, basically, which classes are always welcome in some capacity? Ranger seems somewhat promising, with its high-end support setups via Druid, considerable durability when built for it, and-… Deeecentish damage? I dunno where they rank on that, admittedly. Not sure about their control potential, either.

Elementalist certainly has the damage. I know it can put out some nice healing, but I’m not sure how useful that actually is. And then durability, with low HP and the lowest armor class, doesn’t seem very promising. I’m not sure how they rate in regards to control, either.

Engineer’s got damage, and I know it can be pretty durable as well. And their crowd control abilities are top notch. Not sure how it fares on support, though, compared to other classes. I know Healing Turret puts out some decent group healing, and Sneak and Bulwark Gyros can help the team survive, but do they bring anything else to the table that people might want for their groups?

Revenant kinda seems promising, though I’m quite unfamiliar with them overall. Heavy armor and multiple lifesteals seem good for durability, and Herald and Ventari look like they’d be quite good at team support. Are these assumptions correct? How do they do at damage or control?

Would anything else be a contender in this venture? Guardian, Necromancer? I’d love to be told that Thief would work, as I adore that speed, but as far as I can tell, they’ve got just about jack-squat in the support department.

So, anyone with more understanding of group content and what’s “acceptable”, please bequeath upon me your knowledge! X)

Lonami.2987:

Kaizoku.1298:

new weapon – shield mainhand

No jokes, shield main-hand could really work, and wouldn’t be any hard to implement. Just mirror off-hand shield animations through the skeleton and there you are. Then limit shield usage to one at a time, preventing dual-wielding.

But I WANT to dual-wield shields. Nowhere else lets me do it, either.

I’ve been getting a bit bored with Engineer, since it’s all I use. But any time I try to use any other class, I find myself missing this or that trick available to Engineer. How does one convince themselves to use anything else, especially with a hard-on for versatility?

Normally, when you hold down both the left and right mouse buttons, you’ll run forward. Problem is, my hands are VERY twitchy. As a result, I often find myself running off of ledges in jumping puzzles and the like. Is there a way to disable this function?

Very much want something like this, yes. I suggested something similar a while back, except where the effects of 2-5 were applied to #1 in a manner similar to Thief Venoms. The way you suggest it here is far more straightforward. X)

Somewhat like the old Mortar? That could be an awesome skill type for a new Elite Specialization, I’d love it. XD But it’s still not the upgradeable time-investment-reliant forward-base-create-y playstyle I so deeply long for!

Oh, I wasn’t saying that the picked-up-turret moveset should be the focus; the abilities granted would have no immediate combat usage like a Kit, Conjure, or even Banner. Rather, the moveset is there only to aid in the improvement and positioning of the turret itself, including things like improving the fire rate on the Net Turret.

Zone control/area denial is exactly my desire. :P Right now, Turrets are just single-shot multi-purpose gadgets. You don’t place them down with any intention of keeping them around for more than their first attack. That’s not like turrets in other games, where you use them to effectively stake a claim on the area; GW2 Turrets are just another basic use-it-when-you-need-it-and-then-wait-out-the-cooldown ability. They’re reactive, not proactive. Even Mesmer Mantras have more in common with your typical turret than Engineer Turrets do.

Incorporating Chaos Fields could be neat, I certainly enjoy how many fields and finishers Engineer has access to. But I don’t think it’d do a lot towards controlling a zone. X) Furthermore, having the field appear when the Turret is destroyed just further encourages a place-and-break playstyle, rather than encouraging keeping the Turret alive for any length of time.

I know Turrets are pretty much set in their role of “disposable Knockback/Blast Finisher entity”, now, but I’m still disappointed in how non-turret-like they are. Their low impact is matched only by their low health, making it so that they can’t hold an area worth dirt.

A flat-out boost to effectiveness isn’t really a good idea, though, as it’s so easy to place them. Any simple boost could take them too far in the other direction. With such a basic fire-and-forget system, they HAVE to be weak or else they’re a mindless ability type. There’s little commitment to making them work, as opposed to the positioning and timing of more active abilities.

So… What if they were like Elementalist Conjures or, moreso, like Warrior Banners? Pick them up and get a moveset while carrying them… But not anything offensive. Instead, picking it up would give the options to 1) place it back down, 2) THROW it like the old Deployable Turrets version, 3) reclaim the turret for a reduced cooldown, and 4) upgrade the turret. Damage, health, attack frequency, etc. Such an approach allows for the return of more strategic placement with ranged deployment, as well as letting you invest a little bit of time into giving them an actual battlefield presence. AND lets you move the turrets along the battlefield, instead of having the longer-cooldown ones see little use due to their tremendous downtime.

Main issue, I’d suppose, is if the upgraded turrets were quite strong, then combined with the ranged deployment for a mobile death zone. Though it’d still take considerable time investment to get to that point. One further option to limit the effectiveness of such a thing is to reduce the range on throwing turrets for each upgrade level the turret receives, so that it can’t be moved as far, as fast.

I miss when it was a kit with 5 individual mines. o.o

Wander.5780:

I feel like the AI is too unpredictable to be reliant on it in any regard. I cant speak for pvp but in pve it is terrible… you’re better off using toss Elixir S for reliable stealth.

I feel that’s a tremendous exaggeration. X)

Sneak Gyro can be a bit clunky, but when you know how it functions, you can still rely on it. It could most certainly be improved, but its behavior doesn’t render it useless, especially in PvE.

I’ve played basically nothing but Charr, except for just a tiny bit of Human after launch, so I don’t have much of a reference point, but I like Charr stuff. XD But, I will say that torso armor is a PAIN to pick out. There are very few good options. The few things that look at all Engineer-y are halfway between shirt and trenchcoat, so that you look like you’re wearing something that shrunk in the wash, or a skirt or something. Very frustrating at times. Compared to the full coat variations on all other classes, with the same skins, it becomes a little disheartening. But, I’m hoping they’ll release something tech-y looking that ISN’T part of a full, anti-customization outfit set, that also doesn’t cover up your gloves. Someday, someday…!

That’s why my signature is what it is right now. :P I’ve certainly noticed how every single class forum seems to be talking about how little the developers care.

…

That said, I most certainly pity Rangers more than the rest. Druid and the new pets were pretty awesome in Beta, but it’s just been downhill every step of the way from there. X) Whereas I can understand lack of changes due to lack of time, Ranger just keeps getting suckerpunched over and over again. Ranger doesn’t have a lack of change, it’s an excess of bad change.

I’ve explained some of my bizarre equipment, such as Fused Gauntlets, as using juryrigged Weapon Sigils to accomplish various effects. But is that actually viable? Has there been any sort of lore explanation on how Sigils actually work? Runes, too, for that matter.