Showing Posts For Townopolis.3607:
The discrepancy between the returns on power VS. healing is universal across all classes, so this isn’t just an issue with engineers having bad Coeffs and weak healing. If anything, it’s an issue with Anet’s stance regarding healing as a concept.
Which heals, specifically, do not scale with healing power?
Remember that there are other factors that go into which bugs get fixed when. Part of it is how serious the bug, yes, but part of it is also how difficult it is to fix and fix cleanly. Sometimes a bug fix ends up breaking something else, which may or may not be acceptable depending on what breaks.
It’s a little off-topic, but I think that we should bear in mind that support builds will, at a certain skill level, still need to provide offensive abilities. This is because groups of skilled players require less healing, condition removal, and “oh kitten” abilities to comfortably clear a dungeon. Thus, investing exclusively or too heavily in defensive support will, eventually, end up dragging your group down.
The only alternative to the above being true is to make support classes required for successful dungeon runs, which we all know Anet is against.
Luckily, offensive contribution can be achieved via boons (might & fury) and conditions (vulnerability), so it isn’t all bleak for people who want to play full support.
Those are all good points. I’ll even add that, while getting weapon stats on kits is in the works, it will likely accompany a rebalancing of said kits (most likely in the form of a nerf to base magnitudes).
Now, it isn’t guaranteed that SE will have its base healing or coefficient reduced when weapon stats on kits is implemented, but I would anticipate that being the case.
It’s interesting to note that Geyser heals more over 2 seconds than SE does over 10.
Geyser does have a smaller area, OTOH, and there are some limitations on attunements that kits don’t have, namely that you can’t just swap from fire to water and back to fire again immediately and that you can’t have geyser without also having all your other attacks be area-oriented as well. That said, kits do have their own intrinsic issues.
I think, if we’re being realistic, that a shorter-duration SE would end up healing less than Geyser does. It would likely also heal less than SE does currently, although only if compared to the full 10 seconds of the current SE.
With that in mind, I wouldn’t be wholly averse to a burstier SE.
Problem is, Healing stat is crap and you’re probably better off investing in other stats than Healing.
SE compares more favorably against regeneration at lower healing power amounts as it has higher base healing and a lower total coefficient.
If people find healing to be relatively useless as compared to just investing in damage, I’m not going to argue. I’ve managed to make group healing work for myself, but I’m aware that’s partly because that’s what I find fun and engaging. What I will argue is that SE still stands up when compared to other forms of group healing.
(edited by Townopolis.3607)
Pretty much. We seem to be getting 1 major patch per month, in the middle of the month. Also, we don’t know how easy or difficult it is to actually implement. It could be either, depending on how the game’s code is structured, so don’t be too disappointed if we don’t get stats on kits in January.
They are working on it, though. Probably.
This thread needs more numbers.
Regeneration: 130 base heal/second w/ .125 coefficient.
Super Elixir: 140 base heal/second w/ .1 coefficient + 380 base impact heal w/ .2 coefficient.
@1,040 healing (full healing gear, jewelry, & runes, plus 200 from traits—does not include weapon stats for the obvious reason)…
Regeneration: 260/sec
Super Elixir: 244/sec + 588 impact heal
… over 10 seconds…
Regeneration: 2600 healed
Super Elixir: 3028 healed (assuming subject(s) stayed in the zone the WHOLE time)
The fact that SE is a zone people have to stay in to receive the heal is the biggest issue with the ability. On the other hand, it does open up some (comparatively minor) benefit in that allies can enter the zone after the fact to receive (some) healing. Possibly more importantly, there are some situations where movement is either already restricted (bunker) or the need to move is more predictable (dungeons).
I think SE remains approximately as viable for group healing as the ability to provide group regeneration. With Kit Refinement, SE is comparable (not too unfavorably) to permanent group regeneration. It has the drawback of being a zone, but the benefit of stacking with both regeneration applied by others (if that happens) and itself (if that happens). It is also about as good for burst healing as regeneration, which is to say not very.
I still like it, and remember that it’s only 1 of 6 abilities granted by taking the EG; it isn’t entirely reasonable to expect one ability to carry the whole kit.
(edited by Townopolis.3607)
Ahh. Okay, I get it now. Thanks for the second explanation.
I’m not sure I understand Casia’s post either, but…
First, just so we’re on the same page, coefficients determine how much damage you get per point of Power. A Coeff of .5 means each point of power is .5 more damage. Thus, for example, every grenade you throw gets +1 damage/hit for every 2 Power you have.
When determining DPS, however, attack speed is important. Take two hypothetical attacks:
-One does 1000 base damage with a Coeff of .5
-The other does 400 base damage with a Coeff of .3
One of these is clearly better than the other. If, however, the first attack has a 1-second attack rate and the second attack has a .5-second attack rate, things change.
-The first attack deals 1000 base DPS and gets .5 DPS per point of Power.
-The second attack deals 800 base DPS and gets .6 DPS per point of Power.
Which means one attack is better at low power, but the other scales better.
[Edit]: … which brings up why pistols having a slower-than-advertised attack speed is such an issue.
(edited by Townopolis.3607)
Here’s what I use:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mMMzM9Mz0olNvMmlNvM9MGxGVkzosmo
That particular setup is for general situations, but the real strength of that build is that you can customize it via ability selection and major traits to have really strong CC, kiting, condition removal, or personal survivability depending on the specific needs of the dungeon.
If you want a more “one size fits all” build, I might try taking 10 points out of tools and putting them into inventions for heal-bombs. I don’t use heal-bombs myself, though, so I can’t attest to their actual efficacy.
Drop bandages while running forward to automatically scoop them up and heal yourself. If someone is applying poison to you, drop the antidote first (And hope it doesn’t remove that single stack of bleed instead). Drop the stimulant (still running forward) after bandaging and return to the fight.
Do this every 12 seconds (the CD on bandages) for significantly improved survivability. Seriously, this is the best heal skill for solo play hands down. In groups, a well-played turret can work wonders, but for taking care of yourself? Nothing beats Medkit.
[Edit]: Bandages can (and probably should) be dropped before/between combats, but it’s also very effective in the middle of a fight to “bandage tank.”
I find bombs preferable to FT, but anyways.
Speccing into Tools, 20 or 30 points will give you access to Kit Refinement (great with EG and okay with Toolkit), Speedy Kits, and Power Tools. You can spec to 20 and pick any two of those or go all the way to 30 and take all 3.
If you pick up Speedy Kits, putting 10 into Alchemy for Invigorating Speed is good, especially if you swap kits often and are decent at dodging. Also, Protection Injection is quite good.
If you want to stick with FT, I recommend the full 30 in Firearms. Juggernaut is great for anyone who makes significant use of FT, and you can pick up good support traits along the way.
Currently, Rifled Barrels is bugged to increase weakness from the EG to 3 seconds instead of 1. It also reduces the bleed from 4 seconds to 3, but one of those conditions is better than the other (hint: weakness is better), especially when we’re talking group support. Against champions, you can actually maintain permanent weakness yourself (the duration is halved to .5 seconds or 1.5 with the trait, the dart has a firing speed of .8 seconds), and against everyone else it lets you stack a few darts and then move on to other, rewarding kits and abilities.
Lots of folks consider Grenades to be the be-all and end-all of DPS, and bombs are great melee support (and area denial in PvP). If you feel like switching to these… full 30 in Explosives. Grenadier is great for grenades, and you can still take Autobomb Dispenser if you decide not to take grenades (it’s good, just not as good as Grenadier). The other really juicy trait is actually the 25-point minor. Grenades start stacking vulnerability like nobody’s business.
Hope this helps.
I would love to have some sort of movement ability when downed. Perhaps I’m spoiled from playing a mesmer previously, but the ability to get out of a melee cluster when downed is a huge advantage (the stealth helps a ton too). That said, while the idea of Grappling Line pulling you somewhere else sounds cool, I worry about implementation? I had an idea that maybe it pulls you to the nearest friendly player/ally/turret, but what if there are none? It becomes useless. Would it pull you to your target? How useful is that compared to pulling your target to you (aside from potentially getting you out of damage zones).
Some other ideas I had were an emergency “turret” that heals/protects you, but the healing idea is just guardian’s #3, and the protection idea seems… weak. How about an “Elixir D” that grants you a random boon? Then again, getting anything other than regeneration would be incredibly frustrating. Maybe you transform yourself into a mobile slime… but that’s basically the elementalist #2.
Yeah, right now I’m just spitballing and trying to encourage constructive thought on the downed state.
Would you kindly link your build? I usually run dps, and I’m interested to see what other engineers are using in support roles in dungeon/fractal groups.
As mentioned, the strength I find in the “build” is that it can be altered mid-dungeon to become a different type of support; it’s very reactionary.
[Edit]: Clicking on the links will give a bad link message. Try copy-pasting them.
If I’m expecting heavy conditions, I might go full condition removal.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQJAqelspqbHwShF17IxIFfuzhUYfDL6Rlp8jB;TsAgzCmoOyck4I7RujkHN24sxsBA
If I want more control against a large group, I might take this setup.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQJAqelIq6Z38ShF17IxIFdmzhUYfDL6RlzvlB;TsAgzCmoOyck4I7RujkHN24sxsBA
I can also Kite one or two mobs (usually unshakable melee) pretty well, if that will be key to a fight.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUl0picnrShF87IxIFdW0hUYfBL6Rl1f+B;TsAgzCmoOyck4I7RujkHN24sxsBA
Finally, I can do pretty well if I’m just looking to, for whatever reason, survive at any cost.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQJAqel0pqbnvShF17IxIFd+zhUgfDL6Rl1f+B;TsAgzCmoOyck4I7RujkHN24sxsBA
[Edit]: You may notice that some of those setups involve a lot of changes from one to the other. I tried to present the most extreme and focused possibilities.The reality is that I’ll often leave my traits configured for the most common or most demanding part of a dungeon and then just adjust my skillbar for the other bits. It’s only when my group gets to a particularly problematic fight that I go all-out.
(edited by Townopolis.3607)
This isn’t a dungeon build, no but the same trait-point allocation (0/0/20/30/20) also makes a very useful and flexible dungeon support/control build.
The downside of such a build is that you’ll usually be slotting 1 or 2 subpar traits when you want to focus on one task (control, condition removal, general healing, survivability). The upside is that you can create a strong setup for any of those tasks or generalized support.
I’m getting a bad link message.
1: No.
2: No. It makes you immune to new conditions, but any preexisting conditions remain and have their full effect.
I don’t know the answers to 3 and 4.
Since your basic shotgun looks very similar to your basic rifle, I have no trouble using most of the non-predator (or Whispers) rifles as a shotgun. If you want two barrels and are okay with a vertical arrangement, the bandit rifle or invader’s rifle are both pretty good.
Yes.
Don’t neglect your vitality and toughness, though.
Incidentally, I would love to see a video tutorial of that.
Here’s the thing about the Rocket Boots self-CC. It’s very short. The skill gets me out of whatever death-zone you tried to lock me in, be it a dragon’s fang, stacked wells, 100b, or a dungeon boss using their own roided-up version of any of these. Rocket Boots gets me out and then, a moment later, I’m up again. I’ve only ever encountered CC in two versions: the kind I just sort of ignore and the kind that has me sitting down eating kitten for multiple seconds. Rocket Boots is always preferable.
Perhaps people who only play tPvP will dislike the skill, will be averse to any ability that includes self-CC, but I have a lot of trouble believing anyone who says Rocket Boots will “never be useful” because it is useful. It is very useful.
We also get Rocket Boots, which is Lightning Reflexes on a shorter CD. Slightly different side-effects, but the sides serve the same essential purpose and the core functionality (break stun and create space) is the same.
We also get Elixir S, which is Mist Form on a shorter CD.
I can’t speak much as to the specific traits Mug and Acidic Elixirs, but something tells me Mug affects one skill, while Acidic Elixirs can affect up to 4. Something also tells me that every ability affected by Acidic Elixirs is an area attack, while I’m pretty sure Steal is single-target. Don’t quote me on that, though.
Different classes have different strengths and weaknesses. As it turns out, thieves are really good at single target DPS by design, and engineers have, by design, lots of versatility.
Consider that toolkit has always given 4 abilities plus a #1 attack whereas, for example, Caltops and Scorpion Wire give 1 ability each.
As it turns out, turrets are not currently considered a “good” part of our DPS and healing. I understand the preference for DPS is some combination of a grenade kit and self-buffing, such as using Elixir B and the Utility Goggles. Many people also reserve at least one slot for a stun break—the aforementioned goggles, Rocket Boots, Elixir S, or Elixir R.
The Healing Turret is used for healing, but most people pick it back up immediately as doing so reduces the cooldown by 25%, and people like having a strong, instant heal on a 15-second cooldown. Few people regularly use the healing turret as an actual turret.
What I, personally, have found turrets useful for is providing a brief distraction or nominal DPS while I feverishly Med Kit myself during story missions where mobility isn’t a contributing factor. In other words, I use them only when I cannot run away but want to.