Guild Wars 2

You have to be in another attunement to proc Fresh Air. So you’d have to cast your overload, swap to another attunement, then swap back. Wait 5 seconds, then cast the overload again. It’s finnicky and not that strong, since air’s overload is adjusted to take that into account. It’s a decent way to stack aoe vulnerability, but not the best.

Choppy.4183:

BartHomer.7512:

OKAY A-NET SO WARRIOR (HEAVY ARMOUR CLASS) can HAVE a single skill THAT gives PERMANENTTTTT vigor

Which skill is this? Enquiring warriors want to know!

Signet of Stamina. Its passive is 50% faster endurance regen, the same as having 100% vigor uptime. Of course, the active is a full condi clear on yourself. But then you’re out of vigor for 45 seconds (36 traited). Warriors have enough access to condi cleanse that the active isn’t needed, so it’s safe to just keep it on your bar for the endurance regen. But… You do lose out on a utility slot that could be used for a banner, shouts, clutch CC, or buffing stances that have a more dramatic effect on the course of battle.

Cynz.9437:

wait wait wait did someone just say mesmer elite F5 is bad? waattttttttttt????
Wasdclick, you can’t be serious…. F5 on mes is AMAZING, i tried chrono during BWE O_o

I was summarizing people’s kneejerk reactions to their profession mechanics after their reveals. The point was to show that everyone had complaints about their profession’s core functionality, and that everyone else’s stuff looks so shiny and sweet when you’re focused in so heavily on your own profession.

The F5 is fantastic, but it can still get you killed.

nopoet.2960:

New mechanics:
Guardian – Virtues that project physically in the world
Revenant – Channel a dragon! also a pbaoe that makes boons last longer
Warrior – Fire empowered berserk burst skills
Engineer – Mechanically assisted range finisher and reviver
Ranger – God like healing
Elementalist – Fire tornados, water bubble, lightning striking , earth quake riding madness
Mesmer – Time travel
Necromancer – Improved demonic state

Thief – dodges …..

Guardian – An F1 that will never get used because passive burning is too strong, an F2 that is a mobility skill on a 50 second cooldown, and an F3 that’s an anti-projectile wall on a 75 second cooldown…

Revenant – An entirely new class, but it’s profession mechanic is an F2 toggle that grants bonus boon duration or a situational short burst of boons. You can try to sugar-coat it by saying the profession mechanic is all the heal, utility, and elite skills too, but remember that the Revenant has LESS of those to pick from, and is locked into certain sets.

Warrior – A rage state that takes away some of the best weapon skills in the game for a multi-target or condi-focused one. Also, Rage skills are slightly different Physical skills.

Engineer – Class mechanic with its own HP bar. Yup… That’s worked out so well for another class that has a mechanic with an HP bar…

Ranger – Class mechanic is a fusion of necromancer’s shrouds, and the old Tome of Courage. It in no way improves upon the weaknesses of the Ranger’s current class mechanic. Also, healing is the worst form of mitigation.

Elementalist – 4 second channels are super-impractical, easily interrupted, and easily punished for abilities that are not worth the risk.

Mesmer – Finnicky F5 that can get you killed more often than it will save you.

Necromancer – Now you’re stuck to melee combat, making it far easier for your opponents to focus-fire you down.

Thief – An extra dodge, which is always useful, plus the added bar size makes it easier to keep from capping endurance, making it much more likely that when you need it, a dodge is ready.

Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, mates. Everyone has issues to pick with their class. Plus, we’ve only had one BWE with the DD, who is undergoing revision. Imagine your child asks you to help revise the first draft of an essay they wrote, and instead of pointing out where it could be better, you slapped the essay up on the fridge and wrote “KITTEN FAILURE!” on it. Daredevil has the potential to be something really fantastic; a spec that plays well with everything the Thief already has. A splash of survivability to add to any build. We just need to take a deep breath, enjoy the beta, and take constructive notes so our little elite specialization can grow up to be a healthy contributor to Tyria, rather than an angry footnote.

Basaltface.2786:

Kodama.6453:

Knighthonor.4061:

EdwinLi.1284:

A little something interesting to take notice of about Forge.

The Forge Hammer attacks comes with a Rocket Attachment on the hammer when he uses a Hammer skill.

In slow motion during the HoT Trailer you can see a Rocket Attachment on the Hammer to provide the force needed for the Engi’s Hammer damage when the Forge use his Hammer Skills and it is also where the flame animation is coming from.

Seriously Anet? Rocket hammer,,,, come on,, they clearly modeled these Elite Specializations after Super Heroes,,,,

Rocket Hammer is clearly Steel from DC Comics…

I prefer anime and manga so no, it clearly is designed as a reference to battle angel alita

Steel is a super hero that was an engineer so yea…

Rocket-powered weapons are a trope in sci-fi action though, so I’m not sure if it’s really a reference as opposed to just a fun thing. But if it is a reference, it could also refer to…

King Dedede… (Most likely, since there’s already been a Smash Bros reference.)

Or Big Bull. The Ork Tankhamma. Or Jat Kittag. Or Vita’s hammer in Lyrical Nanoha.

I had a shower thought today and I thought it might be fun to share.

“Rebound” is getting an interesting change this upcoming beta weekend, and I hope it works. It sounds really nice when used well. But on the other hand… It’s an AoE version of Engineer’s A.E.D. healing skill… Which is not terribly often used. But A.E.D. competes against the awesome Healing Turret, while “Rebound” competes against skills that are generally considered none too impressive… Anyway…

“Rebound!” (Fictional BW4 edition! …Could use a more appropriate name though…)
Cast time: 1/4 second.
Cooldown: 60 Seconds
Effect: Cast your current attunement’s Overload, regardless if it’s on cooldown. Instantly recharge all of your attunements.

Probably in need of number tuning (cooldown’s most likely far too low)… But think of the fun! One nearly guaranteed overload per minute isn’t that bad. But the fun would really start if you had a way to drop a proper overload beforehand. Earth Overload into a surprise Fire Overload? Air+Fire for PvE? Plus you’re charged up and ready to attunement dance. So once in a little while, a proper storm will hit out of nowhere, and wreck faces.

I feel like a lot of people’s gripes with this elite specialization come from overloads themselves. Mostly that they make you stay in one element, preventing the crazy switching that is the hallmark of the base Elementalist. Well, that and the interrupt issues of course.

But I had an odd thought that I think could help with it;

What if Overloads count as Attunement Swaps?

It’d be fun and interesting. Tempest would get immediate benefit for risking an Overload in the form of an elemental spec’s minor master trait (fire AoE, lightning stirke, area heal, or area cripple), or Arcane’s spec’s minor adept and master traits (fury on swap, aoe boon on swap). It’s also trigger some major traits too (One With Air, Cleansing Wave, Rock Solid, and Latent Stamina), some of which could be really interesting paired with their Overload, such as using Earth Overload to cripple enemies for longer than base duration and gain a stability stack to make it a little safer to cast. Or Water Overload would have a fast initial heal, with a condition cleanse and vigor added in. Positively lovely support would be possible there. Not to mention Arcane furthering the buff-bot feeling of the build by providing Fury and an attunement-based boon.

Also, maybe reduce the cast time of Overloads to 3.5s. It’s still an incredibly long time in PvP and WvW, so it’s still interrupt bait. Ether Feast is about that long, and it sees limited use due to that cast time, so the risk/reward factor is still there.

But you want to know what else is 3.5s cast time? Stomping. Stomping is the biggest rsik/reward currently in the game, with a 3.5s cast standing between you and preventing a player from being revived. But it can be made moderately safe, through quickness, stability, stealth, and good ol’ fashioned situational awareness. The Overload 5s cast, however, is super-duper-pooper-scooper hard to make safe. Quickness still makes it 2.5s, which is still very easy to see and interrupt. Stability is hard to get on an Elementalist, with only Armor of Earth providing a safe stomp, but it’s on a very long cooldown. And Stealth isn’t really a thing for Eles. So 3.5s… I don’t think that’d be too unreasonable.

1) I compared Pistol to Greatsword only in the respect of trait design. My point was that a weapon’s trait should enhance a weapon, rather than make a weapon merely worth considering compared to a baseline weapon. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of Pistol 1 being an explosive, but something needs to be done to it’s baseline effect otherwise you’re essentially investing 2 trait lines into making a single attack on your weapon better.

2) Engineer is balanced around kits… So all builds must include kits. That’s not good game design. And telling people to just play another profession is a terrible line of thought. You just told people that they shouldn’t touch 1/8th of the game. I’m not proposing that kits be nerfed, or even that a build should exist that’s better than high-APM-kit-‘splosion. I’m proposing that engineer should be balanced with or without kits.

3) Pistol 1 with pierce was what got Pistol 1 nerfed into the ground in the first place. I don’t disagree that adding pierce to Pistol 1 and 2 would be great. I’m just saying that piercing explosions are what got Pistol 1 onto the short train to Sadville in the first place.

4) Just spitballing ideas on that one. I found that selecting traits to move in that line is pretty tough to do, as they’re well placed. Juggernaut is a bit odd there, but it goes so well with Pinpoint Distribution and Heavy Armor Exploit. And speaking of Pistol’s best trait… Really, shouldn’t it be baseline at least partially? Especially on Pistol 1?

5) You’re right… It is bonkers… And yet not overpowered. That’s how bad Pistol has it right now.

Classifying Pistol 1 as an explosion would be interesting, but it’d require any pistol user to spec into Explosive to make Pistol worthwhile. A warrior’s greatsword is still rather good without it’s traits, but the traits that synergize with greatsword make it fantastic.

Pistol needs to be worthwhile out of the gate, so that its traits aren’t a fix, but rather an actual enhancement.

That being said, explosive synergy on the pistol would be really great. It wouldn’t be stepping on Grenade Kit’s toes, because kit would add the conditions better, but it’d be a more versatile alternative, with Pistol and Shield offhands, and a much easier time for those who can’t stand button-mashing.

For Coated Bullets… It’d be nice to see it become baseline, but I feel like Pierce is the band-aid they used to make ranged weapons more desirable in a multi-target environment. That’s why I propose bounce instead of pierce. It fits in with the silly chaos of the engineer better.

Perhaps a revised pistol trait? Move Pinpoint Distribution to a Minor (with a small nerf to reflect it’s placement.) and make a more interesting Pistol trait than Chemical Rounds. Like…

Alchemic Munitions
Firearms Master Trait
Pistol Attacks recharge faster, have enhanced effects, and get new names maybe.
1 – Flak Shot: Radius 240, and bleed is applied to all hit targets.
2 – Acidic Volley: Pierces.
3 – Sonic Round: Adds an extra stack of confusion.
4 – Napalm Spray: No longer has range drop-off.
5 – Cryo Bullet: Now an Ice field, and applies 1s Chill instead of cripple.
20% reduced Recharge.

So it’s no secret that Engineer is a complex profession. Adding kits made for wide access to lots of powerful skills. A current metabattle build lists 48 steps in the rotation of a perfectly parsed condition engineer. The profession suffers from a high barrier of entry due to this. Part of the problem engineer suffers from that other professions don’t, is that their weapon skills are less desirable than kit skills almost universally. Offhand pistol is used for the burning in condi builds, rifle is used for the jump slam, and shield is used for a blast finisher. In just about every case, you want to rapidly swap kits to blow out all your damage cooldowns with reckless abandon… Because unlike most professions, your spammable attacks are trash rather than sustainable rotation filler. A kitless engineer is a crippled engineer in many respects. Even the absolutely powerful HGH trait usually benefits more from taking along a kit in place of a third elixir. And some kits are not useful entirely on their own. Grenades, Bombs, and Mortar work well, but they all benefit from the Explosives trait line, which almost entirely caters to those three kits instead of being the general damage trait line that it’d be for most professions.

But, those are broad issues. broad issues just tend to wind up causing a thread full of complaints. I’d like a thread where we come up with specific fixes and QoL improvements to one of engineer’s least loved aspects: the main hand pistol.

Keep in mind, the follwing is all napkin math, and doesn’t account for Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Toughness, or a weapon’s Base Damage.

Some conclusions I’ve drawn…

1. Pistol 1 is pretty bad as a condi attack, and marginal at best as a power attack. (Not really an earth-shattering observation.)

Unfortunately though, Pistol 1 is less than the sum of its parts, and suffers from all the changes than have happened to GW2 over its lifetime. For example, pistol can no longer be traited to pierce targets. But pistol was balanced around that a long time ago, before Traits 2.0. So now Pistol 1 and 2 are adversely affected by the loss of that trait in a multi-target environment. Especially Pistol 2, which has a wild spread that makes it unreliable compared to Fan of Fire or Poison Volley.

2. In most situations, (due to Pistol 1’s small AoE) Engi Pistol 1 is worse than Thief Pistol 1 in every aspect. (Which also needs some love.)

Pistol 1’s AoE is tiny, so it often hits just one target, and without weapon swapping, Pistol Engineers are rather disadvantaged in single-target fights. This is because everything is weighted towards a proper AoE, but only had it’s full effect on one target. The bleed doesn’t hit all in the AoE, and the size of the AoE makes even slightly spread out targets difficult to hit.

3. The rest of Engi Pistol is fun and awesome, even with the occasional frustration with random spread on Pistol 2.

Engineer pistol is really a fun visual grab-bag of effects. And it does something that no other weapon does: Spam a wide smattering of conditions. It’s like having Quip at level 1, seriously… It’s chaotic and silly, but fits perfectly with the engineer theme… It’s just a shame that Pistol 1 is so underwhelming.

4. Engi Pistol is a melee weapon than can do chip damage at range.

Pistol 2 and 4 incentivize being super-close to a target. Despite being 900 range for 1-3, Pistol is best used at melee range. The two attacks that can effectively be used at 900 range are the two lowest damage attacks. I believe it needs to be recognized and embraced as a shorter range weapon.

Potential Pistol 1 Fixes to incentivize condition damage.

A: Make the Bleed apply in the AoE: AoE Bleed was removed during a time when Pistol could be traited for Piercing, allowing it to AoE around every target it passed through, getting mad value in tightly packed groups. Which was AWESOME! But also kinda broken. Pistol 1 got nerfed to kitten as a result so that the pierce could stay a trait. Now with Traits 2.0, pierce is gone, and Pistol 1 could apply bleed in an AoE again without giving hordes of enemies nightmares.

B: Make the Bleed 3 seconds by default: Condition damage requires a lot of investment to make work. The pistol trait is a great start to that though. But at best, that gives us 4 seconds of bleed on a hit. You know what that is? Thief pistol’s base effect, with slightly less power contribution. And thief pistol 1 is generally regarded as kitten. 3 seconds still makes it weaker than thief pistol 1 to compensate for the AoE… But full condition duration would give us something better than thief pistol 1. It’d give us 956.565 DPS for pistol 1 in Condi gear, compared to 948.84 DPS in Power gear, allowing it to be better in a condition build, which is the intent behind pistol’s design.

C: Alternatively – Retool Pistol 1 to be modeled after Ele’s Stone Shards: Low power coefficient, higher bleed potential. Pistol is meant as a multiple condition damage weapon, able to apply 3-4 conditions simultaneously in an area. Pistol 1 is the only attack that does not embrace that right now. And it’s easily seen as Thief Pistol 1’s inferior in every way. Making it more condition focused instead of a clunky hybrid power/condi attack will distinguish it from Thief’s pistol 1 further than its tiny AoE. If it’s made more condition-focused, it’ll gel better with it’s fellow weapon skills, and help keep a wide pool of damage conditions on a target simultaneously.

D: Traits Serrated Steel and Incendiary Powder: Right now, these both increase Bleeding and Burning durations by 33%. Currently, these are actually very detrimental to Pistol 1 and 4, because the commonly used +40% Condition Duration food buff sees much less effect on those two conditions, but is still needed to make the poison and confusion conditions threatening. But we’ve seen bonuses to the damage conditions deal, such as guardian’s bonus burning damage. So why not here? Say +30% Bleeding damage, and +15% burning damage as just a quick estimate. 15% burn damage is working very well for the guardian, and 30% bleeding damage shouldn’t be OP because let’s face it, bleeding damage is entirely insignificant.

Possible buffs to Pistol 2

A: Give it piercing. The other spread attacks (Fan of Fire, Poison Volley, Splitblade) can all be given piercing, and it’s a fantastic boon. Pistol 2 would still be inconsistent, but at least it’d be able to AoE a bit more consistently.

Or…

Take away Pistol 1’s AoE, and shorten Pistol 2’s Poison duration. AND MAKE THEM BOUNCE.

I was finding Air Overload to be quite nice, really. Yeah, it doesn’t hit like a truck, and no, it’s not the optimal combo that all the D/D eles are doing, but I found it a lot of fun.

I was just hoping it’d be more like… Air Overload → Crit Almost Instantly → Air Refreshes → Filler for 5 seconds while the overload charges → Air Overload again. I was hoping to not have to do attunement gymnastics like most ele builds.

So I made an ele for beta, hoping I might find a reason to play on live. Not a big fan of high-complexity rotations, so I was thinking a mono-Air D/W Tempest could be fun. I remember hearing that Fresh Air would recharge your overloaded Air Attunement, so I thought that maybe that would let me use the Air Overload more often. But, even with crits out the kitten on Air-Dagger 1, it still takes its 20 seconds before I can cast Air Overload again.

Is this a bug, or a fundamental misunderstanding of Fresh Air and Tempest’s interaction?

Amos.8760:

What the kitten is compassion?! Did I miss something?

Compassion is the name of the stat used for Healing Power.

Joshua Etwariu.2571:

I notice a damage difference, i went to test in low level areas like queensdale where I would usually need 2 of the 1st skill of flamethrower to kill a mob, now it’s one for me. I don’t understand or see the turret buff though.

The buff on kits is for low-end damage. Our max didn’t go up all that much, but the minimums skyrocketed. Makes them better early. Which is cool.

The turret buff is an odd one. Essentially, when you place a turret, it has it’s own stats. Let’s use Healing Turret. It places regen on you, with 0 Compassion, and a level equal to your own. If you pick up of destroy the turret, the “player” who placed the buff no longer exists, so suddenly, the regen registers as a level 0 player with 0 Compassion. Thus, the regen ticks for 5 instead of the full equation of 5 + (1.5625 * Level) + (0.125 * Compassion) per second.

5 + (1.5625 * Level 0) + (0.125 * 0 Compassion) = 5 + (0) + (0) per second = Sad panda

So now we have full function to our turret buffs and conditions. This extends to Flame Turret, Rocket Turret, Net Turret, and Rifle Turret’s Overcharge. For the offensive turrets, it’s a small fix, but for the Healing turret, it’s HUGE McLARGESIZE.

Also of note:

Weapon stats now apply to bundles.

Banners are bundles, so maybe stabbing things with your flag will be a bit more fun.

Goloith.6349:

This patch did nothing to address those who do not use kits. P/P still needs to have it’s damage to condition damage ratios adjusted to have more condition damage. Part of being versatile is being able to spec via weapon or kit into another specialization. Right now kits are still a mess and don’t know what they want to be damage(crit) or condition.

So the Healing Turret fix and the Hair Trigger fix do nothing for non-kit engineers?

I mean, yeah, Pistol isn’t the best condition weapon out there. But it’s also the player’s FIRST weapon. If it was scaled to do more condition damage, and less raw damage like you want, players would have a heck of a time getting out of the friggin’ tutorial. (Because early condition damage, especially bleed, is a pittance.) Pistol is a hybrid weapon.

Does it deserve a little love? Yeah. Is it unplayable? Pfft, no! It’s a good weapon, and quite solid at what it does. Especially when you can use the awesome Coated Bullets trait.

And Rifle doesn’t need help either. I know there’s a point of contention there, because it’s a Rifle… But we really do have an amazing weapon there that just needs a few tweaks here and there for fine tuning.

Here’s the revised engineer patch changes for people not quite getting it.

+ Engineer kits now benefit from weapon stats.
+ Kits are now scaled to be capable of dealing the same level of damage as Exotic weaponry, in an effort to make them more lovable for endgame.
+ Healing Turret’s regen bug was fixed, making it pretty much the best heal in the game.
+ Turret conditions and boos are now scaled to player stats. That’s right, turrets got a little bit better.
+ Hair Trigger works as intended, which means an overall recharge increase across the board.
+ Incendiary ammo works a little more reliably.
+ Throw Mine benefits from recharge reduction, making it even more fun than before.
+ Other small bug fixes you probably didn’t notice too often before.

What’s this mean?
+ Kits are awesomer, including ye ole Grenade Kit.
+ Turrets may no longer fated to only be part of the occasional Static Discharge build.
+ Healing Turret will now make a certain player drool over it’s new awesomeness, with potential for embarrassing moments of “squee-ing.”
+ Engineers got buffed up, and people can stop saying that ANet doesn’t care about us. Seriously. This is our happy patch of victory and good things to come.

All shall now know the full might of the Pax Engineerica!

You can tag around 5 enemies per AoE. But the piercing attack of the Coated Bullet will trigger the AoE each time it hits a target, allowing you to trigger the AoE a buncha times.

Kronosfear.7548:

coglin.1496:

Only an engineer can use a battering ram on a person and not a keep door.

… because it’s a *Person*al Battering Ram…

…

Get it?

Person?

Hahahahahahaha!

Hahaha…

Hah…

-__-

Oh! I can pun also!

On the 28th, it’ll be patched to it’s correct name… the Personnel Battering Ram!

Homophones and word play, ho!

Only an Engineer would spend time doing this instead of playing the game.

I find that FT doesn’t chuck enough conditions to worry about condition damage. If you drop that in favor of more precision and power, you should see an overall increase.

Quick answer: No.

Each AoE is being looked at individually. It’s not a blanket nerf, so they
re not going to hit the weaker AoE’s wih the nerf bat. Engineer should be left out of the nerfings.

The only potential nerfings I could see happening are Grenade Barrage, and Jump Shot. Barrage can be triggered more often than just the once per 60 seconds due to Kit Refinement, and provides a lot of potentially unintended damage when you’re inside the target. Jump Shot is one the Engineer’s strongest AoE option in burst terms, and might get a small smack on the wrist for the landing AoE.

Yeah, a lot of people are wondering why the Engineer rifle is so… Unusual. I think of it in military terms. Warriors pick up a sniper rifle, train themselves in it’s use for optimum headshot goodness. But the Engineer picked up a carbine, a short rifle made for close engagements. They can take a long-range approach, but it’s not where the carbine performs best.

The Warrior says “I like guns!” Makes the me gusta face, and scores a headshot. Then when the heat comes to them, they go all “kitten#8221; and have to pull out their puny toothpick swords and whatnot.

The Engineer thought ahead, and knew that most engagements are going to happen at a smaller range, in cramped quarters, or other situations where the sniper is next to useless. So the Engineer gets on point, brings out the carbine, and darn near makes the bullet into a melee weapon. And when that time comes when a sniper can do work, they’re not at all out of the action. Especially if they put scopes on the grenades they’re keeping in their pockets for just such an occasion.

TL:DR? – Engineer Rifle just isn’t a classic sniper weapon. Engineer is a mid-range support class, and even with the longest ranges they can achieve, they’re still going to be best in that sweet 400-600ish range.

Here’s the deal… I’ve been having a lot of success with the flamethrower lately. And hardly much trouble with the apparent misses that everyone’s babbling on about. But I understand why people are having a lot of issues with the flamethrower.

It’s one of the hardest L2P weapons in the game, not because of intended play design, but because of how it is aimed.

Key 1 hits a pretty wicked awesome cone. But the problem is that it extends forth from the player’s facing rather than the graphic effect. This is most readily apparent in the rotational axis, horizontally being able to sweep the flamethrower over a wide swath of enemies. Who you’re facing is who you hit. But this also means you have to take the vertical axis into account. Elevated targets require players to tilt the camera up before the start hitting. Also of concern is identifying where the target’s hitbox is. For creatures, it’s fairly visual most of the time, except on big bad guys. But those hitboxes are highlighted for you. On an object, you just kind of need to move around and guess. It’s annoying, but it’s generally set close to the center of volume.

Even then, there’s still some quirks to deal with. But it’s honestly a good weapon. Number 2 is what needs love most. And it’d prefer it if Number 4 was a circular fire patch instead of a line, granted, the line can be used to awesome effect sometimes.

Overall damage increase would be nice too, but who wouldn’t want that on their favorite kit?

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Yes, but with no investment in any power or w/e, you can deal damage and heal your party. I’ll take that over the rest of em in the middle of a battle.

The field itself isn’t doing that. We’re talking about the fields themselves.

Some builds rely on fire field might stacking, so dumping a Light field override on it hurts them. And water can put out amazing heals, and is one of the biggest reasons why Rangers are loved in parties.

Jus’ saying be careful with where, or near whom, you dump your light field. Some people have different objectives in mind than you do.

Maiden England.3491:

Only a Charr engineer will say “lock and load” when you pick up a bucket of water

And thus the newest engineer kit was made… The Super Soaker! For long range (200 units) combat goodness. 1 Key pumps the lever to build pressure. The more you pump, the more damage you deal. But not too much… After all, you’re an engineer!

Only an engineer would tick off the RNG and have only three equipable land weapons.

plasmacutter.2709:

Rezzet.3614:

boy engi is the class with most buttons to push is all i can tell ya you have to use F1-4+ your 1-5 keys and the 6-9 to change kits like every 4-10 seconds, ah yes each kit changes your 1-5 keys adding up More buttons to push.

Agreed.

The only one to come close is ele, but with the number of hand-targeted aoes eng MUST work with (because their survival is balanced around it), you will be using more buttons.

I think Ele is just one step more complicated, as you can do a low-button engineer like P/P Elixir survivalists.

The ele always has their four elements though, and with most their weapon setups have quite a bit of AoE as well.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Why would you want the other blast finishers? The blast finisher for light fields is retaliation. Pretty sweet.

Water fields grants AoE healing. Fire grants 3 stacks of AoE might. Dark inflicts blind. And smoke grants AoE stealth.

There’s plenty of reason to want another field. Light is one of the better fields, but others are good too. Especially water for all the healing output, and Fire, for might stacking builds that rely on a fire field for a quick buildup of might.

Martintjeh.9378:

Splitting the traits into 2 separate traits each would (obviously) result in a nerf. And the elixir gun itself has very little to do with the Alchemy tree (except Deadly Mixture) as all the elixir traits do not affect Elixir Gun. And it’s still a firearm. Plus then it would also have to be better than traits like HGH or it wouldn’t even matter.

You can’t say that it’d be nerfed for sure. There’s many traits that give the 20% recharge, and an additional bonus to a weapon at the same time.

Like Warrior’s “Crack Shot”, which makes their Rifle into an AoE capable weapon with Single-Target strength. (Yes, you have to maneuver around, but it’s not that hard to line up a couple of targets, especially in PvE.)

“Forceful Greatsword” Grants a stack of might every crit with a Greatsword or Spear, while also taking a chunk off of recharge.

“Sundering Mace” gets 10% more damage on Weakened foes. (With MH mace, that’s all the time after the third hit of 1. And it deals more damage than EG.)

“Shield Master” and Guardian “Honorable Shield” pumps an extra 90 into toughness.

“Merciless Hammer” gets a beefy 25% extra on disabled foes. Less to talk about here, but still amazing burst damage in PvP situations considering Hammer has 2 disables baked into the weapon.

“Quick Breathing” for condition removal on use of a warhorn skill.

“Master of Consecrations” adds 20% more time to consecration fields.

“Power Wrench” gives Tool Kit skills perma-cripple and double heal for turrets.

“Off-Hand Training” for more range on Ranger off-hand skills.

“Blade Training to give Mesmer +50 precision with a sword. (And adept too)

“Duelist’s Discipline” for longer pistol range on you and your illusions.

“Chaotic Dampening” for +50 toughness on a staff or trident.

“Malicious Sorcery” for +50 Malice on scepter.

“Spiteful Talisman” gives Necro focus more range. (Adept)

“Banshee’s Wail” for longer durations on warhorn. (15% recharge though)

ALL (but one) of these grant bonuses and 20% recharge. There’s a lot that don’t too. But it’s not outside of the real of possibility for ANet to make the FT and EG independent without changing their potential. After all, they are designed with those two traits in mind, so neither is overpowered with the two traits anyway.

As for EG stuff in Alchemy tree… Well it’s still fluff-wise Alchemy, even if elixir stuff doesn’t work on it. And EG is a support weapon, which the Alchemy line does best.

Static discharge doesn’t deal a lot of damage as an AoE ability. It’s great, but it’s not really a lot of damage unless combined with the primary target getting smacked by a toolbelt skill. So all the other targets don’t take much.

So nah, I don’t see a nerf being possible.

I’d prefer if they gave E-Gun it’s own grandmaster trait in Alchemy, and parted the FT/EG traits so that all the FT stuff was in Firearms and all the EG stuff was in Alchemy. That way they’d both have a 15% more damage 20 faster recharge trait independent of each other.

Only an engineer could magnetically pull a bear to their location.

Only an engineer would weaponize a box of phiranhas.

Only an engineer would carry 4 different backpacks at once (med kit, flamethrower, grenade kit, elixir gun).

Only an engineer would make a turret that can only fire at melee range (where the off button is easily reached.)

Only an engineer would think shrinking yourself is a good idea while fighting a dragon.

Where’s a Quaggan? I need to /hug them.

Also I guess that guesting will be okay too.

But Quaggan hugging! ZOMG!

Try using Condition gear instead of power gear. Rabid and Rampager’s, I think, give you precision and condition damage.

Rifle doesn’t kill particularly quick, but it’s very consistent with bleed damage, with a great built-in burst from Killshot.

The OP’s quote comes from a low-level character who is frustrated and lacks knowledge on the ins and outs of ThreeDub, let lone any PvP format. I don’t know what the OP is trying to say here, but one frustrated new guy doesn’t really prove anything other than that the community needs to help others out, instead of shouting for nerfs and complaining about stuff all the time.

The only way that guy is going to improve in, and see the fun of, ThreeDub… And the only way the state of Engineer is going to truly improve, is if we as a community start being a proper community. In game, I see nothing but nice people out to help their fellow players whenever help is asked for. So why isn’t the same here?

Figured I’d Spitball a few ideas out there for new Ranger skills, maybe give ANet some ideas, or maybe just entertain myself for a few minutes while I write this up.

Ranger Weapon: Staff
A support-oriented long/mid-range weapon primarily for team use.

1. Burst of Life – The user lobs a “plant ball” that blooms into vines and brambles at a single target. It then bounces to up to four other targets, friend or foe, granting the user’s allies minor healing (and an effect that looks like vines and flowers blooming on them) while causing damage to enemies. Unlike other bounce skills, it bounces all four times from the primary target, simultaneously, making it a targeted pseudo-AoE.
Enemies: 3 second bleed, minor damage.
Ally: Minor heal

2. Grasping Vines – The user shoots out a cone of vines that bind enemies, keeping them from moving.
Enemies: 1 second immobilize, 4 second cripple, medium damage.
Cooldown: 8 seconds.

3. Wall of Brambles – The user creates a wall of thorny plants thick enough that it blocks projectiles and causes bleeding to enemies that pass through it.
Enemies: 3 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds.
Duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds

4. Explosive Growth – The user creates an ever-growing patch of plant life that suddenly bursts with energy, aiding allies and knocking down enemies. There is some delay before the patch detonates, making it easier to dodge, and easier for allies to walk into.
Enemies: Medium damage, knockback/down.
Allies: 5 seconds regen and vigor.
Radius: 240
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Special: Blast Finisher

5. Aegis of Spring – The user channels forth a whirlwind of flower petals, healing allies, then granting protection at the end of the duration.
Allies: 5 ticks of minor healing over 3 second channel, ending with a 10 second protection buff.
Radius: 600
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Special: Light Field during channel.

Healing Skill: Natural Remedy – The user and pet is wrapped in vines and flowers, becoming protected from attacks for a few precious seconds while healing and curing conditions.
Healing: Medium
Conditions Cured: Bleeding, burning, poison, immobilize, cripple, and chilled.
Special: Invincible and stable for 3 seconds of channeling, but character and pet is immobilized for the duration.
Cooldown: 25 seconds

Utility Skills:

Spore Trap – Trap. Set a trap that weakens foes that pass through it.
Enemies: Weakness for 1 second.
Duration: 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 20 seconds.
Special: Smoke Field

“Fetch!” – Shout. Command your pet to go get your target and bring them back to you.
Enemy: High damage, pull towards player upon hit by pet.
Range: 1200, but the pet has to run up and make contact in melee.
Cooldown: 30 seconds.

Signet of Life -
Signet Passive: Grants you and your pet increased Vitality and Compassion.
Signet Active: Revive your pet and refresh the cooldown on pet swapping.
Range: 1200
Cooldown: 60 seconds

Crack of Lightning – Survival. The user summons a bolt of lightning on top of them, blinding nearby foes with the flash and disappearing into hiding for a short time.
Self and Pet: Stealth and quickness for 4 seconds.
Enemies: Blind for 5 seconds.
Cooldown: 35 seconds.
Special: Breaks Stuns

Wind Spirit: Spirit. Summon a spirit that grants allies a chance to gain endurance with every attack.
Endurance Regained: 50%… Alternatively, Vigor for 5 seconds.
Duration: 60 seconds.
——> Whirlwind: The spirit tosses enemies into the air with a sudden gust of wind.
——> Enemies: Blowout/knockback and minor damage.

Elite Skill: Maelstrom – The user summons forth a powerful storm in the area, crippling enemies and dealing devastating damage. Like combining Glyph of Storms (air, water, and sand animations) with churning earth, looking like the world itself is trying to obliterate everything inside.
Enemies: Heavy damage over time, cripple for 5 seconds, weakness for 5 seconds.
Duration: 5 seconds.
Radius: 480
Special: Lightning Field?

To quote the Heavy that often likes to jump on my Engineer’s teleporters in TF2…

“Engineer is credit to team!”

Same goes for Engineer in GW2. I’ve always had a blast in teams, and a good Engineer can contribute so much, just by being the quirky effect machine that it is. Also Flamethrower. I’ve learned to use it well and avoid the issues that some people claim make it unplayable, thus making it mmph munna muh muuff.

The biggest problem you might run into is scaling… Levels don’t treat the Engineer too well, as the various bugs tend to get in the way, and the playstyle becomes less forgiving.

Engineer is fun, but it has a lot of weaknesses that become more obvious as you keep going. It’s certainly not bad, but it does need a little love.

Many have said it before, but I’ll say it again.

It is not the Dev’s jobs to post on the forums. It takes time out of their busy days to do such a thing. It is a privilege that they come in to answer the occasional question, not a right. It takes time out of their VERY busy days, for them to come here and post. January is all about improving what we’ve already got in the game. All game modes, core mechanics, and likely professions are going to be seeing a lot of work, seemingly at the sacrifice of not seeing a “Lost Shores” or “Wintersday” style event. So that come February and March, we can see some major game features get pumped out for gaming awesomeness.

We’re not the only silent profession forum when it comes to dev posts.

Stay calm, chill out, and wait… Like a week. I think a big patch is happening soon, since they tend to happen on the 15th-ish every month.

Explosive Rockets has been listed as 7 seconds for a long time. Since August IIRC.

If the duration has gone down from 10 to 7, then it’s not a nerf, but a bug fix, as 7 seconds has been the intended amount.

And now to quote the Engineer’s greatest hero: M. Bison!

“For you, the day I shot you off that jumping puzzle was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.”

“The temple above us was the wonder of the ancient Kryta. Engieopolis shall be the wonder of my world. But I think the turret field should be larger. All the other professions will want in.”

“Your masters at the A.N. call me a heartless robot. So be it! You do not deserve the martial dignity of a firing squad! No! You shall be killed BY a turret, a machine BORN of my own genius! Raise the rocket turrets!”

“Then defeat is a possibility. Very well. We shall face it together, Thief, with the stoicism of the true warrior. "
[Thief stealths and GTFOs as Engie continues to face opponents in sPvP]

“This is merely superexplosive emergency propulsion. Surely you’ve heard of it. It excavates rocky cliffs to make way for dams. It powers my bombs, where I knock others off the face of the world. And it topples… me!”

“Something wrong, Warrior? You come here prepared to fight a God, and instead you found a madman?”

“I hoped to meet a Guardian face-to-face on the battlefield, where we could engage each other in combat. Then I would snap his spine. But why? Why do they still call me a fool? And nerfed? All I want to do is to create the perfect kit combination. Not for power, not for evil, but for good. TANKCAT shall be the first of many who shall march out of my laboratory and crush every adversary, every creed, every nation! Until the world is in the loving grip of the Pax Engineerica. And peace will reign and all Tyria shall bow to me in humble gratitude.”

Mesmer: “Is this a joke? These turrets aren’t even worth the casting time!”
Engineer Bison: “On the contrary. Every Engie turret will be worth five Mesmer phantasms. That is the exchange rate that the developers of Arena Net will implement after I kidnap their queen.”

Who lives at the bottom of every tier list?
Engineer NerfPants!
Pillow-fisted in leather, and buggy he is!
Engineer NerfPants!

If crowd control nonsense be something you wish
Engineer NerfPants!
Then roll with him and be gutted like a fish!
Engineer NerfPants!

Engineer NerfPants!
Engineer NerfPants!
Engineer NerfPants!
Engineeeeer… NerfPaaaaaaaants!

Both professions are certainly hard to use, but for different reasons.

An Elementalist has the steepest learning curve, as by level 5, you have all your elements to start learning. This makes for a very self-conscious sort of difficulty, where you have to have a good sense of timing for cooldowns, and coordination for quick-swapping attunements and activating the needed skill. It’s not very button-friendly with the default key layout, either. This front-loading of difficulty can cause players, but when it “clicks,” the player is rewarded with high potential and strong numerical advantage.

An Engineer has an easier initial learning curve, as you don’t get a single kit until level 5, if you even choose one then. However, Engineer skills are generally lacking in damage, instead relying on controlling the opposition to succeed in the long term. This means your focus is external, and your attention goes to positioning, environmental awareness, and enemy knowledge. A lot of problems for Engineer are caused on missed vital attacks, stability, and a lack of strength in the face of the unexpected. Their difficulty is not based on how they play, but rather how their design is made. Difficulty comes late game, when a player’s skills are consistent enough that the game design is less forgiving of mistakes, and numerical (gear) advantage matters more.

Long story short, if Engineers got a decent cluster of core bug fixes, and a few smaller buffs here and there, they will not be as hard as Elementalist. As it is now, they’re both difficult, but Elementalists get the difficulty in the beginning as they learn to play, where the Engineer gets difficult as the numbers game becomes less forgiving.

I believe this is in the spirit of the thread.

Quotes from Rorschach, because yay.

I heard a joke once: Engineer goes to ANet. Says he’s depressed. Says gameplay is harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a when looking for Fractal teams. ANet says, “Treatment is simple. These a great profession, Thief; it’s totally flavor of the month right now. Go try that. That should pick you up.” Engineer bursts into tears. Says, “But ANet… Everyone is a Thief.” Good joke. Everybody laugh. Thief rolls over Engineer in pvp. Curtains.

But because I still have Hope…

Engineer’s Journal. October 12th, 1985: Engineer carcass in alley this morning, elementalist daggers in victim’s stomach. The developers are afraid of me. I have seen ANet’s true face. The servers are extended gutters and the gutters are full of warriors and when the drains finally scab over, all the thieves will drown. The accumulated popularity of all their DPS and FotM will foam up about their waists and all the guardians and mesmers will look up and shout “Save us!”…

…and I’ll whisper “nope.avi”

I think they were trying to make it so that most professions that made fields had a field to call their own.

Dark: Necromancer (Maximum of 15 seconds out of 36 second rotation I think with wells.)
Ether: Mesmer (About 15ish seconds per 36 seconds)
Fire: Elementalist (Capable of nearly perma-fielding with Lava Font I think.)
Ice: Nobody
Light: Guardian (Near-constant with symbols and wards) and Engineer (Perma through kit-swapping Elixir Gun with Kit Refinement.)
Lightning: Nobody (Eles can only have 4 seconds uptime out of 25, so it’s not really something they care about.)
Poison: Necromancer (Chillbains and Corrosive Cloud can keep a decent uptime.)
Smoke: Thief (Black Powder and Smoke Screen)
Water: Ranger (Healing Spring for 15/30 uptime.) and Elementalist (but only somewhat, as thy only get them on staff, and Geyser’s field is woefully short, and Healing Rain is on a long cooldown.)

The problem here is that our only half-to-constant field is generated through Elixir Gun’s Super Elixir and Kit Refinement. It’s not as easily accessible as most normal skills are. On top of that, we compete with Guardian for “bringer of the light field.”

I do like the idea of Engineer being capable of bringing a lot of different fields to the table. A small boost to the Healing turret’s water field (it lasts like .5 seconds) would be welcome, and even great. The toolbelt skill does need a lower cooldown too, because nobody in the right or left mind goes 30 in Tools just for that skill. A few seconds of regen with a water field is not worth the minute of wait between uses.

I’d say…

Healing Turret causes a 2s water field very 8 seconds along with the regeneration pulse.

Regenerating Mistis now 30s recharge with a minimum of three seconds of water field.

Grackleflint.4956:

Czar Peter.7961:

Here are my attempts at steampunk/cyberpunk on my engineer. Only problem is there aren’t any good engineer builds for me to justify getting more armor :/

What shield are you wielding in the top picture?

Looks like the Asura racial T3 shield

Peacemaker’s Shield

Unless I’m looking at the wrong pic.

tigirius.9014:

Lightsbane.9012:

Dante.1508:

http://ghostbustersnews.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/03/steampunk_janine.jpg
http://gadgetsin.com/uploads/2011/02/steampunk_styled_star_wars_illustrations_1.jpg
http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cosplay-steampunk2.jpg
http://daily-steampunk.com/steampunk-blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/explorer_by_viccolatte-d47s4wj.jpg
http://www.warmphotos.net/img/warm/steampunk-girls/steampunk-girls25.jpg
http://www.warmphotos.net/img/warm/steampunk-girls/steampunk-girls29.jpg
http://www.warmphotos.net/img/warm/steampunk-girls/steampunk-girls02.jpg

I think they should give an idea at least for Tyrian Women..

‘warmphotos’ loool. such an epically related name.

Drools at the last image’s pistol!

It’s a painted NERF N-Strike Maverick

http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/en_US/shop/details.cfm?R=0B4F7514-5056-900B-10BB-76702D1BEC5B:en_US

Wow, sarcasm! That’s original!

/Dr. Horrible

OFF-TOPIC EDIT: Engineers need a new kit for single-target.

Ray Guns!

1. Death Ray: Damage… Yay.
2. Channeled Ray: Damage over time, inflict burning?
3. Freeze Ray: Immobilize 2s or Chill 3s with damage.
4. Stun Ray: 1s Stun with small damage.
5. Transmatter Ray: Switch places with target, if no target, massive forward movement ala Ride the Lightning.

I play a game called WARMACHINE (caps are necessary) made by Privateer Press. Steampunk mini wargaming at it’s finest.

And this guy Coleman Stryker is what I imagined an engineer would look like with heavy armor. Minus the smoke pouring out the back. Arcantrik Turbines are cool and all, but would have no purpose in GW2.

EDIT for LULZ!:
As far as gaming rules go, he’s a support caster in his first rules incarnation, an amazing all-rounder who supports the whole group really well, and has great control over the battlefield, just like our Engineers should be in theory.

His “Epic” incarnation (when the story progressed to the point where he’d gained upgrades and had some story time dedicated to him…) He’d become a greatsword-wielding master of face-smashing who could pop a bunch of stacks of might, charge halfway across the table, and smack you for ridiculous amounts of damage 4-5 times in a row… Smells like 100Blades warriors. XP

Oddly enough, I prefer to play (and am way better at using) the support version, than his epic, top-tier, tournament winning, melee form.

Sylvari Vine Shield is pretty nice. The long recharge kinda sucks though.

Human Blessing of Lyssa is pretty cool, especially when you double-tap it and the utility skill to grant yourself two boons, and your enemy 2 conditions.

Charr Booby Trap is nice too, for stacking on some bleed against melee. Great with a Rifle or Pistol/Pistol kiting strategy.