Showing Posts For drewtwo.8374:
I agree that Gadgets need some way to deal with conditions, personally I’d like to see a Grandmaster trait in the Tools line that gives passive condition removal every X seconds where X depends on the amount of Gadgets you have, but that wasn’t really what I was getting at. I was just pointing out that a trait doesn’t need to benefit all skills or play styles.
I also agree that the current version of Scope is just plain bad due to its use being incredibly limited (so the game is basically ‘tricking’ unaware players into spending 20 trait points into Tools, what was that about aiming to have no bad builds?) and it also happens to discourage players from using the best feature of GW2, movement!
Would I have a problem if they removed Scope in favour of a Boon Hate trait?
No. I don’t use or think Scope is good at the moment after all, just skip the “Scope” part and make it something completely different (e.g. Target the Strong ala Firearms Minor Traits). But I’m not sure on exactly the kind of anti-boon trait I’d like to see. There’s nothing wrong with the Critical Chance per Boon idea but it’s not very inspiring either.
There are so many traits I’d like to see removed, reworked or replaced due to being boring though so let’s not get into that discussion.
Traits don’t have to be of benefit to all skills a player has access to. Should 409 and HGH work with Gadgets too?
A trait called “Scope” should probably have at least something vaguely to do with using a scope (hence the whole ‘standing still’ thing). Adding Boon hate onto it just seems out of place.
7-Scope- change to 3% crit chance per boon on target (easier to code than current form)
Scope: The further away your target is, the more damage you deal.
This would work similar to the Mesmer Greatsword Spatial Surge, providing the Engineer with an option to play a more ranged style of game. Just for the purposes of an example:
• 0-599 = Base damage
• 600+ = 50% increase
Or there could be more ranges with different damage values (tweaked to take into account all of the weapon skills Engineers have).
I think they should bring back the Minekit albeit with different skills to the Beta version, which was both boring and possibly a bit over powered at the same time.
1 – Detonate mines
2 – Knockback mine
3 – Boon strip mine
4 – Boon hate mine
5 – Boon corrupt mine
Tool belt skill could remain the same.
Firstly this prevents it being boring in the way the old Mine kit was and prevents it from being too similar to the Grenade or Bomb kit (explosions + conditions). Secondly this adds something unique to the Engineer’s arsenal that he doesn’t currently have access too and last but no least it would open up new and interesting builds.
You can only have one of each mine up at a time, with the cool down starting upon detonation and the only way to detonate them is with the 1 skill (so you can’t just setup a mine field and then explode each one when the time is perfect).
It would probably be a bit weak in PvE but so are many, many skills (e.g. any skill with a control effect that becomes completely useless as soon as a boss turns up).
This is the Static Discharge build I’ve been using:
When I first set up the traits I was using the Med Kit, which is why I went for Enhance Performance (Might, Vigour and Swiftness on Med Kit swap is pretty awesome) but since the change to Healing Turret I’ve been using that so I might switch it to Protective Shield for added survivability or Power Wrench.
There’s not really a great deal to gain from opening the Grandmaster slots in Explosives or Firearms, the other traits just aren’t useful enough. Perhaps if Coated Bullets added “explosive bullets” to the rifle as well as piercing bullets to the pistol I’d grab that since it would allow for more conservative positioning or if Go For the Eyes did something extra (I like the fairly reliable and ‘passive’ blind but it doesn’t feel worth it).
The main issue with Berserker Static Discharge is that you basically have no defence other than Gear Shield so I feel that the Speedy Kits + Invigorating Speed is pretty much essential (as well as granting a free Elixir B) since it provides us with faster movement and more opportunities to dodge.
1. Increase damage
I’ve been playing with a Mesmer and sometimes it’s better to be downed because I can pew pew mobs with confusion and watch them rally me over and over.
2. Change to Rocket Boots
We don’t get to choose where we go and we don’t enter stealth so a bit of damage and knock back is good.
3. Reduce cool down
The only time I get to use this skill is when there’s nothing nearby me.
I think it’s very unlikely that the HGH trait will be weakened or reworked. It’s a 30 point trait, which makes it a build defining one. Basically it’s working as intended; it’s a powerful, build defining trait yet expensive (thus limiting what else you can get).
It’s a strong, successful offensive build but it’s not tearing up PvE, WvW or PvP that it’s HGH Engineers or nothing and the trait doesn’t have/isn’t causing any unintended things to happen (Like Grenade Barraging inside people or getting a ‘free’ Super Elixir (yes, I realise they included it but that was clearly an oversight))
It’s a completely different situation to Kit Refinement, which was reworked because Arenanet are currently unwilling to move traits up and down the tree for some reason. Static Discharge is a far more likely candidate for being weakened or reworked as it’s a build defining trait currently in the 10 point trait zone and it’s not too far off HGH levels of power.
Personally I think they need to review where they place some of the traits because something like “Armor Mods” is an incredibly boring trait to create a build around even with a lower cooldown.
So I took a glance at gw2buildcraft.com to look at how Arenanet have structured their profession design and it would appear that all the professions (bar the Engineer) follow these rules:
• Five utility skill types
• Four utility skills of each type
• Twenty utility skills in total
• All have a summon type (Conjures, Spirit Weapons, Clone/Phantasms, Minions, Traps, Banners)
• All have a passive type (Signets)
The other three types seem to vary between control, support, offence, defence and conditions depending on the professions ‘style’ and what the other types/weapons/profession ability offers.
The Engineer on the other hand has:
• Four utility types* (Elixirs, Gadgets, Kits, Turrets)
• Five utility skills of each type
• No passive type
*gw2buildcraft combines the Mesmer Clone/Phantasm’s into one type but not the kits. The game treats the kits the same way so I’m bundling them together.
This stuff doesn’t matter too much it just illustrates the difficulty that Arenanet are having with creating an Engineer that fits inline with the other professions.
Someone on the profession balance team recently talked about how the turrets were viewed as the ‘passive style’ skill set for the Engineer, which would mean it is viewed as being analogous to signets. However, from my point of view, playing with turrets is currently anything but passive and requires a great deal of micro managing to make good use out of them. Whereas a signet provides you with a permanent buff of some sort (condition removal for example) until you pop it and you briefly lose that passive until the cool down wears off.
That’s not to mention that many of the signets the various professions have are extremely powerful with both strong passive and active abilities. Usually these active abilities grant the player a powerful boon of some sort (e.g. stability). For me, turrets are far from being the Engineers passive utility skill option and any attempt to make them so will result in the PvE Ritualist problem where the vast majority of content is trivialised.
The Tool belt profession ability does throw somewhat of a spanner in the works because it grants the Engineer a ‘two for the price of one’ deal on all of its utility skills. We can’t have passive abilities because of our tool belt but we need our tool belt because of our kits and lack of weapon swap. Both the kits and tool belt are genuinely excellent ideas that make the Engineer unique and fun so we need to find a way to keep them while bringing the profession closer to the others in terms of structure.
I propose we look at the utilities as such:
• Elixirs are the support option.
• Gadgets are the control option.
• Turrets are the summon option.
• Kits are the passive option.
When you have a kit on your utility bar it grants you a passive ability just like a signet would. If you equip the kit you keep the passive ability and gain access to the weapon set. When you activate the tool belt skill you lose the passive.
To me this seems to fit with Arenanet’s vision for the passive signet play style where the player just wants to focus on his weapons and ‘pure’ combat abilities. I also feel it fits in with their vision for the kits and depending on what the passive abilities were could open up many options for ‘mixed utility type’ builds (“versatility”).
A Kit Refinement tweak could then see the global cool down removed but the tool belt skill go onto cool down. If placed high enough in the trait line (e.g. 30 and with worthwhile enough spells) it would probably please those who want to kit dance and Arenanet who seem to want to avoid the Engineer basically turning into the Elementalist.
Turrets can then be worked on as being a more active style of playing the game, which seems to be the only way they can make them useful without making content trivial.
Interestingly before the final Beta Weekend Event we actually had a Mine Kit (http://youtu.be/S7NdSY10WQQ?t=12m35s). It worked in pretty much the exact way you’re describing it except for 1-5 were identical skills rather than having different boons on them.
It didn’t receive much love at the time as people found it too similar to the grenade and bomb kits. It’d be interesting to see if the Mine Kit could make a return in a similar manner to what you described but with a slight addition of targeted boon stripping.
e.g. 2 = Provides Might, Strips Might; 5 = Provides Protection, Strips Protection etc.