Guild Wars 2

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

As a reminder, we held a poll 2 months ago and the community voted to beta deployable cannons: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-Poll-18-July-Cannon-Blueprints-Closed/page/3#post6252969

I can be fine if anet decides to have these polls to show you care of, but not use them to drop the responsability to the WvW community about the changes. 1000 players will never take a designer’s decision, because they aren’t and they will never be even if their number grows!

Well, thinking about, no, I’m not fine at all with these polls:
Come on, I don’t play pvp and still I can vote the current pvp related poll.

There’re many other ways to show you care of WvW but putting the cannons in the current state, a prototype of the previous WvW siege state (no cd, no condi/crit dmg on them, no cap), show me lack of effort, the opposite of anet intent.

Skaven Zverov.2984:

mammasaura.5907:

was also enjoyable for a pug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kUJyy0spDQ

Definitely! Nice escape at 1:25

We felt like defenders of Helm’s Deep that day, that is all what matters. FUN.

In that period flourished really good battle moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0xF6OQvLg

Good times, for www and our server :P
At that time there was only to pay attention (listen, watch, comunicate) to the community instead of closing into glass bubbles, but whetever…it was fun, I enjoyed it, and more important played with many comrades with different flags…ah my pug’s heart.

was also enjoyable for a pug

Ocs has a drawback: kb; in an attack situation you need to make a decision afterwards, use or not use your stunbreak to take advantage of the situation for a high risk/high reward.

Usually you bring only 1 stunbreaker so you can use that combo only one time and if you do and understimate your opponent you’ll be easily doomed.

Anyway keep in mind there’s a lot of stability, energy sigils and 80+vigor uptime out there, and you can easily miss an ocs. Some class usually brings 2 stunbreaker too.

Besides necros.

Healing turret is always a better bet than any other healing skills, besides if you’re going to use a specific build like hgh(elixir) or one with a lot of healing skill activations(kit refinement, enhance performance, runes, food etc…).
HT brings 2 water fields, condi removal, dmg+interrupt if traited, it’s just better in many ways, mainly in a www perspective :P

The association flamethrower+juggernaut is immediate because of the might stacking, but if so, engi can easily do that without FT+Jugger.
Than you need to stay in flamethrower and you don’t want for many reasons in www, but it’s not a bad kit:
- a combo net shot+flameblast(and detonation) has a good burst;
- incendiary ammo gives you access to burning, so you can skip incendiary powder;
- blind stomp;
- long duration fire field;
- interrupt, that can combo with synaptic overload followed by a sustained damage from hip shot or used for a fast stomp (hard to do but not impossible, synaptic overload needs an icon for when ready to trigger).

I think FT can perform better with a more power oriented gear like showed above.

This is a short encounter I got using 3kit FT,EG,TK time ago, I hope can show you all the things I listed above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iWgidvj_xco#t=861

I usually do weekly videos for the matchup of my server, gunnar’s hold, mostly pugging with my engi if interested in medium/big fights or feedback gameplay in these situations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIxlXmOk68_1NIHum7E2mw

Maskaganda, roaming and small scale fights:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9NnXVfY4vRU1F-X7b1Oorw/videos

Silinsar, duels, roaming:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Algeyr/videos

Shortly, mid tier server experience:
- funny at prime time, there’s a sort of coordination in map chat to know who’s scouting what;
- a pain out of prime time when lacking plp and you need to group up vs bigger groups.

Prime time is about 5-6h on 24h.

Great experience for servers with 24/24 coverage, for the others a little less :P

Italy
Each evening between 20:00 – 23:30 GMT+1
Gunnar’s Hold, regardless the border.

Heavy skillag, everyone nightcrawling everywhere, endless dodging, it ends with dc.

The problem started since October.

Lately I’m playing a p/p thief in www with decent success.
I can assure that Black Powder has an heavy impact on the survivability of the build because of the blind, not the stationary blind (mainly used vs melee) but the one from the combo finisher with bp+unload.

With ricochet I can also support the team with a sort of AOE blind.

Changing BP into a dark field, it’ll shift the p/p weapon set more offensive, stripping the only really defense system the p/p set has, blindness.

Range reduction in both grenade kit and grenadier could hit too much any www 6xxxx engi. From a zerging perspective, engi already takes (too) much damage from retaliation, fair if you can hit from a long distance. Add the fact more distance, more hard to land the hits on mobile targets.

Always speaking about www, Protective Shield and Automated Response changes could kill the frontline bombheal build.
Until leg mods stays in the tools tree and remains master trait, AE is the only condi reduc viable for frontliners engi.

Good the AED and flamethrower changes.

This is THE engi build, it’s really well designed and worth spending time and gold to play it.

In www, I can confirm having hard time with ranged but also with heavy cond spec, that’s why EG is important.
Super Elixir is a light field, with Surprise Shot and Throw Wrench (both 100% Physical Projectile) you have 2 more condition removals, also hip shot has a 20% chance.
Maybe the health pool is too low for www nowadays (too many condi spammers around), but that can be fixed playing with trinkets and foods to have the same stats with less power.

I’m not a fan of pre-casting toolbet skills, it brings too much in general (not only for this build) and it’s a cheap mechanic that can be fixed soon or later.

Hi, the idea can be interesting but seeing the chosen traits you have only two skills to remove conditions from allies: well of power (40cd if traited, too long anyway) and plague of signet (but it works only to 1 ally every 3 seconds).

If the main purpose is to draw conditions and heal allies I can suggest the trait Unholy Martyr instead of Vampiric Rituals (it heals only yourself) and focus the build more on Death Shroud, instead of wells.

In the same trait tree, Blood Magic, drop Ritual Mastery and Bloodthirst for Transfusion and Deathly Invigoration. These traits gives you a strong healing.

In Soul Reaping, Unyielding Blast is ok if you use Renewing Blast because can help to heal teamates that are behind a boss (talking about pve).
If wvw, drop Renewal Blast for Foot in Grave (stability is really important), meanwhile replace Unyielding Blast with Path of Midnight, because your damage will not be that strong anyway.

The last trait I think is bounded to life force.
If you gain life force fast, take Near to Death, it synergies well with Deathly Invigoration.
But if you have problem with life force, take Soul Marks.

Last two points by your preference, in Spite for Signet Mastery or in Death Magic for Shrouded Removal or Ritual Protection. Also in Curse for Focused Rituals, so you can stay in safe zone when casting Well of Power.

About weapons, I prefer Axe over Dagger, because can support the damage of the team applying vulnerability. Focus is perfect.

Gear, I find you too squishy. I think you need to improve the toughness, also dropping some health and healing power. Runes with toughness and vitality can help, but the only one, runes of dolyak, aren’t cheap.

This is the a changed version:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRQQNAndWlc0olm90wzGsuNxwQNdNEDnbUBA1RxUkuA-T1hAwASV+Bx8zO1fGpEM7+DAMBRTfAA-w

Hope you can enjoy the build

Hi, how speed stacks with pets?

Runes of Speed/Traveler affect the pet’s speed too?

Does the trait “Agility Trainig” stack with the sigil (or runes) or swiftness?
Or is the speed value set to the higher possible value?

Thanks

Two words about Deployable Turrets.

I know Jon didn’t write about it in this topic, but this trait will can be a positive side-effect after the change of Power Shoes and the move of Accelerant-Packed Turrets into the adept traits pool.

The problem is the usage of this trait with the healing turret, you always want the ht next to you when dropped, and I find less reactive to accomplish this when I trait Accelerant-Packed Turrets. When I chose a trait, I always expect from it an improvement not an obstacle.

If it’s not possible making ht untargetable if traited, is it possible to add a key button like [key button] + [key of the skill] to perform self-casting? It’ll surely help not only the engi player, but all the professions with the same trait design and any targetable skill user.

Thanks

I quote one of mine previous (here) topic about porcine pets which degenerated into a “i like turtle” thread but that can improve the usage of porcines:

mammasaura.5907:

With the recent patch, supportive pets got an improvement and the rnd factor on vital skills like toss elixir B/S removed.

Can be possible to take in consideration to remove the rnd factor in the forrage skll?
Porcines are supportive and the forrage skill hasn’t often a good response, even if triggered, f2 don’t always drop beacuse cancelled on casting, and the drop needs to be picked up and used, it’s not instant like any other skill.
99% of time I want seed pod, elixir of heros is a lucky strike, egg is more usefull if can be throwed to the enemy :P

Spoken about www and pve (maybe split for pvp), with the seed pod drop, it can help rangers to have a better place in a team composition during the combat or during the healing phase.
And…you can use porcine! (used since day 1 :P)

Thanks, hoping in a positive feedback, greetings

About Packaged Stimulents:

Med Kit is a selfish kit, when you drop, you drop for you and I see Packaged Stimulents like a try to make this kit more supportive for the team.

The main problem is the targetable feature, it slows the casting, so less reactive, the throw is slow, it helps only one teammate, it doesn’t bring anything different from the untraited medkit.

Engi is the jack of trades, if so, let me compare with another class: mesmer.
I see medkit like our mantra version: 3 charges of Power Return, 1 charge of Power Cleanse, 1 free charge.

Mantra of Resolve cleanses 2 conditions per charge, so mesmer can remove 4 conditions (6 if traited), but it works aoe, cleaning 20 conditions until 30.
Mantra of Recovery can also cleanse 2 conditions (with the 10th Dec patch), single target, if traited with Mender’s Purity, adept trait of Inspiration.
Mesmer is an heavy condition remover with 8(12) cleanse on himself and 16(24) on teammates .

Try to make Packaged Stimulents a real help for team, making the engi an aoe healer instead of a conditioner cleanser like the mesmer:

1. bring back Drop Antidote to cure 2 conditions, Power Cleanse docet;
2. get rid of the targetable feature, is hard to use also with fast casting;
3. make aoe effects for every medkit’s drop (Drop Bandages, Drop Antidote, Drop Stimulant) if traited.

Packaged Stimulents is a master trait and giving aoe effects to every drops can bring a lot more options to support the team instead of the classic healing turret.
Yes, you don’t have any water field, but the healing from bandages is good, also without improving the effectiveness, then medkit suits well with altruism runes.

I think that the aoe effects can really open a build in this direction.

About Exploit Weakness:

This adept trait can be compared with Sitting duck from the Firearms tree.
Sitting duck got a nice rework giving two conditions, but mainly rifle stuff.
Explosives are supposed to help any weapon set and any kit, then Exploit Weakness seems to be a cc trait, if Sitting duck, adept trait, got two conditions maybe also Exploit Weakness can.

Exploit Weakness: double threshold, at 50% and 25%, shared internal cd, conditions mutual exclusive:
#at 50%: cripple;
#at 25%: immobilyze.

• it’s in the context, if you’re weak, I cc you better:
• for both power and condition build;
• it avoids to the burst build both the conditions;
• durable fights are better rewarded.

About Empowering Adrenaline:

I like the concept, acting when your character is in danger, after a dodge.
But after a dodge the character cannot be in real danger because you can dodge also to cancel a skill, dodge to place a bomb, panic random dodge (but it’s the adrenaline player!!!).

I think that a threshold on health better suits the concept, anyway I think the % damage is low and the mechanism of the threshold is getting boring, every class has one, and the engi has a lot of them. It needs to find something new and interesting.

Now, besides the elixir build, the engi doesn’t have a reliable condition remover and necros matchup is badly handled by engis. Why don’t work on this? Conditions are everywhere and are real danger for everyone, everytime.

The Empowering Adrenaline increases % damage for each condition on you, only if having 2 or more conditions.

Pros:

• It can help the trade-off of power builds vs condition bursters;
• cleanse conditions spamming is more controlled by skilled players;
• new stuff, like it was the boon hater skill for warrior;

Cons:

• it doesn’t work with threshold health, but the real danger for engis are conditions, so the main concept remains;
• can be not a neutral trait, because more power build based, but it was also the flat % damage before.

About Incendiary Powder:

• p/p builds
  Before the change to grandmaster of Napal Specialist trait, I was used to put 20 points into Firearms, after the change, I tried 10 points in Explosives for Incendiary Powder.
  It was great, it worked well with Blowtorch and kept sustained the lacking damage by bleeds of Explosive Shot.
  Reverting Napal Specialist to master wont make me spend points in Firearms anymore, IP is great for any p/x user.

• p/s builds
  IP helps this weaponset to have access to burning, but who use p/s?
  Turrets engis and nades engis; nades engis have to put 30 points into Explosives, and I’ll talk about them later.
  Turrets engis: I use a turret build in pvp and I want to bring IP because when turrets are on cd, aka “idle” mode, it’s the only way I can try to make a sort of pressure, also with 0 points in condition damage.
  When rocket turret is up, IP duty is just replaced by that.

What happens if I need to put 20 points in Explosives for IP?
Nodes engis are barely affected, Shrapnel is good: in www, when in raid, I usually swap IP for Shrapnel; IP or Short Fuse? IP, like before.
Like p/s or p/p user I want try 20 points in Explosives for IP but:

1. I get power but lose precision, IP works on crit %, grenades can hit 2(3) times, pistols only 1 at time, so less % of activation;
2. I go out of context: pistols are supposed to be supported by the Firearms tree, same turrets with Inventions, not by 20 points in Explosives;
3. Why use 20 points in Explosives when I can add +10 points and use a good tested nades build?

What are the alternatives with 10 points left?

1. I have to spend 10 points in defensive traits because the offensive ones aren’t effective like IP;
2. Napal Specialist and Modified Ammunition keep being shadows behind IP: no reliable damage;
3. all the other grandmaster traits are defensive.

I admit that ft build can be a valid option after the 10th dec patch, thanks to the Modified Ammunition change.

With the recent patch, supportive pets got an improvement and the rnd factor on vital skills like toss elixir B/S removed.

Can be possible to take in consideration to remove the rnd factor in the forrage skll?
Porcines are supportive and the forrage skill hasn’t often a good response, even if triggered f2 not always there will be the drop beacuse cancelled on casting and the drop needs to be picked up and used, it’s not instant like any other skill.
99% of time I want seed pod, elixir of heros is a lucky strike, egg is more usefull if can be throwed to the enemy :P

Spoken about www and pve (maybe split for pvp), with the seed pod drop, it can help rangers to have a better place in a team composition during the combat or during the healing phase.
And…you can use porcine! (used since day 1 :P)

Thanks, hoping in a positive feedback, greetings

Thieves aren’t easy to play, and isn’t always a “l2p issue” deals with them.

The only things to pay attention are the d/p thieves around, built on fast initiative regen that leaves them hit, combo skill 5+3x3-4 (4 times using the visual abuse that cuts off the range of heartseeker and leave you do 4 leap on smoke field instead of 3), wait initiative regen, hit and go on.

They simply get a too easy, fast and safe access to stealth instead of a common cnd build.

Ghostpilot.6237:

From the patch notes:

Throw Mine and Mine Field skills: Certain friendly NPCs no longer detonate mines.
Scatter Mines skill: Recharge is no longer impacted by the Rifled Barrels trait.

These present new issues with mines that are greater than the original issues.

Mine Field no longer explode when enemies cross them and can only be detonated manually. Furthermore, when the Rifled Barrels trait is active, the mines not only no longer explode, but they trigger a 20 second cooldown on Mine Field whenever any creature (ally, enemy or yourself) steps on them (regardless of Recharge Rate reduction from the Tools line). This cooldown resets whenever any creature crosses them (thus making them unable to be even manually detonated) in a perpetual loop.

Confirm, you can’t detonate the mine field if anything walk on it cause the trigger of the 20 seconds cooldown, but not only, everytime everything step on it, this cooldown resets.

I don’t use the Rifled Barrels trait.

I hope in a quick fix, like usually done with other more-played-classes
Reverting back the mine field is ok :P thanks

Noss.4105:

[…] Special thanks to that charr Engi from [bau](i think) for good duels […]

Hi there, here’s the female engineer charr you met yesterday;
Thank you too for the really tough and funny duels, thank you again

I think you’re the asura mesmer who Jathres[BNF] talked about in some previous post

Keep going this match up, and remember, Quaggans blob you with love

After denying supplies and logorating defense with great efforts, sometimes happens that the wall, the gate, brought to 10% suddenly comes back to 100% because at 20 seconds to wp, people swap map, take supplies from a secured wp-keep and come back full of supplies.

What are your thoughts about it?
To designers, is this intended or is it a point to work on?

Is resetting supplies at swap-map an overkill?
- Mainly at reset match,
- Mainlands become hard to take,
- Siegerazer’ll help a lot,
- No more 10 golems rush suddenly,
- Make camps really priority targets to defend/upgrade/hold,
- Your pros, your cons,

Quaggans focus you all with love <3

What i can figure out is that ranger was designed around the having a pet.
It’s the core of the ranger and the pet, nowadays has big problems in his IA and many bugs.
How can you leave a core-design with such many problems?

Not only, but I find a lack in the cooperation between ranger and his pet, mainly in the trait that is supposed to help this fellowship: the beastmastery trait.

Only 5 points in that tree are really good (Zephy’s speed, all builds need 5 points in, sign of lacking something somewhere), then other traits in other trees give to the pet better utilities.
But some traits are worse than others:
Rending Attacks, Stability Training, Intimidation Training, Vigorous Training.
These traits are master, so you can have only 2 of them, taking one helps only a category of pets.
That means that rangers must choose which pets focus on, and when chosen, must take the right trait and get rid of the others.
Taking one trait above makes the ranger player excludes a category of pets and their traits and it’s not fair, it is like choosing between 9 traits instead of 12.
It’s different than chose a trait instead of another, because there’s a strong exclusion, the difference is really thin but creates redundancy of the traits.

Shouts:
They have a big problem, they arent’s shouts, they are orders to the pets, they don’t give anything to the ranger or his allies.

So, what can do?

About Bestmastery trait:
Ranger and pets need to cooperate better, in this tree, it needs traits or something else that let them helps each other.

Same for shout, they must give something to the ranger, they can’t be simple orders to the pet.

Greetings.