Guild Wars 2

LACK OF DUELS:
The problem here is yet again not developers being lazy to introduce duels, no. The problem here lies in class balancing and the lack off (will talk later in this blog.) Imagine mesmer with 3-4 stealths and phantasms dealing up to 5k damage with illusionary unload? Or thief with Cloak and Dagger + Back Stab the one who can crit up to 40% of your health bar and vanish up to 6 times in 1 match?!

Yeah good luck balancing here… The problem with introducing dueling in GW2 will also be admitting that the balance in the game is an absolute joke outside of objective playing for battle grounds / warzones.

The sad thing is that people are still dueling – they join the specific game / server with no people in it and start dueling. Unfortunately they do however have to deal with random people joining and playing warzones like they are supposed to (killing everything and capping nodes). Which makes it a pretty irritating experience for random people joining somebody’s dueling game and people in a dueling game having interruptions.

SUGGESTION ABOUT DUELING:

You can’t stop or force people to change their mind about dueling. If they want to they will find a way how. What you created is a poor joke of a dueling experience with tons of frustrations! If developers want to go that route of not introducing dueling in the game – fine, but they are missing out on a big aspect of PvP that MMOs have to offer. Rework class balance reintroduce it – yup thats all I got when it comes to suggestions about dueling.
BORING MONOTONE BATTLE GROUNDS:

For people that a new to MMOs, or PC gaming then battle grounds in GW 2 will look fun. For seasoned PvP veterans this is a joke… and a bad one…

When I quit this game the things that made people rage is just 1 simple mechanic – node capping (capping the objective points) with a slight variations with one having water combat (YUCK!). 2 more battle grounds came out – and what do we have – MORE node capping and a slight stench of water combat.

ENOUGH! It is boring. Essentially all we have is 3 node capping over and over and over and over and over again. The worst part of it is that you get to chance to play your favorite one once in a rotation of 5 and if you want to get into another one you have to leave your own warzone / battle ground and join a new one.

PLEASE for the love of twitch, youtube, google and anything else that is holy in PvP come up with some other designs for battle grounds. 5 maps of the absolutely the same game mechanic is over done. (FYI the most fune is prolly frost of niftell or w.e its called beause at least there is much easier to find and engage in team fights.)

I agree.
As a Guild Wars PvP-only player, I’ve forced myself to play PvP because I found it way too boring
.
I’ll pay 100$ too to have a Guild Wars-like game with better graphics and Guild Wars 2 skill/combat system. Why ArenaNet betrayed his most beloved fans, the PvP players?

This build is pure crap. Bad synergy, no swiftness, endurance dmg traits without any endurance regen or refil, missed best defensive skills and traits and I can continue. You dont survive enough and your dmg will by average. Elixir X is last nail in cofin.

That’s atough one, but I think my rotaion would look something like:
- Prybar Prybar Prybar Prybar
or
- Stasic Shot Stasic Shot Stasic Shot Stasic Shot!

^^

Changing our number 3 as our number 2 wouldn’t be fair. It’s like a better version

Our number 3 is really good, it’s a shame we never get to use it.

The issue with Engineer having the worse downed in the game ->

1- We have a weak number 1. Random condition with weak base damage. Why does Warrior and mesmer hit for 1k – 1.5k with auto when downed, and we hit for 300 damage? Because we have a random useless condition popping? Come on .

2- Our number 2 got every weakness available for a downed state. Single Target. Long wind up. Affected by blind, invul, stability, stealth ect. Can be blocked by anything behind us and the target (ranger pet). Bring the enemy TO US. Do weak damage (you better auto attack then grappling for damage).

3. We have the worse survivability in the same when in downed state.

Lets put it this way, here one example of each class, duelling 1on1 in a downed state duel.

Engineer vs
Warrior -> They pretty much outdamage us with throw rock, that hit really hard. Then they use vengenace and finish us.
Mesmer -> Precasted phantams still hit you. Mind blast (mesmer auto) can crit up to 1.5k damage. They use invis to delay our dps, and get 1-2 extra attack in. They cast rogue, which hit for 5-6k average. We are dead. I happen to fight a lot mesmer in 1on1 downed (there downed stats is so strong, they do more damage to me in downed then alive). And each timne I lost. Every freaking time. Even if they have half downed HP when I get downed.
Thief -> This fight isn’t that bad, tho they have the upper hand because of invis, getting 1-2 extra ttack each time.
Ranger -> Pet damage + Pet heal = They win pretty much any match up.
Guardian -> Once the healing kick in, we are done.
Necromancer -> The auto attack hit hard, and life steal. So they got use right there, if the #3 proc, you are even more dead.
Elem Pretty even fight, but they just walk away if they lose.

Engineer are pretty much out of it when it comes to downed state.

Let me get one thing straight, I love this game. I love the engineer. I’m not quitting or rerolling any time in the forseeable future.

Engineer is by FAR my favorite class, for playstyle and for thrills, however they’re suffering from A.N.L.F.C.S., otherwise known as Arena Net’s Least Favorite Class Syndrome. Their list of bugs could span the earth twice around, their defence, offence, and just about everything else is laughable compared to most other classes.

Let me get one more thing straight, I am not bad at engineer. I’m quite good, in fact. But I’m tired of being left out of dungeon groups because I play an engineer, or being cussed out and called a noob because I play an engineer.

Something NEEDS to be done to bring Engineers back into the loop of normal play. Sure, they have spots where they’re good to have, but it’s a very gimmick sort of access. They’re generally left out of almost everything now, and not much is being done to fix it.

ArenaNet, from a concerned engineer player, please for the love of God, do something positive to this underloved class.

Lantz.7240:

Only having the heal for pvp I think would make sense.

I know it’s a weird idea, but i would actually consider this:

- only a heal as you say
- but you are immune to damage

so either you have enough time to heal because your team interrupts them etc… or they have the window to stomp you.

We would have to adress those that can stomp uniterrupted too often of course.
Stomping uninterrupted once a minute with an elixir seems ok, stomping from stealth each time would make you too strong…

Changes like this won’t happen, so to be realistic: just improve engineer downed #2 and #3.

I was PM’d asking for my build, so I will put it out here for everyone to look at.

First, a disclaimer.

I am not a theory crafter, I am not a number cruncher. The following link is to the gear, skills, and traits that I use when in sPvP — PVE/Wuvwuv are different. Also, this is what I currently use: there are many things that change depending on my mood and what I am testing.

The build (Bad Link! Bad! Copy + Paste the URL to visit):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0pyaX7ShF17ICoHAWddXiUofN2HFs1DC;ToAg1Cqo8y0loLbROvkFNIYmB

I use Incendiary Powder, Enhanced Performance, Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Protection Injection, and Deadly Mixture.
I use Rampager PVP trink w/ 2x Lyssa + 2x Monk + 2x Water runes.
I use Sigil of Accuracy and Sigil of Strength
- as strong as the Rifle is (and it is) I prefer the extra sigil option of having both hands busy.

Pistol/Shield, Medkit, Flamethrower, Utility Goggles, Elixir R, Supply Crate.

The point of this build is to PRESS your foes. Stay on them like glue. Get in the face of ranged players. Make them move. Time spent moving is time spent not attacking (sure there are moving attacks, just like FT 1, but the basic premise applies to everyone). Melee are controlled through various knockbacks (push them away, keep them close by chasing.

You use Medkit 5 and Utility goggles for perma fury upkeep (+20% crit)
You use P/S for confusion applications and for Shield 4 knock back and Shield 5 daze.
You use Elixir R for Endurance (I dodge a lot) and the cond removal on the Toolbelt.
You use the FT as your primary damage dealing kit.
You use Incendiary Ammo, Air Blast (since feb 26), and Napalm to maintain burns.

Sigil of Strength and Juggernaut = 15-20 stacks of might (I’ve hit 25 in PVE)
• Keep in mind that this requires you to:

1. keep swapping every 10 or so seconds into Medkit for the EP buff (3 might stacks)
2. use FT 1 liberally to seek crit procs on the sigil (pistol 3 is also very good for this)
3. (optional) replace accuracy sigil with battle sigil so your swapping also adds might.

I find myself often picking a single target and dogging them until they hate me, damage to their allies is icing on the cake.

Things that I often swap:

HGH and Enhanced Performance:
I think that Enhanced Performance is an overall easier way of maintaining might stacks, but the bonus to HGH is that you get the full boon duration buff from alchemy, which makes your Protection Injection essentially permanent with the Water and Monk runes, though, really, the extra 10% isn’t doing much, and the extra POW from Explosions is pretty sexy-times. I typically use Enhanced Performance.
- in PVE I use Exploit Weakness to slow mobs down while farming.

Precise Sights + Protection Injection vs Infused Precision + Invigorating Speed:
I tend to stick with the prior, I don’t find myself needing to go off on really lengthy chases while in combat, and I use the Medkit 5 for swiftness out of combat. On most sPvP maps, this is plenty to get from A to B (A being out of combat, and B being in combat .. ).
- sometimes I swap 10 points from Explosions to Tools for the crit dmg and speedy kits, and when doing so I completely negate the need for swift on crit. The vigor trait is really nice though because I like to dodge a lot. Overall, I stick with Pow.

Protection Injection vs Self-regulating Defense:
The auto Elixir S is really nice, and always fun to watch in the middle of a fray, but with boon duration buffs, I think that a (near) perma protection is a more solid choice.

Elixir R is entirely a preference. C is super handy (you can never have too much cond removal. B is boss, and U is fun for spamming FT 2 (if you are lucky enough to get quickness). I like R because with R and Goggles I have two stun breaks, blindness immunity, and extra endurance.

My play style is very aggressive and mobile. I pick a foe, and I stick to them, I burn them, knock them down, burn them some more, throw some fire on them, knock them down again, confuse them, daze them, then for kicks I burn them again before knocking them down … again.

Air Blast and Shield 4 toss are immeasurably fun and useful, ESPECIALLY now that we can detonate FT 2 when we want to.

FT dmg scales best with POW, but it is a PRE weapon (firearms tree, at least), so its POW gains come from might stacks, and as such, high crit + strength sigil + enhanced performance is where I have found my own sweet spot.

Play it, test it, rip it apart, I leave it to you, but I enjoy this build a heck of a lot and I never find myself wishing I were an Ele.

/2quid

(PS – the nerf that really hit hard was the foodbuff fix. Imma miss my omnom ghosts! but I was so OP with omnoms and this build; the moment I first nommered some berries I knew the nerfs were coming. I could smell them!)

Imo the downed mechanic has no buisness in any PvP setting the way it is now.
In sPvP and WvW the downed mechanic should really only be the heal skill for every profession so if you get downed in a teamfight you have a chance to get rezzed.

Otherwise the whole downed system is just a whole load of cheap stupidness. Why is it that some professions can seem to hit me harder with their downed attack then I can hit them with my autoattack!? I am forced to use CDs on someone that I have already beat.

Why is it that some professions have a gauranteed way to distract ppl for another 10 seconds or so. In sPvP you can really see the complete unbalance of classes like Mesmer and Ele who you can get downed but then they can use their downed skills to disract you while teammates capture points. Whereas if you are an Engineer and you get downed you can only hope to prolong your life as long as it takes someone to do the spike animation twice.

The Downed mechanic either needs to stay in PvE only or it should be changed in PvP so that all professions have EQUAL skills.
My suggestion would be everyone only gets 2 downed skills.
-1 skill being a single target interrupt.
– 2 skill being heal self.

If the Toss Elixir S had both Stealth and Stability instead of 50% one or the other, this wouldn’t be an issue.

“They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight.” – Arenanet on engineer class philosophy

On a class that relies on boons to help them fight, isn’t it weird that we are missing one of the stronger boons? This was not always the case and we had stability like the rest of the classes in the form of the juggernaut trait (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Juggernaut&oldid=313868) When it was removed, we were left with two skills that can grant stability to us, one has a 50% chance of giving it when we need it and the other one is a skill that forces us to not move, replaces our skills with skills with the strength of masterwork weapons that cannot even target nearby enemies.
I believe that stability is part of the reason this class feels like it is missing something. Here are the non elite-skills that give stability:
Guardian:
“Stand Your Ground!”
“Hallowed Ground”
Warrior:
“Balanced Stance”
“Dolyak Signet”
Ranger:
“Signet of the Wild (to your pet)”
Elementalist:
Armor of Earth
Mesmer:
Power Break
Engineer:
Toss elixir s (randomly)

So apart from necros (Who at least have fear to make up for it and can at least trait for 3 second of stab) and thieves, we suffer from having no stability skills, most likely because developers must have though our infinite stability trait would make up for it and we did not need one. Sadly though we all know what happened to it.

I believe that this class was made from the beginning to have good access to stability, but lost it during the way. So I request we get a skill or trait to be updated with stability, a class that requires mid/close range playing style really could benefit from one.

It has been centuries and yet we are still bugged having a Flamethrower that misses when targeting a foe, and also, each hit from FLAME JET (FT first skill) SHOULD grant BURN, otherwise where is the logic on tossing fire without getting burn? is this a supersoaker gun?
Read the skill’s tag info:
“Spray fire in a cone pattern while on the move, burning enemies on the final attack.”
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_Jet

We all demand for a fix once and for all, this is a bug old as a left-over-pizza-hidden-under-ur-sofa’s cushion.

Please all Engineers post here to let our voice be heard!
NO more supersoakers! and YES = Fix Flamethrower’s BUGS

http://schwanzersatz.de/super_soaker_monster_xl.jpg
(Lol at this picture, nice super soaker gun, really a monster super soaker, we should have one in game for engineers)

Well, the kit refinement buff was expected and it was also expected that the patch would be bugged. A lot of engineer stuff has been bugged since day #1, reported here or using the inbuilt tool. Yet this “big” update didn’t fix most of those issues. What was unexpected the overpowered builds or traits of some other professions were not addressed at all. And what was expected: no explanations or reasoning.

Reroll as a thief, mesmer, guardian or elementalist. That is what the Anet skill “balancers” are playing!

This vision anet has of versatility via kits does not exists. Kit’s are sub par by default. You need traits to bring them up to par or better. When you spend your traits to bring up 1 kit, you leave out the other kits as sub par.

What the kits need to validate the claim of “versatility” are traits that affect all kits. Traits like backpack regenerator, kit refinement, and speedy kits.

We need stuff to happen when equipping or stowing a kit (like when traited, a necro can cast spells, gain buffs when entering DS, or heal when they leave DS) for the said kit to be worth the utility slot. Hell, FT and EG are better condition cleansers with kit refinement than cleaning formula 409.

I originally wrote this post as a reply to something in the “is engineer that bad? common” thread.

I decided to create a new topic because I actually wanted the following to be discussed in detail. Sorry if this seems like a rant, but it’s something that’s been bothering me for some time.

Anyone is more than welcome to tell me that they disagree with my opinions, this topic is to elicit though and discussion on something I consider an issue for the engineer class. That being said, please be kind, we’re all friends here

amiable.4823:

Take for example Mesmers, elementalists and thieves, who can both stack utilities that are helpful both offensively and defensively, while putting out far superior damage over time. Even if we have a build that does not focus on kits many of our utilities are flat out worse than comparable utilities in other classes and either possess a significant drawback such as a self root or have a random effect that means most of the time you re rolling the dice and hoping for the effect you want.

After having made elementalist and mesmer alts, after the whole OMG this is so OP wore off, I kept note of something that I’ve noticed when making alts for any other profession in the game. What I noticed was that those classes (Ranger, Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer) aren’t completely dependent on slot skills to be effective. Those professions are solid without their slot skills and better with them. The engineer isn’t solid without slot skills, in fact, it is kitten useless without them.

This reflects something the devs need to address with regards to the engineer, they need to address the issue that our main-hand weapons are inefficient and ineffective. Some may not agree with me, but I think this is symptomized by two kinds of builds the engineer has, the kit engineer and the might stacking engineer.

The kit engineer tries to make up for our inefficient main-hand weapons by loading himself with kits, which are themselves mostly inefficient by design (bar a few). He equips himself with a lot of kits to be able to acquire (what he considers) a necessary amount of useful skills. Why? because our our main-hand weapons lack enough useful skills for a good build and no one kit contains all the skills which we will need. That is why you see 4 kit engineers running around without stun breakers because they want to have at least two damage kits (like grenade or bombs) and the elixir gun (for one skill, SE). Grenades and bombs are a whopping 10 skills, on top of our 5 main weapon skills. Why do we need 10+ damage skills? Why have the devs made the engineer’s damage so low that some consider 10+ skills necessary to kill things? Why have they made our utilities so minor and spread out across so many kits to the point where some need 4?

A well built ranger only needs 14 skills. A 4 kit engineer gets 29 skills. I don’t see why we need 29 skills at once. Our kits and weapons need a much needed clean up or redesign.

On the other side of the engineer spectrum we have the might stacking (as well as the static discharge) engineers. These builds embrace our main-hand weapons, they focus on using every skill they provide and are perceptive of the nuances and quirks of each weapon or kit they use. The might stacking or static discharge engineer likes our main-hand weapon skills, but they thing they just need a little kick to them because they’re ineffective on their own. So the SD or Might engineer uses our all to valuable slot skills to buff our damage, in any way possible. If the person is capable enough to go without stun breakers or defenses, they can go full GC and dedicate every slot skill to be able to achieve the effectiveness they want out of our main weapons.

A warrior/thief/mesmer/elementalist doesn’t need to use 4+ skills to buff themselves to be able to do great damage as a glass cannon. Why then do static discharge/might stacking engineers do that? What I can discern from this is that our weapon damage needs a well deserved increase

The devs have said that the engineer sacrifices damage on our main-hand weapons in order to be a versatile profession. The problem with this is that we are not versatile if we are both ineffective and inefficient. I’m talking about our main-hand weapons because fixing them would be a good start, but If you look at kits you would see that they have the same problems. Just take a look at the might stacking flamethrower.

I’m creating this thread for people that are just purchasing this game as a warning so that they do not consider rolling an engineer. As a caveat, I only play wvw so I’m not able to intelligently comment on how the class performs in pve and spvp.

For some background, I have been playing mmos since 1999, and have played virtually every single major title released during this period. I’ve been playing an engineer as my main since the 2nd beta world event. I’ve logged over 600 hours on it. I’ve tried virtually every single build there is, experimented extensively with all of our kits, gone pistol/pistol, pistol/shield, and rifle, have multiple sets of exotic gear, tried maximizing turrets, and have used both elixirs and gadgets. I’ve tested everything, and I try to squeeze every ounce out of my spec through theorycraft. I admit that I do have success playing the profession despite the profession’s inherent disadvantages.

That all said, the engineer plain and simply does not stack up against most other professions that are equally played and geared. It just doesn’t. I don’t want that to be true, but it is. In most cases you simply have to play flawlessly to beat other classes.

In addition, the class is riddled with bugs, which the developers have completely ignored, instead rolling out wave after wave of n-erfs in every patch. The recent adjustments that have been made to the profession do not in any way bring us up to par with warriors, thieves, elementalists, and mesmers. If anything they put us further behind.

Also, the engineer does not bring the same level of support and versatility to a group that other classes are able. The truth of the matter is that we are a second rate profession that will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Do not be fooled by the people who will chime in on this thread saying that the engineer class is fine, and l2p. I know how to play. I also know that when I get on a thief or warrior it is complete easy mode in comparison.

The only reason to play the engineer class is if you like playing the underdog, and can deal with the reality that if you aren’t absolutely perfect in many encounters you will lose.

Take this as a warning from someone who continues to stick it out on an engineer despite it being sub-par.

Roll a warrior, thief, mesmer, or elementalist if you are considering the engineer class.

Just trust me and you will be glad you did.

The engineer seems to be far more dependent upon utility skills than every other class. I think that pretty well sums up most engineer issues in a nutshell.

I think the core problem (for those that find the class problematic) was that they had to balance the class around potentially having kits in utility slots. Thus, I think kits should have been implemented differently, like maybe just only allow one, but have it take one of the function key (F1-F4) abilities, instead of the weird thing they have done where you need to take up a utility slot (or possibly the healing slot, if we want to be technical) to have the equivalent of weapon swapping. Obviously, other abilities would probably need to be balanced differently in that case.

Also tied to that point, if you don’t use a kit, you have a whopping three – yes, three – weapon combinations to choose from, and two of those have the same first three skills. As I said, the class is balanced too much around kits. I’d probably be fine with that, if they did not take up utility slots, and instead replaced the engineer’s non-existent weapon swap.

I would guess they probably experimented with various ways of doing it during development. Why the current implementation is what they settled on, I don’t know. It certainly seems far from ideal to me, though.

Christianpro.3254:

Engineer sucks, they dont do so much dmg as all the other classes. Thats all Fix It please and dont come and say i am a noob since im not, got full exotic and ascended

I never understood this sort of argument.

“Class X is horrible , and I should know I’ve played it hundreds of hours.”

If someone plays a horrible class for hours and hours, I seriously question their sensibilities.

the best part is landing it on a thief or mes and one shotting them. grenades go off, thief or mes is nowhere to be found…. wait for it….. invisibility wears off….ah, there they are! lying on their back, with their hand reaching towards the heavens as if to say ‘why god? why did I underestimate the engineer?’

I actually run an all engineer team for tournaments atm. You might have seen us around Anvil Rock or in matches. The team is called “Care Package Inbound [CPI]”

Because he’s the profession Guild Wars 2 deserves, but not the one it needs right now, so we’ll nerf him…..because he can take it….because he’s not a profession….he’s a Grenade Spammer, a Turret Spawner……the Versatile Engineer. -The Dark Knight (2008)

My now level 80 Engineer, Bodge Cogswell sporting Seattle Sounders FC colors and grinning like a maniac.