Guild Wars 2

PierPiero.9142:

Phineas Poe.3018:

leviathan.2148:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Shield doesn’t need any changes. It’s probably the best one aside from chronomancer’s in the game. The only reason it isn’t used in PvP or WvW is because the main hand pistol is just about the worst weapon at our disposal.

Shield isn’t used anywhere.

I’ll repeat myself for emphasis: The only reason it isn’t used in PvP or WvW is because the main hand pistol is just about the worst weapon at our disposal.

I don’t find Pistol main hand so bad especially for spvp. I play usually condi with p/P and it does not seems to me bad . What in my opinion was the real problem of condition engineer was that it was hard with rabid or wanderer to survive to a condi burst for the low health pool. Now with reduce cd on AED i find much more easy to play condi engi

Your running P/P… try running P/S and then say pistol mainhand isn’t bad. The real power behind Pistol is from pistol offhand 4 Blowtorch. Main Hand does next to nothing… honestly mainhand pistol is only used because there is no other main hand option.

Can the balance team take a look at the shield?

We have such a limited array of weapons I’d love to see if they can add the ammo system to the magnetic shield skill of the shield so it can occur more than once. It would help out the support builds greatly as this is one of the blast finishers we use.

jief.2509:

Is there a power build that would work in high lvl fractals that doesn’t involve camping the bomb kit? I’m new to engi and I just can’t stand that the main attack animation I see is squatting down and placing a big bomb lol.

I’ve done a few more tests, and the advantage that bomb kit has over hammer (for scrapper) has dwindled severely.

Going with every buff (no food) and every condition, camping hammer averages around 26k, whether you use Rocket Charge or not. Camping Bomb kit and only switching to hammer for thunderclap does about 27.5k damage. While this is better, it isn’t that much better. Vanilla engi camping the bomb kit does around 28-29k.

It is unfortunate, but peak engi performance was nerfed this patch.

jief.2509:

Is there a power build that would work in high lvl fractals that doesn’t involve camping the bomb kit? I’m new to engi and I just can’t stand that the main attack animation I see is squatting down and placing a big bomb lol.

Welcome to the club of anti bombers. We are few, but with the changes to bombs aa well be more… I can’t really help you with the build, fisrt because I’m not playing high lvl fractals yet, second because the balance patch from yesterday really changed a lot.

Better to wait a little to see what good builds appear from here to a week. There will be a couple new and good ones, I’m sure.

Blood Red Arachnid, good analytic post. Thanks for the work.

I’m very much in agreement with the OP, as for the Holosmith… I am not interested in self-destructing and I’m seriously not interested in having to “balance” that out along with all the other rotations. I was hoping that the balance changes before this weekend would try to address some of these issues but upon reading the notes while they took a single step forward, it still didn’t address the very problem with the base kit in general. I love playing Engi and I was really looking forward to the new expansion until I got to the Holosmith and realized that they were putting a shiny arcade band-aid over the main issue. Also, I am NOT a fan of the “look” of the Holosmith either. I liked the steampunk look of the Engi, and if they were going to go with something more “tech” based I was hoping they’d go with something more traditional Asura-tech not the Moto-arcade game look/feel.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

Shield gets zero changes,

Shield changes were not in the scope of this update. I’m sure we’ll see shield updates before to long.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

we lose 4% boon duration,

Everyone lost boon duration and condi duration. That was the primary focus of this patch, to standardize boon and condi duration sources. This was 100% expected.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

we lose 4s of Elixir Shell healing/Water Field access,

Um… no we didn’t… Mortar Kit fields lasted 4s by default, siege rounds boosted this to 6s. They removed siege rounds, but increased the duration of mortar kit fields from 4s to 5s. You only lost 1s if you previously used siege rounds, otherwise we all gained 1s.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

we have zero changes to the trait lines that actually need it (Inventions/Alchemy),

All of our core trait lines need buffs… Explosives and Tools were just as in need of improvements as Inventions and Alchemy. They chose to update those two first, simple as that. Alchemy and Inventions will hopefully still see updates soon.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

we get garbage might stacking in the power trait line,

The trait is mostly granting you personally some might. The might stack is a bonus, now all our blast finishers grant a stack of might in AoE instead of only blast finishers in fire fields. I wouldn’t call that garbage… it’s also not a might stacking trait, it’s just a little bonus might.

Nova Pint Kiosk.7085:

juggernaut is still pointless(ahh yes exclusively take the burning weapon without the buff to burning!),

Eventually i’m sure they will hear us and either remove Juggernaut or remove it’s reliance on flamethrower.

My only problem is that no changes were made to address our over-reliance on Inventions and Alchemy to survive in PvP.

The Minesweeper trait was the defensive trait for Explosives, but it is lackluster unless you’re fighting squishy opponents.

I really wanted to see some other issues addressed and I was excited when I first started reading changes to other classes, I couldn’t wait to get to Engi, then I got to the Engi’s and it just sort of felt lackluster… I admit, I’m getting a bit frustrated. I chose the engineer because I thought I’d get to play lots of different ways in one class but it feels like most of the options are weak or “better” in other classes. I was hoping they’d give some love to the gyro’s or perhaps work on some of the other portions of the kit or at the very least options for other lines (you know like buffing the burn from the flame thrower/turret)… I’ve never really been a fan of the explosives (the only portion I’ve used is the mortars) and while I’m glad they changed a few things, it just felt lackluster. I still LOVE playing my engi but these “buff’s” don’t really feel enough. I know that it’s " a step in the right direction" but it felt like a major let-down. I’m willing to give the Holosmith a chance but I’m honestly not as excited, I don’t like the SAB looking style they went with.

Vagrant.7206:

Engineer and revenant say welcome to the club!

Yes welcome! There’s a snack tray to the left.

In a few minutes, the club president, Nicro Mansor, will do a presentation on how [DnT] and [qT] are literally the spawn of Gaheron Baelfire.

The devs show off spellbreaker and people instanly cry overpowered and how it makes core warrior more obsolete, then the devs introduce a change to make core warrior more relavent and people still cry.

Ya just can’t win huh?

leviathan.2148:

Maybe it’s not in any build on metabattle because it will be released on September 22.

I’m referring to the non-turret heal skills and not the holomancer’s heal, as per the OP’s correct assertion that the holomancer does not address the core engineer problems.

coolant blast will prolly need another ~1k base healing to compete with healing turret, at least

Engineer will be able to set themselves on fire and self-destruct soon. Final Solution is slowly going to fruition.

Daerian.6523:

Most people I know stay away from forums because instead of interesting discussions about builds or strategiy there is only constant whining about everything and all useful informations are elsewhere.

Oh yeah!? Most people I know could beat up most people you know! Why!? Because the Internet™.

To be fair, we used to have discussions about builds and strategy before we were gutted and dumbed down into less than a handful of viable specs before the first/last expansion. Now we talk about new armour stats, about chasing them, crafting them, and then losing all over again after we’ve gotten them.

All joking aside(never mind – I just remembered where I’m posting), Rifle warriors are still better and more focused than Rifle/anything engineers. The moment you equip a kit, save for the laughable mortar kit, you give up any hope of ranged parity and then you lose in melee.

Mortar kit is just an invitation for the enemy to run up and slap you with it. Not to hurt you, but more as an intervention in the hopes that you’ll reroll and continue to log in and provide them with someone to fight against in one of gw2’s flagging competitive game modes. But back to warriors.

When a warriors swap weapons it’s because they’re getting ready to dance on your corpse but want a suitably impressive screen shot with their legendary. Well, that is except for when it’s against an engineer. Winning against an engineer is the gw2 equivalent of winning the special olympics – and nobody bothers screen capturing that.

Silly thing is rifles are just one of many many weapons warriors excel with and seemingly get better with as the game progresses. Engineers, on the other hand, were built around rifles and they’re rubbish with them. That there’s even a comparison to warriors is sad(delusional.) Sadder still is that the class being given rifles in the expansion is going to be better with them out of the gate than we’ve ever been.

As far as crying – that was done with years ago. Now it’s just a shifting back and forth between occasional reflection and morbid curiosity as we circle the drain and wait to see just how low this profession will fall.

We don’t need a hero. We need a dev.

I hope the new maps don’t just have gathering nodes for T5 and 6 mats. We have growing issues because nothing but T5 and T6 gathering nodes are being put on LvL 80 maps. This creates an artificial constraint on lower tier mats, because they can only be found in a few maps, or in increasingly awkward random ways.

The methods introduced recently to get lower tier mats are all stopgaps. They don’t give you control (you can’t go out to purposely farm anything) and they give all kinds of varying amounts. I maintain that nodes should be readjusted across ALL maps, to function as a CAP rather than a band (ie less than lvl 20 has only T1, but ALL MAPS greater than lvl 20 STILL have T1 in addition to higher levels, so by 80 ALL NODE LEVELS are on the maps). The banding system breaks down more and more as every new map is added, as they will forever be lvl 80. This system barely worked well in the base game; it becomes more and more ridiculous as we continue with expansions.? We are approaching or have already hit the point where that are more lvl80 maps than all other levels combined.

Furthermore, this would mitigate how T5 and T6 mats have gone crazy in the legendaries. Mat value must be kept up, so mats required keep ballooning. It’s a vicious cycle: There are so many maps with T5 and T6 only, and they are where we spend 99% of our time, so it’s assumed we have tons, so stuff cost tons in order to keep supply down. If there were a more balanced availability, then there could be more reasonable levels of mat usage as well, including perhaps use of other materials than just T5 and T6.?

Astralporing.1957:

OriOri.8724:

B – This change will help enforce needing teh stats. Now you actually have to build for condition duration if you want it, instead of having stupidly easy ways to hit 100% duration and then going tanky and just kiting while you outlasted their cleanses. This is literally what this change is implementing, so how can you be upset over it?

You do realize that “stupidly easy way to get 100% condi duration” required getting a condi duration gear and traits, right? And that it wasn’t even possible at all for some of the condi classes?

Kusumura.8642:

Astralporing.1957:

Don’t expect power builds to have anything close dps-wise to the good old condi builds. What’s likely to happen is just nerfing necro condi into the ground, making the (mostly useless) power builds the only option.

Power Engineers would like a word.

As far as i know, power engi is not a necro build, is it?

But if you want to talk about Power builds that’re useless, you can do no worse than Power Engineer.

5 years running, worst Power-build DPS in the game.

Astralporing.1957:

Don’t expect power builds to have anything close dps-wise to the good old condi builds. What’s likely to happen is just nerfing necro condi into the ground, making the (mostly useless) power builds the only option.

Power Engineers would like a word.

FairyNuff.3452:

Looks cool & good

Its looks are what I like least about it.

They’re very Super Adventure Box. It’s nice to offer an alternative to all the steampunk but I reckon something Asura-like would have been more popular.

I’m just waiting for the follow-up to this thread.

Engineer: The Final Solution

Nate.8146:

LilBiM.3581:

The faster we get on this ball hopefully the less likely we are to repeat what happened to the Engineer in HoT.

The scrapper was actually good on release day.

I disagree with you in this part. Scrapper was poorly balanced on release day, OP in PvP and barely sufferable in PvE, with an elite mechanic that was noticeably niche since the beggining, full Hammer centered and lacking decent synergies with the rest of the profession. Today it has a few better synergies, and the rest is still extremely unbalanced and PvP only.

Nate.8146:

The only skills topic worth its weight in gold is the new barrier combat mechanic, something holosmiths don’t have access to. This is something I can see most players are going to want to have in party comps. It is one feature I think Anet will buff instead of nerf in the coming months to add more interesting gameplay mechanics. So kudos to Necormancers this round. Like what alacrity did to Mesmer popularity in HoT, I think Barrier will do for Necros in PoF (this is their expansion). As for holosmiths, meh. Enjoy your new toy

I agree with you on this part: no new party support mechanic = no real value for the spec.

LilBiM.3581:

The faster we get on this ball hopefully the less likely we are to repeat what happened to the Engineer in HoT.

The scrapper was actually good on release day. We had enjoyable cool downs, good daze and stun abilities, decent power damage, and responsive attacks. Since then, the elite spec has nosedived with balance changes that I don’t even want to go anywhere near it. Everything about that elite feels so sluggish and ineffective now.

This is why I don’t care about new elites for the expansion and why they are not the reason to buy the expansion. They are designed to look powerful to lure competitive players back into the game. The upcoming balance patches will eventually modify the elite specs so much that it won’t even be what you originally purchased. I already have some bets with friends about how the Holosmith will be nerfed in the coming months (I’m looking at you Hard Light Arena).

The only skills topic worth its weight in gold is the new barrier combat mechanic, something holosmiths don’t have access to. This is something I can see most players are going to want to have in party comps. It is one feature I think Anet will buff instead of nerf in the coming months to add more interesting gameplay mechanics. So kudos to Necormancers this round. Like what alacrity did to Mesmer popularity in HoT, I think Barrier will do for Necros in PoF (this is their expansion). As for holosmiths, meh. Enjoy your new toy

Ardid.7203:

What activity in the game Engie CAN do decently at the moment?
What thing Engie is REALLY BAD at right now?

Answer these questions and you’ll see engie is not really a Jack of all Trades at this time.

It is considered a “Jack of All Trades but Master of None” because it literally covers everything but Master none of it because the effictiveness is just reduced to a point that the other Professions can do better at that certain areas due to being more focused in Mastering those areas.

Engi can be a buffer, clenser, tank, or etc but it can never master any of those roles due to how subpar the skills have been reduced. As I said before I believe Anet is just afriad of making Core Engineer into a “Jack of All Trades and Master of All” thus they keep up this “Jack of All Trades and Master of None” design to prevent their fear from happening when it has proven to be the down fall of Engineer’s design due to the introduction of Elite Specs focusing on specific roles.

Honestly, while I like the Elite specs and what they attempt to do for Engineer, it feels more like they are trying to cover a Scar with a Bandage by focusing on letting the Elite Specs cover Engineer’s ability to Master a certain role while leaving Core Engineer in a “Master of None” state instead of adjust Core Engineer into something that can be a Master of -Something-

A lot of backlash to Holosmith’s reveal and design is more often the result of it not being a Elite Spec that can make Engineer Specialize in Utility/Support buffing because the Core Engineer does not Master that in any way. If Core Engineer had a decent mastery of utility/support buff for groups this backlash would not be a issue to certain people but it is and the source is the Core Engineer’s design to be a Master of None.

LilBiM.3581:

Kusumura.8642:

Vagrant.7206:

Bomb kit, obviously.

They could NERF THE BOMBKIT AUTO-ATTACK DAMAGE IN THE PATCH ON THE 8TH.

Where is my holy water?! I need a Protection Injection against this becoming a reality… although that just lightens the impact…

http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Holy_Water_Vial

May the Builder protect all of his Engineers against the possibly, may the Builder grant strength enough to his Engineers that they may complete their daily tasks.

Should the Builder refuse to grant boons to his Engineers, should the Builder choose to test the resolve of his Engineers… then we’re all taffed.

Kusumura.8642:

Vagrant.7206:

Bomb kit, obviously.

They could NERF THE BOMBKIT AUTO-ATTACK DAMAGE IN THE PATCH ON THE 8TH.

Where is my holy water?! I need a Protection Injection against this becoming a reality… although that just lightens the impact…

Vagrant.7206:

Bomb kit, obviously.

Beat me to it, you tiff taffin’ taffer!

Yeah. It’s going to Bomb Kit. Nothing else…

ALTHOUGH.

Wait for it.

They could NERF THE BOMBKIT AUTO-ATTACK DAMAGE IN THE PATCH ON THE 8TH.

I expect half of the Engineer population to just quit if and when they do. Because they will. Nobody’s thought of THAT eventually yet. But they WILL screw us over in some way in that patch, mark my words.

LilBiM.3581:

I disagree. The expansion date is set, let the constructive criticism begin. The faster we get on this ball hopefully the less likely we are to repeat what happened to the Engineer in HoT.

I don’t have much hope for this as a DPS Spec because last time Orbital Strike used to do damage people turned into apes and started throwing crap about getting hit by something that takes forty seconds to land and has tells on par with the Icicle on staff ele (which hits no-one) and when Mortar used to do damage instead of making it like Long Bow on Ranger AA and changing the damage to something like +10% damage to opponents farther than 600 range, they just nerfed it to the ground because people could AA their feet with zero flight time (so now you can AA at range and do negligible damage assuming your opponent can’t walk away from the shell).

I will be surprised if this thing lasts as long as a snow cone in the desert (after the first 6 months) after PoF drops and then you won’t have much of anything left to play with (condi doesn’t look bad though).

Yeah. After casting Orbital Strike, I have enough time to get up from the keyboard, go to my grandmother’s house, make her a cup of tea (Arthritis nails her to the couch, poor thing), let her finish that one before doing her another, then helping her ready her ingredients for dinner that night.

Then I leave and head back home, go to the porcelain throne, sit and do my business while reading the paper, wipe up, take a shower just to make sure I’m extra fresh and clean, then get dinner going for myself.

Once I’ve finished dinner, I’ll head back to the keyboard and watch the telegraph animation for Orbital Strike begin to play. If anybody thinks I’m exaggerating…

I seriously do NOT understand how people can die to the frelling thing. It’s impossible. You have to really put in some effort to get hit by it, let alone die to it. My grandmother’s handbag hurts more when she tosses it.

I disagree. The expansion date is set, let the constructive criticism begin. The faster we get on this ball hopefully the less likely we are to repeat what happened to the Engineer in HoT.

I don’t have much hope for this as a DPS Spec because last time Orbital Strike used to do damage people turned into apes and started throwing crap about getting hit by something that takes forty seconds to land and has tells on par with the Icicle on staff ele (which hits no-one) and when Mortar used to do damage instead of making it like Long Bow on Ranger AA and changing the damage to something like +10% damage to opponents farther than 600 range, they just nerfed it to the ground because people could AA their feet with zero flight time (so now you can AA at range and do negligible damage assuming your opponent can’t walk away from the shell).

I will be surprised if this thing lasts as long as a snow cone in the desert (after the first 6 months) after PoF drops and then you won’t have much of anything left to play with (condi doesn’t look bad though).