Guild Wars 2

Hock.6740:

and some more – human skills and their toolbelt pair are totally crap for engi(

Racial skills are just flavor skills and nothing more. They don’t expect you to take them.

Vagrant.7206:

scorekeeper.6524:

The catch-22 then either: nerf kits to promote the use of other utilities = heavily nerf the capabilities of the class
or: buff kits = now the class REALLY has to use kits all the time or else it is shooting itself in the foot by not taking any

Honestly, I think the biggest part of the problem is that our primary weapons are so dang weak. If you use at P/P, P/S (hah!), or Rifle and you try to play without a kit, your damage will be absurdly weak compared to other classes. None of these weapons are good, forcing us to use multiple kits, which do have damage that is good (typically bombs and/or grenades).

If they actually want to fix the problem of being stuck using kits, they need to buff our primary weapons to where they are competitive and nerf certain kits to reduce their effectiveness.

You’ll notice that Scrapper in PvP only uses one kit, and that’s because the primary weapon isn’t half bad. Sure, it’s still not on par with some of the more powerful weapons out there, but it’s got some heft to it, and some of the utilities built into it that you would otherwise need a kit for.

You’re right, I should have added “buff weapons we already have” as a viable solution. My bad! But I think that shows my faith in Anet’s willingness to do so is very low and I’m hoping that the next xpac will deliver.

Bad Players accuse me of hacking all of the time. One guy sent a video recording to ANET. I’m still here. Look into mobility combos. Shadowstep + Sword port to enemy can cover A LOT of ground. Shadow Trap + Shadow Step + Sword port as well. Heart Seeker + Shadowstep mid air covers an excess of area as well. So does Bow 5 + Shadowstep or anything like this. A LOT of people don’t realize how mobile thieves really are if utilized correctly. Don’t forget Heartseeker + Steal, Shadow Step + Steal, anything.

I hope that with the introduction of the sword, we will get better as a class and more diverse. Despite kits, it’s the thing that holds the class back- limited weapon choices. The reason why other classes don’t suffer from a lack of build diversity is that they have many weapons to choose from, while the Engi, up until HoT, had 3. The excuse was we get kits, which are another set of weapons that we can utilize. But it’s painfully obvious that we are restricted in build diversity by our lack of weapon choices which forces us to rely heavily on kits. Couple this with the fact that our only weapon swap ability can only be produced from running at least 1 kit and you have a class that begins to be pigeonholed into 1 or 2 types of builds.

The catch-22 then either: nerf kits to promote the use of other utilities = heavily nerf the capabilities of the class
or: buff kits = now the class REALLY has to use kits all the time or else it is shooting itself in the foot by not taking any

Obviously neither situation is desirable. The suitable answer could be to buff other utilities (turrets, elixirs, gadgets, etc.), resulting in indirect nerfs to kits, but nothing as dramatic as a straight up nerf.

Or to introduce another weapon. Taking scrapper allowed us to use gyros, which were at one time great additions and really promoted the idea that running a kit might not be as necessary as before. But then they nerfed gyros, nerfed hammer, all the while buffing other classes.

This is what we are worried about- that when we get good things, they will soon be nerfed to uselessness; that not that many devs play the class as a main and therefore do not understand the problems we suffer, some problems existing from day 1; that other classes get unreasonable concessions and buffs for arbitrary and silly reasons; that the dev team clearly does not understand how to balance classes for spvp and wvw settings.

The last sentence is quite unbelievable since in GW1 there were separate pvp abilities that were not available in pve, and vice versa, since said abilities would be overpowered outside of their respective gamemode. It’s obvious, and sad that these GW2 devs are not building upon the knowledge of their GW1 predecessors.

Argue what you want, but Panda nailed our situation.

Problems like lack of build diversity are problems that ANY game with unique flavors (classes), and with multiple paths (roles); are problems that are expected to be fixed from ANY game that wants to follow such philosophy.

If their philosophy is that kits must be an option open to anyone who wants to learn engi, who doesnt have money for the new fancy builds, and therefore it must kept alive all the time, like a stock basic build.

By all means alright, i can go with that, but dont forget we should (and any class should) have the chance to go more further, and people who desire to go further should be able to find a build, as good as the stock one when you compare it apples to apples, but with a different flavor when you play it.

True, stagnant is a problem that any class frecuencies, but dear, tell me the last time the grenade kit (for example) was out of the meta in pve… since my f2p entry to the game to today, i dont remember any moment the grenade kit was a bad or niche option, ever!

Things have been the same so much, that i agree with panda about having a change of winds, even if we are currently peforming well, just for the sake of seeing changes.

Obtena.7952:

Again, there isn’t a problem with having builds that you have been using for many years. I don’t even think that’s true but it’s not worth arguing that point; I have changed my Engi PVE build many time, adjusting to changes (good to bad) that Anet have made to the class. Probably moreso than any other class I play. I don’t doubt the same is true for many others in both PVP and WvW as well, based on the forum chatter.

In how many of those builds have you been using the same Kit? What utilities have you used? How major of changes have your builds actually undergone? You don’t have to answer those questions here, just ask them to yourself and see just how little you’ve actually changed your engineer over the years. I honestly doubt you’ve done much to it in reality, you probably dropped a Utility that got nerfed into the ground in favor of the next best in slot utility, which ultimately didn’t change how your build plays in the long run.

Engineers have had the same few builds since the game launched. When HoT came out we saw a lot of Scrapper builds that died off after Gyro’s got nerfed, and now Scrapper is only seen in PvP, and even then it’s mostly just for the Function Gyro and nothing else since the Core Kit builds are the only real viable builds to Engineer since Launch… We’ve seen a few other builds over the years that all lasted for very very short periods of time before being nerfed into the ground.

Obtena.7952:

Changing things just to give people fresh builds isn’t a very good reason to change things, especially if they are trying to maintain other factors. People choose classes to play, not because they expect the class to change and stay fresh every few months, but because they like the theme, or just want to do FOTM. Classes don’t need to be treated like warriors for people to play them. That’s just being sensational.

Actually, changing things to give people fresh builds IS a good reason to change things. It really goes hand in hand with balance when you take the time to think about it. If people are only using 1 or 2 options out of a dozen or so options, that usually means one of two things, either 1) those 2 options are overperforming and need to be nerfed, or 2) the other options are underperforming and need to be buffed… there is also a third possibility that is usually closer to the truth of the matter though 3) both. So making a change to give people fresh builds is a good reason since it is in and of itself an act of balance.

Obtena.7952:

Besides, even if it is stagnant, the answer to that problem already exists; there are 8 other classes Anet provides players that get bored. That’s the reason they are there.

This is by far the worst and most hypocritical response to the problem. First off lets look at your previous statement:

People choose classes to play, not because they expect the class to change and stay fresh every few months, but because they like the theme, or just want to do FOTM.

So you’re telling me that if I chose Engineer because I liked the theme, but I’m not having fun because the class is stagnant that not only is my only option to change class but that the devs expect me to do so? I’m sorry but I chose Engineer because of it’s theme, I can’t get that theme from any other class… Clearly that is NOT the answer.

If I were picking a class because of FotM then changing classes is something that’d be happening all the time anyways regardless of if the class is stagnant or not. Infact, FotM players generally never even play classes that are stagnant due to them being underpowered. However, in the Engineer’s case they can be very powerful with very little effort, just take Flamethrower, Bomb, or Grenade Kit and spam 1, you’ll do top-tier damage without any effort whatsoever.

And that outlines one of the biggest problems people have with Engineer… Sure we have the most complex build rotations to get our absolute best damage, but at the same time (and has been proven multiple times) we also have the simplest rotations that result in only marginally less damage. We can choose between spamming 1 and doing top-tier damage or playing a finger twisting piano concerto with our skills to do 1% more damage. Not all of our balance problems are because of underpowered skills, our biggest and most glaring balance problem is massively overpowered Kits. Which is probably the very reason we don’t get the buffs to our other skills that we need.

Obtena.7952:

Vagrant.7206:

What I’ve been arguing is that we’ve been shoehorned into a few very small builds because all our other options have become non-viable.

OK if that’s the case, I don’t see a problem. I mean, you talk like this is exceptional but that’s typical. I don’t think anyone here will disagree that build diversity isn’t a strength of this game. I see that complaint in every class forum … even the ones that are meta. Sure other classes get things here and there … but they still suffer from the same problem if it is indeed a problem to begin with.

Lack of build diversity IS a major problem… it was a problem for several classes at launch, and all but the Engineer had their initial lack of build diversity resolved by the time HoT went live… Engineers however are STILL shoehorned into mostly the same builds that we were forced into back at the start of the game due to a complete lack of balance within our own skill sets.

Do other classes have certain skills or skill types that are massively underpowered? Yes, but not nearly as many nor do they have anywhere near as large of a power gap. Engineers have 1 skill type that is of value and that is their Kits.. everything else has either been massively underpowered since launch or nerfed into the ground the instant they were strong enough to even be considered a viable alternative to Kits.

Do other classes have weapons that are massively underpowered? No… not really… When it becomes clear that a weapon for any other class is underpowered that weapon gets buffed or reworked to bring it up to par with other weapons from the class. Engineer however do not have this luxury… Because of how limited our weapon selection is and the simple fact that most engineer builds don’t even care what your weapon is beyond being a stat stick, there is a very VERY high likelihood that the number of Engineers using each weapon are almost the same making our weapons look like the most balanced across the board since launch. If every engineer unequipped every weapon but Offhand Pistol and ran with just that for a month, we’d probably see some major Rifle, Shield, an Mainhand Pistol changes finally.

Obtena.7952:

In fact, I would argue that if you want more balance between classes, you have to accept throwing out build diversity to do it. It’s just too complicated and not within the constraints of the game development resources to do so.

You could argue that, but you’d be wrong. It would be easier to balance classes by throwing out build diversity, but it would not be more balanced. It’s entirely possible to get every bit as much balance with build diversity as without, it just takes more effort and critical thinking on the devs part to do so. The result of balancing with build diversity is also better for the game in the long run as well.

When you balance around a lack of build diversity you ultimately end up with a sort of “combat triangle” where class A defeats class B, class B defeats class C, and class C defeats class A. The reason for this is the strengths of one class when focused on a single build leaves a weakness to be exploited by another classes strength, this isn’t inherently bad, infact strength and weakness exploitation like that is good… but, Guildwars was designed with build diversity in mind from the start.

We have options on every class to change our strengths and weaknesses, the only problem is that the lack of proper balance over the past few years has left many of those options unusable. Good balance would allow for players to utilize those options and change the “combat triangle” from being class based to build based, so that say for example Power defeats Tank, Tank defeats Condi, Condi defeats Power. Now instead of always having a clear advantage when facing a specific class, there is the risk of defeat due to them having a build that counters yours. Jack-of-all-trades builds can even be viable options without being overpowered.

Balance? No they don’t have one specific to the Engineer. This is why when the Flamethrower had been a power based kit for the longest got condi buffed and power nerfed. Don’t get me wrong it should have always been condi, fire by it’s very nature should be condi not power based (don’t get me started on the Elementalist). And here lies the first dilemma, the power traits add condi stuff and don’t really add to power as straight forward as other professions. They seem to have a single team, and when changes are implemented the engineer is probably one of the last to see any effort add to that time crunch and they get the short end of the stick by fiat. By comparison all other classes do more damage with rifle skills. Turrets have already been turned into one time use instead of sustained support (which if anyone has the original game guide that was their purpose). You didn’t need amazing weapon damage as turrets would make up for the power vacuum. Now the turret support is minimal to sustained combat, unlike a minion they don’t move, take less damage kill, and don’t heal (the engineer would have to forgo attacking to heal them any, though given their squishy state this appears as a futile mechanic of a long forgotten idea) and take far longer to respawn. Now the engineer has to rely on kits which are so poorly designed for power that it’s actually glaringly bad for power builds. They’re barely a hybrid and this actually makes the kit weaker as a skill selection, but given you don’t get better options for your base weapon to buff combat you’re shoehorned into a counterintuitive profession for power. For condi there is a lot of fluid damage with kits, for power it’s a constant change of kits and belt skills for damage numbers. So what happens when a class mechanic requires a ton of physical interaction vs less interaction, condi takes over as it’s more complimentary to gameplay.

If they really want to fix the power engi they need to add a power based kit, bring the rifle damage up to snuff without requiring kits to make up for a weapon that has no idea what it is. Rifle one is a long range shot, 2 is a net, 3 is an extremely close range shot, 4 is a mid range condi clense, knockdown, and 5 is a leap in close combat attack. So is it a close range weapon or long range weapon? If it’s close range why the long range shot or the net? If it’s long range why the extreme short range shot and the leap attack? If it’s a power weapon why is the one skill the only skill that truly benefits from power? If it’s a condi weapon then the power engineer lacks a base weapon. I’m not including the hammer since it’s a PvP exclusive elite spec so it’s not a base selection without nerfing your class for PVE.

TheDevice.2751:

As far as pvp, Gravity Well is just all around better lol.

The damage is comparable even thouh GW is more power-based. The cc’s are real and almost insure the final pulse to hit.

Plaguelands pulses 4 through 8 don’t even do damage. And you take 2 stacks of bleed.

The kicker? Gravity well has 90 second cooldown while plaguelands has 120.

You tell me Anet isn’t biased as kitten XD.

Plaguelands will do way more damage in a condi build if everything hits than gravity well in a power build. The reason gravity well is perceived as better is that if you get locked in it without a stunbreak or instant cast teleport then you’re free to be wailed upon for 3s which is a long time in PvP.

Drop plaguelands on a downed enemy and that guy is never getting rezzed, no way. The enemy team would have to burn too many cool downs and take too much damage.

That’s without pointing out the extremely obvious: Not all skills are designed to be equally as popular in each game mode. Dropping plaguelands in WvW before you go down or before the enemy pushes into you can result in you killing several enemy players especially with deathly chill.

rev has a trait that removes 2 stacks of stability on knockback stun etc. tablets ult explodes the tablet and knocks back. he prob just resummoned it and when it was up again just kept using it

I welcome better rewards, yes, but tournaments won’t help this game unless they’re accessible to the majority of players. I think different levels of tournaments are the best thing to do. As it is now, new teams are just going to walk straight into pro and established teams and crash out of the first round. You can’t learn anything from that. New teams and regulars need to play with people on their level. I argue that’s a better incentive than rewards.

insanemaniac.2456:

inferring that engi has not seen meaningful changes in either the balance patches or the expansion as a justification for your flagrant and constant angryposting.

it is so patently obvious that the basis of your argument is wrong that i shouldnt even have to point to the elite spec itself or the nerfs in nearly every balance patch to help you see that making such a broad statement as “engi deserves meaningful changes because other classes have gotten them” is ridiculous and out of touch. engi got its meaningful changes. engi wasnt in a bad place, some of its skills are but engi has always had a place in the metas of all game modes after about 2012 (until the slick shoes nerf that made raiding pointless on engi). in fact, this elite spec was so good at its intended niche that weve had 2 years of nerf after nerf after nerf to the dominant engi pvp build.

Engineer has only been in meta due to Kits since launch… every time a build that used utilities besides Kits made it to Meta Status, those utilities got nerfed. It’s like Engineers are not allowed to use anything but Kits… and it’s rather infuriating.

Our meta builds today:

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Engineer

Our meta builds almost a year ago:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160628142642/http://metabattle.com:80/wiki/Engineer

Just give it a look and see how kittening kitten stale our pve builds are…. THEY ARE THE KITTEN SAME.

They should stop focusing on rewards and start working on making gameplay fun and diverse.

Right now it is boring and stale and they keep adding more rewards in an attempt to draw players into the gamemode. While it is somewhat working, it is drawing the wrong type of players that are healthy for the game mode.

I remember a time when i was broke as hell but i still had 10x more fun because I enjoyed the combat.

This is wonderful thread. I noticed these same sort of things a long time ago but that was before we had a relevant rating system to compare/contrast different matches. Everyone told me to “l2p” and ignored what I was pointing out to them. Glad to see others are finally noticing this.

Long story short ~ Over the years I’ve also noticed that some accounts just get better matches much more often than others do. I’ll refrain from writing a text wall of theories but I will say that after 5 years and 10,000 matches of paying attention to this, it isn’t just good luck or a coincidence for these players. No, it’s rigged patterns that break the normal patterns of the algorithm’s match making. I’ve been certain of this for almost three years now. Is it simply meta smurfing tactics or is there something going on that arenanet isn’t telling us about? At this point, I believe it’s a little bit of both.

A few vague examples as to leave out names of actual players:

• Couple guys I know personally, repeatedly get the easiest matches I’ve ever seen. Even if I am not duo with them but land on their team in a ranked que, we get such easy matches that it’s boring. And let me tell you, they are good players! but they aren’t doing anything special to carry matches. They just get stacked with other good players, almost every single time that they que.
• Some other guys that most people know, I notice that whether I am with or against them, their team always wins. They are great players! but I notice the majority of these wins are not from these guys carrying so hard, they are because their team is simply stacked with veteran player base that most people know, almost every time they que.
• New players that arrive fresh out of pve, hoping to grind those wings. I see a lot of these somehow tag easy match after easy match and ride straight into plat with some ridiculously high win rate. This is very odd considering their visible lack of experience and ineptitude in combat. I’ve often wondered if the algorithm has implemented a function to give new guys on the scene easy matches for awhile so they maintain interest. Regardless of if that’s true, whatever is going on here is not only unfair for veteran participants but it’s insulting.
• Other players of various experience levels that I refuse to que with in ranked. I refuse to que ranked with them because I swear to god, I get the worst matches I have ever seen, every time I que with them. I’m not talking situations where you play with someone for the first time, get a 4 game lose streak and then dodge them forever. No, I’m talking people that I’ve played with for years. Some of which are strong players but they almost always, land on the bad side of a team in a ridiculously impossible to win match. I’m not sure if they were infracted too many times and kittened off the wrong person in the anet office or if too many people within the match manipulation community do not like them. Either way, they almost always get scum of the earth complete garbage matches, and I’ve watched it happening to them for years.

Faux Play.6104:

To me it doesn’t seem that odd. Both teams have a fairly tight grouping of players, and the teams are only ~200 points apart.

You have to be crazy to think this is fair, Edison might be the 2nd best thief in NA and you think 2 guys with a 1510 rating have a fair shot.

Come on bruh

I posted a pic in S5 that was more outrageous and i posted 5 matches similar at the end of S5.

In the 1 match i was the highest rated at around 1680 at the time on my team with my team mates around 1600-1650.

The other team had 2 players in plat 3, 2 players in plat1 and 1 ele on the other team with about the same rating as me. So literally everyone on the other team was better then the team i was on and i lost like 18 rating for it.

To me Anet hasnt fixed this because of a few reasons

1- The +/- ratio they are using,
When elite players face each other and lose -40 points a match it brings them back to a normal rating with people they will destroy yet those people only lose 20 or so a match. Like i had a game where i faced Darek and his duo partner and this was when he was ranked number 1 in season 5. He gained 4 rating while i lost like 22. Had he lost i would of gained like 20 and he would of lost like 50. It doesnt make any sense from a Match Making perspective or a rating perspective. So i believe that Anet sets up so the ESL players have X matches favored for them.

2- Badge ratings
I brought this up before but S1-4 there was 1 more badge rating. Which meant another level of progression. To add to the rating system above they killed a whole badge so they could group up more people together. So if you check out the rating system with the badge, it becomes ohh it isnt so bad look they have 3 golds against 2 plats when really its 2 gold 1 and a gold 2 vs 2 plat 2.

3- Population
I feel the games are forced this way because of the low population and the fact most of the top 50 players in the game have alt accounts which really means the top 250 is really the top 100.

So what many like myself have asked is why doesnt Anet show badge level after match?

Why does Anet show the team rating levels after match?

Why doesnt Anet change the +/- system based on the % on what the losing teams chances are?

For me since we are in S7, Anet either doesnt care or doesnt want to change because of number 3 reason.

Hock.6740:

rechecked it – yep, my bad(

It’s ok, we’re such a borked class it’s hard to tell if things are working as intended sometimes

This is a list of minor issues with skills for the engineer. The purpose of this list isn’t for bugs, it’s not for issues in PVP it’s specifically for PVE in which skills aren’t either on par in their basic use or not functioning as a useful skill.

I’m honestly surprised that some of these things have not been addressed since beta of this game even with the funds that come in from an expansion and would like to request that these things be addressed on this class before the next expansion is released or at least during the beta testing of the next expansion! Thank you!

I invite other players to add to this list and if this list already exists, a list of minor issues when using engineer skills, then please add this to that thread as I’ve not seen one for minor ui and minor range trigger issues.

For example: Tossing skills on the toolbelt for elixirs still fly too far away from the engineer before breaking underwater.

Some potions do not produce any boons even as toolbelt tosses even with traits that are meant to enhance elixirs. This makes them basically useless skills as other skills such as the trait that gives turrets boons, produce better results.

Mines either from toolbelt skills or from traits are too small and have a tiny trigger range.

Mines thrown from mine toolbelt skill are not thrown in a useful pattern and appear anywhere around the character sometimes well out of range of the enemy. I propose changing the toolbelt mine skill to throw mines in a chevron pattern >>> in front of the engineer.

Over the last 5 years… Engineer core weapon updates…

Rifle:
Hip Shot – 1 update – 2015 – range increase
Net Shot – 0 updates
Blunderbuss – 5 updates – 2013-2017 – range increase, tooltip update, range increase, PVP damage buff, Condi Buff
Overcharge Shot – 2 updates – 2015 – movement speed no longer adds self-knock distance nerf, range increase
Jump Shot – 8 updates – radius and speed buff, animation bug, vulnerability bug, initial radius * damage buff, tooltip update, movement speed no longer adds distance nerf, range increased, large initial damage nerf and small landing damage buff

Pistol:
Frag Shot – 5 updates – 2014-2017 – skill renamed, rifled barrels bug, bleed duration buff, minor damage buff, bleed duration buff
Poison Dart Volley – 3 updates – 2015-2016 – poison duration buff, poison duration buff, projectile targeting adjusted
Static Shot – 3 updates – 2013-2016 – tooltip update, tooltip bug, confusion and cooldown buff
Blowtorch – 9 updates – 2013-2017 – miss bug, aftercast reduction, tooltip update, tooltip update, rifled barrels bug, untraited double hit bug, burning buff, recharge reduction, burning buff
Glue Shot – 5 updates – 2013-2016 – tooltip update, tooltip update, tooltip bug, projectile speed buff, CC buff and duration bug

Shield:
Magnetic Shield – 1 update – 2014 – can be used while moving
Magnetic Inversion – 1 update – 2013 – tooltip update
Static Shield – 2 updates – 2013-2016 – QOL fix and stun nerf, duration and cooldown buff
Throw Shield – 1 update – 2013 – no longer passes through walls

Most of that is tooltip updates and bug fixes… and the buffs we’ve gotten to them have all been either very minor damage buffs or ultimately affected nothing… and the only real damage buff we got was overturned…

Engineer Turret updates over 5 years…

Universal – 2 updates – 2013-2017 – Utility Turrets auto detonate after 5 minutes, recent overcharge/toolbelt nerf/buff & bug fixes (May)

Healing Turret – 3 updates – 2013-2016 – tooltip update, healing nerf waterfield removal, cast time nerf
Cleansing Burst – 5 updates – 2013-2015 – overcharge buff, combat log bug, tooltip update, trait & healing power bug, the SAME trait bug AGAIN
Regenerating Mist – 2 updates – 2013-2015 – cooldown buff, traited cooldown buff

Flame Turret – 4 updates – 2013-2014 – cooldown reduced and damage arc increased, traited cooldown bug, range increase, tooltip bug
Smokescreen – 3 updates – 2012-2013 – graphic update and duration increase, combo field bug, traited range increase
Throw Napalm – 5 updates – 2013-2015 – cooldown buff, burn buff, combo field added 5and burn nerf, tooltip update, cooldown buff

Net Turret – 6 updates – 2013-2014 – health buff, overcharge bug, tooltip update, overcharge bug, attack rate buff and immobilize nerf, tooltip bug
Electrified Net – 3 updates – 2012-2014 – velocity buff, traited range buff, tooltip update
Net Attack – 2 updates – 2012-2015 – cooldown buff, cooldown buff

Rifle Turret – 3 updates – 2013 – damage buff, traited range buff, tooltip update
Automatic Fire – 5 updates – 2013-2014 – duration buff, damage buff, bleed replaced with vulnerability, Rifled Turret Barrels, overcharge bug and tooltip update
Surprise Shot – 3 updates – 2013-2015 – damage buff, damage buff, cooldown buff

Rocket Turret – 11 updates – 2012-2017 – underwater detonate, cooldown buff, invisible rocket bug, reduced damage bug, range nerf, traited tooltip update, is now an Explosive, remove instant overcharge, tooltip update, the SAME tooltip update AGAIN, tooltip update
Explosive Rocket – 6 updates – 2013-2017 – traited range increase, tooltip update, tooltip update, the SAME tooltip update AGAIN, velocity and targeting buff, tooltip update
Rocket – 6 updates – 2013-2017 – cooldown buff, ground target, target enemy underwater, explosive traits buff, cooldown buff, tooltip buff

Thumper – 2 updates – 2013 – damage buff and cripples, tooltip update
Thump – 3 updates – 2012-2013 – damage buff, tooltip update, Rifled Turret Barrels
Rumble – 2 updates – 2013 – damage and cooldown buff, stun break and stability

Again, a lot of small buffs that were mostly inconsequential, bug fixes, and tooltip updates… and the ones that need work the most havn’t been touched since 2013!!! other than for the recent toolbelt update in May…

Kits… Most of their updates have been universal and kits like Flamethrower have been stupidly balanced to FURTHER reinforce the mindless just spam 1 meta…

Flame Jet has got nothing but buffs while all other Flamethrower skills have been repeatedly nerfed despite them ALWAYS having been inferior to Flame Jet…

Bomb Kit got everything buffed repeatedly INCLUDING it’s overpowered autoattack.

Grenade Kit got the EXACT SAME BUFFS as Bomb Kit

Elixer Gun hasn’t had a single meaningful update since the game launched… nearly all of it’s updates have been to tooltips.

Tool Kit has had practically the same treatment

Med Kit… sure it got reworked to actually have more than Throw Bandages… but the underlying issues with the kit remain COMPLETELY UNCHANGED. The kit STILL heals for next to nothing and is utterly useless as a support kit. Elixer Gun provides better support than Med kit and most of it’s skills are offensive in nature while medkit is PURE SUPPORT!!!

Over 5 years Engineers have gotten a lot of meaningless buffs, a fair share of nerfs, and has problems with weapons and skills that have existed SINCE BEFORE THE GAME EVEN LAUNCHED… So it’s completely logical to conclude that ANet doesn’t care about the Engineer… they were also the last Core class to be added and were rushed even.

Also… one of the devs did state before that they do follow the Meta and balance things accordingly… They try to avoid making sweeping changes that will flip the current meta on it’s head if it can be avoided, but sometimes (like with the massive Condi update) such changes are unavoidable and necessary.

Looking at Engineer we can even see the pattern of following the Meta… Kits have been Meta for Engineer for a long long time (since the game launched in fact). All the changes to Kits have reflected the Meta playstyle, which sadly is “SPAM 1 on Flamethrower, Bomb, & Grenades”… as a result the auto attack on those 3 kits has been repeatedly buffed over the years, the actual skills on flamethrower have been nerfed for no real reason, and the buffs to the rest of the skills on bomb and grenades have been meaningless and overshadowed by their autoattack buffs.

but what would you change

Seems pretty legit

some1 got owned by a necromancer?

What makes Scrappers so scary? They bore the player and the opponent to death.

“So feared?” I’m not so sure I follow.

Scrapper is not a PvE spec and its additions of the hammer or its gyros aren’t really very apparent or even valued there. You have to remember that PvP and WvW are played very differently from PvE. PvP has a very stringent and controlled meta, and it just so happens that the scrapper’s overwhelming condition cleanse and damage reduction makes it a very good duelist/side-point class right now, especially when gyros also provide stability, healing, and damage on top of their preordained utility.

I also find scrapper to be the tankiest build in WvW and one of the best solo roamers. I’d be happy to share my builds but it’s also important you understand a bit of the metagame (which doesn’t seem to be the case). On that subject I’d be happy to help you, though.

I have to severely disagree. Engi and scrapper both have plenty of power damage. You can build a scrapper that can burst over 20k with rifle or hammer. Only issue is they’re like mesmers and can’t do their full burst until the last burst is off cd.

I find myself not playing engi for two reasons.

First. Terrible mobility. Absolute garbage tier mobility. It’s one thing for a warrior or thief to catch you, but when a reaper catches up with you, it’s pathetic.

Second. Garbage tier condi cleanse. With hgh and elixir gun and healing turret it’s nothing. With the drunk engi build you have the most cleanses but it takes forever to cleanse them.

Before July of 2015 rocket boots used to be great mobility with a 16s cd trained. But now they have a 20s or 16s if you take a dumb trait that requires you to take damage.

When engi gets a little of both. They’d be amazing.

I hope they make holosmith more viable for PvE than scrapper. If xpac 2 will be another two years of pp condi/rifle bomber I will ditch my engi for good.

Yep it’s not good.

First there’s no toughness included with the weapon equip of a 2h hammer or healing when it comes to melee. Most classes have either or, or some form of defense when fighting melee. In the case of my ranger he gets healed alot from that setup. My thief has alot of toughness and healing while doing damage, engis need this too as an option it simply doesn’t exist.

Second, there’s nothing on the skill list that causes a continuous blindness.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I’m honestly relieved that scrapper has been left alone.

Me too, because every time we’re in a patch notes, it’s us getting the nerf bat more often than not.