Guild Wars 2

Carpboy.7145:

Ok. But if you read what i originally said i said they heal for ~325ish with the buff.

(I edited my numbers to be more precise)

You’re right, I didn’t mean to say you were wrong. The community has a tendency to jump on misinformation and make assumptions about things (like the “turret health buff” that never was going to happen). I just wanted to add to what you said that you will only see this change if you build lots of healing power.

Carpboy.7145:

Adamantium.3682:

Be careful, this is how rumors start then people get all up in arms when something didn’t happen when they expected it to. What it really says is:

Inventions XI – Elixir Infused bombs. Increased healing scaling by 50%.

The scaling with healing power is being increased by 50%, not a flat 50% increase in healing. It currently scales with .1 of your healing power. So if you have 1000 healing power, it increases the healing of the bombs by 100. This change makes the bombs scale by .15 presumably (50% more than .1) so you get 150 extra healing from 1000 healing power.

You will have to have a large amount of healing power to notice this change if it goes live in this way. I know the builds on this page do have healing power, but I just wanted to be clear about this.

If thats true then the healing increase is a lot more than i just posted.

If you have lots of healing power like the builds in this thread, you can get up to about 385 I believe. I ran it through the calculator when I first saw this change. Though I believe that was with like 1600 healing power… a silly amount I don’t think many people use. Practically, you’re probably maxing out at around 325-350 I would imagine. Pretty much what you said.

I just wanted to make sure people don’t see “increase in healing by 50%” and freak out, expecting bombs to be going off for 500 after this patch. The only increase is to the scaling with healing power, not the base heal.

Captain Swag.5893:

Adamantium.3682:

If the premise of this thread is that bombs/nades are OP I’m just going to have to disagree. Play some other professions and you’ll see bombs/nades are really where we should be just to be equal.

Not OP, just the “Best” that there is at the moment. If the best was brought down /ONLY A LITTLE BIT/, and the others were elevated to their new level, everything would be a “good choise”, and there would be no “best choise”, so more builds would open up.

I guess I just don’t get why you have to bring anything down in the first place.

Captain Swag.5893:

I’d love to see that, but God knows, and anybody knows that ArenaNet hates Engineers and would never buff anything without nerfing another of our things.

If this is another premise of your thread, I’m just going to have to step away entirely. Asking for changes under the guise of “Anet doesn’t even care, they hate Engis” is beyond ridiculous.

Keep in mind damage boosts affect only direct damage. If you want a condition damage build it isn’t going to give you much of a boost. Same goes with Modified Ammo.

Something else to keep in mind is bleed duration. You only get damage from a bleed at every full second. This means a bleed of 2 seconds ticks 2 times. A bleed of 2.9 seconds also ticks 2 times. Extra bleed duration on your sigil is only helpful if it gets you over the threshold for another second on some of your bleeds. I don’t think it does in this build.

I made a couple of changes, trying to keep the spirit of your build (I’m not just going to make it a nade build if you don’t want to use that):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelspqbnuSgF1LJxoCdGki6zXRPy/jn8nCsF-ToAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNWYmB

I stuck with the main parts of your build, Coated Bullets and Elixir Gun. I also gave you HGH for some added damage. I feel you can have fun with this in hotjoin sPvP, then improve on it from there. It’s not ideal, but if this is what you enjoy that’s all that matters. I believe you can be effective in hot join with this build.

Captain Swag.5893:

Adamantium.3682:

If the premise of this thread is that bombs/nades are OP I’m just going to have to disagree. Play some other professions and you’ll see bombs/nades are really where we should be just to be equal.

Obviously you didn’t read what I proposed very well.

I sure did:

Bring down the grenade and bomb kits a LITTLE bit, to make them less “god-tier”, but “good tier”, and then buff all other kits to be “good-tier” too. That way, there is no “best pick”, and you’re more open to pick what you want.

Bombs/nades should not be brought down. They are not OP. Ideally all of our options would be balanced in line with the bombs and grenades.

Be careful, this is how rumors start then people get all up in arms when something didn’t happen when they expected it to. What it really says is:

Inventions XI – Elixir Infused bombs. Increased healing scaling by 50%.

The scaling with healing power is being increased by 50%, not a flat 50% increase in healing. It currently scales with .1 of your healing power. So if you have 1000 healing power, it increases the healing of the bombs by 100. This change makes the bombs scale by .15 presumably (50% more than .1) so you get 150 extra healing from 1000 healing power.

You will have to have a large amount of healing power to notice this change if it goes live in this way. I know the builds on this page do have healing power, but I just wanted to be clear about this.

Trying to calculate the numbers, especially with condition damage, is very tricky. Rifle hits for 1-2000 in Zerker builds, not 6-800. The other numbers are not quite right either, there’s just too much going into it to be able to calculate it so cut and dry.

What’s important is that the Elixir Gun will give you a decent auto attack in a condition build if that’s what you want to go for, the rifle or FT would not. A Grenadier build is probably the best way to quickly burst conditions on your opponent.

gesho.9468:

Adamantium.3682:

Skill #3 on the FT does not apply burning. It increases any burning you have already applied on your target by the indicated amount. I’m surprised they didn’t fix that tooltip with all the work they did on tooltips.

Also if you want to do conditions, go full conditions. In sPvP this means choosing Rabid amulet and Runes of the Undead for starters. You could tweak the runes around a bit, but that combo gives the most condition damage in sPvP. Also make sure you go as deep as your build permits into the Firearms tree.

wow, thx for #3 tip.

are you saying flamethrower is viable for condi spvp?

There are two ways to use the flamethrower in my mind. One, as your main weapon. In this case you are using Juggernaut and as much might stacking gear/traits as you can get. Two, as a utility. You only pop into it for the fire field when you need it, AOE blind, or knockback. Sometimes #2 burst damage if the opportunity arises.

As utility it fits in any build IMO. As your main weapon, I would only use it in a power build.

If the premise of this thread is that bombs/nades are OP I’m just going to have to disagree. Play some other professions and you’ll see bombs/nades are really where we should be just to be equal.

Plyte.8130:

Lowest Animal.8014:

JonPeters.5630:

For condition engineers we have left Shrapnel intact here as the alternative. For power engineers we have left Empowering Adrenaline intact here as the alternative. No need to argue that these traits are worse than IP, we know that, this is why IP was moved. The real question is why are these not Adept tier worthy, which we think they are…

Shrapnel is a VERY weak trait. 15% chance for one stack of bleed that only procts in bombs or nades so it doesn’t even help the paltry pistol auto attack or any other non explosive kit. So, best case scenario is nade engineer (which is already pigeonholed 30 in explosives) spamming nades and every 3 attacks you get 1.35 extra bleed stack on average. Additionally, what condi nade engis lose if they want to keep IP is either Short Fuse or Enhance Performance. Trading either of these for Shrapnel is a HUGE nerf. As Ostricheggs said, this pushes condi engis further into bomb+nades apex build because it will probably be better to get your burning from the bomb kit and simply skipping IP altogether.

Um… Shrapnel is actually really strong for grenades. The bleed base length is 12 seconds, and often I run koi cakes with my engineer so I get 20 second bleeds whenever shrapnel procs. On normal might stacks, thats roughly 2k total damage per shrapnel proc which happens on average at least 1 every 2 throws. Thats a lot of damage for a 10 point trait.

It’s good with grenades, yes, but that’s about it. The point is that Jon suggested this trait is valuable for anyone looking for condition damage, and that’s just not true.

I’m confused why you would ask for a nerf to the kits that you say most people are stuck with using. Wouldn’t we want to make other options just as good as them? Why would we want to have a bunch of crappy options instead of some good options and some crappy options?

Without knowing the intent of this build, I can say one thing about it. Juggernaut and Grenadier are conflicting traits. They each require you to be in their respective kits for the majority of the time. That’s a LOT of trait points being sucked up by two kits that you can’t use to their fullest extent.

Also, with Static Discharge keep in mind you either (a) need to use targeted toolbelt skills, or (b) stand inside of your target as you use toolbelt skills and/or aim the camera towards them.

It would be best if you told us what you’re trying to do with this build.

Teutos.8620:

I have a question regarding the “Grenadier”-Trait.
With the recent increase of the untraited bomb radius I feel that every kit is viable untraited except the grenade kit. Personally I’d prefer if the third grenade would go to base, and the “Grenadier”-Trait gets changed by merging it with CD reduction and the range increase.
Who do you feel about it?

I certainly agree. Someone else mentioned it in this rapidly growing thread, but I very much think we should move away from traits only affecting 1 skill. Most traits in this game affect a group of skills, like banners, gadgets, signets, etc. To my knowledge we are the only profession that has traits (and quite a few at that) that effect just 1 skill at a time.

That, along with the inferiority of our main hand weapons, I think contributes most to the lack of build diversity. I mean how diverse can your build really be if just using the Flamethrower pretty much requires 40 points? Or the Grenade Kit requiring 30? The fact that we more or less need kits is one problem, but the traits that they suck up is another entirely.

Disastro.4086:

Adamantium.3682:

Disastro.4086:

Now if the pistol AOE component of a shot could proc shrapnel that would be different.

I honestly hope they don’t do this, it would be a terrible bandaid fix. Pistol shot is already a very short bleed, this would give a 1 in 15 chance to apply 1 more bleed. 1 in 15. Sure it’s better than nothing (kind of) but the reason why I say I hope it doesn’t happen because it would be the kind of thing that they do and think it’s a fix then leave it alone. I would rather them not do this at all and continue looking at it. If it’s a short term thing and they still look to improve the pistol, great, but just shrapnel alone I doubt any Engineer will even notice.

I think they would need to bump up the proc rate to 25% if they did this but I think it’s in line with the power level of what they think adepts should be at.

I have to disagree. Adept traits should not be build defining but they should at the very least be noticeable. If the pistol #1 could proc Shrapnel I would challenge anyone to actually notice it happening. Also, LOL it’s not 1 in 15. What a noob thing for me to say. Still, every 6-7 shots you get an extra bleed. That’s not good.

For goodness sakes look at the 5 points Firearms trait. 1 in 3 crits you’re getting a bleed. 25% proc chance for a single bleed stack is certainly in line with what Adept should be.

EDIT:

Disastro.4086:

The pistol auto needs to be reevaluated anyway with that short bleed and garbage direct dmg.

This part I certainly agree with, and I always run pistol.

Disastro.4086:

Now if the pistol AOE component of a shot could proc shrapnel that would be different.

I honestly hope they don’t do this, it would be a terrible bandaid fix. Pistol shot is already a very short bleed, this would give a 1 in 15 chance to apply 1 more bleed. 1 in 15. Sure it’s better than nothing (kind of) but the reason why I say I hope it doesn’t happen because it would be the kind of thing that they do and think it’s a fix then leave it alone. I would rather them not do this at all and continue looking at it. If it’s a short term thing and they still look to improve the pistol, great, but just shrapnel alone I doubt any Engineer will even notice.

coglin.1867:

Kamahl.3621:

zaragoz.6351:

I think he was referring to the rifle auto-attack coglin.

This, it’s the same thing I suggested in my fat post.

Oh, thank goodness. In that case. I agree.

Back on the IP subject though. When you think about it, does it strike anyone else as completely backwards that our power line has a purely condition damage trait in it?

A lot of our trait lines are weird like that. Tools has many defensive traits (both Grandmasters even) when it gives crit damage. Inventions being our toughness line has more traits for turrets than anything. I get it, turrets are inventions, but the traits should match what the line actually gives you not the arbitrary name of it. We could do a lot of shuffling with where our traits currently sit and I think it would make a lot more sense.

coglin.1867:

Why would we not have permanent vigor? Infused precision + invigorating speed with any decent crit chance is perma vigor. Which sure as heck beats the button management of having to swap in then out of a kit every 5 sec. Its much easier, much more intuitive to game play, and much much more intelligent to use the combination I mentioned over depending on speedy kits and kitten kit swap management system to keep vigor up.

As well, with any boon duration, it is easy to stack up plenty of duration. Either way, you absolutely have to have 2 traits for permavigor, or depend on an outside source.

As permavigor will not be going anywhere, I do not see how it is relevant.

I know right? I’m kind of tired of hearing about the Great Vigor Nerf of 2013.

Not only that, but I would like to see a record of how much time all these people complaining about this phantom nerf actually spend with full endurance. You know, because vigor does nothing when you’re at full endurance.

I agree with this thread with 1 caveat, Engis have insufficient condition cleanse if you don’t trait for it. Saying Eles (or any profession) can do it better is meaningless because professions are by definition different, but unless you trait specifically into elixirs and Cleansing Formula 409 I agree our condition removal is quite poor.

gesho.9468:

but now looking again at flamethrower, is it a power weapon? it has more damage on condi. #1 and #3 has burning, #4 I use with pistol #1 for burning combo.

true #1 burning is hard to land. and #2 (I love that blast) is only power. but still…

Skill #3 on the FT does not apply burning. It increases any burning you have already applied on your target by the indicated amount. I’m surprised they didn’t fix that tooltip with all the work they did on tooltips.

Also if you want to do conditions, go full conditions. In sPvP this means choosing Rabid amulet and Runes of the Undead for starters. You could tweak the runes around a bit, but that combo gives the most condition damage in sPvP. Also make sure you go as deep as your build permits into the Firearms tree.

JonPeters.5630:

For condition engineers we have left Shrapnel intact here as the alternative. For power engineers we have left Empowering Adrenaline intact here as the alternative. No need to argue that these traits are worse than IP, we know that, this is why IP was moved. The real question is why are these not Adept tier worthy, which we think they are…

On paper this makes sense. But when applied in game I don’t think it works out the way you want it to.

Shrapnel is only good for the most popular build, grenades. In which case you already were taking shrapnel most likely. Empowering Adrenaline is a very weak trait, it doesn’t even give it’s bonus all the time. Aside from that, it’s just a very boring flat damage increase trait. I’ve seen a myriad of suggestions in this thread that make the trait both more exciting and worth taking in nearly any build.

About IP. First of all, I honestly don’t understand why it had to move from Adept tier in the first place. I’m not arguing that it come back, I get that ship has sailed, but I want to understand more of this design process. It was already nerfed awhile back. It can only proc one time on one enemy every 10 seconds. Most of this game is AOE. IP was barely even noticeable in AOE, you could only apply it to one of the enemies. It wasn’t really that amazing trait that everyone had to take no matter what your build was like it was when the game first launched. I feel it is currently Adept level, but like I said that ship has sailed and I understand that. I know you think it is deserving of a Master level, I just don’t understand why.

Most people who still want to get IP now have to go 20 points into Explosives just for that. If you go 20 points into Explosives you’re likely to just go 30 points into Explosives. Then you have the same, most popular build out there with grenades. This is why a lot of us are saying the change to IP is doing the opposite of promoting build diversity. It’s pushing people deeper into the Explosives line when that’s really the last place we should be pushing people.

I think you did a good job of making Firearms more desirable, and Alchemy has always been good. Inventions is really more of a niche tree than anything and Tools is just all over the place (some damage traits, some kit traits, some defensive traits) but has it’s uses for dipping leftover points into.

Lastly, I think a lot of great points have been made in this thread so thanks for checking in with us and discussing them. Some of the main ones were hit right on the head by Kamahl a page back. If we could just make our main hand weapons better that would truly diversify our builds because we wouldn’t feel forced to take at least 1 kit. I like to see the pistol/shield/backpiece skins that I worked so hard to get, so once in awhile I try to go to a no kit build but it just doesn’t keep up.

Condi damage is king in sPvP right now, I’m confused by this topic. Even if it weren’t, make a good condi build and play what you like. I like P/S so much that pretty much any build I make uses that combo. If you also like P/S, then use it.

If you’re not playing what you want to be playing in a video game… you’re doing it wrong IMO.

Sure it’s 20s duration with 20s cooldown, but in a might stacking build it just allows you to maintain stacks even easier since you have very high might duration. Even without points in Alchemy, assuming you run any rune combo with +20% / +20% / +20% you’re looking at a base 32s of might from this food. Just makes maintaining might that much easier, freeing up concentration on a blast finisher you have or something.

Though I prefer HT, using this with Med Kit can get you 12 stacks of might with one kit swap XD.

BoB.6082:

Ostricheggs.3742:

Voramoz.6790:

Stop trying to fight the vigor NERF. It’s happening. 100% swiftness is a lot already 100% vigor is in need of a NERF.

Yes it is. But it’s in need of a nerf across the board and not just targeted at engineers who are one of the least in need of such a nerf and its a nerf that hits home pretty hard given the fact that our survivability has taken a hit every single patch outside of the last one.

There are a large number of good examples to give for classes that have viable builds with far more dodges than engis can get.

AGAIN, invigorating speed is TOO STRONG. But you’re ignoring the blatant offenders (rangers, acrobatics thieves, energy sigils)

I don’t think it’s too powerful at all, other classes have fail safes for when you get caught. Engis don’t.

You keep saying this (and seriously, stop the spam), but it’s just not true. 2 different channeled blocks, 2 different ways to get invulnerability through elixir S, stealth, stability, and more.

Back on topic, I appreciate Jon being transparent with us but I just can’t agree with moving IP. It was already nerfed once when it was given a 10s cooldown, I really don’t think it’s too powerful for an Adept spot anymore. Most of this game is AOE anyways, and IP is barely noticeable in AOE.

I agree with some other posters that say this will not promote build diversity. There is really not much you can do with 10 leftover points into Explosives anymore. We really need to see some of the weaker traits that Jon mentioned BUFFED rather than see a good trait NERFED. There has been many good suggestions about those so far, I don’t really have anything to add to those. Use some of them please!

While I have defended our traits in the past when compared to other professions (because each profession is different and they all use traits different ways) the list of what we get compared to other professions is pretty long and it seems we always get the short end of the stick. As a long time Engi since the game started, it’s starting to get frustrating. I don’t think the Engineer is weak, but it takes SO MUCH effort just to be at the level of other professions. If we have to put in that much effort and manage so many skills we should be stronger than we are I think.

Deified.7520:

Jon,

My only problem with engineer is the amount of work that needs to be done to do things other classes can do. For example, our main damage source is condition damage. Our two main applications of this is grenade and bomb kit. Both of which are very hard to use compared to our competitors (as of right now it is mostly rangers and necromancers). Grenades are skill shots while bombs have timers and require you to be right next to the person. On top of this is that they produce red circles. Our current meta build is 3 kits and requires a pretty large APM to play effectively.

Now I understand why you’re nerfing speedy kits, however you need to give us something in return. Dodging was our main damage negator. Without it engineer will be a lot harder to play. Don’t get me wrong, we have a few defensive skills. Toolkit, shield (woot this weapon will be required even more now), and elixir S. My problem with elixir S is that our lack of weapon switching means we are pretty much required to have a kit. Not too many kits work well with elixir S, hence why the 3 kit is a meta. Our weapon skills need some majors buff to warrant us moving away from such a dependence on kits, or traits (probably better) that better buff them. P/P is ok, but lacks the ability to negate damage when being focused, especially in WvW. Rifle is just bad because all of its major damaging skills require you to be at close range, and most of the time when you trait to use rifle you lack good defensive skills.

I think if you take care of one messed up mechanic (the infinte vigor which is very bad thing to have), take care of them all. What about a guardians abudance of anti projectile skills, invurnabilities (which have no way of countering), passive healing/aegis that we can’t counter, and just great survivability. What about a thieves insane amount of mobility (stealthing which has no counter, evades which have no counter, leaps, teleports, and lots of blinds).

Quite honestly the way engineer is setup with no weapon switch, it causes most of our skills to be bad. Why are gadgets bad? They not only need to have the ability to make up for a utility slot, but also the lack of a secondary weapon. Turrets? Same story. This is why kits are so popular. You either need to significantly buff toolbelt skills are these skills or buff default weapon stats. Till you do that the meta will also involve primarily kits.

This is a great post. Good point about the kit usage. It’s because we need them. Make us not need them and more options will open up.

Try to run without permanent vigor for awhile. I opted out of that trait just to try a build awhile ago and you really don’t need it. If you’re timing the dodges to avoid the most important incoming attacks you should be fine.

Obviously the more you can dodge the better, but even with perma vigor you’re very likely not dodging to the fullest potential of 1 dodge every 5 seconds. I think most people would be surprised how little they actually gain out of perma vigor if they tried to play awhile without it. I know I was.

As for the rest of the changes I’m not sure how I feel. Incendiary Powder quickly loses effectiveness in AOE situations, but it was undoubtedly the best trait to grab in non nade/bomb builds that wanted some points put into the power line. With these changes there’s really nothing that can benefit any build as effectively as Incendiary Powder can. I will probably go for the turret knockback as I often use Healing Turret.

The other trait changes I think are positive though, Modified Ammo especially. Autotool Installation is finally useful, but turrets themselves STILL need work. I hope this balance patch turns out to be more than just fiddling with traits for us. If they want to increase the use of skills that aren’t often used, I don’t know why nothing was mentioned about turrets at all. It’s not like they don’t know how frustrated we are with them.

Thinking more about that change to Armor Mods… that is pretty darn cool, because Guardians get an automatic Aegis every 40s, and can trait it down to 30s. Theirs has a lot of added goodies, I get that, but still it’s cool we can get Aegis passively twice as often. With this trait (a Grandmaster, sure) we can get an Aegis every 15s while in combat and being hit of course. That’s pretty darn cool I think, and could add a bit of survive ability to builds that go deep in Tools considering they’re usually glassy.

Coglin, you really need some more experience with what perplexity runes can actually do. There’s no way you can get as much confusion as someone using those with that build you mentioned (or with any build honestly). There’s also no way you’re beating someone running those runes with this heal skill. It really doesn’t matter what you run if they have the slightest idea of what they’re doing.

Don’t take it personal because you have used them or have been accused of using them. This is about the runes, not you.

Dirame.8521:

They probably pop Berserker stance as well which is why they are immune to immob. You’re going to have to just save your dodges for when they come at you heavily and then time your immobs for when they are without stab or Berserk stance.

This. When I saw the title of the thread my first thought was “needs more immobilize in his build”. When I saw your build I thought “wow that’s a lot of immobilize”.

For the 8s or whatever it is that Berserker Stance is up it will be hard. Use block from TK, Jump Shot away, dodge, whatever you can to just live during that stance. Once it’s over you should easily be able to take them with your plethora of immobilizes and burst damage. Just make sure not to waste anything valuable during that phase with Berserker Stance.

I like playing the different profession. In LOTRO I played a Warden, and I loved tanking raids with it when people said it wasn’t a good tank class. It was also a high skill cap class.

I love playing the Engineer because early on it was the profession people said couldn’t do certain things. I play the Engineer because I can do anything I want. I enjoy the high skill cap as well.

Don’t get the skill cap comments confused with me thinking I’m some spectacular player or anything. I just like there to be a lot for me to learn when I play. You could say I don’t really want it to be straight forward, I like solving puzzles. Nearly 1800 hours later and I still learn things about the Engi.

Neither will make you immune to conditions you currently have. Since you experience this in WvW could it be likely that you have a ton of conditions on you? With all the conditions people are putting out nowadays it’s probably plenty to kill you at 25% health.

Particularly when talking about the Inventions trait line… I’ve always found it interesting that we have the smarts and ingenuity to invent a way for our explosives to heal us, but can’t figure out a way to put wheels on our turrets?

Even getting a skill like what Ritualists had in GW1 where you could summon all spirits to your location would be awesome (portable Asura portal installed on all turrets). In fact the more similarities we could draw with Ritualist spirits the better! For being a very similar mechanic, they sure were a lot more dynamic than turrets are. Spirits had a wider array of effects than just damage, and quite a few skills to alter and enhance them. I miss my Ritualist lol.

I like mine, I chose it by starting with Gizmo since I really like how that sounds then just thinking of physics terms that would go well with it. Some sort of unit measurement. That’s how I came up with Gizmo Gigawatt.

Just think of words from physics, engineering, or anything computer/technical related and go from there.

Singer.8740:

it gets the name from its specialization in the use of explosives. Besides as i made it i do get creators liberties. :p

You’re right, just giving you a hard time Looks fun for sure, I really like how rather than focus all your skills on blast finishers you build in a way that makes just 1 skill give 9 stacks of might by itself.

tigirius.9014:

Truly a great question. Even the refined kit doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t last very long either. It’s like they don’t want engineers to be as defensive as other classes for some weird reason.

?????

I feel like I fell asleep during the Seahawks game and I’m now somehow caught in some weird twilight zone were everything is backwards.

Knote.2904:

Adamantium.3682:

I think the game is well balanced if you lose most 2v1s. I think it’s not well balanced if you expect to win most 2v1s. Player skill and other factors surely play into this, but if you’re losing outnumbered fights I would have to say… well… yeah I would expect that to be the case.

As to your other questions, I would say yes to most of them. Warriors are certainly very powerful now, and player skill definitely rises over time.

It’s not that black n white.

If you lose 1v2 versus bad players, as a good player, that changes things. Even then it’s not that simple.

As I said (which you even quoted):

Adamantium.3682:

I think the game is well balanced if you lose most 2v1s. I think it’s not well balanced if you expect to win most 2v1s. Player skill and other factors surely play into this, but if you’re losing outnumbered fights I would have to say… well… yeah I would expect that to be the case.

You can win a fight against 10 incompetent players. I’m not sure what that proves or why it’s a part of the conversation.

Someone’s personal lofty expectations of themselves doesn’t change that you shouldn’t expect to win outnumbered situations. Claiming that something is wrong because they can’t win 2v1 situations (which is what I initially replied to) is sort of silly.

Why should the game be designed so that an Engineer should be able to beat 2 of anything else? Are we really even asking for game balance at this point?

Mnemesis.8257:

Adamantium.3682:

Before you spout off about how stupid the rest of us might be, consider that I may not find the trait very good if you need another skill or trait to make it work well.

Not to mention doing anything that has the potential to cause damage while you try and remove that immobilize is likely to break you out of stealth as well.

I apologize if I offended you or anyone else. I was not implying that people were stupid, merely that it would be an amateur decision to rely solely on the trait CD without the appropriate synergy. As was stated prior, the trait alone does make one a sitting duck and requires one to use other skills in conjunction. That does not necessarily render it useless, rather justifiably manageable for maximum utilization.

It’s alright. As others have mentioned though even using condition clear won’t likely remove the immobilize. Unless it’s Rocket Boots, which would likely break you out of stealth. You would have to reserve Elixir C only for times you get immobilized, not what I would call an optimal use of skills.

I get it though, it can be useful. I just don’t like the idea that for one trait to be useful, it requires the use of other traits and/or skills. Traits should enhance what we already have (as pretty much all of them do) not require you to bring even more to make it work.

I think the game is well balanced if you lose most 2v1s. I think it’s not well balanced if you expect to win most 2v1s. Player skill and other factors surely play into this, but if you’re losing outnumbered fights I would have to say… well… yeah I would expect that to be the case.

As to your other questions, I would say yes to most of them. Warriors are certainly very powerful now, and player skill definitely rises over time.

Tyaen.5148:

I think people are either misunderstanding or misinterpreting.

I’m talking about running in PvP and running in to a group (2 or more) running a stun lock meta. Then there are the cases where you are in combat 1v1 and a stun lock meta comes up behind you and joins in.

You can carry 2 elixirs that are stun breakers, and one that’s a useless invulnerability. I consider elixir U a useless stun break since it also gives you frenzy. If throw elixir U were a line of warding, it might have some value.

This is not a problem at all in WvW, but in sPvP it’s a joke.

Edit: Another improvement would be to bring back access to the toolbelt or utilities while Elixir S is on (e.g. Pop Elixir s, throw Elixir S, reset).

Are you saying you shouldn’t lose when a fight becomes 2v1?

Raghnu.1049:

Monadproxy.3489:

Raghnu.1049:

the arch on the animation makes the thing practically useless. Why does it have to fly higher than a 4 story building to hit something 1500 range away?

so it can go over walls, and it’s also harder for the enemy to see, and irl, yes, it does need to go high to travel far,(its not a sniper, but a rocket)

Ever seen an RPG? It’s not a cross-continental rocket and doesn’t have to travel into space to reach it’s target.

I lol’d. Kiss your hopes of hitting anything with this in a close quarters dungeon goodbye.

Stun lock Warriors don’t have a ton of mobility, they’re biggest stun has a large animation as well. If I can get though the initial chain CC they have, it’s fairly easy to kite them around.

randomly.6395:

How often does the stealth actually keep you stealthed, though? I’d imagine if you have auto attack on, you’re likely to have a projectile you fired before becoming immobilized (and stealthed) break you out of stealth as soon as it lands and deals damage.

I have this problem a lot as a pistol/X thief. I need to time my instant stealths (blinding powder, stealth on steal, etc) between my auto attacks if I actually want the stealth to last longer than it takes for the projectile to travel. Except engineers won’t have that luxury.

I’d also imagine if you use a flamethrower, this trait is almost always out of the question. Unless I’m missing something, of course.

I believe stealthing automatically stops your auto attack. The problem is the moment you get stealthed, if you happen to have a projectile in the air at that instant, it will continue to travel and is likely to hit and reveal you.

Hmm the tooltip does say 1.5s now. Good catch. Using a stopwatch though, it still seems to last 2 seconds. Boy if they change that to really be 1.5s I’ll be angry.

The reason it is not 3 seconds like other blocks (Shield of Absorption is not a block btw) is because it doesn’t just block. It has an assortment of goodies; daze, 2 stuns, projectile finisher. Any block that lasts 3 seconds doesn’t give you any other goodies like that. The only other block that does have goodies is Shelter, the Guardian heal, which is also 2 seconds.

LoreChief.8391:

The only “minions” that are ever controlled are the ranger pets and necro pets. Are you saying that they didn’t buff any other AI except those two?

I never spoke to anything else that did or did not receive a health buff, because I don’t play every other profession and I haven’t tested every other possible “minion” that could have benefited from this. I only said turrets did not receive the buff because they do not meet the criteria.

I was leery of this when the patch notes were previewed, and I said as much on these forums, but I think a lot of people jumped to conclusions and expected this to affect turrets when there’s really no indication that it ever was going to.

Mnemesis.8257:

Adamantium.3682:

It should just remove the immobilize as it applies the stealth. Until then it’s more of a novelty used to laugh at people in WvW

Cleaning Formula 409: “Throwing or consuming elixirs removes conditions from those affected.”

Let’s face it, if you’re stupid enough to use this without the appropriate traits, then yes you deserve to die. However, if you happen to combine this with traits like the one above you not only escape certain death but buy enough time to recoup/counter by extending that duration considerably, albeit with specific utility combos.

Before you spout off about how stupid the rest of us might be, consider that I may not find the trait very good if you need another skill or trait to make it work well.

Not to mention doing anything that has the potential to cause damage while you try and remove that immobilize is likely to break you out of stealth as well.

Blast master is a misnomer for this build, you only really have 2 blast finishers to use to stack might at any given time.

I’d call it the Mighty Med Kit, 9 stacks each time you use it!

Agree with Blizt. It’s fun to watch noobs try to figure out where you went, but anyone who knows the game well enough should know you haven’t gone anywhere. It makes you invisible, but what good is that when everyone knows where you are?

It should just remove the immobilize as it applies the stealth. Until then it’s more of a novelty used to laugh at people in WvW

LoreChief.8391:

• Turret (general): No increased HP buff as promised for non-mesmer-clone minions. A single mesmer phantasm can down a rifle turret in one hit!

This is not a bug. Turrets are not “player controlled minions”, so they are not eligible for the increased health. I’m guessing they’re classified closer to environmental objects, since they can’t be healed (with healing skills) or receive boons/conditions.

While making turrets a clone of Mesmer phantasms is clearly a bad idea, I believe borrowing some of the tech from how phantasms work would be the best idea.

When a phantasm is created, it attacks whatever the Mesmer had targeted at that moment. I’m not a programmer, but to me this says there is tech to make a “minion” attack what you have targeted when using a skill. For turrets, they don’t have to just be stuck on what we were targeting when we created them like a phantasm (and then destroyed after its dead, that’s silly), but the tech might be able to be adjusted so that every time we use a skill, our turret AI is updated to attack whatever target that skill was used against. This way we’re not going off the last thing we damaged, it is always what we have targeted when we use a skill, so the turrets are always attacking our target. This is the functionality I believed we would get, maybe the AOE thing was an unforeseen side effect and doing it this way would be what was intended in the first place.

Again, not a programmer, can’t say how realistic this is but from my limited knowledge it seems like the tech is there and could be adjusted for turrets.

Turrets certainly seem to be in some state of flux right now. They only scale with malice, but Anet takes away conditions from them. None of the bugs have really been addressed, but what I would call significant work has been done to them anyways (tooltip adjustments, changing rocket turret toolbelt). A major targetting “fix” was implemented, but it doesn’t look like it’s working out quite as advertised.

It almost feels like turrets are in step 1 of some sort of 5 step plan or something, but we were never told about it. As if Anet is testing the waters for a major overhaul, major meaning none of the current bugs are going to matter much because turrets will change drastically. Just a weird feeling I get. As much as some might want to believe, turrets have certainly not been ignored. They’ve just had attention paid to them in places other than what we think they really need. I feel like they’ve moved horizontally, rather than forward.

I wasn’t attracted to the Engineer because of turrets like many others, so it’s not a huge deal to me, but I am eager to try out turrets properly. I’m very curious what turrets are going to look like 3-4 months from now, the path they seem to be on suggests they could use completely different mechanics by then.

Still trait #10 for me.

Wait since when is Autotool Installation a Grandmaster trait?

Nightmare.8351:

In WvW it’ll arc over walls and gates and hit inside. It’s probably good for close range too, or hitting people on walls hanging at the back of them if you want farther range.

This is what I was afraid of. Sounds like it’s been relegated to pinging at people on walls, whom you’re not likely to kill or do any meaningful damage to anyways.