Guild Wars 2

Eastcorn.5901:

This is why I empathize heavily for rangers. They’re in a pretty bad state, AND their skills don’t seem as fun to use (in a nerfed state) as the engineer’s are.

They’re as boring as a Warrior with the imbalance of an Engineer. Poor guys.

Maskaganda.2043:

I’m not missing the point at all. I know what I use the tosses for and I have good results with them. You said it yourself, toss S is a good skill to stomp (and revive too) and an ok skill to escape. What more do you want?

We want the skills to be good all of the time like most skills rather than good 50% of the time.

Chaba.5410:

I’m convinced that the number of effects one must remember and try to combine is a source of the difficulty in playing an Engineer (next to the nerfs). In an ordinary game of skill like chess, there is symmetry between players in the moves they have to remember. There isn’t the case in chess where one player has more different kinds of pieces than the other player. In GW2, it seems that the Engineer has many more kinds of pieces than other players so it takes more mental skill to calculate the possibilities. Maybe this is what is meant as “versatile”.

If being versatile means you have to rely on RNG > skill, then nobody wants to be versatile.

Grenade damage was homogenized in PvP and PvE/WvW, applying the previous damage nerfs from PvP to PvE/WvW, and the ‘1’ attack’s damage was reduced by 30%. For PvE/WvW, this actually means a 40% damage nerf to the ‘1’ attack. On the plus side, your weapon sigil works with your kits… yay.

Grenades are still the highest damage overall, although now you have to go 30 in Explosives for them to be worth anything. Bombs offer the highest level of DPS without traits now, and when traited are close to Grenades.

Mrbig.8019:

At least if they won’t believe in me ( random guy talking on forums) , they’ll believe in one of top guards in NA.

I don’t believe anyone on their word without evidence and explaination, and anyone who does believe something, solely because of the prestige of the person telling them it, is doing an injustice to themselves.

Follidus.8027:

@ Alarox.4590 & Chi Malady.2015
Guardians have a lot of viable builds, probably more than any other class.

Starting with bunkers, no 0/0/30/20/20 is not the only bunker build. I run 0/10/10/30/20, for example. There are also a big variation in weapons, as well.

You can also go offensive. Here are 2 builds that work in tournament play:
http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-7g-BdFKOFk40I3JG-90;9;6TT9;449A2691;0Y-k77Nl7qNYCqNnC5kr

This second one can also work as a backpoint defender. It is not a bunker, but by running 2 teleports you can quickly teleport back to your backpoint if someone is going for it. However to use this well you have to pay attention/have teammates call out where people are and when they respawn.
http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-7Fk3dFKSFk20I33GF90;9;49TT;01;019A40B;4LBX76wk2l3IBl3IB6BC

Jumper even has a glass-cannon guardian build that he uses pretty well in hotjoin. www.twitch.tv/loljumper to check his build out.

However, as I said many times on these forums, you might not see these as often because people just copy what other people do. But when this happens, that does not mean other things are not as effective. Please change your mindset.

Read my post. I’m not a mindless person who goes on forums asking for the fotm build and accepting the opinions of others as fact. As you’re about to find out, I’m a stubborn SOB who bases his opinions on his own experiences and testing.

The first build you posted above I mentioned. The second one I forgot to mention but I’ve run it many times before, 1h offensive Meditiation build for 1v1 battles. That makes 2 competitive builds so far, 0/0/30/20/20 (and the variations thereof) and x/30/30/x/x.

0/10/10/30/20, why is it a better bunker than 30 Valor. I’m not saying it can’t work, but I don’t see how it would be more effective. I assume you do that to gain more support and maximum condition removal? Pure of Voice + Absolute Resolution which can’t be achieved while going 30 Valor. However, it is still essentially the same old bunker build with a change of 10 points into Radiance.

That’s entirely my point though. Want to go bunker? 30 Valor and/or 40 points in Honor+Virtues with Shouts. Want to go support? 30 Valor and/or 40 points in Honor+Virtues with Shouts. Want to go offensive and be competitive? 30 Valor with Meditiations/AH otherwise you’ll drop quickly since you’ll be taking offensive gear rather than Soldier’s for bunkering. Those are clearly the best.

On my Guardian I never run 30 Valor. I rarely even go 20 Valor. I believe the last build I ran was 15/15/10/25/5 Hammer/Scepter-Focus. My favorite build I came up with was 15/30/0/25/0 Mace-Focus/Scepter-Shield based on Vulnerability spiking, with an overall 20-45% additional damage from the Vulnerability and from two +10% damage traits, in addition to massive critical chance. They’re cool builds, and they’re a lot of fun, but they’re not on the same tier as a 1h Meditation.

There need to be more viable options instead of the game being balanced upon the current best builds of every Profession, which means useless skills/traits won’t ever be looked at and our limited choices will stay limited. By choice, I don’t mean 10-20 points and a utility slot, I mean most of a build being choice and not pre-determined when going for maximum effectiveness.

NeedCoffee.1402:

everyone that is saying there should either never played a moba or has ulterior motives.

You’re correct, I do have an ulterior motive: fun.

But hey, I hear E-sports do really well when you only have a couple hundred people playing because “fun” isn’t a design priority.

I’m fine with stealth. What I have a problem with is the insane duration that can be achieved, the 150% movement speed while stealthed, and the low cooldowns on stealthing skills.

When stealth becomes something that lasts a long time and is easy to keep getting, stealth becomes more than “I’m invisible”. Stealth becomes “I control the battle”.

Have you ever fought a good Thief? Toughest opponents in the game.

The reality of stealth is that it gives a massive amount of benefits to you even if you’re bad, and at the same time there’s a colossal skill ceiling.

Current implementation is both cheap and OP.

The people who routinely complain about 2v1 are the people who have no idea what’s going on when they jump into WvW.

Regarding the auto-attack of the Toolkit and how the last hit only hits 1 target and has no other effect, while the other two skills do:

“We believe Thwack is underpowered and not working as intended. In order to bring Thwack in line with the rest of the chain, Smack and Whack no longer apply Vulnerability and Smack no longer applies Cripple when traited.”

fluidmonolith.3584:

2) Autoattack doesn’t work right – the third hit only hits a single target and not other targets in range. No other melee autoattack (except daggers, by design) does this. Same for prybar, is it only supposed to hit one target?

Guardian Mace does this. To compensate, it heals you and nearby allies.

I love the toolkit and I like almost every skill the way they are now. My only problem is with the Thwack not striking three opponents. The Guardian Mace gives you the added benefit of healing; the third hit with the wrench gives you nothing.

In fact, the first and second hit have more utility than the third. They have half the cast time (so the same DPS), both apply vulnerability, the first one applies cripple when traited, and they both strike 3 enemies.

Prediction for next patch: “We believe Thwack is underpowered and not working as intended. In order to bring Thwack in line with the rest of the chain, Smack and Whack no longer apply Vulnerability and Smack no longer applies Cripple when traited.”

nofo.8469:

Alarox.4590:

Slan.5496:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Jump Shot is one of the best skills for engineers, even if you don’t like the delay before smashing. It gives you the ability to be mobile in ways other classes can’t, it spikes like a boss and it’s even nice enough to apply vulnerability. THAT is how skills should be. Skills should ADD possibilities and be used in MULTIPLE ways. THAT is versatility. Versatility is not “Hey look I have 65 million skills”, it’s “Hey I can use this one skill 65 million ways”. THAT is what engineer should be. Utilizing one skill in multiple ways, rather than having an army of skills (Ele) that we spam.

In pvp that delay makes it virtually worthless. Offensively, it makes it almost impossible to hit a target that isn’t somehow mezzed or immobilized. Defensively, it makes a skill that could be a real life saver when you’re being zerged and need to down someone quickly an utter fail. There have been so many times when I’ve been killed while hanging there like an idiot…I seldom even try to use the power to be honest. There are many teleportation powers/gap closers in the game and this one is the only one that has such a lousy drawback. It’s one of the many issues of an engi that seems punitive for no apparent reason.

It’s still an extremely good sbility that can be used in multiple ways and takes some skill from enemies to avoid, and skill by the user to fully connect.

Just use Net Shot before you connect. Or use overcharged shot and hit them while they’re down. Or use some form of cripple.

I agree that it’s unnecessarily long and could use tweaking, but that doesn’t break the skill.

You really overestimate the damage it does, its ok for gap closing and that’s about it.

Jump Shot: 1044 damage
Kill Shot: 1276 damage

Cultus.8031:

THIS is what i love about GW. On first glimpse you could think that hammers are ugly as a Quasimodo, but once you google a bit you can see that there are some kick * hammers in game, you just need to work for those. A bit of exploring, a bit of transmuting, a bit of grinding (if you are type to craft Mjolnir for example) and you can have awesome hammer. THAT is difference between GW and rest mmos, if you wanna look tough you need to work for it.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_hammers …..and there is much more to it

So you mean GW2 is better than other MMOs because almost every skin sucks and you have to put in a lot of effort to not look like a clown? I agree that finding good looking skins is a lot of fun, but you don’t need everything else to look stupid for that to be possible.

I would prefer there to be more decent looking basic skins in addition to rare and really good looking ones, instead of just the latter.

Felicela.2810:

Alarox.4590:

Regarding RNG skills, I think there is a simple way to improve them and make them much more appealing:

Make the effects situational.

For example, make Elixir H grant Swiftness if used at 66-100% health, grant Regeneration at 33-65%, and Protection at 1-32%.

This would make Elixir H more of a skill based ability where you want to use it situationally. A similar concept could work for to toolbelt skills of Elixir B, S, and maybe even U and the effect of X.

Interesting idea, but then what do you do with the Thrown version? Would it be the same?

I would love if they took this idea and tweaked it a hair, Drinking/Throwing guarantees Elixir H will give Regeneration and based on Health a secondary Boon. It gives us the real consistency we need combine with skill based.

I was thinking it would be the same for the thrown. It would be pretty interested too since you have two instances of the same buff pattern, so you could mix/match the three boons.

Your idea sounds good, and would apply to Elixir B’s thrown even more. The only issue is that it entails rebalancing since it will always give 2 boons instead of 1.

^ Yeah the condition damage increases, but look at how much you’ve just lost in survival or direct damage in getting 1k condition damage and building to get 100% burning duration on a single target, let alone AoE.

LOCO.1785:

I didn’t read your whole post, but I will say this.

If you like playing support, being hard to kill, while dealing mediocre damage and having the worst range in game, then go with the guardian.

If you like killing stuff, go the warrior.

This is actually the exact reality of it, regardless if you have a problem with the person saying it.

If you play a Guardian you’ll find out pretty fast that 0/0/30/20/20 or 0/15/30/20/5 or 0/0/30/30/10 are your choices if you want to be competitive. I’m not sure how much choice a Warrior has, but the Guardian doesn’t have much, so just a warning.

You can do what I’ve done for the last 5 months and try every seemingly viable skill/trait/weapon/armor combination and retrait 10 times a day though. If you do that, you’ll learn more about the cookie cutter than even most who play it know.

The current problem with Guardians is that you can either build for survival and support, or you can not. If you don’t, you don’t gain a proportional amount of anything else. You look at a Guardian’s survival and support and think “what if i traded all of that for something else?” and even at the other end of the spectrum you’ll find that you don’t gain much in comparison.

Slan.5496:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Jump Shot is one of the best skills for engineers, even if you don’t like the delay before smashing. It gives you the ability to be mobile in ways other classes can’t, it spikes like a boss and it’s even nice enough to apply vulnerability. THAT is how skills should be. Skills should ADD possibilities and be used in MULTIPLE ways. THAT is versatility. Versatility is not “Hey look I have 65 million skills”, it’s “Hey I can use this one skill 65 million ways”. THAT is what engineer should be. Utilizing one skill in multiple ways, rather than having an army of skills (Ele) that we spam.

In pvp that delay makes it virtually worthless. Offensively, it makes it almost impossible to hit a target that isn’t somehow mezzed or immobilized. Defensively, it makes a skill that could be a real life saver when you’re being zerged and need to down someone quickly an utter fail. There have been so many times when I’ve been killed while hanging there like an idiot…I seldom even try to use the power to be honest. There are many teleportation powers/gap closers in the game and this one is the only one that has such a lousy drawback. It’s one of the many issues of an engi that seems punitive for no apparent reason.

It’s still an extremely good sbility that can be used in multiple ways and takes some skill from enemies to avoid, and skill by the user to fully connect.

Just use Net Shot before you connect. Or use overcharged shot and hit them while they’re down. Or use some form of cripple.

I agree that it’s unnecessarily long and could use tweaking, but that doesn’t break the skill.

Regarding RNG skills, I think there is a simple way to improve them and make them much more appealing:

Make the effects situational.

For example, make Elixir H grant Swiftness if used at 66-100% health, grant Regeneration at 33-65%, and Protection at 1-32%.

This would make Elixir H more of a skill based ability where you want to use it situationally. A similar concept could work for to toolbelt skills of Elixir B, S, and maybe even U and the effect of X.

Flame Blast: The concept is perfectly fine, I just think it needs tweaking. As it is now, whether or not you’ll make contact with the explosion is partially skill mostly luck because it is slow moving and out of the flamethrower ‘1’ range, and enemies are constantly moving. I suggest either:

1.) Keeping it mostly as it is now, but making it a chain skill where you can detonate it in mid air.

2.) Decrease the range by 100 or so. As it is now you have to compromise your ability to use Flame Jet just to have a chance at hitting with the blast of Flame Blast. You would still need skill to pull it off via positioning, but now you wouldn’t purposefully have to get out of ‘1’ range. The blast radius in theory should make up for the increased range, but in practice enemies are constantly moving and so are you, so by the time Flame Blast explodes the enemy is out of the blast range and you’re out of ‘1’ range.

Darnis.4056:

You know it says a lot about a game if the biggest concern in pvp you have is lack of “duels”

You can just go to another room if a), You can find a room or 5 at the bottom of the server list where people are dueling a lot of people duel b)

Because the game is team based, and you want to it to cater to your specific wants, maybe it will someday but it’s not a big deal for the rest of us, we can just join a server and find people to duel c)

You act like your opinion is the overwhelming majority and his is isolated. I would go as far to say it’s the opposite and that most people either want duels or just don’t care either way.

You also ignore most of what he said about the problems with trying to duel in the current system. You replied to people coming in and trolling, but you completely ignored how long it takes to set up and how needlessly frustrating it can be, and how you’re almost entirely limited to dueling your friend.

It’s all about fun and opportunity cost. It would make the game much for fun for a large chunk of the sPvP playerbase, and it wouldn’t take too much time on the developers part. Win/win.

Edit: A 1v1 is the most challenging skill practice you can have, it makes you a better player when you get into team fights because you know how to hold your own instead of always having to rely on a teammate (and instead have that as a choice), and in a 5v5 with big maps you actually do have 1v1s a lot.

1.) Drop everything they’re doing.
2.) Bug fix.
3.) Try to fix poor traits and skills.
4.) +THEN + try to balance the game.

We’re playing a game where balance is based on the best of each profession vs the best of each profession. That’s because you’ve got so many bugs and so many bad traits/skills that you’re only seeing X competitive builds per profession.

Not a single person knows what is balanced/unbalanced if there were no bugs and if each profession didn’t have awful traits/skills.

This is why I quit playing my Guardian after 840 hours. The pigeon-holding extends into WvW as well as tPvP, and it’s old. You want to play a Guardian? More than half your build is pre-determined because only certain things are effective, while everything else is sub-par. The only things that are really competitive are bunker builds or bunker/support hybrids.

I’ve tried so many different combinations of weapons/gear/traits/skills, I must have tried every potentially viable build you could think of. In my final days I would retrait nearly 10 times a day.

I do this sometimes with my guild, and we sometimes meet people like you who join us in duels. More often that not though, it’s a troll. There are people that purposefully look for these matches so they can cap every point and jump us while we duel.

You don’t need a Mesmer with portals, but apparently it’s something that is extremely useful in tPvP that only 1 Profession in the game can do. Meta changes, but 1+1 always = 2. If Portals really are that incredibly effective and can easily change the outcome of a battle, then they will always be needed.

The discussion should be about how much they really add to a team. If you had two teams that normally would be evenly matched, would the team that had Portals added to their arsenal suddenly win handily? If so, that’s a problem that players can not fix. It’s not a whole strategy, or group of Professions, or build combination, it’s one skill, and one skill being a deciding factor in any evenly matched battle would be a problem.

I have no idea if it actually is too effective in that sense, but discussing the above is productive while most of the thread…. not so much.

Powerr.3649:

Some of these responses have been taken completely out of proportion

Yup. People want to prove you wrong in something.

There’s a tank D/D ele, and a burst D/D ele. You have to deal with them differently.

JaNordy.6149:

Alarox.4590:

JaNordy.6149:

Actual speed boost when you lay it down, no missing and running over several times; fix stacking and resetting bug for speed boost

Being unable to get more Swiftness when you run over it with Swiftness already applied is intended. Otherwise, you could run back and forth over it per tick and get ridiculous amounts of Swiftness, and it would be incredibly overpowered in comparison to skills like Retreat which aren’t GTAoE but have the capacity to add swiftness.

Although the resetting bug needs to be fixed.

You must be misunderstanding what I said. There is a problem where you lay down Staff 3 and go run over it, and nothing happens. You gotta run back over it to even get buff working. Then another problem, when you have speed already applied and you used Staff 3, it does not add that properly to current duration. There is then also the bug that resets speed, say 20 secs of swiftness, use Staff 3, suddenly your swiftness hits 2 second mark and just vanishes.

I understand what you’re saying perfectly fine.

Your first problem is that you’re stepping on it between pulses. Your second problem is not a bug, it’s an intended aspect of GTAoE abilities that apply boons. Your third problem is an actual bug that needs to be fixed.

Harbinger.8637:

I don’t have a problem with the active, that can stay the same. The passive is just lol…

I just don’t understand what Anet was thinking when they made this Signet.

I do. They needed filler.

From my testing, thrown elixirs will more often than not work perfectly fine if you have an enemy targeted, and just randomly work incorrectly. I think a SD/Elixir build can still work, just a bit risky.

foofad.5162:

Vitu.3580:

Just because the only condition we have is burning doesn’t mean condition damage is worthless. If played right you can have nearly constant burning on you target.

And burning is the highest damage condition in the game

Just saying….

Burn is worth about 5 stacks of bleed. Bleed however scales better with condition damage and quickly eclipses it. Burning sucks.

This is pretty much correct. Burning isn’t worth the effort you put in to get effectiveness out of it either. The passive we get from Justice is just fine for damage, dedicating more is just losing out on direct damage.

Also, adding 100 condition damage barely changes the damage you deal with burning at lv 80.

JaNordy.6149:

Actual speed boost when you lay it down, no missing and running over several times; fix stacking and resetting bug for speed boost

Being unable to get more Swiftness when you run over it with Swiftness already applied is intended. Otherwise, you could run back and forth over it per tick and get ridiculous amounts of Swiftness, and it would be incredibly overpowered in comparison to skills like Retreat which aren’t GTAoE but have the capacity to add swiftness.

Although the resetting bug needs to be fixed.

When testing this, it seems random as to whether or not the Chain Lightning will fly out to where the Elixir lands and travel parallel to the ground, or whether it goes the direction your camera is facing and essentially into the ground.

When testing this I can’t figure out which variable is changing that decides how this is determined. I’ve tested out of combat enemy targeted, out of combat no enemy targeted, in-combat enemy targeted, in-combat no enemy targeted, testing during/not-during auto attacks, during/not-during other abilities. with the camera facing/not-facing the throw, etc.

If anyone knows what actually determines how Chain Lightning will function with thrown Elixirs, please let me know.

EDIT: I figured it out.

It all depends on whether or not the game gives you a skill target.

[two paragraphs explaining the above]

EDIT2: Nope, entirely random. I thought the above was correct until further testing proved that even then, there’s a chance it will simply not work. However, I do think having a skill target does affect how Chain Lightning will work, but it’s not the only variable. No matter how much I test it there is no 100% consistency.

Even the bugs are RNG.

tigirius.9014:

22) Forceful Explosives – supposed to enlarge the explosive radius actually reduces it causing you to have to be inside the enemy almost for it to hit most of the time. It causes the non-combo field explosions to not have the same splash radius as daggers do on my thief much less the standard 1 handed sword. Doesn’t actually change the tooltip but doesn’t do what the tooltip in the trait actually says it does. It’s most noticeable underwater using bomb kits and actually affects the effectiveness of the Elixir-Infused Bombs when traited.

In my experience it does increase the radius of the bombs. At least in sPvP, the only place I’ve tested it.

tigirius.9014:

Forceful Explosives now is bugged reduces the radius instead of enlarging it. Causing the explosives like bombs to practically have to be inside the enemy to go off, possibly causing the same for mines, grenades and Elixir-Infused Bombs definitely affected. The splash radius is smaller then my thief’s dagger radius. Most noticeable underwater.

In my experience it does increase the radius of the bombs. At least in sPvP, the only place I’ve tested it.

AH heals you every time you give a boon to yourself or allies. There are two traits which grant boons on Crit; one grants Might and one grants Vigor. Both in the Honor line.

I made an almost identical build and the concept works. I didn’t watch the whole video, but I notice you didn’t try the double Toolbelt spam with the turret. Place it then double spam by exploding and firing the bullet.

Anymras.5729:

Lord Aargadon.4135:

Even more proof that Anet doesn’t venture to the engineer side of the forums: This post isn’t locked yet and we aren’t suspended from the forums.

They did actually remove one of my posts because I didn’t explain my point of view. It was amusing.

You too?

“Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you’ll live… at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin’ to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell ArenaNet that they may take away our Grenade Kit, but they’ll never take… OUR VERSATILITY!”

-Braveheart

Zeoli.3402:

There is no reason for a Magical Orb of light not to change course and force the target to dodge. however they would need to reduce the auto attack speed as the chance for a hit has increased.

I disagree. That’s assuming the current state is balanced. That’s literally one step forward, one step back.

If you made it home but move slower, then all you’re doing is forcing the DPS to be low instead of having the chance that it will be medium+. As it is now, your DPS will be low because you miss so much, but if you end up getting a few hits in quickly your DPS will jump. Making the orbs home but also move slower is basically guaranteeing your DPS will be (X) when it used to be (X+Y).

That being said, I think the balance would be in only giving partial homing to where it can only change by, let’s say 30 degrees left/right. If you fired a wall of these at an enemy they would all shift towards them, but because they can only home so much you wouldn’t be guaranteed to be hit by all of them.

@Whelm, thanks for the link, it’s helping.

@Phuriocity, after intensive theorycrafting over the last few days I’m seeing first hand what you mean by the above. Every good build I come up with has at least 20 in Tools, rarely any in Inventions (I’m flirting with the idea of reduced falling damage for WvW), probably 10 flat in Alchemy. The last 40 points is generally split between Explosives/Firearms.

Couple extra questions:

1.) Which is overall better for damage? Power/Precision Rifle, or Power/Precision or Condition Pistol/Pistol? I noticed the Rifle has large burst but I’m wondering if I’d be more effective overall with Pistols.

2.) Is Static Discharge worth maximimizing? I’m trying swapping out my two non-Toolkit utilities for low cooldown Toolbelt skills, and I’m actually using the Rifle Turret solely for the Toolbelt spam.

3.) How the kitten do I use the Healing Turret to its full potential? Seems to be a lot of micromanaging with it, and since I don’t like RNG at all I stick with the Med Kit.

4.) Are bombs really flat out superior damage to the Flamethrower + Toolkit? That’s what it seems like based on my initial impressions, even though bombs are my least favorite of the three (I hate the delay), but it could grow on me.

Zeoli.3402:

I love how guardians are crying about this… Ok this game is about moving from melee to ranged and back or fighting at a distance you are comfortable with. But spare a thought for rangers… You dont see them moan about their weapons… And yes you can negate any projectile skill with this movement. So while you guys seem to focus and moan about the one skill that is affected by this issue its brings to light that rangers arnt event mentioning this. And they have alot more skills that act like this.

This thread is about more than just the tactic of strafing left/right. It’s about the Scepter projectile speed and the Scepter overall. Please read the entire thread.

I tested this thoroughly.

As soon as Signet of Resolve or Purity are equipped, a 10sec timer is generated that keep repeating.

If you stack both, it goes into 2 conditions every 10s. If you get the grandmaster for signets on top of that, it goes into 3 conditions every 10s.

NaturalPortman.9562:

I’m pretty sure the nerf was just to grenades 1 spam skill. But nerf doesn’t affect me that much.

So 30% nerf to 90% of the damage instead.

So my favorite 2 professions have always been Guardian and Engineer, and even though I’ve dedicated almost my entire play time (nearly 1000 hours) to Guardians, I’ve always had an itch to play Engineer.

Coming from a Guardian, I know everything about that class, the meta for PvE/PvP/WvW, all the specifics for every trait and skill, and I’ve tried every viable build (and most unviable ones too). Coming to the Engineer though, I’m a noob.

The kinds of things I’m looking for are tips like the ‘best’ builds to see the trait/skill interactions. I don’t copy them as I always make my own unique build, but knowing something like “0/30/30/10/0 is considered ideal for X because of Y…” speeds up the process of having to learn everything through trial and error. It’d be nice if Engineer options were more open though.

Knowing any notable bugged skills/traits is also big up there.

Also, knowing certain things that are just bad that I should stay clear of would be useful. Like on Guardians, we have a Grandmaster trait that says “Greatsword attacks heal you!” but what they don’t tell you is that it’s only 25 health per hit and doesn’t scale.

A: Oh, I’m sorry. Did that break your concentration? I didn’t mean to do that. Please, continue. I believe you were saying something about “30 points in Inventions”?

Whatsamatter? Oh, you were through?. Well, allow me to retort! Would you describe for me what the Grenade Kit looks like?

E: … What?

A: What country you from!

E: … What?

A: “What” ain’t no country I ever heard of! They speak New-Krytan in “What?”!

E: … What?

A: [raises the nerf Hammer]

New-Krytan-can-you-speak-it?!

E: Yes!

A: Then you understand what I’m sayin’?

[lowers the nerf hammer]

Now, describe to me what the Grenade Kit looks like.

E: … What?

A: [raises the nerf hammer]

Say “What” again! C’mon, say “What” again! I dare ya mothakittena, I double dare ya, say “What” one more kitten time!

Now, describe to me what the Grenade Kit looks like!

E: Well it’s… it’s… a backpack —

A: — go on!

E: …and it’s…it’s…brown —

A: — does it look like a Staff?!

E: … What?

A: [nerfs the Grenade Kit]

E: AHHHHHH

A: Does-it-look-like-a-Staff?!

E: No!

A: Then why’d you try to use it like a Staff?!

E: I didn’t!

A: Yes ya did Engineer. You ever read the class balance philosophies notes, Engineer?

There’s a passage I got memorized, seems appropriate for this situation:
“We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage!!!!”

[nerfs Engineers into oblivion]

- Pulp Fiction

The Blue Ace.2850:

Critial chance and damage is for assassins and rangers

Or anyone who wants to contribute towards the boss’s red bar greying out.

0/0/30/30/10 or 0/0/30/20/20

Weapons will be Hammer/Staff/Mace-Shield

Utilities will be Shouts.

SHAKA ZULU.3128:

I just bought a soldier’s set with soldier runes/1 crest after using cleric’s w/ dolyak runes exclusively since I hit 80 months ago and let me tell you the difference is mind blowing. I thought I’d really miss the healing stats but I haven’t noticed a thing. I was tired of having such a low crit chance (hovered 25-30) and with the new gear I lost no toughness (actually gained 50pts), gained base health (now around 16K up from 14.5K), and my crit is now 49%. I run berserker/soldier jewelry mix. I use a toughness/healing/power (I think. I’m not in the game right now to double check that last stat) mace and focus when I’m on the defensive and that’s all the extra healing I typically need in 1 fight. My hammer/GS is power/prec/toughness.

I’m on the fence about the healing spell to use. Resolve obviously heals for more, but the blocks and lower CD given with shelter has been interesting me more and more considering the obvious benefit to running it with the Mace/Focus. That’s like 8-10 blocks in a row then 3 secs of un-traited invulnerability if you time it right. I run typical trait stats; AH and the like. RF, SYS, contemplation of purity, and WoR/SYG/HtL depending on the situation.

I feel a lot tankier, I hit harder, and green numbers are flying everywhere. What’s not to love? I put a lot of faith into toughness and outlasting others though and that might not be everyone’s preference depending on what game mode you play.

How’s your power and crit damage?

juno.1840:

Alarox.4590:

You’ll have low damage with that kind of build since you won’t crit much.

Using soldiers armor doesn’t preclude crits and damage ouput.

I run soldiers armor (slotted with ruby orbs), knight’s jewelry, and knights weapons. Combine that with a 0/15/30/20/5 build and crit rate is near 40%. Given the AoE nature of GS/Hammer/Staff autoattacks, that’s a lot of crits (especially for the staff — funny I know). In addition, power with that build is about 1600. It’s not as awesome as 2000 which other gear provides, but it would not be considered “low”.

The crit is important as it fuels vigor and might which are staples for an AH build. With this gear/build I always have vigor so my crit rate is definitely not “low”.

In your build you have +150 Precision which the OP wouldn’t with that build. In addition, all the information any of us would have to go on is “Soldier’s gear” and 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/0/30/20/20 (based on the suggestions above) rather than knights on everything else like you have. With just those assumptions, the damage will be low because of low precision to take advantage of +30% crit damage, and lower than average Power.

Even looking at your stats, the damage will be low. Low compared to any damaging build of other Professions or damage focused Guardian builds.

What food did you use? My main question.

KensaiZen.3740:

snip

Okay, so what you’re saying is that with 3x Might you can get 3500 damage? When was that ever the conversation? Maybe you’re forgetting the part where you said this:

quote=1151549;KensaiZen.3740:]
Mighty blow when traited is on a 3.5 second timer and with the right gear does around 3.5k-5k (or even higher if you go glass cannon)
[/quote]

That’s with 3x Might and you’re barely hitting 3.5k, which I never claimed to be impossible. Actually, I’ve been sayiing you could easily reach 3220 damage without Might. What I’ve been saying is impossible is your claim of 3.5-5k with the stats you gave me, and even claiming that with going glass cannon it would be higher than 5k (your build is half glass cannon already as your trinkets are all berserkers). With those pictures you’re basically proving my point.

Brutaly.6257:

Atm we are forced to use staff in wvw (or the most useless shout of them all) just to move around in wvw. This pretty much makes a one hand, offenisve, build moot.

Exactly.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

Hmm.

Increased movement speed when Aegis is up.

I’d go 10 in Virtues for that.

Indure.5410:

It’s true that a guardian doesn’t have a cripple which I sorely miss, but they have a lot of immobilizes, finicky wards, and quite a few options for gap closers. Immobilizes are actually pretty OP compared to cripples and result in the majority of my deaths because you can’t dodge while your immobilized.

3 Immobilizes, 3 gap closers, 2 wards.

Immobilizes are good, but they are very short. Cripples are generally longer duration and allow you to stay in melee combat instead of giving you a 2s period to get close to and hit your enemies before they get away again.

ComeAndSee.1356:

I play Dagger + Dagger and Shortbow. The only cripples I have are Dancing Dagger (costs 4 initiative — which is 1/3rd my resources) that lasts 5 seconds and Disabling shot (which isn’t a real snare, its an escape ability). I can use traps and venoms, but they last so short and are a waste of skills.

My gap closer is Shadowstep which has a 45s cooldown and I have two stealths that I can use to get up behind my targets. I also have 25% run speed signet.

Yet, even with all these tools half of the time I’m sitting there chasing people around because to do my maximum damage I have to be BEHIND them. The only other option I can do is just sit there and faceroll Heartseeker.

The reason why there aren’t spammable slows (cough 12s slows in SWTOR cough) is because they want to give you a reason to switch weapons.

If the target is out range from your greatsword then switch to a staff or scepter.

Poor you being forced to spam a 2-5k hitting gap closer with perma-25% movement speed.

Anyone who has ever played a Guardian knows that the Staff isn’t a combat weapon and the Scepter is barely functional outside of near melee range. Switching to the Staff is asking to be killed as you can’t defend yourself. Scepter orbs can be outrun with swiftness, and sidestepped even without it. If you really want to, you can stand at 600 range and avoid all of them without dodging. It’s an almost viable option to melee combat, but the problem with saying “just switch to your scepter” is that it’s basically saying it doesn’t matter what balance problems there are, Guardians could deal 1 DPS and inflict 5000 DPS to themselves per melee swing, just switch to the Scepter lolzL2p.

Follidus.8027:

Different classes, and different builds bring different things. The idea is that this game is a team game, and that where one part of the team lacks another part makes up for it.

Warriors might have access to cripple on almost every weapon, but guardians have access to aoe condtion removal, and important boon like protection, stability.

Warriors might have “collossal burst,” however you can build guardians to have “collossal burst.” You can build guardians to have 2+ gap closers.

Yes, Guardian’s ranged options are lacking, however that’s just another tradeoff like cripple.

AoE condition removal: Requires a Grandmaster trait and only works for 2 shouts, or a 20 point trait in Virtues that will be a 60s cooldown.

Stability: One skill on a 30s cooldown.

Protection: One utility skill for 4s, one Virtue for 5s on a 90s cooldown, one weapon skill for 5s, and the Hammer Chain.

Definitely not a tradeoff worth 0 cripples, the worst ranged combat in the game, and low relative burst (especially considering the above requires very specific weapons and traits). I don’t see why everyone is against Guardians being able to do anything outside of sit there, not die, and buff you.

It’s not like Warriors can’t support either. You know they can spam AoE healing at 1200 range and buff with Banners and boons like Fury, and be tanky as well, in addition to other control they bring. If their support is too limited, then maybe they need that buffed. As it is, I love seeing support Warriors in my party.

You’re better off using Stand Your Ground over Hold the Line (Stability and a stun breaker), and Smite Condition over Contemplation of Purity (much more healing from Monk’s Focus).

Also, what are your current precision/power/critical-damage stats at? If they’re low, you might be better off using Orbs for your armor.

Your might also benefit by going 0/15/30/20/5.

Also, a Scepter as your other set would deal much more damage than the Staff and give you more combat options. You can always switch out for the Staff over your Greatsword for movement outside of combat.