They should merge a good few of our traits, it seems like. I’m actually curious as to what they’ll do.
In my opinion, the way to do this would be to get as much Power, Condition Damage and Healing Power as possible, with a respectable (and mostly equal) amount of Toughness and Vitality. Not sure about the type of stuff, but those’re the abilities you’ll want to maximize.
Kits don’t use weapon damage. Just bonuses.
If you’ve got two Berserker’s Pistols, it’ll deal just as much damage as one Berserker’s Shield and one Berserker’s Pistol.
Currently, I’ve actually stopped using Deployable Turrets because it’s slowing my placement down.
Of course, at the moment I’m also essentially a point-blank gunslinger, using the short-range turrets, so that might have something to do with it – it’s simply easier, since I’m already close to the enemy, to close distance entirely and start dropping them. (This is in PvE, as I haven’t played WvW since a bit before the new matchup code was implemented.)
For turrets like Rocket, Rifle, and Net, of course, or for an Engineer who prefers to stay at range (like, perhaps, a Grenadier, who could benefit from Thumper’s Cripple, Net’s Immobilize or Rocket’s Knockdown to land more hits, or basically anybody not intent on Blowtorching faces off), Deployable Turrets is probably far more useful, and for comedic purposes, I imagine there’s little that quite matches Thumping the center of a good-sized zerg (and then detonating the turret a moment later when the bubble collapses). It just all comes down to playstyle.
All that said, though…I honestly wouldn’t object to Deployable Turrets being made the default, if only so we could get another Turret trait.
There’s a similar issue with Explosive Shot – the cast time listed is shorter than the actual cast time.
Whether these issues are bad tooltips or an error in programming, they need to be fixed so people can accurately judge how useful something is without having to disregard the information provided by the game.
Somebody under level 80 might put them in something other than 80+ items. The use of transmutation crystals and salvage kits makes getting the rune to higher-level gear easy, too.
He’s about to hit 62, and the Superiors are usable from 60 onward.
My guesses:
Explosives: I don’t know much about which Explosives traits are really good; I’d guess that maybe Grenadier and/or Acidic Elixirs will get modified in some way, as Grenadier is awesome and Acidic Elixirs is…well, not.
Firearms: Haven’t had points in the tree in forever, no idea.
Inventions: Autotool Installation seems a good candidate for either buffing or outright swapping (Turret -20% Cooldown Go! please), and hopefully they’ll adjust the information for Elite Supplies X to reflect that it does nothing for Mortar attacks. In addition, they’ll hopefully get Rifled Turret Barrels’ range enhancement to actually apply to things besides the Rocket Turret (and keep the rockets visible).
Alchemy: I don’t use this tree much, either, so no idea.
Tools: We’ve been directly informed there’s a change in the works (requiring translators, so it’s probably not just a bugfix and % increase) for Scope…I’m thinking the Grandmaster traits will be changed/buffed, and it’s entirely possible that a cooldown trait for Turrets could be put here instead of in Inventions.
I’m hoping for a Turret Cooldown trait, myself.
We know they’re doing trait changes. We don’t know if they’re doing jack about skills.
Yep. So we know one change that will be incoming – or its subject, anyway; we know kittenall about the content of the change except that it requires a translation, which implies a change in the text of the tooltip itself. Maybe it’ll even be something people will use.
If anybody else gets word of specific changes, with proof, bring ‘em here – it’ll give us something halfway constructive to do while we kitten about Kit Refinement and postulate that Warriors and Thieves will get buffs.
So, the weekly Guild Wars 2 Guru’s Master of the Mists tPvP Tournament is going on right now and there are several devs in the livestream chat, and they have given us a bit of a spoiler regarding the upcoming balance patch – I’ve copied and pasted the related quotes here:
Mod jon_peters: the one after that will be fairly sizable balance wise
Mod khalija_: If you have feedback or suggestions for future tournaments, you can email us at tournament@guildwarsguru.net
Mod jon_peters: This is a big game
Mod jon_peters: as you can see
Mod jon_peters: lots of things interact
Mod jon_peters: so 1
Mod jon_peters: 1) we dont rush because testing is hard
Mod jon_peters: 2) we dont rush because balance should be slow moving
Mod jon_peters: or you just keep overshooting your target
Mod khalija_: Sent you a msg Karl!
Mod khalija_: Pm’d you on Twitch
Mod jon_peters: I will say the late june patch is a fairly sizable balance patch
Mod jon_peters: as Karl can attest to
Mod jon_peters: the fx will be replaced with lower detail versions first
Mod jon_peters: but I will say lot of trait diversity incoming for late June
Mod jon_peters: trying to improve many bad traits
Mod jon_peters: to bring up new builds
Mod jon_peters: hmm example….
Mod jon_peters: should I give an example…
Mod jon_peters: Karl do you have a good example of a trait change?
Mod jon_peters: some merging going on
Mod chaplan_: back
Mod jon_peters: yeah
Mod jon_peters: chap
Mod jon_peters: Chap you mind if Karl and I spoiler some of the trait changes incoming?
Mod chaplan_: I thought about doing in SOTG…but played it safe.
Mod chaplan_: I did mention Necro burning.
Mod jon_peters: We can give away like 1 or 2 I think
Mod jon_peters: ok
Mod jon_peters: I think Ele air is a good spoiler…
Mod jon_peters: I will say this
Mod jon_peters: every single trait line is seeing at least 1 change
Mod jon_peters: some I think are getting as many as five changes
Mod khalija_: official site says we’ll get some new info on June 4th
Mod chaplan_: Overall idea: look at bad/unused traits and improve them, or just rework them.
Who knows what form these changes will take for us Rangers, but knowing there are SOME changes is good I think!
So. Apparently every traitline is getting hit during this next balance patch. Hadn’t seen any word of it on these boards, but I happened to take a look at the Ranger forum and saw that.
At the moment, the only mechanical reason I can see for the difference is that Lightning Reflexes doesn’t move you 900 units back or act as a blast finisher, and also doesn’t self-CC you while removing you from hostile CC. Nor does, as I notice on the wiki, Stability prevent Lightning Reflexes from functioning.
I think the only reason Rocket Boots works the way it does to begin with is because it was supposed to be funny to send yourself zipping backward, flopping helplessly on the ground because your stunbreak stuns you while the guy trying to stab you to death runs over and does his thing.
Racial abilities in general aren’t affected by traits at all, as far as I know. (They totally should be, lumped in with whatever skillset seems most fitting to them in each profession to prevent unfair bias of certain races to certain professions.)
I’d be pretty okay with it as a gadget.
There have been many threads about melee weapons (and more weapons in general, considering the dearth of choices the Engineer has). There will be many more.
There’s always the possibility for a Random Displacement Field or somesuch – basically just shunts whoever enters the field between 300 and 1500 in a random direction.
Sorry, but between most elixirs we have, I think our class has quite enough RNG in it.
Even one of our elites, for christ’s sake. WTB option to choose which t.t
In this case, it’d actually have a point, which would be: Drop the field in front of an enemy zerg, especially in high places. Suddenly, frustration, especially if there’s a portal that keeps taking them to the other side of it.
People like big numbers, so they go for direct – you can tell that much by just looking at the price of Blood on the Trading Post. For some reason, people want to play tag with rocket launchers.
Anything where you’re working with, say, any of the other Condition-heavy classes, though…you’re going to get overshadowed, probably. Big events, you’ll have 25 stacks of every condition on a particular enemy, so you can’t even get contribution from more than your direct damage.
Myself, I’m okay with wearing things down. I kind of like it – which is why I’m using a hybrid Apothecary and Carrion set and focusing on infliction of Burns (as well as constant use of mines).
There’s always the possibility for a Random Displacement Field or somesuch – basically just shunts whoever enters the field between 300 and 1500 in a random direction.
First picture: I have no idea what’s going on there, aside from somebody talking about really liking it doggy-style and somebody being in the Rampage form. Sure does look like one dead-kitten light golem, though. Maybe try switching to the Combat tab next time before taking the screenshot.
Second picture: I do know what’s going on there (insofar as I can tell that somebody just got Big Ol’ Bombed for Big Ol’ Damage), and that is a huge number. However, no idea what buffs may have been in use, no idea what equipment (is it glass cannon gear, or tank, or what?) or pretty much anything that would give context (aside from the target being an Elementalist, a lightly-armored class). I notice that Elixir X is on cooldown; does that have anything to do with it?
If Big Ol’ Bomb is only dealing these massive amounts to lightly-armored enemies while under the influence of Elixir X, I honestly don’t really see what the big deal is supposed to be. They’re squishy, and if they get hit with a high base damage skill augmented by a damage-boosting Elite (and, I think, 5 stacks of Might, as Area Might would only add 3), they’re going to squish. Nuke a Warrior like that, and it’ll be more concerning.
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I’m actually not sure Throw Mine is actually a blast finisher and not just suffering a case of inaccurate tooltip. It also says it deals damage, but I’ve never seen the mine being thrown do damage to anything, after all.
It’s pretty fun, though the Rocket Boots really don’t see a lot of use except for comic relief.
Bugs need fixed, even if they’re good for us. It’s a bit silly to demand bugfixes and then ask them to leave some bugs alone, isn’t it?
Really, though, the first part is probably the Tooltip being bad (probably not accounting for Healing Power properly or something) and the second is something that could be an actual problem.
Right now, I’m using a hybrid gadget/turret condition build that focuses on Burning everything that isn’t immune to Burning, and Static Discharge+Mines on everything ever.
Most things crumple from Napalm (and Static Discharge)→Rocket Kick(and Static Discharge)→Blowtorch, and the Mines are a great spike/boon remover. Thumper turret can always be switched in instead of Rocket Boots, but part of the charm of this build is low cooldowns all around.
They probably won’t tell us how it’s going to be changed, just like they didn’t tell us how HGH was going to be changed when it was. All we’ll know is that A ) It will, hopefully, function, and B ) It will function differently from the way it does(n’t) now.
I think the trigger of the finisher is focused on the Turret, but the effect is on the user. I’ve gotten the Healing Turret’s AoE heal from a decent distance away; I’ll test this later to be certain, though.
Going by the patch notes, Minefield should be working again.
Just tested it. It’s working.
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Scope’s not going to end up the Scope we’ve seen, gone “Hah, kitten that kittenty noise,” and proceeded to not use, even before it was common knowledge that it’s less functional than a breastplate stretcher is factual. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need translators. It’s impossible to tell (unless somebody who’d know tells us) whether the trait that will result from the change is going to be ‘the most useless trait ever.’
Also, considering that the issue with the Runes of Lyssa comes up rarely enough that I had to wiki it to see what-all issues there were (and it’s not an Engineer-specific set of bugs, as it apparently has issues with all transformations, as well as Supply Crate), while I’ve seen several Scope threads…I’m not sure I’d consider the Runes of Lyssa to be more urgent than Scope, especially for the Engineer.
I’ve noticed the Healing Turret doing its cleanse in a rather more timely fashion of late.
Other than that…yeah, that’s how the Flame Turret Overcharge has always worked. Bit of a pain in the kitten when you’re trying to see how high you can stack Stealth.
…Considering that the last dev I saw talk about Scope (the guy who thought it was functional) thought that people just didn’t notice when it was working because it was underwhelming, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to nerf it.
They’re changing the Scope trait, not just making it functional, is what I’m getting.
If they were just making it work, then they probably could have it done in the next patch (since apparently they’ve deigned to recall that we’re here), but as the one who told us they didn’t even know it was a problem said, they were intending to make it better.
Give it until they put out the next patch – whether they’re fixing things or balancing, something’ll break in a hilariously stupid fashion.
To she’d some light, once a change requires text, the minimum turnaround is 4 weeks on translation alone.
Jon – could you please shed some light on why this trait has been broken for so long? There have been numerous threads on this topic that have had devs involved, including the Stickied Engineer Bugs Compilation thread since September 16, 2012!
It is very disappointing that a clearly broken (not simply bugged) trait has been completely ignored for so long.
Going by the response in the sPvP board thread about it…they simply didn’t know. Somehow. And then, when somebody actually seemed to take notice, they claimed that it was working, just underwhelming, until confronted with tests showing the contrary.
Oh, right, that’s the Shield that’s designed for the Guardian. Couldn’t remember the name and didn’t feel like looking it up.
Considering that they only seem to have realized that there actually was a problem 245 days after release, despite several threads about it, probably innumerable tickets submitted…4 weeks isn’t that much longer to wait.
Who wants to bet on what the fix/change breaks?
You have the possibility to buy the legendary but you don’t have a favorite build yet? You should choose whatever you use the most.
Anyway I would pick none of these. Quip is very cool but it not matches my style since I want a sober/furious engineer. Predator on the other hand is a sniper and the engineer uses it as a shotgun and that looks stupid. My advice is that you don’t rush to buy it yet, wait a few more months for an expansion. Arena Net told us there would be more legendary choices.
My opinion, really, mirrors this – none of the currently extant legendaries in any way, shape or form fit the Engineer. Predator is for Warriors, the shield is for Guardians, and Quip…I don’t really know if Mesmers can use pistols, but they’re the only ones who it might fit.
If I had to choose, I certainly wouldn’t pick Quip. I might be a flamboyant, purple-and-gold coated little kitten with a tankard of beer on his chest, but that doesn’t mean I want to shoot bubbles and confetti.
So…Predator, simply because it’s less of a joke.
It’s nice to see a dev on these boards about a bug. Be even nicer if the dev would look at our bug list. This is a new bug, after all. I’m not going to pretend the dev’s going to be looking back into this thread one way or another, however – they probably finally thought that it might be a good idea to let people know that they haven’t been entirely forgotten.
Only took months.
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Nope. Still kittening broken. Just checked.
I’ve run varying amounts of Turrets since release. Right now, I’m running Healing Turret, Flame Turret, Throw Mine and Rocket Boots, but for most of my level 5-80 play, I had nothing but turrets.
That’s probably what happens – they’re too busy trying to get it out to playtest it, so they just hope the debugger catches whatever goes wrong.
They don’t test their changes, and it shows – they’re too busy trying to pump out new stuff to make it work right.
Figured. Be nice if we didn’t have to test the kitten things to show that they exist.
They probably don’t even realize it’s a problem.
The code probably looks just fine.
I’m not sure why you’re placing emphasis on the weapon choice – if it’s something about “Guns should deal more damage, look at the real world,” I’m going to have to point out that, if this were the case, guns would deal more damage than most weapons in the game, leaving them terribly unbalanced.
If ANet adopts that policy, I’ll immediately reroll every character I have to a charr.
Charrzooka everything.
kitten, we’d see nothing but Charr and Asura Engineers with Throw Mine, Rocket Turrets, Grenade Kits and Mortars, Golems (LASER PUNCHES), or the Charrzooka.
I’m actually not sure whether the ‘dazed for a while’ thing would work, oddly enough – if they went with even the tiniest bit of relative realism, then they’d have to deal with there being four-barreled pistol models and so forth. Certainly be awful funny, though.
We’ll get one because they broke it in a way that we can use.
I’m not sure why you’re placing emphasis on the weapon choice – if it’s something about “Guns should deal more damage, look at the real world,” I’m going to have to point out that, if this were the case, guns would deal more damage than most weapons in the game, leaving them terribly unbalanced. I’ll just hope it’s not that.
Also, they’re doing the same thing people do here – compare their class, specifically the roles at which it’s less than stellar, to the classes that are intended for that. They compare themselves, for example, to Guardians for tanking, Necromancers for Conditions, and Warrior for DPS – all pretty much the class mentioned’s designated focus. The only difference I can see is that the Thief has always been, and likely always will be, intended as the premier one-on-one combat (and sneaky kitten) profession, while the Engineer’s niche(s?) are all occupied already, including versatility.
That’s probably more the AI than anything – they’re too busy trying to pump out new kitten every month and catch up to bugs introduced by it to actually fix the AI to recognize that it can suddenly fire further.
…did they break Rifled Turret Barrels again?