Guild Wars 2

Why should a guild move around if the new system supposedly balances the population issue?

Totally agree. +1

The 80 boost do not unlock elite specializations.

Adding a Machine Gun kit sounds a more efficient way to get what you ask, OP.

Thank you for the responses, guys. I’ll study and test your suggestions to see how well they work on my not so adaptable brain!

About not using Engie when playing PvP… Truth is I’m trying to improve my Reaper for PvP purposes now, so I don’t feel too extremely bad about your nice, hurtful honesty.

I need some help from the experts builders.

While I know the metas and I’ve seen a lot of really nice builds in these forums, truth is I almost never adopt something for my Engie if I don’t find it fun. Fun is not the same as optimal for me. I usually adapt suggested builds so heavyily I just end with a broken build.

So I’m trying to do things in the reverse way this time:

I like FT and Rifle.
I find pistols boring, and hammer too focused on melee for my taste.
I hate launching nades all day (But I love Grenade Barrage).
I always take Speedy Kits and Juggernaut.
I like mobility and evasion more than blocking or reflecting.
I like the Healing Turret.
I hate all AIs.
I like to play mid range, going in and out of the combat.
I like condis AND power (I usually try to might stack a lot)
I like Orbital Strike but rarely use the Mortar Kit itself.

Which build and gear would you recommend to me? I Primarily want to optimize my PvE, but also would like to look your ideas for PvP.

Thanks for the help!

What you wished is not the same as what you finally did. Sadly, that’s how fate works.

For my FT Engie: Pyromaniac.
For my Reaper: Nom nom nom.

Sorry CindiKa, but people IS dumb, generally speaking. Treating them well or bad rarely has any effect. Of course, some of them are commanders too…

What about Jump Shot and Overcharged Shot?

I think the OP belong to a group of people that haven’t voiced so much their opinion in the forums yet, who actually don’t have fear to die, learn and try again, and who can enjoy more dangerous environments in the game.

I think right now the jungle is a little bit more easy that it should be, but I wouldn’t reccomend making the jungle so much harder, because there is another group of people who really seem unable to overcome it. I also hope they don’t make it easier either.

Right now, Maguuma’s Heart seems to be in a good spot, not so hard, not so easy.

I do like the idea of the tiger ambushers, though. It would be wonderful.

Disneyland is not “refined”…

Rockin Twilight Sparkle.2615:

The Special Committee for the Removal of Overgrown Lizards and their Ilk.

Best one ATM, by far. Would choose it in an instant.

I think the quest are more important than the Legendary themselves. The first bunch of Legendaries, without any lore to back up them, were just (tacky) skins without any story, basically mere jokes. The new ones at least added real content and challenges…

If they were not going to add journeys to the rest of legendaries, I truly prefer they never launch them.

Mesmer portals are utility skills. If the engie gains a multi-people teleport gadget for the elite slot, I hope it is MORE useful than the mesmer’s one.

I think it could be really interesting to have a shorter cd duration teleport useable in combat. Make it one way only, and limited to line of sight, but able to transport up to 10 people, and linked to a projectile you have to land where you want to teleport.

Both.
Healing power should not work based on minimum fixed numbers, but it also should have a much more relevant scaling in asociation with the points invested in Healing Power.

Basically, a build with Healing Power 0 shouldn’t be able to heal effectivelly. A build with Healing Power at the top should super heal.

Brilliant idea. +1

Ceera is on the frontline because she is unstable enough to be there… Any other, rational and sane non-militar medic should be probably far away from that place…

In my experience, even the proudest of the relatives of a hero would prefer to have him/her back. “He saved our entire village!” sounds very great to the people saved and the society in general. To most (rl) relatives it sound like “Your loved one died for a bunch of people you don’t care at all, if they were dead your loved one would be alive and you would be happy”.

Further on, there is the point of responsability. Our character IS a militar-ish commander. The pact is a militaristic organization. Every death under his/her command IS totally his/her responsability. No matter how it happened, no matter how convincing Tonn were, no matter how much your character tried to be sure the actions being done were safe or correct. No matter how much “bad luck” there was, or how much information our commander had or lacked: he/she IS THE RESPONSIBLE for the lives of any person under his/her charge.

IMO, while Ceera is annoying, she is a well constructed character, and our commander IS the son of a gun who was in charge when Tonn died. The guilt is on us anyway.

Tonn basically committed suicide. For a good cause, but still. The commander didn’t stop him, neither Ceera could stop him. Both feel bad about that. Powerless, unable to understand, sad and unable to forget.

In real world, that is known as the “survivor’s guilt”, and is a huge cause of family disfunction, divorces and subsequent tragedies.

The problem with Ceera is she’s too “real” for Tyria. I actually enjoy it. Being able to slap her WOULD be awesome too, IMO. More drama is always good.

Felahr.9830:

Rhyse.8179:

It’s the Face Of Boe.

Thats Captain to you!

SPOILERS! (Sweetie…)

You were responsible of the death of her beloved AND then you forced her to live. She will hate you forever.

I thing the gliding animation is not the correct for this toy. The animation should have been more like… standing hovering. IMO Anet needs to dedicate more people to animation: more emotes, more running and idle options, etc.

I still bought the item, I think it could be useful on some social situations, and it was at a very reasonable price.

Char are AWESOME as they are. The design choice to treat non-human races as truly non-human is one of the greatest things in GW2, and is one of the reasons I prefer this game and its lore over hundred others.

No asura with boobs, no straight backed charr, no more-human sylvari, no stupid “humanized” races which are merely humans with animal heads, like most other games do. Please, no.

“No Retreat” and “Hearts and Minds” are the major offenders, IMO. They are too large, too buggy and extremely anoying to be doing them so many times (For the achievements). Just let people try the last combat again, instead of kicking them to the very beggining every time. It is too much.

Also a batman style glider.
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/thebatmananimatedseries/images/f/fe/Bat-wing_TNBA_Batman.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120706200719

Asura Engie
Asura Necro
Asura Guardian
Charr Ele
Charr Warrior
Human Rev
Norn Ranger
Sylvari Thief
Sylvari Mesm

I have 1 of each sex for every race, except human and norn (no males for them, too boring) and asura (bacause asura reapers are so amusing, I have to delete my human necro and create an asura instead).

Shinji.8320:

Speaking for the majority of the gw2 community on tumblr, we need different underwear options for everyone, even if they’re gemstone items. Probably not more than like 10 gems apiece, but in a nice variety.

MadVisions.4529:

would instabuy stalwart shoulders if it returned as a gemstore item. just saying.

Agree with both. I need my asura with the high neck leather shoulders and matching underwear.

Pretty circular thread here, eh?

I can add to the mess that Grind =/= Access =/= Gating.

Grinding doesn’t relate to having access to something and that doesn’t prevent it from having certaing gates pre constructed.

Also Stats =/= Winning, and, the hardest to understand of all, Winning =/= Having the Reason. But… yeah, that one is circular.

We should be able to select from a decent amount of idle animation which ones we want our toon to use. Make them selectable, convert them in gemstore items or amek them rewards for completing a collection or some skill test. Just add more animation options.

In PvE I do just what Xyonon says: I combine utility and CC from Rifle with kits (FT, EG, Nades and Mortar) using FT as my main source of continuous damage and tagging, then bursting with rifle close range big hitters.

My actual build looks more or less like this. I’m still looking for the correct balance, but it is hella fun:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUhatYJWwdLQ7FL3FFYDWABw4I2EJB9qH75OA-TRSBQBbRJ2VUa0Q1fwjOAas/QjUCmtLAQZUGAgHAAA-e

I consider Canach a part of the new team in the same way I consider Vegeta part of the Goku family.

egzius.9031:

Ardid.7203:

OMFG Egzius! I’m totally humbled by your initiative to get all the forum united against you. REALLY NICE TROLLING!

egzius.9031:

Where to start. The game is just too easy. Everyone can get achievement points in PVE, no one is left behind. You’ve done a right step in PVP. Let’s analyse the achievements: need to win, need to win, need to win. Whereas PVE: participate, help, work together. See a problem? You are not incentivizing the player enough to go PVE. Offer a great reward (such as a legendary backpack), but cut the supply of them tenfold (by making it only that winners get the achievements and put in tiers of semi good rewards), by making so that only the Meta achievers can get it, while others get something that’s less of a value, such as resonating sliver, since everyone likes those. Economy is better off (less rewards flood the market), players are better off, you are better off as you can be sure that players will gate other players as much as possible from getting the final shiny. I like where you are going with current events, where players have to steal from other players to get achievement points, but I believe you could still kick it up a notch by making so that instead of priory fighting inquest, priory (player side) could fight consortium (player side) and the losing sides loses that much from their achievement pool. This way, people have incentive to try, because now, people are just gonna be like meh, I’ll do it and I’ll get something everyone will get, whereas if it’s exclusive, more people will join to get the exclusive shiny. You could also throw a match-maker to ensure fair-play between the two sides, no stacking, etc.

I’ve bolded the parts I like the most in your opening post. They are masterpieces.

Isn’t that what it is? If it is open for other players and they’re about to take it, but you snatch it before them, you simply steal from them. I can rephrase them if you feel that stealing is offensive, because as I think now, it is not technically stealing (it is from the leyline, since it is its property) but not from the players.

I feel you, man. I mean you put as POSITIVE something most people participating in that event really, really, really HATE. All the while saying participation, helping and working toghether in PvE are PROBLEMS.

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/53813852.jpg

OMFG Egzius! I’m totally humbled by your initiative to get all the forum united against you. REALLY NICE TROLLING!

egzius.9031:

Where to start. The game is just too easy. Everyone can get achievement points in PVE, no one is left behind. You’ve done a right step in PVP. Let’s analyse the achievements: need to win, need to win, need to win. Whereas PVE: participate, help, work together. See a problem? You are not incentivizing the player enough to go PVE. Offer a great reward (such as a legendary backpack), but cut the supply of them tenfold (by making it only that winners get the achievements and put in tiers of semi good rewards), by making so that only the Meta achievers can get it, while others get something that’s less of a value, such as resonating sliver, since everyone likes those. Economy is better off (less rewards flood the market), players are better off, you are better off as you can be sure that players will gate other players as much as possible from getting the final shiny. I like where you are going with current events, where players have to steal from other players to get achievement points, but I believe you could still kick it up a notch by making so that instead of priory fighting inquest, priory (player side) could fight consortium (player side) and the losing sides loses that much from their achievement pool. This way, people have incentive to try, because now, people are just gonna be like meh, I’ll do it and I’ll get something everyone will get, whereas if it’s exclusive, more people will join to get the exclusive shiny. You could also throw a match-maker to ensure fair-play between the two sides, no stacking, etc.

I’ve bolded the parts I like the most in your opening post. They are masterpieces.

“Better than Nothing” has a nice ring to it. XD
What a bout “The PUGs”?

I’m thinking now they are reeeeeeeeeeeealy short on animation staff.

+1 a thousand times.

Moyayuki.3619:

Hexinx.1872:

Enemy major attacks have tells… generally in the form of huge red circles that appear before they land. The only attacks that don’t show are auto attacks like the tiny pocket raptors who jump at you, hit you, and run away, rinse repeat.

Yeah, it’s things like that (and the dart shooting frogs) that aren’t necessarily easy to avoid by simply moving (not dodging).

Even these had tells: their animations let you know there will be an attack.

Evades are only 2 because they are a resource, like the hp. This way the game keep the players on their toes during combat.

There is also all the specific options Razor describes, AND movement skills wich let you disengage when needed.

It should be more like a levitation animation, and less identical to the gliding one.

I love HoT, but Orr is fantastic too.

HnRkLnXqZ.1870:

All that well explained build post

hide spoiler

First of all, I want to list up the stuff you aim for, so I can refer to those points at every necessary situation:
- PvP
- Conditions (major damage output
- AoE
- survival
- speed

Now let us have a look at your setup.

1. Weapon
The traditional configuration for a condition-build focuses on at least one if not two pistols. As those are excellent condition sources. As you have selected the hammer for felxibility and cc-options, this decision is totally fine. But I want to mention, for this case you could also consider a rifle. It allows swift movement, good cc and (refering to your last post) offers an alternative source for bleeding, which you already want to use as main condition damage source. The vulnerability source might be lower, compared to the hammer. But you have the advantage of not being in melee range to your targets. In terms of swiftness and flexibility, that is a point you may consider wiseley. The farer you can be away from your target, the easier you can escape and the less aditional effort you have to put into your movement (e.g. sacrificing utility-skill-slots, or colldown of the heal-skill).

2. Healskill
I’m going to focus the elexir-issue in the discussion of your trait lines in detail. I have my reasons not to rely on them. If you do not want to follow the traditional 101 engineer, I would suggest you the medic gyro. As you already unlocked the scrapper trait-line, why not use the gyro. It supports you with a direct heal, HOT and a quite useful toolbelt skill which can be used for secondary healing (blast-combos) or for defensive issues. The AED is something I would only consider as an option in 1v1 battles against vicious lethal classes which have the ability to cut you down within a second.

3. Utility
For condition-damage, the selected kits are ok. The flamethrower has some specail abilities which I gonna focus at the discussion of the traits. Depending on your desired combat position, the granade kit (for ranged) and the bomb kit (for melee) could also be nice additions, which you could use instead of that elexir. Normal builds, with direct damage output tend to use those kits more frequently, but there is no basic rule which says you are not allowed to use them for conditons as well. It depends a lot on the situation and what type of enemy you face.

4. Elite
It is a good decision, AoE and condition wise, but you waste some potential with the traits. The toolbelt might look a little useless at first. It can be helpful to piolt weakened or fleeing enemies towards your team-members. Or forcing them to waste their endurance, before the next encounter. Although not very impressive, damage wise, the visuals do a great job in alarming your opponents.

-

Now let us have a look at your traits.

Firearms (minor)
Let’s check your arms again. You have a hammer (melee range). You have a flamethrower (the farest skills have a maximum range of 600). And you have an elexir gun (with a range set between 450 and 900 – which is not much). In the first tier of Firearms, you have the trait “High Caliber”. That increases your ciritical hit chance by 10% as long as you are within a range of 240 to your target. Especially if you want to keep the hammer, I would go for that trait. Also the flamethrower usually forces players to nearly melee their targets. Your earth-sigil on the hammer only activates when you land a critical hit. So while using the hammer or flamethrower, your cirt-chance should be as high as possible. Even if you consider changing your weapon to pistols or rifle, I would stick to that trait. None of the pistol conditions will be any better with a 50% increase of the duration. Two are only for deception purpose, which require a duration of 0.1 seconds to be effective – in terms of cc.

Firearms (major)
The Pinpoint Distribution is an excellent choice. The effect of No Scope is little and the cooldown of 10 seconds with a duration of only 4 seconds, makes this trait more of a gamble. And usually the odds are never in our favor. I would not count on that. With a cirt chance above 50%, granted by the minor trait suggestion, you have a good output of bleeding stacks, especially when using the flamethrower-autoattack or the elexir-gun Fumigate. The Skilled Marksman, even if you consider to use a rifle, should be skiped for direct dps builds.

Firearms (master)
On the first view, I would guess you plan to keep your opponent burning. Which is impossible if you only use the flamethrower autoattack. However even with the Incendiary Powder trait this is not possible. If you combine the toolbelt skill/buff as well, you get that effect. But only on a single target and only for a very short duration of time. The damage increase you get from Flame Jet on buring enemies is power based.

What is the problem with the Juggernaut? It is a common and nowadays even kinda stereotype engineer-trait. But the reason for this is simple, it works. Even if you do not use the Mass Momentum (Scrapper), you get a good ammount of might stacks and a permanent single stability stack. Especially the stability, although it is only one tiny little stack, makes a huge difference and you a hard to catch player, even if you have no speedboosts at all. Also might-stacks improve both direct and condition damage.

Alchemy
Before I start in this trait-line, I want to make this absolutely clear. I would not use this traitline, as long as I focus on kit using. I’ll show you what you can improve in that traitline, to get improved results. But at the end I will show you an alternative traitline as well.

Alchemy (minor)
The engineer is a moving class. A standing engineer is a dead engineer.
Protection Injection is your backup, for the bad case of you getting hit by a cc-skill. Some of those skills have long durations and your protection barely lasts three seconds. And we have no clue how much HP you have left, once you are disabled. We also have no clue how many enemies will go after you. Personally I would focus on avoiding that situation at all costs. Before the great nerf, engineers had permanent vigor. It was a pain and imbalanced, but we were nearly unreachable with nearly infinite endurance. A cc-skill you can dodge, you dont need additional defenses for. The trait in question is called Invigorating Speed, which applies vigor to you once you apply swiftness. Especially in combat, you can never have enough endurance.

Alchemy (major)
Refering to your Projection Injection decision, here is a real life-saver. Self-Regulating Defenses. It has a huge cooldown, but this thing really prevents you from death. It does not matter how much HP you have left, it does not matter how many enemies chase you. And it does not matter if you are disabled. Once you reach the limit, you are invincible and can run wherever you want. If you don’t want to waste your trait on an effect with 60 seconds cooldown, your Backpack Regenerator is the best choice.

Alchemy (master)
If you stick to the elexirs in your skill-setup, there is hardly anything to say against HGH.

Scrapper (minor)
Recovery Matrix is a good choice.

Scrapper (major)
Mass Momentum is designed for direct damage output, but once again might stacks also increase condition damage. Especially If you plan to use the flamethrower for the most time, this trait is worth another thought. The Rapid Regeneration, is not a bad choice either. But I think the ammount of HP healed is a little low, even if combined with the trait in Alchemy.

Scrapper (master)
It is difficult to say something against the Adaptive Armor, especially in PvP, where you don’t have to fear aggro. The Applied Force however is an option worth to think about, especially if you plan to use the flamethrower with both the Juggernaut and the Mass Momentum. In that case you constantly have 1/3 of your time quickness = more hits = more crits.

As promised above, I gonna explain an alternative traitline to your Alchemy, the Tools. Honestly I have no clue what is meta atm. I create my builds as I need them and I focus only on the needs and requirements for the situation. Some of the things I say might be part of a common/meta configuration. If that is the case, I’m deeply sorry.

Tools (minor)
The passive already grants you vigor upon the use of any toolbelt skill = more endurance. Reactive Lenses is my kind of a backup system. It is technically a combination of Self Regulating Defenses and Projection Injection, with a lower cooldown and fury instead of protection. Simply you get hit by a cc, walk away like nothing happened and have a free stack of fury with you. Could be worse.

Tools (major)
Streamlines Kits. A build which uses kits, should use that trait. As well as a build with a flamethrower should use the Juggernaut. For me it is a normal as using HB on a warrior who has equiped a Greatsword. It works, so why should you ignore it on purpose?

A thing not many people see with this trait has to do with the spell, mentioned in the tooltip. That spell is always the same for each kit but in two cases it is extremely powerful. On the flamethrower you only get a fire-aura which lasts barely a few seconds and causes only one stack of burning on an attacking opponent. The more important spells are caused by the elexir gun and the motar kit. The Elexir Gun causes Slik Shoes, drops of glue as footprints for a few seconds. The motar kit is even more powerful, as it causes a big spot of goo. That goo is the same, you can steal as a thief. It causes several damage dealing conditions on impact and should not be underestimated by condition builds.

Tools (master)
Adrenal Implant is the the frosting of your cake. Another huge improvement to your endurance regeneration, which makes you swift and hard to catch.

Sigils & Runes
That is something people shall select on their own. The only thing I want to mention for the second weapon sigil. If you have trouble escaping your opponents, you could replace the sigil of doom with a sigil of hydromancy. It causes an AoE chill and alows you to get rid of your opponents if you need to.

Woah. The build you describe, with tools and not alchemy, is basically the one I run most of the time. Only I prefer rifle over hammer.

Shortbow and rifle are the ones who need more love. Both are used only by 2 professions, and aren’t optimal either.

Any scholar could use a shortbow, and is not hard to imagine a revenant using one. An Ele with a rifle wouldn’t be so farfetched, a Necro could be really cool.

I would have loved to see more of the internal Ceara struggle against Mord corruption, instead of only little hints along the too cartoonish Scarlet’s external evilness.

But that story is already done, and shouldn’t be rewritten just because we wish our commanders could have done better. The fact is our character failed to see the whole picture, leading everyone to tragedy. And that is good: failure is fundamental to create good stories.

Instead of hoping for retconing, I thing we should ask Anet to give LS3 an improved plotline and much more character development for every PC and NPC involved.

1 month? That’s really fast for my tandards.
I do ascended armor more or less steadily, but I have never completed a full set in less than 2 months.

What’s the rush anyway? You’ll get there eventually, and exotics are good in the meantime.

I like HoT maps. Don’t play them if you want to facetank everything without thinking.

I like your hybrid approuch, but I’m no expert to really give you feedback.

I think the cap is there so truly completionist people can go outside once in a while.

Emotes everyone uses >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Creatures just a few see.

It’s all I can say.

More emotes are truly needed. Much more.

I always dance over my dead guildies before resurrecting them.

Whenever people are reunited waiting for something, I equip my flamethrower and began to quickly flame jet-jump-about face, filling the place with fire… just because.

I can’t talk into raid call or teamspeak unless is really really really needed. I prefer just to hear and type in party chat.

I think portals are good fun. I also think people who don’t use portals to get to the end of a JP should receive better rewards.