Guild Wars 2

^ You clearly don’t want to listen to simple and logical reasons for wanting a single skill to be affected by cripple/chill (when other classes’ gap control skills ARE affected), so I won’t try with you.

I won’t say anything to sPVP/tPVP because I don’t play those modes often enough. I also think in closer quarters like most of the PVP maps are the elementalist’s high mobility isn’t quite as game-breaking, though it is very useful.

But I seriously doubt you’ve ever stepped foot in WvW and realized that an elementalist can go in an instant from right next to you to out of combat too far for you to catch. No other class can do that as easily. Only other classes that come close are the thief (who can stealth and spam Heartseeker or Shortbow 5 to flee) and mesmer (who could possibly Portal out if they set it up beforehand, or use Staff 2 + Blink if they were quick enough), but even those can’t do it as quickly.

There’s a reason I hardly touch my Necromancer these days. I kind of regret wasting the time getting an Ascended back piece for it. I could have put it on my warrior or guardian instead. >_<

It’s not that the class isn’t viable, but it’s just not very fun to play.

Rissou.7213:

A pistol thief have 3 utilities to use for stealth, but I highly doubt they are on short cooldown enough for him to spam stealth with.

Also, If i ever see a dual pistol thief killing mesmer and guardian in a 2vs1 situation, im gonna be traumatized for the rest of my life. Guardian and mesmer is 2 of the hardest counters against thief ever.

You most likely fought a Pistol/dagger thief, who can go stealth every 4 seconds and use sneak attack, which looks like Unload for people who dont play thief

Edit: There isnt much you can do to counter it, except become a better player.

True, but I was simply countering the idea that a thief using dual pistols is unable to stealth.

haviz.1340:

How does putting 10 points in fire increase your crit?

It doesn’t. I’m assuming they changed their gear and runes, plus maybe used food, to that effect.

Gamblit.5041:

Erithus.1649:

Hello thieves

I play a mesmer, roaming solo most of the times. Generally speaking, I can deal with thieves easily; especially when they are solo. However, there is a build that is really a pain to counter. Last night, myself and a guardian found a p/p thief, he kept going invisible all the time and his health kept going up. We just couldn’t catch him and deliver the pain. I am assuming that this thief was wearing +healing gear or something and kept regenerating health while in stealth. He eventually wore us down one by one and eventually killed us. Hats off to him.

I have a thief but I don’t have the time to level him properly, so I was wondering if there is a way to counter this build. And please don’t suggest to run away, I won’t do that.

Thank you in advance!

Thank you!

EDIT: also, if you could point to this build, that would be great. Thanks!

P/P thief can’t go in to stealth. It doesn’t have weapon skills for it.

You fought something else.

Wrong. Utilities. Thief has 3 utilities that can provide stealth.

haviz.1340:

Only RtL is not affected by movement reducing conditions, rest are normally slowed down. If you moan about mist form, why won’t you go on engineer forum and moan about elixir s?

Sure, just make it so you can use utility skills, attunement change and be affected by swiftness, just like any other class skill is.

I never said anything about Mist Form. It’s a great skill. I also said nothing about Elixir S. I also think that’s a great skill, too. They’re also utilities, both with very long cooldowns, even when traited.

Swiftness doesn’t affect those skills. Swiftness has nothing to do with the argument I was making. Please keep up.

stof.9341:

The way to make use the healing turret regen is to pop it down when there’s nothing happening to let it stack the boon on you then pick it up at the first sign of a fight so that it’ll be out of CD when I need it the real heal.

Not sure it’s worth the effort though.

Depends on how high your healing stat is. Mine is moderate-to-low (I have a few Sapphire trinkets).

More so than its low durability, my concern over the healing turret is that its activation skill is so kitten unreliable. I wish it would activate instantly when I use it. Sometimes it takes a ridiculously long time to activate (like 5-10 seconds!), and sometimes I’m not sure if it worked at all. It’s one of the main reasons why I stopped playing turret Engie.

I think a greatsword that would somewhat resemble how the Mesmer’s greatsword functions would be beneficial and add a lot of variety to the “viable” builds, which seem very limited at the moment (although extremely effective within those limited options).

Fire: the AOE DPS attunement, moderate long-range AOE damage with burning-inducing attacks. Maybe similar to how the Engineer’s pistol’s autoattack has a small AOE area, but make it longer range (like 1000 range).
Water: the support/healing attunement, perhaps it could work similar to the Guardian’s GS with a medium range charge (one that chills instead of blinds) and some small healing/cleansing AOEs.
Lightning: the stun/CC attunement, with moderate single target damage, with perhaps some swiftness buffs (as usual). Maybe a conal AOE knockback like the Mesmer’s GS 5.
Earth: the usual protection buffs, with bleeds. High single target damage, but shorter range than the fire attunement. Maybe another knockback/blowout skill in addition to a crippling skill.

^Just ideas. I would love a GS for my elementalist. It would make me feel like I’m not restricted to either staff or D/D.

It’s decent, if you spec into it. Main problem is that most people would agree that most things specter can do the MH dagger can do just as or nearly as well, but with better benefits (such as point-blank AOE).

But it’s up to you. It’s very much a matter of playstyle. I like the D/D rushing style, jump in their faces, smack them with AOEs and conditions, jump back out to let yourself recover, then jump right back in. D/D does that better.

I see a few elementalists running around in WvW with scepter, though, so I’m assuming it’s because it’s a far better ranged option since MH dagger, for all intents and purposes, is a melee-range weapon.

LordByron.8369:

infact when u say this its clear you don t know what you are talking about….

Actually, I do know what I’m talking about. I’ve played this game for well over a year-and-a-half now, going on two years, thank you very much.

Mesmer has to TRAIT into that 1200 Blink, otherwise it’s only 900. Not very many mesmers trait into Manipulation-specialization, since usually mesmers pick more offensive traits like greatsword, pistol, sword, or glamour enhancing traits.

All the elementalist has to do to get the full 1200 range Ride the Lightning is press 4 while a OH dagger is equipped.

Don’t get me wrong —- I am NOT calling for another nerf to the skill itself. Anet already did that with the CD increase from 15 to 20 seconds. What I want is for the elementalist to be affected by movement-impairing conditions while using the skill like any other class is when using their respective skills. If you think that isn’t fair then you seriously need to reevaluate what you think “fair” constitutes.

And the fact that your post makes you look like you’re a 12-year old who’s texting on a cell phone doesn’t help your argument at all. There’s this thing, old-fashioned and outdated though it is… it’s called grammar.

Lyonell.1753:

Second comment goes to Signet of healing, I say it should keep it’s current regeneration but have it’s active healing effect boosted, hell every warrior’s heal should be boosted at least 50%.

Or at least scale with our HP or something.

We’re supposed to be the most durable class after the Guardian but even with soldier-type gear once we hit a certain HP level (typically around 50% of our total HP), we’re suddenly at an HP deficit that we’re completely unable to recover from unless we’ve put tons of gear into our healing stat, which decimates our damage output.

Berzerker trinkets with Soldier armor, if you don’t want to run a high-risk build like mine.

Generally speaking, more toughness is better, but with hybrids it’s however much you feel you need.

Spam Staff 2. If you got it traited, it’s like a 6-sec cooldown.

Add a bit of retaliation on your phantasms, the thief will go down very fast.

I don’t see the issue, other than the obvious issue of skill, which can only be fixed by practicing.

Very useful trait, especially if you’ve traited some points into Water.

It functionally works exactly the same as mesmer’s Blink. A 900 range teleport that breaks stun.

However, if you trait for cantrips to proc regen and vigor, it’s arguably better than the mesmer’s ability (though the mesmer can trait for theirs to go a bit farther).

I do agree with the OP. I think the elementalist’s movement skills such as Ride the Lightning SHOULD be affected by cripples and chills just like any other class. The fact that elementalists can go straight through crippling AOEs without any affect on their movement until they come out of the skill’s effect does seem kind of overpowered to me. The warrior can’t do that with Rush, why should the elementalist be able to?

My elementalist is only a measly level 28 but I can still go into WvW and roll face. And if I can’t roll face, I can run away so easily that I can literally pick and choose who to engage, when and where. That just doesn’t seem right, especially since I have almost no traits.

I have 8 characters, one of each class, and all of them are level 80 except for my ranger and elementalist (ranger is level 70, elementalist is level 28). No other class comes remotely close to the absurd amount of mobility that the elementalist has (which in PvP/WvW translates to gap control). Not even a thief with a shortbow can truly compete (though they come as close as you can get without having Ride the Lightning or a long-range Mesmer manipulation-traited Blink).

Seras.5702:

Nanobots. Nanotechnology introduced into the body in a simple liquid via oral administration. As engineers, we must design and build these tiny machines.

Now…if we can fabricate such powerful nanobots, why can’t we get our turrets to function better?

They’re too big?

Phineas Poe.3018:

Mmmm… I always saw the Healing Turret as the “support” healing skill. The Med Kit is designed around preemptive healing and granting an untraited condition removal and offensive buffs through Drop Stimulant and proccing Altruism.

I like your idea about Packaged Stimulants though.

Trouble with the healing turret is that it only provides regen (therefore lacks burst healing) and is destroyed really fast if turrets aren’t traited. A single hit from a boss will kill it instantly.

Maybe make the healing kits LARGER so they’re easier to pick up by other players. As is, you have to walk DIRECTLY OVER THEM to pick them up and sometimes that’s just not possible when things get chaotic in a fight.

Read in TF2 Demoman voice:

“You’re so bloody tiny… like a pint-sized version of a MAN!”

Personally I use berserker. The bleeds are more like bonus damage than anything, since it’s unlikely that you’ll get them to stack above 3-4 unless you also use a Superior Sigil of Earth. Even then, you should want more crit damage because Rifle 3 is your main bread-and-butter for direct damage. And considering that my crit chance rating for my warrior is really high (I have 100% berserker/ruby gear like a true glass-cannon scrub) that extra crit damage really pays off.

Whether or not you use rampager or berserker is dependent on your other weapon set. If you use Dual Swords, go for rampager for certain. Any other weapon combo, berserker is probably better.

Not that I don’t agree 100% (because I do), but why 463 for the regeneration number? Seems kinda like a random number to me. Why not an even 400, 450, or 500?

zone.1073:

1. I have no stun breaker.
2. I have no team utility.
3. No instant abilities (all prone to interruption).
4. I have only 1 condi cleanse, on a 45 second cooldown.
5. My healing signet heals for nothing.

Five reasons why that build doesn’t work. One for each signet!

Community realized this 3 hours into launch. 8 months later, devs are still using it. Hm..

And this, ladies and gents, is why signet builds are only good for lowbie leveling. Because even in PvE, once you run into hordes of Risen Brutes, YOU ARE SCREWED.

Cleric. Toughness over vitality any day with any class, bar the Necromancer. And condition very rarely benefits a Guardian, for reasons Ultramatum stated.

I already use a modified version of this build. But I use different traits that are a bit more selfish, so I am less vulnerable to conditions.

Honestly, my build’s only weakness is poison or stacks of bleed over 20. And obviously it does kitten damage, but I don’t die unless I’m poisoned. It really helps in dungeons when tanking.

Eclispo.2703:

CrazyAce.3842:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Skill 1. Bounces up to three targets, 1st target gets 1 stack of bleeding (4sec), 2nd is poisoned (2sec), 3rd 1 stack of confusion (3sec).

Skill 2. Do an evasive move (1.1/2sec evasion, matrix style) that bleeds (1stack 6sec) and burns (3sec) foes and summons a clone at your current position. CD 12sec.

Skill 3. I want something like Static Shot on engi’s pistol!

Woah. A bouncing attack like that for an autoattack? No way, dude. That would be overpowered for certain.

If we get a mainhand pistol (and that’s a pretty big if), it should be something like this:

[time for skill to execute] (CD and range, additional skill info)

1. Shoot the target [1/4] > Shoot the target [1/4] > Shoot the target and inflict a random condition for 1 second [1/4] (900 range)
2. Daze the target for 1 sec [1/4] (10s CD, 750 range)
3. Summon a clone on the target that fires confusing bullets [1 sec] (15s CD, 900 range, needs LOS and clone attacks every 10 seconds and inflicts 3 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds)

Or perhaps the 2 slot could be something similar to the Engineer’s pistol 3 skill. I dunno. But it needs to not be OP.

A mainhand pistol would NEED a clone skill of some sort. It would break the class theme, otherwise.

All this being said, if mesmer got a mainhand pistol, I could die happy.

messed
sounds like sceptor skills if anything

Have you ever even used the scepter? It works like this:

1. Clone summon on third hit.
2. A block that summons a clone on hit or blinds if ended early.
3. A quick confusing beam.

I can’t believe I had to fking explain that. Come back when you know what you’re talking about, tyvm.

Now that I hit level 80 I have full Orr medium armor (the karma set, not the dungeon set).

I freaking love the hat.

Personally I run with a confusion build. Most thieves like to spam attacks to burn people down as fast as possible. Very rarely have I run across a venom thief (though it has happened). Confusion works well against most classes in sPVP if they aren’t paying attention. If nothing else it will reduce the damage against you if the other player holds back to let the debuff wear off (or burns a condition removal). If they do keep attacking you, you’ll have the advantage, in all likelihood.

My confusion build is really simple: 20/0/0/20/30. It’s as plain a cookie cutter glamour confusion build as you can get, but it works wonders. Lacks mobility and buffs, but it has decent condition removal and excellent dodge-rolling capability when you tweak your gear right.

Here’s a link to it: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N3SZ-FKWPk61273VV71;9;4J;0JT07;518-48AQol6-FG4cV19cV192Ro

(Note: you need to copy and paste the link into your browser for some reason… clicking on it doesn’t work. :\)

Sil.4560:

What’s overpowered about the class is the irritating “pop” mechanics that players seem to depend on in WvW. Almost every mesmer I fight is invisible 90% of the time because of the server lag making them not appear for just long enough for them to be able to abuse their next disappearing skill.

Mesmers themselves? I don’t have problems with them. It’s when I can’t even kittening see or target them that’s the problem; the issue needs to be looked at.

That’s a culling issue, not a class issue.

The buff to jagged horrors was akin to the buff to Engineers’ turrets. A pretty number in a piece of paper, but utterly worthless.

Maybe if the cooldown was reduced to 15 seconds or something, or maybe if the jagged horrors didn’t lose health over time. As is, they’re utterly worthless, not even usable as cannon fodder. Or better yet, remove the trait entirely. In fact, fix the entire Death Magic trait line so that the minor traits benefit ALL Necromancers, not just minion masters.

I have a Superior Sigil of Fire on my mainhand pistol, and it procs even when I’m using kits. I know for certain it works on my grenade kits and flamethrower.

What I’m unclear about is whether or not your actual weapon stats matter when using kits. (For instance, does equipping a shield result in slightly higher toughness when using a kit?)

kingpuza.4835:

What is the definition of “viable?” In PvP it seems to mean, “Could you win a fight?” But what does it mean for PvE? Is it merely a comparison with other classes?

In most people’s minds “viable” in terms of PvE typically means whether you can run dungeons with a particular build OR defeat Champions in world events without getting completely stomped.

Speaking from personal experience, turrets are fantastic for PvE (in certain situations, namely soloing champion-level monsters). I solo’d the dual Champions Wasp Queen and Wasp Soldier (yes, two champions at the same time) using my turret build. By myself, at level 47. Not even level 80. I had Healing Turret, Rocket Turret, Rifle Turret, Net Turret, and Supply Crate. Throughout the entire fight I always had regeneration up, and always dodge rolled until my Net Turret immobilized them again. It was hard, but I did it. I can’t say that I could have achieved that with any other build, since turret builds allow you to concentrate solely on kiting while your turrets do the work.

Problem with turret builds is that dungeon bosses kill them usually in one hit. That, and they tend to lack mobility/condition removal overall. Or if a wide-area AOE hits them, they also go down fast. It’s quite frustrating, which is why I don’t run a turret engie anymore, but you can still use turrets in dungeons because they do help the group. Just keep in mind it’s going to be tough because turrets tend to die fast in big mobs or against bosses.

Hexxen.7216:

Aveneo.2068:

Duelist Discipline being a Master trait

Poor argument since our torch reduction trait is also a Master Trait. Sword is the only weapon reduction trait that isn’t Master actually.

I personally never felt that was a problem. Almost all class’ weapon traits are in the Master lines.

The Mesmer was my first alt, though I try to play all 8 classes equally (though my elementalist is still my only non level-80, lol).

I’ll share my build with you folks real quick. I use it exclusively for PvE, and it works equally well for roaming PvE (i.e. general hunting and eventing) and dungeons.

The build is a condition based build reliant on spamming clones/phantasms to either autoattack or quickly stack conditions, but you can still use them for extra burst damage (though that’s not its main purpose). It’s 0/20{V, X}/20{V, X}/10{IV}/20{III, VII}. Healing skill is Ether Feast, Utilities are your choice, but I personally use Decoy, Mirror Images, and Nullfield/Feedback/Blink (depending on the situation). Weapons are staff and scepter/pistol. I use Precision/Toughness/Condition gear, and even if my group gets wiped in a dungeon, I am always the last person standing. Using your clones/phantasms as cannon fodder is an incredibly effective way of staying alive, I’ve found, though I don’t see many people speccing for conditions like I do.

Leveling is also slow. Mesmer is one of the hardest classes to level in the early-middle levels (10-50) because enemies are stronger but you don’t quite have the skill points yet to fully trait into either burst (typically shatters w/ GS) or condition (staff w/ additional bounces and lots of clones). However, there’s a ton of different builds. It’s very daunting at first, but just go into the Mists and fiddle with your traits. You’ll eventually find something that fits your playstyle.

Aveneo.2068:

Anyone ever considered that if ANet would add a mainhand pistol, it wouldn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be another condition-based weapon. We already have the Scepter as a ranged onehanded condition based weapon, but we are currently lacking a ranged onehanded power based weapon.

One of the reasons why I believe that ANet originally intended to have the pistol as a mainhand option at launch. That, and Duelist Discipline trait being a Master trait as well as having 2 illusionary pistols in the game (Lyss and Ilya).

Just thought I’d coin that possibility.

Eh, we’re all just throwing around ideas. I think most of us doubt that we’ll ever get a MH pistol…. but without dreams, what are we?

A power-based HM pistol seems interesting, but less fun and interesting than a condition-based pistol (conditions, especially random ones, are a theme of mesmer). Power based pistols are for thieves. I think a lot of Mesmers have looked at the Engineer’s MH pistol and wished they had something like its 3 ability for a MH slot (pistol 4 comes pretty darn close). At least I did.

athuria.2751:

Iruwen.3164:

Azure.8670:

Im rambling now sorry for to close this case, no. We arent overpowered, but we are extremely well balanced and one of the few classes that has many different viable weapon sets.

Exactly.

It’s pretty much this. Mesmers look so much better than a lot of other classes and have a stronger presence in more areas of gameplay because we’re actually a really well-balanced class—We’re effective, we’re versatile, and just about all our utilities and traits and weapon sets are viable (and actually function). We’re a point that Anet needs to bring other classes up to, not the other way around.

Agree 100%. Anet should take a look at the other classes and see how they can improve the number of viable weapon sets to bring them UP to the level of the Mesmer. For the Mesmer, we can trait for any weapon set or utility set we prefer, and still make them work without completely giving up DPS or survivability. So why do Warriors have to struggle so much to make certain weapon set combinations work (such as dual swords) and why do most Warriors feel that they have to use Shouts/Stances to be effective (the “upper tier” tPvP seems to have no Warriors whatsoever)? Or why do the majority of Rangers feel that Shortbow/Longbow are their only real options? Don’t even get me started on the Necromancer’s weapons, especially the Axe and MH Dagger. Necromancer build variety is also getting narrower and narrower because of Corruption nerfs and lack of Spectral utility synergy with traits. Turret builds for Engineers are fun for leveling, but even if the turrets had been given a 100% increase in health during the most recent major patch, they’d still get insta-gibbed in dungeons.

If Anet just makes those other weapon/utility sets work for other classes it will broaden their options and make them realize that Mesmer isn’t OP, it just works because it has effective synergy and viable builds no matter which trait themes you might choose.

I understand that classes are supposed to have niche roles (that what makes them unique and effective as a class), but you have to let those niches actually work, and that means fixing some of those balance issues where blind carpet nerfing (which seems to happen to Engineer and Necromancer a lot) kills viable builds and leaves players in those classes with even fewer options.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Skill 1. Bounces up to three targets, 1st target gets 1 stack of bleeding (4sec), 2nd is poisoned (2sec), 3rd 1 stack of confusion (3sec).

Skill 2. Do an evasive move (1.1/2sec evasion, matrix style) that bleeds (1stack 6sec) and burns (3sec) foes and summons a clone at your current position. CD 12sec.

Skill 3. I want something like Static Shot on engi’s pistol!

Woah. A bouncing attack like that for an autoattack? No way, dude. That would be overpowered for certain.

If we get a mainhand pistol (and that’s a pretty big if), it should be something like this:

[time for skill to execute] (CD and range, additional skill info)

1. Shoot the target [1/4] > Shoot the target [1/4] > Shoot the target and inflict a random condition for 1 second [1/4] (900 range)
2. Daze the target for 1 sec [1/4] (10s CD, 750 range)
3. Summon a clone on the target that fires confusing bullets [1 sec] (15s CD, 900 range, needs LOS and clone attacks every 10 seconds and inflicts 3 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds)

Or perhaps the 2 slot could be something similar to the Engineer’s pistol 3 skill. I dunno. But it needs to not be OP.

A mainhand pistol would NEED a clone skill of some sort. It would break the class theme, otherwise.

All this being said, if mesmer got a mainhand pistol, I could die happy.

The base damage is fine, just make every tic inflict .5 sec of burning. Or have the end tick last for 3 seconds. Or have a shorter proc at the beginning of the stream.

Also change FT 4 so it inflicts a longer burning, like 5 seconds, so enemies cant just walk right through it like it’s not even there. The tiny bit of burning it does is pathetic and barely even serves as a deterrent, especially when you’re getting chased by a zerg in WvW.

I’ve never had issues with Whirling Axe. I used dual axes for a long time while soloing before I swapped out for Sword/Warhorn (for the mobility). In terms of sheer DPS, there isn’t much that can beat my glass cannon warrior with Dual Axes/Rifle. Only class I can think of that can burst as hard is a thief. Rifle 3 + Eviscerate = dead.

Very nice build. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it. I personally would have ditched the bow for the rifle, but if you’re looking for the AOE, I can’t say that there’s really anything to add to your cool build. However, I will say that you should make sure to maximize your condition damage (perhaps using the precision/toughness/condition armor with PVT trinkets), or else your bleeds won’t be as effective.

Anyone crying about HGH being OP probably is just bad. The longer a battle drags on the worse the chances the engineer has, so just kite around LOS objects until their stacks start to deteriorate.

Or if you’re a mesmer/necromancer, either strip, steal, or transform their boon into condition. If their boon disappears, or worse, gets turned into weakness, they’re in serious trouble.

I used a turret build for most of my earlier engineering, until I got tired of it. I really liked it, but it seriously lacked mobility and stun-breakers, which can be fatal in certain instances.

In my mind, there are 3 main turret builds, though I’m sure people have others.

The one I used was a hybrid: 20/20/30/0/0. Utilities were Rocket, Rifle/Flame/Thumper (depending on circumstance), and Net. Net IMO is essential because it makes kiting enemies to be a lot easier. Healing/Elite are obviously going to be Healing Turret and Supply Crate.

I used dual pistols for my weapons for this build. I could have used a shield, but turret build tend to lack DPS, plus the Pistol 5 snare is just incredibly useful.

I personally ran this as a DPS build and relied on my turrets to distract the enemies while I gunned them down. Worked most of the time. If the mobs chase you, just run around your turrets until they start attacking them. You can also do a full-on bunker build (0/0/30{III, X, XII}/30{IV, VI, XII}/10{V}) or a slightly different hybrid build (0/30{II, VI, XII}/30{III, X, XII}/0/10{V}). Depends on your playstyle.

Trait Breakdown:
Explosives: 20 points.
{V} Incendiary Power – More condition damage = more DPS. Engineers have a great array of conditions to inflict, so maximize it as much as possible.
{IX} Accelerant-Packed Turrets – Whenever your turrets are destroyed or you detonate them with your toolbelt skills, they push enemies back. Your turrets are more likely than not going to be destroyed, so having those free interrupts/pushbacks is nice.

Firearms: 20 points.
{II} Sitting Duck – Pick this if you use dual pistols or the rifle, but grab {V} Precise Sights if you prefer pistol/shield.
{VI} Hair Trigger – Since I use dual pistols, this helps to maximize the insane number of conditions I’m throwing out, further adding to my DPS.

Inventions: 30 points.
{III} Metal Plating – 30% reduction in damage to turrets. No question, take it.
{X} Autotool Installation – Turrets self-regenerate. Again, no question. Take it.
{XII} Rifled Turret Barrels – Turrets deal 15% more damage and have longer range. I’m sensing a theme here. TAKE IT.

It’s quite a simple build. However, it is set up for a bit more DPS. If you want to put 10 points from Firearms into Tools to get {V} Deployable Turrets (turrets use ground targeting, with 900 range), feel free to do so. Personally I never really felt I ever really needed the ability, so I tended to skip it, but I think most other people will like it more than I did. It’s there if you want it.

I highly recommend you grab 2 Monk runes and use 4 Water/2 Monk. It’ll maximize your rune-based boon duration while still granting you the healing bonuses from using a Water set. Therefore you won’t have to worry about renewing your regen quite as much.

Personally, I don’t use Engineer in sPVP because I’m not skilled enough. I stick to my Warrior and Mesmer, because I’ve practiced with them more.

I’ve fiddled with the traits of the Engie A LOT over the past week. I’ve experimented with every available trait combo, but so far my favorite is the flamethrower. I think my latent pyromania is revealing itself.

My PVE Engineer build is 0/30{V, VIII, IX}/0/30{I, IX, X}/10{VI} (a Flamethrower-based build with Elixir support). I use PVT armor with Sapphire (PTH) trinkets. My runes are 2 Monk, 2 Water, 2 Speed. My sigils are Fire and Bloodlust. Weapons are pistol/shield, for the tiny bit of extra toughness. Utilities: Elixir S, Elixir B, Flamethrower. Healing skill is Elixir H, but you can also use Medkit if you want. Elite is whatever you want (I like Supply Crate, personally).

Breakdown of the traits:
Firearms: 30 points.
{V} Precise Sights – You can choose this or {III} Infused Precision. I highly recommend Precise Sights though because the vulnerability really helps considering that this is not necessarily a DPS build.
{VIII} Fireforged Trigger – It was either this or {VII} Napalm Specialist. I chose shorter flamethrower cooldowns over 20% increased burn duration. It’s up to you.
{XI} Juggernaut – This is the core of a flamethrower build. No matter what your other traits are, you NEED THIS. It’s self-explanatory. If you’re not using this for a flamethrower build, you’re not doing it right.

Alchemy: 30 points.
{I} Invigorating Speed – Combined with Speedy Kits from the Tools trait line, this means you have on-demand swiftness AND vigor. Yes please.
{IX} Backpack Regenerator – Makes you even harder to kill than you already are. And when you get regen (which happens often enough through your Elixir H utility and toolbelt skills), you have dual sources of regen to allow you to soak up even more damage (when you FINALLY run out of endurance).
{X} Cleaning Formula 409 – Assuming you use 2 utility elixirs and 1 healing elixir, that means you have 3 self-cleanses and 3 AOE cleanses for group support. Yes please.

Tools: 10 points.
{IV} Speedy Kits – On demand swiftness. Considering kits don’t have cooldowns other than the one-second swap time (time in between putting your kit away and pulling out your normal weapon set or another kit), swapping kits while you travel means you can have infinite swiftness without using a cooldown ability. Again, combined with Invigorating Speed, it means you also have an incredible amount of vigor, too. Awesome sauce.

It’s a very tough and mobile build (because you have on-demand swiftness/vigor) and, like with my pure-Cleric Guardian, is hard as hell to kill unless I get run over by a Champion/Legendary boss in Orr or something. Great AOE damage and when I’m hunting in Orr, I hit almost everything in front of me. Makes it really easy to get kill credit on nearly everything even in huge chaotic group battles. I’ve had tons of fun with this build in general AOE and dungeons. You can stay alive (very important), support the group with buffs and cleanses, and get around quickly. It’s only real weakness is that it’s short range and lacks heavy burst damage. But you can’t have everything, right?

Namely the #5 slot skills in fire and lightning attunements (triedent, underwater). For whatever reason, you can’t use the skills at all. They can’t be clicked on or used with their hotkeys, nor do they display any information. I restarted my game, but the glitch persists.

wiazabi.2549:

Dark armor only works with channel skills dagger #2 Axe #2 DS #4.

If Dark Armor included casting times then that would be great. Our cast times would then be to our BENEFIT.

Rump Buffalo.2594:

great idea.

unfortunately it wont happen.

This.

Dev’s don’t care. They really don’t.

Bluedarknesss.1685:

Lol I think this patch was the straw that broke the camels back and destroyed several viable class builds with out creating any thing new to replace them. Engi only 1 build thats even worth playing now and this patch was going to fix that class lol

When you say “fix”, you really mean “destroy completely” don’t you?

Sigil of Generosity if you lack condition removal in your build. But it depends on what your utilities are. If you already have decent condition removal, you don’t need it.

I never played GW1, but I totally agree with the OP. No matter how I try to tweak the skills and traits of the Necromancer, ultimately it only has, MAYBE, 3 viable builds. Spectral skills are nearly worthless because of their lack of synergy with anything and long cooldowns, and Corruption skills are so watered down that people will just shrug them off like nothing happened. Especially any classes that have more than one way to remove conditions.

1. Well Necromancer – main problem is that the well traits are at the ENDS of 3 trait lines, so even if you want to specialize in wells, you are unable to pick up all 3 of the major traits for wells. You can’t get both life siphoning and AOE without giving up the majority Blood Magic, which would then reduce your healing. Not to mention wells have a ridiculously long cooldown for their weak effects.

2. Power/Toughness/Vitality tank, aka the Juggermancer. You basically are a massive meatshield that can’t die… but you can’t kill anything either. Necromancer’s weapon skills are geared toward conditions, so even if you have maxed power, you still won’t be putting out as much DPS as any other class (except maybe Ranger/Engineer).

3. Minion Master. It’s okay for general PvE and questing, but minions tend to be on the dumber side of BRAINDEAD. Most of the time when I attack an enemy, half my minions stand there looking around and doing nothing. They also get insta-gibbed against dungeon bosses, so once all your minions die (and they WILL DIE, and their long cooldowns hurt) and you no longer get the benefits of their life siphoning, you will die, DS or no DS. Not to mention the Death Magic trait line still sucks in general.

Necromancer is not necessarily underpowered, but instead suffers from a much greater sin: They are NOT FUN TO PLAY. It’s sad, but true. I find myself playing my ANY of my classes more than the Necromancer. Warrior, Guardian, Thief, Elementalist, and Mesmer are all so much fun to play, but I never even touch my Necromancer anymore.

Having a staff helps. Using Staff 2 liberally really is essential in keeping melee thieves off your back… literally.

Any gap-openers in fact are useful, such as Blink. Spam your illusions and keep your distance, while stealthing when you can to break LOS.

It can be tough depending on the thief’s build and skill, but it can be done.

Eventually Legendary weapons will be upgraded to the next level of gear, which is Ascended.

Of course, I have no idea when Ascended weapons and armor will be out, so your guess is as good as mine.