Guild Wars 2

Is there any way to turn on notifications for when friends and guild members log in, or do I have to constantly check these lists to see who is on?

Here’s my take on a vulnerability stacking build:

http://tinyurl.com/d4lsa7s

This build is to assist in downing hard targets. You roam with a teammate, mark targets, and then stack vulnerability while making it very hard for them to move. Since you’re not the primary damage dealer, this build has traits for survival, and runes for increased condition duration. You can apply and maintain 20-25 stack of vulnerability in seconds. When Analyze and your Nets are on cooldown you should be reapplying vulnerability with your Precise Sights due to your high crit rate and easy access to fury.

I chose Elixir S to compliment this build because as the assist you need to help stomp downed players, but also because we are often focused very hard in pvp, especially when we begin controlling players.

I hope you found this helpful.

You’re welcome.

Enjoyed the gameplay video, btw. Thanks again!

Hey Dirame, (or do you prefer CeiMash?)

I’ve been playing the Evasioneer build in Spirit Watch all week and having very good results. I made one change that I want to share with you. I swapped out Supply Crate for Elixir X. The great thing about using Elixir X as an orb runner (or when attacking the enemy runner) is that it doesn’t matter what form you take.

Brute offense: If you have the orb, now you have a much larger health pool, 20 seconds of stability, and the ability to knock down enemies in your path. You can also use Dash as a form of mobility if enemies are between you and your capture point.

Brute defense: What can I say here. The amount of control this gives you over an enemy orb runner is just unreal. If they don’t have stability, they’re screwed.

Tornado…sigh…this is awesome. The reason I swapped into Elixir X is I saw our Elementalist pick up the orb and transform knock all of the enemy players off of the bridge on the way to Bear.

You can also become super support for a fellow orb runner if someone else wants in on the action.

Anyway, give it a try. I’m positive you’ll like it.

p.s. The key to getting the most out of these two forms is to know when to cancel out of them. Sometimes having access to your blocks and heal is way more important than tossing enemies around.

That (Evasioneer) guy was me. Thanks for another good build video. Your explanations are straight to the point, and your demonstrations are easy to follow.

I’m looking forward to more.

nakoda.4213:

it seems to me that the benefit to multi kit builds (which still exist and never stopped existing) is that you have immediate access to up to 24 skills. No other class can do this.

Kit Refinement seems to refine what you get out of one or two kits by compensating for the loss of the extra skills from multiple kits.

If you choose to make a build without some skill you seem to think is essential, like cond removal, or whatever, that is a choice you made while building your engi, not a deficiency in the class.

And there is the Catch 22 that is holding our profession back from being truly great. Engineers can’t weapon swap, so we have kits. We can’t make kits abilities as strong as weapon abilities, since an engineer can potentially have 4 at one time. If we limit the Engineer to 1 kit at a time, we can make it stronger, but then what’s the point of kits—we should just let them have access to other weapons at that point.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Personally I feel that we should be limited to 1 kit at a time, and it should reside in our weapon swap slot. This still gives us access to 5 weapons that no other profession has access to and it allows the developers to buff kits to a more competitive level. It allows engineers to have 2 weapons (like every other class) and use of all of their utility slots. Kit dancing feels cool, but it isn’t the best use of our abilities. Most people are doing it to access maybe 1-2 of each kits most powerful or useful abilities, then swapping out of it. The old Kit Refinement made this style of play work due to the lack of a shared cooldown, making kit builds feel more effective, but even then most engineers were once again cherry picking the best KR spells and leaving the rest behind.

Choosing Traits and Utilities should never ever be a matter of avoiding absolutely broken, useless, or weak options. This is a place where the Engineer is, and just because there are a few vocal players on the forum that claim everything is peachy while reveling in their special snowflake status, doesn’t mean that this profession is free of design flaws. I’m glad players are making the Engineer work for them. I’m one of those players and I persist because I enjoy the aesthetics of the profession, and some of the more complex interactions of our traits and abilities. That means nothing with regards to accessibility of the profession, or whether the traits and abilities are balanced, working properly, or fun for the larger player base to use.

p.s. I’m not interested in your opinion on all of this if your argument is based on you liking the Engineer because it’s inaccessible to the larger player base and therefore has a “higher skill cap.” That’s elitist bv11sb!7, and has no place in a community.

Thank you for giving attention to this issue. Spirit Watch is a fun map, but when you get degenerate teams built around nothing but mobility and area denial (faced a 3 mesmer, 2 ele team last night several times) it falls apart.

Would you also consider changing the mechanics for taking the orb from its pedestal so that it is not interrupted by ticks of damage from persistent area effects? This is another degenerate strategy that is too easy to implement. After many games last night my team felt that we shouldn’t be playing our main characters—but instead making level 1 alts and building a team that would dominate Spirit Watch through class design not by clever play—to stand an even chance of winning.

This to me is a sign that the map or certain mechanics involving the orb need further change.

OP, please delete this thread. We don’t need any of our abilities nerfed and RTL DEFINITELY does not need to be buffed in any way shape or form.

You said something like “I didn’t expect that.”

Glad to help.

Hey Chaba. I think you attacked me at the beach last night.

Ninja. Now I want to find a banner warrior to be my friend.

Swinsk: Sounds like they’re just not for you.

Feel free to add me to the tournament list as an Engineer helper.

Lately I’ve been advocating turret based builds along with Fairtex and a few others. After dozens of tPvP matches I can confidently say that with thoughtful play a variety of turret based builds can be very potent. My only regret is that my experience is anecdotal as I have no video capturing software. So first, the bad: Turrets do have trouble against opponents who take the time to pick them apart before engaging you, and the builds generally have problems vs. heavy conditions. The good: If you’re bunkering for your team on the close point you will rarely encounter the latter, but you always stand a chance of facing careful players and ranged players.

Here’s the Tool Kit and Turrets build I have arrived at after many hours of play (over 200 matches with turrets):

http://tinyurl.com/bm73mca

I chose the Tool Kit for several key reasons:
*Confusion stacking
*Block
*Pull
*Vulnerability stacks
*And the rarely needed, but still welcome, turret repair
Why the build is effective:
High number of conditions applied very rapidly
Several ways to attack and defend
Unpredictability

I’ve decided on Sitting Duck over knee shot due to the three immobilizes I can drop in rapid succession. Here’s how my opener usually goes:

*Magnet Pull
*Pry Bar
*Static Shot (swapping to pistols triggers Sigil of Geomancy for a massive bleed)
*Net Attack
*Net Turret + Overcharge
*Glue Shot
*Blowtorch, etc
(It’s important to keep moving after landing Pry Bar. Pay attention to your positioning and don’t stray outside of the control point, you don’t need much room)

My opponent is bleeding, confused, burning, and has 15 stacks of Vulnerability on them all within a couple of seconds. This aggressive opener catches many players off their guard. I had a ranger casually stroll up to my point and start pelting me. My Rocket Turret caused him to waste a dodge roll and as he was coming out of it I opened up on him. He was down in under 10 seconds with very little time to react.

Okay, so that’s one specific instance, but this became the norm for the majority of my 1v1 encounters. In an 1vX situation I recommend quickly assessing the weakest target (to the best of your ability) and focus on them while relying on Box of Nails, Glue Shot, and Gear Shield to help you avoid/ignore other attackers. This build won’t keep you up against 3 opponents for long, especially if there are certain professions in the mix, but than many builds won’t. That’s what your teammates are for.

Still no stun breaker? Yes—there is no stun breaker in this build. This forces me into a much more active play style; putting pressure on an enemy to force them to blow all of their defensive cooldowns as quickly as possible. If you’re used to bunkering in a passive punching bag sort of way, you will have a lot of adjusting to do to play this build. If I do get hit with a massive burst due to a stun I have ways to recover or weather the storm.

Automated Medical Response works wonders with the Healing Turret allowing for back to back activation when my health is getting low, and Low Health Response System stacks duration with Healing Turret’s regen and Regenerating Mist tool belt skill to help mitigate condition damage. When I reach 25% health I automatically gain 10 seconds of Regeneration, drink an Elixir S, and my Healing Turret cooldown is refreshed. I count to 2, Lay my Healing Turret down and detonate it as soon as Elixir S expires.*This is essentially a fight reset. Transmute adds another layer of protection against conditions. All of this doesn’t even take into account the up-time on Protection afforded by my runes and traits. I would almost rather have this defensive boon than any other we can get as Engineers.
If you have any questions at all no matter how general or specific, I would be glad to answer them.

Thanks for reading.

Note: For underwater combat I would use: Elixir H, Rifle Turret, Net Turret, Rocket Turret, Supply Crate. The reason being is that staying in melee range is very difficult without a gap closer built into the Tool Kit. I chose Elixir H because Healing Turret doesn’t work under water, and Med Kit’s heal is on the tool belt making it unavailable if Automated Response Kicks in.

*Post patch note: This no longer works because all utilities are disabled when Elixir S is active.

(This space reserved for further discussion)

Note: For underwater combat I would use: Elixir H, Rifle Turret, Net Turret, Rocket Turret, Supply Crate. The reason being is that staying in melee range is very difficult without a gap closer built into the Tool Kit. I chose Elixir H because Healing Turret doesn’t work under water, and Med Kit’s heal is on the tool belt making it unavailable if Automated Response Kicks in.

Lately I’ve been advocating turret based builds along with Fairtex and a few others. After dozens of tPvP matches I can confidently say that with thoughtful play a variety of turret based builds can be very potent. My only regret is that my experience is anecdotal as I have no video capturing software. So first, the bad: Turrets do have trouble against opponents who take the time to pick them apart before engaging you, and the builds generally have problems vs. heavy conditions. The good: If you’re bunkering for your team on the close point you will rarely encounter the latter, but you always stand a chance of facing careful players and ranged players.

Here’s the Tool Kit and Turrets build I have arrived at after many hours of play (over 200 matches with turrets):

http://tinyurl.com/bm73mca

I chose the Tool Kit for several key reasons:
*Confusion stacking
*Block
*Pull
*Vulnerability stacks
*And the rarely needed, but still welcome, turret repair

Why the build is effective:
High number of conditions applied very rapidly
Several ways to attack and defend
Unpredictability

I’ve decided on Sitting Duck over knee shot due to the three immobilizes I can drop in rapid succession. Here’s how my opener usually goes:

*Magnet Pull
*Pry Bar
*Static Shot (swapping to pistols triggers Sigil of Geomancy for a massive bleed)
*Net Attack
*Net Turret + Overcharge
*Glue Shot
*Blowtorch, etc
(It’s important to keep moving after landing Pry Bar. Pay attention to your positioning and don’t stray outside of the control point, you don’t need much room)

My opponent is bleeding, confused, burning, and has 15 stacks of Vulnerability on them all within a couple of seconds. This aggressive opener catches many players off their guard. I had a ranger casually stroll up to my point and start pelting me. My Rocket Turret caused him to waste a dodge roll and as he was coming out of it I opened up on him. He was down in under 10 seconds with very little time to react.

Okay, so that’s one specific instance, but this became the norm for the majority of my 1v1 encounters. In an 1vX situation I recommend quickly assessing the weakest target (to the best of your ability) and focus on them while relying on Box of Nails, Glue Shot, and Gear Shield to help you avoid/ignore other attackers. This build won’t keep you up against 3 opponents for long, especially if there are certain professions in the mix, but then again, many builds won’t. That’s what your teammates are for.

Still no stun breaker? Yes—there is no stun breaker in this build. This forces me into a much more active play style; putting pressure on an enemy to force them to blow all of their defensive cooldowns as quickly as possible. If you’re used to bunkering in a passive punching bag sort of way, you will have a lot of adjusting to do to play this build to its full potential. If I do get hit with a massive burst due to a stun I have ways to recover or weather the storm.

Automated Medical Response works wonders with the Healing Turret allowing for back to back activation when my health is getting low, and Low Health Response System stacks duration with Healing Turret’s regeneration and Regenerating Mist tool belt skill to help mitigate condition damage. When I reach 25% health I gain 10 seconds of Regeneration, I drink an Elixir S, and my Healing Turret cooldown is refreshed. I count to 2, Lay my Healing Turret down and detonate it as soon as Elixir S expires. This is essentially a fight reset. Transmute adds another layer of protection against conditions. All of this doesn’t even take into account the up-time on Protection afforded by my runes and traits. I would almost rather have this defensive boon than any other we can get as Engineers.

If you have any questions at all no matter how general or specific, I would be glad to answer them.

Thanks for reading.

Wuffles.5319:

^ Sad Truth But we’ll just be a group of rampaging tornado’s and Brutes! It’s even more mind scattering!

This.

Zorgog.3908:

You know, I think about that every time I use Healing Turret (where APT is at it’s best). I think I’ll shift some stuff around and see if I like it in WvW. I didn’t take it originally because the radius on APT was so horrible (has this been fixed?)

It is very small, but I was suggesting it for your s/t PvP build because you’ll be doing most of your fighting in close quarters on points.

In WvW it only has one use. Knocking enemy players off of walls and cliffs. The latter can be very useful if you’re defending siege that are placed near a cliff.

Zorgog.3908:

Hey all. Long time reader, first time poster. Just wanted to post my WvW and tPvP turret builds and see what the OP thought of them. They’re pretty similar but no condition damage – uses Rifle. I wish I had some gameplay videos to post since a lot of fights are just hilarious. I’m having a ton of fun with turrets. Haven’t lost a 1v1 yet (honestly who care though?), won most 2v1’s.

(copy/paste)
WvW version http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUlIq6ZntSXF1bJx4DdO8hCDSxetroC6/TB5C;ToAA1CtoMyYkwIrROjkGNG4MA

Hey Zorgog,

I hope you don’t mind me chiming in. The first thing I noticed about this build is the lack of Accerlant-packed Turrets. I see where you’re going with the minor traits, though. They seem useful to the build, but consider this: APT + Healing Turret + Detonate Healing Turret = burst heal + AE knockdown all in one. You can also lay the healing turret down and kite around it using the detonate to interrupt burst set ups by melee attackers. You also get some more area denial and damage with your other turrets. I’m not sure what I would drop from your build to get it, but think about it.

Secondly I noticed the sigil choice. I like the sigil of hobbling, but with 10 points in Explosives and the sigil you don’t get enough duration bonus to get an extra second on any of your immobilize effects. I would take advantage of your kit/weapon swap and grab a weapon swap sigil. There are a lot of powerful effects you could make use of: hydromancy, geomancy, battle, energy, leeching, etc.

tPvP version http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUlIq6ZntSXF1LJR4DFGki9aXRF0/XGyluA;ToAA1CtoMyYkwIrROjkGNG4MA

This build is similar, so it’s hard to critique it separately. Here’s my advice for this build. Carry an extra set of gear with Runes of the Forge in them. If you see several condition classes in the enemy roster, keep the Melandru gear on. If you don’t see more than 1 or 2, swap to the gear of the Forge to get more up-time on Protection.

Just keep practicing with the build. A big mistake a lot of players make is swapping builds too often never getting a good sense of how the build really plays; what its strengths and weaknesses are.

Good luck.

RaynStargaze.6510:

Nice to see you`re playing good people first of all

All the things i said in my previous post about why the build fails still stand though and i dont see my opinion on those changing anytime soon.

Overall in this game you got great teamwork and trebfire helps you out a lot.

Actually, this would have been a good place to stop.

Fairtex shows solid play and good teamwork. He’s on a team for those reasons. There’s more to being a good teammate than being an unstoppable killing machine. I see a lot of players playing tier 1 professions/builds who don’t know a thing about teamwork and never get asked back. You’re coming off as very bitter and someone who hasn’t found a place on a team. If you have, then I’d like to see some of your gameplay videos. Also, you’re doing an awful lot of talking about bunkering—so show us what you know. Talk is cheap.

You won’t notice losing 125 healing power. You might miss whatever other bonuses you’re getting from them like the 4/4 or 6/6 bonus. What are you using?

Tyler Bearce.3427:

Thanatos.2431:

Hows that invisible cooldown on kit refinement treated ya? I think your the last engi to still have it…..

It’s not perfect, but it opens up some interesting play possibilities, especially while stunned. I don’t have a stunbreaker in this build, but I can still swap kits while stunned, which allows me to pop a clutch magnetic aura while being pelted with projectiles, or a magnet bomb to interrupt a melee spike.

Penguin.5197:

How do you do against rangers with that build? For some reason I feel like ranged builds would have the upper hand against you

I don’t love fighting rangers honestly. Though I’ve got multiple magnetic auras to reflect projectiles, and a lot of ways to stall for time and keep them off a capture point. So I can give them a good long fight, and even occasionally get the victory.

I noticed that both of the turrets you’ve chosen have 50 second cooldowns. Do you feel the numbers are in a good place or do you see them changing? 50 seconds is an eternity in pvp as you know. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could count on shorter cooldowns on their tool belt skills allowing for at least 2 uses of them while we’re waiting for our turrets to come back online.

Regarding Kit Refinement the 2 second Magnetic Aura seems extremely short, and the delay on the Magnetic Bomb seems too long.

I decided to run your build in a dozen or so tPvP matches before I commented.

Can you comment on any of these issues?

Flame Turret is a huge help vs. some Mesmers and minion Necros.

I agree about our adept Explosives trait choices.

*Acidic Elixirs: Doesn’t apply to this build.
*Shrapnel: Good for a full turret build with Accelerant-packed Turrets.
*Forceful Explosives: Bombs and Mines only.
*Empowering Adrenaline: Not bad, really. Without the usual defensive cooldowns we are always dodging and endurance is never full. This will almost always be on.
*Incendiary Powder: Our crit rate is too low. I’ve tried using a Rampager’s Amulet and Jewel but we lose 300ish Power and Condition dmg, and 3K health. Too big of a sacrifice to me.
*Exploit Weakness: Nice for the occasional runner, but too narrow.

Some more solid play from Fairtex. Thanks for sharing another video and the new(ish) build.

Did you take Forceful Explosives strictly for Throw Mine, or does it now affect our turret explosions as well?

edited: Looking at the video again, I’m seeing you alternate between Flame Turret and Throw Mine, and the addition of Deployable Turrets. Is the build link incorrect or did you mix it up during play?

Wolf.5816:

Potent PvP healing combo.

What you will need:Rifle/Healing Turret/Rocket Boots.

-Tip: This combo is best used immidiatly after a successful Net Shot/Overcharged Shot.

Combo:
1)Deploy Healing Turret (Get base heal and mild Regeneration)
2)Detonate Healing Turret within its Water Field. (Gain mild base heal)
3)immidiatly activate Rocket Boots launching your self away from the target while activating another Water Field from the Healing Turrets Water Field. (Gain slight base heal)
4)Begin activating the Healing Turrets Tool Belt Skill Regenerating Mist while you pick yourself up. (Regeneration re-applied while creating an additional Water Field.)
5)Rocket Jump out of the Water Field back towards your enemy. (Mild base heal)

This combo is realiable, and very consistent in PvP.

Question about step 5: How do you get another Rocket Boot activation? Did you mean Jump Shot?

Cool stuff. Keep it comin’.

Feel free to add some of your own tips to this thread. I don’t mean to stand in the way of a budding bromance, but I did start this tread for helpful tips.

Kaimick.5109:

Reported for repeating a thread you made already and saying the same thing.

Every thief should be reported for Spamming.

Fairtex.7810:

I’ve still been having a lot of success in tpvp. I rarely lose my node. I’ve also working on addressing the weak points of the build. Remember, this is a home-point bunker build. If you really can’t live without a stun breaker, i think that rocket boots would be the best. lowest CD and removes certain conditions. To deal with ranged opponents, i’ve been tossing around the idea of toolkit (magnet pull). personally i’ve never really liked toolkit, but i think some of you could make it would really well.

I just might try Rocket Boots. Rocket Kick deals massive burn, and has a short cooldown, and I can cope with the self knockdown of the utility. I dorked around with Toolkit for a few matches and really liked it.

I’m working on posting a video were i have encouters with a staff mesmer, trap ranger and eles. I win all those fights. I still have never lost a 1v1 with this build. I’ll probably post it later tonight or tomorrow.

I can’t wait to see these. Staff Mesmers have been chewing me up.

You’ll also notice (looking at you GrackleFlint) that i’ve changed the build a little build. I’m always looking to improve. You’ll notice i’ve used flame turret a couple times. With a 25 sec CD, its more appealing.

Heh. I’m looking forward to seeing the changes.

When i choose my utilities, its based off of the composition. For mesmers, flame turret works very very well. If there’s more than 1 thief i use throw mine. Rangers aren’t much of a problem like most people anticipate. Every ranger i’ve encountered folds when a lot of pressure is put on them. Meaning getting within melee range.

In the videos i’m gonna post, i’m running 20/10/20/20/0.

I’ll do some roster analysis and some pre-game utility swapping to suit what I’m seeing. Thanks for this idea.

Please read my entire post. I’m not advocating for a change to traditional character rolls. However, they are a ways off from the “styles” being equally valuable in group play. Right now damage is on top with support and control very far behind and not very well understood by those outside the “elite” community. This is due in large part to the lone wolf style of play that is learned in a character’s first 50 levels. You dodge roll, and you heal, and if things get really bad you use your defensive utilities. Furthermore, just die and someone will revive you. Not only that but in dungeons there are red circles everywhere causing players to run around like headless chickens to avoid AOE for fear of being one shot (which happens often when a player is new to dungeons).

So, no. Got it. Could have saved yourself some typing.

Pistol users: When being attacked by a Ranger, target their pet with Static Shot as your opener. The pet’s charge/pounce will miss and the Ranger will be hit by all bounces and unable to evade by dodge rolling.

I’m an avid tPvP player and have a good understanding of roles in that facet of play: roaming, burst, bunker, bunker buster, etc. My problem with the style system is exactly how I outlined it. Whether or not you put yourself in that role has little to do with mechanics that diminish the power of doing so: dodge rolling and self healing doesn’t promote cooperation and makes positioning to receive or dispense buffs and heals harder, the amount of set up required for 3 seconds of retaliation or 3 stacks of might hardly seems worth it to most players, there is no such thing as chain crowd control so hard to handle packs of trash mobs are simply bypassed—the list goes on. I feel that because of the design running at cross purposes most players (not speaking for myself) would rather zerg things down (my experience with pugs in all aspects of play) than coordinate for what seem like negligible buffs that restrict play more than enhance it.

I’m glad your experience has been different, but I feel that the larger (non elite) player base isn’t being lead to how good these facets of play can be—rather they’re encouraged to play the role of lone wolf and the community becomes a homogenization of similar play—frenetic and prone to spamming abilities without thinking. The only co-op going on is reviving.

I’m bringing this topic to the front page one last time because I think there is still some more build exploration to be done. Does anyone have a twist on a Turret build they want to share?

(reserved for more content)

Combos are probably one of the coolest ideas to hit an MMO in years. So why don’t we care? Because of the lack of incentive. They don’t add enough to a fight to matter. Does that fire field matter? No—using that boss fight gimmick matters more: picking up the crystal, throwing the boulder, pulling the chain, etc. Not only do combos not matter, in a game of dodge rolling you probably won’t be in position to benefit from that field anyway. Why stress about it when the benefit has no effect on the outcome.

Solution: Make combos matter.
Instead of going to the well on boss gimmicks, force players to apply poison, fire, or confusion at just the right time for massive damage or to stop the boss from healing itself or doing something horrible to your group. Make buffs last longer so there is a reason to blow 4 cooldowns on Area Might. Make Area Healing numbers bigger so people have a reason to communicate and work together.

(more to come)

I’ve given a lot of thought to the following and feel that these are design features that need to be addressed to make Guild Wars 2 a long term hit.

The removal of roles, and My Story:

My Story has some very clear problems that have been outlined in many posts already, so I won’t go into detail. To sum up, My Story is not making people feel special—like their character matters in Tyria. The removal of roles further erodes a players ability to feel special, and here’s why. The up-side of having roles in MMOs is it allowes players to carve out a niche for themselves. Who didn’t like being such a good tank, healer, or damage dealer that they were called upon for exactly those skills? I gave a lot of thought to what made my character feel special to me in World of Warcraft. It wasn’t being part of the ongoing story. Although I enjoyed participating in it I knew the focus was on NPCs such as King Wrynn, Tyrion Fordring, or Thrall. It was being good at my role and being asked to join guilds and groups because of it.

With the removal of roles also comes homogenization, and with homogenization comes disparity. When you have eight professions to balance and only three “styles” of play, some will simply outshine others. This is the case we’re seeing especially with Arenanet’s “support” and “control” focused professions. I won’t go into great detail here suffice to say that some are clearly, and by a large margin, just more useful and powerful than others. There is also some discrepancy among the damage dealers, but not as much. This disparity existed in other MMOs that chose to use traditional roles, but for the most part could be overcome with skill.

Solution: Make styles matter.
Give support and control more of an effect in group play. Make that hard to apply group stealth, retaliation, might, etc last longer. Make controlling your enemies actually help the outcome of a fight—not delay the inevitable.

How self healing, the proliferation of defensive skills, and doge rolling hurts group play:

There is a large amount of self sufficiency built into GW2, but it comes at the cost of greatly diminishing the group dynamic. This is a very broad issue because it also dips into bad balancing and tuning of trash mobs and bosses in dungeons. So, we all have a heal. Great. And we all have defensive utility skills and the ability to dodge. Even better! So what’s my incentive to stand in that light field again? I’m sorry, were you channeling a group buff with a small radius? I was over here—way, way over here—spamming my dps, casting my self heal, and keeping dodge on cooldown.

Being self sufficient is awesome. I love knowing that I can get myself out of some very bad situations, but on the downside I don’t feel like I’m in a group even when I’m in a dungeon. This is due to support and control having little to no effect on completing said dungeons (unless you count the near necessity of having group stealth to bypass ridiculously overpowered trash mobs). It almost never matters that the kindly engineer is plopping down a healing turret and using his Elixir Gun. It doesn’t matter that the Guardian can stack Retaliation to a ridiculous degree when people are all over the place.

(continued)

I couldn’t agree more. It either needs to be baseline or in the Inventions line.

I keep coming back to the rifle:

Pros:
*Jump Shot: Hits like a truck and is very easy to land against a stunned/immobilized opponent.
*Overcharged Shot: Clears immobilized, crippled, and chilled which is fantastic in a build that gives up condition removal. It can also get people off the point or launch them into your turret farm—whichever is more appropriate at the time.
*Blunderbuss: Hits hard and benefits from condition damage. This is a bunker style build and people will get up in your face. It will also has a great AOE cone that’s good for crowded control points.
*Net Shot: More immobilize!
*Hip Shot: Pierces which is useful in team fights.

Cons:
*Doesn’t make as much use of +condition damage as the pistol, or dual pistols.
*One sigil option, but with our limited options in this build (no on-swap sigils) it’s not a huge downside.
*Less defense than Pistol/Shield.

I think if you find yourself going deeper into Firearms or Explosives you can get good results with the rifle and turrets. A setup like this might do well:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/d522ur8

(remember to copy and paste the link in a new browser window)

This build is untested, but I feel that it could do well. It might be a good entry point for someone who favors the rifle, but is also interested in turrets. The trait allocation and sigil are to help reach +50% to burning duration (with Runes of the Forge as well) to get an extra tick out of each of our burning effects. The Soldier’s Jewel in the Carrion Amulet is for some extra power to compliment the Rifle.

Thanks for sharing this, Optics. I like your take on a turret build. There’s some good discussion going on here as well regarding turret builds.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Tpvp-Turret-Engineer-video

I’ve been using a slight variation of Fairtex’s build with good results. I’ve done so well in a bunkering role that I’ve been getting asked to join organized groups.

Fairtex.7810:

Hi Grackleflint,

I really appreciate you trying out the build, and thank you for your interest. You pretty much nailed the pros and cons of the build. I’ll go ahead and post what I was running at the time. Right now i’m working on addressing the weak points of the build. So my build will probably be different, as I am working on doing a write up.

The no stun breaker thing was very hard for me to accept, especially when i first began to give this build a go. But like Grackleflint had mentioned, you do begin to adjust and become more aware that YOU DO NOT HAVE A STUN BREAKER. You adjust to this by saving and timing your static shot, shied moves and dodges more. Also kiting around your healing turret and rifle turret if you using it, and are ready to blow them up when needed. You just kind of adjust is all i can really say.

I’m sorry that i haven’t been able to reply more to this thread, life has kept me surprisingly busy these past few days.

have fun and thanks again for all the posts

http://tinyurl.com/cpv4kz9

(copy paste)

I’m surprised (and pleased) that I got really close to your original build. It was a fun challenge to try and figure out what your Traits and gear were. Those are interesting Sigil choices, but I get it—with 20 pts in Explosives and the sigils you get another second out of your Immobilize and your Stun. Pretty handy for sure.

Have you considered combining 4 Rune of the Forge with 2 Rune of Earth for +40% Protection Duration? I’m not sure it worth giving up the 6/6 Rune of the Forge proc but it could be worth testing.

It’s hard to get used to but you begin to rely more on well timed dodges and Static Shield activation to avoid enemy burst setup.

I can answer that to some degree, Phineas. I won’t lie—the Crate really helps and in some fights allowed me to simply stomp people into the floorboards. However, I didn’t feel naked without it. When Supply Drop was on cool down, I had to pay a lot more attention to my positioning and my turrets positioning, and sometimes abuse line of sight to win. Not always, but often.

I decided the best way to test this build was to imitate your tactics. I would get to a node, set up my Net Turret near the approach, Rocket Turret on the back side, and my Mine and Minefield on the node where I would stand on it. When defending the Altar in Temple of Silent Storm I would place my Minefield on the bridge because the narrow space caused them to clump up which very helpful.

Many opponents were taken by surprise when hit with Electrified Net and an Overcharged Rocket back to back. A lot of players simply fled, but the ones that stayed were fairly easy to manage. I found that focusing my version of your build on the Pistol as the main source of damage, backed by the control of the mines, and turrets, and some vulnerability and cripple stacks worked well. I didn’t feel like I was struggling to dish out enough damage.

Here’s the interesting part. Many of the opponents that fled would come back with a much different approach, making the fight even harder. I had a Mesmer waltz in with Sword and Pistol and get totally destroyed in moments. Then he came back and ranged me down with his staff and shatters. This was very demoralizing, but I figure every build has to have a counter. From my limited experience the hard counters to this build are: Staff Mesmer, Staff Necromancer, Bow (long or short) Ranger, and Hammer Guardian.

These profession builds were just too slippery for me to get a handle on and dealt massive damage that I could not mitigate, and/or they had better control than me.

The random targeting nature of the turrets worked against me often. There are lots of minions (guardian spirit weapons, thieves’ guild, bone fiends, ranger pets, etc.) that would seem to draw many of my turret’s attacks. This was a huge pain in the butt and is by far the biggest downside to running turrets. Also—the 5 minute timer on turrets does hurt. I tried to keep an eye on this, but was taken by surprise quite a few times when my Rocket Turret suddenly blew itself up just as I was being attacked. This change should be reverted for s and t PvP.

I rarely got to use my condition removal from Healing Turret, because as we all know—say it with me—Water Turret is always best when blown up! <sigh> I couldn’t say whether or not Transmute (Alchemy minor trait) was making enough of a difference because it’s so hard to quantify. I did feel better knowing I had some condition protection. I was sorely tempted to drop Alchemy for Inventions and get Cloaking Device (amazing in Xv1 fights) and Reinforced Shield, but I wanted to play as close to your style as possible. I might even swap Protection Injection for Formula 409 since Hidden Flask and Self-regulating Defenses do trigger it.

Highlights:
Throw Mine is highly underrated; having the ability to remove boons helps to level the playing field against certain builds. The knock back was also a life saver at times. Between that and the Sigil of Nullification, my opponents had a harder time keeping boons active allowing me to win fights I think wouldn’t have otherwise.

Accelerant-Packed Turrets gave me the control and damage I needed to finish some very hairy 2v1s, though I still think Rocket Turret needs an even shorter cool down.

Rocket and Net Turret have great synergy. The alternating knockdown and immobilize trivialized some fights to the point of making me feel overpowered (1v1 with no pets of course).

Pistol/Shield is always a joy to run. There is nothing like a well-timed Static Shot, Magnetic Shield, or Static Shield to help turn a fight around.

Cons:
No get out of jail free card. Without a stun breaker I could not come back from being flanked by a warrior with 100 Blades or an ambush by a Thief.

This build really struggles against other ranged opponents. It’s easy to say just close into melee range, but when that means walking into massive shatters, traps and swords, or a few wells I would rather just run away and come back with help. Also, I’m not sure what closing the gap gains us since we have no melee abilities other than making life hard for players who aren’t good at maneuvering.

No ability to reset a fight. Once your turrets are down, the conditions are piled on and you’re below 50% health it is very hard to come back. I found that I had to be extremely pro-active about my defense and healing and keep my health up above 50% at all times.

Bad at dodging? Get ready to eat a stun and get set up for big damage. I felt I was good at timing my Static Shield, and dodging set up moves, but I was pretty much screwed if I was off in my timing.

Thanks for sharing this build. I was interested enough to give it a try and explore the possibilities.

cheers

Hi Fairtex,

So in the spirit of fairness, I decided to give your build try before passing my final judgment on it. Not that I think my final judgment carries a lot of weight, I just thought I should start trying different builds before forming a complete opinion of them. It doesn’t cost me anything but a little time and effort.

Here’s what I ran:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ck4vwlv

(cut and paste the link or it won’t work)

Keep in mind I reverse engineered your build from watching your videos and don’t know exactly what you’re running.
_
TL;DR My experience over 20 tPvP matches was good overall. I was able to defend my team’s back node quite well, and was only downed a few times over the course of all of the games, and only when put under severe pressure (3 or more opponents).

continued below…

SuperHaze.4210:

Grackleflint.4956:

Here’s a hardcore gamer. Here’s your game on hardcore gamers. silence

Here’s a casual gamer. Here’s your game on casual gamers. *CHA-CHING!"

It sucks, but it’s the truth. Are you hardcore players in your free tPvP matches with your free armor skins spending anything in the gem store? If you are, your opinion matters.

There’s nothing in the gem store for PvPers other than some skins, bag slots, and character slots. I would’ve been happy paying a nominal monthly fee so everyone pays their fair share and both pvp and pve can get the same level of attention from the devs.

I couldn’t agree more. Also, it is possible to balance them separately—have abilities work differently in different modes. That would be ideal, but they are running a skeleton crew at Anet dev-wise.

Here’s a hardcore gamer. Here’s your game on hardcore gamers. silence

Here’s a casual gamer. Here’s your game on casual gamers. *CHA-CHING!"

It sucks, but it’s the truth. Are you hardcore players in your free tPvP matches with your free armor skins spending anything in the gem store? If you are, your opinion matters.

Based on his health (24, 022) I did a little fiddling with a profession builder. What I came up with is that his rune and amulet set up is full Dolyak* and either a Carrion or Soldiers amulet with either a Carrion or Soldiers jewel—for anyone that was interested. It was the only way I could come up with that health total. Oh, and 20 points in Alchemy. Not sure what for though He has Self Regulating Defenses and Protection Injection (the Thief dazes him at :10 and he gets Protection). The only mysteries left are what his final 10 points are in and what sigils he’s using. I get really irritated when people post a build video without a build.

*Personally, I would go with 6/6 Melandru because of this build’s total lack of condition removal.

ShaunZ.1098:

My confusion stems from the fact that the enemy players just run around and let you and your turrets pepper them. I’m not saying I don’t like playing a turret build, but the opponents in the video were as bad, if not worse, than npcs.

Is it just me?

They were average at best and some were poor. There was a fight with a guardian that had me scratching my head the whole time. Even when he wasn’t cc’d by the net turret he couldn’t seem to find his target. Keyboard turner?

Well, right now Deployable Turrets causes all of your turrets to revert to the old versions so I wouldn’t recommend using it. Accelerant-packed Turrets is a decent trait, but it forces us into Explosives. Of the Adept traits in that line Acidic Elixirs and Forceful Explosives (bombs and mines only) don’t affect your build with the exception of the latter when you choose to use Throw Mine instead of Rifle Turret.

The best choices I see are Empowering Adrenaline or Incendiary Powder, the latter depending greatly on your amulet/jewel choice (crit chance). You’re running Self Regulating Defenses, and possibly Static Discharge. You’re not using Kits so no weapon swap sigils, and I don’t see any on kill effects triggering. So I’m guessing you’re using passive sigils like Force or Accuracy, or an on crit Sigil like Nullification. I also see now that you’re using Knee Shot. Your Net Turret hits the thief at :07 and applies Immobilize and Cripple.

As for the video—you show a lot of fights with opponents who want to stay in melee range. This is great for Accelerant-packed Turrets and your shield abilities. You don’t showcase a single ranged fight which is where a Turret engineer rolls over and dies. You don’t have the damage output with a pistol to stand toe to toe with a bow ranger, staff mesmer, p/p thief, or a staff necro. You just don’t. Please don’t mislead people with more videos unless you can showcase how you deal with someone destroying all three of your turrets (before you’ve even done 3K damage to them with your pistol) and then ranging you down. That terrible thief at the start of the video doesn’t count. He approached without stealth and tried to use the short bow for dps instead of for mobility and evasion, which is what it’s for.

What do you do against conditions? What are your tactics against someone that can stay out of the range of your Net Turret and put massive pressure on you? Once your turrets are down you have your shield abilities and your toolbelt which are all on very long cooldowns. Regenerating Mist is ticking for 95 on you which is just enough to counteract 2 stacks of bleeding.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and you are effective in the right situations—but—I would need to see a lot more footage to be convinced it’s worth playing from a purely competitive standpoint.

Thanks for sharing the video. It was entertaining and the tactics were new to me.

I worked for Privateer Press for a couple of years and helped with testing and development of Warmachine. Devs were guilty in the extreme of something I started calling “faction camping.” They each had a pet faction, but the devs with the most power were able to turn their favorite factions into ridiculous killing machines: Cryx, and Khador. I’m not sure that’s what’s happening here, but it feels like it sometimes.