Guild Wars 2

Kimbald.2697:

Not arguing that it was a nerf to Elixir Gun.
Just pointing at possible uses and synergy.

To be honest: acid bomb itself should immobilize or at least cripple…

Group support as engineer got a huge nerf with these changes to Kit refinement, I totally agree.

Acid Bomb should change to Glue Bomb (1 second immobilize with 3 sec cripple) and KR for Elixir Gun should be Acid Trail.

*Turret AI: not fixed, targeting still random/broken
*Turrets: Survivability not addressed.
*Turret cooldowns: still too high
*Turret toolbelt abilities: Cooldowns still to high, damage still too low. (96 dmg increase on Shockwave)
*Kit Refinement: Cooldown too long. I understand that most kits have a signature ability that is on a 20 second (or longer) cooldown in some cases, but as an experienced kit user, I can say that the signature moves aren’t as useful as people might thing. I swap kits more often than 20 seconds for damage rotations, not because I’m dying to cast Smoke Vent. This needs to be dialed back.
*Gadgets: Not addressed. Cooldowns still not reduced, damage still low.
*Harpoon Gun: Not addressed. Travel time on Homing Torpedo is too slow, cooldowns on all abilities double or triple that of other profession harpoon traits. Still isn’t affected by Hair Trigger (firearms) trait.

I could keep going, but why bother.

@Amadeus and Eviator: You both make good points. I think the protection is what I’m seeing the effects of most since I was referring to the actual hits that land, not the ones who hold back due to confusion.

AryasRevenge.3175:

That was… insane.
There is no doubt you are a highly skilled player, but theres one thing that keeps bugging me, why do their attacks do so low damage :p

By their attacks, do you mean other players? If so, I’ve wondered that too. Mask’s toughness isn’t super high, and I use dodges as much as he does, but even a few stray attacks landing seems to put me down dangerously low. I’ve seen Mask run around getting pelted while at low health and it seems like he’s not even being hit. What gives, Mask-dude?

Dirame.8521:

And unfortunately, because you decided to make me go do research on bombs, I’ve found some pretty cool things. Look out for a new build in the coming weeks.

Who was it that posted the image of a 13K Big Ol’ Bomb crit? I need to see that again, and know how in the hell it was achieved.

Oh, btw—I had some pretty terrible Runes in my WvW gear (full Carrion exotics) and decided to throw 6 Runes of the Adventurer in it. I went into WvW with Med Kit, Bomb Kit, Tool Kit, and Slick Shoes. I have to admit, Slick Shoes is a lot better than I gave it credit for. Also, Sigil of Impact is great in WvW team fights. Enemies are so often knocked down and stunned in big team fights it’s like a Sigil of Night that’s always on. LOVE IT. I can also knock them down with Magnetic Inversion, Big Ol’ Bomb and Slick Shoes, and even get the occasional stun with Static Shield followed up by a Pry Bar to the face.

The up time of swiftness and number dodges helped me make some escapes that I wouldn’t have otherwise. All in all, this build is very well suited to WvW. It’s the Tank Kat’s evasive cousin, and delivers a bit more damage to boot.

-Bodge Cogswell, Evasioneer

I’ve participated in a lot of WvW. I think you have a great start here—very good actually—for someone who has never played WvW. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions and thoughts on good WvW builds vary. Unless you are a roamer (ganker/duelist) your main focus should be surviving. That’s what makes me think that this build is solid for WvW. With the abilities to chain six dodges and have permanent swiftness this build will get you to your destination fast and in one piece. You want to be with a group whether they’re building siege engines for offense or defense, hitting camps and caravans, or flanking an enemy group. This build will excel at running supplies from camps to nearby towers and keeps; something I find myself doing often.

I like the food choices. Do you happen to know how many seconds of stealth you can achieve with this build? Using combo fields to grant stealth to you and nearby teammates can be useful, but diving into zergs with this build might not be the best idea. If you can grant over 10 seconds of stealth with just Smoke Bomb, Big Ol’ Bomb, Detonate Turret, and Magnetic Inversion, then you might have something here. I’ll play around with it and let you know how it goes.

A few final notes for now:
*Sigil of Water’s tooltip is incomplete. It should say 30% chance to heal nearby allies on a critical. With an 8% crit rate it might be time to find a new Sigil for that second slot. I’m leaning towards Sigil of Impact. It provides a 10% dmg bonus vs. foes that are stunned or knocked down. Between BoB, Magnetic Inversion, and Slick Shoes this could be quite a nice damage boost. Also, enemies are getting knocked down and stunned by your allies often in big team fights.
*I would drop Cleansing Formula 409 for Cloaking Device. There is currently no cooldown on Cloaking Device, and the amount of times I get immobilized in WvW makes me go into stealth more than a thief.
*I understand that this build needs blast finishers for stealth, but losing Med Kit seems to really hurt the 6/6 Runes of the Adventurer bonus.

Thanks for the inspiring build. I’m sure it will continue to be fun to play with.

@Riojin: I was just going to ask Dirame what stats and food he would use in WvW.

Hey Dirame! Do you have any interest in adapting this build for WvW? You’ve got a couple of interested Engineers here. Evasioneers, unite!

@ Dirame: I’ll be sure to look at the second build.

The only condition removal I had was Drop Antidote (Med Kit #4), and I did just fine. Backpack Regenerator provides 125 health per second which is a good form of condition damage mitigation. Bandage Self is on a 14 second cooldown thanks to 30 points in Tools for increased Tool belt recharge rate. Between that and Drop Bandage I had plenty of healing. Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t feel like I ran into many dedicated condition builds over the couple of hours I played, so maybe conditions is this build’s counter.

It also could have been the fact that I didn’t stand still very long (at all really) and didn’t fight on capture points where you’ll see a lot of condition (bunker buster) builds fighting: Well Necros for example.

I decided to play your build last night exclusively in Spirit Watch to run orbs, and now I see what you mean.. The decision of whether or not to use Elixir R is very dependent on the situation.

Also, I have to say I was shocked at how good this build is at staying alive. I had a d/d ele glued to me for an entire Spirit Watch game and they couldn’t prevent me from running the orb. I could even pick up the orb in the middle of a huge melee by dropping Big Ol’ Bomb, popping Gear Shield to weather the beatings, and then snatching the orb after everyone got knocked on their butts. This was TOO much fun.

This build also has the added ability to put out some decent burst which seemed to take people by surprise. Magnet>Pry Bar>Static Shot>Concussion Bomb was my go-to opener and it’s a solid one.

I’m still trying to find a good second sigil to compliment the build. We have to be careful to avoid sigils that could potentially put Sigil of Energy on cooldown. That leaves us with Permanent or On Kill sigils to choose from. Not a huge complaint, but I wish there were more options.

One more feature of the build was it’s ability to catch, slow, and kill other orb runners. With multiple dodges, positioning was easily achieved to take advantage of my bombs, knockbacks, and cripples. Dodge rolling to place myself in the perfect position to knock someone back into my team with BoB or Magnetic Inversion, or to cripple them with Box of Nails or Glue Bomb was great added utility.

Thanks for putting together a fun and effective build, even if it only shines on one map for now. I’m actually considering using this in WvW since a lot of our effectiveness as Engineers in that mode is arriving at our destinations alive and quickly. Also—zergs find us so delicious.

Hi Dirame,

I’ve wanted to make a build like this for a long time, but never thought of using Runes of the Adventurer and Med Kit swap. Thanks for the cool videos and guide.

Do you ever use Elixir R to chain multiple dodges or do you save it for stun breaks only and consider the Endurance refill a bonus? It seems weird to have a stun break come with endurance refill since stuns usually happen as openers when our Endurance is full already.

Just saw this in another thread discussing possible buffs to Thumper and Rifle turrets:

“Phineas Poe.3018
Yeah, I especially like how people go on about how Deployable Turrets means you can now toss them in unreachable areas.
Well if they’re unreachable, that means you’re stuck with the extended cooldown when you’re ready to move on.
Just one of many suspect design choices of the Engineer. Though I still love the class and would love to try out turrets in the next patch.”

Until they fix the cooldowns and make them tougher, turrets will just be a gimmick.

Zaviel.1245:

Grackleflint.4956:

Zaviel.1245:

- Turret placement cooldown reduced to 5 seconds when picked up.

This is too short and would result in (forgive me for borrowing slang from WoW) turret twisting. People would pick up and drop turrets to force attacks. Net Turret attack every 5 seconds? Yes please.

You miss-quote, it was Behmen.4360 who said that, not me.

Fixed. Sorry about that.

While we’re on the subject of turrets I’d like to point out a design flaw in Deployable Turrets. I assume that a dedicated Turret build is the target for this trait. Here’s the problem with it. You are actually punished for using it because the idea with DT is to put your turrets out of reach. This seems great at first, unless you want to move to a new location. With no way to pick up your turrets that are now perched on top of things or clinging precariously to ledges, you must detonate them. Now you have to wait for the full cooldown of each and every turret. Sure, you have your toolbelt skills for added offense, but their cooldowns are long and their effects weak at best.

I would suggest that Deployable Turrets be changed to include a cooldown reduction for all turrets.

I would also like to see all of our turret related traits moved to the Inventions trait line.

Behmen.4360:

- Turret placement cooldown reduced to 5 seconds when picked up.

This is too short and would result in (forgive me for borrowing slang from WoW) turret twisting. People would pick up and drop turrets to force attacks. Net Turret attack every 5 seconds? Yes please.

Stomp+Smoke Vent

I’ve gotten really good at anticipating anti-stomp moves, so I use Flame Thrower’s Smoke Vent right before my stomp lands to blind my target. It’s better than wasting Elixir S just to stomp someone and it has a shorter cooldown.

Big Ol’ Bomb+Static Shield

When a melee fighter is rushing you at a control point drop Big Ol’ Bomb and immediately activate Static Shield. Most players use their gap closer as soon as they’re in range so they’ll hit your shield eating the stun and then get blown back by Big Ol’ Bomb. This prevents them from dodging or blocking the bomb. This is a nice control opener and will buy you time to apply conditions or start your damage rotation.

CriSPeH.8512:

@OP
PPL missed the point because it seemed like you presenting a control build than complaining that it didnt do enough dmg.
I understood your point only because I completely agree with you and its something that has been on my mind since the game released.
A few more tests would have cleared it up, using different combonations of are vast supply of CC skills.

Like Amadeus said the root of the whole problem stems from our Kits.
We get a damage tax on our Weapons to offset the versatility of being able to switch kits every 1 sec. Meaning if our damage with weapons was comparable to other professions than our ability to switch to kits and back so quickly would give us a great advantage over those professions.
So this sounds fair by itself but it leaves all the Engineers who want to be Gadgeteers, Turreteers or Elixirholics in a much weaker state.
So to run a build without Kits you basically have to take a secondary damage trait like Static Discharge or Pee-filled Elixirs to make up for the great loss of DPS by not having a kit.

So your point that with all of our CC we lack the damage to make the CC worth it is a valid one. Its just the problem stems more from our kits not because we have so much CC.
Which is also why the class is so hard to balance, if they want to make any single thing stronger like our MH weapons, gadgets or turrets they will have to also consider how stong they will be if ran along with Kits.

I couldn’t agree more, and I acknowledge that I did a poor job of presenting my point. I may do this over again—post a few different builds and some data to go with it. I don’t know how much good it will do though since you’re absolutely right about our kits being the root of our low mh dmg. It’s a larger balance issue and would probably not be so glaring if turrets, gadgets, and to a smaller degree elixirs, were brought up in strength and reliability.

I would hate to see our MH damage go up so high that kits received the nerf bat. I’d rather see other utility options be as useful as kits.

PinCushion.7390:

@OP

Imagine how easy it’d be for your Warrior buddies to land their 100b with all that immobilize you’re running. Imagine how hard it is for enemy Warriors to land their 100b with you knocking them on their bottoms every 3 seconds.

And, btw, I might just steal your build for WvW grouping. Everyone brings DPS. Nobody ever thinks about Control until some Ele just leaves a fight instead of getting stunned, chilled, knocked down, crippled, and immobilized over and over.

Warriors have easy access to Stability so once they see what you’re about your fun will be over pretty quickly. Now, that’s not to say that control is useless, you just need to be in a team fight situation where there is very good coordination and communication. People have to be on board with focusing marked targets or you’ll just be knocking someone around for the fun of it. You can really trait this set up however you want. Like many people in this thread have repeated ad nauseum you can trait Static Discharge to get a damage boost, but honestly I think that the boost is negligible considering the long cooldown of LPBR, and the ground targeting of Mine Field which causes SD to shoot into the ground.

Trait for survival. Your role will be controlling hard targets and making them easy prey for your team.

Thanks for acknowledging my point, Amadeus. I really appreciate it. I couldn’t agree with you more about kits. All of my viable builds include at least one kit, usually 2, less frequently 3-4, but they’re always needed in some capacity.

athuria.2751:

Question: were you using Jump Shot at all in your rotation? That adds a huge chunk of damage from the rifle, and with the amount of immobilizes you have landing both the leap and the land shouldn’t have been a lot of issue.

I’m pretty sure our low MH damage is our “versatility tax” and not our control, but a one-build demo (that we still have no idea how it was traited) that was tested in only one mode of play (1v1) doesn’t really prove that control isn’t a significant piece in our viability. Especially since your focus on control is so extreme.

I made sure to use all of the rifle’s abilities.

I chose to focus on control because Arenanet’s design philosophy for GW2 focuses on dps, control, and support. Since I already know that self buffing (which really isn’t true support) through elixirs is viable, I didn’t test it. I also know that kit builds are viable, so I didn’t test those. So I tried a kitless control build because control is often cited as a reason why our mh dmg is low. I personally believe it is too low and unjustifiably so. I feel like this a really simple concept to grasp, but it seems to be causing a lot of confusion.

Thanks for the advice Amadeus. You make good points and I don’t think you’re being rude.

I wish I could reset this discussion because I feel I have a good point to make, and I should have given more thought to fleshing it out. I’m trying to take the focus off of kits and show how weak our main hand weapon damage is. Kits are a great solution and find a place in all of our viable and competitive pve and pvp builds. However, I think that being forced to use a kit to compensate is a problem. No other profession is forced to take a certain type or types of utilities. Like waka said: we have to take at least one kit, and one stun breaker. Then we’re left with one utility of our choice. This isn’t a case of kits being too good, it’s a case of most other choices being too weak. Now, we do have some players showcasing the power of elixirs, but again, that’s a very narrow build and I would argue that elixirs are also necessary. The majority of my builds use a mix of kits and elixirs in varying ratios. My main hand choices are usually a matter of what sigil do I need; do I need two? Better use p/p or p/s then. Not—I really need this main hand, or mh/oh combo because it’s amazing.

Gadgets and Turrets rarely if ever make the cut, and my main hand weapon is swapped out and in much like a kit—use the cooldowns, then swap out because the damage is terrible.

I’ve changed the title of the thread to help some people get the point I’m making. If it still isn’t clear, then I don’t know what to do for you.

I’m not asking for everything, Orion. Lay off the hyperbole please.

What I’m demonstrating is that our main hand weapon damage is so low, that I can CC someone for many consecutive seconds (over 10 in most cases), and still not put out the damage needed to kill them.

Your mace warrior comparison doesn’t hold up because I chose our highest damage main hand weapon, the rifle, and you chose the lowest for warrior, the mace. If you have to use the lowest damage warrior weapon to make your point you’re already losing this argument.

On the subject of thought, how thoughtful is stun>100 blades?

Also, please address waka. He said “Warriors do have control, it’s just that every warrior uses the same utility skills. Whether or not you think these control utility skills are kitten they still do have them as options.” I’m really interested in your response to that, or were you just casually kittening about warrior’s lack of control without any intent on making a real point?

Finally, you’re still missing the point of my demonstration. I feel the need to repeat that this was a demo. It’s not a serious build I’m working on. The point was to show that the more control engineers dip into, the weaker our damage gets. We are overly reliant on kits and might stacking to do competitive damage, while other classes simply have high damage main hand weapon options. Saying Engineers have control as a reason for our low main hand weapon damage is disingenuous since no amount of control makes up for the lack of damage.

Orion the Cursed.1206:

^Greatsword warriors have no control and survivability. If you choose skills that do no damage dont cry about it.

You completely missed the point. It sounds like you’re too focused on being defensive about the low skill cap for GS warrior play. I’ll repeat, when people come here telling engineers that we make up for damage with control, they’re missing the point—that without the damage to back it up, it’s just that—control.

Dirame.8521:

Grackleflint.4956:

I decided to try a control build with high power and crit.

Rifle, Med Kit, Net Turret, Personal Battering Ram, Throw Mine, and Crate.

Most of my 1v1 fights went something like this, with some variation:
Use hip shot waiting for twitchy player (99% of players) to waste dodge rolls on pointless movement. Net Shot, Throw Mine, Blunderbuss, Overcharged shot towards Mine, then PBR to the face (*hilarious btw—hoping I caused some broken mice and keyboards over this combo). Drop Net Turret, Net Shot again, Net Turret overcharge, cripple runners with Launch PBR, rinse repeat.

The point is, even with a power crit build, I could not do enough damage to kill players before they got annoyed and disengaged, or figured out they couldn’t faceroll me forcing them to open a deadly can of whoopass on me. The latter I found VERY irritating, because obviously other profs have the tools to decimate me and most of the time are too lazy to focus on winning enough to do it. Get a faceroller angry though, and watch out!

(*hilarious because you knock them back into the mine which knocks them towards you again, then you respond with PBR knocking them away again. this causes them to eat dirt for a few seconds and makes the ragdoll graphics glitch in entertaining ways)

TL;DR
When people come on here talking about the amount of control Engineers have, I have news for them. It is meaningless without the damage to back it up. Maybe in a world where people actually focus marked targets, but we all know how useful that is.

I see your frustration and I have two builds for you that could help. Also if you show me the build you used, I might be able to help give it more damage.
So the question is, do you want me to show you the builds or do you want me to help modify your build to do more damage?

I appreciate the offer, but I did this as an exercise to show that our access to control doesn’t make us viable. You know, the whole control/damage/support thing they’re doing with GW2? Many posters claim that our control abilities can make up for low weapon damage. Well, now imagine a Greatsword Warrior with this kind of control. They could kill you just with their 1-5 abilities. An Engineer using this much control can’t close the deal.

Ego.2358:

Do you have static discharge traited to use with your pbr toolbelt? Do you use your control to interupt clutch skills like heals/resets or just to annoy?

If your hip shotting while face tanking their damage then you open up your control combo when they start to heal between 50 and 70 percent health you should be able to drop them really.

I could make some adjustments to the build to add an evasion/tanking element to it. Again, this is just an exercise to demonstrate that control is only a small piece of the viability pie.

Vekthor.8914:

Yes.

But well, that might be decent in 2v2?

That’s what I’m thinking. In a team fight this build would be okay—IF—people would coordinate and focus targets. That’s a big if.

waka.9826:

I know this problem as well. Engineer just can’t do damage without atleast 1 kit and that’s the whole problem of the engineer design. We HAVE to take a stun breaker, we HAVE to take a kit, that leaves us with basically 1 utility slot left for free pickings.

I did this as an exercise to see how viable a controlling build is. On any other profession this much control would spell doom for an opponent. I also get the idea of interrupting heals, but you can only lock someone out of a heal for a couple of seconds. They still have their stun break, invulnerability move, dodge rolling, block, etc. I wish interrupting heals was a more viable strategy. Reducing heals through poison seems like a better way to go.

I decided to try a control build with high power and crit.

Rifle, Med Kit, Net Turret, Personal Battering Ram, Throw Mine, and Crate.

Most of my 1v1 fights went something like this, with some variation:
Use hip shot waiting for twitchy player (99% of players) to waste dodge rolls on pointless movement. Net Shot, Throw Mine, Blunderbuss, Overcharged shot towards Mine, then PBR to the face (*hilarious btw—hoping I caused some broken mice and keyboards over this combo). Drop Net Turret, Net Shot again, Net Turret overcharge, cripple runners with Launch PBR, rinse repeat.

The point is, even with a power crit build, I could not do enough damage to kill players before they got annoyed and disengaged, or figured out they couldn’t faceroll me forcing them to open a deadly can of whoopass on me. The latter I found VERY irritating, because obviously other profs have the tools to decimate me and most of the time are too lazy to focus on winning enough to do it. Get a faceroller angry though, and watch out!

(*hilarious because you knock them back into the mine which knocks them towards you again, then you respond with PBR knocking them away again. this causes them to eat dirt for a few seconds and makes the ragdoll graphics glitch in entertaining ways)

TL;DR
When people come on here talking about the amount of control Engineers have, I have news for them. It is meaningless without the damage to back it up. Maybe in a world where people actually focus marked targets, but we all know how useful that is.

Purie.9046:

Shar.3402:

this is a tPvP build, so no food and no comparable armor in pve/wvw (since rampager stats in pvp are different than rampager stats in pve/wvw)

Exactly. This was first posted on Structered PvP section but mods moved it to engineer forums.

leashmaygoss.2140:

Davinci.8027:

The original build is Hiba’s, not Teldo’s.

Ayestes.1273:

I’ve even heard it came to Hiba from an unknown source, but many of us had very similar builds regardless. Hiba deserves credit regardless for spreading it around and destroying everyone in highest level of play & shifting the engineer meta with it though.

Who cares. I just mentioned teldo cuz I got it from him.

Right? I’ve never understood the obsession with getting authorship for anything someone does in a game.

Anymras.5729:

I happen to like turrets as they are – secondary methods of attack. Replacing all turrets with boon dispensers would leave people like me, who use turrets because they like turrets, going “Well, great, I guess I’m Boony McBoon, the Boon Booner.”

If they suck, it’s because they don’t scale well enough, are too fragile, buggy in terms of AI and traits, and immobile with long cooldowns.

So if they suck it’s because of everything about them. Got it.

Penguin.5197:

Hah that harpoon post was probably mine. Anyways to get the most out of combat turrets in spvp you should definitely try rifle/turret/rocket combo with high condition damage (I prefer rabid). The base attack for harpoon turret is already high but doesn’t scale with damage like the bleeding part of it does. With those three combined and a tanky build, you are pretty much undefeatable 1v1 or even 1v2 underwater. I also trait them since I try and keep that point ours, but you only need to trait if you plan on staying on that point. Otherwise stuff like turret regen isn’t useful.

Good to know.

When you say rifle/turret/rocket combo, do you mean rifle/fire/rocket, or rifle/thumper/rocket?

I’ve used both grenades and turrets without traits under water. In my personal experience, I’ve had better results with the un-traited turrets. I would also like to hear what other people think.

I would imagine if you have any traits that boost condition damage, or equipment that supports conditions, the grenades would be a better choice. Maybe a combination would do well.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in sPvP and the one area that I feel completely ineffective in is Underwater Combat. That is until recently. This week I was reading a post about turrets and someone pointed out that the Rifle Turret becomes a Harpoon Turret when under water, and the damage is much higher. This prompted me to try it out to see if the increased damage actually made a difference in my underwater fights. I was surprised by the result, especially when it’s overcharged. My usual tactic under water is to chug Elixirs B and U, then pop Elixir X and hope for Whirlpool. It’s too random, and only kills extremely bad players, so I’ve recently changed my underwater bar to Med Kit, Rocket Turret, Rifle/Harpoon Turret, Net Turret, and Supply Crate with very good results.

Here’s what I’ve noticed. Even good players are not very adept at movement under water. A lot of players rely on their combat abilities for movement whether it’s closing the gap, creating distance, or evading. If I place my Turrets off of the point and in hard to reach or hard to see locations, they last a long time and provide quite a bit of damage. Universally, players seem to ignore them in underwater situations. Whether it’s too hard to swim to each one, or the challenge of gauging distance uw, I’m not sure. Having the turrets augment the rather mediocre damage of the Harpoon Gun, I’ve been able to win many 1v1, and 1v2 fights that would have otherwise been over (for me) in mere moments back when I was trying to adapt my land based strategy to water combat.

If you’ve ever wondered how good turrets are under water, or are struggling to feel effective there, try a turret build for uw combat. It takes just a few seconds of set up, but I feel it’s worth the effort.

Basics: If you’re assaulting a point, drop Net Turret first and immediately overcharge it. This will give you time to place your other two without being harassed. You can even fire your Net Wall for added insurance. Once your turrets are in place, go to work with your harpoon gun. Save Scatter Mines for opponents who are in melee range, and try to get a feel for how Retreating Grapple and Net Wall can help you neutralize the point. Keep Timed Charge on cooldown since there is no reason to wait to use it. You’re main goal is to control your opponent while the turrets augment your damage. If you’re defending a point, you have the luxury of setting up your turrets before a fight. I recommend keeping the game sound on because your horrible turret AI is actually a benefit in this situation. Since they have a habit of firing at enemies that are not yet in line of site, they grant you a makeshift early warning system. Just don’t waste your overcharge actions on opponents that aren’t yet in line of sight.

Finally, don’t forget your Toolbelt. The Rocket, Net Attack, and Harpoon (uw version of Surprise Shot) can be a big help. That and Supply Crate. It adds a lot to the damage and chaos in a wonderful way.

This thread deserves to be added to the stickies.

nakoda.4213:

Grackleflint.4956:

Q: Is there a cooldown on activating kits?
A: Currently there aren’t any restrictions on when and how often an engineer can switch between kits, because many of the engineer’s kits tend to have a very narrow, specific effect.

http://www.arena.net/blog/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-engineer

lawl

the trait is not the ability to swap kits.

your ability to swap kits is still not hindered by anything but the small GCD on all abilities.

just because a single trait got fixed does not mean you cannot play your class. it means you cannot just spam KR procs as your offense.

You never could because of their own cooldowns. You could chain several, but they were still subject to their own cooldowns. That’s the point. This change is throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I just thought we all needed some laughs.

Why does it filter

D
E
R
P

That’s just silly.

Your morning cup of kitten Enjoy.

Q: Is there a cooldown on activating kits?
A: Currently there aren’t any restrictions on when and how often an engineer can switch between kits, because many of the engineer’s kits tend to have a very narrow, specific effect.

http://www.arena.net/blog/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-engineer

lawl

Adamantium.3682:

You simply have to jump now. Jumping is unacceptable? Right… it’s better when you don’t have to think and can kill anyone with 1 click.

1. Fire Overcharged Shot to knock down opponent so they can’t dodge the easily avoidable Net Shot or Magnet.
2. Fire Net Shot, or Switch to Took Kit and use Magnet.
3. Walk into enemy and swap to Grenade Kit
4. Use Grenade Barrage

So that’s 4-5 clicks. If you’re opponent dodges or uses a stun breaker or invulnerability move, you need to wait 30+ seconds to set it up again. Spoiler Alert: Most players do know how to dodge and do use stun breakers and invuln moves. Your point is invalid.

The +/-30-50% when it comes to re-balancing things (everything from encounters to skills) speaks to a very novice level of game design experience. Especially since these changes are often made with little to no testing.

My #1 Tip for WvW is: Know your surroundings.

Also, keep in mind that due to lag you will think that enemy players are further away than they actually are. If you anticipate a zerg coming your way listen to your gut. Know where the nearest safe haven is and make a run for it. Travel time in WvW is awful, so avoid death as much as possible. Sometimes you’ll run into a roaming Thief who just won’t take no for an answer though. It’s funny how they think WvW roaming = kitten stroking dueling.

I would also like to see an increase in Bomb Kit #1’s area of effect.

Bomb Kit #1 will auto attack if your target is within melee range and in front of you. This does not make sense for the type of damage this does—area of effect damage. Imagine if ground targeting was disabled depending on your facing to your target. In the course of doing what an engineer should do against a melee opponent: moving a lot, dodging when possible, and generally making it more difficult to be hit—bomb kit’s #1 attack will simply stop auto-attacking (don’t confuse this with Auto Attack being disabled) forcing the Engineer to face their target, establish melee range and press 1 again.

It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t had to try it. If you’re interested take your Engineer into the Mists and use the practice NPCs. Try using Bomb Kit #1 while performing a lot of movement, and you’ll see it happen.

As a quality of life improvement I would like to suggest increasing the range at which we can be with a hostile target and still trigger our Bomb Kit #1 autoattack. Movement is a key component of all combat in GW2, and to move and dodge while having to maintain melee range (we’re talking right on top of a target) while using an Area Effect Damage kit is a huge drawback. I would also like to suggest removing the facing requirement. This kit’s purpose is to use area attacks, and it is not currently supported by design.

Feels like a kit. I don’t want to spam #1, so I swap to pistols to use cooldowns, and then swap to something else. That feels like kit use to me.

I agree, Ayestes. I tend to prioritize whoever is going to cause the most havoc. If I see a necro spamming wells, I get off of the point and try to kite them away from the fight to keep my team from getting ruined by well spam since they’re clustered on the objective. If I see a thief that is bursting people down in seconds, I’ll focus that player because they’re likely squishy enough for me to deal with. If I see a Mesmer hitting the whole group with lots of Shatters I try to keep them marked the entire fight since it’s easy to lose them. The only time I will call target on an engineer is if they’re spamming grenades on a point and largely being ignored. It’s like letting an Elemental Shaman free cast in WoW. Your team will go down if you don’t get rid of them fast.

Anet: “Sure thing. So we’ll just adjust rifle damage down to pistol levels. Anything else we can do for you?”

Seriously though, I agree with this. Pistols need to be brought up quite a bit. Right now P/S or P/P feels more like a kit to me. I swap to it to use cooldowns, and then swap back to a kit. When Pistol 2-3/5 are on cooldown, they hit like a wet noodle.

Hey Pikachoops. That was me the other night. Thanks for the build advice. You’re a good example of what the Engineer community should strive for.

Haters are just jealous of your fun. Also, a pack of Engineers looks dead sexy.