Guild Wars 2

The condi build is Pistol/Pistol. Look it up on qT or metabattle.

Deli.1302:

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

Blackgate and Jade Quarry both opened because they were below the population cap. Blackgate currently has a smaller population than Jade Quarry and some of the combined linked worlds populations (combined linked worlds population example being Crystal Desert + Darkhaven + Devona’s Rest combined has a higher population than Blackgate). With all that being said, we do keep track of the transfers that happen. Since we have been seeing an increase in transfer behavior with the past 2 world links, we are discussing whether we want to change how we calculate WvW world populations or if we want to lower the WvW population caps.

There is really no constructive way to respond to this. It’s obvious you guys don’t play WvW very much if you think that CD+DH+DR would even have a chance to have beaten BG. Hint = no they don’t.

Strange I can’t find where she said that CD+crew could beat BG. I do see where she states that the CD grouping has a higher amount of WvW players (higher population) than BG, but as it’s been stated many times in this thread, that doesn’t mean very much and she seems to acknowledge that in the last sentence.

The constructive way to respond would be a “thank you for letting us know why this strange occurrence happened, and thank you for working towards making sure it doesn’t happen again”. Maybe toss in some suggestions or thoughts on how ‘population’ should be calculated, like as far as I’m concerned population shouldn’t be the factor but instead server activity, maybe a combination of server activity, server population, and server strength even (t1 servers not picking up a link even if the other factors would grant one, or the flip side of not losing a link if they’re not dominating t1 so we don’t have the nose dives of former t1 servers that we’ve seen).

rhayan.9580:

ANET cant fix Casual’s etc. Not their fault if BG players stays longer on WvW

Well they could base their ‘population’ counts more on activity rather than just a head count. If serverA has 1000 people but most of them log in to do their dailies then log out. Then serverB has 700 players but most spend 2-3hours a night in WvW capturing and killing, then there’s no doubt that serverB would likely be more successful than serverA.

Perhaps calculating active population based on worldXP or participation points given out would be better than just having an ‘do they wvw sometimes’ headcount?

Xenesis.6389:

People are not really going to boycott their playing time, unless they’re getting overwhelmed pretty badly by BG. So you can call for a boycott but doubt it’ll happen, same as hardcore double teams ALMOST never happen.

But if you can’t beat’em, join’em.

fixed, we all know the one time that did happen, it was pretty glorious.

Raids you’ll want Vipers usually, the things other than just DPS that Engi does fits that build better. Fractals either works fine. Dungeons you’d want Zerker as a things die so quickly dropping one quick burst rotation is all you have time to do a lot of the time.

I’d say invest in Vipers, come back and grab a second set of zerker at some point.

Advanced or beginner? Beginner FT builds with a lean towards passive defense would make sense, as you get more advanced and learn to use blinds/blocks/dodges it becomes far better to lean offensive in things and let those active defensive tools keep you going. So, yeah it makes a difference I generally just take the Condi or Power metabattle builds (or well at least those or slight variations) out into open world. But, those would be the advanced side, if you need a more simple one what was linked above will treat you well though I’d probably use more power oriented stats, rifle/ft while having condi elements I don’t feel are worth any focus there and I’d prefer Knights or Marauder if you can and healing turret always, learn to use the combo field with rifle leap or ft blast for even more healing.

Anyone know if this still works?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rjo2S8Syrs

That last jump is a pita though, only ever got it once myself.

I wouldn’t be opposed to a few thousand ‘free’ proofs of heroics.

Magnus Godrik.5841:

Raid diversity is not dead. Players just want to mimic what the pros do. Which is fine if it works for you. You can still succeed with necros and revs, it just takes a little longer now

Yup, hell did a no Updraft Gorseval PUG with 3 condi ranger, 2 minstrel druids, 2 PS, 2 Tempest the other day, we got it and that’s with a fair amount of mistakes made too (I went to wrong spirit on one split >.<, and lots of slams taken by the group).

X T D.6458:

. BG on the other hand is always locked, but like any other server needs to recruit new blood from time to time to stay competitive.

Can you really say this while you’re winning t1?

Ranael.6423:

Sarrs.4831:

My extremely lazy thoughts on raid diversity:

- Boon Duration is too easy to game. Items like Platinum Doubloon, Rune of Leadership are insanely overbudget; when converting to Concentration the extremely overbudgeted nature of the items are revealed.
- This generosity with Boon Duration results in overprevalence of specific boons; chiefly in PvE, Quickness (also an issue in WvW). Quickness 100% uptime should not happen without serious (and arguably overcompensatory) compromises in your composition.

100% Quickness uptime does not make any sense and drastically hinders multiple classes. Chiefly I want to speak about Revenant and Scrapper but there are other examples. Impossible Odds should be a massive DPS boost for a DPS rev but it does nothing. Applied Force should be a reasonable boost for a Scrapper but it does nothing.

There’s also a case to be made for +condition duration effects but those tend to be condition specific (which are more or less fine IMO) or not particularly prevalent.

There’s also a case to be made that a party should not be permanently at 25 might purely through the output of 1 supporter (PS), and that that also significantly reduces the amount of build diversity, but that’s not a battle that I really think needs to be fought at the moment.

I do agree with you that perma quickness does not make sense since the boon was meant to be a extra boost and as you said it makes applied force, impossible odds or fatal frenzy totally obsolete. What is even “worse” is that the character giving perma quickness for AA also gives perma alacrity… and does so without investing that much in boon duration gear.
At least since last patch you need 2 chrono which should have meant a dps loss to compensate the perma bonus… but it turned out it was not because alacrity had a smaller uptime before.

But speaking about support builds : PSEA warriors grants to 5 people (could even be stretched to seven) 1070 power (from 2400 base power), 170 condi damage (around 1600 base depending on classes), 170 precision (8 % crit chance) 170 ferocity and 250 healing power. Ok they do lose dps in this configuration but given what they give they should be around what a chrono does if not lower…

Don’t forget Might gives Condi Damage as well as Power. So that’s 920 condi damage if you’re going to count full might stacks.

Walhalla.5473:

Does anyone care to expalin why the last Changes are moving to a healthy Metagame Environment?

The only scenario that would make sense to me is if they started with the next expansions elites and looked at what was needed and decided on this change. Something like they went to the drawing board and decided they needed alternatives to PS/Druid/Chrono, but realized that 10 man 100% quickness was probably too much and didn’t want to do it again so instead they brought that down so they only needed to match 5 man 100% quickness uptime.

But, we all know that’s very unlikely to have happened, it was probably done with little regard for PVE, just IFF that’s the case I could understand.

Ging.6485:

The simple solution here is, lower Gorseval/KC etc… the DPS check bosses HP by about 5% or so, and everything should balance out decently.

That wouldn’t change anything unfortunately because people will still follow the Meta whatever it is. Being ‘Good enough’ is not something this community cares about.

I love the idea of meta, I love the research and pushing for perfection. But, I hate that people take these ideas and twist them into being a requirement. Especially lately seeing people whine about having to use 2 Ele’s which means in a PUG group where people are playing poorly you’re going to take 2 squishies and everyone taking 33% more damage than they would if you subbed in a Rev/Guard. Use your god kitten brains people and don’t try to copy the top guilds when playing at a lower skill level!

Przemyslaw.5891:

What documents? What logic? Guys dont you see that they r doing just random stuff here and some there, like a lottery, thats all.

Yeah but I wanna see what was on the other squares that got missed by the darts.

sophiewhite.3149:

of course you can bring rev to raids. thats not the issue. the issue is getting a group. whats meta matters. 3 people can kill VG. but are you going to see constant 3 man groups running it? no. you have to be part of the meta to actually play.

Rev isn’t just ‘ok’ it’s a meta option. 2Ele = best dps on large hitbox, 1 Ele + 1 Rev and 2 D/W Ele’s are equivalent DPS so on small hitboxes Rev is a great choice. But then you also get perma protection which should not be discounted especially in groups where ‘you have to be part of the meta to actually play’ because if the group is thinking like that having that 33% less damage taken is HUGE.

Ghorman.1368:

So what do you suggestion stats wise? I have full ascended gear marauders and also viper’s for my druid. Can I get away with exotic magi if I have to heal?

Yes, and just a little tip I think it’s Melandru and Lyssa Temples in Orr have exotic armor/trinkets for karma if you have a bunch of that. You will want Monk Runes from Ascalon dungeons though. I’ve been able to heal almost every raid with that(haven’t done Xera yet with druid) though I haven’t solo healed Sabatha/Matthias/Escort/KC either, but ideally you want 2 druids anyways for the damage buffs.

AndyS.5630:

Jerus.4350:

That’s only true because of GW2’s communities inability to understand that viable means it’s ok and that optimal does not mean required.

It’s not viable to raid without Might or Quickness considering how big their effect is. It may be viable to swap around some DPS classes, but not dropping buffs.

Indeed the game suffers from the same problems WOW did when it was less than 2 years old. MC and BWL only allowed Mages to be Frost, Patchwerk in Nax was commonly run with like 10 Mages and only 1 Warlock. 10 years after that games can avoid this kind of problems. But no, we have 3 superstars.

We have all seen the 1 profession videos though. But, yes I will agree support roles are currently VERY strong and I really think the next elites need to give some other professions comparable options so we have more choices. I’d love to play an Engi that provides solid might while healing, or a Necro that scares everyone to death giving them quickness and % damage modifiers. Stuff like that.

Walhalla.5473:

Crinn.7864:

Err why Valkyrie? Beserker is going to be just straight better.

The usefulness of quickness wells is going to depend on your Mesmer.

Too much Berserker is wasting Stats on Power Reaper. On Raid Bosses you’ll have 50% Crit Chance Base thanks to Decimate Defenses. Add 20% to that due to Fury and you have 70% overall. Then you also get Spotter and Banner of Discipline. Both together should give around 20% ( correct me if I’m wrong ) So you just need to fill up 10% using Berserker.

When you’ve done that you can go and use Valk Gear, thus not wasting Stats and gaining Vitality.

If you use then the Superior Sharpening Stone you get more Power out of it because of this Effect “Gain power equal to 4% of your vitality” Its not a big difference but every Stat Point of Power helps.^^

Spotter is 150 prec, banner is 170prec, so total 320precision. At a rate of about 21 precision = 1% crit chance it’s a tad over 15%, so you want ~15% crit chance at least on power Reaper for raids

And, yes WTB GS buffs or just power in general, but I think GS is weak everywhere in the game really, so it would make sense to hit there.

Dahkeus.8243:

Wanna raid in WoW? As long as you’re playing anything but Frost DK or Ele Shaman, you’re good to go (although Brewmaster Monk may also be on that list). However, there is at least one very strong spec on every single class and it’s usually more like 2-3.

Wanna raid in GW2? There’s a short list of builds desired for raids that doesn’t include 2 classes. Oh, and you’ll probably need to have an alt or two because of how much some fights favor one profession that’s dead weight on another fight.

That’s only true because of GW2’s communities inability to understand that viable means it’s ok and that optimal does not mean required.

Dahkeus.8243:

Jerus.4350:

Kinda funny when Rev and it’s buffs is still very viable and the profession hardest hit is actually Necro. But, groups of pugs are called grumbles for a reason

Necro is still desired because they still fit so well on certain fights, even if they took a big hit overall.

Rev doesn’t really have any fight that requires or highlights its strengths.

Yeah I always say people underestimate Plague signet, or at least forget to mention it when talking about Necro.

Anyways, Rev still has plenty of strengths, want perma protection and gap filling fury/might as well as an equivalent amount of DPS? Well rev provides that!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/58jv0l/raidschronomancer_a_test_on_the_new_quickness/d91aqoe/

Guy outlines it there pretty well. The numbers usually posted include that extra 150 ferocity, take that out and dps drops on everyone. His math shows that with your normal build the dps will drop around 400 which is actually something that can be made up with the mesmer swapping an air sigil sword in for the concentration one.

So again, equal or at least comparable damage with full protection uptime and backup might/fury just in case. Not a bad deal at all. Large hitbox I’m sure Ele’s take the cake but either way Rev is still alive and well.

Kinda funny when Rev and it’s buffs is still very viable and the profession hardest hit is actually Necro. But, groups of pugs are called grumbles for a reason

AnariiUK.7409:

Did a couple of tests earlier now that crossfire is fixed.

It seems to peak at about 40k DPS (with some shenanigans) against the small golem, my rotations could be improved slightly. Video here.

Interestingly, that means ranger is actually the highest DPS in the game against small targets.

Curious why Bristleback? Thought Lynx/Tiger were the top damage choices. Is his position inside the enemy making a difference?

Mikkel.8427:

They are not accounting for the stack limit and they are also assuming that Illusionary Inspiration is getting reset by CS.

Illusionary Inspiration is reset by CS, And yes what I said would be overstacking, my bad.

Anyways running it, I was having quickness drop after a while but I think my mistake is casting my phantasms too quickly as the refresh on Illusionary Inspiration is longer than the phantasms themselves, again my mistake there. I would get quickness for a minute or two then it’d drop for a few seconds before everything came off cooldown and I was able to bump it all back on again.

Anyways, so not quite as simple as just hitting everything off cooldown but I think my mistake is just having to time the traited SoI right. Does the trait’s cooldown reduce with Alacrity such that you could just match up the two?

cranos.5913:

NikeEU.7690:

maybe idk, think I’d rather go for a d/wh ele.

Dwh ele makes like 28k dps small hit box.

Rev makes 26k dps small hit box.

Rev solves any Might, Fury or Protection issues your team has due to buffing the condi ps and making like 4 might of its own. It let’s your mesmers use scholar runes or run dps food. It buffs each member of the group by about 1.5k dps. 26k + 6k = 32k.

Yes yes, no one in my guild likes rev mate. I’m not hating that much on it. Not rly convinced on that 1.5k tho. Sounds a bit like nemesis math when you take the same amount for each member.

Think this is important when one member is a Druid and one a Mesmer, will that increase really be 1.5k? But, either way it just needs to be 2k difference to catch up to the Ele right? And then you also get the benefits of the extra might/fury and protection.

Ryn.6459:

I dont play mesmer yet, but assuming 6s each:

SoI 24s (~18 w/ Alacrity)
Traited SoI – 24s (~18 w/ Alacrity)
Well of Action – 25s (~19 w/ Alacrity)
Tides of Time – 30s (~23 w/ Alacrity)

Thats enough to get permaquickness by just spamming on cd, no? Am i missing something?

Looks right to me, seems pretty simple actually. Start fight, sword clone, weapon swap, Tides of Time, start shield Phantasm, CS before it ends and hit Well of Action inside, hit shield phantasm again once CS ends for another trait SoI, and Well of Action again, SoI a few seconds later as Tides of Time would have worn off, then just keep it all on cooldown?

NikeEU.7690:

We tested 5 man sub squad dps.

On large hit box 2 ele as dps was the winner by so far no other option makes sense.

In small hitbox double ele and 1 ele 1 guard and 1 ele 1 rev were roughly equal with the rev perhaps being slightly ahead due to more consistent buff uptime.

The worst was 1 ele 1 thief which was noticeably worse than any of the others which was surprising. My guess is because thief doesn’t help with might or fury. It would be worth trying rev plus thief and no ele on a small hit box but we didn’t think of it.

Did ya’ll try Condi Ranger/Engi? And was that Guard Hammer? Think it’s worth noting the 2 Ele means all your DPS are nice and squishy and you don’t have perma protection (druids can provide good but not complete coverage) where with the Rev or Guard you’d have complete coverage.

Seems to me that there is still a fair amount of options, just instead of Rev having a ‘guaranteed’ slot you now have 2 mesmers. And, well, no thieves :/

Am I the only one that thinks people forget about Plague Signet far too often?

Xyonon.3987:

I’m gonna change it to something like THIS. Any thoughts on improvment?

Yeah, slot Restorative Mantras. :b, couldn’t resist.

Something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAsensICFohlfC+pBEgilnjq+PT0F9sACgEDdx+gHD-TRCFQBtb/B8p+CCVeVIVIg2JAoiKBRiSE0pHAAPAASB41UL-e

100% boon duration.

Then the tank Mesmer swapping Leadership runes and Air sigil to durability/doubloon and get:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAsensICFohlfC+pBEgilnj6sACgEr+PT0FFdx+gHD-ThB5wAoU/hz+DY0DUUJIgXAAOlfkCwrpWA-e

Just tossing out ideas. Again, IMO we need a few new stat sets thanks to this change (though they would be good either way). Something like Marauders but with Concentration instead of Vitality (Power/Prec + Fero/Concentration) and for Condi Druid builds a condi ’Zealot" type option something like Condi Damage/Precision+Expertise/Healing Power, or flip flop precision and healing power even.

Anyways, think my Zerk + Chrono rune set is going to my Necro for a WvW build. Might work out nicely, if not I’ll swap the runes out.

One little thing, can we get a Boon duration gear set without toughness please? Like Power Prec/fero concentration 4 stat.

Junkpile.7439:

ALEX.8562:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNcC9YXH59A

like this video

need nerf epidemic plz

Can you explain why those noob defenders won’t interrupt epidemic at all?

They’re on a wall and to get LoS to do so while not being yanked off isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do?

Dahkeus.8243:

Why would you ever bring an engi instead of another ele?

On paper, there’s no reason. Realistically, because they’re perfectly viable and the amount of groups actually running meta compositions correctly is quite minimal so someone who plays Engi well is better than someone who slapped together an Ele with scholar runes that will usually be ineffective and running the rotation terribly while they die due to bad positioning with their low health pool. >.<

Again, no real reason, just on the flip side the only reason not to run Engi is that good players have shown that on a training dummy it’s 3rd ranked DPS at best.

maddoctor.2738:

cranos.5913:

maddoctor.2738:

cranos.5913:

However that completely butchers reapers.

Depends on how big of a nerf we are talking about. There is a mid ground between being OP and useless.

Anet never does things in moderation.

And I agree with that unfortunately. They nerf (and buff) with a chainsaw instead of a butter knife.

And to answer this one:

How do you come to that conclusion?

Because power Engi (probably with Scrapper and hammer) can’t be buffed without upsetting the PVP balance, that’s why I say unless there is a split. And condi Engi is also very powerful on their own, both in PVP and in Raids (hint: they ok damage) so what’s keeping them away of teams as condi dps is the other builds (above all necromancers)

They could be tanks I don’t know how good they are as tanks. Given their amazing sustain in PVP they should be fine but I havent’ seen any tests on that

Power engi is already a thing and very viable, but it doesn’t use Scrapper. Static Discharge + Takedown Round in Tools along with the 10% damage buff all together make for a pretty potent power damage build. Actually the Firebomb buff will give a slight buff to power as well(likely negligible but still there).

The problem with Engi is it’s just behind something else everywhere and it’s in general harder to play. Condi Ranger will take over before condi Engi is accepted if Necros die off as it’s easier to play with similar results.

In a guild group there’s no reason you can’t take an Engi right now, the main problems is that Engi isn’t the best option which has many discounting them, and it’s never a good idea to trust a PUG engi considering the difficulty level.

Dahkeus.8243:

Jerus.4350:

Dahkeus.8243:

Jerus.4350:

Dahkeus.8243:

kitteng.1920:

i am pretty happy with what we got considering i am a mainly a PvE engi player

Why? There’s no way those minor buffs to the physical damage of a condi kit will make enough of a difference to change the fact that engis are still outclassed by other DPS classes in PvE with no distinct advantage to make them worth taking.

Sure, you can still get by if you’re a good player just like before, but you’ll still perform worse than a thief spamming auto attack. =/

Naw, we slightly outclass a thief spamming 1. Now toss in some well timed dodges/2’s onto that thief and then we are outclassed.

Well, yes, assuming they dodge every once in a while to keep endurance from capping, of course.

I think you have to get some bounding dodger and well aimed weakening charges to beat us. We actually do better on our Power build than what you see listed on the Golem because Takedown round will proc past 50% on most bosses thanks to adds. And, Condi is pretty kitten solid especially with the likely meta change to have perma Alacrity.

Any buff to alacrity will help eles just as much and they still outperform engis.

Absolutely but we were talking thief! But, yes that’s exactly why we won’t be grabbing any spots. We’ll still be right there with Rangers on Condi, and Necro still outperforming both if they’re played right with a second necro to Epi bounce, or just in wing2 tossing condi’s back at bosses. Power we’ll still be third/4th seat with Ele/Thief/Guard likely beating us out (about the same as Guard as I understand it but without the utility).

Fay.2357:

It doesn’t just give all buffs. It gives buffs that you currently have active. This means that in the initial setup, you won’t get quickness unless you got lucky from a random SoI proc giving it to you.

Thanks, I guess I misunderstood what people were saying.

Dahkeus.8243:

Jerus.4350:

Dahkeus.8243:

kitteng.1920:

i am pretty happy with what we got considering i am a mainly a PvE engi player

Why? There’s no way those minor buffs to the physical damage of a condi kit will make enough of a difference to change the fact that engis are still outclassed by other DPS classes in PvE with no distinct advantage to make them worth taking.

Sure, you can still get by if you’re a good player just like before, but you’ll still perform worse than a thief spamming auto attack. =/

Naw, we slightly outclass a thief spamming 1. Now toss in some well timed dodges/2’s onto that thief and then we are outclassed.

Well, yes, assuming they dodge every once in a while to keep endurance from capping, of course.

I think you have to get some bounding dodger and well aimed weakening charges to beat us. We actually do better on our Power build than what you see listed on the Golem because Takedown round will proc past 50% on most bosses thanks to adds. And, Condi is pretty kitten solid especially with the likely meta change to have perma Alacrity.

Fay.2357:

100% boon duration, using mimic and well of action.

CS ->shield 5, mimic SoI, well of action, SoI, CS end

This applies 5 stacks of quickness with a total duration of 21 seconds. Illusionary inspiration isn’t here because that’ll proc before you get into CS for at least the first time. The shield 5 stacks last 3 seconds each, so they’re shorter than the rest. The first shield 5 stack will wear off by the end of CS, and the second stack will simply get pushed out later in the combo. For this reason, I’ve not counted that second stack in the total duration.

Well of Action, mimic SoI, SoI

This applies 3 more stacks of quickness with a total duration of 18 seconds. By the time you execute this, the first shield 5 stack will have worn off and well of action will replace it. The first mimic will replace the low duration 3s stack from the return of shield 5. However, this puts us back at 5 stacks. Therefor, it’s imperative that the 2nd usage of SoI is delayed by at least 6 seconds from the time you first used mimic SoI inside of CS. This will likely already be the case, but it’s something to be aware of.

Ok, so that’s the initial combo. With a bit of timing precision, we’ve applied 39 total seconds of quickness. Now, we fast-forward 24 seconds to the next combo split. 24 seconds will consume 4 of your quickness stacks, leaving you with 1 when you star the combo.

Shield 5, SoI trait, SoI, well of action

This combo applies 5 more stacks of quickness with a total duration of 24 seconds. Since the previous last stack should fall off during this combo, all 5 of these stacks should apply unhindered. This brings us up to a total quickness duration of 63 seconds.

This total rotation is on a 57.5 second cooldown. This provides permanent quickness to a 5 man group. In order to buffer this up a bit, you can drop time warp inside the CS rotation. This will mostly be overwritten by the longer 6 second stacks, but it will fill up the gaps a bit and extend the overall duration slightly.

Nice post, curious on something, people are saying SOI will give you the buffs on active, but will it also spread them? So is SOI a 3s group quickness base now? If so wouldn’t you get some trait quickness in the initial setup for CS?

messiah.1908:

this you check every other class dmg buff – 10%-40%
mesmer 6% nice
and they state sustain dmg as mesmer (so we are no longer burst class)
we medium armor and health with below average dmg – ok wth…

6% to your auto(large chunk of your outgoing damage), the 10-40% buffs I see elsewhere are onto skills with cooldown(smaller pieces of damage). And don’t forget the 100% buff to blurred Frenzy damage…

Not saying it’s enough of a buff, just this post of yours isn’t very honest.

Dahkeus.8243:

kitteng.1920:

i am pretty happy with what we got considering i am a mainly a PvE engi player

Why? There’s no way those minor buffs to the physical damage of a condi kit will make enough of a difference to change the fact that engis are still outclassed by other DPS classes in PvE with no distinct advantage to make them worth taking.

Sure, you can still get by if you’re a good player just like before, but you’ll still perform worse than a thief spamming auto attack. =/

Naw, we slightly outclass a thief spamming 1. Now toss in some well timed dodges/2’s onto that thief and then we are outclassed.

So condi and power PVE builds get a very small buff with Fire Bomb buff that won’t help us carve out a spot especially considering the already competitive Ranger condi build got some pretty heavy buffs as well. Other than that… gyro gets nerfed, gear shield gets nerfed, and then shield/gadgets get meaningless buffs that still won’t have them being used.

Welp, another round of balance patches without anything worth talking about positively for Engi.

On the flip side when I roam I find almost exclusively builds that are designed to run away when things get sketchy, or groups of 2-3 people picking on singles. I’m convinced at every level people want to stack whatever they can to their advantage rather than have a good fair fight. Hide in a pile of people, or run cancer builds in small roaming scale setups, in either case people don’t want to actually test their skills they just want to get easy wins.

I don’t know if there’s a way to get people to actually push themselves, but it’s certainly not just a large scale battle thing.

Niigi.1807:

Double Moa consists of the Red Moa which provides fury, and the Pink Moa which provides the CC.

The Black Moa does half the break bar damage as the Pink Moa, although the tooltip is identical. So i would recommend using the Pink Moa for main CC any if you need additional CC, you can use the Electro Wyvern. But in most cases the group will need fury from the ranger, so using the Tiger/Red Moa is superior.

If you and your team is doing the proper rotations, a lack of cc should never be the case. I would recommend using 1 CC pet and for the rest, use either celestial avatar form or if you really need a quick cc, try experimenting with axe offhand or glyph of equality. But in a typical raid scenario, you most likely will never need glyph of equality.

Ok, yeah, for sure, Tiger if I can, but when you play with PUGs a lot like I was/am (haven’t been playing as much) sometimes you have to drop out of the ‘meta’ to cover for gaps.

I don’t run a static group so I adjust as needed. As far as Double Moa, what other Moa? If you’re talking black isn’t that actually pretty mediocre to poor CC? Thought I saw a test a while ago where it was about half of Pink, Wyvern right out of swap while delayed is quite good, the headbutt right away for a good chunk then wing buffet a second later for a bit more, then swap back to Moa asap. Is Black Moa better though? if so maybe one of these days I’ll finish the GW1 stuff.

Do you save Berserker state for CC as warrior? I tend to use it on cooldown for DPS so it’s often either up or on cooldown when it’s time to breakbar. So I’ll just swap mace and use burst skill → Pommel Bash → Shield Bash → Headbutt → Burst again if needed. I save headbutt for the end since it has that small stun before I can hit the next CC. Am I wrong on this?

As a side question, I assume that soft CC’s only drop the bar if it’s on or not, as in if I chill and already chilled enemy I’m not increasing breakbar speed at all, is that correct?

Also on Druid, if I know CC is lacking in the group I like to just keep the Pink Moa out and have Electric Wyvern on swap, dazing screech, swap, headbutt and he’ll then immediately Wing Buffet. Yes that means no Tiger/Lynx, but the Moa’s not bad damage either.

As for a break bar dummy, the new Fractal one has that, but it’s only like 300 or something low like that.

Dirame.8521:

Jerus.4350:

Dirame.8521:

Here we are today and no one is using the explosives line. Yes I am saying “I told you so”.

TIL I’m ‘no one’

Heh, I shouldn’t type definite statements like that. Let me change that to, “very few people”.

:D It’s just not used in sPVP as I understand. I do use it in PVE on almost every build, and often in WvW as well.

Ging.6485:

Having done PuG VGs with engineers while I myself was playing something else, I have to tell you, a lot of Engineer players give the class a bad name. The reason being that they just don’t have the attention span capable of controlling seekers in between rotations. That is what makes Engi really shine during VG, the ability to hinder and move seekers as needed, yet most from what I have noticed are not capable of doing this.

When groups see that someone is incapable of doing their most important job, well then they would rather take someone else, like a Necromancer who can just shroud through seekers.

Right again, but going to elaborate because I know I had this issue and I see others too.

For seeker control, your job is not to keep knocking it back away from the group, your job is to slow them down to keep them ideally from ever becoming an issue, only when they are on VG or in a green circle do you need to knock them away. So make use of the Immobs/chills/cripples and save the knockback for when it’s needed. Even if it’s close to VG just let it be, as long as the Melee have room to move and the tank doesn’t have to adjust (they have enough pressure) let them be, also your necros will thank you (ok, just not yell at you) for allowing them to Epi.

Aeolus.3615:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Rip build diversity, rip revenant, rip everything but mirror comp. Noice.

Actually they are trying to increase it, example of druids they will be with healing stats for better healing if they wan to heal instead of not using those stats to heal , people will have to use stats for the roles they want, instead of using one stats and get all of the good things for the class, if that isnt create builds diversity…

THe thing is that they need to do this for all classes, players pick stats and roles.

People already use Magi druid in PUG groups. It’s more advanced or just good groups that use the Condi or Zerk druids. What this change basically does is move Druid from Magi, Zealot, Viper, or Zerk to Magi or Zealot. 4 vs 2, yup it’s less

Was it OP that Druids could heal so well while in full damage gear, absolutely, but it did lend itself to more diversity. Really hope they put out a Condi version of Zealot though.

xeon.3851:

The problem is servers like your they die when link is over and they say ohh server link is fine No server link is not fine anet just need server lock and open those server they need more players. Server link is not the solve.

That lends to variety. Not sure my opinion on it, but there is something to be said for not having the same 3 servers in the same tiers for months. Things do get stale.

xeon.3851:

Server links need focus only in the lower tiers T1 and T2 no need server link T3 and T4 they need link server they help on wvw population and anet make sure the balance in those lower tiers.

No server alone can keep up with BG alone, hell BG is competing against linked servers and is the only server locked (so no new players, while others might be getting more in) and BG is winning. So, no, most t1 servers still need links.

The population is just lower than it used to be. The question is if the juggling of links is better than just mergers, and again I have no strong opinion either way, both have pros and cons.

Just a quick addition to what Ging said (which is pretty spot on), Necro’s also have condi manipulation which will have them maintaining a spot in wing2 even if Epi were cut down. Plague Signet is just awesome, and being able to send those condi’s back various ways increases damage quite a lot.

Naw, because with the likely loss of rev it’ll be even more important that Mesmer stacks their own boon duration, which means toughness gear, so we’d have to move pretty far just to beat them in toughness, and considering tanking is just about who has most toughness, I would think Mesmer would still be the choice.