Guild Wars 2

A truely versatile engineer, making use of that benefit of instant kit swapping, uses at least 2 kits.
Sometimes even 3.

You can’t trait for that, you always lose.

That’s the pice we ALREADY pay for being versatile: we can’t specify deep into one purpose if using 2 or 3 kits…

What are the most effective and popular engineer builds?
Are that the most versatile ones?
No: it’s the most specified and least versatile builds that are the most popular.

To do great damage as engineer, you need to sacrifice all versatility.

Grenadier build, being our only realy great ranged option.
Everything else is less good at range. Well, nothing even has the same range… a flaw by design to start with.

- Rifle precision-power build.
Hard hitting but not versatile by a long shot.

- Juggernaut FT build sacrificing everything just to make the flamethrower better than ‘decent’.

- Tankcat build focusing all on survival with confusion or pure power, not doing much beyond surviving and meleeing.

- P/P condition does just that: run around and apply conditions.

All these examples of builds are like what other professions do, without them paying any price.
And most of the time it are weaker copies of other professions builds to start with.

I want the dev’s to show me versatile engineers builds that deserve damage nerfs. There aren’t any.
Basically they let us pay a price for having acces to different NON-VERSATILE builds that do good damage.
But they argue we have some builds that are versatile by themselves and still would have potential OP damage.
This is a major difference!

Engineers have been paying the price for versatility by design.
We don’t deserve to have our mediocre damage nerfed for it as well.

note: I run with 2 or 3 kits normally.
I’m bloody versatile… but I’m also bloody weak in terms of raw damage just because I can’t trait for 3 kits to work to their full potential.
When the devs say my damage could be a potential OP issue, I can’t do anything but laugh at that statement.

Never been a huge fan of grenades.
But I can’t deny they are the longest reach, hardest hitting damage we have.
Not to mention it’s aoe so it’s darn easy to use versus people in groups, hiding on walls, etc.

The only other thing we have, that is simular in design is… the god awfull mortar.
Mortar is stationary and very easy to destroy, not to mention terribly slow.
It’s a joke, let’s face it.
Oh, and the trait… maybe it could work?

Mortars are a bit usefull when you can put them in a protected spot, but their short range makes that near impossible.

Grenades beat mortars in utility, by a large margin.
A normal kit beating an elite skill… great design.

Soooo, what else do we have?

Pistol can be traited to pierce, AND be traited to get longer range!
Together these 2 traits end up on… a wopping 1050 range.
Are you kidding me?
Let piercing shots add range too, just like grenadier trait does.

Rifle goes further , hits harder and pierces untraited.

Elixir gun, traited for both range and damage in two seperate trait lines, hits on 1200 like the rifle.
And it hits a LOT less hard. Even fully traited it hits so incredibly weak it’s a disgrace.
Yes, it’s a utility kit, a supportive kit… but with 20% reduction on the cd’s, and a seperate trait for 15% more DAMAGE, it should at least be dangerous to a player.
It’s not, the weakness hurts a few profs and mostly it annoys bosses.

So what do I want?

Simple: something else than grenades as a viable 1500 option.

We’re versatile?
Yes we are, but none of the other versatile options are even remotely as good as grenades for long range.

Not asking because they nerfed grenades, but simply because we deserve our other options to work as well as grenades at least.
Both in range as in damage we need better options.

all kits, but not increased by your + healing stat.
Even med kit counts as a kit.

125 per second, and never changes unless you swap to your normal weapons (gun or pistol)

Casia.4281:

Bouncing EG1.
And buff fumigate. EG3 is actually awful.

Make it happen!

good idea.

And for the life of me I can’t understand how a long range kit like EG, even when spending 3 major traits in at least 2 seperate lines, still only gives 1200 range.
Which is grenades baseline, and grenadier trait suddenly makes that 1500 as a ‘sidenote’.

Grenadier trait is fine, it’s the other kit traits that are too weak.
Piercing pisols at least should increase range to 1500 as well.
And spending 3 traits on EG and FT should give you weapons stronger than grenades or bombs…

I still like my engineer, and not saying it’s all broken.
But the logic is lacking, and the versatility we pay for is only good on paper.

If I fully trait my elixir gun, which costs me a LOT more traits than 30 point grenadier, I can debuff a single target.
In theory, on a single target, this should outshine grenades, right?
Grenades being an aoe kit after all, elixir gun being a support kit.

1. the damage is a lot less than grenades, so any debuffing I do better make up for that loss in damage.

2. Even when spending seperate trait on range (grenadier has range build into it) I still am 300 range short of my grenades.

3. grenades stack vulnerability, as explained above.
They do it on multiple targets as well.
Elixir gun weakness might be comparable, but only single target of course.
It has to be a lot stronger as effect to make up for the lesser damage.

4. Elixir gun heals, which is a winner compared to grenades in any case.
But your healing targets either have to stand near you, or they have to remain in the circle.
In any case, it’s better than no healing obviously.
EG #5 was broken, but it should have recieved some buff after being fixed.
The old state was a tad weak for being a stationary field.
Great for combo’s of course, aoe retaliation being one of the best.

5. Both EG #3 and #4 are actually pretty good skills.
EG #3 helps others a lot (more than you notice yourself), and #4 does more damage than people give it credit for.
Both good supplements to the damage and support role.
Except that you have just given up any range advantage you had, you are now weilding a green flamethrower in range.

I would love to use elixir gun over grenades to help my team, but except on bosses without adds being around, I don’t see how grenades isn’t better.

Nerf grenade #1 by 30%
Sure, but than buff Elixir gun #1 by 30% too please.

In other words: don’t let grenades be the best at everything, and than nerf it without buffing the other options!

What utility are engineers best at?
I don’t see it.

Being versatile still means you pick a particular build that you don’t change during the fight.
Engineers have not a single build that is the best at anything in the game.
So basically we pay the price for having several playstyle options.

While the price we should pay, should be for versatility IN COMBAT.
And we have that, but not enough to warrant being lower dps.

Grenades are our only 1500 range option.
That alone shows something is wrong.

It’s not that I like grenades a lot myself.
But not having anything else that has the same range, or the same damage, or even the same aoe is almost forcing me to use grenades.

Piercing shots comes in second on that part.
But the aoe is weaker, the utility less (no chill), the range is far less even when spending another trait!

Mortar is a joke, and an elite skill at that.

Elixir gun support as alternative?
The heal is stationary, the damage is single target, the buffing is slow or short range.
It’s a great kit, but it’s not in the same league as grenades.
A nerf to grenades #1 should have come with an equal buff of 30% to elixir gun #1…

Tool Kit is a fun kit, but good luck hitting a pvp player in time with it for a longer time.
Here the damage is ok by itself, but the casting times are too long.
Not to mention such melee abilities should be aoe.
If more than one target, spamming grenades at your feet will do more damage again…

Flamethrower?
Extremely short range usage, bugged features, #needs to explode on impact or have detonation.
It’s a great kit, I love it. But grenades beat it in almost everything except the knockback.

Just a few example of fun alternatives, but not one has the range, aoe, pure damage or utility grenades can offer.

Any nerf to grenades should have come with substantial buffs to other options.
Both in damage as in range, and even in utility.

About the blinding grenade (so @Casia mostly):

you are correct that it can’t prevent anything that is being cast.

But that also means our target is either a single boss, or a single player.

In larger fights, the grenade helps a lot, even if it’s not aimed to interrupt anything specific.

This touches on something extremely broken:
why the hell are we using an aoe kit on a single target in the first place?
Don’t we have anything else that ranges as far? Euh, no.
Don’t we have anything that hits as hard? Euh, no.

Saying that the blinding grenade isn’t good as interrupt, is also saying that no other form of engineer dps is worth using over grenades on a single target.

Any nerf to grenades should have come with fixes and buffs to other dps options.
For starters: give something else a 1500 range.

Ok, when I read the part about ‘the same in pve and pvp’ I assumed all got the increased speed.
Don’t tell me all got the old slower speed?

Sneaky nerf if true…

Skill #1 grenade skill is the spammed one.
To make up for a 30% nerf on that one, you need a lot of compensation.

Sigils are a good start, but not enough for that 30% on #1.

The damage to blinding and poison grenade is pretty low.
Those grenades have a long cooldown as well.
So this makes up for very little damage in the end.

Question:
Why did you never use the blinding grenade?
In what environment did you conclude that letting your target(s) miss was not usefull?
All I can think of is some pve fights where you stay ranged while others are in melee and you couldn’t care less if the target hits them.

25 stacks of might without using flamethrower?
Haven’t tested it, so not sure.

The sigils obviously are a great buff.
Or a fix, but it’s a buffing fix at least

For example: if you want to nerf grenades damage, than give the trait piercing pistols 1500 range as well.
So there are other options for max ranged aoe.

I didn’t like grenades all that much, but I have to admit they were the easiest thing to use, by far.

Highest damage, longest range and aoe targeting to boot.
Nothing gets simpler and more effective than that.

Grenades just have it all.
They put any other kit to shame basically.

To answer your question OP:

NO I’m not happy they nerfed grenades, even though I don’t like the kit all that much.

I would have much rather seen damage buffs and fixes to other kits like the Flamethrower.

Any pve element in WvW should serve a purpose in the battle.

Letting the Grub, Spirit tree or harpy drop a possible siege plan isn’t enough.

It should be like the ogres, Hylek, dredge etc: it should have a direct effect on the battle.

Let the Grub damage walls nearby, let the Spirit stomp Speldan and mendans… whatever, let it have some effect in the battle.

These things draw players away, while at the same time you can’t blame players for doing what the dev’s put there in the first place.

Add bonuses when they are killed, bonuses that matter, have them drop supplies for each tower you hold, or whatever… just do something.

A lot of arguments back and forth, but the main message of this thread becomes clear:

It’s clear that there are several servers who are not waiting for even more guilds at their EU primetime.
However, they often do welcome night guilds.

The good news is that there are also a few servers welcoming new guilds to strenghten their forces.

It’s not up to any of us to say that a guild should transfer to any server ‘other than our own’.
But the OP as well as other guilds can easily deduct what would be their best options.

The drama can cool down now, I think we can sort it all out without much hastle.

In the end we all just want to have fun: some by finding a more active server, others by not getting longer queues, and still others by having their numbers strenghtened.

Halcyon.7352:

I did just try it. The cooldown is the full 120 seconds. (Not counting the time it takes for the effect to wear off). Elixir reduction does nothing to Elixir X, both in PVE and sPVP. Both in tooltip and timer.

None of the elixir traits work Elixir X currently, aside from HGH.

testing it now and you are correct: after the duration all of the remaining cooldown is there, traited or not.

I tried this in the Mists a few weeks ago, and if i remember correctly the trait took of time from the cooldown.
So maybe one of the latest patches changed it.
Or I remember wrong of course.

- Elixir X profits from the reduced cooldown trait on elixirs, but the tooltip doesn’t show.
Try it: use the trait and than drink elixir X and watch the cooldown.

The tooltip will say 120 seconds, but the timer will start at 90 ish.

So at least that elixir trait works.

- Elixir Guns Super Elixir or Mist can’t benefit from elixir traits since they both already benefit from other traits: the gun skills from Elixir Gun cd reduction, and the Mist from spending points in Tools trait line.

They can’t double dip…

- mortar range is shorter than traited grenades, which is beyond any logic.
Mortar should be the longest range any engineer weapon can have.

To make it worse: not only base range is too short, but the range increasing talent doesn’t work for it (it does work on Supply Crate and Elixir X duration, but not the mortar range).

Mortar also has issues with slow responding skills, not only do they have a long global cooldown, they sometimes trigger their own cooldown but never were shot at all…

I would like to use mortar, I really would… but it needs serious help to be more viable than a blast finishing, stunning supply crate!

Uberlicious.3956:

sure thing there buddy

of all the posts here, what makes you think it’s because of you?
I had private messages, I deleted.

Your ego isn’t my issue, but in the end I can’t argue against you claiming it’s because of you.
I can tell you it’s not. Nothing more to it.
Believe what you want, I see no reason what makes your post so special I should delete a thread for.

You didn’t even discuss it being cheating or not, ofr give your opinion.
You just said you would try it. So what?
Many will do this tonight… which sort of was the reason I made the post.
To discuss that.
What you do or don’t do isn’t my problem you know…

Uberlicious.3956:

love the fact that one sentence from me made him delete his orignal post lol… and for the record i already knew about this

don’t flatter yourself, I deleted because of private messages.

Beefcake.9032:

“Rezzing through doors”: Is this an exploit?

lolwut?

I think it’s a valid question.
And in case you didn’t understand it: read the OP, it explains it clear enough.

So to reply to your contribution: lolwut indeed?

bit side-topic: but the only thing EG #4 needs is a cripple or even an immobilize.

EG #2 needs to fly faster.
Those are about the only things I would change.

Without saying they shouldn’t fix any existing bugs or stat issues of course.
Seems the dev’s are working on it, so we can only wait and see on that part.

Supply used for repairing should give reward as well.
Not just for ‘supply taken’

I like this idea, there should be more valid ways to earn badges than jumping puzzles and zerging.

Repairing should give you a badge each set ammount.

Escorting Dolyaks should give you a badge each ammount of time you spend next to a Dolyak.

Healing others should give you the occasional loot bag as well.

The only way to get enough badges to make it worth buying something, is by doing jumping puzzles and zerg killing.
It seems all other ways don’t give enough to buy gear with it, which I thought was the idea in the first place.

Level 46 on my WvW engineer, and I have about 43 badges.

Playing supportive, healing more than dps’ing, running Dolyaks and doing repair runs… it really gets you nothing for your trouble.

I would get way more badges if I would simply take grenades as engineer and spam them in the biggest zerg I can find.

And no: I don’t waste time on champion grubs, spirits or other trees, or jumping puzzles usually. I simply do what must be done, which again offers me less rewards than when I would ignore the fight and go pve funny stuff.

These badges, same as glory in spvp, mostly reward the zerging bursters I’m afraid.
Or those that do the pve stuff in a pvp battle I guess.
Nothing wrong with that as such: it’s there so you’re free to do it.
But I do WvW to help my server in the map, so I don’t…

At this rate I can’t imagine having enough for anything substantial at 80.
Bit disapointed at yet another grinding system that doesn’t reward the type of gameplay it is part of.

another patch just rolled out, some bug fixes.
A few minor fixes, very minor…

Thanks for compiling this list.

It’s not all gamebreaking but a bug is a bug nonetheless.
And quite a few of these ARE gamebreaking in the sense that they make the skill or the trait not worth taking.

Not much hope that we’ll see this fixed soon. Not after the last promise of a long list of fixes for engineers, just to see a rather small ammount of relevant issues adressed in the actual patch.

Engineers are playable of course, but it’s not like we’re top of the pack in everything. A few fixes at least would be in order.

About time they finished this profession, don’t you think?

gabal.4520:

I think my server will do well this week on EB for one reason and one reason only – we don’t have Grub in our part of the map.

doing well implies you make that your part of the map too

Reward system in this game is a bit old-fashioned for a game being rahter innovative about roles to fill etc.

Supporting gets you nothing compared to pure dps’ing and saying ‘sod all’.
Sad but true.

Also as a leveler in WvW I get not a lot of badges.
I’m lvl 37 with my engineer leveling in WvW and I think I have about 40 badges…

Why so few?
Firstly because I don’t spend much time killing worms or giant trees, or jumping puzzles. Secondly because of my level I think. Thirdly because I fight supportively.

I escort Dolyaks, I run supplies to siege up towers without using their own supplies needed for reinforcements. So I do a LOT of running. It gets me some xp building something, but mostly it gets me next to nothing for my trouble.

In fights I heal others, I use cc like pushback etc.
I hardly dps targets down myself.
Again: I get next to nothing for it.

In sieges I’m usually using my flamethrower on doors.
I burn down a LOT of rams and get some xp for it. But not much more than that.

Basically I play as supportive as a player can in WvW, and my rewards are a little bit of xp here or there, and the occasional rare lootbag.

If I were to throw grenades at the walls of SM all day, being almost useless for the larger battle, I would get WAY MORE badges than now.
How sad is that…

Ilesyt.7084:

Kimbald.2697:

SoggyFrog.4170:

Yes, there’s a bug. But it sounds like you killed it already.

ah, than either I was lucky, or the bug isn’t everywhere.
Such bugs often aren’t effecting everyone, so likely it’s that.

But it’s not like I’m going to spend much time killing the Grub all the time now to test this…

He’s talking about the grub as a “bug”, aka Insect.

:)

Invoker.5462:

Kimbald.2697:

Pustulio.8207:

things/people render very quickly for me, so maybe it’s you…..or maybe I’m just lucky lol

for me sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t…
Can’t really put my finger on it, but it’s still here for sure.

In a weird way it can be extremely funny having a 50 player zerg spawn all around you out of nowhere.
But that joke gets old pretty fast of course.

Its a major problem, i dont play WoW at all anymore and i dislike Blizzard, but i noticed in all their massive battles they had character models pre-rendered all the way across the map, rather than on the fly.

If this was a war game, or like a first person shooter, imagine if you were a sniper, you would be completely out of luck xD

Its bad for big orginized guilds like the on i was in, makes tactics really dumb, and i mean really, really dumb

Not saying it’s not a problem.
It is often game-breaking and can totally ruin valid strategies.

But yes, at the same time I sometimes find it so unbelievable it becomes funny.
Last night on reset we were in the dredge cave and I ran into an invisable zerg, a BIG zerg.
I blew all my cooldowns and escaped back from where we came, just to run into another invisable zerg that had portaled into the other entrance, on top of an already pushing force there.
Each time I ran too far simply because neither of the zergs rendered in time.

Of course that isn’t acceptable.
Not implying it is.

I think an engineer would be the first candidate for that role.

Engineers are mostly ranged as it is, and they have several ranged options that lend themselves well for bunkering.
Elixir gun for example, would be used a lot in such a build.

For more info on engineering ideas I suggest you go to the engineer forum and check out the sticky about ‘post your build’.
Several bunker options in there.
Also could you create a specific topic there, asking for suggestions given all the info you can.

I am leveling an engineer in WvW for now, and I play mostly supportive, which is as close as a ‘bunker’ in WvW can be.
If you’re not doing either some specific type of damage (like ranged aoe focusing on walls and sieges for example), or support, there is little reason to be bunkering in WvW…

My engineer is aimed at being hard to kill, so a bunker. But mostly because my goal is to support my teams, as well as being able to solo run Dolyaks or supplies without being an easy target to kill.
I’m less interested in winning those small fights, if they can’t kill me and I can hold them of forever, than I did what I set out to do.

I use several engineer kits to be versatile.
For the best bunker builds I think you could focus on a few elixirs and traits supporting those.

As I said: go over to our forum and read a bit there.
Than go to the Mists and try out a few options.

Once you get started, feel free to ask more detailed questions.

The elitists will always be found in the most competetive forms of play.
In this game the ‘most’ competetive form is paid tournaments.
That’s where the best should be. Among the best, there will be quite a few with an elitist mentality.
This is unavoidable, and at the same time this is NOT true for ALL tpvp’ers.

Than you have the ones acting elitist that aren’t holding their own in paid tournies as good as they figured they would.
You can find several of these in free tournies.
Luckily, again, this is NOT to be taken as a general rule.

I find that the slightly less succesfull elitist players, are actually the worst in mentality.

Any form of competition will create this mentality to a large dgree.
It’s inevitable.
I wouldn’t mind it too much, especially not in Gw2 that really isn’t ready to be called ‘competetive’ yet.
But you can see the same in other games.
Competition draws in a lot of elitist mentality.

And mind you: many of these ‘elitists’ or ’pro’s’ are actually quite good at what they do.
But that’s never a reason to talk down on someone of course.

I have most respect for those that are good, and way better than me, without being an kitten about it

Note: call it ‘elitist’, call it ‘pro’, call it ‘snobbery’… picking on the words itself won’t change it. I think we all recognise one when we see one.

SoggyFrog.4170:

Yes, there’s a bug. But it sounds like you killed it already.

ah, than either I was lucky, or the bug isn’t everywhere.
Such bugs often aren’t effecting everyone, so likely it’s that.

But it’s not like I’m going to spend much time killing the Grub all the time now to test this…

Pustulio.8207:

things/people render very quickly for me, so maybe it’s you…..or maybe I’m just lucky lol

for me sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t…
Can’t really put my finger on it, but it’s still here for sure.

In a weird way it can be extremely funny having a 50 player zerg spawn all around you out of nowhere.
But that joke gets old pretty fast of course.

SabreWalrus.8647:

Zwapan.3854:

Short story for FS.

Once upon a time, there was an EB on the Piken Square server. It had no leaders and no guilds on it. Just randoms that gathered in small group scattered across the map. Amongst those randoms, there was a scout. He would tell of enemy movements, say how many there were, directing ppl there to defend.
People started recognizing this scout, and started to listen to the scout. He was there every day, just telling numbers and directing people.
Then the scout got a guildinvite from a new WvW guild, and got promoted to officer.
The newfound officer started directing bigger things, such as attacks on towers. And people still followed him. He earned their respect by making good decisions and in return they followed him to the end of the map and back if he so desired.
Unfortunately, the guild didnt last long, cause of an inactive leader, so the fresh officer decided to start his own guild, and unite all the randoms in the EB, under a single banner.

That scout was me, and i am now leader of Goodgame [GG], the guild that is pretty much Solo running the EB for Piken Square. Quite succesfully i might add, holding our third is quite a challenge since we have to spread out across the map, but I am proud of all of my members.

Just an inspiring short story for all the FS out there, i hope you guys get your act back together.

He missed out the best bit in this story. The bit where he scored a girl!

There’s this movie Don Juan De Marco, where Johnny Depp tells the story of how his mother and father got together.
In his fathers version it was in a duel under the burning sun, in his mothers version it was in a dance under the moonlight…

For some reason your comment reminds me of that movie

Last night, on reset, we had a bunch actually attacking the Grub.
Yep…
It came about because we rushed almost the entire map from start and were doing pretty good.

As I was logging out a few minutes later, I decided to pass by the Grub and hit it a bit as well.
I did till a nearby commander asked for supplies so I brought mine and helped invade the enemy keep.
While taking that keep I got the medal for the Grub. So last thing I did was go to the chest.

I got 8 medals for it as lvl 36.
So it seemed normal on our servers.
Mind you: this is the first time I ever bothered fighting the Grub, so I can’t compare with previous kills.
But getting 8 at my level seems about right.

There’s a little issue concerning the whole ‘healing’ bombs idea, that bothers me every time I give it a go:

the best way to plant bombs, is to run around leaving a trail of bombs behind you.
You dodge, you run, you basically never stop.
Enemies must chase you but are forced to eat your bombs when doing so.

Now I fear that a lot of the heals of these bombs, are wasted on you. Simply because you might outrange them by the time they explode.

To stand still, when under attack, and just spam bombs for heals and damage, will most of the times get you killed.

It’s a simple playstyle issue, but for me it weakens this type of builds a lot.
In fact: it’s the reason I am still doubting to specc into this.

For me the biggest issue with racial skills is that they use up a regular skill slot.
So if they are intended to not be too strong, to keep balance between races, they all end up too weak to replace any normal tool belt skill.

They shouldn’t be compared to one another only, they are forced to be compared to ALL toolbelt skills!

This is what makes them too weak and mostly useless for me.

They would be worth a seperate racial slot, but none of them are worth a normal slot I fear.

As an engineer I am already overwhelmed by choices between elixirs, kits, gadgets… the racials are just back of that line, not worth considering in almost any build.

I wish they were worth it, they add spice and individuality to your character

You know what this build also shines at?

Treb destroying with a bunch of melee and such balling up on the sieges.

Lots of aoe, the healing, the area control with knockback and combo’s.

As for blast finishers on portal bombs: I would keep the supply crate for at the Lord. You’ll waste the healing and such if using it for initial stealth only.
Matter of opinion of course, and it’ll change from attack to attack. But I wouldn’t drop a supply crate at the entering portal myself. People move away from that point too fast.
Unless there is a mass defense waiting for you that at very spot of course, than the 2 second stun alone is worth it.

I like this build but still can’t decide between healing bombs and my flamethrower for WvW.
Aside one of these I use Tool Kit and Elixir Gun. And I want to keep both of these either way.

What makes fighting on Piken such a challenging blast of fun, is that we start the day with having next to nothing. Yesterday we didn’t even have our own keep (Overlook) to start the afternoon.

We than gradually start fighting back, officers arrive, things get organised.

As the evening progresses we take more than our share, and manage to push on differenet fronts and in many different strategies.

Deep in the night, we start losing it again, only to see another dawn of challenges and mountains to overcome…

I didn’t even expect this game to offer me so much challenging fun anymore.
Entering EB, and later on joining GG put the fight back into GW2 for me.

It stacks with everything,
it scales with nothing…

That’s about it.
You get 125 per tick, no matter what gear you wear or what other heals you’re getting.

Snafoo.2869:

The best gap closer we get is [magnet] imo on the toolkit, of course it can be dodged/outranged/nullified by stability, but when it lands you have your target laying right at your feet ready to eat bombs.
If you time it well with glue bomb it could be fairly lethal I imagine.

I use magnet pull all the time, and one basic rule you should prepare for:

the moment you pull them, they dodge.

Putting down a glue bomb in time seems rather unlikely.

What I find to work better is: throw nail and pull them into it.
Or drop glue bomb, and pull immediatley as the bomb is going of.
Pulling first and than swapping to bombs will never hit them.

Once you pulled, they dodge, they run.
So I only pull if an ally is next to me, or if I have some cripple or immobilize in the spot already.

If not one of those, you mostly slowed them, not stopped them. Which is better than not slowing them of course

For pulling one of the wall, ignore this. Just don’t stand next to their entrance and they’ll never make it back…

The bombs scale with + healing of which you get at least 300 by going for the trait itself.

If you want to test them: go to Heart of the Mists, use equivalent pvp gear, and go fight an npc.
Once you start taking damage, you’ll see the numbers of the bomb heals pop up.
For me that was about 230 per explosion if I remember correctly.

Bonus: the bombs heal you even if they don’t hit anything, they’re aoe mechanic after all.

Just to add: as an engineer I have the option to be very usefull and supportive, but it will be at the price of all my dps.
I won’t be killing anyone soon in a supportive set up.

When I go all out offensive I will kill others good enough, not to mention my aoe is potentially superstrong.
But I won’t be any good at filling any other role than that…

In a siege this counts as well.
I might have picked one role when the other is needed.
Maybe I have healing stuff, utility kits and all of that… but we need to kill them plain and simple.
Maybe I am ready to melt faces, but my team is being pressured, our siege going nowhere and I simply stand there being useless.

May I ask in what way a mesmer is more boring, or weaker in WvW than another prof?

Yes you can’t decide the outcome of either an attack or a defense by yourself.
Neither can I on my engineer to be honest.

Yes you can not fill every utility role, neither can I. Or anyone else in fact.

Mesmer portals are still being used, and they still make a very big difference.
That’s one utility you have no one else can offer.
Even if it is limited in use, as all utility is.

For the other matters: most professions can do stuff that is usefull and fun. Like burning through doors in defense as an engineer, to name but one of many examples.
Mesmers can do ‘stuff’ too.

I’m not saying the OP has no case.
I’m just wondering: what would make a Mesmer less usefull than another profession?
My guess is that you might be a little less usefull than before, but not more useless than others…

Binkley.8507:

Shadow.3475:

Have to test again then, was sure they droped like the supplycrate everyware so you have to run in a circule to get all.

I just tested this again and you are right – you can no longer run away and drop med kits to heal yourself. The #4 cond cleanse skill also no longer works, but the #5 stimulant one does.

I guess the old drop method was too good. :/

It still works as before.

Only 2 factors can make the kits not being used when dropped while running:

1. you already are full health. This is why #5 will always work since it’s not dependant on your condition

2. lagg causes you to run fater than the client can register the drpping.
Less likely, but a theoretical possibility.

Testing this as we speak: I take fall damage, run further, drop bandages… I eat them and they heal me.
Nothing changed from my testing.

CriSPeH.8512:

I think Smoke Vent #5 on FT is underrated.
Not only is it useful for popping into stealth but you can use the skill while doing almost anything else.

You can use it while mining/gathering, stomping, rezzing, using another skill that has a long cast time (like the Asura Golem.) Its awesome to avoid getting interupted and to nullify a nuke.

The FT wont net you alot of kills by itself but its great for CC & annoyance.

Also when you use flame blast aim way up in the air (like when you toss a keg) and you can usually avoid it getting obstructed.

To add to this: it can be used while stunned!
If a thief gets the jump on you, you can switch FT even if you don’t have it equipped and use #5 for the blind.
Not bullet proof, but still nice to know.

My favourite Tool Kit ones, the most underestimated engineer kit in WvW:

Tool kit #2 box of nails (or the free one from kit refinement) gets any npc of your back while running.
Not a single one ever follows you past the cripple.

Tool kit #4 the block, gets you past groups of players, especially if you can go to shield block next.
5 seconds of total blocking gets you past a zerg and into the door you try to reach.

Tool Kit #5 the magnet pull can be used while moving.
Not only is it superb for catching runaways, it also fools those on a wall if you move while casting.
People don’t expect a pull from a moving character.

First and most obvious one for engineers in WvW:

flamethrower #1 goes through doors.
If they have a ram on the other side, you can burn it with that.

Another obvious one: perma swiftness from kits is golden. The ammount of running makes that one of the trait other professions hate you for.

I’ll post others perhaps, maybe more distinct, but just kicking of a nice topic idea

The healing is bombs only.

To be honest: if you’re only going to use grenades I wouldn’t go 30 inventions either.
If not for the healing bombs, I see little use in that.

A1s a replacement it could be an idea to get the lightning procs in Tools for example, seeing as all your tool belt skills have low cooldowns.

Or spend it on alchemy for some survivability.

Going 30 inventions mostly to gain some toughness seems a bit of a waste to me.

In the sticky there are a few grenade builds, most of them more ‘glass’ but you could compare those and see where you can get better defenses.

Your best defenses will come from the traits, not the gained toughness from Inventions.
I think, as I said: no expert.

What if you take the traits for the support, like elixir gun and healing bombs… but you keep the stats for damage?

So your bombs would do decent damage because of your power and crit for example, and still would heal and support because of the trait.

I’m playing support too, but I never even consider + healing unless I get it for free on something…
For the stats I look at damage and survivability, the ‘support’ I get from utility slots, kits and traits that work with these.

Not saying it’s better, just saying it’s an approach that sacrifices less damage while still being very good support.

Or… if you log out in downed state, you get the same repair bill as when finished and all of that.
On top of a few minutes penalty when logging in downed state.

I’m sure the system could recognise this and handle accordingly.

As for which server does it more: think that’s more a type of players than a type of server.
Some servers will have more of these of course, but wouldn’t pin it on the server as such.