Guild Wars 2

Trying out an engineer using 4 (yes FOUR) kits, including Med Kit and Tool Kit yes) just so I could keep a bit of the feeling I had with my endless keybinds as hunter in that other game…

But seriously: I played GW1 too, and I far preferred the choices all classes had to make there.

GW2 is great at what it does, but it does too few of those great things…

Coming back to this thread after a few more evenings of sPvP.

I’m loving my engineer more and more, and i found my own personal style in my build (it’s a scrammble but it has tons of surprises so loving it)

But… capture the point maps… only capture the point maps… nothing but one capture the point map after another.
nice surroundings by the way, and creative on the terrain.

And in sPvP it’s a zerg race isn’t it. Whoever gets lucky on the initial zerg choices seems to win the lottery.
That doesn’t help either.

Point defending in sPvP seems obsolete as a strategy. You just go around and round, hoping you’re running with more players than they are towards that next point.

They did this one type of pvp battle really great I think.
But that’s it: they only did that.

WvW seems rather zergy too, but again it’s a great concept.

These 2 by themselves are not going to keep me thrilled though.
5v5 will be way more strategic, but still the same kittenype of fight.

mystaquetz.1746:

Arvin, where is the condition removal in that build? How are you not being eaten alive by conditions? Forgive my stupidness if I am missing it. TY.

Things I see in his build:

Toolbelt use of Elixir R removes vconditons

Using #1 of elixir gun after creating the fild with #5 removes conditions too, every shot it takes one of.

At 25% he becomes immune to them completely

Seems pretty solid for conditions, doesn’t always have to be the elixir drinking trait

manekineko.3490:

It hasn’t been mentioned yet, but grenades CAN be strong on a condition damage engi as well. (I’ve seen seen very viable pistol/grenade builds.)

Thanks for pointing that out too.

I’m not going to delete my topic because you all took the trouble to reply, but it seems it can be matched up just in any combination I would see fit.

Still learning, and this helped a lot.

Ronin.5038:

An option to change if your backback is visable or not would be nice.

Yes, as simple as this…
Can’t be overly difficult.

coglin.1496:

Just checked in game. The combat log calls this ability from the med kit “Impact trigger”

the wiki page for this got actually adjusted: it’s called impact trigger there too now, no longer detonate.

This skill makes no sense at all as a trigger for a med kit, it’s just illogical.

Mindfazr.4976:

Off Topic: This thread has really made me a better engineer with the discussion of fields and finishers.

My question related to Elixir Gun, is on the Wiki Detonate is labeled as a Blast Finisher. Does anyone know if the Kit Refinement Detonate from Medkit counts as well? I know its a stretch but I am at work and cannot test. Swap to Elixir Gun for free Super Elixir (Light Field), then swap to Medkit for Detonate (Blast finisher).

…combo for free?

I can dream right?

Not only is the detonate from swapping to med kit not working as a blast finisher, it’s also not knocking back, which i think detonate does as a skill.

Not being free blast finisher is very understandable, but not knocking back is actually the one reason why a HEALING kit would have damaging little aoe ability as trigger…
Either lmake that a heal, or indeed a knockback. Just remove the damage to balance it out. If we’re going for the med kit, we’re not concerned with doing damage as much as getting the time and room to drop and pick bandages

Thanks both.

I stand corrected on this one than.
This opens more possibilities in my build experiments indeed.

The last thing I would have taken the flamethrower for was to be more direct damage orientated. I should check the tooltip numbers better I guess.

A few options of slightly less bulky backpacks would be nice…
It doesn’t have to be as many options as the weapons themselves.

Another idea: make about 3 or so different versions, and link each of them to a group of weapon models.
So if you use this or this pistol, or that rifle model, you get backpack 1. On other weapon models: backpack 2, and so on.

Backpack and the ‘weapon’ itself of course, I assume both are modeled as one unit each time.

Shimond.2478:

Speccing condition for flamethrower seems folly to me as the vast majority of flamethrower damage is direct, not condition.

Ah, is it?
I considered it to be burning most.

If so than my whole theory is wrong (and so is my use of flamethrower in conditonal builds than).

Hoping for more feedback, but thanks for replying.
it would be great if I was wrong about this.

My guess is that a turret heavy engineer stays with his turrets more. Ad since this is one of the trait lines involving turret support a lot, maybe they figured to give you crit for being less mobile.

Wild guess, but that’s the only logic I can find in it.

Funnily enough, the one trait giving the most mobility (5 sec swiftness on using any kit at all) is in exactly the same spot!
But again: turrets are more stationary, most kits are more mobile… so it sort of makes sense, in a random way

This is not about kits not scaling with weapons or sigils, it’s about something else… a suggestion in fact.

While trying out many builds and options for an engineer, I hit the same wall over and over again. It has to do with what kit is scaling best on what build.
Let me explain:

If I understand it correctly both elixir gun and flamethrower scale best on conditional damage, while the bombs and grenades scale best on power.

The toolkit too scales on power, but I never see many use that, still: it’s there and some do use it.

When making a build that has support, one also needs to figure out his amulet and traits for the type of damage we can do.

When using elixir gun, or flamethrower, we end up with pistol(s) and shield, since we need conditional damage.

When we want to go with a power rifle build, we’re almost forced to use bombs or grenades. both have the same type of ‘support’… they blow things up around you and your teammates.

What I would like is for one of either elixir gun or flamethrower to scale on power, and one of either bombs or grenades scale on conditional damage.

Bomb kit #1 planting bleeding or burning bombs for example, not just #2.
Or Elixir gun #1 to be pure damage, and not bleeds mainly. The weaknes can stay, that’s different in the end.

How it would work out, isn’t my main concern here.
The main idea is that power builds would be able to use the elixir gun, and conditional builds wouldn’t nerf themselves using bombs (or grenades, pick one to change).

Currently I’m trying a rifle build for example, but I would like to keep the support of an elixir gun as an option.
While if I go pistol and shield build, it would be great to keep one strong explosives option.

Currently both types are in the same scaling field… which is limiting compared to mixing them up a it.

Support = forced to go conditional, so pistols

Boom! = forced to go power so rifle

Cool, thanks. Was worried because other regenerations did show a tooltip, even when full. And this one didn’t…

Sounds like a lot of fun to me

By the way: when i use the trait for regen on equipping kits… nothing happens.
I can get the swiftness, the vigor, the spells etc on uing a kit… but the regen isn’t visible when testing.

Is this because i’m full hp when testing, or is this bugged somewhat?

ps. not going to post a build yet myself, even if it’s the purpose of this thread. Still discovering and learning…

This post clearly deserves better than to be drowned.

As a new engineer myself seeing the descritions of different builds really helps on finding my own way.

this link is working for me now Arvin, the one in the other post wasn’t.
Looking for different builds, just to earn what has potential aside the more common builds.

The link doesn’t show a build for me, just the form without anything filled in.

I kept asking myself why i couldn’t let go of my flamethrower in my testing builds.
The answer seems to be:

1. a knock back on a rather low cooldown, much lower than the shield, which is of course better because of the continuous projectile reflecting first.
the flamethrower seems difficult to use as a projectile reflector…

2. the also rather low cd on the blind, but there I wonder if the bombs blinding field isn’t better because the flamethrower doesn’t seem to refresh the blind, where i think the bomb does.
is this correct?

Those are my 2 main reasons, and as you can read: I sort of doubt both of them already…

Grizor.6543:

Actually the engineer can interrupt twice, the #3 ability(aoe knockback) is on a 20 sec cooldown though so good luck getting that off before you die.

Another thing, the engineer #2 ability is a pull – why would you want to pull an enemy toward you when you are dead?!

the pull is great for pve when you can pull the lowest health mob and kill it of.
In pvp however, that is indeed the last thing that comes to mind.

Dam, downed… let’s pull an enemy over here!

The knockback is the reverse of that, but how come it doesn’t always knock people of me in pvp?
It is supposed to work on all, isn’t it?

But I suppose stability negates that, so could be that.

Arsenal.2601:

1. It is in terribly poor form to show up to a dungeon party wearing the exact same armor with the exact same dye pattern as another player. If this happens, quickly excuse yourself, and change your colors.

2. When hopping upwards toward Vistas or other elevated areas, a gentleman never follows too closely behind a woman in skirted armor.

3. In a similar fashion, for heaven’s sake, an Asura should go around a Norn in skirted armor, not underneath.

4. If defeated repeatedly to the point where one finds oneself no longer wearing a single stitch of armor, a quick switch to town clothes and making haste to the nearest armor repair is in order.

5. All value their personal space. So do not be that person who stands inside of another person merging bodies together like some awfully grotesque Star Trek teleportation accident.

6. Respect your vanquished foes, for they have died honorably at your sword. Do not engage in victory dances above their slain corpse.

7. Additionally, if one sets a foe on fire, and this goes for the Norn in particular, it is not an invitation to use the burning bodies to light your tobacco pipe.

8. When receiving an invitation to a guild one would rather not join, “get lost!” is a highly inappropriate and ill mannered response. The correct response should be “No thank you, get lost.”

I like Arsenal’s list better than the initial one, I must say.

Where are the engineers in all of this?

I don’t find my downstate abilities very usefull. Is that me, or aren’t they…?

No one even mentions engineers in this whole post, which sort of got me worried.

Ah, that’s why it works perfect on my dummies here: testing on flat terrain!

Yep, that’s a good one indeed.
most of those free casts upon equipping the kit are helpfull in small ways, especially because you can throw the actual skill on top of that indeed.

But you touch upon the very thing: it’s cool from the trait because it’s instant…

Only thing from that trait that disapoints me is the fact that the explosion from equipping med kit doesn’t knock back like theoriginal skill does.
But that’s discussion for another thread of course, so this aside.

Chorel.1720:

It IS pointless to do in a game. Want to help? Donate money to the cause. Rally friends and co-workers to do the same.

Too many people think “Oh I’ll just wear pink or the ribbon and I’ll help the cause.” No you won’t. You are just jumping on the bandwagon to feel better about yourself. That’s why 70% of people or so volunteer. They don’t believe in the cause, they just want to feel better about themselves.

where did I state that I thought this would help the cause, or even that this is my way of helping the cause?
Not jumping any bandwagon to feel better about myself, I do know the difference between helping and awareness.

How can yo go from people doing this in game, to the fact they DON’T believe in the cause and only do this to feel better about themselves?
How can you tell they don’t believe in the cause, despite the fact they dress a character in pink (which is what they do when you say they volunteer here)?

They might, or might not, help in other ways, more helpful ways indeed. But to blatantly state they don’t believe in the cause at all?
Who made you anybodies conscience?

testing that now, but can’t say I can pull out an obstructed message.
Which doesn’t prove you wrong, it might only show that it’s not a general bug, but one that only appears for some.

Only thing I sometimes get is an out of range message, but that’s because the pushback on 3 can be used on 300 while it pushes to 400, added up 700.
While 2 only reaches a distance of… 600!
Who did the path there, I wonder?

Will keep on testing a bit, might be that I do it too slow for the bug to kick in.

A discusion should be about hearing both sides.

I am also against changing too much on the kit swapping. The reason for this is that I am trying to find a playstyle where i swap kits all the freaking time
I don’t want to spend more traits just to be able to swap them as fast as now.

I do think we should be able to use sigils, either on kits, or at least let the weapon swap kits work when we swap out a kit.
the cooldown these sigils already have, makes sure we can’t abuse that with our instant swapping speed of kits.

But please no cooldowns added.

Kits need some extra’s to make them all work well i guess, like hitting mechanics, casting time issues, and all of that.
But as a general mechanic, i think they’re fine.

Just my opinion, but you shouldn’t make posts and than tell people they should keep their opinion to themselves if they happen to disagree.
On the contrary: i would ask them why they disagree, if they happen to forget to insert that bit
But telling them to keep their opnions to themselves?
Bad form, very bad form…

Of course it’s pointless… but that’s not the point for me.
It’s pointles because no one will look at my pinkish flamethrowing rampage, and think: she must be supporting breast cancer… let alone think: he must be supporting breast cancer, the guy playing this gal.
But hey, it’s just about as pointless to get cynical about it

Not saying you’re doing that, by the way.

And I didn’t know about the other thread, will have to look it up i guess.

Lunesta.3742:

“This wonderful piece of literature brought to you by BUTTJUSTICE!”

Quote of the year.

As a Thomas More man myself, I prefer we all just sit around thanking the central authority for granting us the opportunity to kitten in a toilet. Just kidding, More was an idiot.

but one could argue he had the original draft for an imginary game world.
Only after another came up with the idea of virtual worlds with a cave and some shadows.

Ancient game designers, gotta love them.

Supporting your effort by replying here, but never the one to wearing buttons, signs, message T-shirts myself… but I’ll see if I don’t have a character hopping around that fits pink

I have a red-heared engineer with a blow torch… she might do the trick.
Never, in my wildest imagination, I figured I would consider supporting the struggle against breast cancer by dressing up a homocidal imaginary character with pyromaniacal tendencies.
But hey, if it pleases you

small note: your reference is to a rl person and by no means I would ever make fun of that, just staying in the joyfullnes of the game itself.

Yes, I saw that they do.
That’s why I would like them to work when I go back to my pistols, shield or rifle… Obviously they shouldn’t work every other second when I swap out a kit

Will have to test it in battle of course, at this point I simply mess up the dodging mostly.
Either I don’t, or when I remember I should, I dodge things the opponent probably wonders about: ‘is someone else attacking him too? Why did he just dodge my heal?’

Invigurating speed trait?
Where you get the vigor on swiftness, which you could get on each kit equip?
Which would let me not only run, sorry: strafe, much faster, but also let me dodge and roll all the way to the next capture point if I want?

Sooo going to test that combo.

just tested that, it’s a lot of dodges…
Might be a bit gimmicky since you actually spend several traits on it, not to mention you lose the retaliation.
But dodging this much could indeed be worth it for a defensive build.

Nice tip, thanks again.

GankSinatra.2653:

Kimbald.2697:

Not so much different from WoW…

; )

Also, the point of 50% more endurance regen is that if you also pick vigor boon…woah nelly

no idea what you just said, but back in the game to check…sounds like a dodging dance, am i right?

Koven Acris.5236:

Wait wait.. Im encouraged to read a philosophy article by someone named ‘Buttjustice’ who has condemned Guild Wars 2 by quoting Friedrich Nietzsche?

…I, I dont know where to begin…

sixth paragraph is a recognisable one, but in the end I do recommend the beginning.

Zarathoestra liked to dance, and I like to think he enjoyed enjoying himself and grew in that regard.

So you might have missed one incentive after reaching 80, and that is not gear or showable rewards, but the eperience of growth as you get better at your character. Especially with the large emphasis of pvp as ‘end game’ in this game, that should be a factor to take into consideration.

By which I don’t mean it will keep all the players here, since there isn’t even a real ranking system to show for so far.
But it is a factor for many, I hope…

Fun read, I even hope your teacher knows zit about gaming, it would make him interested all the more.

Shimond.2478:

Kimbald.2697:

It would be a real improvement if you could sigil your kits… weird idea, I know. But it would make several kits a it better I think.

or: if your sigils on equipped weapons would work for your kits too.

Agree except for weapon swap ones, since there’s no cooldown on kit swapping. And I’d rather not see them put a cooldown on kit swapping to allow them either.

I tried the reverse reasoning on these sigils:

1. since a kit is basically replacing your weapons, which we get the negative effects of, i.e. no weapon stats or sigils…

2. I figured: let’s put a weapon swap sigil on my weapons so it can bcome active when getting out of the kit…

3. to see it did nothing…

If we’re going to get the negative effects of kits replacing weapons, could we perhaps get some benefits too?

This said: no cooldown on swapping kits makes it freaking awesome… but let’s not admitt there are positive sides to our complaint, shall we.

I just don’t like the burning if the last hit hits bit…
Did that make sense, that sentence I made?

Oh, and I never seen that obstructed issue you mention. Not calling BS on you myself, just saying I never encountered it personally.

Casting time… that’s the one thing on this tool kit that I really don’t like.

With reduced casting time the melee whack-smaks are actually quite hard.

A pull should be instant, else it only works if the opponent isn’t looking, and than you might as well grenade him…
The range should be practical too, yes.

Same for the nails: for that cast time I expect something stronger, like an immobilize first perhaps, basically a glue shot, which happens to go faster.

But take my opnion with big grain of salt, I’m really not an experienced engineer (yet… I hope to add).

You’re right GankSinatra: strafing and than moving forward keeps the speed.

Not so much different from WoW…

ignore that, just thanks for the tip.

Why are we guessing at this so much?

It’ll take some time, but at one point or another it should become clear if the game is dying, or instead flourishing nice and comfy with a strong active crowd, be it less than on the first weeks of course. But that’s alright.

I don’t see the point in most of this duelling between white knights and doomsayers.

Admitted: i do get edgy from all this sugar that is thrown around on the forums, and I do find many of the defenders of this game overly aggressive towards other opinions.
But this does NOT mean I think the game is dead, dying, or failing.

I can’t tell yet.
What I can tell however, is that these kinds of discussions get on my nerves. But feel free to carry on without me.
By the time anything official and reliable is shown, I’ll catch on again. Don’t worry.

Isn’t that where the selling of gems comes in?
Or are those completely for different things?
Just like piling up chests in your bank is where the selling of keys comes in?

Someone smelled money seeing the initial sales numbers I think, but that is probably me being overly cynical.
And quite frankly: it probably is… but I can’t shake the feeling of getting spammed by goldsellers.
I really hope i’m wong, and that it is indeed a mere byproduct of bot catching.

If DR is what is saving the game, than I hope it’s more effective than it is at stopping bots…

On a more serious note: don’t you guys ever get tired of this?

Why does it have to be proven by the players themselves that the game is, or is not, dying?

Those who feel the need to defend the game, will always win. Or feel that they have won. I’ll explain why.

Scenario 1: the game remains to keep a large number of active players, which is exactly their point. Hence the rather silly way of posting screenshots of server populations.
An acive player is doing something he enjoys doing, not sure if the servers are filled with that. Not to mention the lower level zones…
But in the end: if the servers remain full, the game is alive to some extend of course.
not arguing here.

scenario 2: over time, th ammount of active players drops, servers aren’t full anymore, servers get merged, etc.
Did the white knights lose than?
hell no, THEY are the real players, the ones who stuck by the game. They don’t need the Wotards, the MMO hoppers, the complainers, the grinders, the whatever-they’re-nots.

Too much sugar gets me edgy, and seeing players jump up to defend the game at all costs really makes me weary of this gaming community.
it’s nice to see that players appreciate the game, it’s something completely different to see players get aggressive at others for not liking it. Or for saying the game is going downhill…

I’m having fun and I’m liking this game a lot.
But it’s not what I expected it to be. And from a leveling new player to the OP: those numbers don’t mean anything in the leveling zones, they simply don’t…

Too soon to tell, one way or another.
Maybe both sides should relax a bit.

It would be a real improvement if you could sigil your kits… weird idea, I know. But it would make several kits a it better I think.

or: if your sigils on equipped weapons would work for your kits too.

Indeed, we have toughness from the Flamethrower, but not the elixir gun. While the other traits effecting the flamethrower always included the elixir gun… suddenly it’s gone.

And we get toughness from the shield, which should have read in that line of traits: when equipping a shield or a kit…

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of all those kits, when a simple rifle or a shield and gun for condition stacking, always end up the most usefull options in the long run.

Grenades of course, the ultimate weapon for when your target is too busy to notice you…

I’m looking for the fun, and as it happens: dabbling with that very toolkit right now too.
And look, merely by accident I referred to a post I wrote about this very topic. Didn’t mean to steal your light here… grinn.

Good point about the moving backwards, it wouldn’t be a good mechanic if it worked on that. I’m not used to ‘backpaddeling’ anyhow, I rather strafe.

edit: if the rest of the conversation between me and Coglin seems odd, than that’s simply because I removed my posts after a little misunderstanding.

As the tittle says: I’m being silly in the Mists this evening…
Both with the toolkit itself, as with the Tools traits

I noticed a few things that I have some questions about:

1. First of: if I gain swiftness from the Trait Speedy Kits, I only move faster when I run forward.
Never when I strafe, or god forbid that I would, backpaddle.
Is this a bug, or is this simply how swiftness works? The Wiki doesn’t help me on this one.

2. Static discharge trait does about 300+ damage on dummies. Oddly enough, depending on the type of toolbelt skill used (oae, direct targeting etc) it sometimes hits directly, sometimes goes more in the direction that I’m looking etc.
The Wiki does help me here and explains this.

My question is: is this even remotely worth it than? The damage is free, but seems low, and sometimes I’m sure it will simply miss my target due to the toolbelt skill used to trigger it.

3. What is the point of Always Prepared trait?
I understand the bandages can help me if I get so lucky to be rezzed. But mostly my rezzer will have eaten them, if only by accident because of moving to me.
And that flamethrower or Elixir gun do nothing for me when downed right? I have to pick it up after and use it… Bit useless if I have already one of those on me. Not to mention it’s random.
My rezzer won’t pick them up either, unless he plays an engineer himself than the pushback on the flamethrower could help if he’s really smart and fast. Unless it’s the elixir gun…

4. Armor Mods or Adrenaline Implant?
If I would be crazy enough to go 30 points in Tools… but let’s say I would.
How noticable is that 50 % endurance speed?
I tend to go for the passive retaliation, especially since it stacks duration with what I get from elixir B (free or drunk). By the time I get to 75% something usually has crit on me I think.

5. Why does Kit Refinement for Med Kit give an explosion?
Shouldn’t that be a heal? Am I too logical here?
It’s not useless, no. It removes a boon and, more important I think: it’s an actual combo finisher blast.
Equip elixir gun, equip med kit… and you should get a 1 second free retaliation, which isn’t uber but still fun. Except: I don’t see one, no tooltip or nothing.
Nor does the Med Kit’s Detonate from Kit refinement knockback any target dummies for me, which is of course the main point of the skill. (and no, I’m not trying the dummies in the cirkles)

I’m not 100% sure, but I sincerely doubt it counts as a an equipped shield.

And even if it does: it would only be a shield during those 2 seconds, when you’re blocking anyhow. Those 80 toughnes won’t make much difference during those 2 seconds.
Before and after there is no large circular object in sight… and if you do see one, you better doge it

That would make it more tactical, and thus loads more fun. I can agree fully on that part.

It doesn’t change the type of battles though… still the same maps, right?

and if you mean the block from toolkit… than certainly not. That’s not a shield, just looks like one