Guild Wars 2

Can we actually get some real information on how this works? All the announcement was vague. :/

They told us the “goal” and “purpose” but they just brushed over all the issues that matchmaking has that isn’t just the pool of available players.

Say {insert known pro player here} plays his/her heart out but is super unlucky with how the matchmaking works and goes, in total Ranked games, 0 Wins 100 Losses. We all know he/she is beyond good. Will they be Legendary/Top 250? Or will the game just see “0 wins? Probably kitten. Bottom 10.”

What I am saying is:
* Is this system just another long grind to the top?
* Will it be a fair, “good players will be ranked high as they should, despite their solo [s]W/L ratio”?
* Will the godly PvP players be 100% subject to the luck of the “unknown forced 50%” matchmaking algorithm?
* Is top 250 simply based on W/L luck streaks?

Evan Lesh and others replied. Continued discussions below.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-changes-for-pvp-league-season-5/

Better Matches

First, let’s dive into how league matches are changing. Matchmaking rating (MMR) has always been at the core of how we pair players together. In Seasons 1–4, pips were also used in matchmaking, limiting the pool of eligible players to those within 15 pips of you. In Season 5, pips are taking a backseat and will no longer be used for matchmaking purposes. Removing the pip restriction on matchmaking means more players to match with and subsequently shorter queue times. In addition to this, the results of the recent community poll for Solo/Duo queue restrictions means Ranked Arena will only allow a maximum party size of two, ensuring that you never face off against larger, coordinated premade teams. The goal of these changes is to create the best matches possible at all times, which leads into our next area of focus: measuring skill and prestige.

Measuring Skill

Leagues are where players strive to better their gameplay in a competitive environment with key milestones marking their progress along the way. Part of this system should include a metric for players to accurately gauge and compare their skill level. Starting in Season 5, every player will earn a visible skill rating. Skill rating is a numerical value that places players into more traditional divisions: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Legendary. These new divisions will determine which badge is available on your nameplate, and they will even affect the rate at which you earn league rewards. The top 250 players in each region will also be placed onto a new Skill Rating leaderboard where they’ll fight for exclusive titles.

We want Skill Rating to be as accurate as possible, so we’ve added a few new mechanics to help achieve this goal. First, every season will start with a soft reset of the previous season’s rating. Players will then be required to play 10 placement matches before obtaining their starting skill rating for the season. Additionally, inactive players will experience decay that lowers their skill rating over time up to a maximum amount. Decay can be worked off by playing league matches. Unlike the previous pip-based system, there are no restrictions on backward progress with skill rating; you can move down in divisions by either losing matches or by being inactive. This will help ensure that players are always moving toward their correct rating and are facing players of similar skill levels..

They can balance whenever they kitten well please…but as long as this stack-class-forced-50%-must-carry-low-mmr-as-high-mmr matchmaking idea continues: None of it really matters.

Solo/Duo Queue was step one. Why must we wait until Season 8+ until the rest of the fixes get implemented?

The Gyro daze was one of the only opportunities Engis had to out Bunker another Bunker. Now the great bunkering continues even longer. Guess the “purpose” of that was just that.

Fixes:

Glue Trail: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to affect certain friendly NPCs.

Mechanized Deployment: Fixed a bug that prevented the tool belt recharge-rate attribute from updating properly on the Hero panel.

Gadgeteer: Fixed a bug in which the overcharged versions of gadget skills did not have their recharge time reduced by this trait.

Incendiary Powder: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to display longer than the attainable burning duration on skills.

Overall:
None of the changes really increased Engi’s support and DPS. All it did, slightly, was improve underused or “situational” skills by increasing their damage and decreasing their cooldowns. Again, this doesn’t constitute as balance given how favorable some Elementalist changes (in this patch) gave them even more opportunity to deal even more DPS.

Poison Dart Volley: The projectiles fired by this skill will now land more consistently.

About time. Valuable to anyone running Pistol/s… Still have one or two stray shots every now and then, but most of the time they stay pretty close to target.

Rocket Boots: The initial damage of this ability has been increased by 25%.

Entirely situational. This is mainly used to escape or cover ground…it wasn’t really used for damage (Rocket Kick was though) because it would separate you from your target. While it is useful in that sense to break away, it still doesn’t really “hurt” anybody in a PvP sense (because they can probably recover from a single regen boon tick).

Rocket Boots still suffer from freezing you for a second after landing (people can easily catch up when this happens)…and there still isn’t any threat of following the Engi on the path flown. At least burn/smoke field the ground or something…

Utility Goggles: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.

This is nice…but still, entirely situational. Goggles should provide more benefit…like maybe increased Ferocity as well.

Gear Shield: The block duration of this ability has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.

This is an unnecessary nerf, imo. Was having a 3s block a real problem? Other classes have longer invulnerability/block time than this and they weren’t even touched.

Gyro utility skills: Gyros will no longer daze anything in the area they affect when they die.

This is an unnecessary nerf. The 1s Daze, while minuscule, was important to find that gap/opportunity to prevent other classes from healing or casting skills (which lead to infinite bunker-play)…removing this buffed bunker-play.

I just don’t understand the logic behind whatever “Purity of Purpose” means. The Daze gave it purpose and gave Engis a sense of security. Meaning, they did not have to worry that their gyros went completely to waste (they aren’t even that strong). The daze at least gave attackers some caution when attacking an Engi.

I played around with these changes… This doesn’t really change anything for Engis as described. While some skills may be used more often, they are hardly beneficial options. I hope this is just a snippet of the full changes in the works for Engis. I can see signs of addressing the issues of DPS correctly, but nothing yet on the core set of DPS skills. Note this: 1 .

Commented below…

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-October-18-2016

Engineer
We’ve been looking to improve the engineer and to support the areas it’s been lacking in so that the profession can perform more effectively in a DPS role. In order to improve purity of purpose, we have removed the daze functionality from the Gyro utility type for scrapper.

How this sounds/What it implies: Improve/support skills by increasing damage, decreasing cast-times or cooldowns, increasing condition duration, etc. on skills that are under-performing.

“Purity of purpose”…gyros are not a threat and even more-so: die for nothing. Albeit, the concept of “purity of purpose” may bring mixed interpretations. In my opinion, a lot of the changes may aim clarify their purposes but doesn’t adequately do anything to make the skills more purposeful toward the end goal.

Changes:

Static Shield: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. Block duration has been increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds.

Pretty insignificant change. While it is a lower cooldown, it still has a 2s uptime and a 0.75s cast time if you choose to throw it. It should at least automatically “throw” if not manually thrown or at least reflect damage (in the sense of static discharge). Otherwise, still, it serves no real purpose in terms of DPS and provides very little support benefit.

Flamethrower—Air Blast: The description has been updated to better specify the ability’s function. The burning stacks it applies have been increased from 1 to 2.

It only adds 2s of burning. There is no real value of Air Blast other than being a knockback.

Not to mention that, the entire flamethrower kit hardly “burns” as is to make the extra stack pointless. ‘Blowtorch’ (Pistol Off-hand) is far better than any “burning” in the entire Flamethrower kit.

Fire Bomb: The physical damage of this ability has been increased by 10% per tick.

It only has a 3s uptime and 4 pulses… Not really worth rotating off the Auto-Attack Bomb (which has more physical damage) unless you need to apply the condition. Entirely situational, easily avoided in PvP.

Concussion Bomb: Confusion duration has been increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. The physical damage of this ability has been increased by 20%.

Again, the physical damage buff is still not really worth rotating off the Auto-Attack Bomb (which has more physical damage) unless you need to apply the condition. Entirely situational, has value in PvP (if you run Bomb Kit).

Big Ol’ Bomb: The knockdown duration of this ability has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.

Valuable in PvP/WvW. Hardly valuable in PvE given breakbars…

Despite all the hardships, I learned to deal with it (and almost don’t want to comment on it). I’d like them to really put us in a palace that people don’t just blindly shun us. Problem is they don’t know how and when they do buff us (in the rarest occasion) it usually follows a HUGE nerf quickly after. Plus, they need to stop combining PvE balancing with PvP.

I don’t want Engis to be buffed to the point where individual skill doesn’t matter (like just pressing a key over and over). And I feel like that’s the approach they are both taking and trying to avoid at the same time. They need to understand it’s really just small number increases here and there.

Lot of the caution against accepting Engis is the skill it takes to be useful. This is in any mode really. I think that’s fine. That’s one reason I am motivated to play Engi (I like the challenge it brings). However, same can be said for Elementalists if you think about it.

And that’s what I don’t understand. If you think about it, Elementalists and Engineers are very similar…just that Eles are magically based and we are, I guess, scientifically based. x)

Problem is, we don’t have the ability to put out the same numbers as Elementalists in any way we focus our skill rotations (except maybe Condition Damage…which people rather take Necros over us anyway)…and that’s one reason why some players don’t like us. If we got a nice and fair buff to our base values on our skills…I think we’ll be welcome.

Our survivability is at a good place. No need to change any of that but maybe the cast times of A.E.D. and Elixirs.

Skills that do damage though? Definitely need a nice fair increase. If we have to rotate through all these different skills to fall in the MIDDLE of the best dps benchmarks of all classes…that’s concerning. The mechanical skill of playing Engineer should be more rewarding than say… playing another class which can just press ‘1’ and out DPS every other class.

I’d say if there are kits (and there respective skills and cast-times) that need to be focused: Flamethrower Kit, Tool Kit, and Mortar Kit. Any buff to kits now need to be natural…meaning, don’t make a buff to a trait make it to the skills themselves.

If we are going to change traits around…it’s mainly combining the ideas of what is already there but isn’t used. For example:

• Experimental Turrets and Advanced Turrets can be combined and maybe effect Gyros as well.
• Backpack Regenerator and Streamlined kits can be combined (also maybe Streamline Kits could trigger in intervals—but keeping the ‘on cast’ idea).
• Juggernaut can be combined with Power Wrench (meaning Juggernaut also effects using Tool Kit).
• Kinetic Battery and Gadgeteer
• Soothing Detonation and Medical Dispersion Field.
• etc… Any underused trait that has similarities with another!

These are just ideas on making Engis more rewarding to play and play with in PvE. The focus is getting them to a good place in PvE. Separate that from balancing PvP because PvP Engi is in a fairly decent place and PvP is a whole other mindgame.

I like the idea of being the “jack of all trades”, but given this title they should be in a position where players request “X class or Engi” rather than the current “No Engis, only X class”. Elite Spec was on the right track of getting us there, but work still needs to be done to keep us at a place where we are equally accepted.

Again, these need to be fair and balanced increases rather than huge increases which quickly lead to super nerfs (which is what happens over and over…we end up being in a place that was worse than before).

You are sacrificing a lot of sustainability for the sake of “dps”.

If you rather not use the current (as of 2016) meta build (or build something off that, mainly keeping the Paladin’s Amulet), here are some suggestions to keep you alive a bit longer (while maintaining your idea of wanting to DPS):

Firearms

• Swap ‘High Caliber’ for ‘Heavy Armor Exploit’ (make note of the Swiftness, you’ll have nearly permanent Swiftness during battle)

Inventions

• Swap ‘Medical Dispersion Field’ for ‘Bunker Down’ (Med Kits on crit are way more useful). ‘Medical Dispersion Field’ would be better if you are focusing more on sustaining and support.

Scrapper

• Swap ‘Mass Momentum’ for ‘Rapid Regeneration’ (you’ll have a lot of swiftness from ‘Heavy Armor Exploit’ [Firearms], and lots of superspeed from ‘Final Salvo’ [Scrapper]

For Runes/Sigils:

• If you are keeping Sigil of Accuracy, use a 2nd sigil that benefits off your Critical…like Sigil of Air.
• Honestly, Sigil of Force + Sigil of Air might be better for you since your Critical percentage is already over 50%. Sigil of Blood for sustain is good too
• Since you are favoring DPS: I’d use Rune of the Scholar over Rage. You lose 5% critical damage (194% instead of 199%), but you’d benefit from the added power and +10% damage above 90% HP more-so than having less power. Even Rune of Strength would be useful since having Might is almost always a given when attacking with a Hammer.

In the end, while it can work…it doesn’t always. The sustain that Paladin’s amulet gives you is more beneficial than dying often. Engineers sadly aren’t the best DPS class. They are (at the moment) really good at supporting and sustaining (bunkering) and that’s really what the meta is at the moment.

Engis can try other builds, but then you are putting a lot of faith on your team…if you have a team that can support it, then good on you.

I have edited this post.
I agree with Lord Helseth’s reasoning to vote for Solo Queue, he explains it best.

• Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1LVwbgWrMM

As someone who plays MANY different competitive games in solo queue, it’s easy to spot the issues with games that have a dynamic queue. Many competitive scenes have learned from this and separated the queues…those which didn’t fell off the map after a few seasons (if that).

Majority of my PvP climb here wasn’t with a group at all…and I eventually got myself up to Legendary. Like Lord Helseth said, this actually felt like an achievement…especially when it became clear that people who were premade and in Diamond/Legendary were easy to point out (meaning they wouldn’t have made it there without a premade). That’s what the season, especially season 4, ended up being.

After playing tons of games, I knew who was good individually. Players, myself included, knew who was a solo-queue player and knew their skill level. Those were the players I respected…those are the players who made the game competitive…those are the players who made the game fun. Each of us knew the strengths and weaknesses of each other and respected each other highly. It was good. It felt right.

Sadly, it never lasts. All it took was a premade group to ruin these moments that we longed for. Sure, sometimes us solo-queuers beat the full-guild-premades…but that was usually because the system didn’t kitten us over with the whole forced 50%, MMR, pip, and whatever else nonsense…but those few moments did not absolve the fact that the system is trash.

We all voiced our opinions on why Solo Queue needs to be a thing. We all voiced our opinions on the flaws of the system… When you have opposing players in ranked feeling sorry for you for being on the short end of the stick (meaning, good players are punished for solo queuing), you know there is a problem. People KNOW you are good, you proven you are good…yet, Dynamic Queue and the system says “Nope. Solo Queuers should not be as good as you, it’s unheard of”…that makes you not want to PvP.

Countless times I wanted to give up or take the route of grouping up (more than duo)… But at the same time, I wanted to prove a point that Solo Queue to Legendary is possible. Sure, I butchered my stats getting there, but it honestly felt like an achievement.

I met very good solo players this way…and those moments were PvP felt right. And I may not be the highest MMR player, but I’m proud that I did it wasn’t a premade effort.

Solo Queue has my vote.

The terrible players.
And myself.

Good players, in solo queue, are FORCED to carry the worst players ever in PvP. And it doesn’t matter if I am witness to it or your cousin fourteen times removed witnesses it…Everyone can see it easily. Pros stream it and scream about it.

They don’t know how to address it. They STRONGLY believe good players should have to be miserable and should be forced to carry the less-experienced instead of playing with equally-skilled teammates and versing the equally-skilled opponents for good matches. Because it’s the default “system” that many games come with…little do they know that almost all successful competitive games/modes don’t use it.

Players say this and play like that.
Devs do that and fix it like this.

Sadly, we are never on the same page because there is such a gap between skill levels that this PvP mode will never have justice. Yes. Who doesn’t enjoy playing their hearts out for a bunch of PvErs going for achievements. Is that what’s killing PvP…PvE marketing?

And game has the decency to put solo queue players with premades like equals. Lovely.

Plus, I think they should wipe ranked stats per season.

Ayrilana.1396:

Rank stats getting reset will just make the everything more volatile and it’ll rarely stabilize as players likely will not play enough games for it to do so. You also run the risk of getting a bad run with terrible players who then drag your MMR down much further than it would have with the current system.

1) 50% system shouldn’t be here anyway.
2) Just talking about resetting the stats (Ex. Ranked Games Won/Played = 0). Underlying crap will still be there.

Season 5. Anet please.

Heavens forbid Thieves mobility is hurt for a few seconds…

Majority of legendary players don’t understand this concept. Legendary Thieves being the absolute worst at it.

Section this out future, fix your horrible punctuation and the such, and a lot of this is worth something for those pugging.

Awe.1096:

LUST.7241:

Let me tell you something about most solo players:

1) They have post-it notes covering their maps.
2) They can’t read fights
3) They don’t know who to focus despite having a target over their heads
4) They don’t know when to leave a fight that is won
5) They don’t know when to leave a fight that will end up as a loss
6) They don’t know how to read chat
7) They don’t know how to stomp
8) They don’t know how to effectively res
9) They don’t rotate well at all
10) They don’t know how to capture beasts (Forest map)
11) They don’t know what Stillness/Tranquilty is (Temple)
12) They don’t know that rushing Lord at start is a poor choice compared to 2/3 point holds (Foefire)

Anything else to clarify how the majority of solo players are downright kittens?
Amber, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond, Legendary…most solo players in any division are absolutely worse than versing full premades.

If you think you are a good solo player and fall short on any of those points even in the tinest bit, you aren’t a good solo player. No matter what class you play, you have to have a good grasp on all those concepts…zero excuses.

Also, Anet, your 50% system blows…and why it really starts taking effect in Diamond/Legendary is beyond me. I’m probably never going to play PvP after this season. Good players shouldn’t have to carry the absolute worst. Good players should be with good players versing good players (rather lose against good players with the company of good players, this is talking about solo queue’s matchmaking). Bad players should be with bad players until they figure out that each one of them are bad for a reason. There should be no hand holding for people who don’t want to improve themselves or refuse to realize they are the issue.

And what exactly are you trying to imply? You basically just support the OP’s claim. In fact, I don’t give that much care if I am Amber or Legendary. I just want to have a good time while PvP-ing. Facing a premade as a bunch of solos is not fun. If you want to call me a bad, so be it. I am a bad. I want to play vs. other bads and not skilled premades. How is it that asking for a hand holding?

Was I aiming to disagree with OP’s claim? No.
My point is that there are solo players who assume they aren’t the problem and it’s just the team…but they don’t want to see why it’s not just the team. These types of players fix will not solo queue (if separated). They’ll just add another layer of problems.

And yes, I am not refuting the whole solos v premades. I’m advocating for a system that accurately puts players like you with other players like you, INSTEAD of giving you a hard time with serious players who are ridiculous toxic against those who are in your position. I want players to have a good time, good matches, close matches, etc.

Right now the system encourages harassment…that’s a problem! You aren’t asking for hand-holding, but the system is assuming you are. It’s not your fault. This causes stress all skill levels.

Reasons:
1) Pip system
2) MMR system
3) Forced 50%
4) Balancing issues

Pros:
+ Everyone gets a fresh start each season
+ New changes can be properly tested

Cons:
- I honestly don’t think there is a con to wiping the horrors that is Ranked

Tips:
> Games are still counted in associated achievements (Matches won). Kinda like Beta/Early Release PvP games were.
> Divisions are still changed accordingly with the start of each season (personally, I’d like to see more Diamonds/Legendaries fall lower)

Plus, the system right now is an ugly mess of pips, MMR, and trying to keep everyone at 50% while Unranked and Ranked are one the same. It’s a full on joke.

Let me tell you something about most solo players:

1) They have post-it notes covering their maps.
2) They can’t read fights
3) They don’t know who to focus despite having a target over their heads
4) They don’t know when to leave a fight that is won
5) They don’t know when to leave a fight that will end up as a loss
6) They don’t know how to read chat
7) They don’t know how to stomp
8) They don’t know how to effectively res
9) They don’t rotate well at all
10) They don’t know how to capture beasts (Forest map)
11) They don’t know what Stillness/Tranquilty is (Temple)
12) They don’t know that rushing Lord at start is a poor choice compared to 2/3 point holds (Foefire)

Anything else to clarify how the majority of solo players are downright kittens?
Amber, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond, Legendary…most solo players in any division are absolutely worse than versing full premades.

If you think you are a good solo player and fall short on any of those points even in the tinest bit, you aren’t a good solo player. No matter what class you play, you have to have a good grasp on all those concepts…zero excuses.

Also, Anet, your 50% system blows…and why it really starts taking effect in Diamond/Legendary is beyond me. I’m probably never going to play PvP after this season. Good players shouldn’t have to carry the absolute worst. Good players should be with good players versing good players (rather lose against good players with the company of good players, this is talking about solo queue’s matchmaking). Bad players should be with bad players until they figure out that each one of them are bad for a reason. There should be no hand holding for people who don’t want to improve themselves or refuse to realize they are the issue.

Dirame.8521:

LUST.7241:

I have a question. I played over 100 ranked games this season…and maintained roughly a 60-70% win-rate. Fantastic! I breezed through divisions and got a tier or two nightly, was nice and on-track.

However, today, I hit a big wall. That win-rate has significantly dropped to 55% (and dropping) and it’s not fun. At all. Solo or partial-group…doesn’t matter. I’m (or we) are either getting stuck dancing between a single pip with no actual gain. Like literally, almost 24 hours of just sitting at a single pip.

About to hit the 200 ranked games mark this season…and likely hit a 50% win-rate.
Is that by design? Is that why I’m/we are being put into 10m+ queues? Is the “system” trying to find a place for me this LATE? Did it really take over 100 games for the “system” to realize I might not be in the right division…but then realize it screwed up and needs to keep me hovering at one pip?

Depends on the day you play. Weekends are the worst time for whatever reason for me. You ask yourself…. the other side is winning… why can’t I be on that side? Why isn’t my side like that side? But yea, play during the week, it has worked out statistically better for me.

I see that too.

Sometimes, I just need to quit while I’m ahead… Especially given the amount of thieves in legendary/diamond. How easily thieves can throw games is unmatched…I won’t be surprised if the combined overall win percentage of thieves in total is below 5%.

Seems just to be an UI error.
Example: Won 3 games in a row, but UI says ‘Win Streak: 0’. However, still gives +1 pip.

Dirame.8521:

LUST.7241:

Denial would have won the same if they had a seasoned Engi. Easily.

Ele and Engi are very similar in what they can do supportively for the team. There are ways Engi is better and there are ways Ele is better. Denial is the better team because they have more practice playing with what an Ele can do.

R55 showed that Scrapper works…unfortunately their team (and others using Engi over Ele) aren’t practiced around having an Engi on the team as support. This hurts those teams hard.

Really? A team like Rank 55? Zan the man who has played Engie probably since launch is somehow less practiced than Denial? Are you sure you’re speaking with sincerity here?

I know why Rank 55 lost and it wasn’t because they were using Engie. I know that for a fact but for you to think that Rank 55 is less practiced than Denial, that’s just laughable mate.

Did you read what I even wrote? There is nothing wrong with them individually (I never questioned their individual abilities). As a team there was. That’s what I was getting at.

Denial is a better TEAM and that’s how they dominated and proved it.

Fact is: Throwing together the best individual players of a class on a team together isn’t going to make them a great TEAM. They need to practice and Denial clearly had more of that.

EU doesn’t waste time trying to make solo-takedown oriented Thieves/Warriors a thing…they focus on what works best as a team. EU teams that tried that got shut out with ease.

That’s the problem with NA. NA has a players that are very good individually…but not as good in a team. This will always keep teams like Denial at the top spot…they are the best TEAM.

Denial would have won the same if they had a seasoned Engi. Easily.

Ele and Engi are very similar in what they can do supportively for the team. There are ways Engi is better and there are ways Ele is better. Denial is the better team because they have more practice playing with what an Ele can do.

R55 showed that Scrapper works…unfortunately their team (and others using Engi over Ele) aren’t practiced around having an Engi on the team as support. This hurts those teams hard.

I loved seeing the gameplay built on playstyle rather than “this is the meta and I have to do this like this and cannot deviate from it in the slightest”. Sure, the thief picks on certain match-ups came off as “this team isn’t taking this even seriously” (Twitch chat sure joked about the Thief picks and glamouring), but overall the R55 game 3 and 4 were top notch.

Only gripe about the event is that both casters and players interviewed was like reading the toxic PvP mapchat aloud. You’d think at a “professional” level there would be some hint of sportsmanship outside just shaking each-others hand after a win/loss.

Honestly, any team that thought of/used a thief should have used a warrior instead…especially since the point of playing a thief was extinguished when the opposing team knew how to counter it.

Thieves, like warriors, are very selective options. In fact, few of their skills need nerfing while more supportive skills need buffing (to make them actually useful to the team as a whole). They are too oriented in solo-playstyles rather than fighting with the team. If you buff both, they will be broken. We already see and seen that happen.

Thing is Revs do what they need to do for the TEAM (they are “supportive” while Thieves/Warriors are not)…so there is no real reason to have Warriors/Thieves that do stuff for themselves (thieves being worse…because at least Warriors have options to be supportive—it just isn’t the “meta” thing to do as those skills are neglected).

If Thieves/Warriors are to be buffed, it should be to make them more viable as supportive options rather than mindless “let me annoy you with some pokes here and there…please don’t run away that just counters my whole plan.”

I have a question. I played over 100 ranked games this season…and maintained roughly a 60-70% win-rate. Fantastic! I breezed through divisions and got a tier or two nightly, was nice and on-track.

However, today, I hit a big wall. That win-rate has significantly dropped to 55% (and dropping) and it’s not fun. At all. Solo or partial-group…doesn’t matter. I’m (or we) are either getting stuck dancing between a single pip with no actual gain. Like literally, almost 24 hours of just sitting at a single pip.

About to hit the 200 ranked games mark this season…and likely hit a 50% win-rate.
Is that by design? Is that why I’m/we are being put into 10m+ queues? Is the “system” trying to find a place for me this LATE? Did it really take over 100 games for the “system” to realize I might not be in the right division…but then realize it screwed up and needs to keep me hovering at one pip?

Malediktus.3740:

Exclusive rewards for being there at the right time are a great thing. And yes playing at release of the game makes you more special than someone who starts right now imho. You sticked a long time with the game and should be rewarded for your loyality.

I don’t know, I guess I’m just not a very selfish person. I much rather perfer content (at any level) to be appreciated at any given time. Sorry for my weakness, my condi-cleanse is on cooldown.

Easiest path is playing on time…but if you missed out, ideally, you should still have the chance later but it will be more difficult.

Honestly, the Achievements can be reworked slightly to be able to be done overtime (like other legendary-gaining achievement paths). While still introducing newer content to keep players who did play on time interested.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

LUST.7241:

I understand the value of “exclusives” to some players…but I feel like GW2 has gravitated away from that so there is less “feeling behind”…even if it just a title (which I don’t even use anyway). That’s why I keep coming back.

Would be nicer, since the legendary division is “repeatable”, that each time someone repeats the division placement, they unlock the next title.

Ex.

• Primordial Legend – Cross into the legendary division.
• Exalted Legend – Repeat the legendary division twice in the same season.
• Illustrious Legend - Repeat the legendary division three times in the same season.
• Indomitable Legend – Repeat the legendary division four times in the same season.

…and so on.

It is an achievement to cross into the division out of luck (solo) or skill (grouped). No matter how…it shouldn’t be tied to a season. Don’t get “Illustrious Legend” title this season? No worried, get it next season! No need for exclusives.

That removes the point of getting it in those seasons though, there are lot of achievements/titles you can no longer get, the game evolves and moves forward, if you weren’t playing during those times you missed out that’s the simple truth, there is no reason to cater to people that didn’t want to put in the time for the titles/achievment/item when they were obtainable, it is limited content for a reason, especially now that they are removing rewards away from prestige of playing PvP.

That’s exactly my point.
Think about it, is getting legendary in Season 1 really any different than getting it in Season 900 outside of just “Hey I played back then…”? That’s not an achievement. I played since beta…does that make me any more special than someone who played today? It doesn’t and shouldn’t…all it gave me was experience with content which then I can use to help shape the experience for newer players. They should be able to feel the same things I felt to some degree.

Exclusives, again I understand it’s just a title, devalues good long-lasting content. Like I said, one of the appeals to GW2 is that you DON’T feel/get left out if you missed older content because they’ll comeback so new players (and old) can live/re-live those moments and come together for them.

Plus, some of those things were WAY easier to get at release then they are later. Adding “first” content just causes an unnecessary split between new and old players…which PvP suffered from.

If you played Season 1, you got rewarded for doing so with silver, gold, items, etc. You already had that edge. You got rewarded earlier than people who come later. While new content gets added, you’ll still be ahead if you are still active…but newer players have that chance to catch up later in some way (harder most likely).

This is the unseen approach that sets games apart and keeps games alive. You should have content (even if it’s as little as petty titles) that isn’t subject to “being in line first.”

Luna.9640:

LUST.7241:

2. Class Mastery – One should not be forced into picking a class they are inexperienced with. Forcing this causes more harm than good. I rather have a team of experienced players rather than a team of inexperienced ones playing a class because it’s good composition.

This is an issue for Solo-Queue, not so much when you are in a group and have complete control over your choices. Plus, there is not only ONE way to play a single class.

This actually discourages good gameplay and invokes a more careless one. Heck, it discouraged me from doing Ascension achievements… I rather not play ranked with a class I’m not experienced with and I don’t recommend others to practice classes in ranked either.

Or you know you can have few squishy classes in your team in heavy bunker meta which cannot get into the point let alone cap+hold it.

Or you can have couple of support build classes during a heavy dps meta where they cant even support themselves let alone support the team.

In both scenarios – you loose.

On the other hand if you encourage people to play RANKED games when they can actually be flexible and swich multiple classes you will:

1. Have more variet and interesting games.
2. Better teammates that understad the game and classes they own and face better.
3. Overwall better game quality which will promote having more tournament ready teams that want to compete in Guild Wars 2 Tournaments. (currently the gap between Tournaments Pro. Teams and Ranked Teams is like few Light Years)

I fully support LordHealseth (even tho I’m not much of an elitist like people call him and other pro. players) about his suggestion that PRESTIGIOUS ITEMS (like TheAscension backpack) from PVP should be hard to earn and require you to be trully legendary and not “I cannot re-roll coz I’m exp. with single class” type of player.

Again, those are mostly solo-queue issues that were heightened issues because people were forced to play multiple classes for a “legendary”. Organized teams/Pro teams don’t have this issue.

And yeah, I get it…if there is a legendary reward, it should be somewhat hard to get…but what’s so “legendary” about playing a class you aren’t familiar with? People should be rewarded for what they are good at not be rewarded for something they are inexperienced with.

This can be resolved in another way: “Win X ranked games WITH an Engineer”, “Win X ranked games WITH an Elementalist”, “Win X ranked games WITH a Revenant”, etc. That would encourage more variety in team composition than just forcing someone to play another class.

Josh Davis.6015:

This is something we’ve been monitoring for a while. We’re looking at a couple of different options here, but we do need to be careful making changes to something that is so integral to PvP gameplay (and as a note, we’d be making changes to PvP only).

Below are some suggestions I’ve seen on this forum over the past few months. We wouldn’t do all of them of course, but I figured I’d throw them out and see how you folks feel about them.

• Implement 1-to-1 rally policy, similar to WvW. This means that only 1 player would rally per enemy killed, rather than up to 5. Would likely be the downed ally closest to the enemy player.
• Cap the range at which someone can rally.
• Bring back PvE-downstate policy
• Shorten revive/downed “invuln” buff.
• Reduce healing per tick when rezzing.
• Further reduce downstate HP
• Adjust outlier revive skills (Function Gyro)

• Implement 1-to-1 rally policy – Yes.

• Cap the range at which someone can rally – Yes.

• “Bring back PvE-downstate policy” – Yes. If I revive someone or someone else gets revived and they are just as strong as before…were they ever really dead? Given how much sustain certain builds have, this is necessary when a team finally manages to take down someone that can hold off 5 people.

• Shorten revive/downed “invuln” buff. – How is someone invulnerable when they are falling to the ground or getting up? I know it’s just a few seconds but they are still targetable for skills and pretty much nullifies any damage during that time period. Just doesn’t make sense. This should just be removed.

• Reduce healing per tick when rezzing – Healing per tick is fine…rather the problem is health-loss per tick…you are dying…but you can effectively be dying longer than you were alive in the first place. Increase the sense of urgency for your team to come get you back up.

• Further reduce downstate HP – Downstate HP should just be a percentage of whatever HP the player has.

• Adjust outlier revive skills (Function Gyro) – Are you saying this should be nerfed or buffed? Because right now it’s hardly even noticeable and sometimes it doesn’t even trigger…plus cannot even be used on the Scrapper themself…rather have the Engi/Scrapper downed skills reworked. I just play Engi and I don’t think this even should be changed (Is this really an issue? Might because I played without the Gyro and can work around it not working as well as a Ranger pet)

2. Class Mastery – One should not be forced into picking a class they are inexperienced with. Forcing this causes more harm than good. I rather have a team of experienced players rather than a team of inexperienced ones playing a class because it’s good composition.

This is an issue for Solo-Queue, not so much when you are in a group and have complete control over your choices. Plus, there is not only ONE way to play a single class.

This actually discourages good gameplay and invokes a more careless one. Heck, it discouraged me from doing Ascension achievements… I rather not play ranked with a class I’m not experienced with and I don’t recommend others to practice classes in ranked either.

I understand the value of “exclusives” to some players…but I feel like GW2 has gravitated away from that so there is less “feeling behind”…even if it just a title (which I don’t even use anyway). That’s why I keep coming back.

Would be nicer, since the legendary division is “repeatable”, that each time someone repeats the division placement, they unlock the next title.

Ex.

• Primordial Legend – Cross into the legendary division.
• Exalted Legend – Repeat the legendary division twice in the same season.
• Illustrious Legend - Repeat the legendary division three times in the same season.
• Indomitable Legend – Repeat the legendary division four times in the same season.

…and so on.

It is an achievement to cross into the division out of luck (solo) or skill (grouped). No matter how…it shouldn’t be tied to a season. Don’t get “Illustrious Legend” title this season? No worried, get it next season! No need for exclusives.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Spartacus.3192:

1. Make Rewards be SKINS not actual ITEMS so PVE’ers who dont care about PVP will not be so tempted.
2. Remove the multi class profession achievements.
3. Remove Tier and division safety nets.

Thanks

Why do PvP players have to be second class citizens in the regards to getting items as rewards? A lot of PvP players do other parts of the game. Why should Pve have all/most Legendaries?

I don’t understand this logic.

You can/should get rewards in both PvP/PvE/WvW…how one chooses to get them is entirely up to them. Everyone should be able to get what they like in multiple ways (even if it’s just for the skin instead of the actual item). No need to seclude a playerbase by introducing super exclusives.’

Especially in PvP where how you LOOK doesn’t do anything.

If you do an activity on the new maps and get the same time as the reward time…you won’t get the reward. I’m guessing it’s factoring in milliseconds as well.

Ugh, guess so. I’ll double check everything again I guess, just to be sure I’m not missing anything else. x)

It seems that Mini Revenant Rytlock from HoT replaced Mini Rytlock from Deluxe/Collector’s?

Speculating that Mini Revenant Rytlock replaced the Deluxe/Collector’s edition Mini Rytlock. Possibly effects more people other than myself who have purchased both.

If it didn’t…well, I’m missing my Mini Rytlock, and I just recently closed a ticket on Minis.

While the dynamic nature of where the Mordrem arise is nice, having the other maps overlap them and causing closest waypoints to be contested is harsh. I like where the locations they spawn, each with their own ways to be taken down.

Sadly, it’s also a huge deathtrap for low level players who have no idea what is going on, the Mordrem are not easy opponents and more often than not I see those poor low levels (likely new to the game) too poor to even respawn at a the waypoint while people just run over them trying to tag a Mordrem or two for a stack that decides their reward amount.

And that’s another thing, the reward system does not encourage people to stick to a events, it would have been way better to track how many Mordrem were stopped and give everyone who participated the same reward based on how well everyone did. Of course, this requires actively checking participation so people don’t AFK and abuse it.

However, this is something to learn from. It is an interesting event, but it really wasn’t tested. I’d say revisit it with proper rewards/reward amounts, good loot, and what not. Mordrem events should disable any other event going on in the respective map and hopefully there is some way to help new players who happen to be passing by understand the temporary roadblock.

Conceptually, this could be an interesting way to bring back Season 1 events that sort of did the same thing, so that new players can experience what shaped HoT and connect with veteran players who already have.

Malediktus.9250:

No. That would make the historical achievements pointless if they were included in the daily cap. I dont want to see the whole top 1000 with exactly the same AP. Since most achievements are trivial in this game and just require a time investment, the historical achievements are one of the limited ways to stand out on the leaderboard.

How? They still won’t catch-up…and when they do they’d still behind years worth of AP. AP is just as trivial, right now the only value to AP are titles associated to them and for elitist smugs to deny other players from parties.

There should be no reason to deny new players or players who unfortunately missed out on such a significant amount of AP that took seconds to hours to complete prior…when they can take years to get those missed points back.

Those who actually got the historical achievements will still have the items, titles, and whatever rewards granted by them. Those are the only things really showing the historical value.

Again, those AP leaders will still be leaders for plenty of time…literally years of AP ahead already and will continue to do so IF they wish to continue AP hunting, if they don’t: people have a chance to overtake them (albeit, years later)…which is why leaderboards even exist. There should be something that threatens their current spot; it won’t be immediate, it will take years to take a spot from the top achievers.

By the time you see 1000 players with the same AP: GW4 will be out and we’ll all likely be dead. Assuming AP isn’t capped at 60k, top achievers won’t lose their spot even then. However, if it is capped, top achievers still will retain their position and still lead in the amount of time it took to get there and have leads ranging in years.

There is no downside enabling players to get the AP they missed.

You could have got about 4,987 AP from historical events Reference" . I feel that new players (or those who missed out) shouldn’t be hindered from such a significant amount of AP from just not being around. A fix would be to add JUST the AP value from the historical achievements to the Daily cap (15,000 + Missed Historical AP). That way there wouldn’t be a need to reintroduce the unique events that gave them, those who missed out just have to that many more dailies, and those who already got the historical achievements don’t gain more AP, but keep their unique rewards from playing at that time.

That being said, since the Daily cap is almost reached by the top AP players which is roughly 50% of the ENTIRE possible achievement list AFTER 3 years of playing. The Daily Cap shouldn’t be raised (rather, doesn’t have to), but newer content should have enough to get the rest of ~30k AP to hit the 60k AP mark a bit faster and get rewarded for their time (since a bulk of it is simply just devoting time).

I apologize if I went a bit off topic. I’m supportive of making those “top achievers feel like they are top achievers”…and I just so happen to be supportive of new and old players ability to join them eventually (if they devote the same time and value AP).

P.S. Or just cap the max AP to 60k, if it isn’t already, and have enough content for everyone to eventually hit that (despite if they missed past events—meaning those who did the events will get 60k sooner).

Hello fellow Engineer devotees!
Recently there has been a whole lot of Engineer bugs that seem to have no been addressed (yet). So, for convenience there is this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Engineer-Known-Bugs-Post-Feature-Pack/first#post4414587 which lists all the reported bugs thus far.

With the help of the Guild Wars 2 Subreddit , the list grows…but still may be missing things!

If you have any bugs not listed on the thread, or discussed on the subreddit. PLEASE reply with your addition here and I’ll kindly add it to the full list. Let’s help make Engineer bug free (and clarify misconceptions).

• On rare Ocassion Firearms Trait VI Hair Trigger does not grant any recharge reduction for Rifle skills…it should by 20% like stated. However, It does grant recharge reduction to Pistol skills (including Dual Pistols) and Harpoon (speargun) Skills. (Proof: Before & After )
• Firearms Trait VII Juggernaut doesn’t give the +200 Toughness as it says it does anymore while using a Flamethrower.
• Inventions Trait V Energized Armor does not consider added toughness (ex. from Juggernaut) anymore.
• Alchemy Trait VII Deadly Mixture wrongly updating Flamethrower weapon Tooltips.
• Alchemy Trait VII Deadly Mixture not applying to Napalm (Skill 4 – Flamethrower).
• Alchemy Trait VII Deadly Mixture, can be bugged with the damage output actually indicating that Deadly Mixture isn’t active (meaning, it reduces damage like presented due to the wrong tooltip). Have to switch out of kit to undo/fix (occasionally happens randomly I’ve noticed)
• Flamethrower’s 2nd skill Flame Blast‘s Blast Finisher sometimes doesn’t get applied

• Old can interrupt your own skills. (ex. I expect to drop Big Ol’ Bomb on a Fire Field, only for it to have 3s reset because I apparently pressed it too fast. Or I’d use Napalm, and it would just reset because I pressed a skill before it actually landed.)
• Old Flamethrower’s skill Flame Blast getting stuck on Detonate unless you press it again (in which it starts a reset timer—even though its been stuck for over 10s)
• Old Flamethrower’s skill Flame Blast sometimes follows the wrong trajectory or directly downwards into the floor
• Old Tools Trait II acquired skill Static Discharge (for some tool belt skills) just go directly downward or through the floor.
• Old Alchemy XI trait HGH does not give 2 stacks of might when tossing Elixirs (gives 1 instead), in exception to Elixir H

• Possible Bug Tools Trait IV Speedy Gadgets does not grant recharge reduction on Gadget’s Tool Belt Skills (not considered Gadgets?)
• Possible Bug Tools Trait XIII Gadgeteer does not grant boons on Gadget’s Tool Belt Skills (not considered Gadgets?)
• Possible Bug Alchemy Trait II Fast-Acting Elixirs does not recharge reduction on Tool Belt’s Toss Elixir skills.

If any Engineer knows of anymore, please reply.

Additions from Reddit :

• Healing Turret’s combo field (Water) does not always trigger when using Regenerating Mist (Tool Belt) or Cleansing Burst (Turret activation) – provided by /u/Superplastik
• 3rd Downed Skill Booby Trap sometimes does not work depending on the surface you are laying on. If you press it, it instantly cancels itself meaning you can’t use it at all. Does not happen that often but it still does 1 out of the 10 times and it can screw you over bigtime when you are in a close fight. provided by – /u/Wolfineer
• Explosives Trait XII Synaptic Overload randomly triggers on character movement rather than on applying knockback or launching foes. provided by – /u/DazedRabbit , with video proof
• Rocket Boots trajectory colliding with unseen angles/invisible collision points moreso than before, causing sudden turns in different angles. provided by – /u/PlasmaNapkin
• Magnet Pull causes enemies to “rubberband” (Thread & Twitch Highlight ) provided by – /u/Fernandinajazz
• Rifle skill Net Shot fails to hit target within said range (1000 range default, 1200 with trait "Rifled Barrels) provided by – /u/Fernandinajazz
• Rifle skill Net Shot easily becomes obstructed by ground (similar to Static Discharge) – /u/Fernandinajazz
• Net Turret Tool-Belt skill Net Attack also tends to fail within it’s displayed 600 range and also easily becomes obstructed by ground.
• Inventions 3 point passive Automated Medical Response gets triggered even though Heal Skills are not on cooldown, effectively making this trait useless.
• Inventions 3 point passive Automated Medical Response can conflict with Alchemy Trait IV Self-Regulating Defenses since they are both triggered at the 25% Threshold (Self-Regulating Defenses gets priority, rendering the latter useless)

Additions from Thread:

• Sometimes when using a kit at low level, utilities and elite skills get unlocked far before reaching level 40.

Your son should have learned a valuable lesson: kitten ain’t easy. Deal with it.

Next time tell him to roll a Engineer first. Warriors first generally go one direction: 1 1 2 11.

I exclusively play Engineer and two years ago… Movement Speed wasn’t a concern for me at all.

I came back to playing back in Feb 2014 and the first thing I noticed is: Why am I so slow? Was I always this slow? Why am I even SLOWER in combat?

So I took up the trait for 25% increased movement speed and was like “Awesome. This feels right.” However, I did some testing and it seems I don’t go that faster with the trait AND swiftness boons. And if I just use swiftness, that feels like the same thing.

Is the trait useless? Well, like you said, I don’t want to sacrifice a skill just to move fast…but I don’t want to sacrifice a trait to move fast either. Worst of all: in combat, I’m still slowed to hell.

That has to be my number one complaint that I just don’t want to admit because I feel like no one else has these feeeeels. D:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Did you check the actual combat log or just going by the tooltip? Pretty sure it’s just a tooltip bug but you are actually getting the 15% increase.

Just tested in HotM.

Reported findings on the Reddit post as well. It seems there is no buff at all and the trait does not get applied.

Plus, comparing it with screenshot chat logs, there seems to be no buff at all.

So, I expected a 33% increase, but it seems there is a bug with traits.

• Prior to the patch, my Flame Jet while traited into Deadly Mixture, did Damage (10x): 1,640.
  * Now, with the patch, it does Damage (10x): 1,640.

Same exact build.

Without traits (pre-patch):

• Damage (10x): ~1,300.

Without traits (now):

• Damage (10x): ~1,800.

Conclusion: It’s a bug. There is definitely a buff, but traits that buff Flamethrower damage like: Deadly Mixture (Deal extra damage by 15%), reduce it severely to its prior numbers. I should be seeing ~2300 damage now with the trait.

So I was slowly collecting toward this achievement and now see that it’s impossible now with the Account Binding of Miniatures?

That’s sort of lame.
I know its a collection and everything but I don’t WANT to FORCEFULLY bind my Miniatures. Plus, I have X number in my Miniatures Set tab, but only shows 1/20 on the achievement, do I have to account bind it?

I never asked for the inability to trade minis just for some forced collection. Or the fact I can’t see what I’m missing.

There is a discussion on reddit about the wastefulness of the Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic.

I just bought it. I used it. And figured, “Why did I waste 500 gems and ~3g to salvage 500+items and make no profit? When I could have wasted 1.5g on 10+ Master Kits to achieve the same result (less if I use/craft a Mystic Kit)?”

This might be the best item on the Gem store that effectively makes you poorer without you realizing it. Please make it slightly beneficial somehow because the Copper-Fed actually saves you both time and coins.

Carighan.6758:

The Flamethrower needs such an identiy. Proposal:

Flamethrower – the area-denial tool
I would make it a weapon adept at making enemies not want to stand where it is aimed, and/or in too-close proximity to the Engineer wielding it. This would thematically fit the Juggernaut trait, adding extra defence. Specific changes would be:

• Flame Jet scorches earth and walls it touches, which causes targets on it to burn for 1s, every second. Basically, don’t stand in the fire. The scorch-effect lasts ~5-6 seconds and is applied with every tick, so sweeping the flame around really covers a huge area.
• Flame Blast loses potency while travelling. When exploded close enough it actually knocks targets away from the point of explosion, farther the close it is exploded.
• Air Blast also resets all scorching it hits to max-duration.
• Flame wall changed, now a curve-shaped wall which burns for X seconds and then scorches the area for X*4 further seconds.
• Utility skill changed, you throw an unlit molachev kittentail at a target location. Any enemy hit will be covered for 4s, the area is also covered for 4s. Any burning on any target (even friendly) in the area will ignore the area and all enemy targets covered in it, making them burn for 3s and run away for 1s.
• Juggernaut changed: Might gain removed, Toughness boosted by 500 total, burning on you lasts 50% shorter, walk 20% slower but immune to blowout, knockdown and knockback.

I don’t want using the Flamethrower to be an Engineers #1 kit or have to be reinvisioned…I just think it should be closer to the other kits instead of being significantly different even when fully traited. The way it’s now is like fraction complete.

That said, I do like the proposed changes, though I’d change it a bit (if considered).

• Instead of [Flame Jet] scorching the earth, I’d add that effect to [Flame Blast]’s roll
• If [Flame Jet] fires over [Naplam] (flame wall), scorch earth to a certain range.
• [Air Blast] can also scorch earth if blasted over [Naplam] but to a slightly greater range than [Flame Jet].

Which would mean, better synergy with using all FT skills.

I wouldn’t change the Juggernaut trait. The Might bonus is quite useful when roaming and even playing solo…you actually feel like a Juggernaut and the Toughness bonus is just the right amount.

The immunity though would be a nice Inventions or Tools Grandmaster trait, but I wouldn’t say complete immunity is the way to go. If a Flamethrower is to area-deny, then that idea should go along the lines of:

• Gain stability periodically (every 20s for 5s) when wielding a Flamethrower and gain a Fire Shield (4s) if interrupted (20s cooldown)

Shouldn’t be tied to Juggernaut or should have complete immunity. We should be still be killable and still have to risk venturing into traitlines.

I do like the proposed change to the utility skill, if it actually does noticeable damage or is useful like the other utility skills we get with other kits.

Aedrion.6483:

No.

To this whole tread.

Engineer is flexible and powerful enough in PvP without a single utility skill on no cooldown turning him into a monster. Combine that with what the engineer can already do and one engineer will just destroy everything.

• None of this effects condition damage (which the majority of sPvP engineers are).
• None of this effects anything but the Flamethrower.
• No one is saying Engineers aren’t flexible or weak in PvP.
• These are only concerns as to why things were overlooked.