Guild Wars 2

Casia.4281:

Precise sights is useless, as you hit 24 vul pretty easy with grenades. If you use food, or runes for +cond duration its even easier.
the crit and cond damage from 30 firearms is ok. but hgh gives a ton of might and thus power and cond. The boon duration as well.
If you want glass cannon elixirs, take +20% duration, 20% cdr, and hgh.
Elixir B on self use will give 15s of fury, on 32s CD. without any extra +boon duration runes/food.

You can mix runes. +20% might duration fire, +20% might duration strength.
Stacks for 59s might duration from elixir b.
+20% fury duration on rage
water and monk are 10% all boons each at 2 piece.

20% duration trait, 20% cdr, and 30 points in alch
Strength 2 piece, +water, and +monk makes my elixir B= 18s ret, fury, swiftness. 101s of mightx2.

I have not mathed it out admittedly, but I kindof expect that high duration of fury, and might to out damage the small gains from firearms raw stats.

Conversely, the massive utility gained from 409 cleansing is so worth it.

Casia, you (of course) were correct. I specced into alchemy as saw a dramatic increase in damage. A few questions remain.

First, aside from food, runes, etc., you implied that it is easy to stack vulnerability with grenades without precise sights. How can this be accomplished?

Second, I presume that I would want enhance performance over explosive powder. However, this raises the question of whether it would be better to take elixir H or the med kit for healing utility. With HGH, and without supporting food or runes, I can keep ~4 stacks of might up at all times with elixir H vs. ~6 with med kit. The downside is that I have to activate med kit every 10s and lose the random buff associated with elixir H. However, the med kit would provide access to condition removal, which I would lack if I take potent elixirs over 409.

This brings up another point. Potent elixirs is bugged both positively and negatively. It is great for stacking might with elixir B and terrible in that it ignores most of the other elixirs and elixir gun. The build still benefits from having the trait, but it would be nice to know your thoughts about it.

Finally, would you still suggest using rifle as weapon, or does it really make any difference since only grenades would be optimized through traits?

Casia is the expert on all things engineer.

Casia, would not 30 in fireams be better than 30 in alchemy presuming that one is not averse to a glass cannon? I would think 30/20/0/0/20 with explosive powder and grenadier from explosives; precise sights from firearms; and static discharge or kit refinement from tools. I have been running a similar build with rifle as weapon and grenades and bombs as utilities. However, I am considering adding the elixir gun for additional healing and condition removal (beyond that provided by med kit).

Also, I should note that this is from a PVE (DE, solo) perspective with an interest in maximizing damage output.

Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Tybalt was a lot of fun, whereas Trahearne is a bore. Trahearne is a pointless plot device that serves only to draw attention away from the hero. To add insult to injury, he is utterly useless in fights even when wielding “Calgon, take me away”.

This is a game. I die frequently and keep coming back. I see no reason for Tybalt’s death to be any different. His return would make my gaming experience much more enjoyable. However, this is my own opinion, and I appreciate and respect your point of view.

So I watched sadly as Tybalt closed the door and walked off into eternity last night. After reflecting on the situation this morning, I realized that he was never seen to die and that his body was never recovered. All the subsequent talk about his death was founded on supposition.* In comics and RP games, this sort of plot device is often used to set up a character’s suprise return at a later date. Accordingly, I say we start a petition to bring back Tybalt as soon as possible. If you agree with me, then please let your voice be heard. Tybalt rocked, and I am not looking forward to being forced to group with the Dungeon Master’s pet for the next 20-30 levels.

• Note: I am aware that one can sneak back into the pavillion and revive a seemingly deceased Tybalt. However, I do not believe the game developers conceived of this possibility when they created the Claw Island event. The way the event is constructed, the hero was never to see Tybalt again after the door closes. From the hero’s perspective, it makes no difference if the image of Tybalt falls in battle, keeps fighting, or simply vanishes.

I would like to see a quest where we are given the opportunity to sacrifice an NPC in order to resurrect our mentor. I’d tear out Trahearne’s heart with my bear hands on top of an Aztec pyramid wearing nothing but an ostritch-feather speedo just to bring back Tybalt.

Okay, I think we have a winner. I watched the cutscene for each of the three orders. I think my character is going to ask Riel Darkwater to marry him. (Sorry Iowerth, don’t be jealous.) The cutscene for OoW was amazing! “Send the dragons back to Hell.” Definitely my style.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and help.

I am a well published social scientist with training in quantitative and qualitative research methods. It seems to me that if you want to conduct a survey of GW2 players that you should be working from a mailing list so that you can correct for selection biases due to nonresponse. The responses you see in a forum such as this have very limited generality. Was this research approved by the IRB of UC?

Thanks for all the responses!

This is so hard, though I am leaning toward OoW. The character is basically an 80’s metalhead with artillery. Sort of the male equivalent of Kate Beckinsale’s character in Underworld. The Vigil is a military organization. I cannot see my engineer taking orders or commanding troops. He’s too chaotic for that. If OoW was more clearly about assassinations, then the choice would be easier. The mentors for Vigil and OoW are both well developed and interesting. Since the orders’ gear is not the best-looking in game, and there are no order-specific titles, it seems to me that the choice should be guided by role-playing and pragmatic considerations (e.g., who has easier or more interesting quests).

Ouch… I am now in need of some very serious dev input.

Based on the comments above, as well as Anthony Ordon’s post (see https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/halloween/Are-the-Halloween-skins-permament/first#post512016), I placed the ghastly grinning shield appearance on a shield with the expectation that I could transmute the appearance to another shield if needed. I have been trying to confirm the feasibility of this, and have been getting negative results. I am able to put the now grinning shield in the “from” box, but the “item transmutation” button is grayed out when I place another shield in the “to” box.

Anthony, if you are listening, please help. Your post, like the posts of others above, suggests that the grinning shield visage should be transmutable to other shields.

I have a single copy of the Ghastly shield skin from Halloween. If I place this on an arbitrary shield, then can I transmogrify the skin to other shields? In other words, can I repeatedly place the skin on new shields as long as I do not lose the original shield with the skin and have access to transmogrification stones? I am looking for a definitive answer to this question. The consequences of a Type I error would be extreme.

I am at that awkward stage of having to choose an order in order to progress in my personal storyline. (Pete Brady’s voice is haunting me…) I am having a hard time choosing between Order of Whispers and the Vigil. The priory is out (and if you know Iowerth, this probably counts as a pun). Here are the relevant details:

General information:
Race: Sylvari
Class: Engineer
Level: 46

Factors favoring Vigil:
1. Character is played as a “demolition man.” Favors ferocious personality trait. Favors battle over games and scavenger hunts. Traited predominantly explosives with grenades.
2. Vigil weapons (especially the rifle) look better than Order of Whisper equivalents.
3. Vigil has a cooler insignia (flaming eye) and color set (black and silver).
4. If I select Vigil, then I presume future storyline quests will be more combat oriented, which I would prefer.

Factors favoring Order of Whispers:
1. The character is an adventurer. Engineers are not sneaky, like thieves and rangers, but they are crafty and are masters of improvisation.
2. The character has dark persona with a Halloween-influenced name and color scheme.
3. The character was born under the cycle of night.
4. The Order of Whispers medium armor set is much cooler than the Vigil set. In fact, I believe this is the set one sees at the engineer creation screen.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In GW2, I have leveled three crafts to 400 and several others to the 100-200 range. I was very into crafting in WoW. Had all but 3 engineering recipes in the game. Learned the value of NOT being a completionist.

The problem with crafting in GW2 is that it serves no purpose. There is little value in trying to craft gear for my charatacters. Most gear can be purchased for less than the mats from the TP. There are times when I may want a piece of gear that is not available on the TP. However, this is rare and usually occurs when the item is a forge recipe that involves a hard-to-obtain mat. If one is leveling, then spending time trying to get the recipe and mat(s) is arguably not worth it. In my opinion, GW2 crafting needs to provide small but noticeable perks as is the case in WoW. Leveling a crafting profession just for skins is not a good investment of time or money.

Also, shared nodes are awesome.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-November-15-2012

Not so bad for PVE, but no major improvements. For PVP, this is a swift kick in the kittens, especially when compared to the improvements for elementalists and necromancers. No equity.

I am hoping to gear up when I get back from a trip tomorrow. Can anyone make some specific recommendations for armor for 41 level engineer? Again, I have been running rifle/grenades with speedy kits and putting rest of my trait points into explosives. I am considering substituting P/P for rifle, though.

From the TP, it seems my options are ravaging or honed gear. Ravaging is quite a bit better than honed in terms of overall stats but lacks power. I am unaware of any leatherworker recipes for better armor options.

Kouken.8604:

medium tier3 is the most stunning set ingame, have 5 pieces myself (helm is meh) worth every bit of gold

I am sure that I have probably seen this before, but can you provide a link?

That is disappointing. Why are all the medium armor sets either nondescript or bad looking?

Is there any sylvari medium armor with wings, or is the only armor set with wings the one light armor set?

Thanks for the replies. Is there a gear database that can be used to compare stats among items for a given profession level?

I just dinged 41 from 10 after leveling several crafting specializations. Can anyone recommend a good armor set for my level? Before turning to my crafts, I was leveling rifle/grenades with mostly power gear. I intend to continue with grenades, though I thought to give dual pistols a try. I am a sylvari and am not sure about the stats on cultural armor. +precision/condition damage seems to be mismatched. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I could not find a way to lock. Was hoping not to level myself out of content, especially personal story.

Is there any way to level lock when crafting to stop gaining profession XP or reduce the rate at which it is gained?

Are the Halloween recipes (e.g., minor sigil of night, minor rune of the mad king) still discoverable? If so, how long will this be the case?

I am creating a Sylvari engineer who will personify the destructive and chaotic elements of engineering. I am having a hard time choosing between “White stag” and “Shield of the moon” for his vision. I am somewhat familiar with both storylines. WS would involve tracking a supernatural beast and ultimately dueling an honorable villain, whereas SotM would involve tracking down and slaying another Sylvari’s lost love. I think that SotM is probably more fitting for my character given the dark theme, grim ending, and reference to “moon” (a symbol of the night) in the vision’s title. However, references to “faith,” fortitude," and “healing” in the vision’s description are a bit off-putting. Since I have not chosen either vision previously, I have nothing to use as a referent other than the information I have seen online. Any suggestions from others who are more familiar with these visions would be greatly appreciated.

I am creating a Sylvari engineer who will personify the destructive and chaotic elements of engineering. I am having a hard time choosing between “White stag” and “Shield of the moon” for his vision. I am somewhat familiar with both storylines. WS would involve tracking a supernatural beast and ultimately dueling an honorable villain, whereas SotM would involve tracking down and slaying another Sylvari’s lost love. I think that SotM is probably more fitting for my character given the dark theme, grim ending, and reference to “moon” (a symbol of the night) in the vision’s title. However, references to “faith,” fortitude," and “healing” in the vision’s description are a bit off-putting. Since I have not chosen either vision previously, I have nothing to use as a referent other than the information I have seen online. Any suggestions from others who are more familiar with these visions would be greatly appreciated.

That’s so funny, I spit coffee all over my laptop. Hopefully, you didn’t invest any time into that monstrocity.

Please do not call for nerfs to grenades. I re-rolled engineer from elementalist and have been pleased as punch with the profession. Being a long-time player of spell casters, I was sad to see how ineffectual elementalists are. Engineers are much more fluid and fun to play. Grenades just happen to be more efficient than the weapons or other kits. It is not to knock our other abilities., but grenades work well and are hopefully working as intended. Drunk, fat, and nerfed is no way to go through life son.

Does short fuse affect the recharge rates of the tool belt grenade and bomb abilities (grenade barrage and big ole bomb) or only the recharge rates of the regular kit abilities?

coglin.1496:

I am unclear how they can wear off before you can get to them, because our weapons range are the same as the distance the boots separate us. Am I missing something?

You are correct. However, it is still problematic that we have to waste time rising to our feet during the buff. I question the value of taking mines just to proc combo fields, and turrets are not my thing. My preference would be to run grenades/eB/bombs or grenades/eB/utility goggles. I do hope that they fix the BoB bug soon.

Thanks for the prompt response. Perhaps I am missing the boots because by the time I get back up and to the mobs the buff has worn off. Presuming this is the case, then what is the value of evoking might with the boots when soloing?

It appears to me that several of the engineer’s supposed blast finishers (e.g., big ole bomb, rocket boots) do not work. Are detonate mine and supply crate the only blast finishers left? Is it worth it to take mine as blast finisher (for might) over utility goggles?

I have been leveling an elementalist in PVE. Although I like the mobility of D/D, I dislike the slow cast times and squishiness.

After doing a bit of research, it appears to me that the engineer has many of the same strengths as the elementalist (AoE damage, CC, combo fields), a little less mobility (no RtL but perma-swiftness via speedy kits), better damage mitigation and health, better downed state abilities, and perhaps most important, faster cast and recharge times.

I have several questions that I would appreciate your help in answering.

1. I am thinking something like this spec:

http://en.gw2codex.com/build/19098][IMG]http://en.gw2codex.com/build/19098/sign

Grenades for distance, bombs for close range, pistols to stack condition damage. The only advantage I could see the rifle providing would be the ability to get into/out of range with ability 5.

Any thoughts about the usefulness of pistols vs. rifle with this build?

Any other suggestions for changes?

2. My impression is that engineers are capable of putting out at least as much damage as elementalists with arguably better burst. Is this a fair assessment?

3. Supply crate gets a lot of positive reviews. Can one actually use (aim or self-destruct) the turrets, or are they controlled by AI for the duration?

4. Any thoughts on short fuse vs. explosive powder? I have read that the latter does not work with grenades.

5. Most engineers are Charr or Asura. Does anyone actually use the charrzooka over supply crate?

6. Most of my preferred names have already been taken. Is anyone aware of a GW2 name generator that is suitable for engineers?

Note: Edited to add question about relative damage.