Guild Wars 2

Ryn.6459:

As for a guide, I remember that one from guru. Maybe is no up to date, tho.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/88640-guide-to-learning-leveling-and-loving-the-engineer/

It’s not. Sorry. And I probably won’t be updating it either. It’s just such a headache updating after every feature patch.

Xyonon.3987:

just joking but seriously – it’s one of those wow engi traits.

I was being hyperbolic.

Precise Sights is a great trait under many situations, and I’m pretty sure it’s slotted on every guide I’ve ever written. But with the right group composition you can maintain 20+ vulnerability without it easily—even against bosses. Stacks are absolutely saturated in any group that has an engi + ele + war.

The reason why I’ve changed my mind about Precise Sights is because the meta has shifted from bombs to the flamethrower as your fire field option.

Napalm lasts 30 seconds. Might stacks last 20. Conundrum.

And to be completely 100% honest, I value maintained might stacks a lot more than capping out vulnerability against bosses. And without Fireforged Trigger that isn’t possible with the flamethrower unless you’re wearing Strength runes.

But even if you’re wearing Strength runes, because Napalm has a shorter cooldown than your might stacks, and because you’re using blast finishers that are on shorter cooldowns than your might stacks, you’re substantially elevating your engineer’s capabilities to stack might using Fireforged Trigger over Precise Sights.

So basically: if you’re wearing Scholar runes and you’re using the FT as your fire field, you need to swap out of Precise Sights.

Xyonon.3987:

About stealth – when do you need a longer stealth than 20 sec? Rarely in my expirience (still talkin’ ’bout fotm!).

Well, I don’t just do FOTM all day, so I don’t think I’ll limit my responses to it.

Having a thief is essential to any smooth runs of TA, CM, or Arah—and probably several other individual paths I’m not remembering off the top of my head. The truth of the matter is: there are very few situations where you really want 4 DPS + 1 Utility, especially if that means you’re having to choose between a thief, mesmer, or guardian as your final slot for Arah.

That just never happens. No one ever takes it that far. And regardless of how good you are at FOTM, I couldn’t imagine anyone ever taking a warrior over a mesmer even if there’s a guardian in the party at level 50. That just doesn’t happen.

My final two cents on this discussion.

Xyonon.3987:

Who said anything about changing traits? It’s about @ssa vs zerk. If you want to stack fast you won’t use jump shot, nor fumigate – especially NOT fumigate since it deals no damage and should be ready for utility. You seem to forget about “Steel-Packed Powder”. Explosives cause long lasting vuln stacks. So you could say grenades are as good as jump shot. But no – now here “Precise Sights” kick in. Grenades hit 3 times and therefore trigger PS more often than everything else. And that’s the reason why to take @ssa here – to maintain high amounts of vuln via grenade spam.

I think you’re confusing yourself here. I was talking about why Precise Sights is a bad trait. You can get 25 vulnerable immediately without it. If you’re obsessed about frontload damage run Throw Mine over the Elixir Gun and use Mine Field.

Xyonon.3987:

You know that @ssa engi means zerk or @ssa weapons, @ssa armor and zerk accessoires? It’s not even close to useless against anything that isn’t critable. Its still power oriented and it’s still the main stat. You only focus too on more crits for the team.

Assassin’s main stat is precision, not power.

Xyonon.3987:

Why the hell would you need a thief so bad?! Everything he can do an engi also can … Same goes for guard / mes. They are both reflection kittenes. Everything else are buffslaves like war or ranger and highest dps comes from ele.

Thief better for blind and stealth, mesmer better at reflects.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/93540-dnt-dps-engineer-build-for-speed-runs/

This is the meta build these days.

Xyonon.3987:

I mainly go fotm and often it’s not wise to throw away your endurance for a damage boost. Forceful is for everywhere where mobs often spread or you need the bigger aoe’s for either applying conditions more safetly (like ascalon fotm where warriors often rush into your untraited smoke bomb and hit before a new blind is applied) or for outranging none fire fields for combat might stacks. Everywhere else: yea EA.

Empowering Adrenaline isn’t taken so that you intentionally dodge to proc it. It’s taken because it’s a larger damage increase than any other option in any content where you’re forced to dodge. It’s actually very wise to take into fractals because you are regularly dodging there.

Xyonon.3987:

3. Two reasons to take kitten here. First: More early stacks = faster more passive damage for the team.

If you want fast stacks, Fumigate + Jump Shot + Grenade Barrage does this. You don’t need to change traits.

Xyonon.3987:

You’re mixing a ton of stuff up here. The “toughest boss fight” in the game requires any way different gear you want your utmost efficiency. I don’t even take this as a valid argument sry.

Because structural mobs like Wurm and Tequatl cannot be crit, you want gear that maximizes power. Berserker maximizes power. You wear Soldier if you’re bad at dodging at Teq/Wurm.

But the main point I was making is that non-crittable mobs are relatively common in PvE, especially in end-game content, and you were passing off the issue of non-crit mobs way too casually as though it isn’t a factor.

Xyonon.3987:

No, I’m not going to have a ranger, ele, warrior in every dungeon group, you’re right. Yet I’m gonna have at least 2 of those 3 in my pt. Besides, even unbuffed it’s just 1% wich is laughtable to argue about.

No, what’s laughable is that you guys are intentionally changing up the meta, telling people to invest in another stat set that’s actually worse than Berserker. We’ve been wearing Berserker gear for two years; now you’re saying that people should switch to Assassin: why? Where is the major advantage? And don’t pull out your chart again; explain this madness.

Xyonon.3987:

This is nothing about theorycrafting – I’ve always been more reality oriented than theory. Stuff like “scholar is better in pugs than X” or as you may say “1% more damage with zerk is better than kitten with more crits” is theory crafting.

When you attach a laundry list of preexisting conditions so that Assassin pulls ahead, you are theorycrafting. Why should someone invest in a set that’s only marginally better in the best of groups? Why should someone invest in a set that’s useless against anything that isn’t crittable?

Regardless of how common or uncommon these two scenarios are, I just cannot understand how or why someone should reasonably shift their gear from Berserker to Assassin when Berserker not only works perfectly fine in any group but actually outperforms Assassin in fights where DPS sometimes matters most.

If I am defending a turret at Tequatl, I am in my Berserker gear because those mobs can be crit. And after battery phases I join up with the zerg to DPS. If I were in Assassin gear I would be doing a lot less damage.

Xyonon.3987:

Oh and I have no idea why or where you would have trouble with a decent war, ele, ranger, engi + mes / guard team in fotm 50.

I didn’t say you’d have trouble. I said it wouldn’t really work out, because you always want at least two of the three between a guardian, mesmer, and thief. You could run engi, ele, ranger, and war through FOTM 50, but it wouldn’t be an optimal group.

Xyonon.3987:

In the end Zerk deals 1% more damage unbuffed, decaying to 0% when buffed. I happily sacrifice that silly % damage for all the new onhit stuff i can proc more – bleeding, vuln, strength sigil if (i don’t) you use them etc.

1. Strength Sigil is pretty bad these days. It’s probably the worst option between Force/Night/Battle.

2. You take Shrapnel? I would advocate swapping that out for Empowering Adrenaline, especially if you’re going with Runes of Strength and aren’t afraid to dodge.

3. I just don’t understand how you’re not already capped at 25 vulnerability as it is. Against trash this is easily achieved. And Precise Sights is just too short a duration to be useful against bosses. Hair Trigger is generally better, imho, especially when Jump Shot provides 6 stacks of vulnerability at double the duration.

Xyonon.3987:

kitten is overall much better than zerk for all the engis out there who are using strength runes. However using scholar grants you more precision and may give different results. Don’t get over 100% crit chance full buffed or you become weaker. However the only targets kitten is weaker than zerk is against structures you cannot crit. But – seriously – who cares

Well considering the toughest boss fight in the game (Wurm) cannot be crit during first phase, I would argue that players should care about what they’re investing in for what is—at best—a situational advantage in niche builds.

It just sets a poor precedent saying that Assassin is better with a bunch of asterisks behind it. You’re not going to have a ranger, elementalist, and warrior in every dungeon group to reach those “buffed” statistical values, and in many cases having a ranger, ele, warrior, and engineer in a group is really not that great as that leaves one slot for either a mesmer, thief, or guardian. In fractals and a lot of dungeons that really won’t work out.

This is all theorycrafting. It’s a useful exercise, but I think the meta should be better grounded in reality.

insanemaniac.2456:

its not the vuln, precise sights is crap. you can stack to 25 on trash without it and it doesnt last long enough against champs to matter for anything. idk why the hype, prolly just people getting shiny eyes for vuln and not realizing its a 3 second base duration.

The only time Assassin is definitively better than Berserker is when reflecting. At every other point it’s a matter of less than 1% difference, and by that point RNG plays a bigger factor.

Sauce.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, I’m sure that engineers can go along with mesmer and guardian in having that second set. But for the average player it’s bad advice; in bad groups Berserker is better, and there’s more than enough crap in this game you can’t crit where Assassin is a bad investment.

Like I get the push for best-in-slot, but sometimes people overthink things way too much. Like using 2 Tools with Battle/Force and forgetting you actually need vigor sometimes, and that you’re not always going to be in a meta-group where vigor is getting shared.

Pip.2094:

Hi, I am starting to play engi with 6/6/0/0/2 build with pistol/shield for dungeons and rifle for PvE. Always with full zerker (exotic) gear with Eagle runes.
I need some suggestion for pistol/shield sigils, I was thinking to put Sigil of Battle on shield, and what about pistol?
And on rifle I’m running Bloodlust and Force sigils (I think these are ok? >.< )

Also, if there is something to change in the build let me know Thanks a lot!

Just realized I never responded to the actual OP.

6/6/0/0/2 is maximum DPS, but unless you’re very experienced running dungeon/fractal content all the time, and unless you are with a static group that knows how to boon-share effectively, you’re going to want some vigor access in your build.

Engineers are among the lowest tier when it comes to survivability in PvE. I’d say elementalist is the only class tougher to survive with inside instances. For this reason, and especially when doing higher level fractals, Arah, and CoE, most either swap the two points in Tools out as needed and put it into Alchemy for Invigorating Speed (and changing Precise Sights to Infused Precision). You could also just keep a weapon in your bag that has a Sigil of Energy. Your choice. But don’t #yoloswag the LFG tool thinking your leet DnT deeps build lends well to the PUG environment; you’ll get some good groups, but 6/6/0/0/2 is not a carry build in any sense of the word. You’ll drop in two seconds if guardians, mesmers, and thieves aren’t holding up their ends as you have no stability, no vigor, and very bad condition removal.

I personally prefer Runes of Strength over Scholar/Eagle. Our primary role in PvE is stacking might and vulnerability. Under ideal conditions Scholar ekes out more damage, but in reality Strength’s 5% bonus under might is a sure thing since you self-stack it. +45% duration also means that your might lasts the full cooldown of your might stacking rotation, so it’s one of those things where you’re choosing more personal DPS versus more group DPS because you’re sustaining 9-12 stacks of might versus not.

If engineer is your main class, I honestly recommend investing in multiple sets of gear. If you’re in the kind of group that rotates blinds and aegis well, and reflects projectiles properly, then investing in a second set with Scholar runes may not be a bad idea.

Rifle is maximum DPS. You should run rifle the majority of the time as rotating in Blunderbuss and Jump Shot improve your overall DPS. Having the shield is nice for the extra blast finisher, though, especially if there’s no elementalist in the group to help get up to 25 might.

I don’t understand why people are encouraging Assassin gear these days. I think Berserker is still best. You reach 25 vulnerability without it.

Oh, and use Koi Cake as food. +40% condition duration in PvE is hilariously good.

I think that’s everything.

Then I suggest refraining from making comments like…

bethekey.8314:

I find it laughable that the meta build in pve is now what I have been using for over a year, without others catching on.

…Because all it does is make you look smug and misinformed. Stick to talking about PvP if that’s what you’re familiar with, if you’re going to walk around acting like we failed to “catch onto” something when in reality the flamethrower just sucked balls for 14 months and was patched in August.

Xyonon.3987:

before somone starts pointing out something – Pihneas obviously meant thoughness and not vitality

well yea talking about aggro – if there are 5 mobs and everyone cleaves on them but you as engi hit 5 of them, 2 will obviously start attacking you.

Was just an honest mistake. I misremember some things. Fixed in edit.

Rozbuska.5263:

Xyonon.3987:

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

Not only shield same with rifle. I noticed in many stackfights is my engi one and only target even if I wait and start damage few secs later and still. There is multiple things what affect agro, like armor, toughness, distance from target, dps, number of dodges compare to dps it works for other classes but looks like engi has something what makes him target more often then it should.

I feel like AoE and multi-hit attacks draw aggro as well. Even though engineers have the same armor as thieves, my thief draws considerably less attention in dungeons.

bethekey.8314:

I find it laughable that the meta build in pve is now what I have been using for over a year, without others catching on. It’s even viable in pvp! I’ve achieved top 20 ranks in both team and solo pvp with a ft/eg/nades build and it’s not even hard. Just learn to utilize blast finishers every time you use one. Even the “top” engis like backpack or chaith fail to capitalize on this when I watch them.

Just to clarify something: the meta includes the flamethrower again, but it is hardly the old FT/EG standalone two-kit build before the Juggernaut and Kit Refinement nerfs. You’re still supposed to use grenades most of the time for stacking vulnerability; the only thing that’s really changed from the old meta is that the flamethrower has replaced the bomb kit for the fire field and blast finisher.

The original FT/EG build was a part of the meta when Cursed Shore, not dungeons, was the primary farming space. It was a tanky setup at a time when everyone ranged Lupicus, when guardians ran Altruistic Healing, and when FOTM 40+ was done only through bugging the instance.

And then it got nerfed. It really began its death spiral when Juggernaut was reworked, but Kit Refinement being overhauled was the key point we all point to as the FT being a waste of a slot.

And then they fixed Flame Blast’s double detonation.

And then they nerfed Incendiary Powder.

And then they buffed the bomb kit, which is when we finally jumped ship and reworked the FT/EG build and the grenade kit build into what is currently the meta setup of the BK/FT + GK + EG. I kept curating the build and trying to keep it as a part of the meta, but that was in large part out of saving the effort of my own work. I stopped using the FT/EG build after the dungeon and fractal overhauls, and after the fast-cast fix—as anyone should have.

If you kept using it all this time, then you actually were running a bad build. By the end of 2012 most dungeons were on farm status and everyone stopped farming Cursed Shore. And by the middle of 2013 the grenade kit became the primary PvE kit.

To suggest the FT/EG has always been viable or that it is being played the same as it used to is an egregious misunderstanding of what the original build’s intention was and how it compares now. I would personally argue that the bomb kit is still a better might-blasting option for PvE, but that’s another topic entirely.

I have no idea how it performs in PvP because I just came back to GW2 after four months in ArcheAge and everything is really different.

Shaogin.2679:

Dear god the kittening contest that this thread became! lol

Welcome to the engineer forums.

Edit: Removed content for better explained post below.

I was just making a joke.

Why choose? Why can’t I have smoke screen and wall of reflection at the same time?

That’s balanced. Right, guys?

I think it really depends on what others are running in your group. If you need more condition pressure, go grenades. If you need more crowd control, go bombs. They both lend well to PvP; it’s just a matter of what you need most and how you fit in with the rest of your team.

But if you’re pugging, I’d go grenades.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Seriously, this thread can be summed up as “I want preferential treatment for my playstyle, and who do ArenaNet think they are by catering to people with other interests?”

Other interests as in enjoying dumping hundreds of gold into the forge for maybe getting a precursor? Or never getting a single fractal skin that’s actually usable on your main? Not a single person I know has ever gotten the fractal tonic to drop. We seriously question whether or not it’s still in the game. Does that kind of mystery get a rise out of you? Because I’m curious who actually bought the game to experience that kind of abuse, or why we should be satisfied playing content where we’re not exactly sure what the loot table is anymore.

These fixes are not preferential treatment if they benefit everybody. I mean let’s establish something here: would any player oppose these changes? And if so, for what reason? How would these changes negatively impact anyone?

killcannon.2576:

The only reason to keep veteran players around is to populate the world and make it seem like a bustling, active game.

With the Megaservers, that is not quite as important any longer.

And, let’s be honest here, you’ll be back. Maybe not next month, or even two, but vets will always come back and check out the new content….because it’s free.

I don’t think that criticism is fair. The megaservers are actually one of the things that I liked most about the April feature pack. Even if it did ruin server-organized events like the world event train and threw everyone in with everybody, it has made lesser tread ground more populated and has offered players outside of Sanctum of Rall to participate in our Teq kills.

And I am not in any way insinuating that I will not return. I would be more than happy to come back provided these types of overhauls get implemented. But that’s kind of the point: I’m not coming back unless they are.

I think something else needs to be established here: I love horizontal progression and I enjoy having a finish line. I don’t want new tiers beyond ascended added into the game, nor do I necessarily need a new carrot to chase. I would certainly like new dungeons, fractals, and world raids to be added into the game … but who wouldn’t?

The reason why I’ve quit is not because I have nothing to work on. The reason why I’ve quit is because the path to get what I want is abusive with rewards randomly delegated. I cannot stress this point enough: the RNG has to go.

To apply a little more context, going after legendaries would be a lot more enjoyable if the process to obtaining your precursor involved an actual quest line. It can be long. It can be incremental and require crafting. And it can be challenging. But standing at the forge dumping in hundreds of gold is equated to rolling a pair of dice. There’s no personal achievement in that.

killcannon.2576:

New players aren’t disillusioned or jaded and are more inclined to get the shinies. Older players are more inclined to move on regardless of the amount, or type, of content available.

It’s not just about the type of content or the amount of it, though. It’s about how said content doles out rewards. Fractal skins are entirely RNG. There is no other way to acquire them but dumb luck. The same goes for Tequatl’s Horde.

And while there’s the tired argument that RNG lengthens play time, that it lengthens the grind, the truth is that the RNG is why I’m quitting and that a token system would have kept me around.

They could have easily balanced out a token system where it would take months of running FOTM 50 every day to acquire every fractal skin. But instead it’s entirely random. I main an engineer and I’ve gotten two fractal short bows that are of no use to me.

The status quo is so beyond frustrating.

killcannon.2576:

Vets don’t make the company money.

I am pretty sure that ArenaNet made a lot of money off me. And they will continue to do so if they implement these changes. But not anymore until they do.

adormtil.1605:

^Okay I understand why you are mad you are not rewarded for your hard work but its a game and to be honest I am one of those guys who killed Telquat and did not know a thing I did not got the hoard but you see this is a great thing about this game you do not have to be great and put a lot of effort to be rewarded

Some of us play video games because we want to be challenged. It’s contextual-based critical thinking. It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle, but instead with dragons and fiery greatswords.

And I do find this more fun than stitching pieces of cardboard together.

And just to make something clear: a lot of hard work and effort goes into organizing those Tequatl kills. And we haven’t really been rewarded for it.

To provide a little more context, do you think it’s fair that easy content like Dry Top facilitates all the ways to get all the weapons you want in a reasonable time frame while FOTM 50 content, that’s actually difficult to do in the first place, is gated entirely by RNG?

They could design a system that easily keeps casuals involved while still rewarding people that show up every day. They do that exact type of system in dungeons. It confuses me that Tequatl and Wurm doesn’t have any kind of token system that would perfectly counterbalance the RNG issue while still making these skins hard to obtain.

Andred.1087:

That is, unless you have anything else to do.

I do, but that’s kind of irrelevant. I love this game and would rather spend my time playing it than playing a different one.

In essence, as a community we have been running completely blind over the past year as to what exactly the direction of the game is and what is being done to address these end-game concerns.

This silence would more than acceptable, but this has coincided with some of the strongest gem store pushes including, but not limited to infinite harvesting tools, copper/silver-fed-salvage-o-matics, costumes, toys, and mini pets. You’re clearly dedicating resources to supporting the game and adding new content—especially with regard to the Living Story.

Are things like the FOTM loot table and Teq/Wurm rewards just not a concern for you? Because any time questions are raised about the direction of GW2’s end-game we’re met with nebulous non-speak that would even impress Peter Molyneux.

Now for the “it’s only been two years” argument, it’s true. It’s generally common that MMOs don’t really hit their stride until a few years into their life. It’s at that point the dedicated community is established and the developers have a good idea in mind of where they want to take the game. FFXI was a good game at launch (provided it was 1 year old when it reached the States), but it didn’t really enter into its prime until Chains of Promathia came out.

But the thing to keep in mind about all of this is that CoP built upon preexisting systems in FFXI. The Living Story S2 is entirely disconnected from fractals, dungeons, and even open world raiding. It all takes place in single-player instances and what open world content we’ve received is both (1) completely unrewarding for those working on legendaries and (2) does nothing to challenge or excite two-year veterans of the game.

What happened to stuff like Marionette and the Scarlet invasion? What happened to stuff like Flame & Frost? Super Adventure Box? S1 had a lot of negative stuff in it and the story was (imo) awful, but it also had some very good content that was engaging, fun, and challenging. You had to work with other players to succeed during LS1. In LS2 it’s all solitary. I don’t feel like I’m playing an MMO anymore.

And during the times that I do, like FOTM and Teq, I feel like I’m just being punished for it.

S2 is no where near as engaging kitten for this reason, even if the plot is better this time around. My guild has literally nothing to do in this game together anymore except Tequatl and Wurm, and that content is getting very old very fast due to aforementioned loot issues.

And while I’m more than happy with just walking away and taking a break until they add new stuff, I am beyond frustrated that some of my most dedicated guild members that step up every day still haven’t been rewarded for it.

I don’t know where the game is headed from here, but it would be nice if you took a few of these complaints under consideration and prevented more players from quitting the game and satisfying them, even if it is kinda too late for me.

Note: This is a cross-post from Reddit that I had written a few days ago. By request of some redditors, I’m making the statement here.

Three days ago Colin Johanson had this to say about the feature patch on Reddit:

I think that’s a totally fair question, as a veteran user I’d wonder that too – why does making the game better for new users benefit me when I want features that benefit me?

The simple answer is: by ensuring the game foundation is solid for new users, we’ll be in a place after the feature pack where we can do the kind of things that excite both veteran and new users simultaneously, and we’ll be able to retain a much larger percentage of the new or long returning users when they show up. Can’t say anything more than that yet – but that’s the thinking, you don’t need to agree with it, but it’s important to know why the decision was made!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2etzxq/a_fresh_start_the_new_player_experience_in_guild/ck35jpy

The bolding was mine, because I think this statement needs to be examined and carefully considered.

People aren’t leaving the game because of the leveling process. And if they are, it’s more likely because of the trait overhaul system you implemented in April. I don’t insinuate that I know everything or why everyone necessarily leaves before 80, but if someone quits the game because they think the leveling process is too vague about what the downed mechanics mean, then there’s no way they’re going to unlock enough traits to participate in any meaningful way in end-game group-oriented content.

I can, however, more than happily illuminate as to why people leave the game upon reaching 80. People are leaving the game, and have been leaving the game since 2012, because the end-game content of GW2 is very, very basic. Tequatl is on full-blown farm status at this point, so a new player can walk up and participate in this content without actually having to show any work for it. They might even walk away with Tequatl’s Horde and not even understand what it is. (And as someone that has killed Teq hundreds of times, this happens a lot.)

The only content that regularly challenges players still and frequently fails are Wurm and high-level fractals. The problem with both of these content areas, however, are their rewards. The loot table is for the most part random and does not reward you in any way due to personal involvement. A leecher AFKing at the waypoint after tagging Tequatl once has just as equal chances to looting a Tequatl’s Horde as I do manning a turret or helping on defense. Is that appropriate?

One time there was this guild of guys that were trolling a defense group at Tequatl. They would overscale the event, they would not help out in ways that were appropriate, they would leave my guildies to die, and would pull mobs into the batteries on defense phases. They did not in any way impact our ability to complete it, but it wasn’t very nice dealing with really petty players like that. And at the end of the fight one of them looted a Tequatl’s Horde and linked it in chat. I was so furious.

We have asked so many times that you guys allow us a little more control on how Teq and Wurm is organized. We don’t necessarily need to have it fully enclosed, but some kind of mass invite system to a fresh map would go a long way at improving the quality of life for people like me that for a long time helped manage and lead these kinds of events. But you were so concerned about leaving new players out of the content that our requests were denied, ignored, or outright criticized for being elitist. I understand your desire for “facilitating friendly play,” as you put it back in April, as our leading these events were a means to an end to keep casuals playing the game and feeling included.

But the current system for Tequatl and Wurm does not suffice. The loot table is too random and poorly rewards players that show up every day. And it’s very heartbreaking for me to watch. As the year progressed it became harder and harder to push people to do turrets and defense because there was no incentive. My guild has for the past year provided a daily Tequatl kill to anyone that manages to get on our map. But what’s important to clarify is that we were often hanging by a thread getting people to step up and lead these events, or even just hopping on turrets or helping on defense.

Before I decided to quit the game, we even started doing leaderless kills because no one wanted to step up and do it. We just all wanted a chance at the loot. The system does not in any way facilitate or incentivize leading, and some of our best commanders just got tired of leading a few days a week and never getting a Horde for it.

And I wish this was the only area of the game where this is a problem, but it’s not.

Runes of Hoelbrak are pretty legendary at the moment. Generosity is also a good sigil option if you’re really looking to invest.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Grenades actually are .85 per toss, I originally thought it was 1s per toss too but after I noticed that on the wiki and I went and tested myself and it is in fact slightly faster than that. If you have the patience to go out and throw 85 grenades it’ll take you exactly 100 seconds.

I don’t see how that is the case. Remember when we were comparing bomb kit DPS and grenade DPS? I tested it myself a couple months back throwing grenades literally right on top of my engineer. After a full minute I had thrown exactly 60 volleys. In the same time span I dropped 65 bombs.

You even tested it yourself after I said this and agreed with me. Has the animation changed in some way recently?

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I popped that into the spreadsheet and it actually comes out pretty favorable for FT. You lose the massive vuln stack (you only get about 5ish with Precise Sights) but gain extra might and the base DPS is actually pretty close to bombs and grenades (better than bombs overall, better than grenades if you don’t count bleed). If your party isn’t capped on either, FT probably actually deals better damage in a pug.

This is probably where the kit should be. It should deal more direct damage than bombs given its directional attack versus circular AoE, but there should still be reason to run bombs (smoke field, confusion stacks, AoE cripple, and better of the two fire fields).

I expect grenades will always be the top DPS option for dungeons and fractals, but I am very glad to hear that running the flamethrower at Tequatl, Wurm, and WvW is now a viable option.

Ideally I think we’re going to see two good PvE specs for engineer: bombs + FT for might, bombs + grenades for vulnerability, with throw mine or elixir gun as third utility depending on what you need.

Super stoked for October!

Watched the first four minutes and stopped.

The first fight was a 2v1 where the enemy was focusing the other guy, and you were just piling on. Of course Berserker looks safe here.

Second fight, you crash a zerg-fest. Every time you got focused down you ran away up the stairs, but because there’s other people around they don’t chase you.

Third fight is legitimately good, but you once again run away from the cap point. The guardian left you behind because he went to save his friend that was about to lose the capture point, and died because some of your allies came to help finish him off.

I’m not really sure what you’re trying to advertise here. The damage is fine, sure, but the second you get focused you have to pull off. That’s not really a very effective build for a game type that revolves around capturing and maintaining points.

As others have already said, it’s an L2P issue. Players get used to a build and complain any time they’re forced to adapt to something new.

An elementalist in my guild was whining about turrets this morning—more specifically the thumper and net turrets. I told him to just Meteor Shower before going in. Said such a thing wasn’t possible, but I reminded him that a net turret, at most, has 900 range with traits. MS has 1200 range.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

But the longer the kill takes, the more important sustained vuln is going to be.

I’m not sure I’d characterize many boss fights in dungeons as “long.”

Zefrost.3425:

Why?

Maybe because Mortar and Elixir X are garbage?

I’m not against getting new elite skills, I just don’t quite understand why we should have an elite skill that seems mechanically inferior to utility skills we already have.

I wouldn’t mind having some type of mine-related elite skill, but throwing bombs that blow up after a short time seems kind of lame compared to using grenades or mines.

Ameno.6813:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Fumigate does a lot more for overall DPS than using Mine Field.

I think you mean acid bomb, right?

No, I meant Fumigate in the sense that keeping FGS wielders alive is a lot more important than a few stacks of vulnerability.

I know Guanglai likes to make it seem like every dungeon run he does is a clinical procedure, but I think the latest DnT tourney shows how things really are. Even if you run a dungeon a hundred times, simple mistakes still occur.

And an extra condition removal or two often makes the difference between an elementalist going down or not.

Zefrost.3425:

Bomb throwing elite for engineer please?

Why?

Mechanically, mines are far superior, and we’ve already got a utility skill for it.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

If you can, tell the Ele not to take Weak Spot and spec raw DPS instead. If it’s a random pug dropping FGS and it’s out of your control how he specs, throw Grenade Barrage > Mine Field > Jump Shot before he FGSes then grenade until he does. Once Rush actually happens you can switch to bombs but you want to get that vuln stack as high as possible before the Rush actually happens so the ele gets max damage out of it. Otherwise he spends something like half of the actual Rush just building vuln and loses a lot of damage as a result.

They are speccing raw DPS.

6/6/X/X/X is pretty much the cookie cutter max DPS setup for elementalist. And because Weak Spot is a minor trait, there’s nothing to necessarily “take” instead of it. Some prefer to run 0/4/5/5/0, but I think that’s a niche build as very few classes can maintain fury as well as elementalist. And if you have your engineer over a ranger or a second warrior, you definitely want to have the elementalist run 6 in Fire because you’re certainly not contributing that.

I also think you should next time seriously examine how fast a warrior/thief + elementalist with two FGS actually reach 25 vulnerability. It’s a waste of a slot reaching 25 vulnerability just a second or two faster when stuff literally melts with or without you.

If anything, you’re better off taking something like the Elixir Gun as a third utility, as those with FGS can die pretty quick to conditions since they really can’t cleanse themselves. Fumigate does a lot more for overall DPS than using Mine Field.

I don’t even play my engineer in dungeons anymore and just primary my elementalist because of how good FGS is at DPS and vulnerability stacking. Fractals we’re still king, but let’s be realistic here.

No one loses sleep over not having a grenade engineer in dungeon groups.

Dredd Spirit Caller.4082:

pwoer + cond duration????
if i run conditions i run cond dmg + cond duration and not power

For PvE, +70 Power and +40% Condition Duration is about as good as we can have. Power builds reign in PvE, and the duration increase is huge for vulnerability stacking.

I suggest saving up your geodes for this one in particular:

Prickly Pear Stuffed Nopale (30 minutes)
Chat Code: [&AgHeAwEAAA]

• +70 Power
• +40% Condition Duration

Susulemon.3204:

You can say bombs do more raw damage than grenades, but bombs do way less damage than grenades when grenades make everyone in the team do 15%-2x% more damage.

Most elementalists take Weak Spot these days for dungeons, which mean they pretty much self-stack 25 vulnerability in seconds with Fiery Rush. The same can be said of warriors with Rending Strikes or thieves with Sundering Strikes.

Vulnerability is really quite plentiful in the current meta. If there’s an FGS on the ground, you should be using bombs.

Seeing some rumblings about Strength runes getting nerfed, but I’m sticking with my guns and saying they’re better than Scholar.

The 2% damage gain is almost a non-issue, and the might-when-hit is not why I advertised the rune set originally. Its ability to provide 30-second might stacks with +45% duration is still alive and well, so I think engineers should still aim for it over Scholar.

Zefrost.3425:

You either have to buff it a tiny bit so it isn’t overpowered, which means it’s still lacklustre, or you buff it a lot and it becomes overpowered.

They just need to buff it so it’s competitive to the bomb kit and grenade kit. Grenades can be thrown from 1500 range yet do more damage than Flame Jet, which requires 425 range.

The bomb kit should always probably have the hardest hitting auto-attack, but there’s no reason why the FT is so far behind as badly as it is.

Kahrgan.7401:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Move Deadly Mixture to Firearms. Makes no sense why we need to put 4 points into the survivability tree to make its damage better.

That’s a huge reason why the FT always lags behind.

Its in the alchemy tree due to its name, and name alone. “Deadly mixture” fits with “alchemy”

Well I’m glad you think the FT should remain a second-class kit because of the name of a trait.

Move Deadly Mixture to Firearms. Makes no sense why we need to put 4 points into the survivability tree to make its damage better. That’s a huge reason why the FT always lags behind. So not only do bombs and grenades stack vulnerability better than the flamethrower, they also don’t have to put any points into Alchemy if they don’t want to.

Another solution would be to remove the 10% damage buff from burning and just build it into the coefficient so it always does that much damage. To prevent people from interrupting the chain they could backload the damage like elementalist scepter’s Arc Lightning or Warrior’s Triple Chop axe rotation.

Arantheal.7396:

Phineas, I actually had a loot race with my guild, back when the first LA event was going on. I got 376 bags in one run, slightly behind me a ele, 2 other engis and then some guardians…

Mileage will vary depending on the player and their ability to tag mobs. Some guardians aren’t very smart and just spam Wave of Wrath. Others are smarter and actually use Symbol of Wrath as a tagging option too.

Just track your badge rate on your engineer versus other classes when zerg-crushing. You’ll be very surprised.

Arantheal.7396:

About the dungeons, I’m a bit baffled… Tbh I never spend much attention to them since all of them, including arah, are way to short to be taken seriously, so I guess I’ve missed out on why a warri is that much liked… always thought it was just about them spaming gs #2 and #3^^
I do play warri myself, but mostly in wvw, even tho I tried out the current meta with him… got a bit disappointed by the numbers.

The greatsword is good in some areas, but isn’t in others.

A great example of this would be Sureshot Seamus in CM. Most of the time you’ll just corner-stack with the FGS, but if that gets messed up you have to do him the old way, which was running a tight circle around him. This is very easy to do with the axe given that you’re never rooted while using it. But you’ll never get a full 100b off against him, or against a lot of mobs/bosses throughout PvE—especially in Arah.

A good warrior will rotate between his axe and greatsword depending on the fight. If against a wall, GS is overwhelmingly superior since you can use Whirlwind Attack to its fullest. But if you need the mobility, the axe is superior. I find the greatsword is more popular in dungeons, and the axe is more popular in fractals. At least that’s how I generally play mine.

But this folder is about engineers, and not warriors.

Arantheal.7396:

and about the bubbles in fractals:
My usual fractal group already bunkers down near me so we can reflect every single projectile towards us. So far it works great and even allows to ridicule the flame shaman.^^ Yes, bubbles don’t have a 100% uptime from one engi alone but we usually run engi / engi / thief / ele / guardian, so for us (with 6 turrets in total and nades) it’s 100% uptime if we want to…

I understand that this is a viable party comp, but ideally that role is better suited for mesmers. They can use untraited wardens to block projectiles a lot of professions (including us) cannot do, like the poison room boss in Harpy.

Engineer is a very valuable class in FOTM, and we pretty much always have one when running a 40 or 50. Due to the constant ticks of agony reducing effective healing power, having Healing Turret work as a group heal is huge—and on a 15 second cooldown. If I’m not on mine, we’ll make sure someone is. But we run the three-kit nade, bomb, elixir gun build … not turrets.

Again, I get what you’re saying here, but in an ideal situation you have a mesmer in your party to run full reflects and the engineer focus on vulnerability and might stacking.

Shameless plug.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/GUIDE-The-Meta-rific-Dungeoneer/first#post3274880

Arantheal.7396:

Map events, living story:
you want to tag as much as possible, so – as an engi – you take nades since each grenade hits 5 targets so you have a chance to hit up to 15 at the same time. Ofc they also deal a kittenload of dmg on an comfortable range, so the engi has unmatched tag/loot options.

Guardians and necromancers are far superior at tagging mobs than engineers are. The grenade kit is pretty good at it, but travel time combined with the fatigue of constantly pressing #1 over and over again makes engineer an inferior farming option if you have a guardian or necromancer leveled and playable.

Arantheal.7396:

dungeons:
what matters there is simple: dps
with high end runes / sigils + ascended berserker stats the bombkit auto puts out ~5.4k per hit. Compared to the warri on similar equip while channeling his 100 blades we actually put out slightly higher dps than the commonly agreed warri meta build, all that just by spamming #1… count in s/d and bunker down and you excel EVERY other class in terms of dps.

Warriors are actually middling in personal DPS, and even less so when running Phalanx Strength. But a warrior makes up for their mediocre DPS with all the buffs they provide to their party: permanent fury with War Banner, heightened ferocity with Banner of Discipline, added power with Empower Allies and Banner of Strength, and yes, vulnerability and might. Warrior is by and far the best class when it comes to party buff contributions, so while they may dish out OK damage on their own, having a warrior in the party elevates the DPS of the entire party more than if you did not have one.

There’s one thing that the engineer excels at in dungeons, and that’s stacking vulnerability. But all a warrior needs is Rending Strikes with a Fiery Greatsword to match all the vulnerability stacking an engineer provides. Since most dungeon paths are abused by FGS corner stacking, an engineer’s main contribution is nullified by elementalists and warriors.

This is why most record speed clear videos have warriors, and why none have engineers. This is also why I state up and down engineer is a top-tier class in fractals but sucks in dungeons, because the FGS is near useless in most instances, allowing engineers to truly show their actual potential.

Personal DPS does not matter in PvE. What matters is what you bring to a group, and how the collective damage output of the party results. This is why mesmers, which deal bottom tier personal damage outside of maintaining three phantasms, are so commonly taken.

Time Warp, portal skips, and reflects contribute more than personal DPS does.

Arantheal.7396:

fractals:
fortified turrets is basically perma reflect, if you time your turrets well that is, while still dealing mayor loads of dmg with your nades on lvl 49 fractals. Given that you have the option to be the group healer, condi cleaner, stealth buffer or might stacker in your group, the engi has more than enough utility, dps and survivability ON THE SAME TIME to be a always welcomed guest for fractal runners.

Fortified Turrets offers GOOD reflect, but not permanent. Your bubbles are also the size of a pin-needle, and are useless against most bosses because their attacks arc higher than your turret’s bubble shield.

Engineers should focus on stacking vulnerability and might. Leave reflects to guardians and mesmers. I put together a Fortified Turret build in my meta-rific dungeoneer guide, but that was purely meant as theorycraft, and something to be used if your group is wiping horribly on Grawl Shaman and you don’t have a mesmer or guardian to swap to.

Ideally, an engineer should be focusing on offensive support, not defensive. But you’re right to mention our good condition removal. Fumigate makes meleeing Mai Trin a complete joke.

Rhomulos.2089:

We can stack ridiculous amounts of Vuln, consistant party might, off-healing, tons of condi removal if it’s needed, party stealth only beat out by thieves and more.

We’re a jack of all trades. We bring a lot to parties, but none of it is unique, and with a comp of 5 classes that specialize in roles, an engineer’s contributions are relatively diminished.

I think most of us are OK with this. I am OK with this. But the engineer still has way too many wasteful utilities, and has way too many traits that serve absolutely no purpose and are never used, even after several passes by ArenaNet.

When I play my guardian, my warrior, my elementalist, or my mesmer, I am constantly swapping around utilities to suit particular fights. I am regularly re-traiting my build for Tequatl, for Wurm, for FOTM, for dungeons. But my engineer? 6/6/0/2/0 is just overwhelmingly the best option, and there’s no real alternative or reason to run anything else anywhere in PvE.

For a class that’s designed as a jack of all trades, I find that to be a problem that my guardian swaps around traits far more often as a class with a specialized role.

Gadgets and turrets still need a lot of work. And if they’re going to make it to where they retain their niche role, then they need to be more obvious to us that engineers are meant to focus around kits, and to give us more competitive builds to focus on kits other than the grenade kit and bomb kit.

Healing Power builds are bad in PvE. I’m sorry.

Explosive Powder, Rifle Mod, and Mod Ammo.

arjeidi.2690:

And yet people still claim ANet is focused on making a great game rather than just selling gems. Mmhm.

I guess it’ll be important to see how substantial each of these quests are, but how is this any different from most other games on the market that charge for DLC? Or releasing paid expansions?

At least it’s free for those that actively play.

Rozbuska.5263:

Balthazar looks really good for condi spec.

Balthazar is good in PvP with the lack of condi duration food, but in WvW it is relatively outclassed by other options.

When roaming, I think Perplexity is best.
When zerging, I think Antitoxin is best.