Guild Wars 2

Strength, Defense Discipline.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I’ve been running glass cannon recently and I’ve found that compared to other builds it has a better chance of forcing the Ele to pop all of their defenses early at which point you can really unload.

Now, you can’t make ANY mistakes. However, if you run Defiant stance (which I know is very situational) you can dace on their ring of fire and get a easy full heal.

I made a thread about Zerker builds…but no1 was interested apparently:(

Man I think it is less that they disagree with your sentiment, and more that it is 3 years into the game and the nature of Warrior is apparent.

A lot of the ‘best’ zerk builds have been defined and clear cut. Even with the Spec update, a lot of it is similar to before.

Just sayin’ don’t feel discouraged. You aren’t the only one who likes glass play. My longest mained build for Warrior for a full year itself was the classic Eviscerate/GS setup.

@OP

Just referring to my experiences today in queuing on my Warrior. Hammer/GS really does put insane pressure on them if you pick the right times to offload damage. Don’t forget that most of your hits count for a lot of damage. Blade trail for example is not a skill to be underestimated if they try to kite. Hydromancy sigil (while not warrior exclusive) is also very helpful.

Situation is also important. In a point fight, the points are generally small enough for most of your AoE to hit despite their kiting. Unless they run off point which is their loss anyway. The only thing which could ruin your play is the blind on burn which you have to be mindful of before you use your most important skills. (Earthshaker etc.)

Just keep up consistent damage, with CC pressure. Ele’s tend to have one source of stability ever. Armor of Earth. They also have to pop it at some point. Once they do, you can take them out. Whether easy or not, a lot of Ele defense is active. If they are stunned they can’t be active.

Use Mist form to your advantage. All mist form means is that they will be vulnerable for a split second after it wears off. Set up your GS 5 Rush for that moment. That can be a good 6-7k.

You have the tools at your disposal.

Akrasia.5469:

When players start playing at a higher level (ranked sPvP, high level fractals, dungeon speed runs etc)

The biggest problem I see is we never had the top spot in 3 years. So now whenever a necro is around the first reaction is “we can’t have a necro on the team”. I’ve been kicked off a pug team for simply being a necro before play even started.

Ranked is not high level. You can be effective with anything in Ranked as long as you play decently and have good team co-ordination.

High Level PvP would be ESL, WTS and such. Ranked has about as much of a competitive environment as my Killshot warrior for the lols.

Don’t believe it? Ask the Necro I used to regularly queue with on my team.

Necro had it’s own dhuumfire meta (in spvp). The reason no one remembers it, is because it was very very very short lived.

I agree on the last point, player perceptions are awful toward this class. It has it’s issues but it is no where near enough of wanting to kick them from your team as long as they run a good setup and are decent players. This applies to any class.

@Phineas (the forum quote thing is acting up.)

I run grenades without grenade and hit just as much. There are times when it is useful to have the extra radius and even throw speed but honestly it isn’t that big of a deal.

I tend to use nades at very close range though in fairness.

No you’re right. It seems a lot of the Forum Dragons who were so prompt to moan about Engineer getting special attention on patch day (even though it had the most changes) have suddenly disappeared.

I would of hoped they’d be here, but alas, they are too busy whining about something else.

You are all so discriminatory and ignorant to how offensive you’re all really being. You only find plants attractive when humanity has projected unrealistic ideals of human beauty onto them.

Real plants have roots, not these hollywood set standards of arms and legs. The bigotry is appalling.

So this is what ANET wants us to look like after today’s patch.

Interesting… it is so very… how do you say? Va va voom.

zinkz.7045:

No I think tennis for example is real skill, because firstly the skill cap is a zillion times higher than a video game, and secondly because it is a mirror matchup, it is all down to the player, rather than the imbalances that are created in most video games by differences in skills/traits, etc.

Though I see your point, I disagree here. Genetic advantages do happen in real life for certain sports. (Basketball =Taller, Swimming/Boxing= Longer Torsos, Running = Longer legs etc..)

This means it is never a mirror matchup as genetics are always different, and this is assuming everyone has the chance at the same exact upbringing.

I can see video games having a much lower skill cap though. Interestingly, Nature has had many years to balance us, and as shown by the genetic traits/advantages for certain activities above, some things still need a nerf.

I think tiers of nerf would be easier and better. It would be a more even method of balance.

At the moment how tiers look to me:

Gold: Mesmer, Thief, Elementalist, Guardian

Silver: Warrior, Engineer, Necromancer

Bronze: Ranger? (I don’t think they’re weaker but it is the class I have the least experience on, so, going by popular consensus.)

Jasher.6580:

PistolWhip.2697:

I had the most problems picking up Engineer and Mesmer (before patch), so it really is subjective to an extent.

I will say however, generally in terms of consistency the often most hard to learn professions are Ele, Engi, Mes and Thief. Some do deviate from this, however, I find this to be the most common occurrence.

I’ve played Mesmer for a long time so it comes really easy to me.

I didn’t say it was a rule, it is just the most common 4. With me I started on Thief when the game launched so I have never found it hard either, but some people do.

WOW… JUST WOW!

So I used to main ele months back, and I decided today to try Cele Ele D/D again.

Wow… Just… this is so broken. I tanked 3 people and still downed 2 the other fled… like this is just one example, Of course I have expertise in ele as I mained it a while but…

Godkitten , how can anyone defend this, it is easily one of the most broken things ingame atm.

For reference, i went Earth,Water, Arcana, with stone heart.

I cant believe Cele Engi is giving people issues when Cele Ele is running around. Cele Engi is hardly anything compared to it’s former self.

I cant speak for other ele builds, but this D/D Cele is atrocious. I do enjoy it though, it has a certain piano feel unlike other cheesy specs atm

Are.1326:

Zefrost.3425:

I feel the whole “electricity” themed engineer potential isn’t being tapped. 1 trait? That’s it? Sad.

Potential elite specialization right here.

The Electrician!

Uses a Staff as a rod to conduct electricity with!

Peutrifectus.4830:

You can one shot with the grenade barrage on fall damage and kinetic battery.

Just netshot before leaping off a ledge onto them. Dodge an attack, go into stealth… Then you have 7 seconds left to use barrage twice… So three barrages is possible… With skill… But we don’t want active skilled play, do we?

Any engineer who specs to do this please keep yourself off my team.

Not only is it cripplingly situational, it is inefficient and if the enemy knows how to dodge at all they will do so.

This isn’t about skill, that is just going out of your way to land a combo only a comatose character would get hit by.

That said, it was a bug so I am glad it is fixed, and all these FoTM Engineers can gtfo. Hopefully also this will shine a light as to how terrible the alternative traits are in the same slot.

I had the most problems picking up Engineer and Mesmer (before patch), so it really is subjective to an extent.

I will say however, generally in terms of consistency the often most hard to learn professions are Ele, Engi, Mes and Thief. Some do deviate from this, however, I find this to be the most common occurrence.

skowcia.8257:

Nightshade.2570:

All I can say is, NIKA

Woot

Hot girl huh? She seems to be flat tho..

FIX IT

Nika please.

CANTHA CONFIRMED!

Entenkommando.5208:

Elxdark.9702:

rip engis.

So true.
All that is left now is massive heals, literally endless defense with dodges/blocks, endless condition spamming combined with quite high condi damage, very good direct damage and a kitten load of cc/kd.

This nerf is definitly not fair for engis. I mean, what shall they do now???

Ah, you must be running the infamous 6/6/6/6/6 spec.

I get your point, Engineer will go on, but you’re exaggerating a bit here.

I feel most Engineers are less sad about the disabling of grenadier and more sad about the god awful traits we have to pick beside it.

I mean, it really does put things into perspective when you have a fall damage trait and kitten cannon as the alternatives lol.

Please fix Grenadier soon.

Runewolf.8456:

Mes has been my second main for a while now next too thief. I really enjoy the illusionary mage/duelist role tbh. But I’m sure many people are playing both of them because they are the flavor of the month and the same thing probably would apply to any class that was suddenly buffed into the meta.

Engineers didn’t get buffed into the meta. They were in the meta pre-patch and actually didn’t get buffed overall at all.

They just got changed, A LOT. So I am guessing a lot of people want to try some of the new stuff on it.

Then there is also the Grenade bug abusers ofc.

mistsim.2748:

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

mistsim.2748:

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

Sagat.3285:

mistsim.2748:

Chaith.8256:

Grenadier is banned in in every organized PvP interaction, can this please be fixed so grenades can be usable

they should let you keep the kitten bug cuz engies are useless right now.

That’s the excuse I keep hearing…did you bother trying anything else or do you mean zerk engi?

He clearly didn’t… but Koroshi, one of the better engineers did and his 3 kit condi engi is pretty amazing: http://www.koroshi.net/forum/m/25875586/viewthread/22804713-celestial-condition-engineer-build/page/1 – no nades needed.

sorry, Im strictly speaking of spvp. I haven’t seen any remarkable engie play in my MMR. I don’t actually play engie.

Koroshi plays pvp too and the build (and video) I linked is actually both for wvw and pvp – with variations in traits and utilities. At around ~3 minutes in the video you can see him use the pvp build in matches and doing extremely well with it.

im in top NA MMR (or somewhere close I think, going off the players im going up against), and I’ve seen very few effective engies. maybe EU is quite different, but judging from that vid he’s in a very low MMR bracket. I love Koroshi’s material, it’s entertaining, but he’s never ever fighting players of equal or better skill level.

MMR is all over the place man, I’ve fought Abjured, then I have fought keyboard turners who are evidently new to PvP from how they react to objectives.

I honestly don’t believe MMR works properly at all atm.

Solori.6025:

DaShi.1368:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

The thing about this thread.. Is that it’s mostly talking about 1v1s, is filled with over exaggerations, and is only talking about one specific build.

…And it comes from a non-Mesmer.

/two-finger clap

Also, you could make a thread like this for any class and get just as much attention. I’m actually surprised that a thread that is clearly designed to engage in and attract hostility is still open.

I tried it….I don’t see hostilities yet :I

That is because like 70% of players judge balance from a 1v1 vacuum based on mechanical prowess, and completely ignore the other huge side of balance.

Conquest.

Some things like Pew pew longbow ranger are strong 1v1, so much so they flood duel servers. Yet, I am sure many would argue they are kitten in actual competitive conquest that is premade vs premade.

I just mean, there is more than one aspect of balance to a game, but all people ever focus on usually is the mechanical side in a “If I 1v1’d this class, would I be able to win? Hmmm..”

oxtred.7658:

Harper.4173:

oxtred.7658:

Harper.4173:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Dungeons don’t give you AP. High AP only indicates how much player spent facerolling story.
Time spent is bad indicator top. Simply because there is no punishment for being bad. You can’t learn to be good without game completely wrecking you from time to time. Sadly that’s what devs are trying to avoid.

Agreed – but I’m willing to bet a person that has 3000 hours put into the game can’t be as bad as a person that only has 100-200. Even on their worst day.

how much will you bet?

I’m dead serious here. I’ve seen new players. I’ve seen how “good” they can get.

How can you argue that someone who’s put in thousands of hours can be worse than someone who’s only put in 1-2 hundred in most cases?
Sure – there are exceptions – but can you really not see the bigger picture?

Because most people in this game are so bad after 3k hours played that the sum of their knowledge is about 2 hours of me teaching a new player, so I’m sure any 500 ap guy that would listen to advices and tips would be better than a 3k, 5k, 10k hours played person that got carried for all that time. No offense meant to anyone, hours played mean nothing if you spend them waiting for 4 other people to give you your reward.

Hey man, some people who have played this game for years don’t know that vengeance form from warrior downstate can’t cap a point in Spvp.

They also don’t know that Earth 2 on Dagger blocks missiles for a small period of time.

The more you know.

Hey I am glad it helped at all, just FYI I will deffo be updating this with my results on Firearms+ Suggestions from others in this thread as alternatives after testing!

I will also be adding more general tips, so stay tuned!

Thanks for all the positive feedback, I genuinely hope this helped!

Daishi.6027:

PistolWhip.2697:

I don’t think you understand that some classes are just inherently stronger in glass cannon setups due to their mechanics than others.

Couldn’t the same be said for bruiser and sustain types? Not every class could make good use of celestial pre patch.

I agree entirely. Don’t get me wrong the cele meta was far from perfect, but instead of swinging to the middle I feel like it has now swung too far in the other direction.

Daishi.6027:

Glass vs Glass hasn’t changed in concept other than being punished more for sloppy play. As per your example glass will always try to get a beneficial engagement regardless. Unless double bask venom thief most attacks from stealth can be reacted too. I admit stealth gank is a tad cheesy, but that is only because of roaming. In normal play you can often see/hear or have a teammate call it for you if a roamer is coming (<3 map awareness). Unless thief SR out of sight, or mes specs into pure stealth both scenarios of which have drawbacks to them and are easy to capitalize on.

Aside from the fact that I don’t actually believe sustain is dead. since the patch I’ve still been able to out play mesmers, and to a lesser degree engine on my D/D ele (both of which are biggest QQs right now). I don’t believe the statement in regards to sustain to be true.

First off if damage is sub-par to sustain and if everything between 100-0 doesn’t matter the low risk of sustain takes away reward from glass, regardless of what hits them… Then we end up back in a spot where thief is only doing enough to be competitive, and everything else is forced out of the meta… Except teams who think their ranger is going to be allowed to free cast lol.

At least now everyone can die regardless of spec. Sustain can still hold off and kill glass, but glass isn’t made redundant. which imo is a lot more fair and fun plus lets people spec into what they want more. As opposed to sustain getting free recovery, and builds being unviable due to apex predators.

imo no one gets carried now. Glass isn’t being carried because out playing the attacks as it always has shifts the momentum. Sustain isn’t being carried anymore because they no longer just have to rely on their build to save them, and need to actively mitigate incoming damage properly to succeed.

I won’t lie you make some very compelling points here. I am not saying that Cele or sustain is dead, I just think it is far too outweighed at the moment.

Glass cannon feels far too rewarding to me now. Perhaps I have a personal vestment in that me being able to run glass cannon s or berserkers made me feel like I was doing something the average player couldn’t. As far as I am concerned that is no longer the case.

I think sustain still works on some classes, heck I made a guide for a cele HGH build on the engi forums after finding it was viable in queue. I do think damage needs to be shaved across the board however as it has become far too easy imo for certain classes to gib others without much sacrifice.

In essence, I feel sustain is where it needs to be but glassy specs and damage itself is a bit too powerful and should also be brought down to this level.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I think this just depends what your MMR is at. I’m not a professional level player at all; I’m a PvX player that dabbles in every area of the game, but I have been playing the game since launch and done a pretty fair job of it, so I am regularly tossed into matches against tournament-grade players. This is what I’ve found:

The thing is, I think there is much merit to what you say but the MMR seems to be all over the place depending on who you team with also.

Mine cant be that bad if I have queued against Abjured, Sir Koroshi and other regular pvpers that would be too long to mention.

And yet, sometimes I am fighting keyboard turners who click skills…

That said, it could all be down to my skill vs others, but people who have tried my build or at least seen it on the forum have had positive results so far.

I honestly think other things are just OP so we seem lackluster on celestial.

hazenvirus.8154:

Dinks.2478:

Did you join a zerker only LFG? Are you a power necro or a condi necro? A lot of this stuff matters. Also Ralanost, just because you don’t want the dungeon to take longer than it needs to doesn’t mean you’re an elitist.

Except the amount of time the average zerker PuG shaves off is so minimal compared to a zerker PuG with one necro that you probably make up the difference waiting for someone to replace the necro. Real speed run groups might shave mins off, but PuG zerkers often don’t gain more than seconds.

Not true, many of the speed run groups will spend those minutes stroking each other’s kittens and reminiscing on how good they are at the game… so all in all it takes about the same time to run a set of dungeons when they take a break after every path to ponder on their brilliance.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Dungeons don’t give you AP. High AP only indicates how much player spent facerolling story.
Time spent is bad indicator top. Simply because there is no punishment for being bad. You can’t learn to be good without game completely wrecking you from time to time. Sadly that’s what devs are trying to avoid.

Yeah, honestly? I wish humanoid monsters could stomp you if you were downed for one. Secondly I wish mobs were more difficult but in a meaningful way.

I don’t mean health pools, or damage. I mean they used CLASS mechanics. That is probably one of the parts I think GW1 got the most right. The enemies used class skills so that meant a lot of their difficulty came from meaningful combos that taught you in a way if you were new, and was fun to fight against if you were a vet.

I mean just imagine if some of the more stealthy Mobs had a thief’s skill set, you would have to watch out for backstabs, and steal and such. Heck you could go further and give the classed mobs Specs depending on their lore. Kodan are more sturdy, so tankier bunker specs for them etc.

This would also make it more cohesive with PvP/WvW and allow newer players to get into either with some consistency in what to expect from enemies.

So many missed possibilities.

Tbh I do the opposite. Since Necros have an inherently high health pool+life force I am far more forgiving on lack of experience.

A bad necro is far less likely to die and just has to use their damage skills. I am content with this.

However I am very wary of pug thieves for instance, because it is a high possibility they will spend most of their time in their dungeon becoming intimate with the floor.

I am going to take a wild guess and say OP is a Warrior main.

Engineer is one of the most enjoyable classes for many in the game.

I am sure however a lot of them are bandwagoners who are abusing the grenade bug.

Mesmers are just the latest fotm cause of how powerful they have become.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Once all the bugs get ironed out I feel that we’ll have a decent patch on our hands. In First Person Shooters longer time to kill encourage good aim and skill. In MMOs, high TTK means that sustain is easy enough that even poor players can do decent. This patch seems to have put a nice gap between the skilled and the ones who were carried by their build before.

Glass vs. glass is now about not making mistakes and the one who does so first, dies. I’m avoiding WvW atm but I bet battles will feel much more tense, after we remove piercing nades and stacking Guards.

I don’t think you understand that some classes are just inherently stronger in glass cannon setups due to their mechanics than others.

Glass vs glass is now about which class does it better+catches the jump on the other. Generally when I open on someone it is over before they can retaliate in any meaningful fashion.

Please, don’t act like instagibbing/stealth ganking is high risk/high reward. There is no risk when sustain is subpar to damage.

The patch before this was where High Risk/high reward play did exist, many zerker players just weren’t as good as they thought, and are now being carried.

Oh and I have played zerker for 3 years on almost any class I get my hands on, and for the first time after this patch, it is so easy and cheesy that I have stopped. It just doesn’t feel rewarding anymore.

EZ and CHZ boiz

I have to partially disagree here. I have been running celestial Engi for a bit now in queues and it works perfectly fine with HGH.

Thing is, in ESL/WTS tiers of play it might not be viable in Cele form, but as far as I am concerned it is more than capable of holding it’s own and providing great team support in queues, which is all 90% of us ever play.

That said, there are 1v1’s to avoid on it, such as Celestial necros, as they rip your might off of you, and to be frank your damage is nowhere near enough without relying on HGH. Cele Ele’s (Focus is significantly harder though) can be beaten despite the ridiculous burn, but I am not sure if I have just been outplaying them till now.

My point is, I agree it isn’t anywhere near as viable as pre-patch, and the power creepy of other classes is making it look lackluster, but you can still run it in Queues if you like, as I have, with great success so far.

Can we put the ‘I hate this patch’ and ‘I love this patch’ threads in one thread of each respective opinion?

We get it, some people enjoy power creep while others don’t.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

I like how mesmer traits (That aren’t even op) got nerfed almost instantly, (MtD, Chaotic Dampening) but Grenade barrage, an ability that’s one shotting most players, is still bugged and going on strong.

Really? I don’t. It is negatively impacting Engineers too.

- It looks like Engineers are strong when a lot of people argue they are being carried by this bug, thus preventing any form of fixes because they look viable at high level play. Whether they are or not, can’t be fully tested by people because of how inaccurate this bug makes the results.

- As underlined above, it is making it hard to test and find any buildsthat work Post-Patch as it gives unrealistic impressions of effectivenes on a build.

- It has resulted in Grenadier being BANNED in external competitive tournaments I believe.

Yeah no, a lot of Engineers are just as unhappy and want it FIXED, ASAP.

Laraley.7695:

PistolWhip.2697:

Don’t know if you deserve a cage or an award at this point Rosicky.

I’m up for the cage.

As for ele, I honestly think this has lots to do with burning, which needs to be fixed. Also, the fire line adds 150 power in each attunement + 150 in fire, that needs to be fixed, too. Not fan of Blinding Ashes either, don’t like traits like this, same goes for Diamond skin and Stone heart, they provide quite too much sustain for the ele. However, at this state I’m not even mad since there’s just too much damage around.

I don’t know how to feel about people saying s/f fresh air ele is the best spec atm. Like really.

Honestly, I agree. I think burning is the main culprit atm, and if it isn’t let us start with that first, then the rest will be obvious.

EDIT: That isn’t to say it will fix everything, I just think a large part of the issue on a lot of classes right now is in fact how much damage burning can do.

So I had a recent interview with Grenade Barrage, and he had this to say:

Shanks Sinatra – my human thief who was my first ever character was inspired by a GW1 Assassin I made as they were commonly nicknamed/coined as ‘Sins’ in that game, and the theme of daggers were prevalent in their skills so the thank Shanks Sinatra was born, and that name carried over to my thief.

De Baros – my Human warrior that was my main a while back, was based on myself. My family is from another country from the Eurasian/Middle eastern region and my name has kurdish/turkish undertones and in all my full name translates loosely in some texts to Brave Noble Warrior. Much like how adding ‘y’ to the end of a name in the west makes it a affectionate monicker (Thomas to Tommy, etc) where my family is from adding Os (pronounced “Osh”) is the same, and thus my middle name Baros is a mainstay for people to call me within my family. As such, I added De which is latin for “of” and I planned to be a commander at the time. This would of made me Commander of Noble Warriors.

De Geist – A human mesmer. Same theme as before in terms of “Of” in latin, Geist being the German word for spirit or ghost, and in some contexts the mind. So ‘Of the Mind’ seemed fitting.

Chucklebyte – An asura warrior I made mostly for laughs. Soon I had a lot of fun on it. His name is actually a measurement in a series of measurements I made to calculate how much laughter a joke produced. It was meant to be a novelty for the guild I was in at the time and it went:

A Gigglehert

Gigglewatt = 2 Gigglehertz

Chucklehert = 5 Gigglehertz

Chucklebyte = 10 Gigglehertz

Milichortle = 100 Gigglehertz

Guffton – 1000 Gigglehertz

ExDecimal – 100,000 Gigglehertz

LOLetric Laughing Mass – 1,000,000 Gigglehertz

Chucklehertz – My current main Charr Engineer based on the same system, as Chuckles or Chuckli has become a recent nickname by some in the PvP community I hang out with.

Djinnatra – My old Ele main, a Sylvari. His name was based on the fact that I wanted to make a Djinn (Arabic for Demon/Gw1 Lore) style Sylvari of elemental disposition whil keeping with the Sinatra theme. And thus he was born.

Tryhearne – A random pvp ranger I made parodying my distaste for ranger longbowers at the time and Trahearne combined.

Lol I tend to have such weird inspirations for names.

I am currently testing Firearms instead of Explosives with my HGHertz spec, I will update the build based on how effective I find it.

Of course I will also need to wait till the grenade bug fix to see it’s full potential but so far the spec has worked very well for me in queues.

I think the issue here is, there is so much power creep on some of the other classes that celestial Engineer WITHOUT it’s power creep seems lackluster. With how strong it is now, it would of fit perfectly fine pre-patch, just everything else is so ridiculous right now it seems meh.

Autofuse is an interesting one. AMR saves my life a lot, though I can imagine if you were stunned then as soon as the stun fell off you could blast the smoke field with acid bomb making a quick escape into stealth. However I just feel AMR is such a good clutch skill which can save your life and has mine many times. I will consider Autofuse a viable alternative however in the future section!

Supply Crate is good, though tbh with how much damage is flying around turrets will die fast, and the blast finishers we have in abundance.

As for the stun, I just feel especially for this build Elixir X offers far more, and the med packs thanks to Bunker Down are in abundance anyway.

Elixir U is not a bad suggestion either!

I am thinking I will add a ‘Alternatives’ section to the last post, and feature ideas from any of the posters which seem to benefit the build!

Good catch and thanks for your feedback!

Nordstroem.1870:

PistolWhip.2697:

I will only support this atrocity being added to the game if I can also have a full banana suit added.

For reference:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D2ZvI3ohL._UL1500_.jpg

I shall support your cause if you support mine.

SpyderArachnid.5619:

For those who say it doesn’t fit in the Guild Wars Universe…………

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/b/bf/Furrocious_Ears_m.jpg

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/2/2c/Furrocious_Ears_f.jpg

… just sayin’

There we go! Some cold hard facts to back us up. Thank you. ^^

Then let us ride brother! Banana suits, ho!

LOL that would be brilliant.

Don’t know if you deserve a cage or an award at this point Rosicky.

4. FAQ!

RESERVED FOR FUTURE USE!

Hope you guys can get passed the super wordy presentation!

3. TIPS AND OBSERVATIONS

Healing Turret and Automated Medical Response
As I have highlighted above, this trait seems to not work properly or, at least fully with this skill. Because this healing skill has 2 cool downs, there are 2 cool downs to be taken account of when using them in tandem with this trait. Normally, you would have to wait AT LEAST 15 seconds if not overcharging the healing turret to use it again. This would give the 2nd skill, Cleansing burst (the one you blast as a water field) enough time to cool down and that is why it is always ready to use. However, with this trait, it is only the cool down for the initial placing of the turret which is reduced, and thus you will miss out on cleansing burst if you don’t keep account of this. A way to work around it and make sure you have a water field to blast is to use F1 (Regerating Mist) to proc a very short duration water field following by immediately placing the turret down and overcharging it yo blast this water field at your feet. This is probably easier to do with the Acid Bomb combo described in the section above though, and is generally not going to happen mid play. I am not sure if this Trait/Skill disparity is intended or a mistake, but it is there.

Stomping on the side of an enemy
A lot of people won’t really take note of where they are queuing their stomping animation on relative to the downed person’s body. Something to take into account however, is that many don’t bother using their auto-attack while downed, and thus continue to face which ever way they are downed. These same people will also use the 2 skill to disrupt you if you don’t have stability and in doing so their characters body model turns toward you before using said skill. This both causes a slight delay AND gives you time/indication to evade. So always watch the downed opponent if possible and make sure to stomp from behind them. You can also flip this in reverse and make sure you auto attack at least once or twice so you face the person attempting to stomp you for a quicker activation of skill 2 while downed, which may be difference between you rallying or their player rallying. You can also use blinding grenades on skill 3 of Nade kit on people as an ally is stomping by predicting their skill 2 or your own if they’re lazy enough not to get rid of the blind by attacking.

Note however, that it is sometimes better to leave people to bleed out, if they are off point, without an ally and not a Ranger or Guardian as this keeps them out of any fights for a period.

If they are a warrior this is especially good, because many of the less savvy ones will proc vengeance, at which point you can just run off about your business while they try to cap the point in futility, realising while in Vengeance form you CANNOT CAP a point.

Playstyle

- Remember your positioning is KEY to surviving! This build has given up the safety of the Gear Shield block in Tool Kit to gain the utility of Elixir B now with new Alchemy line. This means getting caught in an immobilize under a team’s focus if you don’t react quick enough can be the END of you. There is no shield to block for you, no Elixir S to invul you, all you have is your positioning, awareness and sustain to survive! But if you learn to play around all that, and keep their team unable to focus you, you will succeed!

- You are there to support your team and keep keen awareness of the fight going on! In 1v1’s you will be much better at running to points to defend them, then trying to take out a member of their team and decap their points! This is because you already have the tools to survive from the get go on a point and keep it your colour, while you must build your damage, giving them too much time to send another to their point to take you out, AND too many points for them on the scoreboard with how long it takes. This is a bruiser. You can hold your own, but be careful in 2v1’s, because your lack of get of jail free cards if you don’t watch the enemies closely can result in a quick and untimely death.

- Remember how powerful your grenades really are (even after the piercing+grenade barrage bug is fixed, and never under-estimate using them to NUKE a downed enemy so the cleave makes it impossible for them to be rez’d by an ally. The Poison grenade which is unblockable is ESPECIALLY good for this. And if all else fails toss an Elixir X at the rezzers to Moa them and lock them out for 3 seconds. That is enough time for a stomp.

- Lastly, don’t make might stacking your end game. What do I mean by this? See, a lot of the time, builds based around stacking might will have some players focus on that aspect FAR too much. If you don’t keep that as second priority (because it WILL happen with all the forms of it you have), you may find you lose a fight due to lack of attention+priority on using your skills for the FIGHT itself over just using them inappropriately to get those seductive strong stacks.

Combo’s

Here are a general list of usable combo’s, one of the cornerstones of the Engineer Class:

- Regenerating Mist (F1 for Healing Turret)+Acid Bomb Or Jump Shot is a Finisher heal. I recommend Acid bomb because it is a 2kish heal blast and has a much lower cool down. Be careful however, the heal on Elixir Gun 5 is a great way to remove a condition, stack might/retal and have a nice pulse of regeneration, however be wary of using this combo while standing in it’s field, otherwise you will proc Area retaliation and not healing, which can be an easy thing to miss.

- Toss Elixir B and Overcharged shot. The stability this skill gives you is so good in so many situations, but with a 20 second cool down don’t be afraid to use it for this combo, especially when you feel the enemy has no stun breakers. This means you can start stacking a bunch of damage through your nades+blunderbuss or Jumpshot while they lie on the floor kissing the dirt and wondering why they picked a fight with you!

- Healing Turret+Cleansing Burst+ Acid Bomb/Jumpshot is just more healing for your money, and is a great idea to damage and heal at once if the enemy is stupid enough to try to shake your hand in a close radius. Especially because the turret detonation knocks them back leaving them susceptible to the damage.

- Intelligence Sigil+ High damage skills like Blunderbuss/Jumpshot/Grenade Barrage. This guarantees a crit on kit swap as long as the sigil is off cool down, which is a nasty combo to remember if your enemy needs a good bit of kicking.

- Healing turret, Cleansing burst then pressing F. Overcharging is a great way to get more of a heal, but there are times where you need the condition cleanse of the 2nd stage of the healing skill over the heal, or not very much of a heal at all. During these times, it is better to conserve cool down time and just pick up the turret using F without pressing F1 to blow it up. With enough practice this can become just as smooth and seemless as overcharging it.

Protection Injection
A simple but effective trait. This gives up 33% damage reduction through protection when stunned, of which as an Engineer, trust me will happen to you time to time. Having only one stun-break and a cast time on your stability, this will help cushion any mistakes you make getting caught in CC. Plus with the current “Meta” for Mesmers being a CC-locking burst, this will help your chances of survival GREATLY.

Backpack Regenerator OR Inversion Enzyme
Now this is a weird one. Though I am currently using backpack regenerator for the extra passive sustain while on a kit of which we have 2. I am also testing Inversion.Both have their ups. BPR is an obvious help to keeping yourself topped in terms of HP and Inversion Enzyme, combined with all the Elixirs mentioned above which remove Conditions along with E-Gun’s 5 can mean crucial conditions can give you really strong buffs (Prot, Aegis etc.) You can really pick either here, but currently I am testing and using BPR.

HGH
Ah yes, the build’s namesake. The baddest of the bad. The one true king. The Iron Throne of traits for us in this setup. All that needs to be said here is, Elixirs give you 2 stacks of might for 30 seconds each. Which skills are those of yours? Elixir B, Toss Elixir B, Acid Bomb, Super Elixir, Healing Mist, Toss Elixir X, Elixir X and the passive Elixir B trait. Yep they all give you 2 stacks of might for 30 seconds. As you can see, this will all add up fast, and then you have your Hoelbrak runes giving you even more on the side. Not only that, but this reduces cool downs on elixirs AND increases how long they last! Just look at all the skills on your BAR effected by this. Say no more. HGH is a Big man ting.

2. GENERAL/PLAYSTYLE/ COMBOS

So first thing’s first. What is the general play style here? Essentially you’re meant to ramp up damage on yourself, while supporting your team in fights, and surviving long enough to ensure others also survive. This is achieved by building your own strong stacks (might) for a boost in damage, seeing as we have a low base power and condition damage stat. Combine this with your use of blast finishers in water fields, Aoe condi clear+boon application and you’re well on your way to getting all the invites to parties by all the cool conquest kids!

Your friends need to secure a stomp? Toss an Elixir B at their face and let the stability help them git to wurk!

Your pals want to pick up health concealed in what look like bags of narcotics? Bunker down the utter smitten out of that area!

Want to become the hulk, cc and or finish a stomp yourself? Drink a questionable Elixir and have the chance to grow into a beast!

Heck, you can even pull other people out of their own Elite Forms, like Lich or Rampage which can devastate a group (prone to queuing in ‘British’ fashion – a orderly line before the Lich) in seconds, by simply tossing Elixir X at them! No stability can stop this skill, and as long as you land it (don’t do it while blind or against a block etc…) it will stop them stomping/Liching/ being respectable for 3 seconds! Oh and if you toss it in your vicinity a bonus is 2 might stacks! Yay HGH!

Inventions
Cleansing Synergy is just good, no reason not to be with all the cancerous conditions flying around atm! Plus… yes it does work on allies in a 300 radius also, working well with Healing turret.
Heal Resonator is good at what it does. Regen, especially 1400 heals worth is never a bad choice for you or allies.
Energy Amplifier means all your regen gives you further healing power and sustain making this this a not so-vicious cycle, and this in general works great with the rest of the traits in this line.

Automated Medical Response
Wow, many engineers wouldn’t of thought we’d find ourselves here in the past huh? Anyway, this trait here can be a real lifesaver. It is fairly self-explanatory with how having your heal come off cool down just in time can save your life, especially on Engineer, who can go from 10% to 50%-70% hp depending on how hard you blast the Healing Turret water field (Normal Healing turret application but in the water field aftermath right after or during overcharging blast, use E-Gun #4 Acid Bomb and weapon swap to cancel it mid air allowing you to jump shot inside it too, leading to heal with an extra blast AND leap! That is around a net 4k heal ADDED to the normal! Kaboom!) Over Shield makes no sense because we don’t use shield, and smoke bomb is just not enough to mitigate the damage you receive while stunned, plus doubling up over Prot Injection can be overkill ,especially bearing in mind that we have 2589 armor on Celestial Amulet. WARNING – A big issue I have noticed with this trait on Healing Turret, is that although if procced it will reset you putting down the turret, the 2nd part of the skill, Cleansing Burst has it’s OWN separate cool down. Which I am not sure if it is intended or oversight, but it happens. So be mindful, of the possibility when the trait procs.

Mecha Legs
This is a very nice trait for us to take, which Combo’s well with the condition duration reduction of the Hoelbrak runes we will be sporting! Not only that, but with the loss of streamlined kits and the Tools line, your mobility is severely hampered, and this provides a much needed bandaid over it by giving you 25% mobility. Though it may not seem huge, this can be the difference between keeping and losing a point, which if you have played PvP even a bit, I don’t have to remind you can be HUGE in the long run of the game. Mobility boosts are capped at 25% within combat, meaning this will replicate a permanent swiftness while in a fight, allowing you to kite! Kiting will be a big part of survival for this build.

Bunker Down
This trait is a godsend honestly. It is literally everything it sounds like on paper. You will proc this often enough, due to Intelligence Sigil, and generally more than expected due to your decent fury up-time. So what does this bad boy do for us? Well the 614 heal on each med kit which lasts for 12 seconds so pick up at your whim can not only improve your sustain vastly, but also your allies, with a team fight a lot of the time spawning about 4-5 of these things at any given time in my experience all around the point. This honestly adds up to be insane, and add to that, that you gain Regen, every pick up, boosting your healing power by 250, which will make any med pack heal you for 664 and effect all your healing blasts and such! This trait alone and how it synergizes with the inventions minors is awesome. The mine isn’t a bad touch, and I suppose gives you a nice extra vulnerability+smear of damage on the enemy which can eat through any aegis and such. Basically there is no reason not to take this trait, and in the words of Charrnuld himself, “BUNKER DOWN! NOW!!”

Alchemy
Hidden FlaskNothing to complain about here. Free might, fury, swiftness, retaliation. In fact, this is basically a free extra Elixir B like the one on our skill bar that we get after hitting 75% HP. With how strong damage is atm in the game, you will often hit below that point (but don’t panic!). This being an elixir, means it counts for HGH, so you get even more might! The Retaliation on this and your skill bar’s Elixir B is often missed and can lead to a lot of hurt in the long run for your enemy, combined with the fact that you have a Light field on your Elixir Gun #5 Super Elixir, that is a lot of hitting themselves!
Transmute is a lovely passive condi-conversion that has quite some RNG tied to it, but better there than not!
Alchemical Tincturesis awesome. Simply awesome for us. Elixir B both in our skill bar, AND the minor trait both remove one condition each! So does the tool belt skill which effects allies too! Plus it gives us more boon duration, which also means more might up-time! Hurray for the Strong Stacks! Conditions can be a huge weakness to Engineer, and this trait helps cover it.

Hey there guys! This is going to be a ‘wordy’ guide/build layout for those who might be new to Engineer or experienced but would like to take a look at what others have concocted in the community. A lot of what I write might be common sense to veterans so you can skip, but for new people it can help your game know how improve a lot!

I call the build HGHertz (or HGHz), as HGH is a trait which is the center piece of the build.

Disclaimer Here: This is my first ever attempt at a build post here on the boards. I am not the most well known, or the most experienced of Engineers out there, but I have played the game 3 years, a lot of which has been in PvP, and so I have a general grasp of how things happen in the Game mode across a lot of classes, multi classing and such. Still I feel it is useful to hear another perspective, so enjoy the read!

CONTENTS

1. The Build Itself
2. General/Playstyle/Combos
3. Tips/Observations
4. FAQ if there is any. (Will answer to the best of my ability).

1. THE BUILD ITSELF

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-_70;2cP-h0m5gTkw0;9;4ikl;0037157156;4Rw0;3CoF2CoF20C

Explosives: 1/1/2
Inventions: 2/3/2
Alchemy: 2/3/1 (This is still shifting. I have been trying both 1 and 3 in the major trait slot.)

Equipment
Amulet: Celestial
Rune: Hoelbrak (Mecha Legs, HGH, and Prot injection!)
Weapon: Rifle with Intelligence Sigil (Bunker Down) and Energy Sigil (Kit swapping)

Explosives

The Minors
Evasive Powder Keg is it’s own entity entirely. It is neither bad nor good, just there really.
Steel-Packed Powder is a nice small buff due to us using a lot of explosive with the grenade kit. This means we will always be putting vulnerability to some capacity on the enemy, boosting our and our teams damage slightly against them.
Explosive Powder This can seem like nothing but a small damage increase to nade kits, but honestly the knock back can save your life. If they aren’t stability ridden at the moment, even if you’re being hounded while you try to survive at 20% hp, your healing turret if overcharged will not only heal you but PUSH THEM BACK. Giving you ample time to escape/recover/re-position or all 3!

Grenadier
As you can see we have gone into the mother of all nades. Now, first up we have Grenadier. Now this is fairly self explanatory. The fact that this is the only trait which relates to the grenade kit in this slot coupled with the fact that the other two traits are essentially… Lacking, means Grenadier wins the spot hands down.

Aim-Assisted Rocket
The second trait Aim-Assisted Rocket we bring because it is actually fairly potent in terms of power damage. This build is able to maintain and stack might around the 18-22 stack threshold, meaning power damage is just as viable as any Condi pressure when at optimum. It is in my experience better than a 5% increase in damage because with how often this rocket can proc within a fight, combined with the fact that this build generally needs a bit of time to ramp up damage, the damage the rocket trait has done will easily be in the thousands by the end of the fight. It can also be a crucial end to a fight if you get a crit with might stacks on you by swapping weapons as you see the rocket fly toward the enemy with Intelligence sigil up. It is just the best option for us in this slot… don’t look at me like that!

Shrapnel
Now the reason we pick this is 3-pronged. Firstly this build will not be using Mortar Kit. Yes yes, I know. It is our ‘cool new elite’ but honestly? it is generally not as useful in my experience as first presented. A blind field is nice, and so is Ortibal strike on power specs, but this isn’t a purely power spec, and the safe stomp can be achieved in other ways by this build. In total, the combination of Grenade Kit with E-Gun makes the elite somewhat redundant I find, but your mileage may vary. Thermobaric Detonation isn’t a BAD trait, but with the nerfing of vigor and the lack of Tools on this build will mean you need to conserve dodges. Shrapnel just becomes the naturally best choice here. Plus, 15% isn’t that low when you factor that you throw (or should be throwing cough bugged cough) 3 grenades per attack. And yes this can also proc on each individual grenade at once in a single toss!

Chaith.8256:

F.A.Q for people:

• With Grenadier, Grenade barrage is throwing 13 grenades, when it’s supposed to throw 7.

• Piercing is irrelevant to Grenade Barrage. Grenade Barrage hits are not piercing, even while traited.

• With Grenadier, normal #1-5 Grenades are piercing now, meaning if you are able to physically connect the Grenade projectile, and also connect the explosion (ie, aim right behind the target), each grenade can hit up to twice with a flawless throw.

• With the natural spread of grenades, you have to be point blank and aiming behind the target to double hit each grenades. Possibly game breaking in PvE, not practical to capitalize on in PvP.

• Grenade Barrage is also not benefiting from Toolbelt Cooldown Reduction.

Reduce grenades thrown from 13 to 7 when Grenadier is equipped, and then Grenadier will be playable. This should have been hotfixed yesterday..

Currently, piercing Grenades are not documented, or asked for, due to the applications to PvE / PvP, this should be re-evaluated on whether it should stay in the game or not.

Thank you. Finally the facts, many including myself have said 13 grenades for pages upon pages now, but there is this collective of people asserting ‘it might intended’. Even when the tool tip on barrage says 7, and you can clearly count more than 7 circles on a throw, clearly when many have thrown it on an enemy and not behind them still doing more damage than reasonable.

The tool belt cooldown thing I didn’t know, but perhaps with a more well known name saying the same stuff many of us have for ages, these people might stop protecting this evident bug that is negatively effecting us on Engineer also. Those who actually care to play competitive anyway.

This is a bug, for goodness sake, many people have documented, tested, posted images+videos proving this is a bug, and it is linked to the grenadier trait.

It goes so far as to almost one shotting people even if you don’t aim a barrage just behind them but on them. So the only way to really get around it is to not take grenadier or not use nades. I don’t think I need to express how either is self-defeating.

So can we please stop “assessing if this is a bug or not” and thinking it is some balance issue.

It effects balance, but at the heart of it, it is a bug and it needs to be fixed. I am trying to play Engineer and this is ruining PvP for many of us just as much as those we fight.

Want to test a build using grenade kit? Nope no accurate representations for you.

Want to fight someone 1v1 and ‘honor duel’? Nope no winning fair and square with nade kit on your bar for you.

Want to play in an externally organized PvP tournament with your build at full potential, and representation for your team comp? Nope! Sorry, your skill is bugged so bad it literally ruins the game for others so you can’t.

Don’t want to feel cheap when you down 2-3 people with one barrage who are at 90% hp or around it each? Nope, you’re the cheapest Mr Barrage. (And yes I could avoid using it here, but if I don’t use nade kit and purposefully kitten my builds that is an issue that is also related to this bug.)

Would people stop defending it, so those of us who actually want to push Engineer to it’s limits, and or master new styles of play on it can actually do so without having to either refrain from using Grenades and limited our play. Or one shotting opponents and limiting theirs?