The hard thing for me is destroying destructible objects. Some heart quests have a lot of them and it takes my engineer a long time to destroy each one. I’ve come to find it better to ignore them and just kill monsters as I have an easier time killing a centaur over breaking a rack.
It made the class feel useful and I didn’t think it so odd, because my main is ele and on my elementalist I can get a lot of aoe heals off a water field with the right trait and utility skill.
I see your point now when exploring other professions more in-depth to see how they are balanced. But I just can’t help but feel there is something lacking with how engineer is setup. It’s probably a combination of many factors that are leading to this feeling.
I mostly play wvw and just feel so ineffective compared to other professions I run into. Stuff like mine field made me think I had to find more tricks like that to survive, but now I see those tricks are considered abuse and will be removed when found. What am I supposed to do then. I haven’t a clue.
Some weird pirate jerk in some place.
Nothing I did worked on him. They killed me without resistance. When I looked at the tip under their name as to what special ability they had, it just said “fights dirty”.
I have yet to see him anywhere else there are pirates! It’s so weird.
Just don’t do the dungeons more than once. They are meant to lure masochists under the pretense that such rewards for such grind are somehow prestigious.
When you say toolkit, do you mean bundles?
Because other professions have bundles too. Bundles are utility skills that replace the whole weapon skill bar when used. Like elementalist conjures and warrior banners.
I know, but on engineer I swap between kits often and am used to just using those same keys to also the stow kits.
So far healing kit always messes me up, as I drop a healing pack instead of using my pistol skill almost every single time before I go duh-oh. XD
Okay, I will compare to weapon skills since minefield just happens to be above the weapon skill side instead of weapon swapping.
Let’s compare any combination of 4 toolbelt skills to the 5 weapon skills a weapon swap could yield.
No kidding Psakyrn? We get 4 extra skills for our profession mechanic. That’s amazing. I shouldn’t be complaining then.
And other toolbelt skills are lame? I had no idea until now. Thanks for keeping me updated.
I’m being jerk, because I hate being told what I already knew. I can increase the length of every single post I make to create a disclaimer showing everything in existence I am already aware of when I make my point, but I’m lazy.
To balance mine field they should just look at the trap skills now.
Without a blast finisher, mine field is essentially the weakest trap skill in-game, in terms of recharge, damage and utility.
Not very persuasive Sporadicus. The context of the skills is that it is happening within a game with binary outcomes. You really should be winning or losing depending on how well you used your skills, not how lucky you got with what effect they did when used.
One can write an entire essay using strength in numbers to persuade people that the current randomness of elixirs is acceptable. But it doesn’t change the context in which those skills exist, and it doesn’t change how inappropriate their function is within that context.
If you use any 1 kit it works. The only difference with healing kit is that it is bugged and cannot be stowed by pressing the key again. Which is frustrating and needs to be fixed.
Toss Elixir U is frustrating. The random skills simply mean you have to sit there and figure out the one situation that could possibly exist in which each possible result of the skill could benefit one who uses it. Talk about anti-versatility.
It is fun to play. Just doesn’t feel thoughtfully designed.
And that makes me nervous. Because maybe the fun will be sucked out of it because it is possible that those who designed it, and balance it, just don’t have a clear objective.
It reminds me of the game prototype. They give you tons of skills, but the balance between them was so off that a lot of skills just seem to be thrown in as ‘cool ideas’ that fit a theme.
When the developers nerf a skill do they not change other aspects to keep it balanced?
Like with minefield no longer being a blast finisher. Has the damage or recharge or anything been considered to be changed to compensate?
What can be done is during hours when there is a huge population disparity, give the lower population’s players and keeps some buffs, like a defiant buff.
Just to slow down the inevitable. A huge pop server at night will take everything if they have enough time to do it. But if slowed down, it can help the fewer numbers on the other side keep some stuff.
Too bad. It was the only decent way I could give my group retaliation in wvw, for when we are getting slammed through walls, gates and other obstacles.
In the tech forum there is a large topic about all the network errors people are getting.
For me I get randomly bumped back to character select screen every 10-30 minutes.
Every time I do I select my character to find they are not in WvW anymore and I have to wait in a queue and once in battlegrounds have to run all the way back to where I was.
If I was doing a jump puzzle or dungeon it is very frustrating. I really want network errors to stop, but they’ve been happening since beta. Please make it so these network errors don’t kick characters out of WvW completely.
In PvE with condition build I like to use Elixir Gun and Flame Thrower.
I like to use incendiary ammo on the elixir gun’s fumigate skill.
Since you are level 13 you might have to save up some more skill points for that combo.
I was very excited about that trait when I read that Detonate, the Med Kit’s special ability, does Knockback.
Dunno if it’s a bug that it does not, but that alone would make the trait worthwhile for Med Kit.
If it was a knockback that would be awesome, and warrant a cooldown. I’d love it then.
Yeah, they are all very different and stronger in different ways.
I use the shield for knockback, blast finisher and boomerang shield. I haven’t really used the reflect and block stun yet. Practicing though.
The cooldowns are indeed for long compared to OH pistol. But it’s up to how we play and what suits it best.
Lol. Looks like people can spoof links. We used to do that in EQ2 for fun.
We’d link a custom name, but make the item that appears when you hover over it something else.
Like texting “price check on [pickle on a stick].” But when you hover over the item is shows a super insane rare sword.
My honest opinion is that the profession isn’t the best at kiting, or durability, or even damage.
So in actual fighting it does indeed take tons of work to achieve the same results as other professions. It has a lot of utility on-hand during any one fight, but that is not quite making up for it’s other shortcomings.
My main is an elementalist and I had no idea the disparity between professions until I rolled more characters as alts.
Ele is whacked, yo. Something needs to change.
I like pistol shield a lot. It’s good for people like me who want to play it safe.
Pistol/pistol is better to hunt with a nice aoe immobilize and more powerful short range damage
Just look for noble or leather mask. I bought Leather Mask on the trading post and used a transmutation stone to give it to my low level engineer.
Here is what it looks like. I think it’s neat. http://i50.tinypic.com/f56hsm.jpg
The range, aoe radius on basic attacks, and really long ‘hangtime’ is what hurts it.
I saved up to unlock it for fun, and realized it’s just that. For fun. Not as effective as regular skills.
My main was elementalist and I recently started an engineer and thief as alts.
My alts are having so much more of an easier time in PvE and WvW than my ele was.
In World vs World it is frustrating.
When we are attacking a gate and I try to look up at the top of the keep walls, see where I’m getting hit from, I can’t see very well.
I use conditions to allow some “sneakiness” to the damage. If someone peaks over a wall and loses half their health instantly, they are going to back off and heal very soon.
If the initial damage is smaller they will eat more grenades and then frequently die before realising just how much damage they are taking from the burn and bleed.
People have done this to me in WvW alot. It is sneaky. And I always fall for it.
Condition builds are a war of attrition strategy.
So Brookie, it depends on how long your average fights last and how much of your fights involve you or your enemies using cover and kiting.
CptCosmic, kits have their own weapon power, but that’s it from what I’ve seen. They don’t have any stats associated with them and they don’t really differentiate themselves with stat boosts (they all have the same weapon power stat).
At least regular weapons can have different stats boosts.
In my opinion the profession is one of the least ready for game’s release. That is why I am underwhelmed. I’ve tried elementalist, thief, mesmer and engineer so far. Mesmer and Engineer are tied for ‘not ready for release’. Elementalist and thief have some issues, but they are definitely more finished products.
