Female Sylvari Ranger – Loved the look of the new Sylvari race upon launch, and of course had to make a bow/pet class since Ranger was my main in GW1. The nature aspect of Sylvari seemed like a perfect fit for Ranger.
Male Human Guardian – Wanted a strong, masculine male character for the noble Guardian. They wear the heavy armor better than Sylvari or Norn and especially Charr so it was an easy choice.
Female Human Necro – Female character models always look better in cloth armor. I considered Sylvari, but wanted the human racials while leveling.
Female Asura Engineer – The little Asura look the best with the Engi backpacks on them. Plus, they are tinkerers and inventors. Despite the gadgets used not being magical, I envision my Asura laughing her considerable brains out at the notion of besting a foe with such primitive weapons as a flamethrower…and even the tools she uses to build them (wrench lol).
5 months is about 3600 hours.
At 1200hrs, you’ve played GW2 for literally 1/3 of your life during the past 5 months.
You’ve just burnt yourself out. Take a break.
Come back in a bit and play for less than 8hrs every single day (what you’ve averaged over the 5 months).
I like a lot of the heavy armor in this game. A nice mix of full on metal with cloth & leather straps, skin exposed, etc. They look good on both genders and all races.
The cloth armor looks great…on females. There are very few masculine cloth armor sets. Most are robes. I wear cloth (jeans, polo shirt, etc) every day and I don’t look like a dude wearing chic’s clothing.
Medium armor needs some work. They look good, what’s out there, but there’s just to much trenchcoat action. Also, the female heavy & light armors have some pretty sexy options, but the only medium female sexy option is human T3. I think that we need more razzle-dazzle on our medium armors, rather than I skinned a deer and wrapped this around my legs and look a leather trenchcoat!
The cultural armors are pretty fantastic. They’re unique and have enough flair to make them pop but not so much to make them un-masculine. They’re wonderful. Take design notes from these when you eventually expand on the armor.
That’s because the Engineer class is the representation of the “Mad Scientist” trope in the GW2 universe…
But in the lore the engineer are a derivitive of the Charr, building war machines and steam-powered death. I don’t hear “Charr” and think “Mad Scientist.” I think “that Charr scientist is mad…that his flamethrower can’t kill more than 5 people at once.”
Nanobots. Nanotechnology introduced into the body in a simple liquid via oral administration. As engineers, we must design and build these tiny machines.
Now…if we can fabricate such powerful nanobots, why can’t we get our turrets to function better?
All speculation. Don’t get upset yet. The only reason you’ve heard this is because it’s a really good build for us, so all the pessimists expect it to get nerfed into the ground. Engis have finally been given respect in the PvP world and players are noticing that we can actually kill things. So the doom-sayers are expecting Anet to say “we can’t have that.”
Also, there’s a speculated Might nerf across the board, which will affect HGH. Not a direct-HGH, Engi-focused nerf, but it’ll affect us nonetheless.
The thing with the last few patches is they have made a point of nerfing popular builds, and did minor tweaks to unused abilities that still left those abilities subpar. If HGH gets nerfed, where do Engis go next? And then after the following May patch that nerfs that build, where do they go?
I posted about a month ago how I felt regarding this exact issue. It seems that rather than buffing (not just minor tweaks) unused or underpowered skills/utilities/traits, Anet instead prefers to nerf the popular ones. Certain builds may be strong, OP in fact, but that’s only when compared to other builds out there. If pets were super incredible then rangers wouldn’t be complaining about problem x, because they wouldn’t be comparatively underpowered.
I think I’m going to try P/S. That’s my first step. Not only will it increase survivability, but it has a blast finisher and, by not having an offhand pistol, I won’t be rushing in for #4 skill. It does deal some great damage and burn though.
Also, I’ll try using EG more. I never thought of using the autoattack, and figured I’d get laughed at to be honest. Against a single target I’ll use it at range over pistol#1 to stack bleeds better.
Anyone else have suggestions? Can BombKit be used in a condition build or is its strength in power builds?
It’s being sold for convenience and the effects. It’s not so much the infinite uses so much as never again being like “aw crap, I need to go buy more picks.”
Personally, I’d like to see more skills attributed to our weapons. However, if they won’t do that, then many traits need to be reworked to provide the variety they so want from them. There are some great traits like Juggernaut and Kit Refinement that change the way you use skills and the way they act (I’m an Eng, sry for the Eng examples). They add variety and dynamics. Other traits like “weapon x deals y% more damage” or “increase range of weapon z” are boring and, while useful, don’t exactly add that variety of gameplay style traits are supposed to bring.
when you look at the entire game economy (rewards, gem store, bltc, rng, crafting…) and profession designs (limited variety and customization outside of gear, limited weapons and skills, buttons to press…) you can clearly see that these two core areas of the game were designed more for anet wallets and sanity, not the players overall long term enjoyment.
I’m curious how you came to this conclusion. How specifically do the current game economy (other than the gem store of course) and the profession design benefit Anet? You typed “…you can clearly see…” but it’s not clear to me. You made a statement & a conclusion without any reasoning in between. Please explain.
the game design demonstrates what i’m talking about. all you need to do is break down the economy and professions then think about how it affects players.
You didn’t back anything up, just repeated yourself.
why are professions limited in terms of weapons, buttons, skills and customization (ouside of gear)?
Again, you posed open ended questions without an answer to back up your claims. Are you trying to get the forums to make your argument for you? This thread is pointless if you don’t at least state some reasons other than “just look at it. it does. duh.”
Wait, what’s wrong with your current set-up? Do you want to do more damage? Or do you die quite frequently?
I feel like my damage output is fine by swapping back & forth thru P/P & FT. I have Speedy Kits trait for on-demand swiftness, which is extremely necessary considering how range dependent a lot of my skills are. Pistol (MH) has decent range. Pistol #4 requires me to be close. FT #2 has ok range, while its autoattack has a much shorter range. The aoe blind is only good for escape, since it’s range is abysmal. Because I’m constantly zipping in close, I’m dying way more than I’d like.
So that’s the range ping-pong issue.
On top of that, I feel like I bring no utility to the group. Sure, I deal straight & condition damage and well. Nobody uses my medkit drops but I like it for the speed>run away>drop>heal escapability. Plus #5 is like having a lesser-Elixir B.
90% of the time I use EG only for #5 Super Elixir. That seems like my only utility to the group.
My solution ideas: switch to P/S….that’s all I got. I’d rather not do a complete overhaul because I’m still leveling and I’d like something that doesn’t require complete retraiting and regearing for open world PvE.
I’m for that. It would make the trait more dynamic, giving you the option to keep stronger med kits mainly for yourself, or lesser aoe medkits for group support. As it is, I never see Engis drop med kits for group play…it’s always Healing Turret.
I’m gonna try this out tonight. I’m lvl 67 & have been looking for a dungeon build that’s a slight improvment on my open world FT/EG build. This will let me swap back n’ forth freely without haveing to reset traits. At my level, I’ll be able to put 30 & 25 in Tools and Firearms. Which do you think is more important to get 30 in first?
Of course, that will require me to completely rebuild huh? I’ll have to retait into explosives and get new gear, unless +condition gear will still work(?).
And sometimes… yeh sometimes I´d like to know where the hell they get those numbers from!
I´m used to such cruel exaggerations from the community…. but from devs!?
From what I’ve heard, the screenshot showing a 26k 100nades was photoshopped. But unfortunately it appeared, Anet accepted it as law, and the nerfbat swung hard.
I’m currently lvl 67 and have recently begun running dungeons with my guildies. Leveling, I’ve been using a P/P condition build with FT on the forefront, supplemented with EG & Elixir B. I am a monster in open world, never dying & dropping large groups without a problem.
I switched to Elixir U for reflect & quick rezzes, but I’m still not feeling like I’m being as effective as possible in dungeons. My range with FT is sometimes a problem, and if there’s projectile reflect up I can pretty much only drop EG#5 and look for allies to rez. Also, my survivability isn’t optimal.
Any builds/suggestions for dungeons would be helpful. Remember, not lvl 80, so no exotics and can only go 30 deep in 1 tree so far.
Storyline triumph!
Awesome looking armor & weapons (screenshot)
Being the only one standing at the end of a rough encounter. Or being that last one to kite, KD, quickness rez your teammate mid-battle to keep the fight alive.
I have a feeling the Living Story is telling of how our continued adventures will be presented. I think new personal stories in a paid expac would be fantastic, building on the sense that my character was pivotal in the shaping of the world.
I use a Mystic Battlehammer, but even that is a little small on my Norn in Cursed Shore and CoF armor. New options would be great!
Hammers should be big and intimidating, especially when wielded by an 8 foot barbarian covered in spikes and with flames coming out of his eyes.
Hey now, asuras with hammers need love too!
In all seriousness, it seems like weapons get extra-shrunk in the hands of an asura, so much so that you can barely see them. If there are more solid/larger hammers made, make sure they still look that way when they’re asura-sized! My guardian will love you guys for it!
I 100% agree. I understand weapons being smaller on smaller characters, but they need to have the same scale/ratio to body size as the other races. Norn with rifle = massive. Asura with rifle = where is it? Same with hammers, staves, swords, etc
If your focus is on the ToolKit why are you pouring 30 pts into pimping out your rifle? If you’re going into Firearms for the +prec then why not take traits V for blind on crit (w/ any weapon) & III (to stay on your target)? I’d go 20pts max.
Explosives: V gives you burn on crit (and with +200 cond dmg from Firearms line it’s not a paltry amt of damage). VI keeps you on your retreating target. X lets you stack might a little easier. Use with medkit & you can trigger it on CD.
Also, going deeper into Alchemy can net you some more survivability with Backpack Regenerator since you will be in ToolKit always. This is good for going melee with a medium armor class. HGH ain’t bad either if you bring along Elixir B (I would).
As everyone above said, join a friendly active guild. I find mine to be full of people willing to do all sorts of things (fractals, dungeons, guild bounties, world bosses, etc).
As a side note, I find this thread funny (ironic) considering I’ve read so many other threads in the past denouncing the game for having no sub-80 players in the world. That everyone is in Orr and dungeons and there’s nobody to play with in lower level zones.
I’m not opposed to vistas being a part of World Completion. However, they do seem to be something extra that you actively have to seek out despite your regular play. In the course of doing all the hearts in a zone you’ll probably hit 90% of the POIs without even trying to. Skill Points are something that you’ll want to get, akin to hearts, as they directly contribute to your character’s progress. However, vistas are purely to get a nice view of the terrain. Which, if you want to get technical, is a part of exploring: getting to a high vantage point to scout an area (Assassin’s Creed?). But you’re not going to hit them in the course of your questing.
If that was the case, the chances of getting a certain dye would increase as you “fill in” the other colors. Want to farm Abyss dyes and such to sell? Buy the less expensive rares until all that is missing is the expensive ones like Abyss, now every pack you open MUST give you a valuable rare dye because those are the only slots still open.
It’s an obvious and easy exploit. Don’t want to be at the mercy of RNG? Buy specific colors from the TP.
I don’t think that works. Do the Gem Store dye packs state that you won’t unlock a dye that you already know? Because I’ve definitely gotten dye drops that I already know. Not to mention that dye unlocks are per character. The dyes aren’t bound so you can sell them.
I’m not sure what you mean. I was responding to someone who didn’t like the way the dye packs worked and wanted to only get dyes that he hasn’t unlocked. I told him that system would be easy to exploit by unlocking lower value dyes so that the only possible drops are expensive dyes he hasn’t unlocked. I didn’t claim that this was the way it already works, I said that what he wanted to happen wouldn’t work.
Also – I really don’t think advising a new player ‘oh, just avoid x class until you have a max level of y class’ is really acceptable advise.
Oh no, you misunderstand. That was simply my anecdote. While it’s true that certain classes are more complex in nature (ele, mes) I wouldn’t suggest not playing one. Plus, I never said “until you have a max level.” Point in fact, I still don’t have an 80. GW2’s combat system was new to me so (for me) it was better to start with an easy profession (Ranger) and then graduate to something more complex.
What I was trying to convey is that each class hs its own nuances and some are easier to utilize (guardian boons, ranger pets) while others can take some getting used to (ele attunements, mesmer clones). I think these are mostly a result of those being familiar mechanics that are used in other games.
If a thief seems squishy, you need to learn how to utilize the mobility & blind mechanics that it relies on for survivability. While someone might not want to read a L2P post, it simply does fall to that. Not in a mean way, but just that each profession relies on a skill set to stay alive & kill. Learn each professions’ nuances & you will excel.
I’ll say that when I tried rolling a priest back in TBC days of WoW it was a nightmare. Later rolled one during Cata and it was a cinch. It took years of redesign and updates, etc to get WoW where it is. GW2 has been out for less than 9 months. Having said that…
I like that the game forces you to learn your profession’s mechanics even at an early level. A guardian can get away with facetanking as long as it has its boons, a thief needs to learn mobility, a mesmer needs to understand how to effectively use its illusions/clones. First character I ever rolled in GW2 was an ele and it was insanely squishy. Didn’t like it. Rolled a ranger and it was so much fun. Later I went back and tried ele again and since I was more comfortable with GW2’s general combat mechanics it was easier to grasp the specific ele mechanics that are more complex than say a ranger or guardian.
Keep at it. Some professions are more complex, but that doesn’t make them bad. Just more involved, which imo is good.
If that was the case, the chances of getting a certain dye would increase as you “fill in” the other colors. Want to farm Abyss dyes and such to sell? Buy the less expensive rares until all that is missing is the expensive ones like Abyss, now every pack you open MUST give you a valuable rare dye because those are the only slots still open.
It’s an obvious and easy exploit. Don’t want to be at the mercy of RNG? Buy specific colors from the TP.
I don’t think that works. Do the Gem Store dye packs state that you won’t unlock a dye that you already know? Because I’ve definitely gotten dye drops that I already know. Not to mention that dye unlocks are per character. The dyes aren’t bound so you can sell them.
May I ask – what is the disdain for gear progression?
Because every other MMO has it. This game specifically does not. As a married 31yr old I don’t have the time to lead a guild or even rep one that requires weekly raid nights and nightly dungeon runs. I just don’t have the time nor the inclination to design my life and schedule around a game that I simply find fun.
To have gear progression means that is your goal, at all times. Your goal is simply to gear up. The goal is never to enjoy yourself…it’s to get the next tier of gear. To be on the forefront of that means running raids & dungeons constantly, min/maxing your characters, getting bounced from groups because you aren’t elite, etc. Gear progression fosters a type of gaming community with a single-minded focus on getting better gear. And unfortunately, that focus often is to the detriment of fun and casual playing.
My computer crashed in early December. Then we bought a house. I didn’t get my computer fixed until March. 3+ months without playing GW2 and you know what I missed? Wintersday. That’s it…a single holiday event that didn’t leave me behind in any kind of way. I logged in and just picked up where I left off, not feeling like I had lost 3 months of valuable gear progression grind.
The point of GW2 is to have fun (as it should be for all games, though sadly isn’t). As such, Anet made PvP & WvW available at level 2. They unlocked dungeons progressively as you level. Your characters auto-scale to match the zone, so the entirety of Tyria is always relevant. They tried to maximize the fun from start to finish. Unfortunately for you (and all players who crave gear progression) the finish line just looks different to you.
It took me a while to remember the original character select screen for GW1. Had to flip my mental rolodex quite a bit. I think they emulated Diablo 2’s character select screen at launch, but the newer one let us showcase each of our characters better.
GW2’s original login screen was fantastic. I remember the 1st time I logged in during the BWEs and was super stoked each time that dragon-2 slashed across the screen. Now it’s just a glorified list of links to the website…kinda lame. I mean, I understand the need to inform the players, but maybe bring back the old screen and just add a drop-down window with that stuff in it.
I’m thinking of buying it for convenience and the fun animation, which I saw last night. It’s pretty sweet, but I’m wondering if it’ll get annoying after prolonged use. It’s a fairly overt animation. Are there sound effects too that would make it annoying after prolonged use?
No way to use kit skills without having the kit equipped.
A full Retaliation build s not really viable for Engi. We have access to a few light fields and you can blast finish it. You can use elixir B and there’s a trait in Tools i think called Armor Mods that grants ret on crits or something. All in all, we have access to the boon, but I wouldn’t ever base a build around it as an Engi.
I have no issue with FT#1. Yes, it’s rough against retaliation, but so is every rapid firing attack. Pop ret on a thief and you’ll watch them burn themselves down too. It’s all about situational awareness.
FT#2 is great because you can pop it wherever you want. Aim for a group of 3 and 1 runs in front of you, I’m glad it doesn’t auto-pop on the 1.
FT#3 is a nice aoe cone pushback. Yes, it’d be nice to have it deal some damage but it’s a control skill.
FT#4 is the lackluster skill. If it set foes on fire longer it’d be amazing in conjunction with #1’s increased damage to burning foes.
FT#5 needs a wider range and a short smoke combo field.
I logged onto my engineer for the first time since the the patch who’s name must not be spoken…
..and I tried to build something useful.
First I tried to make a grenade build, but the damage kinda sucks, and targeting is a nightmare, and not having super elixir on KR is horrible.
So then it’s like, I’ll try turrets, but I need a kit for run speed, and I need elixir S for well.. everything! and that leaves me with one turret.. ]
One turret for a turret build…
…and then I thought “why do I torture myself with this crap,” and logged off.
Try harder.
Seriously.
You need a kit for constant speed…when you’re going to be posted up near your turrets anyhow? Regardless, there are other ways for speed other than Speedy Kits. Not to mention making new builds means you have to try something new. Drop your preconceived notions and start from ground up. These forums have plenty of new threads describing new builds that are working. Even turret builds. Sacrifices must be made in any build, whether it’s speed or condition removal, or stun breaks, etc. Just have to adapt gameplay to match.
The simplest solution, as I see it, would be to have your weapon still show as sheathed while a kit is active, and somehow provide an option to hide the Engineer backpacks.
^ ideally this.
It would only work however, with pistol/pistol. problem I see is that if you stow your legendary shield or rifle when you equip your grenade your kit, it will severely clip. You’ll see your shield and grenade pack mushed together.
I think it’s going to take a more complex fix. Something like:
- For P/P, stow weapons on hips as usual upon kit use
- For Rifle, use rifle skin in place of FT & EG skins; No change to FT & EG backpacks. Swap rifle to offhand carry (some sort of non-combat ready position) for non-FT/EG kits.
- For P/S, stow pistol but keep shield in offhand for non-FT/EG kits. Stow both weapons for FT & EG kits, with kit backpacks appearing on top of shield, not clipped through it.
All of this with an on/off toggle for Old v. Improved Engineer Kit mode.
Either way, the particle effects and footprints shouldn’t be lost upon kit use.
Looking down on someone for not showing perfect grammar in a MMO chat window is extremely arrogant in my opinion. Who cares if people aren’t perfect in chat? I’d rather make a couple of typos, skip “the” and not die rather than make sure to type perfectly in the middle of a dungeon, holding back progress.
That’s not really the point of this thread. Actually, it’s the opposite; should people who use periods at the ends of their chat sentences be seen as arrogant? Is proper grammar and punctuation a sign that someone is being arrogant? I think that notion is ridiculous.
Engineers now have a ‘kit slot’, where the second weapon slot is for most classes. They may place any kit here excepting the medical kit.
You mean instead of being able to equip kits in the 7-9 slots? If so, then an emphatic NO. What benefit would this serve? This would destroy multi-kitting just to be able to take…more elixirs or gadgets? I don’t understand this. Also, would you want the standard weapon-swap cooldown too? Cuz now you’re just nerfing the Engi for no reason. Please explain.
@Foofad – I agree with most of what you typed. However, I cannot agree with the presence of a period denoting an arrogance or finality in the tone of a message. The essence of casual typing, at least to me, is based on laziness and brevity. To use words such as “thru” and “u” are simply a result of typing quickly and only getting the message across. Also, many of these came about from the days of phone texting using the number keys to type.
I’m a fast typer and do a lot of it in a professional setting. As such, it’s 2nd nature to type with proper grammar and not use chat shortcuts. If I type through rather than thru it does not mean I’m pretentious or arrogant, simply that I don’t need to shorten my words to type quickly.
Also, I’ve never heard of periods being a factor when potraying tone in type. For that, I always thought one used exclamation marks or capitlization. A period is just what goes at the end of every sentence. I’m not trying to denote a moment of finality, simply that it’s my habit to end sentences with “period, space, space.”
But I think people complain there’s no end-game because Anet didn’t restrict things like dungeons, WvW, and PvP to having to be 80 to access it. You can do a lot of that at level 2 and dungeons are unlocked pretty quickly as you progress. Just because it’s accessible before max level (80) doesn’t mean there is no end-game content. Fractals I guess are the only true max-level content. But seriously, there’s a lot to do at all levels. And I think that’s great.
Wait, how is the TP’s restriction on selling above vendor price preventing you from moving your merchandise? Can’t you just sell it to a vendor? Or are you just looking for an easy way to clear your bags during a dungeon run?
