Guild Wars 2

Engineer with Super Speed and Rocket Boots can jump into either base. RB without SS won’t reach, traited Jump Shot won’t reach, not sure about Acid Bomb + SS, but I doubt it would reach. So basically you’d be stuck taking double gadgets, which won’t be good ever except for trolling, or rocket boots plus Tool Kit and Kit Refinement, which I could kinda see, but you’re still giving up Power Wrench or Leg Mods or Invig Speed/Prot Injection. Seems like an awful waste for a gimmick that won’t be useful more than once at most.

I’ll be buying it, if only for the specializations and new class. Should make things more interesting for a while, even if we’re still stuck with only the same stale dungeons.

Maybe someday…

Recently I’ve been getting (fairly) decent matchmaking, however this last match I had ~15 minutes ago on temple in unranked was filled with people who obviously did not know how to play (not watching minimap, double+ capping, double buff channeling, rushing into lost fights, etc). I waited over 6 minutes for the match too. I wouldn’t think there’d be population issues at 1PM on a tuesday in the US, but I guess so.

I’m kinda curious, how similar are the numbers from unranked and the numbers from ranked?

They didn’t mention dungeons or raids. With all the other stuff they hyped up, I’m thinking if they were adding any they’d have said so then. I’m betting none as well.

I’ve done this one dozens of times on my max height norn mesmer, it’s definitely not impossible (or even hard) once you know the JP.

I seriously doubt it has anything to do with GW2. We’ve been expecting ESO to move to F2P/B2P for ages already.

No, I was playing engineer, so it was probably those reserve mines applying vuln/burning as insanemaniac said.

This is what happens when I get bored and no one is around to dungeon with me.

On a related note, I’d like to know why I’m sometimes in combat on respawn, having to deal with the combat speed debuff when leaving base.

All you can do to keep them in the acid pool is immobilize or stun, mostly from net shot and supply crate. Glue bomb can be used as well if you’re running bomb kit, though I generally prefer saving it to ensure big ol’ bomb hits. Good players will not stay in acid bomb’s field for more than 2 ticks unless they’re trying to resurrect a downed ally, or stomp an enemy, but inexperienced players will likely stand it in longer. You can discourage melee foes from attacking you by standing in the middle of the field (useful vs thieves and warriors that have just switched into their melee sets) as well.

To cancel the leap on it, simply press your drop kit key (default ` ) after the channel completes. It can be a pain to cancel if you have a bad connection, but it’s worth practicing.

Assassin.7890:

Just a quick question:
The #3 skill of the E-gun cures conditions only from your teammates – right?
And could you more experienced engineers give me a brief insight of how to use the E-Gun and especially in which build?
Is it a strength/Precision weapon, or does it only make sense to take it in a condi setup?
Thank you in advance

Yes, Fumigate only cleanses conditions from allies. Super Elixir cleanses one from everyone in the field on creation, though.

The majority of the damage EGun deals is power based, coming from Acid Bomb on an immobile target. In a hybrid or power build you can get a ton of damage off on a downed body, and enemies that are attempting to res or stomp, because they will stay in the field for 3+ ticks. In PvE with the current meta dungeon build you can deal over 20k damage with all 5 ticks connecting. In PvP it’s a lot lower, but with a hybrid build you can still do 6k-9k damage on it to a target that stays in the field. That’s pretty strong considering it’s a good sized field that can hit up to 5 targets.

In condi builds, acid bomb does a lot less damage, and is more likely to be used for its blast finisher or as an escape than it is for damage (though the damage on downed bodies is still pretty good). The autoattack is bad from a damage prospective, and not really used in hybrid or power builds often, but can be useful in a condition build because it provides 2 cover conditions, making your burning harder to cleanse. It’s a bit faster and easier to land than pistol autoattack, too. That said, it’s inferior to other kits autoattacks when fighting multiple enemies due to being entirely single target.

Elixir F provides decent damage in hybrid/power builds, but is easy to avoid at anything but short range due to its slow movement. It’s not really a priority attack or anything.

Super Elixir is used both for the condi cleanse and the heal, a lot of which comes from the initial field creation, so be sure to hit whoever you want to heal with it initially. It provides a decent heal for standing in it as well, but remember that you will have to move outside the field to blast important combo fields like water fields. Note that you can place and overcharge your healing turret within the field, walk outside, and detonate for area healing, even though the turret will be inside the light field.

Also note that Acid Bomb can be used as an extra ~1k heal inside a water field, which your healing turret and its toolbelt skill can produce. You can hit F1, use acid bomb, and cancel the leap with ` for a quick heal. Practice canceling the leap portion of acid bomb so that you can use it for more than just an escape.

Technically, the ‘lowest cooldown stunbreak’ award goes to Mesmer’s Mantra of Concentration, when fully traited it provides 3x stun breaks with a 20s cd afterwards. After that comes war and ele at a simple 20s cd with traited “Shake it Off!” and traited Signet of Air, respectively. We come in 4th. None of those provide ridiculous escapes or CC as well, though.

I really don’t think there’s any point in taking EGun over slick shoes right now. SS has the superior escape, the superior stunbreak, and far superior offensive capabilities. About the only things EGun has going for it are its corpse cleave and heal/condi clear, which still won’t save you from high condi pressure. If stability was more prevalent in the current meta things would be different, but I don’t really see that changing anytime soon.

Elixir S is still great, but the roles it fills are mostly different from SS/EGun. Stealth opener damage is lovely, but having your only stun break on a 60s cd, and losing the ability to safe stomp and possibly losing a capture point because of it is not fun. I’ve taken to only running it in/versus comps where I think we’d need the safe stomps. I miss some of the clutch stealth plays, but I think the higher offensive capabilities on SS are still worth it.

Slick Shoes are definitely OP right now. I can cancel the self knockback on every other overcharged shot with super speed for some ridiculous burst, decimate any thieves/mesmers that have popped their blink, and still have super speed up to escape if things go south due to it recharging instantly at 25% HP. It’s a 4-6 second AoE chain knockdown in a meta without high stability uptime combined with the game’s best stunbreak. I’d say that’s definitely on the OP side. Super Speed needs a cooldown increase for sure, though I’d say put it at 38-40s instead of 45.

They’ve been like that for quite a while, and it has been mentioned a lot, so ANet has had ample time to fix them or at least comment on if that functionality was unintentional, but they have not done so. Interestingly enough, before that they were bugged and the 6th effect bonus never triggered at all. I don’t think the mini-pet effect trigger is going anywhere anytime soon.

If you’re going full zerker, without assassin’s pieces, Ranger Runes would be most beneficial for you. The ‘+7% damage with companion’ bonus activates when you have a mini out. If you plan on doing mostly open world/world boss stuff where your mini may be hidden due to population, you’d probably be better off with Flame Legion runes.

It’s ~12s with 6 in tools, and considering it gets the higher coefficient SD proc, it should be pretty kitten good in SD builds after this. Not to mention it pierces and could be used to interrupt multiple ressurectors at once. Its sounding pretty fun to play already.

2.25 coefficient on torch 4 on a 15s cooldown, with the added bonus of higher burning uptime for fiery wrath? Count me in.

That launch personal battering ram buff looks hilarious, at least. I wonder if the new throw mine will still scale up with forceful explosives. 300 radius AoE knockback sounds hilarious, and would cover most small capture points I think.

Eurantien.4632:

WE WANT STEADY WEAPONS BACK!

This would make testing coefficients so much easier for me.

Not sure if this suggestion has been posted here before, as I haven’t even read 10 pages of this thread, but I figured I might as well post it anyway.

My idea is for an item called a Trait Book Token, to be stored in the account wallet, which could be exchanged for trait books at a profession trainer. A small number of these tokens could be used to void either the skill point or the gold cost of purchasing a trait book, so as to satisfy both those who lack skill points and those who lack gold, or a larger number of the tokens could be used to void both the skillpoint and the gold cost of the book. These tokens would drop from champion bags, jumping puzzle and dungeon chests, PvP and WvW rank up chests, and various monsters.

Of course, the better solution would be to just revert to the old system, because gating traits discourages build experimentation and swapping, which is the last thing this game needs.

I have tried to explain it. Many times. And yet I’ve been called a noob nearly as many times for it, by players who proceed to lose because of it, sometimes getting sniped multiple times. It’s simple math. Assume you get both teams beasts killed at start, and then twice more after they respawn. Cool, 25 points x 6 kills = 150 points. That’s great. But it takes 500 points to win a game. Where are the other 350 points going to come from? If you hold 1 point through the whole game while doing that, chances are you’ve still lost, because the the enemy probably had a 2cap through most all of it. And yet I still get matched with these people. I’ve seriously considered afking when I get teams that go for beast at start and get sniped and lose mid, because the chances of winning with teammates like that has got to be way less than 5%…

FT isn’t a good main weapon for condition builds in PvP because the burning it gives outside of its toolbelt skill is applied at the end of its autoattack channel. It’s much better in power or hybrid builds, though, due to how good flame blast is. The reason it doesn’t see use isn’t because it’s a bad kit, but rather because we simply have better options. Grenade kit is just too good to give up for hybrid builds. That leaves FT as a secondary weapon to be switched into for CC/burst, and it’s certainly good at this. You can be very successful running celestial with nade/toolkit/FT. The question of why it isn’t often used, though, again comes to there being superior options available. In this case, Slick Shoes. SS is just too powerful to be missed, as it has very high synergy with rifle/celestial play. I think we’d see quite a bit more use of FT in hybrid builds if SS got nerfed a bit.

Are you asking from a PvE, WvW, or SPvP perspective?

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

so how do you deal with condition engineers?

Surefire? Another heavy condi class. Terrormancer, condi ranger, condi warrior can all destroy a condi engineer without too much effort. If you’re not into playing condi, you have to play a bit more careful. Engi is by far at its most dangerous at close range, and attempting to fight them alone 100% on point is a bad idea. If you’re on a build with a decent range option, use it. Condi engi can’t do kitten over ~700 range in a 1v1, grenades are very easy to avoid if you’re even half paying attention. Watch for them trying to close the gap and be ready to avoid the prybars and geomancy procs that are inevitably headed your way. If you have on demand condi removal, watch for incendiary powder procs and cleanse burning ASAP. You’ll win as long as you keep your distance and don’t eat any magnet+pry bar+geomancy+whatever combos to the face.

We also have boon strip on tossed elixirs when traited, not that anyone would ever use acidic elixirs though. Troll thread is troll thread, though.

If the engi can’t kill the ele before he reaches ~22-25 might, the engi gets forced off point or dies to burning+lightning whip damage. Ele wins by far in the sustain fight, unless you’re on a huge point like mid on foefire, in which case you can kite for dayz. Meta engi just doesn’t compare to ele in terms of sustain and condi clears, so you have to force the ele to pop cooldowns and then land a big burst if you want to win, before you lose the sustain fight.

Thanks, OP. I really needed that. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed that hard at a forum post.

It should drop every turret, and have them randomly select an enemy target and overcharge on spawn. These turrets should release reserve mines when they reach 25% HP. It should also spawn knockbacking mines around the turrets, as well as an oil slick effect and an acid bomb effect, with a big ol’ bomb in the center. It should also spawn a magnet bomb in the center on creation.

If you really want it to be more balanced though, also add a friendly Giganticus Lupicus spawn to it.

I’m assuming you mean the scepter/focus fresh air build? As far as I know, no one uses s/d in pvp.

You will have trouble with s/f eles though. A significant amount of your damage comes from projectiles, which they can nullify for ~8s total with swirling winds and magnetic wave, and kitten invulnerability on obsidian flesh. It isn’t a good matchup for celestial engi, and if they’re good and start out with all their major defensive skills off cooldown, chances are you’re going to lose. If you can burst them while they don’t have obsidian flesh, though, you shouldn’t have much trouble taking them down. When they put up swirling winds you’ll want to hit them with prybar and blunderbuss if possible. Try to watch their dodges, then set up a combo with magnet. If you have supply crate available, you can use it while they have swirling or magnetic wave up, then burst. The fight is a lot easier if you’re using Slick Shoes, as you can use overcharged shot followed by super speed to do a lot of damage or force them to use obsidian flesh or armor of earth. If possible, use Grenade Barrage inside their model while they’re immobilized or CC’d for huge damage.

As when fighting any fresh air ele, be wary of their gale + dragon’s tooth combo, and expect them to use phoenix when they try to get close to you quickly in fire. You can deny a lot of pressure by breaking line of sight, but if it means losing the point you’re fighting on, don’t do this unless you absolutely need it. When they’re in water or earth and at decent range away from you, you can strafe left to right repeatedly to cause their autoattacks to miss, denying them the crit necessary to recharge air attunement.

You should be adapting to the needs of your team. 1up small fights to finish them quickly, even out large fights, peel for allies, and focus squishies down. If you can safely decap a node without risking your team losing a teamfight, do so. If the enemy is stupid enough, let them 1v1 you on a point you own.

When facing less bursty combos you can hold 1v2 on a point you own until help arrives, but some combos you will be unable to take the pressure from, and will either have to escape the fight or die on node if escape is not possible.

You should CC enemies that are attempting to stomp or res whenever possible, and apply heavy AoE pressure on corpses when not possible. If you are running elixir s, stomp enemies in larger teamfights. Res allies if possible, but do not attempt to res under heavy pressure.

If you are under pressure on a point with an ally that can fight on point, kite off point and attempt to break LoS, heal up, then move back. Similarly, if the other player on the point needs to move off of it, move onto the point so he/she can do so. You have the ability to pressure a (smaller) point from far off, do so if possible, then pick off low hp targets with CC and burst.

You are most effective in smaller fights and 1v1s, but can still provide good pressure and spike in larger team fights. Just don’t attempt to stand on small points like clocktower on khylo in 4v4/5v5 situations if at all possible.

Remember that you are faster than many builds, so you should leave fights that are already won and move on to the next fight, leaving an ally that can stomp the remaining downed enemies safely to fully capture the point. Just don’t attempt to leave any berserker players or low health players to do this.

Preferably, you should always be moving between and winning fights, and not sitting on a point with no enemies around, but if the enemy has good/multiple thieves or other very mobile professions that are proficient at decapping, you may need to do so.

Do not attempt to hold 1v3 for any amount of time. Do not run into any lost fights unless absolutely necessary. You are not helping by turning a 2v4 into a 3v4, or a 3v5 into a 4v5, and are of better use elsewhere. Do not fight 1v1s on points the enemy holds, unless you are facing a spec that you know you can force off point quickly for the decap, like a mesmer or thief.

TL;DR: Do lots of stuff.

Edit: Formatting

I’ve been doing dailies for 2 accounts since the update, in less than an hour for both. I too am still alive.

General: For the harder hitting groups of mobs that you’re not skipping, bring bomb kit for smoke bomb, and throw a flash grenade after the second pulse or so if necessary. Consider using Supply Crate to stun the more deadly groups like the wolves in p1/3 or the groups of berserker’s in p2/3.

P1: Remember to cleanse crippled off of others when skpping past the hunters before troll if you’re not stealthing past. If your group does not have a thief or mesmer, you can retrait slightly and act as a defiance stripper and interruptor at troll to keep his leap interrupted. Remember to dodge any stun projectiles he aims at you if possible. For Aldus, you can help with reflect chaining with Toss Elixir U to block his autoattack and lessen pressure on your team. After Aldus, you can provide stealth for your team for an easier skip through the trapped hallway. For Ginva, remember that you can easily kill yourself from retaliation if you use grenade or flamethrower autattacks, so either keep the retal totem down as much as possible, or switch to bomb kit when it’s up. His projectile attack can be reflected, but just that won’t allow you to stay in melee range all the time if you have aggro, because his swing auto does so much damage. Remember that his melee auto also has a ridiculously large arc, and if you’re not directly behind him or out of range you’re going to get hit. When he goes into whirling, you should get up close to him (just out of range of his whirling) and use bomb auto for damage.

P2: Remember to blind trash mobs up to Torn Fur and after Balgren. At Balgren, remember that you can dodge his fear by dodging back during its chargeup animation and moving back afterwards, as it has a relatively short range. You can provide stealth to skip the ice fish after Andal (stealth just prior to entering the water). For Wollam, use traited bomb kit as your main damage source. Grenades suck underwater and will hardly hit unless you’re inside the enemies model, so if you must range use elixir gun autoattack. Remember to use speargun’s hardhitting skills whenever possible at close range.

P3: For Svanigandr, be sure to dodge his leap. Max melee if possible, but stay mid range with grenades if not. There are 2 ice bombs in the room you can clear quickly with grenades prior to starting the fight. You can provide stealth for skipping the elites after killing him. Remember to blind the elites before and at Fimbul. If you want some laughs, bring Toss Elixir U for him, as his 3 knockback circles attack can actually be reflected. You can provide stealth for skipping the jellies and whatnot underwater before Sorge. Start your stealth rotation standing on top of the barrel floating next to the stairs. For Sorge, try to blind the adds he summons (esp the jellies) to mitigate damage. Remember that you can rally off them if necessary.

By pushing far at start alone you are risking a 3v4 at mid if your enemy split 1-4-0, and if they’re not premade, chances are they did. That 3v4 isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’ll only last the ~25 seconds or so it takes whoever your team sent home to back them up. The problems arise when either the 3 you sent mid are not tanky enough to survive 3v4 until backup arrives, which is always a risk in unorganised groups as you generally don’t have an idea what everyone is running and how squishy they are, or if the 4 your enemy sent to mid are able to coordinate a high enough burst to kill one of your 3 quickly at mid, sealing the fight in their favor. This is again a risk because you don’t always know how many dps or how high burst the enemy team will have.

There is also the risk of the enemy sending 2 to their home, including one dps, who will likely be able to finish you off before your home defender reaches mid to turn it into a 4v3, ending in a 4v5 mid with you on respawn.

TL;DR: Risky kitten in PUGs. Chances are you’re screwing over your team somewhere by doing it.

How about “Kill X Profession” instead? Or play/win a game on map x.

It makes matchmaking a whole lot worse. Profession stacking is not fun, especially when it’s likely those players don’t even play that profession often.

As long as I continue to get people on my team who don’t even look at the minimap to see whether someone on our team is already capping a point before going to it, matchmaking will continue to be broken in my book.

Gr8 matchmaking ANet

Right here mate.

My last match had 4 people capping home. I have over 1.5k ranked matches played, please never, ever, put me with people like this. The 4v5s I can stand. Long waiting times I can stand. But this kitten is too much. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to stop pvping for good.

Had a 3v4 earlier, and a 4v5 a match or two before that. Sooo much fun.

-edit- And another 4v5, this time vs a full team.

I just had a match that ended 3v4 on Temple. My side was winning for the first 90% of the game, then all of a sudden I notice the rest of my team is nowhere to be found. The hell’s up with that? 4v5s I understand, but how in the kitten do you actually end up with a 3v4 in a rated match?

I’ll run some more tests tomorrow and get a larger sample size for damage #s for each skill, see if the results match up. I had some annoying interference while testing earlier (namely some guy nearby using “For Great Justice” while attacking another golem), so more data will be nice.

It seems Incendiary Ammo’s proc hits within the ~130 range, Mine Field hits within the ~240 range (while detonate mine field hits in the ~130), Toss Elixir B hits within the ~240 range, Toss Elixir H 240, Rocket Kick 240, Launch Personal Battering Ram 240, Super Speed 130, Analyze 130, Big ol’ Bomb 240, Toss Elixir C 240, Toss Elixir R 240, Toss Elixir U 240, Bandage Self 240, Rocket 240, Detonate Rocket Turret 130, Toss Elixir S 240, Detonate Healing Turret 130, Throw Napalm 240, Net Attack 240, Detonate Flame Turret 130, Detonate Net Turret 130, Static Shock 240, Detonate Rifle Turret 130, Rumble 240, Detonate Thumper Turret 130.

Basically, there are 2 different categories of SD procs:

The first, and most common, hits between ~200 and ~245 on a heavy golem with base power.

The second hits between ~105 and ~135. For any skill with 2 toolbelt skills, the second will fall in this category (detonate turrets, detonate mine field). Skills that are instant cast also fall in this category, including Surprise Shot, Incendiary Ammo, Healing Mist, and Super Speed.

It sucks that all instant proc skills are in the second category. If Surprise Shot and Analyze weren’t, SD builds would be more competitive.

Just did some quick testing in HotM with 0/0/0/0/2, and runes/sigils with no +power or +precision as to get more consistent numbers (WTB steady weapons). The Static Discharge proc from Surprise Shot is definitely doing less damage than procs from grenade barrage, throw wrench, and regenerating mist. On the heavy golem, the Surprise Shot SD procs consistently hit between 115 and 145, while the other SD procs consistently hit between 200 and 240 on the same golem. I’ll test some other skills and see if I can find any other outlier procs.

Has it really been 7 months since bingo started? Wow.

I’ll just leave this here….

A revert on the trait system would make a lovely wintersday present, ANet. If the gold sink is still needed, I’d gladly take increased waypoint costs or repair fees or whatnot over this. The ‘new’ system discourages build experimentation, which is very unhealthy for the game.