Guild Wars 2

You can’t crit on practice dummy. At least I haven’t seen any crits there and I’ve had a 50% build before.

Practice dummies are considered objects, and you can’t crit on objects.

Is the Stability boon that you gain from the Juggernaut side of Elixir X removable? I swear I’ve been nabbed by immobilize and stun effects while in giant kitty mode.

As an aside, I think that the Juggernaut shouldn’t change your skills but just give you increased power, vitality and Stability for the duration of the elixir instead of switching your skills out with melee.

Utility Goggles are actually fine. I don’t think they need a change at all.

Blindness immunity is a tiny perk, ensuring that your Fury isn’t completely wasted. If you combine Utility Goggles with its toolbelt skill, it makes for a very mean comeback.

I agree with needing to change Always Prepared.

If someone doesn’t have EG or FT in their skill slots, they really don’t want to use them. The ones that already use them don’t need them. This makes Always Prepared’s main use pretty much useless. Perhaps Always Prepared could give us . . . . I dunno . . a set of aoe proximity mines instead of a FT or an EG drop. THAT would be more helpful.

Like Zenguy said, a single turret drop (with a knock back, of course) would be useful for one of our downed states.

The problem with 409 is that half of those 7-9 single condi wipes (wipe isn’t really the right word to use) need to be aimed, which can mean that you can miss the AOE and not remove the condition.

If they make it like HGH then the condi removal of 409 would be more potent. I don’t mind the thrown elixirs removing only one condition. I just want 409 to be a little more powerful.

This should be stickied so devs can monitor the feedback on this interview thread.

With Net and Rocket Turrets, EG, and Harpoon Gun you can one-on-one players well in the water. Use 3 to pull people into range of your Rocket and Net Turrets when get to far away.

When they are netted, use your #2 and #4 shot from harpoon. Acid Pool a netted target if you can, but don’t risk it if you don’t have to – that’s a good escape and you don’t need to duck into melee range like that.

Don’t forget to use overcharged net and turrets to stun people and knock them around.

I think that devs thought these three things would balance out the engineer’s ability for kits.

1. The ability to swap between kits and weapons quickly.
2. Kit damage is (now) consistent with exotic weapon damage.
3. The engineer also gets an extra minor ability in the form of a toolbelt with his kit

What the devs thought was wrong, though. Hopefully they have new thoughts about kits now.

Well, in old EQland, you would see plenty of monsters doing the conga as they chased a poor character afraid for his life.

But in that game, you never got to hear the monsters’ singing over the player’s scream of “TRAIN!”

Destroyer.1306:

Well, I’ve been stacking 25 Precisions plus Flame, and then switching to Force plus Flame (or Night plus Flame at night). After rereading the Strength in /wiki, I’m wondering if I should be switching to Strength plus Flame. As a static discharge GC Grenadier, I get a lot of crits every attack.

You don’t want Strength plus Flame, as the one CD resets both CDs. If your Flame procs before your Strength, then you have a 5 second CD on both. The same goes for when you mixing weapon swap and proc-on-crit sigils.

That’s true, Yams. And if you are doing it that way, having two runes of Strength or Fire along with Alchemy will up your Might stacks to 30 seconds (or 34 if you pack both 2-rune sets!) instead of just 20 seconds.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Sporadicus.1028:

Technically, you can affect someone up to three times with the Coated Bullets trait on a #1 auto attack. The affected person has to be in between two other people, though.

1st hit is from the AOE of the bullet hitting the person in front of the affected person.
2nd hit is from the bullet hitting the affected person.
3rd hit is from the AOE of the bullet hitting the person behind the affected person.

In other words, we are the bane of conga lines everywhere.

PRECISELY!

I think that Strength would be better than Bloodlust. One stack of Might nets you 35 extra power and condition per stack (which is double damage bonus for engineers), while bloodlust only gives you 10 power per stack.

The temporary bonus is much better than the permanent bonus. Not to mention anytime you go down, you lose all stacks that you gained through your fights.

With FT out (And the Juggernaut major trait active) you should be able to maintain 10 stacks of bloodlust, which nets you 350 power and condition extra, while the most that Bloodlust will give you is only 250 power.

If you want Might to last longer, grab two runes of Strength. This will boost your Might duration, netting you more benefits and higher constant Might stacks.

Technically, you can affect someone up to three times with the Coated Bullets trait on a #1 auto attack. The affected person has to be in between two other people, though.

1st hit is from the AOE of the bullet hitting the person in front of the affected person.
2nd hit is from the bullet hitting the affected person.
3rd hit is from the AOE of the bullet hitting the person behind the affected person.

I would change Napalm (#4) to a ring fire-type combo field instead of a line. That or make it so that if FT’s Flame Jet crossed through Napalm’s combo field line, you would get an extra 2 seconds of burning.

If you want to change FT’s Flame Jet burn, the only way to do it is to add a full 1 second burn somewhere in the middle. I would say have it apply a 1 second burn on the 5th and 10th hits instead of just on the last hit.

#2, despite its problems with obstructions, is good for an opener. It rolls out just a little farther than the cone and to watch it crit is very satisfying.

Napalm, in my eyes, should be a circle of fire, just like the elementalist. I know that the reason why they made it a line is for recognition. Screw that. Give us the circle!

FT does damage to up to 3 enemies within the cone along with a 1 second burn at the end. Add the burn together with the total FT damage makes it higher than the 2.7k damage.

No. The Grandmaster FT trait in Firearms only gives you a flat 200 Toughness. For a 2000 Defense build, this reduces damage by 5% (Since doubling existing defense halves the damage at the prior defense level).

Not just that, but they lie completely. I had a rare weapon and I switched over to my FT. FT’s weapon value was less than the rare weapon, and rare two levels below the highest rarity (Legendary is what I’m assuming is the highest rarity).

Coglin responded to my #5 EG post:

Needs more ? Light field, AoE condition removal, AoE heal, and you claim it needs more? This is what makes it hard to portray to the devs what they need to fix. Posters even complain about our really good abilities.

This is a good ability that could be made better, even equal to some other classes’ abilities.

The change to #5 Super Elixir that I recommended is simply to combine all the healing up front instead of making it so a player has to stay in the large area (yes, it is rather large). The condition removal remains and light field remains, and you get a base upfront heal of just under 2k instead of the measly tick of 340 initial and 140 per second.

Coglin also commented about my #2 Elixir F post:

I think the range is fine. When I first read this, I thought you were insane. The skill debuffs cripple in an AoE and buffs swiftness in an AoE, I am sorry, but this much utility, while still doing damage is alot.

My recommended increase wouldn’t increase the initial range effect, but the bouncing range. I think the increased travel speed and bouncing range (AFTER it hits someone) seems reasonable to me. This would not increase damage or any effects.

Coglin responded to my EG#1 Tranquilizer Dart post:

Weakness is a very powerful debuff. You cannot reasonable add alot of damage without throwing balance off. Secondly, it has better bleed duration then explosive shot. In my opinion, I can agree with evaluating traits for it though.

Weakness does reduce non-crits to 1/2 damage (50% chance) and reduces endurance regen. Is it that effective in either play? NPCs rarely dodge, so you’re getting half effect out of that. And there are a lot of crit builds in PvP, so you’ll get maybe 1 out of 4 shots (and probably none from high crit builds) to be 1/2 damage, while reducing their endurange regen. Players get full effect from the endurance reduction effect, though. So this effect works in both sides, but was one I rarely noticed.

If we decide on a trait buff, what about making it +2 bleed stacks traited?

Coglin also said about my #4 EG Acid Pool improvement:

The ability is great, asking for an immobilize as well is irrationally gready. This is why it is hard to take a vast majority of complaining or improvement discussion seriously in my opinion. You guys always want to fix what isn’t broken instead of working on what really is. Just my opinion.

It’s not just about fixing what is working, it’s about making it so it’s competitive. Acid Pool does do two things: It’s an escape (you jump back quite a bit if unhindered) and it does a good amount of damage per tick of damage. Usually you’ll get 1 tick of damage out of it. I see at most 2 ticks. ManCaptain brought up a good counterpoint. What about making the radius bigger instead of adding an immobilize? Make it 240 instead of 180 radius. Immobilize is a big buff, so I understand Coglin’s response to this.

Coglin responded to my EG #3 Fumigate recommendation:

Agreed, the aiming issues direly need a solution, and compared to the range of the other skills, it doesn’t fit in my opinion as well.

If this alone gets fixed, it will vastly improve the capability we have with this weapon.

Back off my soapbox

I’m hearing that people are saying that alchemy doesn’t make someone feel like an engineer.

Alchemist = Chemical Engineer

’Nuff said.

Enough of me being an kitten, I’ll post IAW the OP’s request.

Last time I felt like an Engineer was when . . . Well, I really felt like an engineer when I got my first turret. It was helpful and it let me go about setting up fights.

Since the OP didn’t give detailed hate on the Elixir Gun, I’ll post my rant about it here.

EG seems like its attacks are all over the place. It seems like they wanted it to be a keep away/condition application weapon and a healing/condition removal weapon. Not a bad idea. But the biggest problem is the way they put this together.

• Skill #1Tranquilizer Dart has good range but needs more power behind its bleeding effects. The duration and rate of fire isn’t good for one bleed stack. Add another stack (or even two more if traited) to the bleed and it might work.

• Skill #2 Elixir F is a good concept, slowing enemies while speeding you up. Problem? It’s SLOW and the bounce doesn’t move far enough. The travel time on this is 2 seconds at long range, which means a person escaping can easily move beyond the range and cancel the attack. My advice: Reduce the travel time and increase the bounce effect range.

• Skill #3 is the most baffling of skills. I understand the idea behind it: A mixed support/attack skill. I’ll address them as two different skills. Support : As a support skill, it’s alright. . . .except that it suffers the same aiming problem as FT’s Flame Jet. Attack : As an attack . . . .WTF, mate? Do you REALLY want a keep away weapon to have a skill that you have to be ON TOP OF THE ENEMY for it to be effective?!? Skill #3 solution? Make it a long range blast. Let it hit one person and cause a long duration poison application (or remove a condition) to all within a certain distance of that person.

• Skill #4 Acid Pool actually works for what it does, and does better than Overcharged Shot in the keep away game. It’s a keep away that punishes melee users. But I think it could add something else. Give the acid pool a 1-2 second immobilize effect.

• Skill #5 Super Elixir : This one is useful, but it needs more in my eyes. The need to stay in a (rather large) circle to get small ticks of healing more or less makes this fairly difficult to use. I think it should be an up front heal (with the single condition removal) that leaves a Light Field behind.

Stepping off my soapbox now. Have fun!

Good thread.

This makes SS very good for ranged fights.

Doesn’t the block ability of Static Shield drop when it discharges?

Toss Elixir S, from what I’ve seen, are meant to be escape, mobility, or getaway buffs.

If you Toss Elixir S and you get stealth, then people can’t target you. Stealth helps in that it breaks target and prevents further targeted damage until the end of the duration.

If you Toss Elixir S and you get Stability, people can’t CC you. No CC means that you can move to your heart’s content.

But in the concept they are completely different. If you need something to get you out of CC, Stealth won’t help you. If you need something to make people break target on you, Stability won’t help you.

The initial idea is vaguely similar in that they can both apply getaway/defense concepts, but they are completely different in the way they do it. For a person using strategy, this is a poor ability to use.

I actually like Backpack Generator for what it does.

The positive:

It’s a steady, unlimited source of regen that can’t be removed by anything.

It can be stacked with many other forms of healing and regen. (EG’s pulse heal, Regen boons, Dolyak rune 6-piece)

The negative:

It’s not affected by any +healing stats.

It’s a small tick. (125 every second means only 1250 every 10 seconds and 7500 every minute).

I enjoy the positives quite a bit. If you can get an enemy off you, you can stack two to three forms of healing on you and come back quickly.

Probably not good to have two different proc sigils on your weapons. Sigil of Earth and Battle will trigger each other’s cooldowns.

Sigil of Earth’s tested CD may be only 2 seconds, but that’s a 2 second window that can affect whether you get your 3 stacks of might for swapping in/out of your kits. This probably cancels out your ability to stack might with weapon swapping. If you want something more reliable, I would either go with +ability stack on kill (Bloodlust, Life, Luck, etc.) or Accuracy/Force sigils.

Sigil of Earth doesn’t do much without any benefits to it. A bleed every 2 seconds for 5 seconds isn’t that great, especially if you don’t have any +% condition duration. If you want something to compliment it, I recommend either Frailty (Vuln on crit; good for groups) or Strength (Might on crit) where both have a tested CD of 1 second.

I do find it interesting that Engineers are the only class that don’t get a melee selection for their base weapon.

Sure, we get Tool Kit, but shouldn’t we also get a melee choice for bae weapons? I won’t talk about what melee weapon we should get because none of them really meet our class (even hammer).

RNG is only fair if all players experience it.

Examples: Card Games, the Risk boardgame, Axis and Allies

In this game only the engineer experiences RNG normally (there is RNG with procs, but that’s something everyone experiences).

When a player has RNG abilities versus another player who doesn’t, then the player without RNG abilities has a better chance of surviving because he 100% knows what his abilities will do at any given tine.

The engineer, when he uses his elixirs, does NOT 100% know the outcome of those elixirs. The engineer suffers as a result of that RNG.

An online MMO, if it features competitiveness (in PvE or PvP) should not have RNG in the base build of a class.

The engineer’s RNG on elixirs should be revamped, even if it might mean some abilities might be lessened a little. This at least gives us the ability to know exactly what an ability’s base skill will do.

All classes are made to be PvP and PvE. There are skills and traits that are better used in either, but players learn to create builds and fine tune them to make them more viable for certain situations.

WvW, sPvP, and PvE are all different situations, and require every class to act differently.

(Edited because I’m too much of an kitten in forum posts)

I’ve been reading a certain manga lately, and I think I’ll do this once.

When a warrior tosses down a banner, Imma run up and grab it.

Then I’m gonna swing it around and yell -

[b]SHIIIIN-PAKU! SHIIIIN-PAKU!!!! SHIIIIN-PAKU

Who’s with me?

And who recognizes this reference?

Let’s make this official with a LOTR knock-off.

“You have my Flamethrower.”

“And my Tool Kit.”

“And my Elixir Gun.”

“And my Gadgets!”

“And my Grenades!”

(By the way, this is my request for an invite!)

I thought my MONSTER TRUCK ANNOUNCER VOICE would inspire furry engineers to use the CHARRZOOKA more often.

My engie may be scratching at fleas and sweating profusely during the summer, but he sure does look awesome when he carries his charrzooka.

(Note: You might wanna read this aloud in the voice of the most awesome MONSTER TRUCK ADVERTISEMENT ANNOUNCER!!!!)

If you’re a Charr, you could be a 4-kit engie and wield an awesome CHARRZOOKA!

You’d have your stun-break getaway ability and be able to shoot out MONSTER ROCKETS OF DOOM!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Watch as you ’nade them into submission then humiliate them with a SUPER ROCKET BARRAGE!

Seriously, the only thing devs can do to make the Charrzooka more awesome is to substitute one of the attacks (not sure which one) with a baseball swinging CHARRZOOKA TO THE FACE!!!

So. . . . end the announcer talk . . . Charrzooka anyone?

Tool kit isn’t that bad, but I believe that since our kits take up a utility slot they need to be slightly enhanced versions of the weapons they resemble.

The shield side of Tool kit is enhanced. We have the fastest CD block in the game with this kit, traitable to 16 seconds. Magnet is a great compliment, but should have a faster activation time. Having you stand there for a full second (or up to a second and a half) is pretty much ridiculous.

The weapon side of Tool Kit is okay, but it should do more (reason already said above).

Adding vulnerability to the first two swipes doesn’t do much. Sure, it adds 2% damage for 6 seconds, and if you could cancel out of the third hit it would make this attack amazing. But ANet won’t do that. What we need is a buff to the third strike. It doesn’t have to add to damage, but what we engies really want is damage. It could be a stun, a weakness, or even a 1s of . . . quickness.

1s of quickness can be very advantageous, and I would see it being worth the windup that our third strike costs. You can use it to combo into other kits. A 2 1/2 second FT Flame Jet becomes a 1 second flame jet, poison pistol shots cycle faster, and fumigate can remove boons and apply conditions much quicker. Or you can just apply it to the next round of wrench blows to make your strikes do more. Keep this boon up and you are applying more vulnerability more often, which means your attacks cause 10-15% more damage twice as fast.

Our box of nails needs to drop faster. This whole showy thing of “I’m raising my hand” needs to go. Give it a 1/2 second activation time.

Prybar. . . .Actually I think Prybar does well for what it does. Maybe, and a big maybe, add 1 or 2 more stacks of confusion.

This is my idea for improving Tool Kit.

While we’re on the subject (and since I can’t reach my computer because I’m at work), what are the toolbelt skills for all the racial traits? For now I’ll settle with knowing what the Hidden Pistol toolbelt skill is.

However, if people go the extra mile, they’ll be rewarded with seeing an extra happy bullcat.

. . . that didn’t sound right. Oh well.

Part of the reason for Traits is to specialize yourself in a certain thing. And in GW2 it’s much cheaper to shift your traits around than in any other game. When out of combat, you can simply switch major traits.

The way GW2 has it now, it already tries to group some kit traits together traits together. Bombs and grenades (explosives), EG and FT, pistol/rifle, and . . .well, tool kit is by itself. If they continue to make traits like that, then the engineer is sure to fail.

What the engineer needs is actually a way to make his kits shine. These GM trait ideas I’ve offered are designed to do just that. If put 30 points in two different lines, then you can shift to two kit specializations on the fly.

I’m still waiting for ideas for bombs and grenades.

. . . that you pull out your FT and just start roasting critters?

Responding to GoZero’s post:

I agree the actual FT needs to be buffed. Smoke vent would be more helpful if its CD were reduced by at least 5 seconds. But we also need the radius increased. If they fix #2’s obstruction problem, then it will be much better.

On the subject of the Wrench #1, it applies Vulnerability on the first two swings, which (if you keep attacking) can increase your damage by 6%. The other mace attacks do nothing on their first and second swings. I’m not saying this is enough, but our wrench does have an effect when you attack with it.

ANet: I’m not a noob MMO dev. Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome? I nerfed your class 35 minutes ago.

- Watchmen

If Engineer’s Wrench auto-attack acts just like the Warrior’s Mace, then it’s in line with the Mace.

I really haven’t paid attention to the other melee weapon combos, but it seems like the warrior’s mace has the same activation time and delivers the same damage. Only difference is that you can stack 6 seconds of vulnerability x 2 with the first two strikes. It’s not much, but you can stack 6 of them (or more) if you keep attacking.

I’d rather have this attack than the Warrior’s 3-strike combo.

HGH is a two-edged blade, as you start wanting to use the elixir more for the double-might than for the tactical use of the Elixir. You pop your defensive elixir just for the extra 35 damage, then a few seconds later realize that you now need it.

The best two Elixirs to use for this are U and B, as they are already offense based.

If you are using the runes to extend Might duration, a Sigil of Strength works well if you use FT often enough. With a high enough crit (about 35-40%) FT allows you to get crits multiple times a second, which increases the use of this Sigil.

There’s also the foods Ghost Pepper Popper and Roasted Artichoke, which (during the day) gives you a 40/36% chance of Might (5 sec) on crit, or (during the night) gives the opponent Chill (1 sec).

I agree that Smoke Vent needs some improvement. I would love for it to have a larger radius and/or a longer duration. This is before my mentioned traited ideas would come into effect.

Our Tranquilizer Darts should at least get a double bleed instead of being the same bleed as pistols.

I actually wonder what’s going through the heads of the devs who are dealing with the engineer problems.

Yes, kits are affected by stats. However, when you put a kit on you lose all the benefits of stats of a weapons, yet sigils still provide bnefites.

I like that you can toss a net at someone from your belt to immobilize them, then toss another net at them with the turret right after they break free.

I might have to use that with the tool kit’s magnet as a “You’re not getting away!” combo. After you’ve successfully kept them from running away with net shot and net turret (and the overpower stun!), you’ll want to get them back into the crowd. A magnet pull would be a perfect addition! If you really want to make them feel like they can’t get away, pull them toward you then dodge to their other side and push them farther back with the pistol/shield #4 push ability.

Exactly my point.

Not reliably, anyway. Elixir S can be tossed for Stability or Stealth, but . . . Well, it’s an RNG.

I’ve been using EG, Tool Kit, and Goggles along with Pistol/Shield. EG is good for its getaway, and fumigate applies vulnerability which can be further amplified with the goggles toolbelt.

I actually use backpack generator for a little more healing that’s independent of boons. Combined with EG’s SE and its regen toolbelt skill, this does give you good healing.

I am 0/30/0/30/10, but I might switch to 0/20/0/30/20 to take advantage of kit refinement and power wrench or static discharge, as well as add another 10% crit damage.

Low health response creates a regen boon. If you already have the regen boon active, the trait’s activation will stack duration with it. You’ll get two different forms of healing if you have backpack generator and low health response active.

The Dev’s biggest problem is what Aydenunited said. They have to figure out how to make our kits effective without being powerful.

Like I said before, when we choose a kit we get 5 extra skills plus a minor effect that we can trigger. They have to make the toolbelt skills similar to the utility skill, either in theme or in effect (Goggles’ vulnerability is an example of theme, while EG’s regen cloud is an example of similar effect). They also have to balance the effectiveness of the toolbelt skill. This is done both in the effect of the toolbelt skill and its cooldown., and in Elixirs’ cases a random effect.

Reducing a toolbelt skill’s cooldown increases the frequency of the effect. For toolbelt skills with already low CDs, a second or two reduction can increase the power considerably.

Increasing the effect can be done in a number of ways: range, AOE, power, duration of effect, etc. This is a more complicated side to adjustment, some having a smaller effect than others.

The toolbelt skills can’t be equal to or better than other class’ normal utility skill because they are extra skills we receive in addition to our kits and normal skills. The kits can’t have all 5 skills that are each equal to or better than a normal utility skill.

It’s gonna take some time to balance engineers out, and since it was the last class to be focused on it is judged versus all other classes.

Knives vs Guns!