Guild Wars 2

I gotta agree with you there, Tigirius. Engineers shouldn’t have damage (condition or otherwise) reduction on their kits just because we can swap our kits faster than others.

Edit: I was thinking that someone was referring to a signet that gives 50% endurance on swap, not a sigil. I spent about a half hour looking through the Wikis for that nonexistent signet.

I’ll drop the whole Elixir R talk. That was rubbish.

Elixir R actually isn’t that bad. Yes, it eats up a slot just like the signet does, but it doesn’t mess up the rhythm of an engineer’s play like a ranger would have to do to get a free dodge.

A ranger loses the ability to swap back to his favored weapon for 8-9 seconds in order to get 50% endurance. This can throw a player’s rhythm off balance, while the engineer can keep chugging with whatever kit or pistol/rifle he is using.

As for the 5-point Tools Trait, I think it’s about equal to the +50% recharge trait. If you look, traits that don’t require manual activation give lower amounts (the ele vs eng +% dmg per boon trait is an strange anomaly) than traits that are subtle and don’t require manual action.

The reason why the Grandmaster Tools talent isn’t stronger is that combined with the 5-point trait and the 15-point trait you have a lot more ways to gain endurance than a ranger would. To make this trait any more powerful would make the Engie able to dodge indefinitely and make him an OP troll-eng.

As a Charr eng, I switch between Supply Drop and Warband Call.

Warband is pretty useful for me as they are extra damage with effects (the sword/shield warrior acts like the vet guards by throwing bolas and charging an enemy).

Supply Drop is VERY useful with the initial stun plus bandages and turrets. Traited, it’s hard to beat as an Elite.

Fenrir Bartea.5917:

Due to changes with my internet service provider I’ve been “commanding” without my tag on a lot lately (hate to disconnect and have everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off). I’ve found that, without that blue tag looming over my head, people are a lot more willing to offer their often helpful suggestions rather than just go with what I say. I’ve actually learned a few new tricks this way.
So yeah, definitely try and earn respect and show leadership skills now before you have your tag, you’ll learn a lot from people as you go along.

I like what you do. But after group has agreed to follow, would it be best to turn the signet back on so other people can and will follow you and your team to the objective?

ANet is obviously having a LOT of trouble due to the way they’ve configured their systems.

I doubt the orbs will ever return. If they do, hackers will find new ways to grab them. The orbs weren’t worth it anyway as they would make an already powerful server even more powerful and harder to kill.

If you are bored, go check out other servers on lower tiers. There’s still time to return to your server for free . . . for now.

I’ve never played Dark Age of Camelot, but is (was?) that game closer to GW2’s WvW idea than RvR from Warhammer?

The boon only gives you a 50% recharge rate, which is a 7.5% FLAT regen rate, which reduces the time for another dodge to every 7 seconds. We can boost recharge our endurance with 5 points if we wanted to. This is like an “in case of emergency, here’s a free dodge” at 5 points instead of “In case of emergency, wait just a little shorter than normal.”

They also took into consideration that we have the choice to have an nigh-infinite source of vigor and swiftness through traits, AND have the choice of an elixir that can refill your endurance fully.

This part was thought through.

Not just that but grab the might/chill chance on crit food, which has no internal CD.

If you hit 3 people with all 10 attacks of FT, that’s 30 hits in 2 seconds. With a 33% crit chance, you get a probability that 10 of those will crit in 2 seconds. Of that 4 of them could proc might/chill.

4 stacks of might (5 seconds though it is) every 2 seconds in addition to any other might-stacking traits/skills you have already.

. . . IF you have 3 guys you’re attacking with all 10 attacks of the FT.

Dog face.9253:

So you think a grandmaster trait is just equal to a minor (and it just need 5 point!) is fine ? We really need some fix about our Adrenal Implant.

If you combine them together, the Engie traits for endurance regen far outweigh the endurance regen traits for the Ranger, both subtle (5-point and 15-point traits) and active (+50% endurance regen rate).

As for the post about a ranger signet having a +50% endurance on weapon swap: We have an elixir that breaks stuns AND gives 100% endurance back.

Consider the fact that engineers also get 10% endurance back with every use of a toolbelt skill as a 5-point trait. This allows us to compete with the 50% bonus.

In addition to the 5% recharge per second you get as normal endurance recharge, you also get 10% with toolbelt skill use. Rangers get a 7.5% fixed endurance recharge.

We can also get a 5 second vigor (which can turn into a 6.5 second vigor if traited fully in alchemy) buff whenever we get swiftness (5 second recharge, of course!).

Then at the end you have the +50% endurance regen. So if you go for the 50% endurance regen bonus, you get not only a 7.5% / sec endurance recharge, but also automatically get a 10% on the spot endurance recharge on toolbelt use.

tigirius said:

“Yet ranger gets an easy 5 point vigor 50% regen buff instantly, thief gets a return on their endurance automatically when dodging for about 15 points.”

Rangers may get a bonus 50% regen rate as a 5 point trait level. Fine.

Engineers, however, get 10% of their endurance back anytime they use a toolbelt skill. If you want to blow your load in toolbelt skills, you could effectively have an extra dodge right after the first two.

This is in addition to the increased recharge rate of toolbelt skills in the same line as the regen on toolbelt skill use trait. Down the line we can get the 50% bonus regen rate, as well as the ability to instantly refresh your toolbelt skills at 25 health.

We actually get the better deal when it comes to endurance regen for dodging.

If you want more endurance regen you can always get vigor on swiftness, which is a 10-point trait in Alchemy. It can be activated every 5 seconds, which lines up with both swiftness trait CDs (on crit in Firearms line, and on kit equip in Tools).

All in all, if traited we can keep up a 250% endurance regen indefinitely (a dodge available every 4 seconds), in addition to instantly getting a bump in endurance for every toolbelt skill.

What Surbrus said. I wish there was a like button for posts!

JP isn’t an objective. Sure, it’s a resource, but to have a group larger than 3-5 people in it is a bit . . . Heck, to harass enemies you can have one or two people there pushing guys off the ledges. You don’t need much more than a single party to defend the JP, if you can call it defending.

I don’t think there should be scoring objectives. This would lead to fights in extremely difficult terrain where all you really have to do to win is push someone off the edge. Whoever has the most pushes wins. Not to mention there are already rewards that come with the JP, hefty ones that you can use later on down the line.

Lalnuir said:

“Single target burst is not effective in WvW, if you want to get the most out of the call target icon then target someone in a clump and aoe nuke that spot with multiple people.

Clumps of enemies don’t always have to be naturally forming. There are a couple of aoe pull skills in this game and combined with well placed fears/knock backs you can clump people up fairly easy.”

While I agree that method is effective, you need to give them a reason to clump together. I would focus on single target, whittle him down, then either use AOE around him to whittle down the folks trying to rez him.

I have to agree with most of the anti-JP posters.

At best, a JP is a downtime objective when you KNOW your BL is locked down. Do one, and then go on to help your teammates in that BL for an hour. Do another in another BL, then help your teammates in that BL (or go back to the previous BL).

At worst, a JP is a heavy distraction from the team objective or earning points for the server. They should NOT be done when you have 1/2 to 3/4 of your server taken over and a commander trying to rally folks to take back the BL. You either get in to help your teammates or you get the kitten out of WvW.

There’s no reason for 10 or 15 folks to be running through a JP when you need to take back your area.

If you are so eager to get your 100% completion, just transfer over to a winning server for a week and use their successful takeovers to get the last percent down. You should be able to handle playing without friends for a week if you want to finish your completion. Right?

Choko.6821:

How can play 1v1 or small group when the enemy server are doing objective you can’t. And delusion is what make I pro. You are still amateur do you? Not getting sponsered I can understand very well. Because there is many clone of you around after all.

This to the nth power! (Kinda) Well, what I understand is that WvW is not 1v1. It’s not about you; it’s about your team.

WvW is all about keeping the enemy from achieving their objectives, not about getting as many kills as possible. Killing yourself trying to go after the lolthief or lolele who just dove out of your crowd to lure you (in a blind fury) into his is endangering your server’s objectives and fulfilling your enemies’ objectives. Chasing the enemy away is just as effective as killing him. He has to go back until he’s no longer in battle, heal, and then come back to cause problems. Time away from his team’s objectives, time to focus on your team’s objectives.

Also, not enough players in WvW party together (this includes myself), which denies you a VERY effective tool: The Target icon. This lets you do a team burst, focusing your five team members on one person. Have one person ready to pull the enemy into your group. Have someone there to immobilize him. Focus on him, but make sure someone is keeping an eye on events around you. One down, one less to obstruct your objective.

D/D Ele is another of the Burst builds with getaway abilities that, although it doesn’t have stealth, is as effective as the thief.

If the ele can’t outright kill the opponent within a certain time, they’ll shift to fire or lightning for quick bursts of speed (lightning usually being the last if they have gift of air) with Frost Aura to slow folks down.

This, in my opinion, can be more frustrating to opponents as you see the enemy getting away rather than just seeing them disappear and giving up the search. I’ve seen a D/D ele lead a small group away, which can effectively cripple a siege if another force comes in.

The only tactic for players who go after a good D/D ele is to lay a trap for him and damage him down so fast that he doesn’t have time to use any of his escape moves effectively.

I like the basic idea of the flamenommer. Makes using an FT sound . . . delicious!

If you are using rifle, I actually recommend carrying around Net Turret. This gives you 3 nets to immobilize enemies and actually improves your chances around those pesky folks that run around you and cause problems for your FT turning.

You could take this in place of the defensive use for toolkit, but that can be a little dangerous . . .

ANet needs to do several things to fix the engineer:

1) Fix the bugs
2) AT LEAST fix the randomness with Elixirs, especially tosses. Elixir B I would rather have Fury or 2 stacks Might added with its bonus. Elixir S I would rather have Stability over Stealth (some would argue). The other elixirs are so screwed up that I don’t know where to begin to make their tosses viable.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmers and rangers don’t even glass cannon that well so it’s a pretty moot discussion. Having good skills and good traits for boosting damage helps a lot more than having precision and prowess in the same line. For example, the +10% crit chance from Scope paired with the +10% damage from Enduring Power makes a way bigger difference than 30 points in Skirmishing, which doesn’t give much of anything at all.

You have to be standing still for Scope, while enduring damage gives you 10% damage when endurance is full (i. e. – not dodging).

If you’re standing still, you’re dead. If you’re not dodging, you’re dead. These are trait bonuses that require you not to be using any tactical abilities. Hence, you are a sitting duck able to be picked off without any hard effort.

Richard Nixon, if you can’t get to where they are, hopefully you can see their green dots on the map. The best bet is to bring up your map, show the green dots on the map nearby, and take a screenshot of that map.

That’s the only way to do it without them showing you where they are.

I suspect they won’t let join you in this exploit, as they are probably letting guild-only members do this.

wads.5730:

you can target them by using autotarget

Auto-target works only on a certain distance. It works randomly through walls, and gets harder to auto-target through walls if they are farther away from you.

Too many classes can pop stability and stay on you, which means that in a fight (be it one-on-one or group-vs-group) CC is practically useless to the Engineer. The medium range that the devs tout about relies upon CC, but medium range really isn’t medium range if all the classes have the ability to close or expand range with one move and practically ignore CC moves.

Funny thing is that Engies don’t really have ways to gain stability unless it’s by chance through thrown Elixir S.

Reminds me of a phrase an old guard told me: “I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took a prybar to the face.”

I was wondering why some classes were able to kill so efficiently and effectively with glass cannon specs.

If you check half the classes (Thieves, Elementalists, Mesmers, and Rangers), you’ll notice that it’s VERY easy for them to develop a burst profile with just numbers alone. Thieves can trait into Critical Strikes (Eles into Air Magic, Rangers into Skirmishing, and Mesmers into Dueling) and get not only an increase in Precision but also Critical Damage. For 30 points alone this increases your damage significantly without any special abilities from 30% extra crit damage and 14% extra crit chance.

Glass Cannon types like this can pair themselves up with Berserkers gear to give themselves 1000 Power, 700 precision (33% crit chance), and 62% critical damage. this doesn’t include runes or jewels that increase critical chance. This means that a glass cannon with Berserker gear can have at least a 51% crit chance with 242% crit damage.

All other classes, on the other hand, get precision and condition damage, a long-term attribute whose damage just doesn’t add up to direct at all (and, in my opinion, needs to be increased). These classes can still have an effective glass cannon build, but not as efficiently traited as the ones with Precision and Crit Damage paired up.

The whole “open map on death” is a good one. I also like the idea of knowing when allies are around to rez you (which is already shown).

One other thing that should be shown is the chat window on the map screen, so that you’ll know what you’re actually typing.

Actually, one point the OP made (which wasn’t made as a suggestion) can lead to a better solution. If this is one of the problems, if this could help cause thieves to come in sooner, then it’s an easier solution.

Why not change everyone’s clothing into the same clothing, with single or near single colors of the team they are on.

Clothes rendering is something that people would probably care the least about. They come here for the action. Culling, and the problems that they cause, make the action seem worse. If we get rid of diverse clothing to lower culling, I think this would help out gameplay a lot.

No trait-related procs have ever worked with any attacks from turrets. No procs ever will. They are considered pets/allies, not your own attacks.

This lack of proc effect is seen in the Summon Warband or Mistfire Wolf Elite skills as well.

Yeah, there’s no quick report on hacking/botting. The only way to do it is to take a screen shot and report it via the website.

If there’s a guild doing this stuff, and currently one that’s been reported has been Reddit, then there needs to be action taken against those guys. I suggest a WvW/sPvP ban on the guild for a month.

There’s a lot of things to take into consideration with SE vs other heals.

The combo field of SE is big and lasts a long time. This gives you and other players the benefit of removing conditions from yourself and other people. That’s 10 seconds duration to apply condition removal and retal application.

It also is a long standing pulse heal that does not interfere with the regen boon. I’m not sure, and haven’t tested this, but this might be one of the only healing fields not affected by the 5-player-limit since it’s a sitting effect. This in and of itself can be helpful as multiple people can run in and out to heal themselves, even if a little bit.

I agree that they aren’t regens in the official term of the boon, digi. But they work more like the regen boon than a normal heal in the amount of each heal.

Wolfies.8152:

@Sporadicus Not many people go that route, or want to. Don’t use toolbelt regen as an example; it’s dumb. All it does is stack duration when you have other abilities giving you regen. Also, there is an annoying bug that causes you to receive only 5 healing a tick. So yea, it sucks.

The Toolbelt regen stacks in power with SE, not in duration. You could alternate between this and (the possibility) of regen from Elixir H. To call that dumb is . . . well, dumb.

Also, if you have backpack regenerator trait applied, you can stack three forms of regen alternately (SE, EG regen, and BP regen with any kit worn).

Daigle.8497:

Townopolis.3607:

This thread needs more numbers.

Regeneration: 130 base heal/second w/ .125 coefficient.
Super Elixir: 140 base heal/second w/ .1 coefficient + 380 base impact heal w/ .2 coefficient.

@1,040 healing (full healing gear, jewelry, & runes, plus 200 from traits—does not include weapon stats for the obvious reason)…

Regeneration: 260/sec
Super Elixir: 244/sec + 588 impact heal

… over 10 seconds…

Regeneration: 2600 healed
Super Elixir: 3028 healed (assuming subject(s) stayed in the zone the WHOLE time)

The fact that SE is a zone people have to stay in to receive the heal is the biggest issue with the ability. On the other hand, it does open up some (comparatively minor) benefit in that allies can enter the zone after the fact to receive (some) healing. Possibly more importantly, there are some situations where movement is either already restricted (bunker) or the need to move is more predictable (dungeons).

I think SE remains approximately as viable for group healing as the ability to provide group regeneration. With Kit Refinement, SE is comparable (not too unfavorably) to permanent group regeneration. It has the drawback of being a zone, but the benefit of stacking with both regeneration applied by others (if that happens) and itself (if that happens). It is also about as good for burst healing as regeneration, which is to say not very.

I still like it, and remember that it’s only 1 of 6 abilities granted by taking the EG; it isn’t entirely reasonable to expect one ability to carry the whole kit.

Lets get some more numbers in here then. Similar group heals, using that 1040 number: (not a comprehensive list)

Water Blast:Ele staff 1
370+.1 scaling:
470 HP AOE heals at range every 1.3 seconds.

Geyser: Ele staff 3
808 base +.25 scaling with 3 second duration: (3 ticks)
3204 HP over 3 seconds.

Cleansing wave: Ele Dagger 5
1302 base + 1 scaling
2342 HP burst heal with 40s cd AND/OR after dodge (if traited) with a 10s cd

Vigorous shouts: Warrior Trait:
40+((Level^2) x 0.18) + (Healing x 0.8)
1984 burst per shout. (Shout with lowest untraited cooldown is 25s, 20s if traited)

Shadow Refuge: Thief Utility:
355+.18 scaling over 5 ticks
2711 HP over 4 seconds.

Now…

’’SuperBroken’’ elixir:
380+.2 scaling over 10 seconds:
5880 HP over 10 seconds.

Sure, Super Elixir LOOKS good over 10 seconds, but…
A: you’re restricted to one area for 10 seconds
B: this kind of healing is still only in line with the other classes’ healing per second at that level.
C: Other classes get weapon stats with their weapons

Again, these are group heals.

Elixir Gun gives you two more heals to use, SE and the Toolbelt Regen. You have two traits to increase EG’s healing even farther, with Backpack Regenerator (which works for ANY kit) AND Kit Refinement (which gives an SE heal for EG equip).

If you double-trait, with EG you get a total of 6 different heals. Your normal heal + toolbelt heal, EG’s SE + toolbelt regen, SE upon equip, and backpack regen.

I like putting on FT, tossing down and drinking elixirs, and popping Incendiary Ammo and Elixir U. Watching someone start burning and bleeding while my might stacks go up is fun!

The fight at my lunchtime was fun (it’s 9PM right now). We took back YBBL’s Maguuma-controlled East Keep only to have it retaken in less than five minutes. Did you guys hide leapfrogging mesmers to retake it that fast?

Anyway, we had to retake the keep again, and the fight was awesome. We used a lot of siege and the fights were still fun up to the Lord. Afterwards we swept every inch of the keep to make sure there were no more mesmers there, and even babysat one mesmer corpse in the lordroom.

Good fun! Good job on the fight, Maguuma!

If anything, EG’s Acid Pool #4 should be a Blast Finisher.

A Leap Finisher assumes that the attack does damage on the landing/impact and not the launch, while Acid Pool is a damaging escape that doesn’t do any damage on the landing.

Elixir gun, IMO, is a fair kit with a good toolkit skill. One thing I wish that could be increased, though, is the puddle size for #4 Acid Pool. The jumpback is great, and if you combo a slowdown or quickness with it (#2 just before), you can get a good distance between yourself and the enemy.

In PvE you’re going to find that mob that you just can’t kill easily.

As a condition EG/FT/PS eng, I use my abilities to slow and push away enemies that come at me. I know that eventually I’ll find that guy who can’t be slowed. I have to fight him as intelligently as possible.

Veterans should be a challenge for us to kill, and champions a threat to our survival. If I encounter a Champ who can’t be pushed around or slowed (there are plenty), then I will most likely die if I engage him. But that’s the way it’s supposed to be, even in lower levels.

Also, the reason you see lower levels (Especially ones less than 30) not holding up to difficulty for certain classes is that the expectation is set for exactly that level. Just because you’re dropped to 15 doesn’t mean you lose the extra two skill slots (third and Elite skills), but they don’t want to chase away the folks that are trying to level in the level 14 zone.

I like the ability of getting a toolbelt skill with my kit. I don’t think it should be that way.

Besides, I like having more than one kit to swap between. I currently have 3 different weapons I switch between (FT, EG, and pistol/shield), and I do pretty well with them.

^ This. Sure, you don’t get the kill or the money, but you just proved that you (or your group) have scared a guy enough to make them leave a game (however temporarily).

You made him Alt-F4? Kudos to you.

Consequently, I tend to WP if I am alone and see 3 or more people over the horizon. Chances are they’ve seen me, and I’m not about to charge them.

Hate to tell you this, but even in SPvP you’ll find groups that seek the least resistance. Unless they actually put you group on group arena style will you see people forced to fight each other equally.

When you have multiple objectives in a game, you always go after the easiest ones that land you the most points. Flipping camps is easy until you meet a group of equal or higher power defending those camps. PvDoor is much preferred to PvDoorvP because it gets the job done.

If you want some actual PvP, petition ANet for arena-based events.

I usually bow to “live” corpses after a battle. Usually it’s a good fight, and I like to show them I mean no insults after they’re downed.

I do admit that I sit on them if they stay for too long (too long in my book is over 30 seconds when noone else is obviously coming to their rescue, which to me is blatant corpsespying).

It’s not worth it to /laugh at a corpse.

You’re gonna find people who have found (or read about) builds that are powerful. But they have weaknesses.

That warrior you saw hacking you with a 30K fast combo? Watch him get murdered right afterward by the people you roll with (hopefully you roll in a group in WvW!). He’s easy to knock down, and once he’s knocked down your buddies (remember the ones you hopefully roll with?) will finish him off while getting you back up.

The ones to REALLY worry about are the ones that are just hard to kill. A good thief is hard to kill because he moves in and out of stealth. A good mesmer is hard to kill because they can makes clones and illusions until you kill them for good.

The biggest problem with stealth is still that culling still happens. This makes culling very powerful.

A thief one-on-one with noone else around is manageable. The culling is very minor here, and you find the thief quickly after he attacks from stealth. However, once more people get involved, the culling lasts longer and the thief starts to benefit greatly from this false stealth. It gets easier for him to dive in and out of stealth, attack, and shift back into stealth before anyone can lock onto him and cause him enough damage.

Necromancers and rangers can offset the culling a little bit because their NPC pets will immediately see when a thief pops out of stealth. If you have a pet or a pet minion, use them. Hell, surround yourself with friendly-aggressive NPCs to help you find the thief when he comes out of hiding.

I know there are thieves who are VERY good at hopping in and out of stealth. These won’t be hit very hard when culling gets fixed, and will make the class shine. I salute those guys.

It’s the ones that can’t fight for kitten that are taking advantage of the culling and reaping great benefits in WvW. Those guys will probably run away from the class once this culling issue gets fixed. They’ll be the same guys who will hop on the exploit bandwagon of another class. You can’t get rid of them, so hopefully mother nature will do us great benefit and get rid of them herself.

TL;DR – The combination of culling and players who exploit it in WvW PvP make stealth painful and thieves powerful. Use NPCs and pets to find them. Hopefully they’ll fix the culling soon.

Ah, there’s the pic link, right beside the link to the forum. I concede the argument.

I checked the reddit post, which referred to the post in the PvP Forums. There was no link in the GW2 forum post. All that referred to was a list of what John Peters said.

If you care to show me the screen shot, then I’ll consider the claim valid. Otherwise I don’t believe what was posted, since without proof it’s just heresay.

Personally, I don’t believe anything anyone says unless they can point me to an official post by a Dev on upcoming changes or patches.

Just because some person said they saw Jon Peters post in chat (one person, by the way, with NO BACKUP whatsoever) that there will be “15 change bullets for ranger, 30 change bullets for engineer” doesn’t mean that any of this will happen.

’Nuff said.

Oskil.1029 said: “I am guessing all of you hated rogues in World of Warcraft too, didn’t you?
Listen, stealth IS the main feature of a thief. If you were to take that away from them, they are just a really weak warrior with tiny little swords. Would you like your clones taken away from you? Grenade spam? Hundred blades? You see what I am saying here? Every class has their signature moves/mechanics, and though you might not like or agree with them, that doesn’t mean ANet should hold your hand and remove it from the game.
That being said, the culling issues in the game right now certainly are making this a bigger deal. How about you calm down, put your pitch forks away, and wait until the November 15th fix.
Despite the fact that he remains invisible, he isn’t really doing anything worthwhile. If your whole team is stupid enough to sit on that spot and do nothing else, it appears to me that the thief has a working tactic and has outsmarted you. Leave 2-3 people there and the rest move on, come on guys. It isn’t that hard.”

You mention that people hated rogues’ stealth in WoW, however rogues were revealed once they took damage. Thieves in this game aren’t revealed upon being damaged, which means they can simply disappear and run away without anyone finding him through damage or AOE.

There are two damaging effects I think that should reveal stealthed/hidden characters, and this is a pretty logical one: bleeding and burning. Both have a physical effect (bleeding leaves a trail, and burning . . . well, they’re on fire!). Unless the person hiding nulls these two conditions before he stealths/goes invisible, then those two should be able to reveal him.

If ANet has figured out a way to fix culling, this might help out with thieves and the overwhelming stealth advantage.

As for the videomaker. . . . Wasn’t a stealthed person not supposed to count as an opposer to a point being claimed. I don’t see anything from ANet talking about that.