Guild Wars 2

Send this post to the “Bug Reports” part of the forum. That will help you get it noticed faster. . . hopefully.

Pistols . . .yeah, I think the #1 could use at least a 1 second increase in bleed duration.

And there are plenty of bugs that need to be fixing.

As to the random nature of elixirs, I’ve already posted on that twice.

The primary context is giving YOU a fixed benefit. Most of the elixirs do that. The tossed effect is a secondary context. It’s a random buff that’s designed to help your fellow players in some minor way.

We’re unique in that we can transfer a little bit of our benefits (elixirs) to others without losing the ability to benefit from them.

In that way, I think that Elixirs (both in tossed and consumed forms) have been created just right.

I found FT and pistols to be a fun fight. Switching between them can really mess with players. I place my traits 30 firearms, 20 Explosives, and 20 Alchemy so I can get the survival benefits of Alchemy yet still maintain enough offense with Firearms and power to really lay the smackdown on people.

If you use the major trait that applies a slowdown on people <25% health, this gives you time to switch to your double pistols and pop a glue gun on them. If you’re in a pack, run ahead of them and blow them back into the pack with your FT’s blastback! No escape!

This trait setup also allows you to switch over to a longe range rifle build and stand atop the parapets of keeps to defend it.

They already know about the permasprint. That’s why they put a 5-second delay on proc times so you can’t just unequip and equip it multiple times to get a large amount of burst and sprint for long distances.

The kit switching is the penance for maintaining a permanent +33% movement speed.

You pretty much know what you’re getting with elixirs when you drink them. The only randomness in elixirs that are drunk is the random boon from H, the random condition from U, and the random effect of X.

If you think about it this way for tossing, you are throwing a chemical concoction on the ground. You have NO IDEA what has been on that ground, so you can’t be certain whether you are going to get one effect or the other.

Think of the randomness of tossed skills like the movies. Some kid or clumsy person knocks over a vial of some strange murky liquid just as a scientist yells out, “DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!”

Queue wacky effect, be it beneficial or harmful.

I think the toolbet elixir tosses are a perfect character addition as well as just the right amount of random buffing. After all, whatever you get from the tossed vial is a buff.

Right?

I would bet it’s a tooltip error more than a bug. It’s supposed to work the same as Elixir H, giving only one of the abilities on a throw, although H does that on the drink too.

I like it.

But I disagree with Psaakryn on the weapons thing. Like the OP said, you shouldn’t be staying in any one kit for an infinite amount of time.

Your normal weapons (rifle or pistols/shield) can increase their own damage (especially adding condition damage to the pistol’s poison/bleed/burn attacks), while in higher levels you can get sigils that stack condition, power, or precision with each foe killed.

A good tip to get the most out of stacking sigils if you are an extreme kit user: Swap back to your normal weapons and finish them off that way. Doing this will add a stack, and if you stay up you can easily have 25 stacks of 5/7/+10 of whatever you like to have.

The flamethrower is fine as it is effects-wise with the exception of napalm (#2).

1 does still need to be attuned with its aim, and certainly needs to be fixed with attacks against objects (since it misses a lot).

3 is perfect. Don’t change a thing on this blast back. It interrupts, it knocks people away from objectives, and it also can deflect projectiles (which I haven’t really tried that part).

4 is fine. It’s designed mostly as a flame barrier and combo field. If it causes burning to one person because they crossed it or applies burning to a single projectile, then it’s done its job.

5 is worth its weight in gold. Swap between this and pistols to give yourself a lot of chances to avoid attacks from enemies.

2 . . . Yeah, I agree that napalm needs some fixes, and the idea for explode on impact with a hard surface sounds good. For one, the knockback makes it think that the point of impact of the opponent’s body is below the ground. I don’t know why our #2 shot reads it that way, but it just does. This is an extreme problem as the #3 – #2 combo is very effective when it connects.

Condition/precision/power are the bread and butter of Engineer damage. It’s hard not to mix the three because there are so many crit-procs that you can build on. Pistols, Flamethrower, and grenades benefit from this combo easily, since all three rely on condition damage in some way.

The adept tier of both Firearms and Explosives have crit-procs that spawn condition damage, and both increase condition damage in their own way (either intensity or duration).

I’d be careful trying to take advantage of that first set’s Tools Master major trait. You really don’t want to be standing still in an FT build, especially since you’re usually within closing or melee range.

But if you can make it work (especially since you get 200 toughness from the Firearms/FT and 200 vitality from Alchemy), then you probably proc more often than me. That means more chances to proc conditions.

The second one looks a lot like mine. I like it, and you can switch out those major traits for more durability.

Flamethrower builds are tough and require a LOT of swapping in and out of Flamethrower kit, but can be effective with a good team.

Flamethrower does much better as a mixture of power and condition. Mine is a 30/20/20 with Firearms/Explosives/Alchemy.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#McMzM9cmorLMmorLMGx0G0VoVRqMk

With the Master major trait of Explosives, you can either use it to buff yourself on a heal (#6) or you can deny people that last bit of escape before you kill them (#10).

I wanted the Explosives tier 1 trait #5 to give an extra bit of burntime, which stacks with the burn at the end of your FT #1 burst. Burn is your friend. Burn ticks for a high amount twice a second.

You don’t really need bonus crit damage with this build since it uses crit procs to do a lot of condition damage. I suggest Power/Condition/Precision stacks for armor, with toughness/vitality for your trinkets, amulets, and rings.

As for weapons, have two pistols with the same trio as your armor. This will let you increase your poison damage and your flame damage from your #2 and #4 pistol shots. As for sigils, I would choose Corruption as your primary and whatever you want for your secondary (since stacking sigils don’t work in the offhand).

FT is an extremely hard kit to use because of its range. You shouldn’t be staying in FT, either, just to keep that Might boon going. Swap in and out of it to utilize the pistol’s condition attacks (#2 and #4 mainly) and the very effective lightning shot (an extra blindness for long distance) and glue gun (to keep the enemies from leaving).

Utilize your elixirs often. Don’t let the Alchemy line go wasted. Elixir B will increase your might stack, give you retaliation (which can be evil for melee types that in to try to finish you), Fury (more crit chance!), and swiftness. Reduced CD lets you maintain a constant Might stack if you need it, and the Adept minor trait will give you a free Elixir B (because it doesn’t start the CD on a slotted elixir).
Elixir R or S is good to have as well, and Elixir R is a great for its toss skill (+20%/sec revive skill for 6 secs! Toss it at your feet before you die to jump right back up and surprise the folks mid-finisher!)
Elixir C is good for a switcheroo on condition dealers, shifting conditions to boons. Pop it when you are bogged down by conditions, and you can use the Master major trait to drop another row of conditions and heal yourself with Elixir H.

I’ve rambled enough.

Have fun!

Actually, I just thought of this:

I ringed the heal skill, 3 other skills, and elite skill around my movement keys. (Like Pink Sock had done) It’s simple enough to rebind the toolbelt keys as an alt command to an alt or ctrl+ version of those same keys. Yes, this requires some more finger work, but it might work.

I’ll have to do some trials on that, but it’s a suggestion!

CptCosmic.3156:

the kits have their own damage values that scale with your level thus I think this is intended.

flamethrower with sigil of strength would be really tasty, perma 25 might stack

Kill-stacking sigils are easy to use for FT or kits since they don’t go away when you swap to your kit.

1) Drop the enemy down to a very low level.

2) Swap out of your kit to your normal weapon.

3) Finish off the mob with your normal weapon, or let the bleeding/burning/poison do the rest. (???)

4) Get your kill-triggered stack. (Profit!)

This way you can raise your stat and make you dangerous at the end. If you really wanna be a dangerous thing in WvW, then go with a group and destroy a few NPCs to buff yourself a little before going into actual PvP.

That’s my idea. Hope people like it.

I think he’s including the stacks of might that you get with the Juggernaut major trait. Juggernaut grants around 5 stacks of might (it jumps between 5 and 6, but it’s more 5 stacks).

If you want major fun, put a Superior Sigil of Corruption (+10 condition damage stack per kill; up to 25 stacks) and the sigil that ups precision per kill, then just before you kill an enemy swap back to your pistols and watch your power increase as you kill an enemy. This makes the weapon bonuses work a little bit. Only a little, though.

The biggest hurdle that ANet needs to deal with on turrets: They are separate and independent form of damage (essentially, an infinite dot so long as it isn’t destroyed) that allows the engineer to run around and do damage on his own.

Turrets count as a Damage Over Time. They are independent damage that the Engineer can apply without having to maintain it. That’s why they have a longer than normal rate of fire.

They are also indiscriminate of targetting. The Engineer cannot control who the turrets target. They will apply this DOT damage to anyone that they feel. That’s why they have an ability that the engineer can trigger to make them more potent.

Engineers shouldn’t count on turrets to be their sole form of damage. They aren’t the TF2 Engineers. They have a MUCH broader choice of abilities than that class, and can switch between kits and weapons.

You have several ways to make turrets more powerful.

You can trait into them to make them more durable, regen their health, become more powerful, deployable, and can also increase your wrench skill so that it heals them more.

Turrets can use a little boost, but the problem that ANet has to consider is all of the above characteristics. If you boost their damage or rate of fire too much, then you can imbalance a turret-using engineer. You could reduce the CD on a turret’s special ability, but you have to make sure that increasing the special ability doesn’t imbalance the damage rate (in PvP and PvE, I expect a Turret to have at most 1 or 2 chances to use their CD ability).

Turret drop CDs are perfect IMO. Also, if you pick up the turret before it dies, then you drop about 1/4 the CD timer off of them.

TL,DR: Turrets are good, but could be better. Very little better, because they are an independent source of damage.

To recap, we engineers have seen the following problems with FT:

1) Structures are very hard to hit with #1 attack (constant “Miss” results), requiring you to be right on top of them and facing a certain way.

2) You can easily miss enemies with the #1 attack; even if you are targetting them within distance or on top of them.

3) The Napalm blast #2 attack ends up being “Obstructed” against enemies higher than the player.

4) Napalm blast #2, when used after the blast back #3 attack, has a high chance of an “Obstructed” result. This is noticed when, after the #3 Blast Back attack is used, you move even slightly away from the initial point to use the Napalm Blast.

To recap, we have seen the following problems with FT (I’ll mirror this post in the Bugs section of the Forum):

1) Structures are very hard to hit with #1 attack (constant “Miss” results), requiring you to be right on top of them and facing a certain way.

2) You can easily miss enemies with the #1 attack; even if you are targetting them within distance or on top of them.

3) The Napalm blast #2 attack ends up being “Obstructed” against enemies higher than the player.

4) Napalm blast #2, when used after the blast back #3 attack, has a high chance of an “Obstructed” result. This is noticed when, after the #3 Blast Back attack is used, you move even slightly away from the initial point to use the Napalm Blast.

Engineers, if you want a funny finisher try combining your supply drop with any combo field. Not only does your blast stun folks, but it also sprays the condition of the field it landed in to everything in a radius!

First, make sure you have your chat window visible. The little arrow beside the text you type out designates whether your chat window becomes opaque or invisible.

Next, right click on the tab that you’re using and select “options.” This will show you what types of chat posts or information you can see in that window.

Click on the boxes beside the different types of posts you want to see (or don’t want to see).

You can also set up a new window just for whispering. Hit the + tab and a new tab will appear!

Here’s a question: Can you create a flaming net with your Flamethrower Firewall and your Rifle Net Shot?

If so, you can trap them and burn them at the same time!

There’s no ‘End Game’ events or dungeons.

The fact behind that is when you enter an area, you are levelled down to the highest level possible for it. You still have your stat increases (or a percentage equivalent to it), so the monsters in that area (be they a level 80 or a level 17) can still be a challenge for you.

You are definitely not going to be the guy who singlehandedly defeats the level 30 Giant in the Dessia Plains. You are definitely not going to solo AC, CM, or any other place.

Because of this level control, you can go to an area and visit it with the same character you’ve levelled to 80 with the same challenge and threat of defeat that you visited when you were actually equivalent to that area.

End game events? Don’t really need them now. Go explore lands, go visit/revisit dungeons, and go challenge the huge world bosses with your buddies. The experience may be the same as before, but the challenge will also remain the same.

One interesting thing with Discovery is that you can still earn crafting skill increases on recipes that are grey (would otherwise yield no experience if crafted repeatedly).

It’s exactly like the others have said: Discovery is how you get your real crafting skill increase. Each buff type that you learn (insignias, gems, etcetera) usually can net you 3-4 chances for large skill increases.

If they are yellow recipes, they can be up to a 2 skill level increase. Whites yield 1 – 1 1/2, and greys (recently greys, I think) can get you about 1/2 to 3/4 skill level increase.

Every 25 to 30 levels usually give you another set of buffs (usually 4-5) to learn. Set up for them by getting your ingredients ready. Build armor parts, and when the time comes for the new set, head to the discovery chamber.

This isn’t WoW. You can’t simply spam your way to a new skill. You’ll waste a LOT of money doing that, and you’ll be disgruntled when you walk up to the crafting table.

Once again: Discover your way to quick skill levelling.