Guild Wars 2

Superkav.5012:

I am fond of bomb kit and the rifle so I tried your build in hotjoin. It was fun for about 2 minutes until I wakitten by a heartseeker for 7,800 k damage. Then it was not fun anymore.

This build is typically a hard counter to thieves in my experience: it’s all about baiting them into your AoEs. Most thieves invariably close into melee range at some point which is where you’re strongest. Glue Bomb, Smoke Bomb and Flame Turret’s overcharge make safe zones in which you can smack thieves across the face while they swing their daggers harmlessly.

I know that people have often been looking at this skill as a model for bad skill design in this game (and for good reason) while suggesting many different alternatives to the skill’s current function. I honestly think that the skill’s biggest weakness is that it’s sort of a double launch and more importantly that the launch distance is often affected by combat. By this, I mean that sometimes when you use this skill while in combat (often when affected by a slowing condition), you only bounce maybe 400 range and then sit there for 2 seconds. This gives your enemy plenty of time to waltz on over and kill you—FOR USING YOUR STUN-BREAK PROPERLY.

I wonder if the skill wouldn’t be just as silly, fun, yet more function if it were a straight self-inflicted knock-back. A knock-back is a CC from which a player typically quickly recovers (more of a “slip and back up” action that a “fall over, lie there, then get to your feet” action) and I’m not sure that knock-backs are affected by conditions (aside from maybe immobilize) or combat speed. Imagine using this skill and FLYING back 600 range before quickly getting to your feet. Add in 3/4 seconds of evasion and I’d use it.

Whelm.9072:

Hmm, I thought you would get more reaction to this. I really like your ability write-ups.

Anyway, I am a fan of bombs as a playstyle as it really keeps you on your toes for positioning and timing. Your vigor and swiftness here help a lot.

It seems you are split between rifle, elixir gun and bombs in terms of traits and split in terms of power and condition damage. That might not appeal to some I suppose when you consider that the build is essentially bomb centric. I guess you are relying on healing turret to condition cleanse but there is room for 409 if you throw some elixirs in the optional slots (just a thought).

10 from Firearms to Explosives might work for some extra bomb power. At any rate, bombs away

Yes, while I do bill this set-up as a bomb-centric build, it is actually sort of a blend of Elixir Gun, Rifle and Bomb Kit. I’m also noticing lately just how good pinging with Rifle 1 can be if I can get reliable crits. It’s been a while since I’ve used Static Discharge (which used to be my main WvW roaming/PvE build) so I guess I’ve forgotten.

As for the traits, I’ve been sort of thinking the same thing as you, dropping something for 30 into Explosives for more raw power. Truth be told, if I had to take from a trait line to do that, it might be Alchemy because I just love my cool-down reduction traits too much. Acid Bomb every 12 seconds and Super Elixir every 16 seconds has saved my life too many times. Though, I have also been wondering lately how a full beserker’s take of this build would come off. As I have said, the build seems to be lacking raw finishing power even when going into overdrive. Elixir F, Jump Shot, Blunderbuss, Throw Napalm is probably my tightest burst combo, but it takes a while to fire that all off and it isn’t really enough to kill anything outright. Perhaps I should just embrace the zerker.

JudgeD.5673:

It’s worth pointing out that the Bomb Kit is very useful in zerg fights, having used it very successfully. BoB is quite fun to use in conjunction with Supply Crate. Not sure how this build would work in such a case though.

Sweet stars above it is. This is where I think the Smoke Bomb/Flame Turret overcharge combo shine. If you see a blob of people coming into a tight space, it’s nothing at all to drop Flame Turret ahead of time and trigger the two together. Add in Glue Bomb and it’s bombs away with effective invulnerability when combined with dodges, Elixir S and regeneration. With enough allies nearby, it’s enough to scare off or cripple a sizable force. In straight PvE, it just ends mobs.

In my experience, Supply Crate is good for holding enemies in place while you draw lines in the sand with Big Ol’ Bomb, Flame Turret and Glue Bomb. Using Supply Crate like a second, targetable Glue Bomb may seem a little wasteful, but it’s really what I have to do in the situations for which it calls. A favorite of mine is when there is a skirmish in WvW between two rather sizable groups of people. I’ll use the Stealth Bomber opener to leap behind enemy lines and lay down Supply Crate along with Big Ol’ Bomb, Flame Turret and the rest of the Bomb Kit. It scares the daylights out of most back-liners and often forces the enemy to collapse in on itself in order to deal with me. The blind fields help mitigate damage and allow me to sustain myself for a bit or escape with an animation-cancelled Jump Shot while my allies push into the new bubble that I helped to create or snap at their flanks.

BURST
I said before that this play-style doesn’t really have burst. It really doesn’t—at least not to the level of most other, more common builds. That said, it’s not without its big-hitting combos.

Elixir F -> Blunderbuss

• Since [Elixir F] bounces, if you can get close up to your opponent (400 range or closer) and use it, it should hit them twice if they’re isolated. Continuing to move in on your opponent and following that up with a [Blunderbuss] is often an easy 3.5-5k damage if you’re not horribly unlucky with crits. This combo also puts you in range for more bomb attacks.

Jump Shot -> Acid Bomb

• A classic. Substantial damage if you can land them both since [Acid Bomb] will typically hit twice because of its radius. It also works in reverse, but it’s often slower and less likely to hit since [Acid Bomb] will often put you slightly outside of [Jump Shot]’s maximum range. However, if you can end with Jump Shot, it chains nicely into bomb attacks.

Big Ol’ Bomb (-> Overcharged Shot)

• A crit BOB will be something like 3.5k damage and give you a huge opening for some free attacks with its launch effect. Adding in [Overcharged Shot] while they’re soaring through the air is sort of just rubbing salt in the wound. It’s also priceless. You can also stand up and maybe get off a [Jump Shot] or [Elixir S] on them while your opponent recovers. However, the double-launch chain—despite it being hilarious—can actually be detrimental since it might put your enemy outside of a viable range for further high damage attacks. Best used in the company of allies conscious of the combo or after you’ve had a bad day at the office.

Dodging

• Never forget the Evasive Powder Keg trait. This functions sort of akin to the Static Discharge principle: instant-activation attacks on top of regular attacks = crazy spike damage. While Evasive Powder Keg is not huge damage since you can’t really spam it and it’s only one bomb, your opponent might end up missing that 1.7k hp that went missing after you dodged over top of him. It’s also good to practice your timing when dodging while using Bomb Kit. Chaining [Bomb] into a dodge will instantly plant 2 bombs on the ground. If you’ve been spamming [Bomb] (either by leading a trail or by strafing), it is possible to have 3 bombs down on the ground at the same time. If they all hit and crit, the total damage easily exceeds 5k. Landing this trick and following it up with something like [Blunderbuss] or [Overcharged Shot] will always be a devastating blow.

THE OPENER
Option 1: Overcharged Shot

• It’s simple: [Net Shot] the guy after depleting any Aegis or dodges and then follow it up with an [Overcharged Shot]. Alternatively, [Overcharged Shot] the guy in the face if you see an opening, then [Net Shot] as you stand up and follow up with a [Jump Shot] and [Glue Bomb]. Pinging the guy with [Hip Shot] for a bit and then using [Overcharged Shot] will often put you in the lead when it comes to an encounter’s opening moves. Most importantly, if you aim properly, you can launch an opponent into a wall or corner. From there it will be easier to manipulate the player’s movement.

Option 2: Stealth Bomber

• Judge the distance between you and your opponent. When you’re within about 1000 range, drop Smoke Bomb and use Acid Bomb while facing away from your opponent. This will stealth you and launch you right under his nostrils if you aimed it properly and had swiftness up. From there, drop [Glue Bomb] and begin bombing him to pieces. This also works for Rocket Boots.

Option 3: Elixir F —> Surprise Shot

• Just as it sounds. The bouncing nature of Elixir F can allow it to inflict surprising amounts of damage when fired at close-range to an opponent. When comboed with [Surprise Shot] and rolling well with the crit RNG, you can inflict an easy 3k and cripple your opponent. If the opponent dodges, then you’ve wasted a dodge with minimal loss on your part.

SUSTAINING THE FIGHT: MANIPULATING YOUR OPPONENT’S MOVEMENT
If you don’t control your opponent’s movement, they will end up destroying you. This part of the Bomb Kit play-style often comes down to a few key skills:

Net Shot

• Pretty self-explanatory. If you swap back to Rifle for whatever reason, use it. It’s fast-activating and it will only ever help you.

Overcharged Shot

• A great way to break up an opponent’s rotation. Bombs don’t really have burst; you can’t really blow down targets like most of your opponents probably can do. Therefore, the key is to interrupting your opponent when his engine really starts revving. If you didn’t use [Overcharged Shot] as an opener, then wait until your opponent starts getting flashy and blast him. Warrior charges, after an Elementalist has used [Updraft], [Life Transfer], [Rapid Fire] or during a Ranger’s [Crossfire] rampage are good examples. When it comes to classes like Thieves and Mesmers, it’s often best to [Overcharged Shot] them as soon as the opportunity arises since you can use the extra second that you get on them to move into a more manageable range.

Big Ol’ Bomb

• Here’s a fun one. After your opener, and when you get within a respectable range of your target (400 or less), drop a Big Ol’ Bomb in a direction that you do NOT want your opponent to move. From here, you can continue to chase your opponent in a more manageable direction while pinging damage, or you could [Acid Bomb] or [Jump Shot] ahead of them and steer them back towards the Big Ol’ Bomb with [Bomb Kit] attacks or [Overcharged Shot] for a nice damage spike and launch. You would not believe how many people do not notice the big barrel of gunpowder sizzling on the battlefield. With a 300 AoE range, it’s often pretty easy to turn battles around with proper placement.

Glue Bomb

• Being part of most opening attacks with this play-style, Glue Bomb placement is incredibly important. While it is very effective when dropped right on top of an enemy, it also works as a deterrent. Feel free to place a Glue Bomb where it might not hit an opponent in order to close off possible escape paths. It works well in tandem with Big Bomb, creating a kind of “Rock and a Hard Place” effect.

Acid Bomb/Jump Shot

• While effective attacks respectively, they also function as gap-closers. If you launched your opponent or he decided to try to put some space between you and himself, catch up to them and keep the pressure on. Jump Shot is straightforward enough. Acid Bomb requires a bit of finesse since—to use it as a gap-closer—you have to use it while facing away from your enemy. This just requires a bit of prediction, and hopefully—if all has been going well thus far—you have a rough idea where your opponent is heading given the movement hazards that you’ve already laid down.

Picking the Terrain

• This is a big one. If you’re able to pick your fights, do it and choose a tight place with some obstacles. Tight corners are your friend and do not be afraid to dance around a tree or pillar if your opponent has range on you. Bait them into melee or a very close line-of-sight situation if you can help it. That’s where most of your power is. [Net Turret] can help alleviate this issue by providing steady immobilizes and allowing this play-style to function in more open environments, but as a rule of thumb, try to fight in tight spaces with corners if possible.

I figured it was about time to make a build thread as opposed to more suggestions.

I like bombs. They’re combo-rific, control space extremely well and require thought and positioning far more sophisticated most other play-styles that I’ve seen in this game thus far. Playing with bombs is an exercise in predicting and controlling your opponent’s movements and attacks patterns. Above all, I find a bomb-centric play-style to be the most thrilling experience that I’ve tried to master in this game.

SKILLS, TRAITS AND GEAR
Skills: Rifle; [optional]; [optional]; Elixir Gun; Bomb Kit; [optional]

Traits 2: 20(III; VIII) – 20(I; VI) – 0 – 10(I); 20(II; VI)

PVE Gear: Berserker trinkets and rifle. Rampager’s chest (legs are stat wiggle room; I’m going for Knights at the moment); rest of armor is Berserker. Runes of Air (6/6). Sigil of Air/Fire.
PvP Gear: Berserker amulet and jewel. Runes of Air (6/6). Sigil of Air.

Optional 1

• Healing Turret I prefer to use [Healing Turret] because of its quick cast and the water fields. Furthermore, it helps out in PvE instances where you’re fighting large numbers of enemies. If you can get your opponent(s) to chase you/fight within its range, the turret can provide you with infinite regeneration.
• Med Kit Because it’s got the highest Healing/second available to the Engineer as well as fury. Furthermore, since you’ll be dealing with controlled space fights, the medipacks that you can drop could actually prove very useful in some instances where you know that you’re about to fight and can pick the terrain. It’s also AMAZING with the second trait set up. The fury is also great too.

Optional 2

• Rifle Turret A common option for the cookie-cutter Static Discharge build, [Rifle Turret] offers the Engineer a lot of quick damage with no cast-time. It compliments this build’s play-style by smoothing out the transition between PBAoE and ranged fighting styles. It also helps you get ahead of your enemy in damage with unexpected bursts of damage. Due to it’s instant activation cast-time, it also combos with literally everything in the build which can really help ramp up/sustain damage while in [Bomb Kit].
• Rocket Boots It’s a great replacement for [Acid Bomb] as a movement skill and therefore saves you one of your big damage skills. It’s also fantastic for chasing opponents. Furthermore, it’s another blast finisher for the [Smoke Bomb] stealth combo. But most importantly, [Rocket Kick] is huge damage. A crit [Rocket Kick] with the second trait set up can net you about 2k in raw damage alone when factored in with Static Discharge. The burning is at least another 2k even with mediocre condition damage.
• There are actually quite a few options for the third Utility Skill. Salient choices among them include: [Slick Shoes], [Flame Turret], [Net Turret] and [Tool Kit]. Each one drastically changes the overall play-style based on how it compliments maintaining striking distance and/or controlling an opponent’s movement.

CHANNELER MODE WEAPON SKILLS
The first 3 are determined by your Soulbound Spirit while the last 2 are determined by the weapons that you are wielding when you enter Channeler mode. The 4 skill is determined by your main-hand weapon while the 5 skill is determined by your off-hand. Two-handed weapons provide both a 4 and 5 skill.

Pain (Channeler mode)

• Weapon skills 1-3: [Star Fist] ->[Star Kick] -> [Mana Punch]; [Stare-down Strike] -> [Mana Crash]; [Star Dash] -> [Painstorm]

Pain Strike (1-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Punch and cast out a spiritual fist that damages foes in a line.
• Damage: 150
• Spirit fist damage: 150
• Range: 130
• Spirit fist range: 450
  • This skill can strike an opponent twice (once with the Ritualist’s actual fist if they’re close enough, and simultaneously with the spiritual fist attack).

Pain Kick (1-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Kick and cast out a spiritual fist that damages foes in a line.
• Damage: 150
• Spirit fist damage: 150
• Range: 130
• Spirit fist range: 450

Mana Cleave (1-3)

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Damage all foes in front of you with a mana-infused punch.
• Damage: 500
• Range: 150

Stare-down Strike (2-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Mana cost: 1000
• Immobilize yourself and adjacent foes with a staggering punch.
• Damage: 125
• Self-immobilize: ½ second
• Immobilize: 1 second
• Immobilize radius: 130

Mana Crush (2-2)

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Mana cost: 1000
• Stand still and deliver a mighty punch that launches your target.
• Damage: 350
• Launch: 240
• Range: 130

Star Finger (3-1)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Mana cost: 1000
• Dash forward, damaging and immobilizing foes in your path.
• Damage: 325
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Range: 450
• Combo-finisher: Leap
  • [Whirlwind Attack]

Painstorm (3-2)

• Cast-time: 0
• Mana cost: 1000
• Pain appears at your location and unleashes a flurry of punches that damages nearby enemies.
• Damage (8x): 900
• Radius: 180
  • This skill can be used while [Star Finger] is in effect, allowing the Ritualist to effectively pull off a drive-by attack: immobilizing an opponent, and then dropping Pain in to deal AoE damage on top of that opponent if timed properly. The attack is similar to [Blurred Frenzy] except with an AoE hit-box. [Painstorm] also remains active for 5 seconds after [Star Finger] has been used allowing [Star Finger] to be used as a pursuit skill/maneuver with a follow-up AoE attack.

Chopps.5047:

Spirits unbound should do more, I think. Can you think of a single instance where you want a spirit beside you? Storm spirit swiftness / regen bunker is about all I can come up with.

You’re still in the same boat as Zeoli above you. It’s no longer about making Ranger spirits or their related traits “do more;” it’s about making them do something completely DIFFERENT. Utility Skills are things that define and sharpen build concepts; they shouldn’t be stupid tack-on abilities that contribute nothing to your build except a chance of mediocre bonus damage. This is why I completely re-designed the Ranger spirits.

I use Static Discharge. My only boons are Vigor and Swiftness. It gets the job done quite efficiently. You could also try zerker bombs. Bombs are pretty bad, though, in my experience given the delay between a player dropping one and it actually exploding. However, they can be pretty fun despite their slow “swing speed” if you will.

reserved for future posts

reserved for future posts

PET COMMAND UTILITY KITS
This once again goes in line with the above post on the topic of giving pets more skills. Let’s think of it this way: how does a ranger pet actively contribute to battle on command of its master?

The answer is one single button. A single skill is all a ranger gets when it comes to a direct attack with his or her pet. Everything else is made on the pet’s terms. Furthermore, when it comes to fine control of the pet, the ranger has either an “attack” or “return to me” button. Not only do these two buttons constitute the entire fine control mechanism of a ranger pet, but the “return to me” button—which is supposed to allow a ranger to re-position a pet—takes a pet entirely of out battle for the duration that it spends running back to the ranger (this also opens it up to any attack under the sun).

This sort of shallow design is what lead ranger pets to become the often nigh unkillable (due to vitality and toughness buffs) but often entirely ignored (since they don’t really do anything) meat-puppets that roam the battlefields of WvW and sPvP.

Once again, the root of the problem lies in the lack of skills available to the ranger that allows for direct control of the pet. Giving the ranger more pet-specific skills would not only allow the ranger to better steer the pet in and out of danger, but also allow the pet to directly contribute to a battle in close conjunction with the ranger. One solution would be to introduce what would effectively ranger pet versions of the engineer Weapon Kit utility skill. Such a utility skill would swap the ranger’s weapon skills with 5 skills (with the ability to flip in and out of them on a non-existent cool-down as is the case with engineer Weapon Kits) that are each pet-oriented command skills. Each skill would queue itself for the pet to perform as soon as it could. This sort of delay could allow the ranger to swap back to his/her weapon skills to perform timed attacks with a pet or also open the possibility for chain skills in the Pet Command Utility Kits that start with a pet-specific command and then chain into an attack that the ranger would perform.

The goal would be to promote more synergy between the ranger and his/her pet while also giving the ranger more control of his/her pet’s positioning and contribution in a battle by providing the ranger’s pet with movement, evasion and damage on command.

TRAITS FOR PETS

• See the attachment for the general idea.

The reason why this is necessary is because, at the moment, all ANet has to work with regarding how pets react to damage are the pets’ vitality and toughness. It’s a pretty poor design. However, if pets had their own traits, they could gain the ability to react to damage in unique ways or even just speed up fights by tacking on new pet skills/abilities to already existing pet commands or even player skills. Pet traits would be bare-bone versions of player trait trees composed respectively of two fixed minor traits and 1 “grandmaster” major trait that provides the player with 3 or so options from which to choose. Each pet would have 35 trait points to spend respectively.

Abilities that would help pets deal with their clunky combat responsiveness would be scattered throughout these trait trees. Options such as “gain Aegis if you take more than 10% of your hp from a single hit” or “gain ¾ seconds of evasion whenever your master dodges” would probably make it as the Grace minor traits.

Feel free to throw out some trait ideas in this thread, because adding skills to ranger pets is honestly the only way that they will become something more than sluggish meat-puppets on the battlefield.

Furthermore and best of all, a buff like this would warrant pets being reduced back down to their original hp and armor levels prior to the April 30th update. A straight hp-pool buff like that is just more evidence that ranger pets are absolute garbage. Allowing a ranger to trait a pet in order to make up for its shortcomings would grant the ranger pet mechanic more consistency and responsiveness in combat and allow it to behave more like a player or an extension of the Ranger depending on the abilities that a ranger chose to give it via its traits.

timidobserver.7925:

Flame thrower needs to be adjusted so that the cone can hit 5 people in one blast.

Fixing the way that the Flamethrower detects targets would be a big enough buff in and of itself. If FT1 reliably hit targets, it would be like having a melee attack cleave angle except with a 450 range. That’s crazy good.

timidobserver.7925:

Your turret suggestions are actually good, but I would remove them. I don’t like any turret suggestions at all. Every time Anet spends a patch making changes to turrets, it is a completely wasted patch, and then they go and nerf other stuff to accommodate the useless buff they made to turrets.. They should focus on the parts of Engi that can actually be salvaged without a complete and total overhaul. Until they are ready to completely and utterly redo turret mechanics, they should just ignore them and fix everything else about the class. To that end, I wouldn’t even suggest any turret changes.

What you’re saying here is that turrets need an overhaul… but then you’re saying not to suggest a turret overhaul. While I understand where you’re coming from, I’m keeping the suggestion up there. MonMalthius’ idea is too good not to see some sort of representation. Besides, I think that (I hope, but I guess I don’t really know whether or not if) the average joe can see which of this thread’s suggestions are more simplistic, quality-of-life changes that would be relatively simple to incorporate into the game while separating out bigger projects that could be done in a different fashion (such as the turret or bomb kit overhauls).

Zeoli.3402:

I experimented with spirits a while back in a melee build

I was actually thinking how play would be affected if Spirit range increased to something absurd like 1200. GW1 Nature Rituals had huge AoEs with minimally invasive effects, but enough to change how battles were fought. In the cases of Toxicity and Brambles, I think a 1200 radius would work well since it affects both allies and enemies. The ones that affect only allies or the Ranger are probably best left with smaller AoEs.

Zeoli.3402:

I love the concept of them i really do but they really are boring and need to be traited to be useful which is a state they should be in before traited and traited just adds a flavour to it.

Mesmers are a very trait-dependent class, and it shows during the leveling process. It means that they are naturally weak without the direction that traits provide—as it should be with all classes honestly. Traits are build-defining options. Professions, pets or skills shouldn’t come with built-in buffs. That would make no sense. Yes, the traits could use some re-working, but the only direct buff that Ranger Spirits would need would be an increased area of effect that gives a Ranger some time and wiggle room to place bodies between a Spirit and an enemy while still remaining under that Spirit’s respective effect.

Furthermore, GW2 is a very fast game when it comes to pvp. A few seconds can determine a fight. This means that an AoE buff to Spirits would really be a huge buff because if an enemy really wanted to kill a Spirit—if he/she determined that a particular Spirit was enough of a threat—then that player would need to waste precious time swinging at that thing until it died. This not only gives the Ranger free attacks, but it also might drain an enemy dodge if the pressure is on high enough. Moreover, the spirit effects are effects that have a duration and are not dependent on the spirit after they are applied. This means that, despite a short duration, there is actually a time-window during which the Ranger can still exploit a spirit’s effects even though that it might be dead. I was actually thinking of widening that window in my skill descriptions (another buff), but I guess I’ll leave it for now.

RANGER SPIRITS
The reason that these skills are terrible at the moment is a combination of how their abilities only have a chance of activating and how all of their abilities are poor, “tack-on” effects that really don’t have any business in influencing battle or defining a build (this shallow skill style is really a plague on GW2, but for now let’s just focus on Ranger Spirits). GW1 Nature Rituals were good (when used) because they promoted build or team synergy. If a Ranger brought along a Nature Ritual, it was because that Ranger probably structured his or her build around that spirit. To that effect, I’ve completely redesigned the GW2 Ranger Spirits in order to make them into skills that actually drive synergy and define builds. Furthermore, I’ve seen examples of skill-based effects that imply that the sort of effects I’ve listed below are possible within the GW2 engine.

In the descriptions: spirit radius determines a spirit’s effective range (the area in which its abilities have an effect). Pulse describes the interval at which a spirit re-applies its effects on creatures within its range. Duration describes how long the spirit’s effects linger on a creature before being renewed by a pulse. Lifespan describes how long the spirit will be active on the battlefield before it dies automatically. Keep in mind that effects applied by Ranger Spirits are not boons or conditions and therefore cannot be removed by respective means which would remove boons or conditions.

Toxicity

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 60 seconds
• Creatures within Toxicity’s range take extra damage each second when suffering from poison or weakness.
• Damage: 200
• Toxicity duration: 3 seconds
• Toxicity pulse: 3 seconds
• Spirit radius: 600
• Lifespan: 60 seconds

Infection (Toxicity’s chain skill)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• With your next attack, if you strike a foe that is bleeding, you also inflict poison.
• Poison: 5 seconds

Brambles

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 60 seconds
• Brambles damages and bleeds creatures that are interrupted or disabled within its range.
• Damage: 200
• Bleeding (3): 3 seconds
• Brambles duration: 3 seconds
• Brambles pulse: 3 seconds
• Spirit radius: 600
• Lifespan: 60 seconds

Tanglevine (Brambles’ chain skill)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 45 seconds
• Immobilize your target. If your target was already crippled, you also knock down that foe.
• Immobilize: 3 seconds
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Range: 900

Winnowing

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 60 seconds
• Each time that you lose a condition, Winnowing deals damage to all foes within its range.
• Damage: 250
• Winnowing duration: 3 seconds
• Winnowing pulse: 3 seconds
• Spirit radius: 480
• Lifespan: 60 seconds

Read the Wind (Winnowing’s chain skill)

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Cast out a whirlwind that strikes foes in a line and returns to you. For each foe that you strike, you lose 1 condition.
• Damage: 150
• Range: 900

Zephyr

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 60 seconds
• Allies under the effects of Zephyr that successfully evade an attack also damage nearby foes and gain both swiftness and might.
• Damage: 150
• Damage radius: 240
• Swiftness: 5 seconds
• Might (1): 15 seconds
• Zephyr duration: 3 seconds
• Zephyr pulse: 3 seconds
• Spirit radius: 480
  *Lifespan: 60 seconds

Tumblegust (Zephyr’s chain skill)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 45 seconds
• Evade backwards, gaining vigor and knocking back adjacent enemies.
• Vigor: 5 seconds
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Knock-back: 240
• Radius: 180

Energizing Wind

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 180
• Elite Spirit. Creatures within the range of Energizing Wind do not consume Endurance when dodging.
• Energizing Wind duration: 1 second
• Energizing Wind pulse: 1 second
• Spirit radius: 480
• Lifespan: 20 seconds

Nature’s Renewal (Energizing Wind’s chain skill)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 120
• Energizing Wind removes conditions and revives nearby downed allies.
• Revive percent per pulse: 20
• Pulse: 1 second
• Duration: 6 seconds
• Combo Field: Water
• Radius: 240

CHANNELER MODE OVERVIEW
Activating Channeler Mode (base skill-set F4) changes the Ritualist’s Weapon skills and F-skills. While in Channeler Mode, the Ritualist suffers a mana drain of 200 mana every ¼ second which negates the Ritualist’s natural mana regneration. In Channeler Mode, the Ritualist’s Soulbound Spirit manifests itself as a ghost-like, humanoid figure at his or her side (as does a Ranger’s pet). The first three Weapon Skills in Channeler Mode are determined by the selected Soulbound Spirit while the last 2 are determined by the weapons that the player is actively wielding. The 4 skill is determined by the off-hand weapon while the 5 skill is determined by the main-hand. Two-handed weapons provide both a 4 and 5 skill.

The F1 and F2 skills are determined by the Soulbound Spirit, but follow roughly the same fomula across all Soulbound Spirit options. The F3 skill is always [Swap], and the F4 skill is always [End Channeler Mode] which will remove the Soulbound Spirit from battle and flip the Ritualist’s weapon and F-skills back to normal. When Channeler Mode ends (either by the Ritualist exhausting his mana supply or by ending it with F4), the F4 skill in Ritualist Mode that allows the player to enter Channeler Mode enters into a 10-second cool-down.

CHANNELER MODE F-SKILLS
The F1 and F2 Channeler Mode skills act like Ranger pet skills. Soulbound Spirits have generic move-sets that they will use regularly against a designated opponent. To keep the Ritualist and the Soulbound Spirit fighting in tandem, many skills in Channeler Mode are designed to lock a Soulbound Spirit onto the designated target akin to the Ranger F1 skill. It’s safe to say that if a Channeler Mode skill’s description includes the words “towards/at your target,” that it locks your Soulbound Spirit onto that target.

SEND -SPIRIT NAME- (F1)
[Send -Spirit name-] skills are toned-down version of the respective [Send] Soulbound Spirit Command skill with another difference being that your Spirit directly attacks a targeted enemy instead of allowing the player a ground-targeted AoE option.

• Cast-time: 0 (instant; can be activated while performing other actions)
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Your Soulbound Spirit charges at your target, unleashing its power.
• Range: 450

DRAW -SPIRIT NAME- (F2)
[Draw -Spirit name-] skills are commands that cause your Soulbound Spirit to perform a charging attack towards the player. These skills allow the Ritualist to deal linear AoE damage to multiple enemies so long as the Ritualist can line up the enemies properly between himself and his Soulbound Spirit. These skills can also be used to quickly extract a Soulbound Spirit from dangerous situations such as large, incoming AoE damage.

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Your Soulbound Spirit charges towards you, damaging foes in its path and evading attacks.
• Evasion: ¾ second
• Range: 450

SWAP (F3)
This skill will not produce any effect if a Ritualist’s Soulbound Spirit is outside of the skill radius. The Ritualist functions as the radius’ center.

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Instantly switch positions with your Soulbound Spirit.
• Skill radius: 900

Longsword of Vorizun the Mighty

• Mana drain: 1000 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Vorizun the powerful and uncanny assassin, gaining new powers.
  • Weapon Skills: [Draw] —> [Slice] -->;[Jagged Strike]; [Lotus Thrust] —>;[Entangling Asp]; [Unsuspecting Strike] -->;[Fox Fangs]; [Blades of Steel]; [Trampling Ox]

Draw (1-1)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Bash your foe with the hilt of your blade.
• Damage: 125
• Range: 150

Slice (1-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Slice your foe’s body, inflicting bleeding.
• Damage: 125
• Bleeding (1): 3 seconds
• Range: 150

Jagged Strike (1-3)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Lead Attack. Slice your foe again, inflicting bleeding.
• Damage: 125
• Bleeding (1): 3 seconds
• Range: 150
  • Upon using a Lead Attack, all other Weapon Skills that are defined as Lead Attacks chain into their subsequent skill.

Lotus Thrust (2-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Lead Attack. Stab your foe, inflicting weakness and poison.
• Damage: 250
• Weakness: 3 seconds
• Poison: 3 seconds
• Range: 150

Entangling Asp (2-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 12 seconds
• Off-hand Attack. Poison, bleed and immobilize your foe.
• Poison: 3 seconds
• Bleeding (1): 5 seconds
• Immobilize: 2 seconds
• Range: 600

Unsuspecting Strike (3-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Lead Attack. Shadowstep to your foe and deliver a staggering slice.
• Damage: 375
• Bleeding (3): 3 seconds
• Range: 600

Fox Fangs (3-2)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 10 seconds
• Off-hand Attack. Leap at your foe and deliver a quick strike.
• Damage: 500
• Range: 400
  • Ranger [Kick].

Blades of Steel

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Finisher. Leap in a target direction, slashing foes in your path while reflecting projectiles.
• Damage: 425
• Combo Finisher: Leap
• Range: 450
  • Warrior’s [Whirlwind Attack].
  • Finishers remain blocked from use until a player uses an Off-hand Attack. Using a Finisher will both re-lock any other active Finishers and flip all active Off-hand Attacks back to their Lead Attack skills.

Trampling Ox

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Finisher. Strike your foe. If your foe was suffering from a condition, you also knock that foe down.
• Damage: 475
• Knock-down: 2 seconds
• Range: 150

Nurvus.2891:

The only things I think you should add to your suggestion are:
- “Ashes” skills should have more presence. They should either change Weapon Skill functions (at least the auto-attack); or change F skill functions (at least 1).
They should also have passive effect while held, and the usual effect when dropped.
The second press of the Ash skill would Drop them.
- Multiple spells that interact with the Spirits, just like in GW1.

I was actually planning on designing a few traits with this thread among which would be included a few that effectively do what you’ve described for the Item Spells that I’ve laid out.

Nurvus.2891:

Not saying I agree entirely with the way weapon skills are done by ANet, but for the sake of consistency, some Spirits should be tied to Weapons.
Like 2 Spirits for 2handed weapons, and 1 spirit per hand for 1handed weapons.
There would also be Spirits available as Utility (and maybe even Healing).

This was actually my very first idea when it came to fleshing out the Ritualist. Spirits were determined by your weapons and were instant-activation skills that players could still channel for more benefits. I’ll attach the related picture to this post. Regardless, I went with the active stand version with this thread because I thought that the idea of teaming up with a spirit bro to punch your foes to death with mist energy was more fun. Furthermore, I decided that the Spirit-controlling abilities (teleport here, swap places, ect) were best sprinkled throughout the entire profession instead of contained within the profession mechanic.

However, I do understand your practical concerns. They worry me a bit too.

Nurvus.2891:

A skill that would be interesting, would be one that binds a player to a Binding Ritual, preventing him from moving outside of a certain radius of the ritual. Like a gigantic Ring of Warding (Guardian Hammer 5th skill).
It could actually display spectral chains linking the player to the ritual.
It might spawn something damageable at the ritual location, like the spot where the chains meet the ground, that if destroyed ends the effect.

This is actually really cool and I might try to fit it in somewhere (maybe for one or two of the spirits I’ve already designed since I was planning on going back over them already). I like the idea of being bound to a Spirit; not because it limits a Ritualist’s movement, but because if you have a direct tether to that Spirit, the skills that can be associated with that tether can lead to some really crazy play like shooting from one location right back to your spirit and vice versa.

Got another Item Spell utility filled in and also finished off the last of the Rite utility skills. I think I’ll end up making a new thread so I can actually chain all these things together in a neater manner than they are now.

Gnat.9405:

I commend you on your attention to detail and thoughtfulness to the profession, but I think this is too complicated for practical play, especially in the heat of GW2 combat.

I thought about a strategy to implement the Ritualist, and I thought an interesting way to do so would be having only 4 spirits (F1-4) and your weapon deciding the playstyle and abilties of those spirits.

An idea similar to that also occurred to me, and to be honest, it seems that out of the most people who’ve been vocal about the Ritualist coming to GW2 that that idea might be the one upon most people collectively agree as a promising GW2 Ritualist profession paradigm. I guess I just took my own road. I am aware of ANet’s whole “burden of intelligence” nonsense and how they are more open to simple ideas than what I’ve outlined in this thread. However, given that this thread already exists and that I have no real urge to stop, I’ll press on.

GKC.3851:

Ok well first off I use a phantasm harass build on my Mesmer in tournaments.

That sort of build is exactly what I wanted to avoid with the Ritualist. I don’t want Spirits to do the work for the Ritualist, I want the Ritualist to work with the Spirits to inflict spikes, support allies, and generally manage the battlefield. Since Spirits have either AoEs with limited ranges or attacks that aren’t enough to deal extreme damage to opponents, the Ritualist has to manage both their locations on the battlefield as well as his opponent’s location in order to keep his target where he wants him: in a place where he’s going to take damage from Spirits and where the Ritualist can best benefit from Spirit presence (hence all of the pulls and spirit relocation skills). This also doesn’t mean that the Ritualist can’t inflict damage by himself. The guy has a weapon. I haven’t even gotten around to designing those yet, either. Regardless, the ultimate goal of the Ritualist is to turn every open field into a tight corner for his opponent, not spam Spirits and let them do 8k damage/instantly drain an opponent’s dodges from 1200 range while he putters about in stealth for a few seconds.

And, again, I think you seem to be ignoring the Channeler mode entirely. The Channeler mode is primarily the burst/CC mode of the Ritualist. Most importantly, all Ritualists have Channeler mode. Individual Ritualist Channeler modes will vary depending on weapon choice and Soulbound Spirit choice, but in the end, they will all include some hard-hitting attacks that can turn battles. I’ve also been keeping in mind how some players may not want to even use Binding Rituals or would prefer to focus on the Channeler mode aspect of the Ritualist. This is why I’ve included Soulbound Spirit Commands, Rifts, Signets and Item Spells.

GKC.3851:

but a lot of this is covered by engineers or the traits you can put into them.

Are you referring to turrets? If you are, once again, I have to say that the Spirits I’ve designed collectively have a lot more combat options than the collective abilities of Engineer turrets. That doesn’t even cover what it would take to make turrets more playable in the first place (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Engineer-Comprehensive-Suggestion-List/first#post2092039; check down towards the bottom of the thread). I know that devs don’t really listen to us and I understand what it must sound like to hear me effectively saying “But listen to my idea!” over and over again, but several summons in GW2 are already flawed in a balance aspect due to their permanency. There are a lot of summons in this game that would do well to exploit a “throw-away” paradigm that gives you a short life with a high reward.

GKC.3851:

So you want a class that micro manages immovable spirits on top of the basic reactionary stuff players need to know. That sounds very complicated, which can be good, but it also creates a harsh learning curve.

This game’s engine deserves more than what it receives from its developers.

If you’re looking for a more concrete example of Ritualist game-play, then the closest thing that I can think of would probably be Engineer Bomb Kit combat in PvP. It’s all about managing your opponent’s movement. It takes on-the-fly planning, and it’s something that most “meta” builds just don’t need to do. I’m pretty much looking at that play-style and designing a profession around it so as to make the thing viable.

NickDollahZ.5348:

I rather they just give us the stability from the Elixir save the transformation most of the times. Not sure how balanced that would be though lol. I was meaning to comment on this mega thread but havent gotten around to it. Also dont think that post will fit into 1. lol

This was actually the solid, simple solution that a guild mate suggested to me some months ago. It would honestly make the skill infinitely better and more intuitive (you could actually use your Elite at a proper time now—imagine that!). Flavor only gets you so far (as seen with most gadgets). The only reason I made that chart was because I thought that Elixir X can really be a genuinely good elite all of its own and not just something that literally gives you a 50% chance of copy-pasting another profession’s sub-par elite. I mean, my version is still uses the copy-paste paradigm, but the options are much wider, thus giving the player more ways to respond to a given combat situation.

I know that your suggestion wouldn’t really make Elixir X a genuinely good or unique elite skill (no offense at all), but if push came to shove and my idea were thrown out for whatever reason, I’d definitely back your idea.

GKC.3851:

Ok so you answered one of my questions. My other question still stands. How is the ritualist different than other classes currently. I’ll go through a list to see what kind of summons we got currently.
… … …

So I ask again, what can your ritualist do that none of these can? I had a hard time thinking about this myself. Keep in mind, try and stick with simple abilities and the standard boons/conditions. I tried to do this myself and I came up with nothing. I really do wish you the best of luck but the game designers did a great job on their classes.

Most summons at the moment behave more like a fog around a the player that summoned them than an actual extension of that player. They’re something that you just sort of have to wade through. They don’t move well, they don’t attack specific targets on command well and they often die very easily. Warrior banners are sort of a different beast and I would honestly say that they’re currently the strongest summon in the game given their reliability on actually have a constant effect on a battle (especially after their recent buff).

As for Ritualist spirits, I’m still planning on going over them to maybe give them abilities more unique than simple boons or damage, but on the whole they aren’t terribly different than current summons. I will say though, that collectively they have a wider range of abilities than something like Necromancer minions, Ranger spirits or even Engineer turrets. While those summons are primarily focused on damage and CC, the Spirits I’ve listed above have several support options that can give allies footholds in battle. It’s not about making them completely different from other profession summons, but giving the Ritualist options that other professions do not have.

However, what IS different is how this entire Ritualist profession is designed around handling them on the battlefield. There is not a single profession in this game (aside from Ranger and even with that profession, your options are incredibly limited) that has skills outside of their summons that can direct summon movement or skills that benefit from being near summons. That’s the difference with the Ritualist. The plan was to include at least 1 skill in every weapon skill set that allowed the Ritualist to move his or her active Spirits in a deliberate and calculated manner.

Furthermore, we have the Channeler mode, which gives you a spirit that aims to be a second body for the Ritualist on the battlefield. You can swap places with it, direct it to places, have it attack specific targets and, most importantly of all, execute a combination attack with it. I haven’t gotten along to actually writing down those abilities yet, but they’re very concrete ideas that could be executed in GW2 if expressed properly.

GKC.3851:

Alright well you put a lot of thought into this, but your presentation is bad. All I see is jargon.
What is it that you want a ritualist to be able to do?
How is it different from the classes we already have?
… … …

The attached picture effectively inspired this thread: that idea being Ritualists in GW2 could wield Spirits as characters do Stands in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (curse me that the idea is reference-dependent). However, I’ll open with what I believe to be a succinct summary of my ideas in this thread:

Ritualist

• Spirits and Rifts control battlefield movement with boons, damage and CC
• Channeler mode gives Ritualists a way to quickly and directly strike opponents
• Soulbound Spirits give Ritualists a variety of play-style options when it comes to the Channeler aspect of the profession
• Unbind skills allow Ritualists to turn Spirits into mini bombs to boost allies or threaten opponents when keeping them around as totems/turrets just isn’t enough
• A lot of skills that either re-position Spirits or move enemies towards Spirits to ensure that the Ritualist can position properly for powerful Unbind combos or so that the Ritualist can better control battlefield flow

In short, the GW2 Ritualist is a semi-mobile, area control class with relatively a fast set-up time, a plethora of play-style options, and a guaranteed hard-hitting, fast-acting damage option in Channeler mode (which is where the “stand” thing comes in). In essence, it’s the Ritualist from GW1, but with more mobility, more CC options and a reliable damage option that isn’t drawn out over many seconds due to long cast-times and no way to mitigate them (Item Spells in GW1 negated staff/scepter mods). The whole thing is pretty much a transliteration of the GW1 Ritualist into the GW2 play-style.

However, at the same time, I didn’t want to completely abandon the old Ritualist paradigms of support, spirit spam and spike. You also ask the question: “What is the Ritualist supposed to do?” The same question could easily be asked rhetorically about the GW1 Ritualist. That profession was sort of the spoony bard of GW1. The Ritualist did a lot, but he didn’t do anything exceptionally well, and in the end fell into a sort of niche role that fulfilled itself in gimmicky spike teams or as flag runners (at least in pvp). Furthermore, I didn’t want to copy-paste the SoS spirit spammer that everyone saw in GW1 PvE towards the end of the game’s life. Fighting with turrets isn’t exactly fun, engaging or even viable in GW2.

When it got to the Utility Skills, things got a bit crazy with Rifts because I started throwing in things like “replace skill with x” abilities and rifts that messed with enemy player movement. This, again, is all in line with the area control paradigm that fits the Ritualist and his typically immobile Binding Rituals. The goal of a Ritualist in combat is to control opponents while preparing an opening for either another ally can strike for big damage or the Ritualist can unleash devastating Unbind attacks or Channeler mode combinations for damage.

Now, with that said, it might try redesigning a few spirits that I have in mind in order to make them a little more flavorful and more threatening (either with what they do in damage or what they do for allies) on the battlefield. As for the Jargon, that’s just stuff to show that these skills can work and aren’t just all entirely theory about how the Ritualist could work.

Numot.3965:

I have a simple but effective way of making Elixir X a good elite skill; make it give you 15s of chaos armor.

I don’t like Chaos Armor because of its reactive nature. I’d much prefer even what we have now for Elixir X than 15 seconds of Chaos Armor. Using Chaos Armor means you’re going to purposefully let an opponent get hits in on you in order to get some sort of bonus. I’d much rather just try to CC and smash the guy with Rampage or Tornado (as sub-par as those skills are) than let that happen.

Really old idea, but I still hope they do something like this. I’d even push for a “swap a Weapon Skill for a Utility Skill” option (limit 1 Utility Skill per Weapon Skill bar).

I decided to scrap Signet of Creation because signets are generally pretty boring. I added its passive effect to Signet of Binding, though. So that’s a thing now. Also, the third elite is an “Everybody was kung-[kitten] fighting” rift now.
Wow, I’m shocked that the censor edited out that song lyric.

ELITE SKILLS CONTINUED
Mistmarble

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 180
• Elite Rift. Create a rift at your location that replaces the weapon skills of all creatures within it.
• Pulse: 4 seconds
• New skill duration: 4 seconds
• Duration: 16 seconds
• Radius: 480
  • Skills gained: [Feint]; [Leaping Kick]; [Celestial Fist]; [Hurricane]; [Great Shoulder Throw]
  • This skill overwrites a player’s currrent weapon skills with the skills listed above. The new skills do not interfere with the cool-down timers of the skills that they replace. Once used, a Mistmarble skill will flip back to the respective skill that it originally replaced. Each pulse renews the Mistmarble skills. What this means is that any skills not currently replaced by a Mismarble skill will be replaced respectively (according to its position in the weapon skill bar). To this effect, a player may actively be using Mistmarble skills until most or all of them have flipped back. That player then can wait until the next pulse and have those skills replace his or her weapon skills once again. Mistmarble skills that are still in effect (have not be used) when a pulse occurs are not affected (they do not flip into themselves as this might disrupt play). Mistmarble pulses once on creation and once right as it ends in addition to the three pulses in between these two events. Having a Mistmarble skill re-applied through a pulse does not affect its cool-down timer.

Feint

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 4 seconds
• Quickly feign a strike at your foe, dazing and confusing them.
• Daze: ½ second
• Confusion (2): 3 seconds
• Range: 130

Leaping Kick

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 4 seconds
• Leap at your foe to deliver a crippling kick.
• Damage: 150
• Cripple: 2 seconds
• Range: 400
  • Based off of the Ranger’s [Kick] skill.

Celestial Fist

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 8
• Unleash a flurry of punches on targets in front of you. Your first strike stuns your targets. Your final strike burns and knocks back your targets.
• Damage (8x): 900
• Stun: ½ second
• Burning: 3 seconds
• Knock-back: 240
• Range: 150
  • Based off of the Mesmer’s [Blurred Frenzy] skill.

Hurricane

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 12 seconds
• Dash in target direction, knocking back foes in your path.
• Damage: 200
• Knock-back: 240
• Combo Finisher: Whirl
• Range: 450
  • Based off of the Warrior’s [Whirlwind Attack] skill.

Great Shoulder Throw

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Daze and knock your target away from you. If you interrupted a skill, you deal extra damage launch your target instead.
• Damage: 100
• Knock-back: 240
• Interruption damage: 350
• Launch: 400
• Range: 150

Leo G.4501:

Swagg.9236:

I made this some weeks ago. It’s yours to ponder.

…

Interesting ideas there. I’d get rid of the extra utility F4 though.

What would determine the Rush skills? Your weapon combos? If you’re suggesting, again, the ability to choose from a list of options for each, that might be very strong…too strong possibly. That’d basically amount to a 2nd set of utilities.

Yeah, I figured that it would be determined by your weapons. I posted that picture elsewhere and the F4 was also the most unpopular aspect there as well. I don’t really play warrior, but I know how much they are hurting for sustainability in combat as well as general skill options (many warriors often play without a burst skill because of that trait that nets you something like +12% bonus damage for a full adrenaline bar). However, I also realize that warriors are hurting for vigor as well so using Endurance as a resource is probably not a great idea.

Maybe F2 and F3 are determined by your weapons and F4 has all of the options plus the utility skills listed? That also might be really powerful, but, as I said, warriors are hurting for combat options that promote depth of play. Having that many options might also open the door to making underused weapons more viable if supported with the right F4 choice combined with the addition of F2 and F3 skills.

I made this some weeks ago. It’s yours to ponder.

I also had an idea for stances. I feel that stances as they are now are very shallow and predictable. It’d be nice if they were passive channels that were part of a two-part skill chain. By “passive channel,” I mean to say that I feel that stances should be personal, unstrippable boons that pulse the warrior with effects each second. In the case of [Balanced Stance], this means that instead of the Warrior simply getting 8 seconds of stability, the Warrior would instead receive 1 second of stability, every second, for 8 seconds.

Furthermore, to cover the chain-skill aspect of a stance, we can refer back to [Balanced Stance]. I thought that the chain skill could be something like a small heal and condition removal. However, activating the chain skill would instantly cancel the effects of the stance early, so a player would have room to play around with that. I figured that Frenzy’s chain skill could be a leap and I didn’t get around to jotting down other ideas.

2/5 Item Spells are now complete; one of them being an elite skill. I’ll be updating Signet of Creation soon as well.

I’ve also decided to make a little change on how mana degeneration works for Item Spells. I’ve decided that it would be best for mana drain to occur every ¼ second while holding an Item Spell instead of every 1 second. The ¼ second paradigm keeps more in line with the “degeneration” paradigm and gives a more fluid feel to the Ritualist’s mana bar. It also puts more pressure on the Ritualist to think ahead when activating Item Spells since his or her mana will almost instantly begin dropping bit by bit upon activation.

I’m currently trying out a 20/10/20/10/10 build that uses Pistol/Shield with Healing Turret, Rocket Boots, Elixir Gun and Bomb Kit.

Bomb Kit is my main source of damage. My opening move is typically stealthing myself with a [Smoke Bomb] -> [Acid Bomb] combo in order to get within range of my target, and then using [Glue Bomb] on an enemy before going all out with the Bomb Kit. It’s… very mediocre. Bomb Kit is pretty bad in pvp if you can’t manage to completely track your opponent’s movements. The goal is to keep them moving in one direction with Big Ol’ Bomb and knocking down bombs in their path. It’s really difficult since it’s pretty easy to kite the Bomb Kit. Furthermore, if I lose melee range, I have to swap into my ranged options--which are pretty sub-par since I’m mostly geared for straight damage. On the upside, the build has some pretty solid survivability and can sustain itself well in combat. Even nicer is that the build is effectively a hard counter to most melee play. I am still tweaking the stats.

In the end, it’s downsides come from its lack of decent snares (outside of Glue Bomb and Elixir F) despite the fact that wielding the Bomb Kit is like wielding a melee weapon except that your swings are cleaving about 150 range behind you. However, once you’ve got an enemy that is panicked and within melee range, he’s meat in a grinder. Rapid 2k crits with burning and confusion will wreck most anyone’s day, and Big Ol’ Bomb has saved my life on many occasions. Having that thing ticking within range will often turn the tide for you. I’d like to keep working with the build, though, since it’s incredibly versatile and often takes enemies by surprise.

You could also try running the Static Discharge build. I used that as my staple before trying out the Bomb Kit/EG build. It’s very straightforward, yet offers enough versatility for you to weather different opponents. Also its burst is otherworldly. Seriously. Played well, SD can end fights when your opponent is thinking that right now might be a good time to use a healing skill.

Ah, sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier, MonMalthias. An idea did strike me, though. How about this for a general turret overhaul (with my post in mind regarding a turret’s “duration” being typically shorter than its recharge):

REVAMPED TURRET PROPERTIES – MonMalthias.4763
Duration:

• All turrets now have a respective duration. This duration dictates how long they will be active on the field before automatically self-destructing. This automatic self-destruct would be equivalent to the [Detonate -name- Turret] skill (Blast Finisher and all).

Cool-downs

• A turret’s respective cool-down does not begin counting down until that turret has been destroyed. A turret can be destroyed either by an enemy reducing its total HP to 0, the Engineer using the [Detonate -name- Turret] toolbelt skill that appears when a turret is active or if the Engineer simply lets the turret run through its total duration and allowing it to self-destruct on its own.

Picking up a turret

• Picking up a turret with the [interact] button removes the turret from the battlefield as it does now.
• Picking up a turret fully heals that turret and reduces its base cool-down by 75%.

Overcharges

• Overcharges will remain on a cool-down timer separate from their respective turrets’ cool-downs.
• Turrets now have a 75% damage reduction buff while an Overcharge is active.
• If an Engineer activates an Overcharge on a turret, that turret will reset its current skill queue in order to instantly trigger its respective Overcharge attack.
• Turrets will now automatically self-destruct at the end of an Overcharge (this also counts as destroying the turret).
• Overcharges will reset its respective turret’s duration, allowing for a turret to always have a chance to fully execute its entire Overcharge regardless of when an Engineer activates it. As such, using an Overcharge with good timing can be a means to lengthen the lifespan of a turret past its normal duration.
• An Engineer cannot pick up a turret while it is in Overcharge mode.

I figured that letting turrets take some damage during an overcharge would not so much be in the interests of balance, but more in the interests of confusing enemies—if that makes sense at all. I also thought that making turrets invulnerable during Overcharges might be better saved for a trait. I also took your “pick-up to reduce recharge” thought a bit further. I figured that if an Engineer really had to wade through a battle just to pick up a little turret, it better be worth it. More importantly, with a super-short recharge, an Engineer could keep adapting battle lines with turret presence on a more consistent and responsive basis.

HEALING SKILLS
Mend Body and Soul

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Heal yourself. You also cure a condition for each nearby active Binding Ritual Spirit.
• Healing: 4850
• Skill radius: 480

Spirit to Flesh

• Cast-time: 2¾ seconds (channel)
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Mana cost: 1000/per pulse
• Convert your mana energy into health and conditions on you into boons with every pulse.
• Pulse heal: 1000
• Pulse: ½ second
  • Condition-boon conversions use the [Well of Power] conversion chart.

Urn of Kaolai the Protector

• Mana drain: 450 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Kaolai the Ritualist who bested Balthazar to defend a village, gaining new powers.
  • Weapon skills: [Spiritleech Aura]; [Drop]; [Liberty]; [Castling]; [Rift of Warding]

Spiritleech Aura

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 7 seconds
• Mana cost: 1500
• Convert your mana energy into healing for yourself and nearby allies.
• Healing: 80
• Duration: 7 seconds
• Skill radius: 1200
  • Applies a special effect similar to the Elementalist’s [Soothing Mist] to all allies in a 1200 range radius. It stacks neither in duration nor intensity. If a Ritualist applies this affect to allies that already have it, the newest instance of [Spiritleech Aura] cast by said Ritualist simply overwrites the older one (the effect starts over).

Drop

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 25
• Heal yourself.
• Healing: 4900

Liberty

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 60 seconds
• Knock nearby enemies away from you.
• Knock-back: 400
• Radius: 240

Castling

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 60
• Reflect projectiles with spiritual energy.
• Duration: 5 seconds

Rift of Warding

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 90 seconds
• Create a circular rift at your location. Allies inside the rift gain warding.
• Warding: 2 seconds
• Rift pulse: 1 second
• Rift duration: 5 seconds
• Rift radius: 180
• Combo Field: Light
  • Warding is a unique boon that stacks in duration and gives players a 50% chance to gain Aegis (for 1 second) every second. Warding stacks neither in duration nor intensity. Individual instances of warding simply overwrite previous instances.

I like it. Launch is a very powerful CC this isn’t very wide-spread. It still requires quick reflexes, but it also requires patience and restraint. That said, Rocket Boots can break launch while you’re still bouncing about in mid-air.

Well, the Utility Skills are about 50% done now. I say fifty because I’m going to need to come up with a lot of skills for the Item Spells. That said, I already have ideas. I’ll probably do those bit by bit while I try to do what I said I was going to do before all of this (get a picture out that takes the reader through the Binding Ritual process).

RIFTS (Utility Skill sub-class #4)
Rifts are AoE effects that influence movement and control space.

Vacuum

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 45 seconds
• Create a pulsing, circular rift at target location that pulls foes towards it. When the rift expires, it explodes, damaging nearby enemies.
• Damage: 550
• Pulse: 1 second
• Rift duration: 2 seconds
• Pull range: 450
• Radius: 240
• Combo Finisher: Blast
• Range: 900
  • Functions effectively the same as the Rotmouths that pull targets towards their center except that it lasts only 2 seconds. It could even use the same visual cue paired with that of [Eruption] in order to cue the impending explosion (it’s practically the same skill anyway).

Spirit Flight

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 40 seconds
• Create a small, circular rift at target location. Allies that walk onto the rift leap upwards at great height. Enemies that attempt to cross the rift are knocked backwards.
• Knock-back: 240
• Rift duration: 4 seconds
• Range: 900
  • This skill would use the same code as the jump-bumpers in the Aetherblade dungeon and jump puzzle. The total vertical distance would be need to be kept in check so that players couldn’t leap over tower walls in WvW (although, that would be loads of fun).

Roilmaw

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 90
• Create a circular rift at target location to which enemies will be teleported via your entrance portal.
• Rift duration: 60 seconds
• Rift radius: 180
• Range: 900

Hale (Roilmaw’s chain skill)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Create an entrance portal for your rift. Upon creation, it pulses once, attempting to pull nearby enemies into it. Foes that cross the border of this portal are stunned and teleported to the epicenter of your Roilmaw.
• Stun: 1 second
• Pull range: 450
• Rift duration: 8 seconds
• Rift radius: 180
• Range: 900

Renewing Memories

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 75
• Create a linear rift at target location. Enemies that cross the rift have each of their Utility Skills replaced respectively by the skill Path to Renewal.
• Path to Renewal duration: 7 seconds
• Rift duration: 7 seconds
• Combo Field: Ethereal
• Range: 900
  • The skill Path to Renewal does not interfere with the cool-downs of the skills that it replaces.

Path to Renewal

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Re-learn your lost skill. You are crippled, confused and teleport back to the location at which you learned Path of Renewal.
• Cripple: 2 seconds
• Confusion (2): 5 seconds

TURRET OVERHAUL – MonMalthias.4763
Rifle Turret

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Deploy a rifle turret that shoots at foes.
• Damage: 476
• Rate of Fire: 2 seconds
• Attack Range: 1000
• Duration: 20 seconds

Automatic Fire (Rifle Turret overcharge)

• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Overcharge your Rifle Turret to fire a burst of bleeding shots that pierce targets.
• Rate of Fire increase: 100%
• Bleeding (2): 3 seconds
• Duration: 4 seconds

Rocket Turret

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Deploy a turret that fires rockets.
• Damage: 794
• Burning: 3 seconds
• Rate of Fire: 4 seconds
• Blast radius: 240
• Attack Range: 1200
• Duration: 15 seconds

Explosive Rockets (Rocket Turret overcharge)

• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Overcharge your turret to fire explosive rockets.
• Damage: 1270
• Burning: 3 seconds
• Rate of Fire: 4 seconds
• Knockdown: 2 s
• Duration: 7 s
• Blast radius: 240
• Attack Range: 1200

I actually didn’t… do much work at all on these now that I’ve posted them. It’s only Rifle and Rocket for now just in order to promote some discussion.

The only things that I did were some minor adjustments related to recharges. I also added a “duration” to each of the turrets to signify that they have a time-limit before they self-destruct. Honestly, the more I think about it, Monmalthias, your idea seems pretty self-contained as it is. It works really well in making turrets much more active-use abilities. I’m a little unsure about how long you personally thought about making the individual “count-down timers,” as you put it. I just sort of guessed on it and scaled the recharges in accordance with damage, overcharge capability and general threat on the battlefield.

MonMalthias.4763:

What if turrets were instead balanced around them being fully disposable?
[All of your ideas]

I’M THROWING MONEY AT THE SCREEN, BUT NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I’m so glad that you posted this here. I actually had a radical idea for turrets myself a while back that involved doubling turrets as environmental weapons that Engineers could pick up and set down again at their leisure. I never got around to posting that.

However, your idea is not only more in-line with the Engineer flavor, but much more active than running to a turret, picking it up and then fiddling with more skills. It also seems a much simpler solution. I’m going to reflect on your post and I’ll probably throw up a theoretical Turret skill overhaul (just one or two skills) later on to see if I can hit the mark you drew up with your idea. I’d love to hear your feedback after the fact, but seriously, yours is a solid idea. It just needs a little more fleshing out to really be top class.

ELITE SKILLS
Ritual Lord

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 150 seconds
• Elite Rite. All of your active Binding Ritual Spirits die, all of your Binding Rituals instantly recharge and you gain 5 stacks of Attunement. For 15 seconds, you have no limit on the amount of Binding Ritual Spirits that you can maintain at a single time. When this effect ends, all of your Binding Ritual Spirits die.

Staff of Togo

• Mana drain: 450 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Master Togo the hero of Cantha, gaining new powers.
  • Skills gained: [Rebind]; [Spirit Boon Strike]; [Claw of the Angchu] —> [Sensali Swoop]; [Call to the Spirit Realm]; [Spirit Circle]

Rebind

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 0
• Teleport all spirits in the area that you control to target location.
• Skill radius: 1200
• Range: 1200

Spirit Boon Strike

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 5 seconds
• Strike your enemy with a surge of spiritual energy and heal all Binding Ritual Spirits in the area.
• Damage: 250
• Spirit healing: 3000
• Skill radius: 1200
• Range: 1200

Claw of the Angchu

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 50
• Mark up to 3 enemies at target location with the Claw of the Angchu.
• Radius: 180
• Mark duration: 15 seconds
• Range: 1200
  • Chains into another skill: Sensali Swoop

Sensali Swoop

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Pull all enemies in the area that are marked with the Claw of the Angchu to target location.
• Target location’s pull range: 1200
• Target location’s placement range: 1200
  • This skill is ground-targeted and has a linear “wall” targeting marker. The wall has a placement range of 1200 and serves as a targeting system for the pull. From the location at which it is placed, the wall will attempt to pull all targets within its range that are marked with the debuff “Claw of the Angchu” towards itself using the same vector as the Mesmer skill [Into the Void]. This pull has a maximum range of 1200 range units. If an enemy marked with “Claw of the Angchu” is further than 1200 range units from the epicenter of the [Sensali Swoop] AoE circle, the pull will have no effect.

Call to the Spirit Realm

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 90
• Summon three spirits at target location. They attack with bouncing bolts that damage enemies and grant fury to allies.
• Damage: 125
• Fury: 1 second
• Rate of attack: 2 seconds
• Number of bounces: 4
• Duration: 15 seconds
• Range: 1200
  • These spirits are not counted as Binding Ritual Spirits and therefore can exist alongside of other active Binding Rituals already under the Ritualist’s control. The 125 damage reflects the damage caused by a single bolt fired from a single respective spirit. The spirits each have their own respective health pools.

Spirit Circle

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 120 seconds
• Create an enormous rift at your location. Spirit creatures inside this rift gain bound armor and retaliation. Allies within this rift regenerate mana energy and gain regeneration.
• Bound armor: 1 second
• Retaliation: 1 second
• Regeneration: 1 second
• Mana energy gained: 1000
• Pulse: 1 second
• Duration: 10 seconds
• Radius: 1200
  • Bound armor is a unique boon that grants a 99% damage reduction.

SIGNETS (Utility Skill sub-class #3)

Death Pact Signet

• Passive effect: You gain mana when using Summon and Unbind skills.
• Mana gain on skill use: 1000
• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Recharge: 120 seconds
• Revive up to 3 downed allies at the target location. The next time that you or any of those allies’ health falls below 5% within the next 30 seconds, you are downed.
• Range: 1200
  • Applies a unique debuff to each revived player and the Ritualist called Death Pact. While under the effects of Death Pact, nothing happens. However, if one player’s hp falls below 5% of his or her total hp, Death Pact inflicts 50,000 damage to the Ritualist and then ends.

Signet of Binding

• Passive effect: You constantly regenerate extra mana energy.
• Mana gain: 100 points every ¼ second.
• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 25 seconds
• All of your Binding Ritual Spirits within range teleport to target location.
• Skill radius: 1200
• Range: 1200

Signet of Ghostly Might

• Passive effect: Your spirits damage nearby enemies with their presence.
• Damage: 150
• Pulse: 1 second
• Radius: 180
• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 45
• Each one of your active Binding Ritual Spirits in range emits a mighty, spiritual shockwave that damages and launches foes.
• Damage: 500
• Blowout: 300
• Blowout radius: 180
• Skill radius: 600

Signet of Spirits

• Passive effect: Your Binding Ritual Spirits spawn with more health.
• Spirit health bonus: 33%
• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Heal all of your active Binding Ritual Spirits in range and teleport them to your location.
• Spirit healing: 3000
• Skill radius: 1200

RITES (Utility Skill sub-class #2)
Rites are associated with mana management and taking advantage of Binding Ritual Spirits through positioning and consumption.

• “Consume” is a key word associated with Rites. Skills with “consume” in their description automatically attempt to destroy all active Binding Ritual Spirits within their respective “skill radii” upon activation. Consumption can destroy multiple Binding Ritual Spirits at the same time, so the Ritualist must take care when activating these skills if there are Spirits nearby that he or she does not want to destroy.

Ghostmirror

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30
• Mana cost: 2500
• Break stun. If you were nearby a Binding Ritual Spirit that you control, you exchange places with it and gain 5000 mana.
• Skill radius: 900
• Breaks stun
  • “Skill radius” describes the “spirits within range” part of this skill’s description. In the case of [Ghostmirror], the skill will determine first whether or not there is an active Binding Ritual Spirit within 900 range (using the Ritualist as a focal point). If the skill does indeed detect any number of spirits, it confirms which one (out of a hypothetical infinite number of Spirits) is the closest in proximity to the Ritualist. After determining which Spirit meets these criteria, it swaps the Ritualist with the Binding Ritual Spirit. If [Ghostmirror] determines that there are no Spirits within its effetive radius that are under control of the Ritualist that activated it, then nothing happens and the Ritualist simply breaks stun.

Soul Twisting

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 25
• Mana cost: 3000
• Consume nearby Binding Ritual Spirits that you control. You gain Attunement. If you consumed a Spirit, you also break stun and gain 4000 mana.
• Skill radius: 180
  • “Attunement” is a key word that describes a unique boon that stacks in intensity. Each instance of Attunement has a fixed duration of 5 minutes. Attunement makes your next Binding Ritual activate instantly.

Feast of Souls

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 60
• Mana cost: 2500
• Consume nearby Binding Ritual Spirits that you control. Break stun, gaining regeneration and vigor. If you consumed a Spirit, you gain both 4000 mana and a skill based on that Spirit’s nature.
• Regeneration: 10 seconds
• Vigor: 5 seconds
• Skill radius: 180
• Breaks stun
  • If you consume a Spirit with this skill, it chains into another skill.
  • The chain skills stay active for 10 seconds respectively and do not interfere with the cool-down of [Feast of Souls] (as is the case in the [Shadowstep] skill chain).

Channeled Strike (if you destroyed a Channeling Spirit)

• Cast-time: 1½ seconds
• Channel the fury of your destroyed spirit, inflicting enormous damage and launching your target through the air.
• Damage: 800
• Launch: 450
• Range: 1200

Tanasen’s Sanctuary (if you destroyed a Communing Spirit)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• You gain Attunement and form a protective shelter at your location. Foes and projectiles cannot enter.
• Sanctuary duration: 3 seconds
• Sanctuary radius: 240

Spirit Transfer (if you destroyed a Restoration Spirit)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Heal and convert up to 3 conditions into boons on allies at target location.
• Healing: 1200
• Radius: 240
• Range: 900
  • [Spirit Transfer]’s condition-boon conversions use the [Well of Power] conversion table.

Offering of Spirit

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Bleed yourself and gain 5000 mana. If you were nearby a spirit when you used this skill, you also cure 3 conditions and break stun.
• Self-bleeding (5): 5 seconds
• Skill radius: 600

Longbow of Khanhei the Vengeful

• Mana drain: 700 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Khanhei the spiteful strategist, gaining new powers.
  • Weapon Skills: [Sundering Arrow]; [Keen Arrow]; [Spiritwalk Arrow] —> [Spiritwalk]; [Savage Shot]; [Spite]

Sundering Arrow

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 0
• Fire an arrow at your foe that inflicts vulnerability.
• Damage: 200
• Vulnerability (2): 4 seconds
• Range: 1000

Keen Arrow:

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Fire an arrow at your foe that bleeds your foe. If you strike your target’s flank, you also immobilize them and steal some health.
• Damage: 125
• Bleeding (3): 4 seconds
• Flank damage: 175
• Flank healing: 175
• Flank immobilize: 2 seconds
• Range: 1000

Spiritwalk Arrow (3-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 20 seconds
• Fire an arrow, creating a pulsing field at target location that damages foes and pulls all nearby spirits that you control to its location. You may teleport to the arrow’s location if you wish.
• Pulse damage: 80
• Pulse: 1 second
• Duration: 6 seconds
• Arrow’s pull radius: 600
• Field radius: 240
• Combo Field: Ethereal
• Range: 1000

Spiritwalk (3-2)

• Cast-time: 0
• Teleport to your arrow’s location.
  • This chain skill stays active as long as the Spiritwalk Arrow field is active.

Savage Shot

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 20
• Fire an arrow that dazes your target. If you interrupted a skill, you also steal health from your target.
• Base damage: 150
• Interruption damage: 400
• Interruption healing: 400
• Daze: 1 second
• Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
• Range: 1000

Spite

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Create a pulsing rift at target location that damages foes while granting healing and Retaliation to allies.
• Damage: 75
• Pulse healing: 150
• Retaliation: 2 seconds
• Pulse: 1 second
• Radius: 240
• Duration: 5 seconds
• Combo Field: Light

Fan of Lee Sa the Lively

• Mana drain: 200 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Lee Sa the energetic monk, gaining new powers.
  • Weapon Skills: [Wind Cutter]; [Mana Tornado]; [Whirlwind] —> [Backdraft]; [Vortex] -->[Spirit Pull]; [Clamorgust]

Wind Cutter

• Cast-time: ¾ second
• Cast out a wheel of air that bleeds foes and returns to you.
• Damage: 100
• Bleeding (1): 2 seconds
• Range: 900
  • [Vapor Blade].

Mana Tornado

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Cast out a tornado that strikes foes and returns to you. You gain mana for each foe that it hits.
• Damage: 175
• Mana gained per hit: 800

Whirlwind (3-1)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Whirl in target direction, evading attacks while crippling and blinding foes in your path.
• Damage: 150
• Cripple: 2 seconds
• Blind: 3 seconds
• Range: 450

Backdraft (3-2)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Roll backwards, knocking back foes in your path. Using this ability increases the skill’s recharge time by 100%.
• Damage: 100
• Knock-back: 240
• Radius: 180
  • [Withdraw] retreating roll.

Vortex (4-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Pull foes to you with a powerful backdraft.
• Damage: 150
• Range: 450
  • [Backdraft] with a shorter range and a cast-time.

Spirit Pull (4-2)

• Cast-time: 0
• Teleport all Spirits in the area that you control to your location.
• Skill range: 1200

Clamorgust

• Cast-time: 1 second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Create a linear rift at target location. Foes that pass through this rift have their first weapon skill replaced by the skill Manic Soul.
• Rift duration: 5 seconds
• Mania duration: 3 seconds

Manic Soul

• Cast-time: ½ second
• You become confused and charge directly forward, venting your built up energy.
• Self-confusion (2): 5 seconds
• Range: 450

ITEM SPELLS (Utility Skill sub-class #1)
Item Spells are bundles that function akin to Engineer Kits except that Item Spells drain certain amounts of mana energy every ¼ second while active. To this effect, they cause mana degeneration and have a soft-capped time-limit for their skills that depends on your mana energy level. Furthermore, a Ritualist cannot wield an Item Spell while in Channeler mode. If a Ritualist enters Channeler mode while actively wielding an Item Spell, that item spell will be automatically de-equipped so as to activate that Ritualist’s proper Channeler mode weapon skills. There is no limit to the number of Item Spells that a Ritualist can equip. When wielding Item Spells, Ritualists wield different weapons or items to reflect that they are using an Item Spell.

Cutlass of Glaive the Raider

• Mana drain: 700 every ¼ second
• Channel the weapon of Glaive the Elonian corsair, gaining new powers.
  • Weapon Skills: [Hack] —> [Crack] --> [Cyclone Slash]; [Pursue]; [Moor] —> [Sail]; [Broadside]

Hack (1-1)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Hack your foe.
• Damage: 225 (1.0)
• Range: 130

Crack (1-2)

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Crack your foe with the hilt of your cutlass.
• Damage: 200 (1.0)
• Range: 130

Cyclone Slash (1-3)

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Whirl in place and strike all adjacent enemies. You can move while performing this attack.
• Damage (2x): 200 (1.3)
• Combo Finisher: Whirl (20% chance)
• Radius: 180

Pursue

• Cast-time: ¼ second
• Recharge: 8 seconds
• Leap at your foe to deliver a crippling kick.
• Damage: 275 (1.0)
• Cripple: 3 seconds
• Range: 400

Bombardment

• Cast-time: ¾ seconds
• Recharge: 15 seconds
• Call down spiritual firebombs at your location to damage foes.
• Damage: 100 (1.0)
• Burning: 1 second
• Pulse: 1 second
• Radius: 240
• Combo Field: Fire
• Duration: 4 seconds

Moor (4-1)

• Cast-time: 0
• Recharge: 20
• Bind nearby Spirits that you control to yourself. Marked spirits follow you.
• Skill radius: 600
• Mark duration: 15 seconds

Sail (4-2)

• Cast-time: 0
• Your marked Spirits charge at your target, damaging nearby foes when the reach their destination.
• Damage: 150 (0.5)
• Radius: 180
• Range: 600

Broadside

• Cast-time: ½ second
• Recharge: 30 seconds
• Unleash a wave of energy that damages, cripples and knocks foes backwards.
• Damage: 300 (1.0)
• Cripple: 3 seconds
• Knock-back: 240
• Range: 400

Kalan.9705:

Lol’ed at this part

I’m glad you enjoyed it because what follows gives me a migraine reading over it again, haha. I still stand by most of it. I will say that I really like your original list of questions. They strike at serious points of contention regarding the Engineer class and GW2 in general, and I don’t really have anything to add (except for a bump) beyond what you’ve already set up there.

Kalan.9705:

Anyway it’s a good thread, don’t let some differences of opinions demotivate you.

I won’t, and honestly thanks for your input. Whether or not I agree all of the time with someone, it doesn’t mean that they can’t inspire new ideas or help finish ones already floating up in the air.

Speaking of which, I sort of like your idea of making every Overcharge a Blast Finisher. However, I sort of have two worries about that: it would make the [Detonate] option sort of a wasted slot; and giving Engineers a free Blast Finisher with every Turret might be just a little broken—maybe not. The other thing you suggested was just remove the [Detonate] skill and replace it with skills that produced different combo-fields based on the associated turret. This could be cool (I personally love combos in this game), but if we removed the [Detonate] skill, it might be difficult to move about a field with Turrets. Since they don’t blow up on their own, Engineers would be forced to retreat to their placed turrets and pick them up manually before moving to a different area. If there is a range that triggers turret auto-detonation, then it’s HUGE—maybe something like 10,000 range or something which is honestly too big to warrant not having some sort of remote detonation skill.

However, even with all that, I still feel that turrets can be made viable without adjusting how they react to damage—although, it’s certainly a valid solution. I was thinking of how turrets could be redesigned. Flame Turret, for instance, is one of the worst. I think that its main issue is its very short range and lack of hp. If it had a longer range, then it might be more viable. However, extending a flamethrower effect to something like 900 range would be crazy. So maybe it could fire a blob of napalm at passing enemies that exploded on impact and created a fire combo field that burns foes for 3 seconds before disappearing? Those are the sort of changes that I would like to personally see come to turrets.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It doesn’t get anything done. Even if it’s a distinct possibility that no dev will read this thread, I know that it is up here and I’ve done what I can to help.

Oh, right, speaking of which, I’ve made a new suggestion for Napalm. There have been a few suggestions for this before, but I now do think that changing it to something like the Elementalist skill [Burning Speed] would be a better place to go with it. It very much compliments how the Flamethrower functions.

Czar Peter.7961:

Here’s how we can fix turrets: Put wheels and rotors on them so they follow you around like minions.

I think turrets could be fine if the Overcharges were just re-coded to interrupt and clear their current skill queue so that Engineer’s didn’t have to wait for their turrets to cycle through their current attack in order to activate a turret Overcharge. That would make them infinitely more responsive. As stationary weapons, they are alright in how they help to define battlefield lines. They can extend your range, make enemies worry excessively and sometimes even make them waste skills or dodges. If Overcharges had instantaneous activation, Engineer’s could even use Turrets as second bodies, placing them away from their actual location in order to attack from two places at once with Overcharge attacks.

Kalan.9705:

A lot of effort went into this thread. A few suggestions:
Move downed 2 to replace rifle 4 with 4’s damages but pull in and no self-cc crap.
Move downed 3 to downed 2, with 2’s timer.
Put supply drop on downed 3, with 3’s timer.
Then we have downed more in line with the quickly updated elementalist skills, our current are garbage.
Unbreak rifle 5 so the animation completed within 0.6 seconds, with out the useless hang time.
Update rifle 5 to 1200 range to be in line with warrior charge etc.
Elixir gun 3 cleanses user and 600% damage increase so it hits like a normal skill.
EG 5 changed back to decent heal.
EG2 doubled flight speed, with 2 more bounces.
EG1 doubled bleed stacks.
FT5 changed back to backdraft, or smoke field.
FT4 movement skill, ground targeted, leaves line of fire path, ring of fire at arrival.
FT1 is 10% chance projectile finisher.
Grenades are 4% chance blast finisher.
Grenades flight speed increased by 75%.
Toolkit 1 ranged auto attack, 700 range.
Toolkit 2 instant cast.
TK5 0.5 sec cast like scorpion wire.
Chainsaw kit added, something like warrior great sword.
Power gloves kit added, something like guardian mace + shield.
Kit refinement replaced with passive infinite effects while X kit is worn, no random cd crap.
Elixirs updated to work more like shouts.
Turrets 96% aoe immune. Targeted on that turret then those skills hit them normally.
All turret health doubled.
All turret cd’s under 20 secs, 60sec etc is ridiculous for stationary dumb object.
Trait revamp, over 50% of traits are currently worthless, and need replacing. Many of the other 50% need to be merged.

… Some of these suggestions seem just plain unreasonable.

Grenades are fine as they are.

I’ve already said that raising turret hp is not the solution to making them more intuitive to use—which should be the goal with all pet skills. I’ve already addressed Overcharge skills. Making turrets effectively immune to AoE is not the route to go. Once again, it’s not about their hp, it’s about how unresponsive their most powerful skills are. That is what is making them bad.

Tool Kit is amazing as it is—absolutely great. It’s only flaw is [Box of Nails] which I feel that I’ve already appropriately addressed.

ANet should really fix their current skills and traits before adding in more.

Rifle is pretty good as it is. [Jump Shot] doesn’t need a range extension, just some help with the AoE—and even that isn’t really necessary.

FT1 should not be a finisher of any kind: too many hits. It’s already good enough for proccing crit triggers. Your FT4 suggestion… are you actually saying that Engineer FT should get two powerful Elementalist skills wrapped into a single skill? I’ve considered the idea of turning Napalm into a [Burning Speed]-esque skill, though. I might make that suggestion.

EG is pretty fine as it is. EG2 getting a speed buff to its projectile and also EG1 getting another bleed stack might be interesting, though.

Engineer. downed skills. are. fine. I don’t know why I see so much griping about this topic.

Did someone say Monk? GW2 Monk? You mean a D&D-style fisticuffs guy in light armor that goes around at high-speeds with leaps, charges and dashes in order to beat foes up with his bare hands Monk?

Yeah, sounds good.