Guild Wars 2

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Radnar.9814:

Anet famously does not give a crap about Rangers…

Funny that I keep reading this about every class on every forum.

My thoughts exactly. Every time I go looking for a class to main, all I’m met with on the forums is “DON’T DO IT, WE SUCK AND WILL NEVER GET BETTER”.

Funny, every other class seems to be saying they’re useless/nearing uselessness, too. I wonder, which class ISN’T dead and pointless to use?

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Tskales.2804:

They still need to make pet names permanent.

That has gone unfinished since launch.

That’s fixed. Tested myself with We Todd Ed jungle stalker.

Doesn’t seem to be the case for me. Did you perhaps have the Jungle Stalker slotted into your Aquatic Pet slots?

Unfortunately, I would imagine that they have no system in place for remembering the names of unslotted pets. Making a system for it would take manhours, not to mention that the names would have to be stored either on ArenaNet’s own servers (which could add up in regards to filesize and data transfer, though admittedly not very much) or on the client’s computer (which could, potentially, open things up to abuse in the case of particularly clever individuals). As much as I’d love to have all of my pets’ names saved, I don’t foresee it ever happening. Would delight in being proven wrong, though.

borya.2964:

And since the glyphs have absolutly no use in their own profession, it’s a bit scary.

I’m a bit concerned about that, too. For Elementalists, it’s not exactly that the effects of Glyphs aren’t worthwhile, it’s that the cooldowns attached are absolutely NOT fitted to such effects. So long as we don’t get the one-cast-every-two-battles bullhockey that Elementalist Glyphs have, though, I can see them offering some very nice versatility and potency.

Valento.9852:

Thanks for those who took the poll. It has surpassed 1k votes. It displays they should review the mechanics itself before moving on with the elite spec IMO.

That’s a little misleading to say, given that each people can vote on up to 18 things per submission… Not saying that Tempest doesn’t need to be looked at, but the poll hasn’t gotten a thousand individual people voting on it. X) The totals do indicate the biggest trouble areas, though.

Though, admittedly, the people most prone to coming to the forums are the ones with the biggest bone to pick, so negativity is to be expected. End-of-the-world “the sky is falling” kind of stuff will generally reign supreme, so the top results are all the things that are strongly-worded and opposed to numerical tweaks versus an absolute overhaul.

Yeah, Druid’s already been determined unless they planted the datamined trait there to throw everyone off. XD BUT, for future specializations, that’d certainly be cool!

While it’s certainly fun to show off, that isn’t my goal, no. :P I follow a pretty heavy tech-y theme, right down to naming my pets things like Pneumatic Holepunch and Motorized Staplegun. The Incinerator’s skin is PERFECT for that, but the other available Legendaries don’t really match up.

Thanks for the answers, y’all. I’ll see if I can practice with it in PvP and perhaps WvW roaming, just to have an excuse to use it. :P

Mainhand Shield.

I WANT TO DUAL WIELD THEM.

I mean, is it ever the best option for any particular build? Is it ever the backbone, or at least part of it?

I love love love the skin on Incinerator, but it’d be a terrible waste to go for it if it wouldn’t actually be used all that much.

I don’t want to see healing drift away from the Med Kit… I want to see the Med Kit become an amazing choice for healing. Changing the packs to be one-per-person buff stations and MASSIVELY boosting the healing amount on Skill 1 so that the Engineer’s decision to not deal damage is properly rewarded with outstanding team support.

Well, the other Elites revealed thus far haven’t had HUGE changes made to their mechanics. Tempests still change Attunement, they can just re-attune to the one they’re in for an extra attack. Reapers still enter Death Shroud, it just has a different moves while staying as a transformation. Dragonhunter still have their basically-Signets, just with somewhat changed effects. And Chronomancer keeps all their shatters, just with an extra button tacked on.

So, I imagine that the basic function of each Tool belt ability will remain the same. Maybe they’ll just all be moved to the drones, so the Engineer doesn’t have to go through the animation themselves? That’s honestly a little boring, but given just how many things the Tool belt can do, it’s hard to imagine a very drastic overhaul to it’s functionality. Changing every single skill to something else still related to the Utility is far more work than I’d expect them to put into it, and changing Forge’s F1-5 to something static and independent of their chosen Utilities seems like a gigantic step backwards from the wide assortment of abilities that Engineers have by default.

When I’m using Engineer, I LOVE the fact that just about any attack I do will briefly illuminate the area. Grenades, gunshots, bombs, flame jets, mortar shots… I’m a light-slinging maniac. But when I move over to Elementalist, everything is dark and horrible and scary. Is there any sort of consumable item that I can stock up on to be able to light the place up and not be at the mercy of my not-actually-existent nyctophobia?

Basaltface.2786:

well.. rev is done, berserker, druid, forge and whatever thief gets is missing.. so if we get an elite spec next week its 25% its the forge…so thats that i suppose

Unfortunately, I’m thinking the odds might be tilted EVER so slightly in Berserker’s favor, simply because a dev recently mentioned working on it. X) Hardly a guarantee, but it’s more than I personally have heard in regards to any of the remaining elites. Druid may be a bit higher up on the list, too, just given how early they were teased about.

I’d really, really, REALLY love to see Engineer’s elite, big time, but I’m personally expecting it to be a while yet.

Extremely useful advice, thank you all very much. We’ll hopefully be able to give it another shot in the near future, and will try some of those approaches. Prior to the difficulty level where we started having problems, the Engineer would distract the north side while the Mesmer and Guardian ran the hammer back and forth. X) That approach and variations on that approach were what we were trying, mostly, and it didn’t work out.

In the Arm Seals portion, specifically, what can my friends and I do if the enemies at both seals have gotten to the swarmspawn phase? It’s just three of us, unfortunately; a Mesmer, a Guardian, and an Engineer, though we each have a couple alts available.

We ran into this problem lastnight, we just couldn’t get either seal broken with both sides assaulting us. Any tricks that might work out to let us get through such a bad situation in the future? Aside from the obvious “don’t screw up in the first place”.

Definitely sounds like the optimal tweak would be to cut down the number of Burning stacks while boosting their durations to compensate. Keep ‘em even, and condition builds don’t have to take an unnecessary hit in PvE.

Hm, quite true. I’ve seen people suggesting using the “Playing Favorites” Mistlock Instability for summoned entities in general, reducing all damage taken by half unless the summon itself is targeted. I’m sure Ranger and Necromancer would appreciate such a base change, too.

Alternatively, an increase in Tool Kit’s healing amount might help.

Or, perhaps their fragility should be justified when made more powerful via cooldown reduction. X) Could take some testing to determine for sure.

I’ve been struggling with this choice, myself. :P From what I’ve experienced, Elementalist is more effective at a few key things (damage, healing, maybe tanking), whereas Engineer has a much larger variety of tricks and tools available to them. And, I’d say control is one thing that Engineer wins out on. :P

Bear in mind, my perspective is from PvE. As “bunker” is generally more of a PvP term, I’m not sure that what I said holds true in regards to your particular needs.

One complaint I’ve often seen regarding turrets is their fairly passive playstyle. While the suggestion below won’t make them as active as a multi-kit build, I do believe it’d have the potential to lend them some depth in the form of time management and decision-making.

The basic idea is this: allow Tool Kit’s auto attack to reduce the cooldown on a turret’s overcharge ability.

There were two basic numbers I had in mind for this. Either 10% of the cooldown per hit, or a flat 2 seconds regardless of the original cooldown.

Given about 1 second per wrench swing, a 10% reduction leads to a focused cooldown of roughly 6 seconds for Healing Turret, 7 seconds for Rocket Turret, and 8 seconds for the rest.

With the 2-second option, the focused cooldowns are instead approximately 5 seconds for Healing Turret, 7 seconds for Rocket Turret, and 10 seconds for the rest.

Now, 10 seconds between each stun or 5 seconds between each 3k heal and condition removal may sound a bit powerful, but bear in mind that it requires focusing exclusively on hitting the turret, the turret itself is stationary and predictable, and they’re all relatively fragile and/or low-range. The reality would likely be more of an occasional swing or two in passing while fighting around the turrets, choosing to sacrifice a bit of pressure on the enemy in the present in order to put extra pressure on them in the near future.

It also gives some actual incentive to keep the turrets up, rather than detonating them or picking them up immediately after the overcharge to avoid having the enemy take them out halfway through the overcharge cooldown thus making you wait even longer.

Another potential facet of such a change, if you’ll allow me to dream big for a while longer, could be to have each wrench hit knock a second off of the cool down on the Experimental Turrets trait, allowing you to trigger the boons more often so long as you put in that dedication.

Now, I will be honest and say that I am not currently a PvPer. I’ve certainly psyched myself up for it as of late, and will be trying to get into it when I return from the road trip I’m on. As such, my theorization on how such a change would play out is built on a foundation of theory in itself, rather than one of experience. I am mostly excited for the idea in regards to PvE, but I know that sPvP is where the theoretical (and actual) balance really matters, hence why the “argument” I am making for it is from an attempted sPvP perspective. I hope that any experienced sPvPers will be gentle in any objections they have to the numbers or the core concept. :P

SkiTz.4590:

katniss.6735:

It pretty much took forever to get burn to do anything for ele when it should have been the norm from the get-go.
Also, is it okay that guardian burn can do as much damage as it does?

Burn needs to be looked at as its the one condi that seems to be REALLY outputting massive damage. Burn engis are a thing too. Even in PvE, some burn builds can outdamage power builds (by PvE , I mean fights that take longer than 5-7 seconds)

As far as guardian burn.. that’s basically their only threatening condi so yea I think its OK.. all you have to do is time your condi cleansing… because they don’t inflict many other types of condis, just wait for them to chain burns and cleanse the burn when you know its about to get dangerous.

I recall seeing an Engineer thread in which the math was run on different builds, and Condition builds began to pull ahead of Power ones around 14 seconds into a battle.

My question is… What’s so wrong with that? Still seems to me like there’s a definite tradeoff between the two build choices. One bursts faster, the other has better sustained damage, and the time for one to overtake the other seems perfectly reasonable. It’s not like one completely outdoes the other in both burst AND sustain.

I’m not sure what the specifics are for Elementalist or Guardian, but if their power-vs-condition numbers are fairly similar, I again don’t see any real problem with it. It’s different from the usual ONLY-Berserker-and-nothing-else-ever gameplay of the past, but difference is not inherently bad. X)

Multiple pickups: Hm… That would also potentially allow for one person to pick all of them up for quite a pileup of boons and healing. Could get to be a bit too powerful, and reducing their effectiveness to avoid such a situation would just make the whole thing pointless for groups again.

I recall hearing that the original intention was to make some sort of “buff pylon” skill with it. That could probably work quite well, I think: Simply make each skill a pylon, each of which will apply its effects to anyone who runs over it, but only once per person. Doesn’t make it overpowered for a solo Engineer, but makes it usable for groups of people who understand that they need to touch it to benefit.

Auto-attack healing bombs: I’d certainly like healing bombs back, but to be perfectly honest, I’d love to see the auto-attack stay as this healing mist, just with an amount of healing that actually means something. I understand that the benefit of Elixir-Infused Bombs is doling out damage while healing, but it’d be nice to see a focused healing approach come about, so long as it’s not an absolute waste of time.

Derenek.8931:

Engineer has pure damage output potential. Science is always better than magic.

Er, wait, isn’t that screenshot just a pileup from Flame Jet…? Nothing’s on cooldown except Elixir U.

It’s PvP, what do you expect? Most people there take it way too seriously, and see your victory as a personal insult to them. They’ll retaliate however they think will hurt your feelings like you’ve hurt theirs.

Woah, now, good sir. Turrets may have had their share of problems in the past, but rejoicing in their perceived obsolescence (whether it’s truly the case or not) is hardly productive or laudable. It’s a testament to good game design when every available ability sees near-equal usage.

Unfortunately not. Deployable Turrets was one of a few build-defining traits that disappointingly got the axe. We can only hope that it gets reinstated somehow, at some point.

TheGuy.3568:

Please stop making post like this. Big broad, “Let me name EVERYTHING the other class has!”, post serve no real use.

You are talking about PvE and not worried about meta. So the answer is silly level simple. PLAY WHATEVER YOU LIKE MORE!

I could tell you all the benefits of ele but if you are not running a zerker, runes of strength, ice bow, and staff build you are not optimizing so it really doesn’t matter. You may think this a bit rude but it is true. You are doing it for fun not speed so no matter how you look at it you prioritized fun over efficiency (not an issue since you play with friends).

For the record I like engineer much more. I play power nades with zerk and scholar gear in PvE. For ele zerk with runs of strength and staff. I find running ele rotations boring, Which means imho ele is missing something for me.

I don’t know which one I like more, that’s the problem. I was listing out tricks and “tipping points” that I know of between each class, hoping either for more neat aspects to be revealed to me, or for corrections on aspects that I’m wrong about, or to be told that an advantage I listed for one class is present on another (a light source on Elementalist, for example).

Oh, I knew I was forgetting things! Ice Bow, that was something I intended to mention, but it slipped my mind in the end. X) I’ve also heard that Lightning Hammer is a good Conjure. Does that still hold true after the Condition changes, or do direct-and-condition damage abilities pull ahead now?

How are daggers, at this point? They’re honestly one of the biggest draws, for me, simply because of that beautiful Incinerator skin. Which I’m a few years off from ever actually getting, BUT HEY, it gives me something to shoot for. :P

nearlight.3064:

Signet of Stone is a ranger skill. Theres signet of earth, but no one with a brain runs that.

Ah, that’s right, Signet of Earth. Is it really that bad, even in PvE when going specifically for tankiness?

I’ve been caught in a struggle between these two classes for months, now. The intention, for now, is to use a Celestial armor set with Runes of the Traveler, in order to be able to switch between builds to fill the needs of my group (always the same people, not really interested in “the meta” and powergaming), so super-finely-tuned builds are currently not relevant. We’re pretty-exclusively focused on PvE (including Dungeons and Fractals), though I get into WvW on my own from time to time, usually running around with a zerg because I don’t trust myself to handle the roaming playstyle very well. :P

Currently, to my inexperienced eye, these are the benefits I see:

-Better damage output. Becomes a little less potent with the Engineer’s seemingly-easier Vulnerability application, but still appears to be a good bit better even then.
-Better ally-healing. Engineer seems to have a better burst-heal with Healing Turret, but between Soothing Mist, the various weapon heals, and Evasive Arcana, Elementalist seems to me to be far more adept at a straight-up healing role when such a thing is needed.
-Better passive defense. Has a lower basic armor rating due to using Light Armor, but with Stone Flesh, Rock Barrier, and Signet of Stone adding on Toughness, plus Geomancer’s Defense and Diamond Skin/Stone Heart, it seems like Elementalist has a LOT of stuff simply allowing them to eat more attacks.
-Better movement. Dagger/Dagger has two decent movement abilities, and Fiery Greatsword gives extremely potent mobility, as well.
-Better team-applied Swiftness. Engineer’s only built-in approaches are the Med Kit Throw Accelerant ability, and the not-terribly-viable-when-moving Experimental Turrets boost from Net Turret. Elementalist gets Elemental Attunement, plus Air Staff’s #4 if the Staff is equipped. As my friends play Guardian and Mesmer, this is fairly big. XD
-Lightning Flash. Just a TON of different intersting uses, I’m not even close to knowing them all.
-Cooler appearance. Highly subjective, but I certainly feel that the light armor, available weapons, and general attack animations all look a lot more impressive than those of the Engineer. My current setup looks very tech-y, which makes up for the fact that the name “Toolbox” fits more with an Engineer. :P

Areas where Engineer seems to pull ahead:

-Easier/more reliable Vulnerability application via Grenade Kit and the Explosives trait line.
-Constant Stability via Flamethrower Kit and Juggernaut, versus the ridiculous-cooldown Stability moves on Elementalist.
-More reliable Stunbreak access… Most often, I end up being in a Flamethrower/Elixir Gun/Elixir U build, giving two Stunbreaks.
-Quickness, via Elixir U, with a very nice 10+ second duration that makes it super handy for any long-activation story items such as the door panel in the Underground Facility Fractal. Plus reviving, gathering, combat… I like Quickness a good bit.
-Stealth via Smoke Field and Elixir S toolbelt skill. I haven’t actually really made use of this much, but I know it exists and is available if I ever do end up needing it.
-More frequent Blind fields via Bomb Kit and Mortar #4. I use these a LOT when needing to revive my friends, or just in general to reduce the damage we all take.
-Higher uptime on survivability buffs. Invulnerability through Elixir S, stealth through Elixir S, the previously mentioned Blind fields, blocks on both the Shield and Tool Kit…
-More reliable projectile reflection. Shield’s #4, Med Kit’s Streamlined Kits ability, and the big one, Advanced Turrets.
-Rifle’s unique Jump Shot. We do a lot of jump puzzles and general climbing, and the long-jump ability of Rifle is quite useful for that.
-Light production. Fairly minor, but the flashes from grenades, bombs, mortar shots, gunshots, flamethrower… ALL of them provide light for darker areas. As far as I could tell in my testing, nothing from Elementalist does the same. I can’t goof off in dark places!
-More fitting name. I’m “Toolbox”, it’s just spot-on. XD

Now, to be fair, I have a lot more experience with Engineer, and so I’ve determined far more of their intricacies and fun little tricks. I’m certain there’s a LOT of simple pleasures on Elementalist that I don’t know of. That’s the kind of stuff I’m hoping will be revealed to me in this thread, as well as any other stuff that helps differentiate the two so I can finally make a choice. X)

I’ve been caught in a struggle between these two classes for months, now. The intention, for now, is to use a Celestial armor set with Runes of the Traveler, in order to be able to switch between builds to fill the needs of my group (always the same people, not really interested in “the meta” and powergaming), so super-finely-tuned builds are currently not relevant. We’re pretty-exclusively focused on PvE (including Dungeons and Fractals), though I get into WvW on my own from time to time, usually running around with a zerg because I don’t trust myself to handle the roaming playstyle very well. :P

Currently, to my inexperienced eye, these are the benefits I see:

-Easier/more reliable Vulnerability application via Grenade Kit and the Explosives trait line.
-Constant Stability via Flamethrower Kit and Juggernaut, versus the ridiculous-cooldown Stability moves on Elementalist.
-More reliable Stunbreak access… Most often, I end up being in a Flamethrower/Elixir Gun/Elixir U build, giving two Stunbreaks.
-Quickness, via Elixir U, with a very nice 10+ second duration that makes it super handy for any long-activation story items such as the door panel in the Underground Facility Fractal. Plus reviving, gathering, combat… I like Quickness a good bit.
-Stealth via Smoke Field and Elixir S toolbelt skill. I haven’t actually really made use of this much, but I know it exists and is available if I ever do end up needing it.
-More frequent Blind fields via Bomb Kit and Mortar #4. I use these a LOT when needing to revive my friends, or just in general to reduce the damage we all take.
-Higher uptime on survivability buffs. Invulnerability through Elixir S, stealth through Elixir S, the previously mentioned Blind fields, blocks on both the Shield and Tool Kit…
-More reliable projectile reflection. Shield’s #4, Med Kit’s Streamlined Kits ability, and the big one, Advanced Turrets.
-Rifle’s unique Jump Shot. We do a lot of jump puzzles and general climbing, and the long-jump ability of Rifle is quite useful for that.
-Light production. Fairly minor, but the flashes from grenades, bombs, mortar shots, gunshots, flamethrower… ALL of them provide light for darker areas. As far as I could tell in my testing, nothing from Elementalist does the same. I can’t goof off in dark places!
-More fitting name. I’m “Toolbox”, it’s just spot-on. XD

Areas where Elementalist seems to pull ahead:

-Better damage output. Becomes a little less potent with the Engineer’s seemingly-easier Vulnerability application, but still appears to be a good bit better even then.
-Better ally-healing. Engineer seems to have a better burst-heal with Healing Turret, but between Soothing Mist, the various weapon heals, and Evasive Arcana, Elementalist seems to me to be far more adept at a straight-up healing role when such a thing is needed.
-Better passive defense. Has a lower basic armor rating due to using Light Armor, but with Stone Flesh, Rock Barrier, and Signet of Stone adding on Toughness, plus Geomancer’s Defense and Diamond Skin/Stone Heart, it seems like Elementalist has a LOT of stuff simply allowing them to eat more attacks.
-Better movement. Dagger/Dagger has two decent movement abilities, and Fiery Greatsword gives extremely potent mobility, as well.
-Better team-applied Swiftness. Engineer’s only built-in approaches are the Med Kit Throw Accelerant ability, and the not-terribly-viable-when-moving Experimental Turrets boost from Net Turret. Elementalist gets Elemental Attunement, plus Air Staff’s #4 if the Staff is equipped. As my friends play Guardian and Mesmer, this is fairly big. XD
-Lightning Flash. Just a TON of different intersting uses, I’m not even close to knowing them all.
-Cooler appearance. Highly subjective, but I certainly feel that the light armor, available weapons, and general attack animations all look a lot more impressive than those of the Engineer. My current setup looks very tech-y, which makes up for the fact that the name “Toolbox” fits more with an Engineer. :P

Now, to be fair, I have a lot more experience with Engineer, and so I’ve determined far more of their intricacies and fun little tricks. I’m certain there’s a LOT of simple pleasures on Elementalist that I don’t know of. That’s the kind of stuff I’m hoping will be revealed to me in this thread, as well as any other stuff that helps differentiate the two so I can finally make a choice. X)

I wonder if it’d do any good to show this thread to a dev. X) Definitely, definitely want the trait baaack.

I’d definitely enjoy a Mantra approach to the drones; One of my favorite concepts among Mesmer abilities are their Mantras, even if they aren’t necessarily the most useful abilities available. X)

But, then, I’d also definitely enjoy a Minion approach to the drones, which I’m sure everyone is hoping won’t happen. XD It’s mostly because of the various traits pertaining to them, but I love my Minions on my Necromancer. Lots of very good passive effects. Plus, it’d be fun to join in on the Superzergs in WvW comprised of Minion Necromancers.

Whatever it ends up being, I hope that SOMETHING in the Elite Specialization ends up giving some nice healing abilities. With Elixir-Infused Bombs killed off, I can’t play doctor to my friends near as well. ;-;

Pimsley.3681:

I think the healing bombs are gone forever, replaced by Bunker Down. What sucks about that is you are forced to choose amulets with high precision.

The update isn’t perfect but it’s definitely to the right direction.

No! I refuse to believe that! I need it back so I can stop being torn between Engineer and Elementalist… ;-;

Well, that’s pretty disappointing. X) But, good to know. Thanks, you two.

I recently put some practice into setting off a combo of 8 Blast Finishers in a Smoke Field for stacking Stealth. I’m definitely getting them all off consistently within the Field’s 4-second window, now, but whenever I’m done with the combo, all I end up with is 12 seconds.

When doing the combo, I’m using Healing Turret (1 Blast), Elixir S (simply a different source of Stealth, not relevant to the combo itself), Thumper Turret (3 Blasts), Bomb Kit (1 Blast and the Smoke Field), and traited Mortar (2 Blasts).

I’m aware that Turret overcharges typically only trigger their effects when attacking an enemy, but I read (and verified in-game) that Thumper Turret’s Overcharge will add a second Blast Finisher when it’s detonated.

No other fields are being placed, and I’ve gotten this result consistently.

It’s possible that one stack’s falling off by the time the combo is finished (there’s typically 11 seconds remaining by the time I get my mouse over the buff icon to check), but even if I am managing to get it to 15 seconds, that’s 9 more seconds that are unaccounted for.

Doing the same combo in Bomb Kit’s Fire Bomb yields 21 stacks of Might; since the Field only lasts 3 seconds instead of Smoke Bomb’s 4, the second hit of Orbital Strike isn’t coming into play. So, it’s nothing to do with the Combo system itself, such as a limit to how many times one Field can be Blasted.

According to the Wiki, only 9 stacks of a Duration-only Boon can be applied at once. I know that Stealth isn’t a Boon, but I would have imagined it functions similarly in regards to stacking.

So, what’s going on, here? Is there a cap to the number of stacks of Stealth one can have? Is there some other limit getting in the way? Is there anything at all that I can do to get the full 24 seconds I’m after?

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

Please only positive responses, tired of a lot of the hate in this Forum.

So much for that, looks like a number of people WANT to be miserable.

I like Wash the Pain Away, for one. None of the other heals have an effect on allies (except for Arcane Brilliance in a roundabout way via its Blast Finisher), and I really enjoy playing healer for my friends. :P

In the same vein, Water Attunement’s Overcharge gives yet more healing potential. I just hope they’re still tweaking it and will make it heal for more, it looked a bit underwhelming in the Livestream.

The Warhorn gets two healing abilities in Water, and again, I like that. XD

The increase in Aura-granting abilities, when combined with the neat effects you can get for applying Auras in the first place, is quite enticing.

Dust Storm will be handy; on Engineer, I frequently make use of Bomb Kit’s Smoke Bomb and Mortar Kit’s Flash Shell as defensive measures for reviving friends or simply keeping myself alive in a rough fight. It’s something I always miss when I’m playing Elementalist instead.

Eye of the Storm is much appreciated, given the ridiculous cooldowns on most of Elementalist’s other Stunbreaks, and the lackluster effects on the lower-cooldown Stunbreaks.

Imbued Melodies is awesome for the same reason.

Cyclone seems really cool, definitely helps with AoE stuff for my allies, plus it provides Swiftness for my poor Guardian and Mesmer friends. XD

The Fire and Air Overcharges seem really handy for putting out extra damage on groups of enemies.

And then the Earth Overcharge’s Protection is nice, too!

Overcharges in general seem like a good excuse for staying in one Attunement for a while, which I admittedly appreciate. :P

Ultimately, I’m really excited for Tempest. I know the Overcharges really aren’t that viable in PvP situations, but they seem neat for PvE stuff. I’m really hoping Engineer’s Elite Specialization has similar levels of cool new mechanics and utility. :P

Wee bit of necromancy, there, but the Elixir-Infused Bombs trait is WORTH IT. I want it back so much, I can barely play Team Doctor without it. Its absence is one of the few reasons I’m contemplating Elementalist over Engineer, just to be able to cover healing when needed.

Nightmare.8351:

morrolan.9608:

So the radius it hits is 240? I think others have tested it and found that the graphic is 240 but it only hits for 180 radius.

I just tested it in Heart of the Mists and yeah you’re correct: the graphic is 240 but it only hits in 180, and the tooltip only states 180 as well. With the picture I attached, I had no burn ticks or damage on the golem after the bomb went off.

COMPLETELY unrelated, but what armor is that? <.<;

We need Elixir-Infused Bombs back, too. It’s such an impactful trait!

Rozbuska.5263:

They havent all same model. It was one model where that_shaman add multiple textures combination to show us how it should look

Ohhh. I am mistaken, then, I thought the textures were official.

I’ve been torn between Engineer and Elementalist for a while now, as I love versatility and trickiness, and these two seem to be the best providers of that. However, though I feel the Elementalist puts out better numbers overall than Engineer does, and also LOOKS way cooler with its daggers and staves and elements flying everywhere… It just feels so “locked down”.

With Engineer, I can whip out what I need for the given moment. In between fights, I can switch Utilities as well, and I have a heck of a lot of useful ones to choose from.

But Elementalist…? So many of them feel extremely lackluster, a bunch more have absolutely RIDICULOUS cooldowns, and a disgusting number fall into BOTH categories. The only ones that seem remotely interesting, to me, are the Conjures, which I hear are garbage to build around.

Now, this is a “first impression” kind of thing, I’m sure others have different opinions on it and that’s really what I’m here for. I want to hear if experienced Elementalists find they DO get good use out of their Utilities. Because to this Elemenewbie, it seems like they’re for emergency situations only, never for consistent usage.

The main issue I see with the theory that the drones are Minions, or turret reworks, or any other kind of “different purpose for each drone” idea, is that the recently-datamined pictures for the drones shows them all to have the exact same model, with just skin changes between each one. Unless that’s work-in-progress stuff (which wouldn’t make a lot of sense, as it’d have thus been a waste of time to make full-blown textures for each of them), that means that whatever their purpose, it will likely be the same between every single drone.

It could, perhaps, be something akin to Jagged Horror, a spammable cannon fodder Minion, with some “prettiness” thrown in with randomized textures upon creation. Or, maybe they’re a roundabout approach to Signets or Banners, with the former’s active ability simply being “attack”. But whatever it is, I don’t think they’ll have terribly unique functions compared to one another.

Due to build-juggling, I won’t necessarily have any one particular Boon that I’ll be trying to extend, but common ones that I do end up applying to myself often are Might, Fury, Regeneration, and Vigor. Quickness comes into play on occasion, too. And I imagine the Boon Duration would also be helpful when using an Experimental Turrets build for Boon-ing my allies.

Though, I do understand that the stats I’d be passing up on could pick up the slack for the missing Might, Fury, and Regeneration. The Ascended setup would thus be more effective compared to the Exotic one when both would have boons, or when both would not. It’s the longer uptime on the boons that has me uncertain, as the Exotic version would have a longer time at peak effectiveness than the Ascended one… Even if the peak isn’t as good.

Instead of Ascended ones, I mean. Particularly to be able to put Platinum Doubloons in their Upgrade Slots for that extra Boon Duration.

If it matters, I’m an Engineer using Celestial trinkets, as I like to be able to switch up my build depending on my team’s needs. I only really play with a dedicated group of friends who are perfectly fine with my lack of “meta” equipment, and I tend to stick to the zerg in WvW, where total build perfection is less of a requirement than roaming. We do Fractals together, but I’m intending to grab myself some Ascended armor for Agony Resistance, instead of needing to use the trinkets for it.

Has anyone else made that sacrifice of stats for Boon Duration? Or is the potential 24% bonus not really worth it?

Anmida.4058:

Well, a fair enough alternative to me would be to add the functionality to all picks while at the same time allowing them to be re-skinned through a merchant for the purpose

This sounds like it’d be an excellent approach. I’ve gone with each of the Mad Scientist tools for theme, but would love to have the bonus present with the Watchwork. Plus, if it’d require buying both items in order to have the functionality of one and the appearance of the other, that’s more money in ArenaNet’s pocket. Surely THEY wouldn’t complain about it.

Has anyone done testing into how this works, now? I know some people mentioned it before the patch hit, but I haven’t seen anything since.

Does it just add 2 seconds to one Burning stack? Does it extend ALL Burning stacks by 2 seconds? Or does it simply not work anymore, period?

Would appreciate getting some of those things (though a few are overboard), but what I most want back is the Elixir-Infused Bombs trait. It’s just such a unique playstyle. I like how different kits can be focused on to make them their own brand of awesome; Grenades can become group-wreckers with Grenadier (though they sort of are from the start), Flamethrower can become-… Well, a Juggernaut, with the so-named trait. Mortar becomes even more of a combo-field master kit. I suppose Elixir Gun doesn’t get a HUGE amount of focus, but HGH certainly helps it out a good deal, and it’s a fantastic support kit on its own.

The only two lacking any sort of trait-age that can make them into the primary focus for a build are Bomb Kit and Tool Kit. Bomb Kit USED to have it, and it’d be wonderful to get that back.

My 100-pound bombs aren’t leveling structures and leaving my enemies as unidentifiable charred meat chunks spread across a mile-wide radius in a single charge. This upsets me. >:(

I never used Elixir-Infused Bombs with any serious intent.

But I’d like the trait back, too.