I actually like being able to keep hitting the Medkit button without stowing it, and I wish it were an option to have it work that way for all the kits we have. Much better than forgetting you’re already in Toolkit, hitting the hotkey for it to use the shield, and ending up knocking yourself to your backside with the Rifle.
News to me. XD What all do we have that makes us dangerous to Thieves? They’re constantly giving me (and my entire team) trouble in World Versus World, jumping in and out of invisibility and fully healing each time they do so. Granted, these ones don’t typically manage to kill anyone, but they’re still a massive distraction, and do more damage to the objective than killing any one person.
Even with a Net Turret out, they still manage to survive. Is there some sort of specific tactic that does these guys in?
Here is an example of where the turrets durability does not matter. There have been a few engineers camping the Maw event lately. They have turrets on auto drop so if it is destroyed, another is dropped as soon as cd is over. The character gets res’d if he goes down by other players doing the event, so as long as this persons character is not physically moved out of range they are getting exp/karma for 2-3 events of this chain while AFK and since the event occurs every 25min or so, it adds up quick.
This kind of thing has got to be against the rules.
That’s quite a bit different. For the Engineer to be laying down new turrets, they have to either be at the computer, or they have to be using some kind of third-party program to do it for them.
This question was in regards to using turrets entirely within the normal limitations of the game itself, no extra programs required.
Also, reading through the thread again, I feel bad that I was so negative about Engineers. The turrets, I’m still negative on. They need some serious work. But Engineer itself is fun and, in certain situations, can be potent.
What happens to items/money in your bank if you delete all of your characters to change worlds? Do they stick around for the newly created characters, or do they disappear so that you’re starting from scratch?
You can preview the armor in lions arch. So you can check if you need to.
Aha, I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks.
I can’t find any pictures of this armor on humans without other pieces of armor obscuring it. Is the coat lacking sleeves? If so, are there any shoulder/glove options that cover up the arm entirely? For a male human, if that makes a difference.
Anet: “Sure thing. So we’ll just adjust rifle damage down to pistol levels. Anything else we can do for you?”
lol don’t scare me like that haha and i doubt they will, at 4,000 power 100%+ Critical damage warriors can hit 27k 100Blades and theif 15k backstabs so yeaa.. lol
Never underestimate a detached game developer.
Toolbox,
The build I’m running in that video is detailed on the NERF facebook page. I think Eijofor was running that build too for the video. Others were using other builds. Gremmil tends towards conditions and Tracille has a rather spvp build afaik.
Ah, alrighty. I really need to get into the habit of checking the Facebook page. XD
Oh my goodness, that music. XD It was like Word of God saying “YOU MUST DANCE.”
(Video was neat, too. XD I don’t think I’ve ever seen that build! Or, those utilities all together, anyway.)
Just a sorta “what-if” for the most part! Wonder how it’d play out if the Tool Kit autoattack (and Throw Wrench, in the case of a turret that you’ve deployed on a wall or otherwise out of reach) applied boons to the turret? Either a collection of boons at once, or the bane of all Engineers, RNG-boons.
Anyway, wrench hits applying Might, Protection, Regeneration, Fury, etc… Maybe Retaliation and Aegis, but those might be a bit much. Having an Aegis application on something with a cooldown could be neat, though, as a way to protect them from big attacks!
Anyway, such a thing would allow you to effectively “upgrade” your turrets, so long as you put some time into doing so. Applying one stack of Might for a minute or so per hit seems like it would be an excellent way to be able to set up an actual defensive location, without making turrets into an instant “this is my area, no enemies allowed” sort of deal.
Could maybe only take effect with the Power Wrench trait, or could have some stuff by default and apply extra boons with the trait, or the trait could just have no extra effect at all! All changeable as needed. I dunno, what would everyone think about their Tool Kit “upgrading” turrets in such a manner?
Who would actually like rng ?
Every single video game developer in the world, it seems.
It’d be nice to see a game with absolutely zero random factor.
Number 2 would be nice but I’m not sure I like the other suggestions. NERF has been having success using turrets in WvWvW. It’s all about turning your weakness into your strength. Our tactic requires turrets to die rather quickly…
Please, reveal your secrets! XD I’m trying sooo hard to get turrets to work (currently using a 20/0/30/0/20 build with Cleric gear… I’m not much of a build-crafter), and I’m just not having any luck unless I set up to farm a beginner area. And even then, I have to be really careful about how I set up, and can only handle the first half of the area, IF that. :\
I mean Turrets (imo) are mostly in a good spo
Sorry, where is facepalm on this forum? Gadgets are waaaay ok compared to turret.
To be fair, i normally use turrets in an all out turret build and it has proven extremely successful, i’ve used it in paids, frees etc, and it’s performed well in all of them. The only issue with turret builds is their immobile as all hell, which granted makes some sense but i do think all the turrets need to have no longer than a 40s CD i mean, 60s is WAY to long…
And really? I always felt that Gadgets were kinda lack luster compared to everything else when you take into account the utility as well as the actual skill.
PS: By turrets i specifically mean Healing, Rifle, Flame and Rocket (that’s what i use in my build).
How do you use the turrets, and what Trait setup do you have? I’m very, very interested in making turrets work well, but short of using one or two alongside combo fields, I can’t see to come up with anything.
How exactly will you be applying Burn? If you’re applying it frequently enough, you’ll want to focus on Bleed, since Burn can’t stack in severity. If you’re having trouble keeping Burn on the enemy permanently, then yes, go for Burn duration, as one second of that is the same as six seconds of Bleed. However, if you’re applying Burn frequently enough that it’s kept going without boosting its duration, you’ll want the Bleed.
In addition, take into account how you’re applying the Bleed. It only helps to get the duration up to an integer. 4.9 seconds of Bleed will do the same damage as 4 seconds of Bleed, so if you can’t bump it up to 5 seconds, you might as well focus on the Burn.
Sure, you can utilize turrets in interesting, unexpected ways with their blast finishers and perhaps for certain overcharges. But you can’t use them the way turrets are SUPPOSED to work, as area denial. They simply don’t function for that, no matter how you place them. Area denial is the reason many people want to use turrets, in any game, but the turrets of Guild Wars 2 are the greatest disappointment the game has to offer in that regard.
I usually run with Healing Turret + Net/Rifle Turret. Sometimes I go with all 3 when I play with combo fields and blast finishers.
Right, I’m not arguing that they can’t be effective when used to their fullest potential. Healing Turret’s water field and pretty-much-infinite regeneration is very handy for healing, and probably the best turret as far as doing what turrets are supposed to do in terms of general (not exclusively Guild Wars 2) game design. Net Turret is also very potent in its niche, and I’d say is the second most turret-esque turret available.
The Rifle Turret is handy, as well… For a Blast Finisher and knockback. But do you ever place it in order to make an area permanently more hazardous for the enemy to be in? It’s not an area denial tool, as I (and I’m sure most others) would expect a turret ability to be. Yes, it’s fine for utility. Blast Finisher and knockback on a twenty second cooldown, maybe enemy-tagging in certain scenarios, a (very) temporary distraction tool… Again, not arguing that it isn’t useful. It most certainly can be when used properly. But as far as turrets go, it’s a disgrace. A turret in any other game would be something that you set up, intelligently or not, to make an area dangerous as long as it’s alive. In Guild Wars 2, as far as area denial goes, it’s a joke.
Look at the turrets of other games. Team Fortress 2, Engineer’s Sentry Gun is quite potent. If you rush into the area it’s covering, you’re in for some hurt. It’s really easy to deal with, if you know where it is and it doesn’t have much assistance from allied players, but it still tells you “you cannot move freely in this area”.
Portal, despite how fragile the little turrets are, they still make sure that you cannot cross a certain area until dealing with them, or you at least can’t stay there for very long.
Even the infrequently-encountered turrets of Half Life 2 do exactly what turrets should do. They prevent an area from being a playground for the enemy.
Starcraft has a variety of turret-like units and buildings. Sunken Colonies, Photon Cannons, Bunkers… All of these make sure that the enemy needs to come in a large group in order to pass it.
I could list other examples, but the games I have in mind are lesser-known and I doubt anyone would really know exactly what I’m talking about with them. They essentially bolster what I’ve already said, anyway.
Now, I’ll reiterate: The turrets in Guild Wars 2 are not useless, or at least some of them aren’t. But they most certainly are not what turrets should be. They’re more just remote-controlled utilities that trade reliability for versatility. They can do more than the average utility, albeit not without some serious forethought and fortuitous circumstances required. But that’s not what people expect or want when they make a character because “yay, turrets!” Turret-lovers want to take an area and make it their own.
This may sound ignorant but you’re probably not using your turrets right.
You can use turrets in many different ways. They are not meant to be just dropped in a single place.
- Damage/Healing
- Blast Finishers
- Distraction/SupportI use occasionally add Healing, Net, or Rifle Turret on my utility skills. I use 2 turrets occasionally on tPvP games and not be a liability to my team.
Sure, you can utilize turrets in interesting, unexpected ways with their blast finishers and perhaps for certain overcharges. But you can’t use them the way turrets are SUPPOSED to work, as area denial. They simply don’t function for that, no matter how you place them. Area denial is the reason many people want to use turrets, in any game, but the turrets of Guild Wars 2 are the greatest disappointment the game has to offer in that regard.
Not exactly a bug report, but there’s no other area for forum-related questions.
Is there any way to disable the word censors, or are the censors put in place on the posts themselves? Arena Net seems to have been way, way overzealous with it, as many game developers are infuriatingly wont to do, and it ends up making a number of legitimate, innocent, swear-less posts incredibly difficult to decipher.
Plus, I’m allergic to cats. All these kittens all over the place are making my eyes itch and burn like a cattle brand wrapped in sandpaper.
I was planning to get 190% more endurance regen from:
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew for 40%
Adrenal Implant for 50%
And Vigor for 100%Then I read somewhere that they don’t stack ~_~. Does it?
I very recently asked basically the same question on the Elementalist forums. The answer I got there was that no, endurance regeneration effects don’t stack, only the highest boost is used.
That said, you could still utilize abilities that give an instant boost to your endurance, such as Adrenaline Pump from the Tools trait line.
Well, drat. Was really hoping I had something there. It’s always a disappointment when games put in hard caps on various abilities, really hampers the potential of build-making. Thanks for the answers, y’all.
How about:
Turrets do much more damage and fire much faster
Turrets have a 20 seconds deploy time
The more time they are deployed,the more health and armor they’ll have
You can manually stop the turret deployment
Turrets will stop deploying,becoming ready for use,if the player gets downed
Turrets have 10 seconds cooldown if the deployment is anticipated
Turrets are invincible for X seconds (i’d suggest 5) from their deploymentThis way them will also be able to be used as last resource defense system: almost dead? cool,your turret you just deployed is shooting enemies…however it has like 500 hp and no armor…better than nothing!
That’d finally make me roll turrets in my kit…specially in PvE
Then there could be traits like:
if you get downed turrets will be automatically deployed with X% health
turrets deploy X% faster
manually deploying a turret creates a blast finisher
manually deployed turrets will deal electric damage to nearby enemies/while deploying turrets deal electric damage to nearby enemies
if you get downed all turrets are healed to full health and armor
healing turret will try to revive allies if fully deployed
turrets will absorb X% of damage you’d take instead
while deploying turrets will have reflection
Being in the range of a deploying turret buffs you and nearby alliesHow cool would it be?!?
Also good!
My personal favorite “make the stinking things usable” idea was similar to this, only that instead of an automatic growth, the boost comes in the form of a stackable, long-duration HP/damage/fire-rate buff ability that replaces the Overcharges. Either infinite duration with a cap on the stacking, or simply a long duration that allows you to boost it a certain number of times mathematically provided you’re on top of things and hitting that boost button whenever it’s available.
As far as them being too powerful, as Gurt is worried about… First off, obviously, it would need to be balanced out properly. Secondly, going back to the example of TF2 where the Engineer’s Sentry is perhaps the most balanced turret system in any game on the market, you can see that it’s still relatively easy to deal with in spite of the fact that few classes could really “duel” with it. If the Sentry and its target are firing on each other the whole time, the Sentry will usually win. However, if the enemy fights it in certain ways, it becomes a cakewalk.
In TF2, you can shoot it from outside of its range, you can use cover to pop in and out hitting it before it has time to lock onto you, and if you get close, you can circle it with no possibility of it ever catching you.
In Guild Wars 2, viable approaches would again be firing from outside its range, utilizing cover (except in the case of the wonky Flame Turret), using the NUMEROUS available defense abilities to get close, pulling the Engineer away from his nest if you have such an ability available… And yes, from what I’ve seen both using and fighting turrets, the circle-strafe method works just fine, as well.
Now, granted, in both games, fighting the turret alongside the Engineer is considerably harder. However, in both games, the Engineer is severely gimped without his turrets. In TF2, this is by design, as the Engineer has the lowest possible default HP, normal movespeed, and lackluster weapons. In GW2, the Engineer is giving up a Utility slot for each turret, meaning he’s down either a multi-functional weapon, or a potent self-buff.
In its CURRENT state, GW2 Engineer turrets have all the weaknesses stated above… Plus one more weakness. One other approach that enemies can use to deal with turrets. And that is…
Just waltz right in and kill the Engineer anyway. It’s not like the little tripod-mounted peashooter is DOING anything.
We’ve stilled got a gimped Engineer when turrets are in use, but their potential power isn’t transferred to the turret(s). It simply vanishes into thin air, leaving the Engineer to be less than the sum of its parts.
I’m wanting to use a build that makes use of Zephyr’s Focus (100% endurance regeneration while channeling skills), Renewing Stamina (33% chance to gain Vigor on critical hits), and Vigorous Scepter (Endurance regeneration boost while using a Scepter). Would all of these things stack together, or does only one bonus take effect at a time?
YES.
That was one of the things I’d thought of for turrets, myself, having a really long cast time. But I wasn’t really sure anyone would approve of it.
Personally, so long as the boost to their capabilities is SUBSTANTIAL, I’d be all for it. If triple-turrets were to have at least the effectiveness of a Level 3 Sentry in TF2 (proportionally, of course, as dealing 128 damage per second and having 216 health would be garbage), they might actually be worth using. If EACH ONE were to have the effectiveness of a TF2 Sentry, that’d be even cooler, though possibly problematic in lower-scale matches against just a couple people at a time instead of the swarms of WvW. PvE, dunno.
The basic idea of sentry gun turrets in ANY other game is area denial. I’ve seen it done really poorly in quite a few games, most of the time on the underpowered side, but Guild Wars 2 takes the cake on botched turret implementation.
As somebody who uses turrets more often than not (and has, in fact, gone back to a full-turret build after the scaling addition), I have to disagree on them not being worth it. They’re useful, if you know how to use them.
Also: For people who don’t use kits, the shield trait is great.
How do you use them, then? I made an Engin- Heck, I BOUGHT THE GAME for the turrets, and I haven’t been able to find out a way to make them useful against anything but vastly under-leveled PvE content, nevermind WvW or PvP. I want to use turrets so badly, but can’t seem to do so. Are there any tricks you could offer?
I’m not sure why mobile turrets is so oft-suggested on the forums. XD The appeal of turrets, to me, is defending a set area. What I’D like to see is a sort of “upgrade” system, where the overcharged is replaced with a stackable buff that ramps up the turrets health, damage, rate of fire, etc. Just an overall increase in effectiveness. The longer it lives, and the more times you hit that buff button, the more powerful the turret gets, until it’s a real area defense tool.
Just tried an assortment of things, including what you just suggested, with no results.
HOWEVER, I did discover something… It’s not the camera turning that causes stuttering. It’s rapid mouse movement. As soon as I started moving the mouse very quickly in circles, the entire game came to a standstill. So, Uwo and Chilly (and whoever else has the problem), test that out. See if moving the mouse about causes the game to slowdown. If so, that puts us a step closer to figuring out the problem.
EDIT: I seem to have fixed it… Somehow. Just went through and removed a number of programs that were loading processes onto the computer. The only one I would really suspect might’ve been the culprit was an “IncrediBar” toolbar that latched itself onto Internet Explorer at some point. But, it could’ve been any number of things that I removed… I didn’t test after each one, sadly, and can’t remember what all I took out.
I doubt that the Guild Wars update loaded IncrediBar onto everyone, so unfortunately, that likely means that my case was localized, and not something that would be fixed in the same way. That said, just in case, go through your system processes in the Control+Alt+Delete Task Manager, and look up each one in the list. Follow whatever steps might be listed for how to remove them if they’re non-essential, and see if that helps. I also went through the Add/Remove Programs tool in the Windows Control Panel and took out whatever I didn’t need.
SOMETHING worked. I’m just not sure what, unfortunately.
(edited by Toolbox.9375)
well i don’t know you PC specs…
otherwise i would suggest some tweaking, which would include defragmenting your drive, in case you’re not using a SSD, lower the graphic’s quality at your graphic card’s control panel, in case you’re GPU model is an older one or turn off windows visuals and all non-vital programs running in the background while launching GW2, in case you have a low performance PC in general.
The only thing that has changed between the game running fine, and this problem beginning, has been the recent patch. I will look into directly changing my graphic settings, but I do not see why they would have changed.
As for my specs, I have 8 GB RAM, a 3.41 Ghz quad-core processor (AMD Phenom X4 965), and an AMD Radeon HD 6570. This setup has been fully capable of running Guild Wars 2 all this time with no issues.
Also, @Toolbox. I don’t think I’m streaming the client. Though I’m not sure I’ve ever been doing that. How would I know?
Oh, no, I’m not asking if you’re streaming the game. I’m asking if you’re playing it through Steam, which is a program offered by Valve company through which you can access a variety of games. It’s possible to incorporate games that Steam does not actually support, in order to access its chat functionality. By your reaction, it’s safe to say that you aren’t using Steam to run the game, which somewhat narrows down the possibilities as to what is causing this problem. Seems it’s a case of computer overload, rather than any kind of software conflict. Provided we don’t just have similar-yet-unrelated problems.
No, shadows are at their lowest setting. Setting everything to lowest makes no difference, as I said.
Spinning around to load the whole map doesn’t help, either. Any abrupt change in camera angle causes the stutter to occur.
I’m having this, too. 0.5-2 seconds of screen-freeze whenever I turn quickly. Turning the graphics down to minimum makes zero difference. Had run fine with most things at Medium/High prior to the update.
I don’t suppose you’re running the game through Steam? The freeze (though still taking effect) seems to be dramatically reduced when I run the client straight-up instead of using Steam to run it. If it’s Steam-related, that might help to pinpoint the problem. Unfortunately, a friend of mine uses Steam to play GW2, as well, and has said they don’t have a problem.
Of all the things to spend your man-hours on, you chose this!?
Hey, now! I’d LOVE this change… If it worked with the Drop key instead of having to Stow the specific kit.
I’m on Stormbluff Isle… The “fallen angel” server, I hear. :\ From what I understand, I got into World Versus World right as SI fell from grace, so I’m constantly staring at the tiny little sliver of the pie we have as we futilely push just to survive. Morale for just about everyone on the server is completely shattered. It’s hard to feel prideful when you’re so horribly outmatched.
Engineers have major issues, too. As well as Necromancers, I hear. I also see Warriors voicing concerns over ongoing problems with their class, same as Elementalists. Mesmers dread every update, as well… Not sure about Guardians and Thieves as I don’t really pay much attention to their boards, but I’m sure they’re in the same boat.
I think all of these problems with each class are just a symptom of a greater problem: ArenaNet is far, far too careful. They don’t want to touch anything for fear of toppling it all, even if the game’s already in a massive heap of debris, resting in the pits of Hell, specifically because of their inaction.
Oddly enough we also wield the best weapons against those toasters, aoes that are made to hit immobile targests
It all makes sense now! Engineers are building their tools using turrets for testing. That’s why the “enemy movement” variable isn’t accounted for! Furthermore, the turrets were never made for actual combat; they are simply for testing purposes! Can’t make them deadly, or else the testing environment would be unsafe.
o_o Wait, the turrets were actually a PROBLEM? How often are they an issue? Which ones are the most disruptive? Have turret Engineers ever been a MAJOR roadblock, or are they more just nuisances? What about Engineers in general, ever have difficult fights with them?
I really, really want to make my Engineer work. I’m doing very poorly with it, but I have the feeling it has a lot of potential that I’m not seeing, mixing Kit abilities together. Such as…
Bomb Kit’s Smoke Bomb, followed by Rifle Jump to gain stealth. Can be used to escape enemies!
Or Elixir Gun’s Super Elixir, followed once more by Rifle Jump, for Retaliation! That plus the healing inside the Super Elixir means a teeny tiny bit of prickly survivability.
Anyone else have other combos that they use, or at least have theorized using? Not specifically Combo Field combos, just any combination of abilities that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Doesn’t have to use Kits alone, either, though that’s no doubt where the majority of viable tricks will come from, given that you get six abilities out of them.
No cooldown at this point, but I’d wait before leveling up a character based around it. No telling what might happen in the upcoming patch.
Yeah, Engineer is NOT the one you want. <.<; Can’t really offer any alternatives, unfortunately. The only other class I’ve really used much is Ranger. Definitely less attention needed, but I’m sure there are better options.
Sounds good. This, or a system that gives it a cooldown when picked up based on how much health it had at the time of pickup. Meaning, if it’s at 20% HP, the cooldown is 80% of what it’d normally be. 60% HP, then 40% of the cooldown. Full health, no cooldown, and if it’s killed, full cooldown.
Either one would work. Just something better than the pathetic 25% cooldown regardless of circumstances.
Apparently, at least in the sPvP lobby area, the Grenade Barrage sent out by Explosive Descent and Kit Refinement share a cooldown. You can’t take falling damage and then switch to Grenade Kit for another barrage.
Is there any word on whether this is working as intended? Or is it just another Engineer bug?
Oooooh! I’m really hoping for my Engineer to get some portal-y goodness. Maybe a turret pair, where the portal doesn’t go away after a certain amount of time, BUT the thing can only be used once every few seconds or something. Wouldn’t be able to do a sudden massive strike with whole armies like Mesmer. XD Or maybe the turrets could slowly lose health? Meaning that it’d be required to repair them in order to keep the portal going. Though that might pigeonhole Engineers into a portal role, stealing away two of their utility skills.
One suggestion on the Engineer forums was to have turret kits! I could see portals taking up two slots on the healing turret skill, as supportive structures.
Always listen to players in-game before players on the message boards, in any game.
Goodluck finding an Engineer ingame ;D Guild did a forum poll, to see who plays what as their main. 136 votes cast so far and, including myself, the amount playing Engineer can be counted on 1 hand.
This speaks volumes really. Without a doubt Engineer is the least played profession, and do you really think that would be the case if it was good? Or even if its fun-factor outweighted the badness properly?
Truth is, for most people the profession isnt enough fun to outweight the poor performance.But dont take anyones word here for it, just go play one and you’ll see for yourself if you enjoy it or not.
I see them constantly! I have to refrain from barking at them like a territorial dog whenever I see one, I like to be the only one using whatever class I’ve chosen in a game. Amazingly enough, I see fewer Thieves than I do Engineers! I think Rangers are the only ones that I see more of than Engineer.
Wow. Your server must be odd because I see so few engineers that I have to stop myself from bothering every one I see about their builds. Most I see are flameneers though, I’ve never seen one using bomb kit.
That may be because I do PvE only.
I’m on Stormbluff Isles! And I tend to stick to PvE, as well, only occasionally entering WvW, plus I’m almost always on the Bomb Kit. XD
I also rarely ever see Flamethrower! I’ve seen quite a few turret users, and I do tend to bother each and every one of them to ask how it’s working out for them. <.<; I started my Engineer out using turrets exclusively, and I’ll readily admit, that was torture. I gave up on Engineer for a while because the build wasn’t working at all. It was only once I crawled my way to 60, got some nice Cleric gear and runes, and switched all my abilities to Kits, that I started to actually enjoy the class. XD
I’d still love to be able to do a turret build (and I in fact made sure that my Trait allotment would be able to easily switch back to all of the turret abilities), but for now, my plethora of fancy abilities keeps me happy!
Always listen to players in-game before players on the message boards, in any game.
Goodluck finding an Engineer ingame ;D Guild did a forum poll, to see who plays what as their main. 136 votes cast so far and, including myself, the amount playing Engineer can be counted on 1 hand.
This speaks volumes really. Without a doubt Engineer is the least played profession, and do you really think that would be the case if it was good? Or even if its fun-factor outweighted the badness properly?
Truth is, for most people the profession isnt enough fun to outweight the poor performance.But dont take anyones word here for it, just go play one and you’ll see for yourself if you enjoy it or not.
I see them constantly! I have to refrain from barking at them like a territorial dog whenever I see one, I like to be the only one using whatever class I’ve chosen in a game. Amazingly enough, I see fewer Thieves than I do Engineers! I think Rangers are the only ones that I see more of than Engineer.
Ohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh! Squeee, I’ve been mentioned by someone! XD Neat surprise to open a thread and see your name suddenly pop up!
Anyway, yup! Engineer may not be the absolute best at anything (or maybe it could be, I’m not really sure, myself!) but it’s certainly not unusable! My circle of friends benefit from my presence just fine. I’d still very much like a review of turrets so I cling obsessively to them as per my original intention when buying the game, BUT Engineer still has stuff going for them. I’m currently using a four-kit build, and there are tons of handy combos that I’m still needing to commit to reflex-memory so that I can realistically utilize them. Might not be the most powerful, or durable, or supportive, but the versatility that the developers aimed for definitely seems to be there in my experience!
I’m not much of a build-crafter, so take my suggestion with a grain of salt, but you might want to knock off ten points from either Explosives or Alchemy to put it in Tools and get Kit Refinement. Makes it so that you create a Super Elixir field whenever you activate the Elixir Gun.
As far as bombs being supportive… My current build has Elixir-Infused Bombs and a primary focus on Healing. It’s handy for sure, but more just icing on the cake than the cake itself, in my experience. The healing provided isn’t going to outpace the damage from enemies on its own.
Always listen to players in-game before players on the message boards, in any game. Players don’t go to the forums to thank the developers and talk about how much they enjoy something; they’re in the game, enjoying the something they enjoy. And often, on a whim, after doing something with the something they enjoy, they’ll say how much they love the something they just did with the something they enjoy.
A video game’s message boards are essentially the 1-star reviews that you look at to get a feel for the negative aspects. You rarely get to see the 5-star comments that praise the positive, here.
I really enjoy these conversations. The fact that a group of forums posters approached this political issue ingame with different viewpoints reflects the success of this storyline. Personally, I consider the Seperatists a major threat against the peace between Charr and Humans.
Yes I don’t know why some people are being so dismissive. Some people are more affected by things in a game than others, and that’s ok. Personally, I didn’t enjoy playing Empire/Dark Side in SWTOR because it made me uncomfortable. I didn’t ask for it to be removed, or anything, nor do I think people who enjoy playing a Sith or Imperial are bad or immoral; it’s just not for me. I don’t see why looking at the implications of quests, or thinking critically, means that there is something wrong with OP or s/he needs to ‘stop playing’ or ‘take the blue pill.’
Thinking: give it a try!
Problem is, in Guild Wars 2, you barely have a choice. You can choose HOW you’re going to oppose Separatists, but you can’t choose NOT to. Your character is given certain views, and you have little to no say in them. A very peaceful friend of mine made a Charr (because they like fuzzy things), and it’s almost comical to see the stark contrast between their personalities. A person who isn’t even physically capable of glaring at someone, playing a character that routinely goes “LEMME AT ‘EM, I’LL SLAUGHTER THEM AAAAALL!”
As for me, I haven’t actually been to this particular point in the game, myself, but I dread it. The most prominent “screw my character, I’m not doing that” thing that I’ve dealt with was an event in the beginner Asura area in which you accompany a Krewe Leader to kidnap Skritt for experiments. Thankfully, unlike the Renown Hearts, specific events aren’t essential to completion of the game.
All of that said, I’m fully aware that it’s a game, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously… But I also know that “don’t take it too seriously” is exactly what lets the viewpoints offered by games and movies infiltrate the real beliefs that many people hold. It’s subtle, but it’s definitely there.
Also:
Is there anyone in the U.S. today who thinks the revolution was a bad idea? Or that it unfairly brutally victimized peaceful civilians in the conflict? Heck no, we earned our sovereignty and we’d do it a hundred times over again given the opportunity, despite the loss of life and peace.
Ha! I get into political arguments with people aaall the time… Trust me, there are quite a few people who think America was in the wrong for seeking independence. Same people who want to cast America back into dependence, now.
Anything to make turrets better is alright by me. The problem with this idea, though, is that it consolidates five different skills into one, meaning that those other four would need to be completely redesigned, resulting in a large amount of work for the developers. That alone makes the possibility of this very unlikely.
I’d suggested a turret fix a few days ago that would replace the overcharges of each turret with an “upgrade” function that gives the turret more health and power, and possibly a reduction in fire delay. Such an approach would be far, far easier to implement, as it does not require coding in new abilities and turret models from scratch, just a simple buff application. While I would prefer your idea given that it doesn’t force a player to leave behind two utility slots, the unfortunate truth is that it’d take a lot of extra time and effort to implement. Could you think of four other abilities to replace each individual turret, that doesn’t require a lot of new functionality and animation?
Maybe something like this sounds more reasonable…
Replace Explosion Tier 1 “Acidic Elixirs” with “Turret Refinement”
Turret Refinement: Turrets cast a spell when exploded.Healing Turret heals for 500 health with 0 healing power.
Rifle Turret fires 6 bullets away from the explosion.
Flame Turret burns nearby targets.
Net Turret immobilizes nearby targets.
Thumper Turret dazes nearby targets.
Rocket Turret does decent damage to nearby targets.Suddenly a exploding turret build emerges!
Unfortunately, that still doesn’t really make the turrets any different from just random utility spells, and the cooldowns on each turret are still left as a massive problem.
What if the overcharges on each turret were to be replaced with an “upgrade” ability that increased its fire rate and HP? Something that could stack two or three (or more) times, with an infinite or at least very long duration? Heck, could even theoretically keep its overcharge, having it activate for a couple seconds alongside the buff. Seems to me that it would give turrets the role that turrets generally play in other games; area defense with a long setup time.
There’s still the issue that the entire game is very movement-oriented, of course, and turrets are completely stationary. All the more reason to make it so that they can actually be marginally effective in their little area.
Not that it’ll ever get in, of course. Mostly just wishful thinking, a “what if” to make things less painful. Dreaming of the future is what Engineers do, both in reality and in Guild Wars.
Do you suggest having something like an elixir kit and turret kit?
Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshyesyesplease
Being able to have all my turrets AS WELL AS some other useful stuff would make me one INCREDIBLY happy camper!!