Guild Wars 2

Ahmrill.7512:

IMO..

- No new WvW content until they give us a flexible Commander and Squad system useable for all players. Private and public abilities and allow us to form forces the way we enjoy.

- No new WvW content until we actually have functioning UI right click options in WvW. Basic things like removing offline group members and inviting people through the UI.

let’s actually fix the things that haven’t worked for about a year before adding “New” stuff.

^ This

(p.s. Even just adding different colored/guild only commander tags, the ability to kick offline party members and to invite people already in WvW, those would make a big difference.)

TLDR: WvW needs significant improvements to castle/tower defence to make it interesting again (suggestions at end).

Heroic castle battles used to involve small numbers of beleaguered defenders holding their castles against overwhelming numbers. That’s what those huge battlements were for. To take a castle, an attacking army had to go into the field, exposing themselves to counter attacks by the defending garrison and relieving armies. Meanwhile, a much smaller number of defenders could hold the much larger force at bay until overwhelmed, relief arrived or the attackers gave up. The result was a rich combination of siege and open field warfare.

But design problems and recent changes have dismantled what little of this there remains in WvW, and in doing so have made WvW even more of a mindless zerg v zerg environment.

Specific problems:

• Rewards for defending are so low that it’s far more lucrative to be outside attacking than inside defending.
• Castles/towers that previously could only be attacked from the field can now be attacked from the safety of other castles/towers.
  (In history, castles/towers that became vulnerable to this sort of attack were scrapped and rebuilt in locations without this fundamental weakness.)
• Castles walls do not give an effective combat advantage to defenders (killing a single target on the ground from a castle wall currently requires multiple coordinated defenders).
• GW2 combat mechanics mean that Zergs can be effectively immune to damage directed at them from castles/towers.
• Defenders have only two effective tactics: counter zerging and arrow-carting choke points (all except the front of gates which often can’t be reached – another fundamental design flaw).
• Running through enemies and dodging over wards means attacking forces must zerg to have any hope of blockading the gate when besieging a tower.
• Being able to WP in to defend a besieged castle removes the value of divide attacking forces to cover multiple gates and concentrates attackers back into a single zerg.

And now it looks like trebuchets may also drain supply in attacked towers/castles, trivialising defence even further.

Instead of driving rich combinations of field and siege warfare, WvW’s towers and castles now act merely as pause and choke points for zergs. The result is that WvW has deteriorated to . There’s negligible incentive for intelligent battles in the field and little to no opportunity or value in intelligent siege or defence (except perhaps for SMC).

If we want WvW to be more than zerg v zerg with objective flipping then we need to recreate the value of tower and castle defence. In particular:

1. Provide meaningful rewards to players who defend a tower/castle against attack (the defend event you get if someone smacks the gate as they run past doesn’t cut it).
2. Fix trebuchet range so that towers/castles can be attacked only from the field.
3. Give defenders on a wall bonuses when attacking enemies on the ground.
4. Redesign gate entrances so that defenders can cover them effectively from relative safety.
5. Upgrade corner towers to better cover of walls and better protect defenders/siege in those towers. (For balance, upgraded towers could be beaten down again by siege.)
6. Implement double gates where those are part of the design (e.g. Bay north gate) and make double gates an upgrade option.
7. Remove castle WPs or block them properly so that defenders cannot WP in to a castle under attack.
8. Provide traps that make gates unusable for a fixed period.
9. Provide unblockable knockback attacks on defensive siege to break up attacking zergs.

I’d add:

• Being able to WP in to contested keeps/castle
  Solution: have the WP locked out during roll over
• Being able to glitch into towers/keeps/castle
  Solution: keep finding and fixing these
• Lack of commander grouping features
  Solution: short term, let commanders set a tag color; longer term, provide full commander grouping features

Good summary.

WvW, as currently implemented, heavily favours offensive groups. So much, so that the only effective defence seems to be zerg busting by another (albeit typically smaller and better organized) offensive zerg.

Regarding gear and builds, go for direct damage rather than conditions. Outside of PvP, most Engs are power/crit direct damage based. Condition Engs are rare, and with good reason: condition fights are slower and conditions are often wasted in group fights.

It’s not a country problem. The problem is the GW2 combat system heavily favours zergs.

As long as large blobs of people can walk unharmed though heavy AoE and the more people in the blob the safer each person is, then WvW will continue to be about numbers over skill.

What this game needs is not hate, but effective counters to zergs.

Fix that and more intelligent play will have more of a chance.

Good idea: banning transfers to a competing server during a match-up.

There are ways round this, of course. But having this in place may reduce some of the opportunity, at least.

cocolu.7640:

some of you guys are just outright disrespectful and rude. Thank you Devon for all your hard work. Please continue your work on wvw, looking forward to the new updates.

^ This.

Of course there’s more we’d like to add, but colcou has got the essentials right.

Thanks, Devon. Keep up the good work. We look forward to more updates that healthily marry your (and the rest of the team’s) good ideas with the things we’re clear we need.

OP TLDR: Which do we want first:

• New WvW content? (e.g. maps, WXP benefits, orb mechanics, etc.) or …
• WvW QoL fixes? (e.g. improved commander tags/squads, party invites/kics that work, etc.)

My votes for QoL fixes because they’ll make WvW work better.
More content can come later, once WvW works better.

What about you?

Have a look at PhineasPoe’s excellent guide to FT/EG builds.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guildwars2guru.com%2Ftopic%2F72009-a-comprehensive-look-at-the-flamethrower-and-elixir-gun%2F

Kalan.9705:

Normally harder to play classes come with higher potential performance though.

That’s the logic of most computer games – and that makes sense, as it balances the higher effort/risk on the part of the player with higher rewards.

However, ANet wants GW2 to be a leading eSport, which means they want all classes to be equal at the highest levels of competition. As a result, there is no reward for the greater effort/risk of playing a Eng.

This wouldn’t be such a problem if GW2 was PvP only. But far more Eng players want to use them in PvE and (large scale) WvW. In effect, we pay an eSport performance tax because we use our Engs elsewhere in the game.

So, Anet does like Engs as a high end PvP class, but doesn’t seem to care much about them as a PvE and large sale WvW class. I can’t see this changing until ANet decide to balance classes for PvE and large scale WvW (something they’re not showing any sign of doing atm).

Very helpful info guys – thanks.

Thanks.
So my guardian will continue to be hyperactive when the fields drop – I can live with that.

DevonCarver.5370:

[Commander system]6) We are in the process of figuring out just what we’ll need to do to the commander system to make it what it should be. Much like guild claiming it is not a small overhaul though and it won’t be in place for quite some time.

It’s wonderful that you’re looking at a proper commander system . . . and, we’re feeling the pain right now.

Why not give us a quick and dirty improvement (e.g. commanders can set their own tag color) that will reduce our pain a little while you work on the full blown system?

Sure you’ll end up throwing that change away when the proper system comes along. Sure people will still gripe about how bad things and the wait till the new system. But you will have shown that your work isn’t just about producing some great system some time in the future. You will have shown that you understand our needs and our pain right now, and that you’ve found a way to, if not fix that pain, then at least to ease it a little while you work on the full solution.

WvW is a complex system, and complex system evolve best when they incorporate the best ideas of both the designers and the users.

Systems that follow the ideas of the designers only look good on paper but fail in practice. Systems that follow user suggestions only work but end up being limited and difficult to adapt.

It’s the systems that evolve by incorporating roughly equal amounts of user and designer initiated changes that become the really great systems.

ANet are wise not to automatically adopt whatever we suggest is needed in WvW. But they may be overdoing this. Especially when there are things we’re telling are quality of life changes that would be relatively easy to develop (e.g. colored commander tags).

ANet have clearly been working on WvW. But it looks like they need to incorporate more requests direct from the user base. The evidence for this: posts that boil down to “We’re giving you all these great changes [insert examples of ANet designed changes]. How come you’re not happy with what we’re doing?”

Sometimes the solution is to just put in a few of the simple things the users want most and work from there.

Is it possible to blast a field with Mighty Blow (Hammer #2) without leaping out of the field (e.g. when stacked and buffing prior to zerg v zerg fight)?

Draygo.9473:

Stealth traps prevent you from stealthing, they do not prevent you from using stealth skills.

And the difference is . . . ?

I’d love to see WvW incorporated into the Living Story (assuming WvW could cope with the resulting population boost).

The ‘story’ wrapped around WvW is that fight there protect the rest of the world from invaders. But right now, the more a server is losing in WvW, the more reason they have to abandon WvW and just do open world PvE until the next match up. That’s backwards.

Instead, it would be great if WvW outcomes made a visible difference to open world PvE on the server.

• Win in WvW => see more traders and caravans in PvE.
• Lose in WvW => more trash mobs in PvE.
• Etc.

The lack of response probably is your answer.

This seems to be a design decision not a bug. Engs are considered balanced in PvP with how grenades work now – which means this is unlikely to change.

(Personally, I agree with your frustration. As an oceanic player with .25s ping, the way targeting works for grenades makes them almost unusable for me in many situations. I’d love to see this changed, but just have to accept that Anet have other higher priorities.)

itamar.4690:

To excuse this topic , i’d say this:
Engineers have no reason of getting a pretty weapon or a pricey backpiece beside being social in LA.

Isn’t that the stereotype of Engineers in the real world? Most of them are more interested in whether it does the job, than whether it looks good.
Unfortunately, making us wear hobosacks most of the time seriously overplays the stereotype.

SeuRafinha.5924:

In PVE, a condition build is viable?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: You can do a lot of solo PvE with a condition build, but you’ll lose out as soon as you get into group situation unless you are the only condition build there. (After 6 months determinedly working with condition builds, I’ve finally accepted that power builds are just that much more useful. Now have to shelve all the condition gear I’ve bought – in the hope that it will prove valuable one day – and buy a whole new set of power gear.)

I’ve come to the conclusion that ANet think of the Eng as a high skill PvP class, and not a PvE class.

This makes us good for PvP and WvW roaming, but weak for PvE and large scale WvW, and leads directly to us being one of the least played classes outside of low end PvE (cause people like the idea of the Eng) and (that minority area) PvP.

Combine that with the fact that Engs’ heavy use of kits means extra programming is required for us to really benefit from cosmetic changes (legendaries, weapon skins, etc.), and enhancements to Engs give very low return for Anet’s effort.

The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as long as ANet treats Engs as a complex PvP class and PvP remains a minority area in GW2, then Engs will be bottom (or bottom equal) of the list when it comes to enhancements outside of PvP balancing.

TLDR: ANet’s focus on Engs being a high-skill PvP class relegates Engs to being the hobos of GW2.

Acordeon.7134:

Right Devon, you^re in charge. Can we pleaseeeeee pleaseeee get some info on deadlines? Like when are we going to get actual wvw content?

DevonCarver.5370:

While part of my job is to post on the forums to keep y’all informed, it’s also part of my job to not make promises that we can’t keep. So, my answers come off as vague, because that’s as much as I can say. If I’m saying anything, you should consider that to mean something, because if it is a topic I have absolutely no information on, I won’t talk about it at all.

The man said he won’t post what anything can’t guarantee. That will include deadlines for things they haven’t fully nailed down yet.

ANet do post WvW related commitments in the announcements for upcoming releases and, IIRC, WvW has been a regular item in most of these.

The problem seems to be more that the scale of WvW changes is low relative to PvE and PvP – the changes that have been made, while all good ideas, are still much less developed than their PvP and PvE equivalents.

Grenade launcher is a good idea.

And why not just make them look like a different weapon. If they need to be more obvious for PvP then surely they can do that with the look of the weapon – its works for every one else, after all.

It’s only an old idea because it hasn’t been implemented yet – it’s still a great idea.
Good on you for posting about it – the more this happens, hopefully the more chance there be that ANet will actually put it high enough on their list for it to happen.

Simple solution: give Engineers’ Utility Goggle utility the ability to see stealthed characters.

It will only work for maybe 10s out of every 40 (or 32 if traited), but it will a) cut down the excessiveness of Thieves’ perma-stealth, and b) finally make Eng’s a useful class for large scale WvW.

Of course, to balance this it will help if Thieves have a role in large scale WvW. They’re thieves after all. How about giving them a way to sneak into closed towers, etc.? (Why should Mesmers be the class that can bypass gates?)

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The very first living world team actually did the thing some of you have called for. Some 40 or so permanent events were added around the game in our very first content update. They were met with little interest or fanfare. Granted, Halloween may have stolen the show. But those events are still in the game today. I’ve seen very little reaction to them, however, positive or negative.

Those extra events made a real difference as they considerably improved the replayability of the zones they’re in. I can think of several zones I’d written off as boring after completing them the first time, but since that patch I’ll happily go back to them (e.g. for levelling an alt) as a result of the extra activity those events create.

Of course, we always want more, much more… :-p

The search tool is seriously broken. Try searching in this forum:
- Leveling = 0 hits
- PvE = 1 hit! (That’s the first time I’ve ever seen it return a hit.)

Lets face it, Engs have a high skill floor making them weak even in the hands of average players. Engs take much longer to learn than other classes and until mastered they’re slow killers (and even many seemingly sensible Eng builds are still slow killers). The forced ground targetting and lack of auto attack on our strongest kit (grenades) doesn’t help either.

Aphix.9846:

Yes, I would please love a developer response on exactly why are WvW ranks character bound ? Especially when sPvP ranks are account wide, why is this any different ? For me it does not make any sense especially with the amount of ranks there are…

+1

LordByron.8369:

At DEV

Considering current PvE situation where many professions are less likely to be accepted in party.

Did you consider the impact of that stuff?

I mean its not that a mesmer c an have a consumable to have 100Blades, banners and heavy armor :/

We risk to go towards situation of 5 warrior parties everywhere if its cheap.

That’s a problem with PvE balancing across all classes, not portals.

If the only thing stopping Warriors being the exclusive class for major PvE content is that they don’t have a single skill form a single other class, then the problem is not that skill – it’s the lack of balance across all classes in PvE.

Lokheit.7943:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The portal is a one-time use consumable that effectively allows you to use a skill that is similar to the mesmer’s portal. We recognize that it’s a very powerful item, so the recipe is quite rare and takes considerable resources to manufacture.

One use only with rare materials?

At least there are plans to introduce similar mechanics in other professions skills? Mesmers are the most wanted profession at Jumping Puzzles and WvW because of their unique skill, I was hoping for it to become more universal with this item (and in adition to being so valuable for community teamwork over maps, it’s the only case where only one profession can do something).

Good post.

The Mesmers’ portal is a game defining skill (in Dungeon and JP farming, and in WvW). This game defining skill is only available to a single class, but is available to all builds within that class (because Mesmer’s don’t have to trait for it).

So making portals more widely accessible is a great idea.

The cost to make these portals items does sound disconcertingly high. If it’s too high there’s a risk that it could detrimentally widen the gulf between established players and new entrants. Why? Because, unlike Legendaries which give little to no real advantage over ‘ordinary’ items, personal portals will give a significant advantage but only for those with the GW2 resources to make them.

Also, by pricing these so high, adding this new supply of portals to the game may have the counter intuitive effect of increasing the amount people pay to use a portal (for things like JPs and short term content). Why? Because it embeds into the game the high cost of portals. Instead of actually correcting an imbalance in the Mesmer class, it could make Mesmers even more desirable compared with other classes.

It may be labelled ‘rifle’, but in in the hands of an Engineer its just a ‘blunderbus’. (That’s 400 years of technical devolution right there).

+1 to the Mystic Forge Materials and Doubloons being auto-storable.

cesmode.4257:

Why do you suppose main cities, other than Lion’s arch and maybe divinities reach, are largely empty?

Because:

1. All gates lead to LA
2. Travel to LA is free

It’s a design decision, and it makes LA look busy (so at least one city does).

Why do the Asura route (almost) all their gates through Lions Arch?

Don’t they realise this has created an unnecessary bottleneck, and is channelling people and trade into Lions Arch and away from the other cities including from their very own Rata Sum? As a result of this inefficient arrangement, Lions Arch is booming but prone to over-crowding (i.e. overflow) issues, while the other cities (Rata Sum included) are falling far behind in terms of both economy and population.

Surely the Asura must realise that the only people who are benefiting from this configuration are the traders of Lions Arch. They must also realise they have created a single point of failure for almost the entire network and handed control of traffic over the network to Lion’s Arch.

Given Lions Archs recent political and military history, it is foolish of the Asura to let it remain a bottleneck and potential single point of failure.

When will the Asura dismantle the dependence on Lions Arch as the hub for the gate network and start connecting gate routes that do not depend on the political and military stability of Lions Arch?

The OP has a point (two really): While travel to LA is free,
a) the way it’s done is unnecessarily inconvenient, and
b) channelling people through LA this way depopulates the other cities across Tyria.

On the other hand, there is an upside to the way the free travel to LA is implemented: PvE’ers who might never otherwise go to WvW and PvP are encouraged to regularly transit through those zones and this may prompt them to investigate further. You could argue this ultimately benefits the players if leads them to discover they like areas of the game they might otherwise never visit. However, ArenaNet’s strategic drive to increase PvP participation (WvW is considered a stepping stone to PvP) seems a far stronger reason for free travel to LA remaining the way it is.

Until ArenaNet decide the benefits to PvE’ers outweigh the potential benefit to ArenaNet of encouraging players towards PvP, this isn’t likely to change much.

That’s a very good list.
(15 chars)

Wow, between the lack of responses and the lack of favorable comments from those that have (thanks btw) it seems like condition builds are already dead in PvE (aside from the occasional solo fanatic).

That’s a shame really, as the lowly role of conditions (and CC) in PvE makes for boring fights:
“Can’t CC the boss. More conditions won’t make a difference. Guess it’s just hit, hit, hit, and dodge any attacks.”

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Any other engis out there run condition specs primarily? And if so what traits do you focus on most? Also, I found that while open world pve (obviously) is cake, dungeons are a bit tougher, at least on bosses. Trash rarely poses a problem I can melt through them easy enough, but I kind of lose my focus on the bosses. What exactly is the role of the engi? With defiant you can’t really knock them around much and it’s all too easy to cap out conditions on that single target.

GW2’s conditions are designed for small scale PvP, not PvE (or WvW battles).

Having played an Eng condition build extensively this year I can confirm that they’re not suited to PvE (or to major WvW events either). I’ve tried. I really want it to work. But the sacrifice in terms of time (slower kills) and rewards has been high.

With the new contribution based boss rewards coming along I’ve finally accepted that condition builds just aren’t worth it in PvE (no point missing out on rewards just because the condition cap nerfs your contribution). So it’s time to spend a whole lot more gold/badges/karma use a whoel bunch more gold an karma back to the bank for the gold to do yet another complete regear

FYI, I’m been running a full condition build with EG, FT and (in PvE) Bombs (+100% cond duration, over 1300 cond damage). It’s fine for general PvE roaming, but so is any halfway decent build. For big events it’s poor, ditto for dungeon runs if there’s another condition build in the party; all because condition caps kill its effective damage when there are other people around.

My recommendation is build for direct damage and treat conditions as an extra bonus on top of your direct damage (like everyone else does).

It’s not like the legendaries we’ve got now are worth the effort for Engs: the Predator’s a high powered sniper’s rifle and we use it like a shot gun; and Quip is aptly named as it’s briefly humorous and quickly forgotten.

No doubt we’ll see some Eng love with the upcoming Legendaries. It would be really nice if they fixed our hobo sack problems the same time, but I’m not holding my breath.

I notice you’re running Apothecary gear and have over 800 cond damage.

For conditions to work in WvW you need to:

1. Apply a range of different conditions (so that even when they cleanse some they’ll still be hurting from others)
2. Have increase condition duration (a lot of people run -cond duration build/food in WvW so you need the extra duration just to get cond ticks and to make sure your short duration conditions are still there when you go to apply other conditions)
3. Have high condition damage bolstered by Might stacks (at L80 each Might stack is 35 cond damage; just 10 might stacks is an extra 350 cond damage – you have to go deep into condition damage gear to outdo what people get just stacking Might)
4. Stay away from zergs. There’s so much condition removal in zergs that even with +100% cond duration and 1300 Cond damage before Might stacking my cond Eng may as well go home when the zergs are out as my conditions don’t last long enough to do much.

Given you like support play, which in WvW tends to be zerg v zerg, you’d be better off switching from Apothecary gear to a mix of Clerics and Magi (for the increased crit). This will shift damage from easily lost conditions to ‘always works’ direct damage and should increase your effective damage significantly.

The Pistol is far better at laying on conditions than it is at direct damage. Like Soon said, an SD build may be a good option. But even then none of your additional damage will come from your pistols; it will all come from your tool belt skills which are based on your 6-9 utilities.

For a direct damage pistol build you really need to go heavily into Firearms and Alchemy/Elixirs:

• 30 in Firearms, taking any 3 of: Rifled Barrels (increased range), Hair trigger (lower CDs), Coated Bullets (Pistol shot pierce); Modified Ammunition (2% more damage/condition on target – especially useful in large champion fights). (You can always hot swap between these out of combat as required.) All three minor Firearms traits will help your damage output as well.
• 30 into Alchemy for Fast Acting Elixirs, Potent Elixirs and HGH. Put Elixir B on your utility bar and take Elixir H as your heal. This will allow you to stack lots of Might (you’ll be drinking and throwing elixirs around a lot) which will increase your damage significantly.
• This only leaves 10pts to support your Tool Kit and/or Rocket Shoes or for increased survivability. 10 into Tools is an obvious option for Speedy Gadgets or that WvW favourite Speedy Kits, or there’s a couple of options in both Explosives (more offense) or Inventions (more defense and maybe some more Power with Energized Armor).
• While Rocket Boots deals with immobilize, etc, this build doesn’t have a stun break (assuming you swapped Elixir B for S). For that you’ll need to go with an Elixir that breaks stuns (back to Elixir S after all?) or give up the Tool Kit or Rocket Boots.

p.s. One further option is to go 20 in Firearms only and go 20 in Tools for the 20% reduction to Tool Kit and Tool Belt CDs.

I’d suggest swapping Infused Precison for Fireforged trigger and make more use of the EG. 25% more EG skills is hard to beat, and you can get more than enough swiftness from…

…Speedy Kits (10 in Tools) gives you perma-swiftness everywhere (even better than combat swiftness) and it reduces your tool belt CDs by 10% (more heals, stun breaks and Big ol’ Bombs). (Tip: Speedy Kits synergises with runes/sigils that proc on healing skills if you run with Med Kit as just swapping to the Med Kit will trigger the proc.)

The remaining 10 pts depends on your play style:

• If you use the Bomb Kit a lot, then 20 in Explosives gets you even more of them from Short Fuse, plus a bit more power and Cond duration.
• If you use your Tool Belt skills a lot, then going 20 in Tools reduces their CD even further and they fully recharge at 25% health (though outside of the Med Kit trait, the other major trait options aren’t that good for your build).
• Alternatively, you could go 15 in Tools for the Tool belt recharge at 25% health, and 25 in Firearms for the +5% damage against bleeding foes (which you will have up a lot of the time).

FIX THE ENG DOWNED SKILLS!!!!!

Playing around in WvW yesterday (taking on outnubmered fights to see how long I could survive) and I couldn’t get the downed #2 to work! Not once! Not ever!

Between stability and lag, the #2 never interrupted a stomp on me. I’d target the stomper, press #2 and wait … and lie there watching while they completed their stomp. Whatever the #2 was doing, it wasn’t interrupting the stomp.

I rallied a few times, but only someone else finished off the enemy I had targeted as I went down. I got to use the #3 once when there was a group standing around hitting me down slowly rather than trying to stomp me. (This was one of the groups I’d fought/lost to a few times, and I think they were just mucking around proving how crappy the Eng’s downed skills are.)

In 15-20 times of being downed, the only downed skill that was any use at all was #3, and because of its slow charge-up I only got to use it once.

Even removing the #2 downed skill would be better than giving us hope that it will work and then dashing that hope as it fails time after time to interrupt stomps.

For bleeds, EG #1 is the way to go. Like people have said, it hits harder, stacks faster, and you’ll appreciate the Weakness every time it nerfs one of the enemies attacks. Weakness really shines against heavy hitting mobs as it can turn an insta-down attack into something that lets you or an ally keep fighting.

EG #3 Fumigate is also good for stacking bleeds via the Sharpshoot trait (Firearms 5pts) provided you have a reasonable crit rate, and it will stack them on multiple enemies.

I’ve become a fan of Poison in cond builds. While it’s damage is mediocre, it makes up for it by nerfing the target’s healing, which has the same effect as applying more (non-burst) damage. For mobs with self-heal it’s invaluable. Of course, the healing nerf only works while Poison is up. So reapplying poison becomes important. That’s where Pistol #2 comes in: it synchs with EG #3 to give two Poison applications every 10s giving you perma-poison on a target.

I find Pistol #3 Static Shot useful but use it less in 1v1s as it requires multiple mobs to be really effective (being insta-cast helps as is doesn’t hold up anything else). The best time to use it is when there are two enemies in close proximity (even a harmless environment creature will do). In that situation it will bounce between the two, doubling the damage and confusion stacks. (WvW note: I’ve found myself using it a lot when being targeted by dual warriors – a common WvW meta – and getting stunned a lot less as a consequence).

Pistol #4 stacks a lot of burning if you’re in their face when you cast it. But in Condition builds we stack plenty of burning anyway, so I don’t use it much. It is a small aoe so it can be useful occasionally for tagging or keeping pressure on more enemies. Its big downside is you really do have to be in the face of your enemy for it to be truly effective.

Pistol #5 Glue Shot is helpful for the immobilize/cripple. Personally, I find Immobilize itself of limited value as most of my attacks have a bit of range on them, but it does come in very handy for pinning down mobs that run around all the time. The extended cripple from a cond duration build is especially useful for maintaining distance from mobs. On the down side, the ground targeting and slow animation sucks, and makes it virtually worthless whenever there’s lag.

Coming right back to pistol #1. Yes, it applies bleeding, but the only time I use this is when skill lag gets so bad that it’s the only attack that will fire – and even then I’d rather get onto the EG and use its #1.

The other quick stacker for bleeding is FT#1 with Sharpshooter. I think it does even more attacks that EG #3 so will lay down even more bleeds.

Aberrant.6749:

Legit Prep In.5893:

+1 for TURRETS ARE STILL NOT FIXED!! COomeeeeooon its been a whole YEAR now !

Turrets have been totally been fixed… in the veterinary sense.

ROFLMAO!

JESPER.5610:

For zerging I should choose Guard or Engi?
I felt kinda bored of Guardian.

Zerg = Guardian
Zerg =/= Eng

My Eng is great for WvW roaming. But when the zergs come out to play it’s Guardian time.

The Eng is a lot of fun to play, but it’s a PvP class with good mobility and as such is best for roaming and small group stuff. There are Eng builds that will work in/against zergs, but they’re very hard work, whereas the Guardian is designed to work best in a crowd.

The Guardian’s biggest limitation in WvW is mobility. But Zergs have so much extra swiftness flying around that all you need to do to keep up is stay in the bunch (which is where the Guardian work best anyway).

Cond builds performer poorly against PvE bosses due to the way condition caps work. Direct damage/person is unaffected by how many people participate in a Champ fight. But condition damage/person drops rapidly as more people join the fight.

Now we hear that Champs will drop better rewards for those who make ‘sufficient’ contribution to the fight.

1. Does this mean condition builds will become even more of a handicap in PvE Champ fights?
2. Will this effectively remove condition builds from PvE?

Asura FTW. Small but devastating . . . and they get the best lines.

Now if we could only get Asura designed Eng gear, cause the stuff we carry looks like it came out of Charr workshop.

Engineers are primarily a PvP class.

• CC is a major Eng strength.
  CC is next to useless against most PvE bosses.
• Conditions are a major strength of Engs.
  Conditions are often redundant in dungeons and PvE group events.
  Condition builds typically take longer than power builds to kill PvE mobs.

In PvE, Engs:

1. Are great fun.
2. Need to be in a Power/Explosives (Bomb or Grenade kit) build to be comparable to other classes. (These may be the least interesting Eng builds.)
3. With other builds are more interesting to play but take much longer to complete combats.