Guild Wars 2

I love the P/S myself. One thing that I had to learn about the shield is to learn the enemies tell to their ranged attacks. Once I did that, I could mitigate the ranged damage completely at times while reflecting it fully back to them, generally with 3/4 of them criting. Nothing is more satisfying then seeing a rifle or bow enemy do a multi-burst attack that reflects back at then for heavy damage.

I found precision helps alot with procs on things that add to cond. damage. I focus on prec/cond dmg/toughness armor and power/vitality/cond dmg jewelry with pow/prec/cond dmg gems in the jewelry. Basically I focus on cond dmg for the pistol and earth sigil. I put 30 into fire arms for the coated bullets and precisions, as well as the 20% decrease on pistol coold downs and 20 in inventions for the added toughness and 20% decrease in shield cool down and the 90 toughness in that same shield trait.

I put 20 more into tools for speedy kits for unlimited swiftness and kit refinement. I use bomb kit, elixir gun and rocket boots. Rocket boots give me two ways to do damage and burning as well as a stun breaker. I use elixir gun for debuffs and two condition removal options and 3 regens avaliable. I use bombs for BoB for damage and control. I often swap to bombs and use #3 then #2 for thr 5 stacks of confusions (got to love watching enemies hurt themselves) and AoE burn. Often I swap just for the fire bomb or smoke bomb for the fire field or smoke field for invisibility or blind.

This gives me invisibility, multiple burns, weakness with elixir gun, 3 AoE regens, a stun breaker, condition removal, the ability to mitigate damage, an escape option, stuns, fire fields, constant swiftness, poisons, and many different ways to play it.

I use this build in PvE, sPvP, and WvW. If I need to help rez in WvW or dungeons, I swap elixit R for rocket boots so I have a stun breaker and an AoE rez assist. I often use elixir gun in those cases as well to keep 100% weakness on enemies. Bosses in particular, as it causes glancing blow consistently, allowing me to limited the enemies damage out put.

Venoma.7052

Ok so Ebola’s answer is wrong then? All conditions tick every 1 second and to get an extra tick you must get the duration increased by 1 second?

Only the ones that stack in duration. Bleeds for example, stack in intensity. Meaning the more stacks you have, the more tics per second you get.

Confusions does not tic at all. Confusion stacks in intensity and each stacks returns a percentage of the enemies attack back on them. The higher the stack of intensity, the more damage that is returned to the enemy.

Horrible concept. I am completely against it.

The toughness of the opponent is also very relevant to your damage out put

This still poses the question, what will the rest of us do who use the tool kit for its well rounded utility outside of turrets?

It really appears those who favor turrets here are suggesting an absolute revamp of the kit, and not worrying about how your changes will hose the majority of the tool kit users out there now.

with any cond dmg that is duration stacked, you have to hit a percentage relevent to the duration put on. For example if you have a 2 second burn, you need 50% worth of condition duration to get a 3rd tic. You have to break 33% to get a fourth tic id it was 3 seconds originally. You need 100% to get two tics out of a 1 second burn…….and so on.

Sporadicus.1028:

Bleed has been confirmed to stack ticks of damage, not increase the damage of each tick.

It has not been confirmed, however, whether players with lower condition damage affect your ticks or if there is an internal tick damage that distinguishes each player’s tick amount.

Why do you state that this is not confirmed? It has been confirmed for some time, and well discussed. Perhaps you simply missed it……anyway bleeds stack up to a set number like 25 or something might be 35 I do not remember. Basically it stacks the top 25 if that is the cap. In other word, if I have higher condition damage then you and I am stacking 5 stacks and players A, B, C, and D are also higher condition damage then you and stacking 5 stacks a piece as well, then your bleeds will not even register.

Which sucks if there are several conditioned focus players at the particular fight.

LoreChief.8391:

If you are using Tool Kit to support turrets, which is primarily what it’s for – you probably aren’t stacking condition damage, as it doesn’t effect the turrets or any wrench skills OTHER than Box of Nails. Additionally, with all of the Tool Kit skills being melee, there’s no point in applying a cripple. It doesn’t fit with the set, builds or related utility skills – hence it’s removal.

EDIT: Also, no one should be hammering in nails with a wrench. Wrong tool for the job.

First off, your edit is kind of funny. Your trying to use your personal real world ideas to decide what is applicable to a kit in a fantasy game. Secondly, your assumption that tool kit is used primarily for turrets is just that, your assumption.

Also you suggest because the #1 skill is melee that no one needs box of nails. Another incorrect assumption. Sometimes condition focused engineers need a solid physical attack for gates in WvW, gates in PvP such as foefire, and other inanimate objects in PvE that must be destroyed, that condition damage does not effect.

Your incorrectly assuming my post was related to turret builds, and that is not true. Very many P/P or P/S users with condition based builds use tool kits. We use it for control with cripple, because the subsequently also add bleeds, and for pry bar to stack confusion with concussion bomb.

Really? I have had absolutely no problem with the elixir gun at all, and I use it a lot. How is it acting buggy?

TwiceDead.1963:

Hi there, I’m a level 64 Engineer at the moment, and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed playing this class. For the amount of effort I put into keeping control of the combat situation, I feel like I spend way too much time in a battle than I should, which leads me to believe I am doing something wrong somewhere. This is for PvE btw.

Weapons of Choice:
Pistol + Shield, started using the shield today and I am really intrigued by it…
Pistol + Pistol. My old setup, when I had a condition set

Love the shield here as well. Learn to se the signs before ranged attackers launch items. You can do ridiculous group damage with multiple ranged enemies.

Current Armor set focus:
Power+++
Precision ++

All other stats at random.

Try ti mix in as much toughness and vitality as you can but make precision and cond. dmg your main focused stats. At least that is what I like.

Skill set:

Healing:
- Healing Turret.

Utility:
1 – Bomb Kit (or a Turret)
2 – Battering Ram
3 – Flamethrower

Elite:
- Elixir X

Love the battering ram myself. I live for BoB, the bomb kit is nice for direct damage when cond. dmg won’t due, such as doors and other inanimate objects.

Not the biggest fan of the FT, but that is a personal opinion. Learn any kits abilities you have well. Learn how to quickly swap to the kit to use the defensive abilities and the offensive ones at the appropriate times.[/quote]

Traits:
-> Explosives +15, Trait 33% chance to set foes on fire on crit.
->Firearms +20, Scope in here for 10% crit chance when standing still, vulnerability on Critical Hits.
->Tools +20, Swiftness on Kit switch, and I don’t remember the other one…

I like to get 30 in fire arms if I am going to have stuff like chance to do ‘X’ on crits. Plus I find coated bullets very handy.

I like this setup, but I am not quite sure how to use it’s potential if it has one as I feel like I am spending way too much time killing ONE opponent. Granted I can take on multiple opponents as long as they don’t cast poison or burning.

What’s bellow is just a list of how I usually handle battles, it’s kind of long and boring so you dont have to read.

How I open a battle:

One Opponent.

Switch to flamethrower
-> Cast Flame Wall
-> Cast Battering Ram Tool Belt Skill for Cripple+Burning effect.
Switch to Pistol
-> Fire Poison Darts
-> Slot 3 skill (Sparks)
Switch to bombs
-> Drop Smoke bomb
-> Drop Flash bomb
-> Drop Fire bomb
Switch to P/S
-> Detonate Fire Field with Reflect Projectile Skill(Shield) for applied Might x3.
-> Shoot target till he comes close
-> Use Battering Ram
Switch to Flame Thrower
-> Flame Blast, highly unpredictable skill that often hits an invisible obstruction 90% of the time.
-> WHEN Flame Blast fails, start burning target with slot 1 skill.
-> Slot 3 for pushback
-> Keep burning the target with slot 1.

So yeah, that’s a long list of how I usually(or at least ideally) handle things.

How I encounter multiple opponents:

P/S
-> Fire Ammo
-> Slot 3 skill (Bouncing lightning that bounces to every target setting three of them on fire)

-> Start kiting with bombs, dropping big’Ol’Bomb somewhere along the way.
-> Do what the situation demands, this is where things get overwhelming to me.

As far as how your playing, I won’t say much, I will say though, that I have learned that I must always have at lease either a cond. removal or stun breaker. Generally I use both all the time, but I never go without one or the other.

Why would you claim Box of Nails needs replaced. That is a AoE control and bleed stack for those who ise condition builds or want control.

Box of nails is the last thing that needs to be removed from the tool kit.

PotatoOverdose.6583:

3k Damage at 1500 is not a lot.

When you read it by itself, it seems as if it has really got to be one of the most backwards things I have seen you post.

When you compare it to grenades, it makes sense though. The mortar needs some type of distinct advantage that would give players a good reason to use it over grenades.

The lack of LoS requirements, seems like it would be an advantage, but it certainly is not. Any minimal advantage that may give, is countered by an absolute lack of mobility. Particularly when you factor in the fact that the mortar itself, can be easily destroyed.

Nah, because of the added difficulty of using grenades, it is reasonable for them to do more damage then bombs.

What manner of utility specifically would you suggest for the tool kit?

achmed.6542:

everytime i tried it, people just DPSed my turrets down or which isnt to hard when if its placed near the spot.
so either you got lucky or i jsut plain suck at using turrets

If they are DPSing your turrets they are not DPSing you. In that time, you should be DPSing them, as will your turrets.

They either attack the turrets or allow the turrets to freely attack and net them, keeping them off of you. Or, they focus on you, allowing your turrets free reign on them.

Why? In my experience the turrets work very well for point holding and even caping. The tool belt abilities of turrets are fairly handy as well.

I would prefer to leave throw wrench alone. Traited, it is a spectacular skill.

Although I can see where you are trying to go with it, I would suggest that the only change they make is the #1 skill you suggested.

Not taking away from anything in your video, but that engineer on the opposing team was horrible. He just stood in one spot the entire time.

I am sorry, I was under the impression this was a general kit and weapons swap discussion in general, as the title suggest.

If this is a thread on self conditions removal as you are claiming, perhaps they should change the title.

Besides, I am not reading anywhere, that anyone is claiming their own projectiles remove conditions from themselves.

Lyuben.2613:

coglin.1496:

It removes 1 condition when it takes effect and you double up on the chances to use it with kit refinement. As well you do get projectile finisher chances to remove any further applied conditions.

You don’t though with projectiles.

Perhaps you post so negatively about the class because you misunderstand certain mechanics.

I can assure you when I place a super elixir, either by using the #5 elixir gun skill or by swapping to the elixir gun with kit refinement That I create a light field and it absolutely allows me to use specific projectiles to remove conditions with a projectile combo finisher, and it will do so in an AoE fashion. I stated it very clearly and specifically. So I am unclear as to how or what you are confused about.

Any attempts your making to claim I stated something other then that, are on you.

The only things crippling the class are bugs and broken skills/traits/abilities that do not function properly or at all.

Anything beyond that is generally in someones head. Especially after reading all of the post and threads of folks trying to convince the devs to mold the class to fit their play style, while not caring hoe it would negatively effect the rest of us.

For example, take the OPs back words outlook. He is claiming the gave kits to the class to compensate for only having 3 weapons choices and no weapons swaps.

When everyone knows the give us no weapons swaps because we have the kits as options, not the other way around.

It removes 1 condition when it takes effect and you double up on the chances to use it with kit refinement. As well you do get projectile finisher chances to remove any further applied conditions.

Then don’t. It is not for everyone. I like it for utility damage and control. I have AoE cantrips X2 that do AoE cripple and add to my bleed stacks. The throw wrench does great damage X2 and is a ranged cripple for me. I will swap to it for the dodge.

Once you have used the various kits to the point that you know exactly where in the line each skill is and what it does, it becomes second nature to quick swap for the one or two you need in varying given situations.

It is absolutely not for everyone, stick with the benefits grenades offer you, and those of us who find value in the other kits can use them.

They way that kits work so well with our F keys and the class mechanic, I would like to see one actual fact to support the false claims that kits put us at some disadvantage. Bomb kit gives mean AoE damage and control knock back ability. Elixir gun gives me the removal of 2 conditions AoE as well, and 3 health separate health regens. Tool kit gives me 2 AoE cripples and bleeds at the same time, working very well with my condition build, a third block, and a 2nd stack of confusion, as well a ranged cripple and frontal AoE damage X2.

You would be hard pressed to find a disadvantage in that, if you ask me

Yeah, it creates a field AoE that does 6 ticks that give a fallen allie 20% of their total health each tick. Some folks simply use it to their advantage to toss it just before they die. It has to be tossed at the right time in the right location.

Do you have a single fact to support the claim that the game originally was going to have shotguns? Was something said or mentioned somewhere by a dev or a production staff member?

As much as Lyuben is trying to help, ignore anything that starts with "you need’ , “must have”. and comments of that nature. Other then that, he offers sound advice.

The strengths of this class are the ability to think and play outside the box. For example, he comments how ranged enemies are a weakness, when we have abilities that very literally reflect the damage of ranged back at them, add out crit chance to it, as well as sigils. Obviously various play styles and builds will have various strengths and weaknesses.

I have a sigil that gives me a chance to AoE a flame on my shield. A champion fires an 8 shot burst at me. I reflected all 8 and 6 of them crited for 1800-2000 and 5 of them proced the flame burst for AoE damage on top. 15,000 damage ona shield ability that negated all the damage coming at me to 0 while doing 15,000 to the enemy is a significant strength. Yet he referred to it as a weakness. So it is really a relative concept, dependent on your ability to think beyond a small limit, and to try and test almost every aspect of the class.

As easy as gear is to acquire, and with the options in the mist allowing everything so easily tested, there really is no reason not to test any and all aspects of every class, to get a feel for what plays well for you.

What I took out of the last few post is that the engineer has the tools and capability.

What is there to argue about if everyone is pointing out that they profession as a whole is capable and had the tools needed? That simply leaves the ability to fail or succeed up to how the user plays his/her/ particular build.

Talbot.7461:

PLEASE make elixir B apply ALL the boons like it currently says,
.

I do not believe this is a reasonable request.

Might: 30 s
Fury: 10 s
Swiftness: 10 s
Retaliation: 10 s

Is too close to elites in many professions.
it is comparable to signet of rage and there fore elixir X, rampage as one. Those are similar acting abilities, and they are elites. To grant the level of buffs from elixir b, which is on a 40s recast, compared to the longer recast of the others, is not a very reasonable request.

Yes, it does seem reasonable that the turrets should continue to attack until destroyed.

Well it is bad to compare them to mesmer illusions anyway. They function completely different. Turrets will attack any enemy, while illusions are specific to the enemy they are cast on. They die when destroyed, the enemy they were cast on dies, or if a 4th one is cast, regardless of what the mesmer does beyond that.

The mist is specifically designed as an area to allow you live action fights with the various professions. There are various dummies to test on. The game tells you enough to understand the concept of things, then gives you an area dedicated to test them yourselves.

Maybe someone should link him the “mega man teaches you how to play” video

Jordan.6157:

Level 90 and setup = skill + skill kit

Level 90 with a game that has a level cap of 80, that is a pretty impressive feat.

So for damage you could make a rampagers set for power/precision/cond. dmg. Carrion set with cond. dmg/pow/vit.

Well, without some more detail, it is hard to advise you. What stats are you looking for?

Nice elitist jerk attitude there OP, your awesome. Nothing says it better then a post telling people if the do not chose abilities of your approval that they need to re-roll another class. Or how you are implying that anyone not using kits are playing wrong because they do not use kits.

Two thumbs up on your ability to promote the class well, while at the same time doing it so badly.

Alright Anet, as much as I love you guys, I have to complain on this one. Why do you guys not fix simple bugs such as the throw shield skill not getting the cool down reduction with the trait, but if a trait might give us a bit too much vigor, you waste no time in shutting it down?

I mean if something can be fixed so quickly once identified, why do you only fix broken skills, traits, and abilities that work in our favor and put the once thatwould really help the class, on the back burner?

If you like permaswift you can use Rune of the Centaur. If you have 10 points into tools for speedy kits, you could save those 10 points for another trait. Besides the swiftness it offers alot of power.

yeas the healing stats does effect the of the medkit

Lawbringer.1956:

nope just more idiotic statments, engineer is better in spvp than ranger/necro/ even warriors if played right

they are best suited for WvW, gotta love grenade and perma swiftness

Yeah, I love my engineer and all, but your stretching it a bit to make such a forward and direct blanket statement of this bearing.

Our main problem is as others have mentioned thus far, we have a lot of things that are simply broken. Once they fix the broken issues, the class may be a whole new world

The rifle and shield skills are where they need to be. all though not working properly often. Such as throw shield skill does not change its recast on the trait that is supposed to reduce it by 20%. ……Overcharge shot is not always working right to break immobilize and what not. And they need to do something to make explosive shot competitive.

To me, the most important starting place is to fix our basic weapons first. At least that is what I personally think our starting point should be.

Wait what?The OP is playing a game in which the development company sanctions the ability to trade cash for gold, and he is crying because it is not enough?

Honestly, instead of being thankful for something that is a bannable offense in most games, you complain about it here. Reads to be pretty ingratfull.

Ghoest.3945:

R E F L H E X.8413:

I know nothing about economies but Im angry because supply is out pacing demand.

I fixed that for you.

Thats what I read too.

It depends on how you use it honestly.

I use kit refinement, which gives me an super elixir AoE removal of 1 condition and a heal tick. Gives me an extra AoE cripple and bleed stack (i am a condition build P/S user). It doesn’t help with my bomb kit much though, but I find BoB too handy most of the time, and I like the physical damage on doors and what not of the bomb kit. As well I will do a quick swap for bomb fire field and confusion.

You figure in a trait like kit refinement on top of the tool belt, and it adds up to a great value.

I also swap to kits often for just one skill, like tool kits block, bomb kits fire fields, or elixir guns super elixir or #4 skill to leave an acid pool and clear myself away from the mob. I am finding kits very handy in Orr at the moment.

Didn’t know you were asking for specific shield names.

I have one with a big glowing diamond in its center that appears somewhat futuristic

The one I use now had glowing flame like stripes on it, it is called “Flame guard of Fire”

Lyuben.2613:

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

There. You directly made the claim.

It doesn’t take a literary genius to know that
“we have elixirs in place of signet”
is not
“signets are elixirs”

Well at 1100 condition damage it is about 100-105 a tic. at 2 second bleed that is 200-210 damage. Add that to the base physical damage, and it doesn’t even compare to the rifle damage, and that is if you use the rifle with out changing any stats from a condition build.

Now if you take it a step further and compare a pure condition build of the pistol #1 to that of a pure power or crit/crit damage build, the difference between the two becomes ridiculously apparent.

Lyuben.2613:

I don’t care about signets, I care about your comment
“we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.”

You directly claim that either by lore, or by mechanics that signets are like elixirs.

Now you seem to be backtracking.

You made a silly claim, and I called you out on it.

I never said I wanted signets. I was just questioning the non existent logic of the quote above from you.

Please by all mean, find a post I made and quote it here where I said

“signets are like elixirs.” I very clearly explained that they are different, I went on in detail to point out that they work with our class mechanic, then further pointed out why we do not use one of the two.

Interesting how you feel your lack of comprehension is an example of me backtracking. But I guess I should expect as much from someone who continues to play a class they hate so much that they do nothing but nit pick apart every ability, and complain about it post after post.

Lyuben.2613:

But why elixirs? Why not turrets? Why not kits? Why not gadgets? They share the common trait that they have nothing to do with signets, just like elixirs.

Elixirs have nothing in common with signets, at all.

Why not go play a signet class then? The whole point is that they have nothing in common at all.

Seriously, as much as you complain about every single aspect of the engineer and have done so since beta, are you just that much of a masochist, that you continue to play it as much as you hate it?

Lyuben.2613:

No, but I’m only talking about your silly suggestion that signets=elixirs.

Lore wise, they are nothing alike. Mechanically, they are nothing alike.

Its like saying, turrets=shouts.

It has no meaning.

Silly? Perhaps you need to learn to read.

I never suggested signets = elixirs or that elixirs = signets.

I said we have “elixirs in place of signets”. If you do not want to have a serious conversation, and you prefer to make things up, and claim folks stated things that they did not, then why didn’t you just say so. I will now turn my keyboard over to my 10 year old, and he will finish any further debate with you Lyuben.

Of coarse Lore wise they are nothing alike. That is the point. The lore of signets are exactly why engineers do not use them.

I am sorry you are upset that Tyrian science has not replicated signets on a scientific level to be a perfect scientific reflection of signets. If you have not figure out by now that engineers are different from other classes, then there is no hope for you. But it is just plain dense and illogical for it to be so prominent, and common knowledge that engineers are a different class entirely, just to see you and others constantly posting whine post about how we do not have exact replicating abilities of other classes.

If you are so unhappy with elixirs and our class mechanic, and demand signets, for Pete’s sake, go play a class with signets.

Lyuben.2613:

Signets= elixirs?

I must have missed the part where elixirs have passive and active effects…

Don’t be so dense. I was not making a rock hard literal comparison. I am sayin that they are our version of signets, essentially.

Brutus Tarsi.1283:

So Anet’s idea of balance in this instance is… we will give every class a passive boost in performance, and to the engineers… here is a potion that MIGHT give you something good.. or it might give you something utterly useless for your situation… How does that even make sense?

I mean, there are always oddities in the game, and thats great, but this seems a bit… illogical to me.

I missed the part everything had to be exactly equal between all classes and races. Do you find it reasonable for all classes to demand to have a special class mechanic for each utility as we do?

If you look at the naming rules for example, I think it is pretty clear that Anet is steering very clear of anything that may infringe on any copy right issues.

Also, trust me, you will find a good deal of varying shield aesthetics as the game moves on.