Guild Wars 2

Out of combat: Use magnet on another player. Other player is slightly interrupted, but not pulled to your location.

In combat: works as intended.

Oh wow. You’re so right!
I just tried Invigorating Speed / Speedy Kits and it’s amazing. The extra dodges are more than enough to make it through to the next heal or block or whatever.

@Arr, I’m using the first build you linked and it’s awesome. So many dodges.

Thanks everyone!

Looking for some advice.

I really like the Engineer’s skills, but I feel like I’m just inferior in PvP. I like to build tanky so I can be in the middle of fights and control the play. I don’t mind cutting back on offense to get it.

I’ve done well with this as Warrior and Necro (was ranked like 13th in NA solo at some point) but just can’t do the same with Engi. My health drops so quickly even with toughness and vitality! And unlike Warrior or Necro, there’s practically no mitigation. I can’t go invuln forever, or use death shroud.

Obviously skill is a factor, since I’m still learning, but I like to think I’ve got the basics down. (can swap to toolkit for a quick block in time, not trying to hit moving targets at 1500 range with slow-kitten grenades, can execute rifle combos pretty well)

I just don’t feel powerful or tanky. Any tips?

My Build: Power – usually Soldier Amulet, Melandru runes, points in Explosives, Inventions, Alchemy,

eg. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpvrlYxkLseNSbBFylWRRuxp85CEgjC-TJRBwAXuAAB3focZAAPAAA

But if they wanted to fix the minion AI at some point, that would be cool with us too. Just sayin’.

This is true. If you blow both of your fear cooldowns, you can fear someone for .. 1+1=2 seconds. 2 seconds! That’s like 2/3 as long as thieves’ stolen fear or warrior’s aoe fear. Whoa! Someone call the OP police.

Seriously though, I agree that the “facing the wrong way” thing is nice.. but it’s still not as useful as actually knocking someone down, which is a harder cc.

I would be happy with:

- Sound effect replaced or volume lowered
- Projectile speed increased or attack speed increased
- Reduce damage and LF gen by a % for each consecutive enemy hit in a line (to balance the increased speed).

Engineer:

Overcharged Shot – launch every 15 seconds
Thumper turret – launch every 30 seconds
Throw mine – knockback every 18 seconds
Big Ol’ Bomb – launch every 30 seconds

That’s 6 times in a 36 second window – once every 6 seconds.
Also, most of those are launches, which have more distance and last longer than regular knockbacks.

Why? Read my post further down. I showed how a guardian can use knockbacks (half of them aoe) every 5 seconds.

Dante:

It’s not so much that the cooldowns on each skill are too long. It’s the fact that they have access to so many knockbacks at the same time.

eg. Guardian with X/shield + hammer

Shield of Absorption: AoE knockback – lasts 4 seconds, 40s cooldown
Ring of Warding: AoE knockdown on contact – lasts 5 seconds, 40s cooldown
Banish: Huge knockback/down (launch) – 25s cooldown

Hammer of Wisdom – knocks down every 3 attacks – estimated 10 seconds between KD’s
Bane signet – active is a knockdown – 45s cooldown

So, in a 50 second window, that guardian can knockdown/knockback/launch 10+ times – once every 5 seconds.

In the same window, a necromancer can use fear 3 times, assuming death shroud is up and they only use death shroud to fear, then immediately change back.

It occurred to me while playing tPvP trying to defend a point against 2 knockback guardians that knockback is superior to our fear in every way.

- They both last about 1 second. Some knockbacks knock you down and last about 2.5-3 seconds.
- Knockback pushes you away farther than fear.
- The classes that have knockbacks seem to be able to use them about once every 5 seconds – much more often than necromancers can use fear.

I guess I’m just bitter because we have no access to stability unless you trait for it in the death shroud tree..

But seriously, “knockback knockback knockback knockback” in pvp all day makes me wish fear was even close to comparable.

With a minion build:

Flesh Golem charge from 1200 range. Staff 4,3,2. By this time, your bone minions should be close and they should just be getting up from knockdown. Blow both minions.

That’s some pretty decent ranged burst if you ask me.

Alternatively, you could do the ground targeted wells thing with Dark Pact. Necromancer isn’t really a “nuking” class so don’t expect Thief-style numbers.

The pathing thing gets me too. Sometimes in sPvP I’ll be defending a point: eg. Beach, or Graveyard and a ranger will just sit up on a rock spamming their bow at me. It takes the minions AGES to walk all the way around, so I’m stuck in a dps war with staff vs bow. (bow does waaaay more dps). When the minions finally do get in range, my enemy will just jump down to continue the fight, causing my minions to spend another 30 seconds getting back.

I mean, this is just good tactics on their part. They know it’s a weakness of the AI and are exploiting it. I think that’s fair, but I have some suggestions for making the minions work better:

1) Bone Fiend should prefer to stay close to you and fire at range if possible rather than running all the way around to attack. It may already do this, but I haven’t done any conclusive tests.

2) Shadow Fiend’s active ‘Haunt’ should be a direct teleport that crosses gaps. It’s incredibly annoying to be standing at the top of a wall in WvW, commanding SF to haunt an enemy at the bottom, then watching as it uses the skill but goes nowhere.

3) Perhaps give minions swiftness/speed boost/teleport if the pathing algorithm detects that it will take them a ridiculously long time to get to their destination.

It’s just frustrating. Sometimes it feels like my opponents are playing in three dimensions and I’m playing in two.

posted this in another thread, but here’s how I think it works:

If your flesh wurm is within 1200 range
—-—— if a walking path from you to the wurm is possible
—-——————— teleport you to the wurm
—-——- else
—-—————— draw a direct line to the wurm and teleport you as far
—-——————- as possible in that direction
else
—-—- draw a direct line from you to the wurm and teleport you
—-—-1200 range in that direction

I would LOVE if they made it a direct teleport like Mesmer portals, but I’m not sure how easy that would be mechanically.

It sometimes works, but not often enough to rely on it.

This is just speculation, but I think this is how necrotic traversal works:
If your flesh wurm is within 1200 range
—-—— if a walking path from you to the wurm is possible
—-——————— teleport you to the wurm
—-——- else
—-—————— draw a direct line to the wurm and teleport you as far
—-——————- as possible in that direction
else
—-—- draw a direct line from you to the wurm and teleport you
—-—-1200 range in that direction

I expect Spectral Walk is similar but without the 1200 range limit. I’ve tele’d over a wall before, but only when there was an alternative path around the wall close by that I could have taken.

On another note, has anyone tested the +20% chilled duration? I tried it with chillblains and it seemed to last the same amount of time.

I’m assuming it’s a bug. Maybe it doesn’t stack with +condition duration from traits?

I’ve had success as a tanky minion necro in some 1v1 situations – usually vs a Warrior/ Thief/Ranger expecting to hit you with their ridiculously high damage abilities.

Then, as they’re surprised that they haven’t killed you in two hits, you smack them with Flesh Golem, lay down some marks – heal – use other minion actives for cc while switching to death shroud when necessary to stay alive until your heal comes up again.

This usually comes out in my favour, or we both end up downed (where I do much more damage assuming my minions are still alive).

Granted, I think most of these wins rely on them expecting an easy kill, not getting it, then ignoring the minions while I kite them and heal.

I can’t deal with mesmers though. I have enough trouble hitting the right one. The minions don’t stand a chance.

This makes a lot of sense. I have a warrior alt that switches between rifle and GS.

Everything about the weapon skills just feels complete. I’ve got my mobility, heavy-hitting damage, conditions, and defensive skills at my fingertips and I haven’t even touched my utility slots.

Necro on the other hand requires me to fill and use multiple utility slots (on way too long cooldowns) just to compete. Eg. dropping two wells, or using Blood is Power then transferring the self-bleeds with the signet.

I tried all of those things when this started happening. None of them work. My configuration has not changed. No ports are blocked.

Everything was fine until the outage on Friday night.

I just got disconnected again while going from WvW to Heart of the Mists

Still happening > 75% of the time I change zones or load the game. This is a load of kittens. That is all.

DISCONNECTED AGAIN. This is really annoying and is preventing me from playing the game.

STILL getting these errors. I get logged out and can’t log back in.

Also, in spvp – getting code 19:9:19:1786:101

Hi. I’m getting Error 5:11:3:157:101 every time I attempt to change zones.

Then, when I try to log back in, I get another error. 58:11:5:504.

Occasionally, it WILL let me log in, but gives the same error on character select or when changing zones again.

To add insult to injury, I’m LOSING SILVER when I waypoint to a new zone. The game has an error, logs me out, does not transfer me, but does take my waypoint cost. I estimate I’ve lost about 5 or 6 silver so far doing this.

I ran the game with the -diag flag enabled and attached the output – edited out my mac address. Please let me know if you need the full log.

The “Vampiric” trait that procs siphon on hit does not work when wielding a staff. The one that procs on crit does work though.

Also, +1 to the minion issues mentioned above.