Guild Wars 2

Yeah, the idea of the event killing off the player after a certain amount of time feels like a design gimmick that they couldn’t account for in another way. This seriously breaks the fourth wall of MMOs if the NPCs know you can just WP back. It begs the question of why haven’t the various NPCs who have died or been captured just WP’ed away? Very similar to how you couldn’t cast “Life” or use Phoenix Downs on dead NPCs in Final Fantasy games.

Not gonna lie… feels a bit sloppy.

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Edit: got to 7 white lights, ran out of time.

But… there are only 4 lights.

Sorry, I mean that Evasive Power Keg and Reserve Mines are useless, not the trait line itself when it comes to grenades specifically.

I personally, currently, run this build (don’t have all of this gear quite yet, but this in the plan):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelspqb3zSeF1LJxoCdGMj6CYRKyfj/UgtA-jAyAIMhQKDIRIIJ/ioxWNLiGrqmIqWdjZ6LiWNA-e

Pretty straight forward stacking conditions and bursting fields while also providing strong healing and condition removal support. Plus, a few quick trait swaps and my FT because useful as well. It seems to put me in the most “versatile” place, but… parties and such demand a certain level of performance that my condition stacking loses as the size of the group increases.

ANYWAY! That said, I just keep seeing videos and reading strategies for Engis that revolve around using grenades. And I like the concept of the skill, but yes… I dunno… kits like EG are still respectable without FFT or DM, but GK seems to more or less “require” that GM trait in all the things I see. Plus, I am not a fan of losing all my BK fields.

I dunno… probably suffering from some class wanderlust as nothing but the EG really has grabbed my attention.

As far as gear goes, if you want tanky and condition damage go with Runes of Undead and the Rampager necklace. Instead on relying on getting hit to trigger fire damage, shift 10 points to exp and get incendiary powder. With no turrets, I don’t know how much power wrench is going to do for you. The cripple isn’t worth it, and since we don’t have any real stability, I’d rather take leg mods. If people are running, use magnet and nailbox to help keep them near you. That will also, hopefully, give you some mobility while your protective traits are active.

So… maybe something like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqqbH5SrF1bJxIFde0hKUYQFqrIF6vxfKwWA-TsAg1CuIaS1krJTTymsNNK40xMDA

Sort of a spin off of the grenade thread that was posted, I am generally a fan of the Bomb Kit. Mostly to blast finish the fire and smoke fields it can make. That said, I never really feel super comfortable using it for attacking and if I am it is because I am surrounded and just spamming and praying.

Is there an Armor and HP level that makes this more viable than just a way to trigger some buffs by blasting? I’ve love to replace it with GK, but, as my other thread alludes, I am not a huge fan of going deep into the explosives line.

Anyway, curious what people’s thoughts were.

I am a fan of the grenade kit in theory. I am not a fan of diving 30 into the explode tree, especially when the Adept and Master minor traits are so… well… useless?

I have done some reading on Grenadier, but most of the threads are pretty old. I know folks don’t like rehashing these discussions all the time, but can Grenade Kit still be useful even if you don’t got for that trait?

Kawloon: Do you use 100% mouse for moving?

So you give up the strafing keys then? Interesting.

With as many button presses as our class requires, I am pretty fustrated with the default layout. So, I was curious, are most of you using the default one, or what is your custom layout?

I generally used the 10-key in other MMOs, but given the more mobile and active nature of GW2, I don’t think I can give up the mouse.

Rundown:
Peacekeeper Pistol and Shield (Who wants that silly bookah tech?)
Magitech Helm & Boots
Aetherblade Coat and Shoulders
Whispers Pants
T3 Cultural Gloves

Rundown:
Asura Pistol and Shield (Who wants that silly bookah tech?)
Magitech Helm & Boots
Aetherblade Coat and Shoulders
Whispers Pants
T3 Cultural Gloves

I’ll add, I see a lot of Asura NPCs wearing armor and town clothes that wish we had access to as well.

Personally, I have mixed and matched things for my Asuran Engi. The T3 medium armor (And most of the other medium armor) was pretty disappointing to me (no particles, movement, makes you bald, etc…), so I plunked down the cash for Aetherblade and Magitech. Here is where I stand:

Khisanth.2948:

Electro.4173:

Those of us who have no interest in fractals are stuck spending silly amounts of gold for them…

… and an overabundance of karka shells?
Unfortunately this isn’t likely to help. It would probably require 1000 Karka Shell like http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ancient_Karka_Shell which means you are basically paying 25g for the thing.

At that point, you are better off buying 50 ectos for about 10g and using your laurels.

Nilkemia.8507:

Explorer stats could become Power, Precision, and Vitality (Main stat).

Wayfarer stats could become Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power (Main stat).

Traveler stats could become Power, Condition Damage, Toughness (Main stat).

I think.. not quite sure if those stat combinations exist yet.

What do folks think about celestial? Do they just bump the entire line by 1 point or something?

Kycoo Grim.9463:

Do these armor skins act like the Zenith skins where once you receive them you can put them on any character or are they like the previous armor skins?

There have been a couple of threads in the suggestions forum about this very thing ever since the Zenith skins came out. Also, Colin made a comment in an interview that some people have interpreted to hope will ultimately lead to this.

Also, for medium folks, the “borg eye” totally glows if you use a lighter color. Finally a helm for my engi that doesn’t turn me bald or look awful.

As an Asuran, specifically, I am very jealous of my light (And to a lesser extent heavy) armor wearing brethren.

Also, my favorite of EG4 to blast away from mobs/players.

I know they are in the Gem Store, but Aetherblade and Magitech are the first skins that have really appealed to me as an Engi.

Have they solved the problem of condition heavy classes getting “credit” for helping with a kill when the stacks cap?

smitske.4912:

Martin Kerstein.3071:

Sooo, I’m guessing the currencies at the bottom of your inventory will not show anymore, but you’ll see the collective amount from your wallet. And whenever you go to a vendor, you’ll see the amount straight from your wallet, and you don’t have to ‘withdraw’ to access it.

Does that mean whenever you’re awarded tokens they’ll go straight to your wallet, and you don’t have to sent to your wallet, as the current token/badge right click option suggests.

Yes. After the wallet is in place, the tokens are no longer physical objects, they are handled the same way that gold, karma and laurels are handled. So like you said, it makes it a lot easier to use them at the vendors as you no longer have to go to your bank to withdraw them.

And to answer another question: Pristine Fractal Relics are not part of the wallet.

Will you still be able to deposit gold in bank? Or is this also gone and is achievement bound to the wallet now?

An excellent question. It might just be to accumulate 100g in your wallet now.

The Heavy helm is redic-a-cute on Asura.

Hello fellow GW2 players.

I just wanted to drop a line and share an experience I had today that will affect many of you in September. I am on an iOS dev account and iOS 7 beta 4 came out. I went to log into the forums today using that super awesome and handy two-factor authentication(*). It doesn’t work. I should start from the beginning.

Starting with iOS 7 Beta 1, the categories and sites your two factor was associated where no longer displayed under the RNG. (See Attach #1). Additionally, if you tried to add new sites, it would not retain them and you would have to add them over again continuously. Starting today with iOS 7 Beta 4, even if you knew which one of the blanks was the correct site, the RNG is broken and you will no longer be able to authenticate. Normally, I wouldn’t panic, but Google has not updated their official app in nearly two years. I think they either forgot or don’t care.

So, I have spent the better part of the day looking into alternatives, researching their reliability and trustworthiness, and thankfully, since ANet used a standard, there are some (but only a few) out there. I installed 3 different ones, but ended up settling on one called “Authy”. Not only does it have a better UI (with iPod and iPad support) and more features than the Google app, it officially supports GW2 (See Attach #2). I don’t think ANet can endorse or otherwise recommend specific apps, but I wanted to put this out there for folks to consider or try.

https://www.authy.com/

[iTunes]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/authy/id494168017?mt=8

I hope this ends up helping a few of you. If you get stuck, I can try and help, but I found the registration for their service and GW2 setup very easy.

-Qwerkk

(*) Seriously, ANet, thank you so much for supporting this. Moreover, thank you for using a OAuth format rather than a proprietary app.

Yeah, I want to chime in and say I actually liked the two boss fights in AR. They were tricky (and maybe the jumping boxes in the first fight could have better hit detection) and required coordination and skill. Used many of the various character mechanics and wasn’t some tank and spank scenarios.

The candidate stuff is just badly designed. No bones about it. There is nothing fun about it at all. It is incredibly frustrating. Even when doing it with a group I trust and not having any success. There are certain classes that were just not taken into consideration. Especially with how loosey-goosey aggro is in GW2.

It is unlikely they can or will fix this before the content expires next Tuesday. All I/we can ask is that they avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Martin Kerstein.3071:

…but I’m just as eager to see what groups come up with to overcome this challenge!

And with only one week left before the content evaporates, I am sure everyone will be rushing to do it! They certainly are not going to evaluate the risk vs. reward of just farming gold and buying the skin (the real prize from this) from the TP.

Sorry, Matthew, from the armchair this feels a little like hand waving. Your achievements are designed to encourage people to stop the plunders, not take on the waves. If taking on the waves was important then we would need to be obtaining “Gold” to unlock them.

And then, truly, no one would have it cause the difficulty is borderline absurd for even the most coordinated group.

Rifle/SD/Zerker Engi build with TK, Goggles, & RT worked for me. Still have to worry about the RNG to be a success.

I don’t agree or disagree with this one way or the other.

But, if you were going to do this and not kitten off the entire player base, it would have to be a trait. Probably a 30 Inventions trait (since that is our toughness line). Call it “Powered Exoskeleton” and allow you to equip heavy armor at the loss of medium armor (can’t mix armors due to how they are designed).

Otherwise your caveats would require an immense amount of development time that already has very polarizing opinions just as a pie in the sky suggestion.

@tencoderiot.6430
It will take a couple of tries due to RNG, but this is the build that finally let me do it after trying all day yesterday:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUl0picX7STF17IyoHkWnNhgeYX5lfJqg+B-jQyAYLAiCQyrIasthioxqqBULYqSElLqCOyCBMaCA-e

If you try to do it as a group it is practically impossible. The quantity and strength of the vets that are spawning is quickly very overwhelming. I tried it with about 12 different groups (PUG and skilled) and all met with wipes. Solo, OTOH, with luck against the RNG and a very specific spec you can do it… maybe…

Something is VERY broken about that situation.

All that said, this was a thread to help other Engi’s get passed it. There are 6 or so threads in the Cutthroat Politics forum about this, so let’s avoid a derail.

Actually, the other is true. I am mostly a PvE player. I am only dipping my toe into WvW when I can. Unfortunately, my server is taking a beating right now, so WvW is pretty maddening. I haven’t even waded into the sPvP stuff yet.

That said, easy might and stealth blasts are super handy. I will generally use the stealth to shake aggro, and the party loves might, so a win there. The other nice thing is that since fields tend to pile up on the mob and tank, dropping the BoB and then EG4 away let’s me quickly burst twice. Generally these are water or light so the tanks appreciate the ret or healing.

I know the class can do some pretty respectable DPS with Rifle/SD, but that is boring to me. XD

It took all day. Literally, but finally solo’ed it. It is a totally broken event. Hopefully they fix it so others don’t have to suffer. Here was my final build out:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUl0picX7STF17IyoHkWnNhgeYX5lfJqg+B-jAyAEFgkXR0YbDFRjVVDoWwUlIKXUkittenFCY0EA-e

Stego.3148:

• snip snip snip *

You attempts to marginalize and brow beat people are cute, but ultimately don’t address the premise of the concerns. That is to say that the content is poorly designed from the outset. Whatever strat or spec or gear snags you the win is a cheat with a respect to the design. It is obvious the devs wanted this to be a take and hold horde-like event. No amount of team composition or cooperation can overcome this. What we are doing now is having to game the design.

Furthermore, this fundamentally flies in the face of the intent of patches and dev comments the last few weeks where the emphasis has been on making more diverse builds more viable. All these candidate trials have done is fly directly in the face of that as people where full zerker gear and go full direct damage in the hopes of tackling the event.

Four silver? Try nearly 50 from the repairs and 300 to buy gear just to do this.

Since I started this mess, I better at least mention what I am currently doing:

Still have two more pieces of Celestial to craft
Pistol switched to Rampager
Shield is still Giver
Full stack of Undead runes (with all that lingering toughness it is essentially a free trait)
Rabid back piece
Went 25 in Arms for the 50 prec and cond, mostly. Though hopefully the 5% helps too.

This puts me just shy of 1000 condition damage, 1500 power, and 50% crit without food or oil. That said, I still have 21k HP and 2500 armor, so I can take a licking. The healing power addition isn’t making things go bananas, but Super Poition’s impact is nearly 1k, so that’s swell.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqqb3zSeF1LJx4DdGMj6mXRKyv+/UgtA-jAyAIMAsGIZBkIAk8LiGb1sIasqaioa1NmQALmAA-e

The only glaring thing missing here is condition management on myself. EG helps, especially if I can park in that light field and plunk away, but on the whole, if I have to be on the move, I am probably in trouble.

I wish I like grenades more. I do. Let me rephrase, I wish I could like grenades without having to go 30 explode to make them useful. That said, BoB and BK have been good to me. The smoke bomb burst to stealth, is especially annoying to folks in WvW since I can det with my shield or the EG. It’s made for some clever escapes. =P I also put Elixir U away the other day for TK. Man, I forgot just how hard that can hit… but I don’t know if I am ready for 3 kits full time. XD

I’ll keep messing around and mention anything of note.

Thank you for the thoughtful write-up. While it will undoubtedly be helpful to some, it still does not speak to the premise of this discussion; that is, the content is poorly designed. So, poorly designed, in fact, that RNG is more important than skill or spec.

I don’t think the dev team sat at the table and came up with this specifically. From a high level evaluation, it looks like they wanted a horde mode type experience where you are supposed to be near the NPC, fighting off waves, and stopping the runners. They also, after weeks of abuse about things being too easy, wanted to ensure it was a challenge.

A noble goal, but good intentions being what they are, something was lost. This is clear when every strategy isn’t “stand your ground”, but rather “stay as far away as you can and hope you can pick off the runners”. Add to that, avoiding mortars by staying behind them. In fact, I would wager that the QA team caught onto that little strategy and that is why the aggro radius is so obscene. They want us to engage. They want us to fight. What they have done instead is stack the odds so heavily against you though that there is no incentive to try that. For the sake of analogy, and not politics, think of this, conceptually, as a “Laffer Curve” of risk vs. reward.

So, here we are. Players doing everything they can to circumvent the content instead of engaging with it. There is probably no greater hurt to a dev then to see their content ignored. If they want to change that, then they need to re-evaluate.

Well, I got closer. Like to 1:45, but then it turns into a mess. Oy.

OmniPotentes.4817:

Once I got my achi I never looked back.

And that, in a nutshell, sums up the biggest challenge that ANet faces with Living Story. If we all know it is disposable and of this quality, then we will treat it as such.

Actually, I think the biggest tragedy to all this is that the last class change patch explicitly stated that they wanted to focus on build diversity and encouraging people to branch out.

Events like this work against that philosophy, IMHO, by pigeon-holing classes into doing only one spec to be successful.

SD, Rifle, Berserk?

Mind sharing gear and build? I am about to go nuts. XD

I got close a couple of times before last night’s patch. Now? Dear lord… just seems impossible for us to do now.

As an Engi, this is impossible to solo now. If I go CC spec, I can’t damage enough. If I go damage spec, can’t CC enough.

Jebus.

I, personally, have tried soloing it as a Engi. We just don’t seem to have enough CC stuff to keep the plunders under control for a solo run.

That was before last night’s patch.

One word: Vekk

…who would not tolerate the bookah imposed 15 char limit. =P

As previously stated, human cultural armor is pretty meh, but if you lay down the gems for the aetherblade skins then you will look very fetching.

My biggest issue with Asura, and I play one, is their smallness. Any weapons you buy, or kits you use are hard to see. So, when you lay down the karma or cash or some really cool gear (unless it is really flashy) it will hard to tell what it is. Especially with pistols.

The camera is the camera. I was a big 10-key person in most MMOs, but I find it is pretty much impossible to take my hand off the mouse. Especially as the Engineer. Depending on your spec (and even if you go super tanky) you will constantly be on the go, so you will want to be aware of your surroundings as you strafe and dodge.

I know there is a MMO grinding joke in your response somewhere.

There was an official response a few months back in a different thread. Colin basically said, we can fix hobo sacks or continue to make great content and fix bugs. Since Engis are the least played class, the simple logical concept of the needs of the many will, ultimately, win the day.

This has never been more apparent to me (and as someone who only recently started playing a few weeks ago and is already jaded) than in recent weeks where Necros got revamped and they now have a VERY active thread in the PvP section where devs are super engaged and trying to “fix” the class before the tournaments this weekend. But, in the meta, Necros are huge, so of course they are getting attention.

Lots of other “versatile” and “hybrid” classes in MMOs have suffered like Engis have and then, after long last, were given the attention they needed and deserved. So, somewhere in the back of my mind, I am hopeful that the devs are doing the same for us and when they grace us with it we will rejoice and people will flock to the class. (See: Druids in WoW 1.8, Chanters in Aion, etc…)

If that day comes, I will be the first in line to thank them and concede. In the mean time…

Okay, I lied. Forgot to do my daily so I got back on.

Quick note on rifle… the fact that you loose a sigil really bugs me. Additionally, the shield adds so much survival with 4 => 4 => 5 => 5 knockback & stun combo and 4/4 blast finish.

I’ll look at Grenth and Melandru.

Thanks.

Here is the thing, for me, that is interesting. If I go full carrion with undead and rabid with my spec, I look like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqOIJGfozgUU38KSR+1/nCsF-jgxAYtASWAJCApwioxWNLiGrOmIqGA-e

If I go full Celestial w/ divinity I look like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqOIJGfozgUU38KSR+1/nCsF-jgxAYtASWAJCAJ/ioxW1KiGrqmIqGA-e

Differences:
+192 Power
+75 Precision
+25 Toughness
+192 Vitality
+3% Crit Chance
+25 Armor
+1900 HP
-761 Condition Damage
+60% Crit Damage
+38% Magic Find (Soon to be useless)
+ 416 Healing Power

So, the loss on condition is obviously the most egregious offender, but for me, it seems like I might be making that up in survival and healing. Not to mention my direct damage is a little stronger and when I crit it will hurt more.

And with that… * brain lets out a tremendous fart *

I’ll check back in the morning. XD

I know this isn’t Reddit, but you deserve this:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZxQ3rci.gif[/img]

(Guess the image tag doesn’t like gifs. XD)

Sorry… addle-minded…

P/S

I am totally burned out from crunching numbers and playing with my build recently that I sat down to tackle rune selection and am just scratching my head. Thoughts would be appreciated.

Requisite Info:

• Wearing All Celestial Gear (well… soon…)
• Build (10/20/0/20/15) is focused on conditions and blast finishers (HT, EG, BK, Elix U)
• Current runes focus on Condi duration (Mad King & Lyssa), but I have leveled cooking to 400 so pizzas & salads easily get me to a number I feel good about
• Also have Giver weapons (might consider changing those too)

A cursory search and review of the forums seems to indicate that boon duration is favored heavily by Engineers regardless of spec (and Water and Monk if you want to go all the way). Otherwise, it seems that rubies are another favored one.

Personally, here is where I am:

• All Divinity – Puts me at a pretty snazzy 45% crit and +75% crit damage, but jebus is it expensive.
• 4 Altruism – Gives me the handy might stack and boon boost. With traits that is 35%. Is the extra 3-4 seconds on most boons worth it?
• 4 Lyssa – Pick up condition duration and precision and a random boon when I heal.

Am I off my rocker — my brain muddled by just… blech — or am I on the right path?