Guild Wars 2

I know it has to be a full second benefit to actually make a difference, but can you stack multiple sources of +%Condition duration?

IE: 2x +10% for a total 20% benefit ( so you would see a full extra 1-sec on 5s conditions).

You can also get Rare versions for karma iirc. The badges will get you the exotic ones.

Mortar also does not require line of sight to target, unlike grenades.

This can be a substantial benefit if sticking your head out is going to get you shot in the face.

Also none of the kits scale with any stat. That’s one of the problems we have as an Engineer.

This is wrong.

What it has is it does not benefit from stats on weapon. It still scales just fine with stats on the rest of your gear. It will remain effective all the way to 80.

All it needs for a fix is a change so that the graphical effect follows the actual effect.

Here is my personal run-down:

Very strong control, arguably best out of any class. Does anyone else even get a 1200 range root?

Survivability is very, high. Good condition removal, good healing, and decent durability.

DPS can be strong, especially in AOE, but will come second to some of the high damage melee builds.

Flamethrower right now is kind of bugged. It can miss targets often with no clear indication as to why.

The effect follows mouselook, even if the graphic doesn’t.

That video Kordwar linked is good, but it doesn’t really show the way you can use that feature to hose down multiple targets.

Some other things about the Flamethrower:

Its both power and condition damage based.

The primary is power by itself, but EACH of the 10 tics can crit separately and proc the on-crit bleed or flame you can have as an engineer from traits. That can mean LOTS of bleeds and burns on any target it hits.

The last attack of each 2-second blast also procs a 1-second burn on every target it hits.

tl;dr: It benefits directly only slightly from condition damage, but if your traits are right it can benefit significantly from it. Its single target dps is meh, but as a way to spam conditions on a group its pretty powerful.

Its a mixed bag, not entirely bad.

It has no auto attack, but its also counted as an “unarmed” kit for the effect of several traits.

Also, having it work the way on land that it does underwater would mean you would NEVER hit a moving target in pvp, and your rate of fire without a direct target would go down tremendously.

Frankly, it would be better if it would just auto-refire on current ground target and that would be fine.

You can’t waypoint if you are in combat.

If you can’t keep them in combat, you aren’t really fighting them anyways.

Its clearly an intended mechanic, and it has several equally clear and valid counters.

If they remove it, you are just going to have fun trying to pound on a gate while the defenders are clear to repair it and you can’t stop them.

Have fun trying to take an upgraded keep that can hold 1700 supply in that case.

Edit: Just to be nice, ill tell you the easiest counter.
Dont drop the ram dead center in front of the doors. Put it to one side. It will still hit the gate and the guy operating the ram can stand far enough away from the door so that the cats cant just keep bouncing him off.

Using it when a mesmer is left behind is just good tactics.

Having a mesmer get into the keep using an exploit and then using portal to get others in is also an exploit.

Id also argue that certain methods to perma-stealth groups inside for several minutes to allow the former should also be considered an exploit.

The skill description on the wiki indicates its supposed to proc revealed on all targets in it when it ends.

Im not sure how official that is though.

Hint: That aint their citadel

Protip: See how that says “Defender”, and not “Invader”? That means it IS their citadel.

You also can not get to that spot without dropping down from citadel.

That said, they are also far enough to by no longer invulnerable, and can not actually get back to there without dropping all the way down and running around to the side entrance.

You can actually hit them there with your own siege, but building it while under their guns successfully would take a couple of clever tricks.

Its a self fulfilling prophecy, about JQ being the least upgraded. We always have to retake our keep because when its always 2v1 we don’t manage to get them upgraded.

Its always fun when we had a decent fight going on with HoD, and despite being in the process of losing their keep to HoD’s OTHER force, SBI still had plenty of people around to ninja supply camps every 3 minutes and contest the other entrance to our keep.

Time after time, wed have to defend our border tower against SBI, or theyd be camped out preventing reinforcements from reaching a keep under attack by HoD.

SBI is largely content to play defensively and settle for 2nd.

Ill point out that when we had matches against SBI, they did the same thing. Except JQ was number 1 in those, and SBI was busy mapping Gates of Madness for the last 30 points when JQ was ticcing over 400.

You don’t get to first by beating on number 3 when number 1’s got more than half the points.

Stormbluff was not facing the numbers against them JQ was, or they wouldn’t have had the people to spare to stick a knife in the back of JQ all the time.

If you aren’t stacking condition damage, dual pistol is going to suck.
The big damage dealers on it are actually blow torch and confusion. Neither does significant damage if you aren’t stacking for it.

A big thing that takes it from “meh” to relatively strong is that its mostly AOE conditions. Confusion bounces, even poison will spread a little and blowtorch is a fairly big cone.

Their initial burst is brutal, try to last through it and then keep them from running off to recharge. Dodge, heal, inflict weakness, block if you got it.

I am especially fond of rocket boots against the heartseeker spammers. They bunny hop right back up to you and then look befuddled when they realise that they ran out of initiative doing it.

If you catch them at range, its usually rather easy to kite them. They have some decent gap closers, but are no match for the control an engi has.

Yeah, its probably still an exploit.

In case you didn’t know, every other form of stealth gives a “Revealed” debuff on lapse, precisely to prevent chaining them together.

Edit: wiki says Shadow Refuge procs revealed at all targets under it when it ends. So circumventing that is probably an exploit.

I can actually figure out how to circumvent it too from your description, so I am going to take my lowbe thief out and test it in the heart of the mists. If it works I will be filing a detailed bug report.

Thanks for your help :-)

further edit:
Retaliation effecting sieges was officially stated to be a bug. Despite this, Henge continued to abuse it until it actually got fixed on the 18th. Prior to that, if that group was there it was effectively impossible to defend a keep from them. I had one hilarious moment when I tried to cast an AE directly and received 12k damage back.

I’m glad they fixed it for siege, and I expect its only a matter of time before they change its behaviour at least in WvW.

I really don’t see a problem with this. All it amounts to is a slight home-field advantage. on the garrison and 2 towers.

If you want to hold those objectives, you will just have to keep supply running to keep up. It keeps one side from being entirely shut out.

Otherwise there would be nothing keeping the attacking side from burying the citadel exits with siege.

Thats exactly what happens a lot of times in EB, after all.

Unfortunately, ET is in the same situation as HoD. It has more people queuing than both the other servers in its brackets combined.

You SHOULD be facing a stiff queue time in that situation.

Yeah, sorry.

I learned more exploits watching HoD during this most recent matchup than I imagined.

I found out there was a bugged wall segment in the *Bay keep at certain upgrade levels. One treb/cat shot will drop it from full health. Guess who was using that to get into the keep repeatedly?

There is a way to get up on to the *vale supply keep wall from outside to bypass the choke. (Guess who was using that to break the choke by setting up siege on top of the wall).

A group of 4 somehow perma-stealthing all of them for several minutes ( I am still not sure how this one was done), none of the numbers Ive been able to theorize stack up to the total duration youd need to cover for each other).

Organised “retaliation” groups to kill siege with peoples bodies. Seriously, it was funny ( for about 10 seconds) trying to ae as few people as possible with an arrow cart while a zerg tried to dive INTO the circle. Except the arrow cart went from full health to breaking in approximately 15 seconds.

These are just the ones I personally witnessed. I’ve heard reports of everything else from mesmers somehow blinking into garrisons to bypass walls and the like ( and then portal people in).

Nothing about henge is special. The closest you came was being more organised about getting siege up in a hurry. Everything else is just an unequalled numbers advantage and a ( presumably small minority) being willing to exploit through any possible method when you DO run up against something blocking progress.

Just out of curiosity, what server are you on?

I don’t have any problem with sigils and such affecting kits.

I simply do not want the existing kit mechanic removed in order to make kits into equipped items, with the limitations of the weapon swap mechanic.

Kits used to have a cooldown just like weapons swap in beta, and it was extremely frustrating. GW2 kindly removed that cooldown, and the result is a sharp increase in versatility.

Its what makes the Engineer class worth playing at the moment.

Some notes:
Its attacks will follow mouselook.

So if you are panning with the mouselook while shooting, you may cause it to “miss”.

This is actually helpful as it lets you play the attack over a large zerg and hit them all.

Its also 10 attacks over 2 seconds, which something that cant be beat for forcing crit hit generations.

The flamethrower is GREAT for proccing the “on critical hit” effects. There is a burn, a bleed, and a vulnerability that can be traited into.

There are also several kinds of consumeable that have interesting on-crit procs. Various ones that add might, chill or lifesteal all lead to hilarity.

No, please no.

If they make kits weapons, then we are going to eventually get nerfed to only be able to use 1-2 at a time and have the normal weapon swap cooldown.

That would basically rip out a large amount of the versatility I love in my engineer.

Except it IS an issue when you are aeing people in wvw.

And yes, with the many sources of retaliation a large organized group WILL keep it up perpetually. Its not like it takes any coordination, since it stacks duration.

Yeah, sorry.

“Just stop hitting them!” is nowhere near a reasonable option.

Its one thing when its a 1v1 and you can just wait it out or soak the damage.

When you are trying to defend a keep against 30 attackers with it up, its an issue.
Your answer equates to “I guess they get the keep by default”.

Sure, siege is fixed for now. Do you really mean that if there are ten people defending, they should need 10 arrow carts if they don’t want to just stand around and sway?

Not to mention that is not an option either, since siege weapons dont put a target in combat. If you don’t want them to simply regen the hp from the out of combat flag, SOMEONE has to tag them.

Bloody.8769:

i always thought this was a good idea but really any enemy worth half their salt would be spamming grens, aOE thru the gate as well and it is suicide walking next to the gate.

The range on flamethrower is just slightly more than even the large AE, so this would have been a nice option. The retaliation thing kind of kills it though.

There are certain AE skills that are a lot of small hits channelled over a short period.

Most notable ( for me) is flamethrower. 10 hits in 2 seconds. Assuming max targets, that is potentially 50 retaliation procs at once.

I have had this happen, and confirmed it hurts. lots.

World-versus-World
Retaliation: This boon no longer reflects damage received from siege weapons.

Source

This was a clearly needed fix. I’d also like to see it toned down on AE spells or at least AEs that are channelled multi-hit spells, but I will wait to see how this goes.

You are playing a necro, and have less than 20k hp.

Its fairly evident you have a very, very “glass” cannon build.

My engineer has less HP scaling than my necro, and even in my pure damage gear I have more HP than that.

There are a couple of times where suddenly has somehow started lag-hopping around, and it wasn’t invis.

Invis and the various dodges all have a spell effect after all.

It is probably just the usual people “window-dragging” or intentionally interrupting their network connection.

You lose the supplementary stats on the weapon, but the “weapon damage” modifier appears to remain the same?

Be very, very careful trying to use flamethrower on a gate.

Evidently each of its 10 hits procs retaliation separately. So if they are stacking it ( and some groups will, to use their bodies to kill siege), you can do an inordinate amount of backlash damage to yourself in very short order.

I seriously lost like 3/4 my health in two shots trying this the other day.

Elixir H is stronger when you go more points into Alchemy. Its buffs last longer, and it procs additional effects.

I would say it works closer to 80% of the time than 60%.

With rocket boots, I think the key to avoiding the short stumble is to let your character get back up after a dodge or something. That’s just a theory at this point, as there is no reliably way to test that at the moment.

Torque:
Engineers usually have the on-crit traits that proc conditions since they are very early in the trees.

That is why condition damage and precision go together for Engineers.

@TaCktiX.6729

Unfortunately, there is pretty much a consensus on JQ that you guys wont bring it to Henge, so there is going to be little traction for any kind of temporary alliance to counter them.

If Henge has SM, SBI seems to go out of its way to avoid fighting them.

Day before yesterday, we had had alternating waves of SBI and Henge hitting our last few bits of territory from different directions. ZERO fights from SBI versus Henge despite Henge having several of their “natural” towers.

That kind of double team is what causes the allegations of collusion.

SBI seems content to desperately backstab in order to secure a lock on second place.

None of the these servers really have a chance against Jade Quarry, Eredon Terrace, Henge of Denravi or Stormbluff Isle. They’re too organised, have too many players, great alliances, and 24/7 coverage.

SBI, ET and JQ are all very close and competitive. But because of the huge HoD zerg we end up in the same situation as the lower queues, with HoD dominating and whoever isn’t facing them stomping some lower pop realms in what should be its own bracket.

Just lock Henge out of WvW for a week or so, give them full bonus and say to them “Ok, you win for now”.

Then the rest of the matchmaking brackets will actually end up being fun for a change.

I don’t know if its coordinated, or if its just a reluctance on SBI’s part to engage HoD, but it does seem JQ is always fighting both of them at the same time more often than not.

I suspect a large part of it is JQ seeming like an easier fight than HoD ( who can drop a zerg on you PDQ), but its kind of frustrating for SBI to be so dedicated to map JQ when Henge has over half the objectives.

Hopefully the week long matches will reduce the “get what you can while you can” attitude.

Its worth noting however that the cooldown on the super elixir proc is NOT shared with the actual ability.

Its basically an extra free combo field and condition removal.

Now I just need to find a spot for it in my build without swapping it for something I already enjoy >.<.

This has been suggested repeatedly since beta, and I feel it would end up being a substantial nerf.

As it is now, Engineers are allowed to carry more than one kit. Some builds roll with 3, even.

Your suggestion would be a hard-clamp at 1.

Huh. Thats a better suggestion than the original post. I can actually thing of several ways to use that.

It hits pretty hard, its not going to 2-3 shot someone like a ballista or finish them off like an arrow cart, but it really should not be at that level.

Its enough that no one can really heal through it, and without requiring line of sight, that is all it really needs.

My build isnt too far off yours and I rolled a pretty good thief earlier.
The only exception is I have 30 in tools, mostly for the increased refresh on the medkit f1-heal.

He tried to stunlock me but I had rocket boots. I simply used frost grenade, rocketboots, and glue shot to keep out of his range while my conditions killed him.

Stacked up blow torch and rocket kick, threw poison volley and booked using one of the three controls. Then I grenaded him till he got close, and did something else.

He really did not last long at all. I was holding on to my supply crate for an emergency escape if I needed it, and it never came to it. Looking back at the fight, I probably could have done it without the glueshot too if I had played it better.

Melee are the only real threat. None of the ranged classes have the dps at extreme range that grenade kit does, and they cant catch me with speedy kits if I dont want them to. If they want to chase they have to choose between eating nades chucked over my shoulder or dodging them and falling further behind. Same in reverse if they try to disengage.

Also, lol if there is water nearby and they are dumb enough to follow me into it.

It does have one major benefit over the grenade kit, and that is that it gets treated as an actual siege weapon.

That means it has some benefits and some disadvantages aside from the range.

The first is that it does not require line of sight to its target like grenades do. You don’t have to stick your head over a rampart in WvW to nail a location.

The second advantage and first disadvantage are related. It doesn’t combat flag you or your target by itself. That means if you aren’t combat flagged you can regen hp. The bad part is so does your target unless someone else has him in combat.

The third advantage is that retaliation procs damage the mortar and not you. However, since you can’t heal the mortar and its got substantially less hp than you, this can also be a problem.

The fourth advantage is the hilariously strong knock-back on number 5. I really would like to see what several coordinated mortars could do to a group trying to siege gate.

An organized team keeping it up makes it effectively impossible to defend a keep.

You cant even siege them, and even a player-cast AE can net you several thousand back in damage per cast.

Ive had hits from spells with multiple hits do more damage to ME than total to the enemy.

OK,

1 grenade every 5 seconds is going to be a shrapnel grenade.
That puts just it by itself within a dead heat for power, on the single bleed it procs per-grenade.

The difference is then made up by the improvement on just the bleed trait if you have high enough crit (90% is reachable, self buffed), THEN you add the burn trait and that pushes it over.

Thats assuming equal amounts of power or condmg, JUST spamming shrapnel by itself with a condmg build.

Edit: the dot on poison isnt its primary purpose. Its heal denial and the combo field.

Ok, I just did some napkin level math.

To get 1 point of damage on Grenade and Shrapnel Grenade:
~5 on grenade, ~4.5ish on Shrapnel.

To get 1 point of Bleed on Shrapnel however, you only need:
~1.4 ConDmg

So the break even point on ConDmG is very quick, especially if you factor in the on-crit Conditions engies also get.

Until they fix it somehow, the only sigil you can really benefit from are the ones that put up stacks. You don’t lose them when you swap to a kit, and you keep the stats from them.

I am not sure, but wouldn’t a “normal” weapon swap wipe them?

Rule 1: If its a fair fight, you are already doing something wrong.

That said, could you give some more information about your build/gearing?