everybody is getting too worked up about the traits. yeah the traits are a bit poo poo but whatever. it’ll save me money and time not bothering to get them. the real prize of the patch is the ability to respec anytime anywhere. also i am pretty pumped to use runes of balthazar in pvp.
also i hate hammer guards. if anyone has a guard alt, do not run hammer guard in pve ever. run sword/focus + scepter/shield or torch like a pro and stop dropping dam symbols. every freakin time AREA RETAL AREA RETAL AREA RETAL.
i don’t think anyone will take the new alchemy turret trait. imo alchemy is one of the best defensive trees in the game and experimental turrets just can’t compete.
i wouldn’t use it in pve or pvp. imo it’s bad. the game is all about dodges. an ability that has a 50% chance of removing all your endurance is bad. very bad. plus they nerfed quickness a while back.
with traits, runes, and sigils, you can get an average of +49% damage which is pretty solid. the empty utility slot can be whatever you want from throw mine to rocket boots to elixir s or elixir r. pick whatever utility you like best.
You’re a condition build. Don’t get any skills that up your power damage like modified ammo or deadly mixture or runes of the engineer. Runes of the engineer are particularly terrible runes.
You run multiple elixirs without HGH or 409. Not good. You have hardly any condition removal. And elixir builds are extremely fragile, yours doubly so because you don’t have elixir s. Elixir u is just a poor choice for PvP in any build.
Your offensive capabilities are extremely limited with elixir gun as your only kit. And you’re a condi build without incendiary powder. If you’re going for a condi build, rule #1 is get incendiary powder.
removing bomb kit effectively removed all your reliable burning which is your strongest condition. your only burning now comes from incendiary powder which is a great trait, but unreliable. maybe you’ll proc it on a mesmer clone or ranger pet and it becomes just a wasted cooldown. i’d run offhand pistol to make up for this burning loss.
also smoldering will do nothing without nightmare runes. burning ticks round down. so if you have 5.9 seconds of burning, it will only count as five seconds, or 5 ticks. with just smoldering you have 5.5 seconds of burning. with smoldering plus nightmare, your incendiary powder reaches the 6 second mark giving you an extra tick of burning.
imo i don’t think flame jet is as underwhelming as people make it out to be. it could definitely use more tweaks, but adding permanent burning to it would put it over the top. permanent burning on an auto attack for an already immensely powerful condi class on an already powerful kit in pvp seems wrong.
imo flame jet should hit 5 times instead of 10 for 2 seconds instead of 2.25 for a total of 1.5x more damage. the burning on the last hit should be doubled to 2 seconds. keep the 10% bonus damage on burning targets. halving the amount of hits means the huge retal issue that flame jet has is alleviated somewhat. shortening the channel time and adding 1.5x more damage makes it competitive with grenade autos on burning targets, assuming you’re running modified ammo and deadly mixture. lengthening the burn time gives a potential 3 second burn (aka permanent burning) with 50% burn duration, but it adds counter play instead of trying to dodge endless 2.25 second channels of permanent burning.
I really can’t agree with that. Both, Bunker Down and Synpatic Overload are traits which can increase the overall damage of the Flamethrower which is needed to make it competitive. Fortified Turrets might end up granting the Engineer a higher reflect uptime than Mesmers. Furthermore, it is something Engineers can’t do right now so its actually pretty interesting. Experimental Turrets is very appealing for supplying boons. You might even be able to place them out of the range of monsters in many scenarios because they got a 600 radius.
well to get 30 into explosives for the flamethrower, you’d be giving up deadly mixture, or juggernaut. can’t have all 3. and if you do run all 3, you’re missing out on permanent swiftness and modified ammo, which i think will still be much better than bunker down in pve. plus you can’t knockback bosses and knocking back trash mobs is bad. nothing makes me more annoyed than a mesmer using gs 5 or a ranger using lb 4 on a stacked group just because it was off cd.
fortified turrets is a garbage trait. you have to fully commit 30 points into the worst tree that engineers have and sacrifice multiple and actually useful utility slots for godawful turrets just to keep up with other classes like guardians and mesmers who simply have to use one utility slot and minimal trait investment with no damage loss.
experimental turrets is again a hefty trait investment into alchemy, one of the best defensive trees in the game. you sacrifice A LOT of pve damage going full alchemy for minor boons that will probably be destroyed in a few seconds. the trait also competes with other, better abilities like automated response, backpack regen, hgh, etc. and finally you’ll have to again sacrifice useful utility slots for turrets. TURRETS.
ok but how do you fix a 4v5? maybe joining a game should strap you to your seat until the match is over? they could add gw2 duct tape to the gem store.
So, let’s say we wanted to look into decap engineer, where would we start? I’ve heard a few different opinions on the topic, and I have a few opinions of my own as someone who has played against decap in top 100 rated solo/team arena games and also played the build myself.
In the same way that it was difficult to look at the September ’13 Hambow warrior and point out a single specific key to its strength, I think decap engineer is much the same.
I think it’s important to understand the areas in our game where decap engineer is strong, and then go from there:
Conquest
Situations where communication is difficult (solo arena)
Against teams that have difficulty rotating appropriately
So, with the above in mind, what are some ‘low-hanging fruit’ type of suggestions for changing the way decap engineer works, without affecting existing builds unrelated to decap? That is to say, suggestions that would not require significant amounts of development time to implement.
We’ve already seen a few threads on PW, so I’ll focus on decap for now. ^^
yeah we get the short end of the stick but i hardly think it’s anything major. i was never a fan of stacking sigils anyway and the only reason i used it in pvp was because there was no other alternative.
i’d wager synaptic overload is one of the worst traits out of all the traits they introduced. taking it effectively crosses off grenades as a viable option and the whole point of quickness is to get a lot of burst off. our burst potential is really limited without grenades. that leaves bombs and no explosive kits. are you really going to go 30 into explosives and not take an explosive kit? poor planning i think. and there are better traits out there for bombs. short fuse and enhance performance come to mind. hell i’d rather take autodefense bomb dispenser.
bunker down would be ok, if situational, for a non explosives SD build (0/30/0/10/30) in pvp or wvw. can’t see it working anywhere else but honestly a non explosives SD build is mediocre at best. modified ammo should always be better in pve.
fortified turrets is a joke.
experimental turrets is meh. the healing turret vigor is good but that’s about it. the question is are you willing to spend 30 points to get 3 seconds of vigor on your heal? it forces you to take turrets which are awful and it competes with amazing traits like backpack regen and automated response. supply crate you say? are you going to spend 30 points to boost a skill with a 180 sec cd? i wouldn’t. and why is a turret skill in the alchemy tree anyway? what do turrets have to do with alchemy?
gadgeteer isn’t going to make gadgets good. and it requires 30 points into tools lol nobody runs 30 into tools except sd builds and decap engis. neither of those builds will get this trait.
The problem with bunker down and the quickness trait is that they are in the wrong traitlines entirely.
That is what I felt. While I can see Bunker Down working nicely with Flamethrower I just can’t see Synaptic Overload working with the Bomb Kit which I feel should have been the first choice here. But I guess Synpatic Overload opens up more offensive Flamethrower Builds.
synaptic overload won’t work with bomb kit because the bomb kit has no knockbacks. the only actual explosive that it will work with is throw mine. synaptic overload is just one of the worst traits. i’d rather take autodefense bomb dispenser. nobody is going to go 30 explosives for that garbage. it’s a master tier trait at best.
the top teams that will be playing in this tournament have won so many gems from tournaments they could’ve bought 3 legendaries by now. i say let’s give legendaries to 5th-8th place winners. who’s with me?
here are the bonuses if anyone was wondering.
1. +25 condition damage
2. +10% burn duration
3. +50 condition damgae
4. +15% burn duration. when struck below 20% hp, gain 5 seconds of quickness (90 sec cd)
5. +100 condition damage
6. +20% burn duration. when using a healing skill, burn nearby foes for 3 seconds. (10 sec cd)
the 6 piece set is actually a 5 second burn if you factor in the condi duration
the description said synaptic overload only works with knockbacks. overcharged shot and big ol bomb are both blowouts. it’s like that warrior skill that grants +50% crit chance on stuns. only one hammer attack actually stuns you out of the 3 ccs that the hammer actually has. the only knockbacks i can think of off the top of my head are traited turret detonations, shield 4, throw mine, and ft 3.
all the new engi traits are pretty bad. and i feel like synaptic overload should be in the firearms tree and bunker down should be in explosives. but meh. better to have subpar than overpowered new traits.
i believe condi duration caps at 100%. this will be more of a pvp rune as in wvwvw you can already reach the cap quite easily. or you could use this in wvwvw if you don’t feel like using food buffs.
on april 15th, these runes will have condi damage as the main stat and will grant 45% burn duration. that’s 75% with 30 into explosives and 85% with smoldering. at 75% burn duration, blowtorch burn lasts 10 seconds, incendiary powder will last 7 seconds, and fire bomb will last 3 seconds per tick. any pvp engis going to be swapping?
edit: i just heard it burn duration will be at 95% with smoldering as smoldering is going up to 20%. :OOO
even though the idea of pvp unlocks goes against the whole level playing field concept of tpvp, i’d be ok with gold unlocks if match rewards didn’t give us pennies.
conditions are not good for pve since it does less damage overall and caps so you might do even less damage than you’re capable of. you’ll be entirely useless in open world events where conditions are capped on the boss in the first 10 seconds and stay capped for the remainder of the fight.
flamethrower is a power kit in pve. i personally feel like FT should either be your main kit or not on your bar at all. the reasoning is ft requires a lot of trait points (at least 20 into firearms and 20 into alchemy, and every pve build should run modified ammo so it’s really a 50 point investment). that doesn’t leave room for something like grenades. you could just trait for grenades and just have FT on your bar but the bomb kit does literally everything the FT can do and more and your bombs are traited. it seems like a waste of a utility slot.
i personally run full zerk with grenade kit and elixir gun and it’s great. i’d recommend that. but definitely experiment on how you want to play the class.
-you don’t have any stunbreak and you don’t have any defensive cc traits like protection injection or stabilized armor. you need those
-you don’t have vigor or energy sigil. you need at least one of those. dodging wins the game.
-undead runes are meh. use nightmare or adventurer.
-leeching and geomancy sigils don’t stack.dont’ stack. substitute one with corruption. smoldering is an option if you run nightmare for +50% burn duration.
-you’re using bombs without forceful explosives. you need forceful explosives in any bomb build.
@insanemaniac
lol “massive struggle”. time permitting, i try to do a 50 every day. my group runs one mesmer for feedback and our thief swaps to smoke screen. we feedback as soon as the legendary ele shields so we can stack and break the shield, and our thief smoke screens if anyone needs for the mini eles.. we usually don’t. if you haven’t figured out how to strafe dodge, take your own advice and stay out of fractals 30+.
mesmers, guardians and thieves can block projectiles without a huge damage loss. they simply have to swap out a utility and/or only commit 10 trait points. engineers will have to put 30 trait points into a lackluster tree and give up multiple utility slots for turrets to have any decent duration projectile reflect. TURRETS lol. nty.
@kain
cool builds. how are you going to turret reflect with 0 in inventions?
Seriously? People are actually complaining about this?
Do you have any idea how useful this will be with Rifle Turret? Do I have to run FoTM 38 with you guys, just to show you how viable turrets can be in someone who uses them properly?
Let’s see, Rifle Turret gives us:
- low CD, high damage Toolbelt with 0 activation time
- blast finisher on 20s cd (which activates around your character’s location, NOT the turret)
- Great supplemented damage and vulnerability
And now it will also act as a 4s reflect wall too?
If you guys can’t appreciate a skill so versatile and powerful as the Rifle Turret, then you really shouldn’t be playing Engineer.
On the other hand, if you’re willing to learn, let’s run FoTM 38 together, and I’ll teach ya to use Turrets properly.
Ps. This trait should affect Healing Turret, which is already one of THE most powerful skills in the game. Currently Healing Turret can:
- Self-heal for 6k
- Heal allies for 3.5k
- Cure conditions on you and allies
- Act as blast finisher for higher cd
- Spawn water field
- Grant you and allies regeneration
And now it is a 4s reflect too. All on 14s cooldown.
You guys are seriously calling that bad? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY!?
you talkin about that 30/30/30/30/30 build? or the one where you take out points from a useful tree and lose a huge, HUGE chunk of damage going 30 inventions?
engi bunkers lack stability. it’s the bunker’s job to stomp downed players. it’s the bunker’s job to res downed allies. it’s the bunker’s job to stay on point. without stability the engi can’t do any of these things reliably. and if you compare engi bunkers to guardians or warriors, the engi is indeed a joke.
it’s situational but since healing turret is our main (and often our only) source of condi clear, you should definitely try to pick it up for the reduced cd and not detonate it. thumper turret is a turret so it’s automatically bad. and it has a really long cooldown so it’s not that great. with that said going bunker engi with knockback turrets and this new trait requires a hefty investment of 40 trait points. that doesn’t leave you very much for alchemy (which is 100x better than inventions as a defensive tree anyway and very necessary for any engi attempting to bunk) or tools for power wrench and mobility and vigor. the whole setup seems bleh to me. if you want to run a knockback build, the decap engi guide is out there somewhere.
no you’d just have to waste 30 points into the inventions line.
You could use the trait, combine it with the run speed boost, and then a random other trait. It’s not completely useless.
going that deep into inventions means you need to be a bunker build. any kind of offensive build with that many points into inventions will just be bad. and you’re outbunkered by guardians and warriors anyway. and you’d have to give up a useful utility like tool kit for a crappy turret and for what? 4 seconds of projectile reflect? maybe a knockback every 20-50 seconds if you trait for it? jokes.
but meh. better a useless grandmaster trait that we can add to the list of traits that nobody ever uses than a stupid overpowered trait like dhuumfire.
i’m more excited about being able to change builds on the fly. who cares about turrets? that projectile bubble won’t change their uselessness and the inventions tree is still sub par. i really want to see the grandmaster traits in the other trees though and i’m praying dear lord jebus i am praying that none of these traits are overpowered as fudge like dhuumfire was when it was first introduced.
i think the worst part about decap engi is that when i fight somebody (i’m a condi engi), regardless if i lose or win the other guy will be like “you suck noob decap engi”
i hope the LS season 2 has a 99% reduction in 500 man hordes all mashing their auto attack button. and i hope i don’t have to pick between being laggy and possibly crashing or having my entire game graphically look like doo doo.
this is what i use for a power build when i pvp. you can set up nice combos with tool kit. magnet > prybar > overcharged shot > throw wrench > net shot > grenade barrage can 100-0 a lot of zerker amulet classes and will put the hurt out on other classes. but yeah you have might stacking, lots of cc, and huge burst potential with good defensive abilities from tool kit and elixir s.
My friends and I play for PvP not PvE, why would we care about gold rewards? PvP should be given PvP specific rewards
they’re changing it so pvp items can be used in pve and pve items can be used in pvp. there’s only going to be one currency in the future and that’s gold. you’re going to care about gold in the future. if you’re goin to complain, at least complain about something relevant, like the fact that the gold rewards from pvp are terrible. in 15 minutes i can find a group for ac and finish it with 1.5g and random loots. 15 minutes in pvp and maybe my queue will pop and then i have to play a game that will last anywhere from 10-20 minutes for a few pieces of silver IF we win. if the merging happens, pvp players will still be left in the dust just because the amount of gold gained from pve is so much greater.
idk why people are complaining about rewards. it’s not like pvp gave good rewards anyway before this patch.
running grenade kit alone gives poison, vuln, bleed, chill, weakness if you blast the poison field, and blind, though blind doesn’t stay very long. with a guardian in your party you should have a lot of burn uptime and even more blind uptime. that’s 12% already. 14% if you count blind. a 5th necro could add perma torment and immobilize. basically what it boils down to is that modified ammo is a huge dps increase.
30 into firearms give you +5% damage to bleeding targets, and +2% for every condition, which usually ends up being 10-14% dmg increase. and you get some bleed damage increase with the +300 condi dmg.
if you decide to run a grenade/static discharge setup, 30/0/0/10/30 will be better.
your second build is good if you use energy sigil or vigor. your best bet against a thief is to make sure to land your burns and blinds and dodge dodge dodge dodge dodge.
thieves are highly mobile. better to stick to pistol 1-3 at range and save your grenades and blowtorch for when they come close.
if you see basi venom, get your gear shield and dodges ready. when they stealth and you’re not sure if basi venom is on cd, they probably used basi venom. nothing is worse than getting backstabbed with basi venom.
if a thief is far away, be prepared for the infiltrator signet + steal initiation, an 1800 range gap closer.
if the thief spams heartseeker, fight him because it’s an easy win.
as for general tpvp, i always gear shield when i get immobilized because arenanet is awesome with immob stacking and immob is generally the set up for a huge burst hit.
don’t overcommit to a fight. if you lose a teamfight mid, there’s no shame in running away. better that than give them 5 points and you a 15 sec respawn time.
if you get focused, you have plenty of ways to disengage: gear shield, elixir s, and toss elixir s. or you can just dodge away. energy sigil/vigor + adventurer runes give you plenty of dodges.
don’t fight necros.
Makes perfect sense, oh wait…. just one teeny tiny detail: There isnt actually any kind of balance in spvp, where the kitten is the fun in getting steamrolled by facerollers playing OP classes?
this is not news. it’s been this way for a long time. why do you play something you don’t enjoy? for the rewards? the pvp rewards? you kidding?
