Guild Wars 2

Reducing dmg of bumb kit is lame.
Engineer is set up in a way that your main dmg comes from weapon kits, while main weapons (riffle/pistols) are more burst (blowtorch, blunderburst) and utility (jump shot, glue shot, net shot).

The engineer is not a gunslinger or sniper, he uses explosives, tools and inventions to fight. It seems with your ideas you want to turn this around.
I’m all for giving options to play without kits, but nerfing kits so you are forced into weapons AA is lame.

Some notes/suggestions

Pistol -

See above, flat increase to weapons AA is a bit against the core engi idea (kits as main weapons). But I think it should be a valid option.
IMO, its better to:
– Merge granadier and explosive descent;
– New trait – Explosive ammo: fragmentation shot is now an explosion.
This will give the explosive line the option to spec on condi with pistol/nades or with power and bombs. Giving pistol AA the triggering of bleed, vuln and cripple (if fully traited) and a nice combo with chemical rounds. Including a viable hybrid build with mod ammo. All without hurting people that prefer to use nades and/or bombs

Also, swap pistol #3 and #4 so p main hand is condi, and p off hand is soft cc and p/s can be a viable option.

Miltek.2104:

• Rifle -

Again as mentioned at the start, riffle is a burst weapon, and lowering the CD of Blunderbuss makes it it more of a sustain weapon.
IMO:
– Include in No Scope: Improve critical dmg against disabled and immobilized foes.
This will reward a well placed burst and can highly increase riffle burst dmg on bosses with breakbar. In this way you indirectly improve the skills (netshot, OC shot and the 2 burst skills) while rewarding skillful play, instead of giving out free dmg to everyone and lowering the skill level of the profession in general.

Yes for better netshot speed!
Jump shot evade might be a problem to implement (jump duration variable with distance) so maybe just include a short (1-2 secs, 2 stacks) stability on activation? More counter play to the skill also and a good combo with traits and boom duration (for OC shot)

Miltek.2104:

Hammer – […]

IMO the problem with hammer is its total lack of synergy with the rest of the core engi and the nerfs it took.
It needs to fit the rest of the engi skills better, some suggestions:
– Third AA strike (equalizing blow) and each strike from rocket charge are now explosions;
– Thunderclap heals and cleanse turrets for each pulse;
– Rocket Charge needs to be 2 leaps and one blast finisher, improving its synergy with traits such as shocking speed/rapid regen/final salvo (and soothing detonation).

Miltek.2104:

Bomb kit – […]

Nerfing a good dps kit is not the way to improve your preferred gameplay of autoattacking with main weapon. Just, IMO, a bad idea to nerf bombs AA.

Miltek.2104:

Flamethrower – […]

Seems now that purity of purpose means everything needs to be power or condi.
What is wrong with hybrid kits/weapons and using traits to improve each aspect of it?
Let FT do some power dmg too and leave the option to improve burns with IA and other traits…

CrimsonRipper.5087:

[…] in all honesty Condi Engineers likely don’t have all that much fun jumping between 5 weapons (25 different skills), to use barely half of them, and that’s before managing tool belt skills. […]

Do not assume that.
If you look on topics of why people like playing engi, the number of skills is a common one.

Removing or merging kits from engi would destroy great part of its appeal to some people.

Bombs and nades are more hybrid than just power or condi sets. And they work fine as they are, as you can trait for the side you want or use the hybrid approach.

The solution to this is have season games only as 5man queue.
Keep the ranked solo q for out of season and for people to try to increase their mmr.

I hope Phongluangtham becomes the name of a NPC on the PvP lobby.

Having the same problem..

Hope there is no rate penalties or hours of dishonor

The problem with hammer, in terms of dps, is that it doesnt synergise well with our other traitlines.

The main dps traitlines for engie are explosives and firearms. Other lines have some dps traits (like SA on tools or HgH on alchemy) but are minor compared to the ones above.

With that in mind…

Explosives provides great dps increase with glass cannon and shaped charge, but the GM are mostly useless for hammer. Your best option, if you want to use this line, is to combo it with inventions for the bunker down mines, but it can be quite a waste as inventions don’t give you much dps and since hammer attacks are slow, your mine output will be quite low and the increase in dps from the improved explosions quite low…

Firearms is a better option here with high caliber and no scope. The GM again is a bit bad for Hammer… you wont be doing lots of condi to benefit from mod ammo, and the extra burn won’t be all that great for a power build (and I hope you are not looking for a condi dps hammer build!)
You can couple firearms with tools and run a SD build using the riffle turret and the ram and TK or Rocket Boots, but the synergy with scrapper, is not great for dps…

IMO, the best DPS you can get with hammer scrapper is with firearms and alchemy.
Go full elixirs with HgH. Elixir B, Elixir U, Elixir C (or R). Chugg elixirs to keep at 25 might and keep near perma quickness with mass momentum and applied force.

But rotation will be as boring as bomb kit… Just less effective (frontal melee and less tgts).

Have fun!

For TDM to work on GW2 it needs to be turn based.

- Players that get stomped/killed can only respawn on the next turn.
– A turn ends when all players of a team get killed/stomped or the time limit is reached.
– 3 turns (best of 3 wins), of maximum 5 min each.
– First 2 turns can have a tie (time limit reached, same number of players alive on each team), third goes to overtime if there is still players on a team alive.
– Overtime applies penalties to players. Agony dmg, Revealed, Healing penalties… Stacking with time up to 5 min.

Just curious as why other people play engi.

Is it because is in the PvE meta for dps?
Is it because of the flavor of using explosives and flamethrowers instead of swords and sticks?
Is it because of the versatility? Being able to use the right tool for the job and swapping between kits?
Is it because of the lore and the story?
Is it because of the looks?

For me is a bit of the lore (I love being a sylvari researching the world and puting my research to use agains the elder dragons), the versatility (I love that all challenges I find I can always think of how to overcome it) and the looks/flavor (I love to shoot things with a plasma riffle or pistols and bomb it with granades or mortars)

New live-act ad trailers

I think an important tutorial that would help a lot of new players is how to read the map.

It could be something simple, like an instance where you have to first capture a point and then you need to go where your minimap is pinging.
This would show people that you don’t need to go all the way to a capture point that already have someone from your team on it, and should actually go help where it is needed.

Another one is focus targets.
You get in a battle against a few opponents where each one of them gets target focus and you have a few seconds to kill it (it would die in a few hits while the other opponents are invul) or it will insta-kill you.

– Maps and mechanics

We need more maps.
4 years and mostly the same maps all the time. Other tries at different modes (death-match and stronghold) didn’t work so well, but I think they could be improved upon instead of ditched completely.

Maybe stronghold could use less npcs/pve
Players need to carry the bombs to the gate, and other players can take them out. Bombs explode after a certain timer and deal dmg in an area around them to players and structures.
Instead of a lord, a cp that regens to the team base if unattended and needs to be fully decaped and caped by the invading team.
No guards, but gates and trebs can be repaired by supply.
Buffs provide benefits to the team instead of champions: faster movement with bombs and/or supply, faster cap/decap, stronger bombs, or gate repair…

death-match could be turn based so the game goes to best of 3 turns of 5 min max each. Team that have the most teamates alive on the end of each turn (or that wipes the other team) wins. Respawn only on the start of the turn. On third turn, in case of a tie, the maps start to apply debuffs to all in the area… instant death (no downed), revealed, agony, traps, etc…

more mechanics
Come back mechanics. Raid of the Capricorn is bit of a snowball (as in pts increase for each successful bell capture). It would be nice to see a different one, where you get extra points for capping an objective after your opponent captured it previously.
Temporary caps. A map with more than 3 caps, where capture points become active on a (maybe random) pattern across the map. Making players decide if its best to help a group fight on a cap or move to the next one to become active…

- Rewards
People need incentive to play pvp, or at least start playing it. These are the rewards.
Some argue that the only reward should be to play pvp, kitten to keep “noob pvers” out. But that is not really healthy for the game mode. In a game like GW2, a lot of people split their time between game modes, and if one is not rewarding to their end-goals (legendaries, ascended, w/e) they will leave it and that game mode slowly dies.
On the other hand, you don’t want people to be “farming” the mode for rewards to other game modes (aka “free ascended armor” or achievements) as this leads to win trading or just bad play (as in afk in matches just for the 3 pip on lost – what also relates to rewards on loosing matches that I’ll talk later).

What do you think should be the rewards for pvp, and should there be rewards for loosing games?
I think PvP rewards should not be the top tier pve gear (even more as you don’t need said gear for PvP). Reward tracks should help you achieve that, by acquiring mats and gold, but not give you a full set of ascended gear or an Legendary backpack.
Access to unique skins and pve skins (dungeon armor) is fair, and maybe PvP should be the best way to get more skins. Maybe dungeon reward tracks and zone reward tracks should reward the (more) skins of items instead of exotics.

– Unranked, Ranked, Seasons
IMO the matchmaking has improved a lot latelly, Ive had fewer stacked games and although get paired with other divisions above and below, this is probably due to low pop as I see a lot of the same people game after game.

I love the solo q and play only solo, but I also think it has been bad for the game to have pvp seasons with solo q. I know, its probably not a popular opinion, but I think season games (that give season rewards) should be only groups of 5.
There should still be a ranked solo q, and that should still counts towards mmr and have its own achievements and tittles, but I think the community would grow more if we needed to group up and learn how to work with other to achieve the best rewards on the game-mode. Maybe then our friend list would be full of good people to group instead of people to avoid due to toxicity.

Do you think the community would improve if season games required a full group to join?
It would make playing season games for season rewards harder (need to find a group), but it would require people to cooperate and understand their roles strategy better, in order to consistently get groups. But at the same time, it could be hard to find groups at certain times, and locking people into groups could make certain tiers very stale (only a few groups playing).

This would make people look for groups that fit their role and strats, so if you like to go far and run a fringe build, you can find a group that is happy with that. But it also might create a scenario of “play meta or gtfo”.

So maybe we would have unranked as it is, ranked solo q (and duo?), where you can play (as it is now) and increase your mmr, and group ranked q, with this (group ranked) being the only mode that you get season rewards during seasons. Solo/duo q would still get the extra rewards buff (for tracks) during seasons.

– Leader and tutorials
A lot of new people on the pvp have no idea what to do.
Where to go, when, how. What to do, when, how.
Do you think we need more tutorials? Or people should learn in unranked by themselves?
Should there be tutorials on LoS, Map mechanics (treb, lords, Sky hammer, creatures, buffs) maybe on tutorial version of each instance, map awareness (see the map and go to where your team needs you). I think those would help a lot of people (specially the map one, so many people go to a cp that is already being capped, just to turn around and go to the actual fight), but would they be required to join ranked?

Should there be a lower limit of rank, or games played/won, to join ranked games?
Do we need a ladder inside PvP, or would that limit players too much?

I can see it working in a way where you start only able to play unranked and can move to ranked after a certain rank or certain achievements. But that would really limit the access of people to ranked and season, specially alt accounts.

Like many here I’ve had my problems with bad comps (matchmaking), mmr hell, toxicity and all other things in the GW2 PvP over the last seasons. I wanted to share some ideas and thoughts and see what others think about it.

First, I want to say GW2 PvP is a hard thing to “balance”. Class balance, matchmaking, mmr, etc… Honestly, I don’t think I have “the ultimate solution” to the problem, and if you think you do, you are probably biased. But there is definitely room for improvement, an we all can agree on that.

Second, the point here is not class balance. Its about the (ranked) pvp systems. mmr, matchmaking, rewards, incentive, seasons, etc.

Third, I’m not making direct suggestions to the devs, but I’d like to see how the community sees a few issues and possible options to them. And I think it’s good for the devs to see this, instead of the usual “mmr sucks!” or “do this one thing and pvp will be betest ever”. So let’s try to keep the discussion polite and constructive (one can only hope).

The main things I want to talk are:
– Leader and tutorials
– Do you think we need tutorials? should they be (or should there be any) barrier to entry on ranked games?
– Unranked, Ranked, Seasons
– Should there be a ranked 5man q and should season rewards be only obtainable on that? Would that remove matchmaking problems from season games and improve community by forcing group-play?
- Rewards
– Should the PvP mode have PvE rewards?
– Maps and mechanics
– What would you like to see more?

I’ve seen this in action a couple times this last week.
Was trying to figure it out to give it a go and understand it better.

It’s a build focusing on GS burst out of stealth with mantras.

- It has 3 mantras (recovery, pain, distraction);
– GS and S/t (I believe for stealth);
– Mass invis and blink or decoy;

I think its something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8fl0nhS0YNawMNwtGLnGVd0WtfbZG0cJAZAsALHA-TpBEwAQOCAROIAM3fgwDAAwFAIbZAA

Its quite gimmicky and pretty much burst and runs if it fails.

Please let me know if thats the build or if it uses ilusions instead of chrono (or any other changes)…

I don’t think its necessary to do so many changes to them (like breakbar)

immo they need:

- Adjust health bar so they are not easily destroyed but also not immortal. Turret placement is part of the gameplay and you need to be strategic.
– Improve dmg on dmg turrets. dps of turret overcharge should be more than toolbelt.
– Reduce CD by 20%
– Increase CD reduction for pickup to 50%. Picking up a turret reset its overcharge skill
– Advance turrets: turrets create reflective shield on overcharge (instead of deployment) – more strategy and more value of turrets deployed instead of destroyed.
– Experimental turrets: reapply boons on turret overcharge, and detonating turrets reduce their CD by 25%.
– Toolkit – increase Autoattack speed, increase turret regen on third strike

Try talking to it.

Atrox.9216:

The test woke my interest will try it out later. But I don´t get why you take rifle. Hammer provides more defensive and offensive properties.

You don’t want to be standing on mid point with that amulet when necros and guards start bombing it. Pew pew from a safe distance and watch for reflects

Stand The Wall.6987:

hello! I would also like to add my own drunk engi build if that’s ok. if not ill delete no biggie! ok lol, the gist of it is to take all knockbacks:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUncoCtoiNeBmcBEqiF2iasN6xvgO4L+lHcE3gAA-TJBFABCcBAA4BAUz+DiXGAA
its really fun to treat ppl like pinballs! knock em around see how they like it. theyre bad guys, they deserve it anyways.

This looks more like a new version of the decap engy.
The drunk build is about drinking elixirs (a new version of the old kitless rifle burst engi build).

The bublehead was hilarious…

I hope they make everyone with tiny hands this year.

Throw elixir X is one of the most fun utilities in the game.
It interrupts ress and stomps, and its AoE, so its great to completely turn the tides.

And there are very few things in pvp more satisfying than turning a reaper into a pink moa.

Engineer is the only reasonable choice.

You can plow zombies with your flamethrower, bombs and granades.
You can set up defense turrets and go to sleep when you are tired. You can use and understand/repair all technology left over…

Ardid.7203:

After reading all the opinions and data, I only can agree with you, ILobo. Kits aren’t just a very relevant part of the gameplay of our profession. They are also an amazing part of our lore, fluff and fun. Anet can’t just leave them aside because they are complex to balance.

IMO they should add a new kit with every new elite spec. Ideally along a new weapon, but if not possible, I truly prefer a new kit than a new weapon.

The best way I see right now to balance the kits and allow this growth without overwhelming every other skill is to simply take the kits out of the skill bar, and alocate them on the toolbelt. Sure, we would lose the toolbelt skills from kits, but IMO that is a reasonable price to pay for variety and a better balance. In exchange, we will win free spaces in the utility bar for gadgets, elixirs, etc.

The problem with placing the kits in the toolbelt is that it would make us just a remake of eles…
The whole thing with kits is that you need to make a choice of a new weapon (kits) or utility (gadgets/elixirs).

The concept is good, the problem is that PvE doenst really need any utility the engi can bring with gadgets, turrets have no real purpose besides their toolbelt skill and elixirs have too much of a CD.

For example:
– If rocket boots was an aimed jump, and provided evade frames, it would be a valid option on current dps builds, as it would offer a reliable evade (that doesnt send you out of the fight and most likely off the boss platform) while you can still use the toolbelt skill to retain some burn/burst. So you could, in certain fights where an extra evade would help you, swap bombs for it without loosing too much dps.
– If slickshoes was still good against breakbars, you could probably trade a bit of dps if your group is lacking on the CC…

Ivantreil.3092:

For example, the general opinion that all engies share that Gadgets needs some love, is starting to get reflected, as the devs said they are looking to improve the gadgets for the next balance patch.

Did I miss that? It would be awesome.
But I think you might be confusing it with the dev taht said that they didnt had time to review unused skills on the last balance patch and its something they would like to do sometime in the future, her/him particular gadgets, mantras and something else.

Honestly, I think we have completely derailed the topic…

Engineer is a unique class, the kits give it unique weapons, like granades, bombs and flamethrowers.

If we don’t get new kits, we will be getting swords, sticks, daggers, and all the archaic weapons other simpletons use.

If the profession gets more kits, we get to use more advance weaponry, like machine guns, lasers, wrist blasters, rocket launchers…

I don’t want to shoot rockets out of a greatsword, I want a actual rocket launcher set upon my shoulders. (I was going to post an image, but when the image search popped on the screen I realized it might raise questions from co-workers, so use your imagination, or google).

So, if the only way we get new skills is by new ESpecs, then I hope we get new kits with them for unique weapon skills.

Ivantreil.3092:

[…]
Is it worth to discuss kit changes or other utility buffs if people are happy with the way they are?

If so, i don’t see the point on discussing buffs or nerfs at all.

If you are here discussing things to get changes, then its not worth it. There are hardly any response to what is said here. And any suggestion seems to be completely ignored if ever is read at all.

Post here just for the sake of argumentation and further developing the understanding of the profession and its mechanics, possibilities and limitations. Dev attention seems to be non-existent.

Ivantreil.3092:

Actually, i love what each kit does, what it had me concerned all this time its the full kit use and lack of variety builds in pve.

This is a false perspective.
Just because there is one META build, doesnt mean we have lack of build variety.
There will always be a best in slot option. The other options are viable, just not best.

You can see video of raid builds using rocket boots and flame turret, with simple rotations and doing 32k dps. Is this the META? no. but its kitten good and if anyone kicks you for using it it would be absurd.

Engineer right now has quite a few variant builds for different content…
You can run scrapper FT for zergs tagging, you can run riffle+bombs for solo content, scrapper with EU for reflection, etc…

The big problem here is the perception that there is only on build, the META DPS build, and its the only thing that works for all PVE…
It is not. and you do not have 36k dps for running that build all the time…

Jerus.4350:

[…]
How do you make an Elixir which is 2 skills as good as a Kit which is 6?
[…]

It doesnt need to be “as good” just situational better.
Elixirs are the buff utility, so make the buffs useful and reliable.
In a raid or group pve scenario, elixirs are not used as others on your group are pumping buffs out for you, in PvP elixirs are almost always used because buffs are great and they clean conditions when traited. You can have a full elixir build that is quite efficient, with perma quickness, stability, fury, protection, retal and 25 might.

On a power build, where you only need bombs for sustain dps and riffle for burst, you can get elixir X for breakbars and U for the reflection. Elixir U is actually really good, its a very long reflect.

Philalive.8654:

I suppose the biggest problem is that Kits overshine the other utility skills which this change wouldn’t adress at all. When was the last time you were running gadets, etc? ^^

Kits overshines other utilities because on PvE dps overshines utility and defense.
If in any instance you absolutely need more utility and dps is not a problem, you might run a gadget.
Lets say there is an encounter where you get rooted in place (with a pulsating immob) and need to avoid an AoE (unblockable) by reaching a safe zone. You could trade your bomb kit or FT for rocket boots…
Slickshoes was on the meta build for a while as it was the best way to deal with breakbars…
But the main problem is that a lot of gadgets are just subpar, like turrets, and the traits for it are also crap.

- A.E.D. needs a lower CD and remove conditions despite of the deathblow. This could open good builds with it synergy with inventions releasing you from alchemy.
– Rocket boots is already nice on overland pve, but could have an improved distance and grant evade frames and/or swiftness
– Ram needs to have improved breakbar dmg and frontal cone AoE instead of single target.
– Slickshoes nerf needs to be reverted.
– Utility Goggles needs to make your next few attacks unblockable (so it becomes a “turn the tide” skill, breaks stun and enables you to deliver burst)

Danikat.8537:

Is there really any benefit to playing SAB on more than one character? As far as I know all the chests are once per day per account, and it’d mean passing continue coins, baubles etc. between characters.

Since your level, profession, race etc. doesn’t matter it seems like it’d make more sense to just stick to one character.

The change would not to play on more than one character, just to be able to play with any character you want.

So if you have a new main, and you like to play only one character, you can get into SAB and play from where you were before without having to get upgrades again.

With SAB probably returning soon, I would really like to ask to make the unlocks (upgraded coin pouch, weapons, etc) acc wide.

Would be nice to be able to play SAB with new characters without having to get all the unlocks again.

I don’t think they should or will change kits.
If anything, they might, hopefully, rework the medikit and improve TK autoattack.

Kits offer a different way to deal dmg, they are the engineers weapons.

They are used in the meta dps raid build because that is what that build is about, all out condi dps. They are not mandatory for a good dps (look for the plebineer, or simple rotations for engi) and you only use one or 2 for power dps… Pvp/wvw uses one, 2 or no kit at all (rifle burst spec)…

I really don’t understand why people would ask for a kit nerf or limitations. Its like asking for eles to loose their attunements.

What I would love to see is we getting more kits, so we can have access to more engineer weapons, like gatling guns, rocket launchers, etc…

https://www.reddit.com/r/GuildWarsDyeJob/

Ivantreil.3092:

Regardless of what we get or ask, and talking for pve, full kits will never drop meta as long as they have a single valuable dps skill to play, i mean, flamethrower was valuable back then only for napalm and the toolbelt, now we have 2 other dps skills that can be used (if needed).

And pre-hot, Elixir gun was in the meta build, guess for what, only for the acid bomb w/ canceled leap, only for that, not the utility, not the cleanse, not the heal, the dps of acid bomb, the rest off the kit skills only gave arguments for keep it over any other utility…

Same could say pre-hot ft, use Flame blast and swap.

Exactly. Kits are meta on pve because of dps.
If we get a weapon that have a better AA than kits, than swaping to kits will be a dps loss and meta builds wont use it.
Just like the bomb power build. Bomb AA is your dps, and you use utilities that have low CD toolbelt skils for extra dps (with SD) without leaving the bomb AA.

Utilities are not needed on “Meta comp” if they compromise dps (for someone on a dps role).
Slickshoes was meta when breakbars were “hard” and when the scrapper was tank (so already low dps to use defense), but that changed with the nerf and the rise of the chrono tank (alerady low dps but tons of support)

To be honest, I think kits are on a good spot now (except for medkit and the TK AA).
– You can use all of them for really high dps with a complex rotation, or
– you can use some for lower dps and simpler rotation…

choovanski.5462:

lLobo.7960:

You are all wrong.

Battle suit with DRILLS is the way to go.

dredge mining suit espec confirmed!

You are all wrong.

Battle suit with gatling guns, rocket launcher, shield dome and rocket boost is the way to go.

yLoon.5289:

Just one more question, how do I avoid using gyro stomp? Because i want to save it for ressing. Was it from the setting key or something?

Get all close and personal, watch the F tooltip.

The theme and mechanics you describe are really cool and might be a great support spec for WvW or PvP, but I don’t think it would work on PvE.

The Barrier mechanic is nice but most of PvE end game content is about dmg and evasion. That is mostly why Necros are not in the meta and chronos are great tanks.

Chrono has low dps but tons of evades, invuls and blocks, so it can tank while providing boons and heals, and on top of that alacrity and quickness are great.
Necro on the other hand can just absorb dmg, but that doesnt help much when attacks are designed to wipe you if you dont dodge.

The mechanic you suggest (barrier) might not help much on a raid scenario. And although the spec provide tons of boons, it seems to lack dmg. And on a raid, if you are not tanking you should be doing dps… even if you are support or heals… as warriors and druids do..

elrin.4750:

I’m a new player, don’t have an 80 yet. Reading the forums and reddit it seems HoT is ‘L2P or GTFO’.

Still enjoying the core game, but not looking forward to HoT.

Don’t judge the game by all the salt you see on forums and reddit…

HoT has great maps, the elite specs are quite fun, gliding is great.

Raids are actually very accessible in this game as there is no gear treadmill or keys, search for WoodenPotatoes zero-to-hero challenge.
What drives most people away from raids is their own fears.

One question:

Would sigils enter CD even if nothing is triggered?
As in,
– Would sigil of generosity enter CD on a hit that transfers no conditions?
– Would sigil of revelation apply revealed and enter CD even if no one was on stealth?

Ivantreil.3092:

My real and only issue with AED is the terrible sinergy that has with Self-Regulating Defenses , if you use AED, but then you trigger your passive Elixir s, you’re kittened since you wasted the healing potential of you AED and youre going to get out of elixir s ready for getting hunted down.

And doing builds with no alchemy are pretty much nonexistent nowadays in pvp/wvw, AED cant carry the safety of the Engineer without alchemy, and alchemy pretty much kittens AED at the same time.

That’s the point.
If AED cleared conditions even out of the “on death” scenario you could use it as a form of condi cleanse out of alchemy. Coupled with inventions you could use it above 25% and then again under 25% with the help of AMR.

AED would be really nice if:
* Instant cast
* Always cleared conditions
* Lower CD
* Lower CD and better toolbelt skill

Then, a better gadgetteer trait could help it even further.

And healing turret needs to be a better sustain heal instead of a burst one.

Ivantreil.3092:

Ok, sure, we have kits, but guys, kits could be more unique than what they are, they are just weapons with skills that dont fit or make sense in a weapon, so they made kits, taking utilities slots.

The idea to have kits as weapons is because the engineer don’t use normal weapons, like swords and daggers. They use inventions like bombs and flamethrowers.

I honestly would love if we got new kit instead of a new weapon with the elite spec. I rather get a Gatling gun than a to use a mace on my engi.

Ivantreil.3092:

I’m ok they have the weapon feeling, but why they have to act 100% as one? think it about it, why not delete the aa in kits and make them a full set of skills, now thats a kit.

Yes they do need to act as weapons because they are there mostly to cover for our weapons deficiencies. AoE auto attacks, long range, melee, etc…

Ivantreil.3092:

Anyway, in summary, kits should have a specific thematic when using them, not just a weapon identity and thats it, they should do something more special than just acting as a weapon, they are taking spaces in our utilities after all.

They do! They give us the options to play in different ways.
FT gives you the option of fast hitting frontal cone attacks and tons of burns. Great for fast procs of on hit/crit.
Bombs provide solid PBAoE and soft CC (immob/cripple/blind) and some condi pressure on.
Nades is a great ranged AoE and can be traited for good condi dmg with procs from on hit/crit traits/sigils due to high hit rate.
Toolkit gives good defense and soft/hard CC. Too bad the AA is not good enough and turrets are not worth repairing
Elixir gun is a great support weapon with an AA that provides a much underrated weakness (in pvp)
Med kit is just crap…

That is where the versatility of engie comes from!
The reason why you take so many kits in PvE (and only on the condi meta build) is because you just want dmg.
As soon as you need utility or defense you take other things, like elixirs or some of the gadgets that are not completely crap (slick shoes was great for a while, rocket boots are still quite useful and ram is not a bad option for breakbar dmg)

The problem is not that kits are too good, is just that most gadgets are subpar on their utility, elixirs have too long CD, turrets are not worth keeping around, and above all…
PvE is all about dps.

As many said, please no more AI.

But I’m all up for a mecha/golem batle suit transformation as a new elite spec mechanic.

As proposed here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Suggestion-Elite-Spec-Mecha-Pilot/first#post6367366

Addapted from a post by TheSweed: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestions-Future-Elite-Specializations/page/5#post6011523

The idea is to create a combat form to the engi (similar to the deathsroud or celestial avatar). The transformation is slow moving (no mobility skills) while the weapon of choice gives the engi the mobility he needs to get to the combat. The skills in the transformation (battle suit) have short CD but consume energy. Energy regenerates with time and is kept at 50% out of combat.

Mecha Pilot

Weapon: Sword Main-hand
Skills: Suit Mods (Similar to glyphs)
Prof. Mechanic: Battle-Suit
Mechanic: The MP gets an energy bar that slowly regenerates. It can activate their Battle-suit, creating a mechanical armor filled to the brim with weapons and utility that is specialized by your Grandmaster Traits. Battle suit skills uses energy.

Battle-Suit Skills

• Rail gun – Fire a High caliber burst shot (Similar RoF to Flamethrower) that pierces through enemies, causing an effect depending on Loadout. Acts as a Projectile Finisher.
  • Defender’s Loadout – Causes Vulnerability on enemies struck.
  • Assaulter’s Loadout – Causes Bleeding on enemies struck.
  • Medic’s Loadout – Heals allies it passes through.

• Wrist Launcher – Fire a wrist-mounted missile at your target, causing an effect depending on Loadout. Acts as a Blast Finisher.
  • Defender’s Loadout – Fire a concussive missile that Weakens enemies struck. Repair turrets in the area.
  • Assaulter’s Loadout – Fire a Explosive missile that deals more damage and Burns enemies struck. Counts as an explosion for traits.
  • Medic’s Loadout – Fire an Elixir-infused missile that deals less damage and Heals allies in the blast radius. Counts as an elixir for traits.
• Mecha Slam – Strike down with a heavy overhead blow, creating an effect depending on Loadout.
  • Defender’s Loadout – Pull all enemies towards you with a Magnetic shockwave and grant Protection to nearby Allies. Overcharge all your turrets in the area.
  • Assaulter’s Loadout – Cause an explosion of static energy that Knockdown enemies and grant Fury to nearby Allies. Counts as an explosion for traits.
  • Medic’s Loadout – Create a wave of healing energy, Healing nearby allies and Cleansing a condition. Counts as a elixir for traits.
• Micro Munitions – Unload a volley of miniature missiles at the target area, causing an effect and a Combo Field depending on Loadout.
  • Defender’s Loadout – Fire Flashbangs that Blind and Taunt all enemies struck. leaves a light field. Turrets in the light field gain retaliation.
  • Assaulter’s Loadout – Fire Napalm that deals increased Damage and Burns enemies struck. Leaves fire field. Counts as an explosion for traits.
  • Medic’s Loadout – Fire elixir-infused missiles that Heal allies caught in the blast and grant them Regeneration. Leaves a water field. Counts as an elixir for traits.
• Forcefield – Create a big energy dome that blocks projectiles, along with a secondary effect depending on Loadout.
  • Defender’s Loadout – Grants protection and retaliation to allies. Turrets in the dome generate reflective fields (as the trait advanced turrets) after the dome expires.
  • Assaulter’s Loadout – The dome reflects projectiles and generates a EMP at the end removing booms from enemies struck.
  • Medic’s Loadout – Dome lasts 2x longer and pulse heal allies inside it.

Combo fields and finishers is an extremely nice concept that needs to be more than just a minor gimmick.

PvE have way too many passive buffs that promote absolutely zero gameplay.

I wish combos had an actual impact on dps and sustain, to the point where by timing their combos and placing their fields right, groups would achieve higher dps and sustain.

bearshaman.3421:

Ok first off, you’re comparing a utility skill to two actual class mechanics. Our class mechanic is the toolbelt. Period. Kits aren’t intrinsic, they are just so powerful that everyone uses them. The fact that this conversation is even happening is proof that there is a serious balance issue surrounding kits.

We have no weapon swap because we have another 5 skills right above the weapon (the toolbelt, our class mechanic).

The reason 4 kits is meta is because, as I said, they are unbalanced. The changes with FT to give the kits more of a focus will hopefully move us away from this, as you won’t NEED 4 kits to do good damage, and can do well with only 1 or 2 instead of being forced to hop between 4 kits to do good damage. Hopefully this will continue so we can have some true build diversity in this class again.

Why does everyone just overlook the toolbelt? We have 15 skills at our fingertips AT ALL TIMES without even using kits, without any cooldown on switching, nothing! Who else has that!?! No one!

Sorry, but no.

Kits are the thing to cover the lack of weapon swap. The toolbelt covers the use of a utility slot for a weapon.

The reason 4 kits is used in PvE is because its where the dmg is, and PvE is all about dps. And of course the dmg comes from kits, they are our weapons, the best auto-attacks (bombs and nades), our melee dps in case of projectile defense (bombs, FT) and our way to trigger weapon swap sigils.

On open world pve you dont use 4 kits, as you need a bit more of utility. If soloing HoT maps and some harder content (like the bandit chieftains from current events) you will need other things than kits as you will need utility (rocket boots, projectile reflection, ram for breakbar – RiP slickshoes).

Other game modes have less kits and more elixirs or gyros, as those are the utilities for defense and support. The main PvP builds use one kit only, and some none, as you need more support and utility in PvP to survive.

Why we don’t have the kits on the toolbelt slots? Because then we would be just re-skinned elementalists…

MrThompson.8347:

lLobo.7960:

Do they have rifle?
It could be the perma-quickness boom duration build.

They usually have Rifle yea

They might be running something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlcThqrY5Vw+KQ+FLTG1461eRA9cn3Bu4zUABAA-TJBBQBV4BAUxyAA4CA0v9HAA

It aims to keep perma-quickness and a ton of boons while keeping pressure with rifle auto. It does not deal well with pressure, so it usually needs to stealth and run away. Not great on 1v1, but has a burst that hits like a truck and some decent CC to land it.

Do they have rifle?
It could be the perma-quickness boom duration build.

Vagrant.7206:

• Blunderbuss: This skill has been unsplit from PvP and will now deal the higher (10%) damage values in all areas of the game. Increased bleeding stacks from 1 – 4 to 2 – 5, based on range. Increased bleeding duration from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.

Blunderbuss is skill #3 on an engineer’s rifle. The rifle is currently suffering from a host of different issues including underwhelming damage and generally being out-of-date. The rifle is not, however, suffering from a lack of condition damage. The rifle was, and has always been, a power-based weapon. What on earth is the reasoning behind bleeding instead of vulnerability? Why is this skill, which is so hard to pull off properly, being given a minor condi damage buff?

The dmg increase helps with rifle burst. The longer bleeds help keeping bleeds on a target so that you can have the extra crit from firearms trait. On a pure rifle build (such as rifle and elixirs) blunderburst and crits are the main source of bleeds for the extra crit chance. You usually want to open your burst with it so you get the extra crit chance on your OS and JS.

Vagrant.7206:

• Blowtorch: The number of burning applications that this skill applies has been increased from 1/2/3 to 2/3/4.

This is #4 skill on Pistol/Pistol offhand. Blowtorch was already a go-to on the condi engineer’s playbook. It wasn’t hurting for lack of burning. So why was it buffed? What was the reasoning? I’m not complaining because I love the increase in DPS, but why buff the meta build even further?

The extra burn dmg on blowtorch and FT was done to help the meta condi engi to get place in raids. It needed to be near the top dps to be taken. That with the changes to PA to a group buff made engi a great pick for a condi subgroup on high-end PVE.
The condi PvP/WvW builds also benefit from this.

Vagrant.7206:

• Elixir U: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.

Utility skill that gives you quickness for about 4-5 seconds. The toolbelt skill either puts up a reflect wall or smoke screen (50/50). The thing is… Elixir U is almost never used, in any build. I only ever put it on for the toolbelt reflects in the Uncategorized Fractal. Why is this getting a minor change to cooldown when it’s still so underwhelming?

There is a fringe FT perma-quickness build that benefits a lot from this. Remember Elixir U is also a stun-break and provides some buffs too… The toolbelt is actually quite useful on a lot of boss fights on open world (bandit chiefs and others). Also, scrapper with EU and Bgyro is a great option for reflects on some group content.

They said on their topic on the main forum, kinda of an AMA, that they only went through a balance patch on main builds and more used stuff. They didn’t have time to review the non-used / broken skills and rework stuff. They mentioned they wanted to do this on a later patch and that engi gadgets are among some of the desired things to be reviewed/changed

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhatY9VwkLQ+FLsFF4HWiBwYbMGfhYHNFPBA-T1RFAB/pEsR1feS5HbnAA40DAwDAoj9HIFwdrBA-w

with some variations on tools traits depending on situation…

In PvP you can be reasonable successful with a pure rifle+elixirs build.
The burst is really good.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUhqrY9Vw8KQ+FLTGEY1zeIHX/7jg4zKQAA-TJBFABiXGggHAAAXAga2fAA

Elixir U – > Throw Elixir S → Elixir B → Throw Elixir B → Net Shot→ Overcharged Shot → Blunderbuss → Jump Shot

You can get toolkit in place of one elixir to get a bit of defense and some extra burst with prybar and throw wrench.

On PvE, the main power build uses bombs instead of granades, and riffle is only for burst. Bomb AA is probably the most powerful in the game.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Tried using the AED once. Was interesting, however hard to time when to use it effectively (especially in WvW/PvP)

If AED had a lower CD and removed condis even without the death triggered, it would be quite useful with inventions… Maybe to a point where we could have builds (PvP) without alchemy…