Guild Wars 2

Warrost.4895:

Engineer recieved nothing but nerfs.
Condi removal just with alchemy line? Tell me a other source of condi removal SKILL of the engineer, except healing turret.
Engineers are not attracted to healing turret, there is simply no alternative.

AED for example. Or how about the toolbelt of Supply Crate?

insanemaniac.2456:

there should still be 1 (or 2) more balance patch before the xpac

Should. Definitely. The game needs them. But we can only hope now because we don’t know.

insanemaniac.2456:

you know, i have been thinking. theres a front-page-of-the-reddit thread right now speculating that this patch is directly paving the way for the next xpac. and elite specs are advertised as huuuuugely changing class mechanics, and one of the complaints about scrapper is that it actually doesnt do anything to the toolbelt. why? well, turrets had to be usable, and with no/different toolbelt, there was no detonating turrets. now there is, and all utilities will be entirely usable in the absence of the toolbelt (or rather, perhaps, in the presence of shatters/virtues/attunements/etc instead of a toolbelt). so while turrets are moved from one unacceptable state to another equally unacceptable state, this new state allows holosmith to be something scrapper couldnt be at the time and was complained about not being.

There is one little problem and it’s called medkit. Its toolbelt skill is the healing skill for the player. The most important skill from that set. They’d make it even more obsolete if they removed the toolbelt. I still hope that they will change the mechanics drastically so whatever (and noone uses medkit anyway)

Corthyll.7635:

Given the theme of “light” that this spec is going for, what everyone is calling the sawblade ability is actually a camera’s aperture.
Now for speculation, I’m confident we’ll be seeing a “charging over time” mechanic given the solar nature, that would potentially overcharge our abilities but I’d like to propose that it could be used more like necro’s death shroud where it grants new weapon skills (=kits) upon activation.

Just to add, I’ve also noticed that there are a lot of traits with a circuitry drawn. So we get light theme combined with the circuit theme?

Death Shroud like mechanics was something I suggested some time ago for the golemancer elite spec – getting a golem suit with separate abilities that would provide additional protection and functionality. I wonder what “charging” mechanic for it would Anet use. Whether it would need just kills like Death Shroud does or something else.

coro.3176:

You deployed the turret, you activated the overcharge, then as soon as you hit the button to activate the overcharge you could destroy the turret, knowing that it had gone off and the water field was there.

Actually the water field wasn’t there all the time right after activation. It wasn’t consistent because at one time it spawned right after using the overcharge, other times it spawned a second later. If you were button spamming then you destroyed the turret without blasting it quite often.

Now it’s at least consistent, predictable and much easier to blast. But the situation is pretty much the same – if you wanted to blast it each time before, you had to pay attention to when it spawned and now you need to do exactly the same thing. You can just be sure that in 0.75s it will be there so you can build a mechanical memory and not look for it because it will be there each time.

santenal.1054:

Well in certain situations you want to be spamming your healing skill to be sure that it starts as fast as possible (eg. just after an animation that doesn’t allow you to activate non instant skills like healing turret or after a daze, … ) , while keeping your eyes somewhere else than the skill bar/healing turret, but now that detonate is on the same keybind as the healing skill the possibility of detonating as result of the healing skill spamming and only getting like 2700 healing is a newly formed problem.

And I get it but the delay of HT giving the water field has been there always and if you spammed the button you didn’t blast it consistently all the time. Nothing has changed in this terms.

I just wonder why suddenly now people have a problem with HT not giving water field right after spawn and they destroy the turret without blasting it as if the delay of the water field was introduced with the recent patch.

santenal.1054:

Yes, or they could slightly increase the 0.5s delay and save lots of engineer lives in the years to come. This is such an impactfull and easy to implement quality of life change.

Or (and this is just a suggestion) start paying attention to your surroundings and blast the water field when it’s there

Guys, have you considered looking for the water field (to appear) before blasting the turret? Because the time of turret making a water field didn’t change. There was always a slight delay.

I can understand that when you need the heal, you want it asap to survive so people are tempted to buttonmash. Even with the previous iteration, the water field didn’t appear right away all the time. This just needs mindset adjusting and little paying attention.

I certainly don’t feel that this is the biggest issue. Trying to streamline turrets is nice idea but the thumper turret or rocket turret are much worse now than healing turret is because now you can use the overcharge only once at spawning it.

The general idea, as someone has already pointed out, was to spawn turrets at the place you want to defend beforehand and work on making them survive as long as possible. At least that was what Anet originally designed them for.

This change goes directly against it and if engi wants to use them effectively, he needs to spawn them only when he encounters the enemy and after that they’re quite useless. So engi needs to destroy them, wait for the cd and spawn them again. Most of the time when they come off cd the fight is already over.

This didn’t help turrets and it didn’t incentivize taking them. Turrets need complete overhaul. And yet they are IMO less important than gadgets, rifle or shield. TBH I don’t see turrets being viable in pve ever. IMO they can be either OP or UP, not in between. I’d rather see them focus on skills that could actually change the build meta and create more variety.

ScottBroChill.3254:

maybe theyll have passive augmentations that can be removed for an active effect. as im reading what im typing im realizing this is just the herald. so nvm.

And? It’s not like each profession has their specific skill types only by themselves. I could see this being implemented for other professions. But if I were to bet, I’d guess we’ll get signets or glyphs however after seeing the leaked picture it seems like different type.

I can’t believe I say it but IMO the trenchcoat is one of the few that look good on charr. I dislike the idle version, those pants are just weird. I’m ok with the theme, it’s not that bad IMO. Animations look nice. Although it isn’t very fitting for engi, I can understand that you can’t design it to fit all professions.

But Anet come on, even though hiding Asura ears is something I can go with, hiding charr horns is terrible. IMO the headpiece should be designed with these 2 in mind. It’s legendary armor in the end. I’d even rather go with clipping horns and ears.

We already have moving AI (gyros) and it’s terrible in terms of movement and pathing. I’d rather go with the way of turrets providing pulsing boons together with the damage.

And they need to scale with player stats. Maybe have a deteriorating health and providing more boons the longer they’re up. That would maybe provide motivation to use tool kit aa on them to repair them as it was originally intended.

Why stop at those 2 gyros? I’d go as far as making all gyros scaleable with player stats. Or maybe at least with one stat, let’s say that Bulwark gyro would scale with toughness or vitality, Medic gyro with healing power, Shredder gyro with power etc. Same with turrets.

And BTW Scrapper could use a new functionality for Function gyro in pve because currently it’s useless but that’s for a whole new discussion.

Ivantreil.3092:

I did argument it could be a dps spec, but i didnt cross in my mind until now that it could be a support dps spec, like ps warrior for example, it doesnt have the best dps that warriors can pull out, but its so valuable due to the support it grants to the team, the dps only helps to reinforce his value.

I think something similar to the ps warrior could be bringed to us, in terms of the theme of course.

Power stacker is a great idea. I just wonder if Anet is able to pull it off so that both PS war and this option were equal.

TheSwede.9512:

• 3/ The Holosmith is surrounded by a Forcefield that grants them an extra layer of separate HP over their current HP. This overlay takes priority damage before the Holosmith’s own HP and regenerates separate of their normal HP. They’d also have some way of giving this kinda Forcefield HP to allies and maintain it.

I want this to happen. Honestly it would be nice if engi finally got an elite spec that used his weapon all the time and engi wouldn’t need to swap it for kits/holo weapons/whatever other bundle.

If we’ll get a sword, I want to use/see it all the time and have a mechanics that would provide something else than stuff that overrides the weapon. Same with the new utilities, there are so many options – signets, mantras, glyphs, symbols, traps, shouts. Let’s use those!

Liewec.2896:

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Holosmiths light!

Let me guess, you named your engi Holo Jordan

At this point, I’m ok with any changes that would make other skills more useful in pve. I’d love to have a gadgeteer build. At the short time in past there was an ultraglass oneshot miner build that was a lot of fun.

lLobo.7960:

There is no doubt that the leaked one is sword.
What we’ll get on the day it comes out, not sure…

Well, according to MO’s claims, expac should be about 6 months away from the release. I find it little improbable for them to change weapon now that they have artworks and it seems that they have the elite spec figured out (judging from the leaked trait unlock picture with the charr).

Maybe I’m just naive and think that they have stuff figured out at this stage of development and now start to focus mainly on tuning and testing

Orodret.8230:

I think it’s torch, not sword.
In Flashpoint trailer, there is a medium armor female character fireing cannon, at around 00.42 seconds. She has pistol/torch. No proffesion has that weapon combination yet.

And Rytlock used pistol as warrior, Hodgins uses dual scepters etc. Profession weapon restrictions don’t apply to npcs. Also in the mentioned leak it’s quite clear that the artwork holds a sword and the first icon for spec unlock is sword.

Sweeps.3059:

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this and I hope that the image is just flipped in some way but the Sword is being held in the off-hand :/

That would be weird decision IMO. We have 2 offhands but only one condi main hand weapon. IMO it’s quite logical to expect some power based main hand that would complement shield that’s currently not used anywhere.

phys.7689:

leviathan.2148:

Just because you dislike the theme of it or legendary in general, doesn’t make it “joke legendary”

some are essentially made primarily to amuse

I agree however besides Dreamer and Quip, no other legendary is a joke legendary IMHO. They just fit with more narrow styles, like for example HMS Divinity that’s incredibly detailed and has beautiful animations but if you don’t make a sailor character, it looks strange with a different combination.

Just because you dislike the theme of it or legendary in general, doesn’t make it “joke legendary”

Whatever the spec will be, I just hope that engi will finally get the mechanics that will change its playstyle. Although that talk about the original design being scrapped just now seems too similar to the previous situation that gave us Scrapper. This worries me.

Miltek.2104:

Previous engineer spec used Mech/Golem which you could pilot

Please tell me, you’re kidding. I made up my own elite spec GOLEMANCER and sent it to one of the devs as a suggestion a year ago. It used golem suit.

I’d even go as far as reducing CD of skill 4 to 10s and CD of skill 5 to 15s + giving 5 more power dmg and one boon for skill 4 on activation, something like protection.

Wouldn’t swapping of skills 3 and 4 make OH pistol underwhelming?

I wouldn’t mind MH shield

Adding a MH power weapon will IMO help it a little but it needs to be better in that case so that OH pistol won’t be better choice. I can see the potential, shield just needs to be better in what it does.

Hey guys!

Lately I was wondering what engi can expect from the second elite spec.

We have 1 core 2H weapon (rifle), 1 core MH weapon (pistol) and 2 core OH weapons (pistol and shield). Then we have 1 elite spec exclusive 2H (hammer).

Now p/p condi is meta in pve, power build uses rifle although basically just because it can’t use hammer because of trait choices. The discussion about viability of rifle is for another time. Hammer is quite often used in pvp and wvw.

We are left with the shield. A weapon that isn’t used anywhere. OH pistol is much better choice for condi builds and IMHO even if we had power MH, people would choose rather pistol OH because of the current cicumstances.

Now I believe that we’ll get a new MH weapon. Maybe the mace that many people ask for. We’re missing a power 1H weapon so that seems to me like a possible choice that could complement shield. If we’ll get it, the shield will need adjustments/rebalance/rework IMHO or we’ll end up picking up pistol OH just because it has much lower CDs and is more useful.

Shield+Mace could be a great combination IMO, shield just needs changes to not be underwhelming.

How would you change shield to be better?

IMO it could use a big CD reduction and maybe adding some boons on skill activation.

Shenakitten5792:

you can brag about 15 skills available at all times. but it’s about quality. and the base weapons for engineers are mostly terrible quality and quality. that’s why players look to kits to replace what the weapons lack.

I’d take this as a reason to redesign and rebalance kits and weapons so that our weapons are more impactful and that we have more viable options. Not for more kits.

While I like your idea to an extent, I’m pretty sure that it’s just unrealistic to expect skill redesign and no new skills with new elite spec. Community backlash would be big and they know it. I think that the gadgets will get their redesign no matter the elite spec however I also think that we’ll get signets because we’re one of 2 professions that doesn’t have them. Shield mainhand would be fun.

lLobo.7960:

bearshaman.3421:

Every elite spec introduced a new utility skill type to the class. This isn’t really unique to engineer. Kits are a type of utility skill, and while highly meta, they are not a class mechanic. That’s what toolbelt skills are. So more kits would have broken with the stated purpose of elite specs.

Yes and no…

Kits are intrinsic to the engineer as attunements are to eles or pets to rangers…

We got no weapon swap and use kits to cover for that.
The reason why 4 kits is the meta for condi is because the build focus on doing as much dmg as possible, and the condi dmg is spread on those 4 kits (bombs, nades, FT, mortar). If you need utility for anything (beyond some CC from fields) you would have to swap, most likely bombs, for something else.

Scrapper gave the engi a good weapon on its own. The auto provides might and hits reasonably well, it has defense, CC and a bit of burst. And yet scrapper still needs kits (on PvP/WvW) because it has no range. So we are forced to use EG for range and some condi removal.

If the kits are supposed to be to us what attunements are for eles then we need the tool belt redesign so that we can slot kits there + they need cooldown as attunements get. If they were supposed to be so necessary to the point that we wouldn’t pick any other skill then they shouldn’t be utility skill group. Core mechanic or not we need a big change for them or we won’t use other skills even with the 4. elite spec.

Sorry OP but what do you want to hear? If your build doesn’t work with the boss then you need to change it. If I could do it on the old difficulty with 2 deaths on glass viper engi, so can you on this nerfed difficulty. Just don’t stop and move out of aoes all the time + prioritize the mobs and the fight will be easy.

michelada.2947:

Anet should give engis the option to use 2 sets of weapons when you don’t run any kit ,
i hate that if you don’t run any kit you are underpower compared to other classes , engis is balanced around the fact that you will HAVE to choose a kit you like it or not.
If they add this option the variety of builds for engi would be far superior.

How about instead of that we could put a kit in that slot?

bearshaman.3421:

leviathan.2148:

bearshaman.3421:

I’m really curious to try the boosted static discharge.

It’s not much better but it’s still better. Still won’t be anywhere near viable to 4kit builds.

wasn’t aware that they were mutually exclusive.

I’m sorry, I was referring to the old SD build that focused primarily on doing dmg with SD (used utility goggles, tool kit, rifle turret and mortar). Anyway it’s better in general but IMO they could go higher with its dmg. Maybe when (if) they rework gadgets we’ll be able to return to it.

This is similar to what I’ve been suggesting shortly before HoT launch. No AI, reliable skills that provide utility and damage. Don’t hold your breath for it. It would require basically the whole elite spec redesign. When they have problems with redesigning kits and making other skills viable, no way they’d do even bigger changes like this. Oh well, let’s hope that the next elite spec will be better.

bearshaman.3421:

I’m really curious to try the boosted static discharge.

It’s not much better but it’s still better. Still won’t be anywhere near viable to 4kit builds.

Well, condi got buff, that’s for sure.

Buffing blunderbuss is a step in the right direction but rifle needs muvh more to be good, maybe evade on 5, remove self cc on 4, make 2 little more useful and maybe buff AA.

Shield is still too underwhelming and forgotten.

SD may be little better but it’s still not on the same level as the classic kit power build.

Overall better than expected but disappointed about no changes to the stagnant and low used skill variety.

Is there any realistic plan for kit rework in development or to bring other engi’s utility skills on the similar level of viability? (in let’s say 2017) Currently the kits are in 95% of all meta builds, especially in pve.

How about looking into past non kit centric builds such as HGH power stacker or SD glass cannon?

What about rifle? Are you satisfied with its current state?

How often do you plan to release balance patches?

Genesis.8572:

Never? 1) Engineers do not have weapon-swapping because of the assumed use of kits as a form of pseudo-weapon-swapping. 2) ANet initially developed the toolbelt as a means of partially offsetting the cost of equipping kits in the utility slots. Both these points suggest that kits were always considered the core mechanic, if not central assumption, of the engineer.

1) Your reason is just an assumption. Revenant didn’t have weapon swap at first and he had basically 5 more skills because of legend swapping so toolbelt should be enough for this reason.

2) Source?

Kits are just another utility skill group. No utility skill group should be so necessary that it would become the meta pick for 90% of the builds.

Kits were never supposed to be become the core class mechanic. That’s what the tool belt was for. Unfortunatelly kits offer so much in comparison to other skills that they’ve become the “must have” skills. We need a rebalance of other utility skills to bring on par with the kits. We need more build diversity. When 90% of the builds need to use kits then the skill balance is nonexistent.

Or we can go the other route, redesign the tool belt so that it automatically includes kits and make them the class mechanic because currently the most of the other skills are barely used. And no, we don’t need other kits. We need other different viable utility skills.

Why do so many people want another condi weapon/spec? We already have one that’s good! Hammer or rifle (with some buffs and adjustments) can serve as a power weapon. I certainly hope that the new elite spec for engi will bring a new playstyle and something that our group can benefit from. I’d like to see a healer spec or boon sharing spec or something similar to Herald.

I also don’t think that 1H weapon is a good choice. Pistol is great in offhand for condi but shield is too situational that it makes it quite subpar and IMO it currently wouldn’t work even with a new main hand weapon. Therefore we need a new 2H weapon, something like staff (which is unlikely IMO because so many classes already use it and Anet will probably want to use less used weapons) or greatsword.

Now if shield would get changes so that it brings more than a reflect, blast and daze I’d like to see a power weapon, either mace, dagger, sword or scepter.

Very sad to see Daniel go. He was a big inspiration for me. But hey! Horia is incredibly talented also so I’m sure we’re in good hands.

Yeah I know, it was clear that there will be issue. Doesn’t matter as long as people like it Thank you for your support Gaile

A fan trailer for the made up Jormag expansion with an incredibly fitting narrative from Charles Dance. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLIBhLON468

I hope you’ll like it guys

Adry.7512:

OriOri.8724:

leviathan.2148:

OriOri.8724:

I don’t know why everyone always wants a new race as well as more armor sets, it will be one or the other. ANet already has enough trouble making armors that almost fit the current races. It would take them even longer to make new armor sets if they also had to fit on a 6th race, which means we would be getting even fewer armors in the game.

How about we finally stop making excuses like Anet were an indie company and hold them to the AAA standard? They created one of the biggest MMOs, they’re not a small company, they’re the top and I will actually expect the quality and big features like new race. Because the company on the level Anet’s on should be able to do that and I’m sure they’re capable of that.

Regardless of what made up standard you are holding them to, its clear that they have trouble making armor that doesn’t clip with the given races. It doesn’t matter what standard you think they should be held to, they have shown that they have trouble creating armor sets that don’t clip with only 5 races. Adding a 6th one won’t magically allow ANet to make armors that don’t clip…

While you DO have a point. There is a fact you’re missing. Every race available has a completely different body-type. We have small, medium, large, and beastly body types…..meaning that we have literally created all possible types of shapes found in your average mmo…..what makes you think that a new race wont fit into ONE of these categories???? Meaning any new race that they create will be able to fall into one of these categories and armor will be the same for both. You cant see things black and white, look a little deeper.

This. Humanoids have basically the same body with some minor differences like height, width and proportions but basically the same. Together with Charr body and Asura body we have 3 body types in the end. Its’ quite notable that Kodan share the body type with Norn and Tengu share the body type with Charr.

And yeah, they have problems with dishing out new armor sets. And yet when those were in gemstore, we had new skins quite often. Just look at the number of new added outfits and the frequency that they appear in gemstore. It’s not hard, it’s more an issue of prioritization and armor skin priority has gone to lower level than it was.

My guess is February because December is always a slower month filled with vacations.

Oh sure I like them! Who wouldn’t like a race of beings that can swim underwater, have a kitten transformation and yet can’t take care of themselves. Pathetic.

I just hope that the second engi elite spec won’t be developed last like Scrapper and will get actually a different mechanics and good viable skills.

With Scrapper we basically got a new weapon, not an elite spec in comparison to other professions. And I still wonder who thought that another AI skills were a good idea…

OP, I agree with you but don’t hold your breath. Many people have suggested this and many other ways to fix gyro pathing/AI since the scrapper release and see how many changes they got.

It’s not about me wanting or not wanting to use hammer. I want rifle to be viable. It just occured to me when I saw that you use scrapper traitline and I thought that there is some reason I don’t see.