Guild Wars 2

Kande.1930:

I take Elixir B for the awesome buffs, Elixir R for the toolbelt skill (resurrect party members) and the grenade kit (+grenadier trait) for easy vulnerability stacking. I think this is a good setup for dungeons, although i used to run a VERY tanky build before i switched. I had around 3.4k armor, 30k HP, 2 blocks, an invulnerable skill, and almost constant uptime on protection. I could pretty much facetank anything while the rest of my party dished out damage, and if one of them went down, it was no problem for me to get them up. Anyway, i think all in all it comes down to this: What EXACTLY do you want to do for your party?

How in the world did you hit 30k hp? I tried for weeks (before the sentinel’s gear) to get above 26k, but couldn’t ever break it, at least not by much, even with mostly Shaman gear…

Anyway, I would love to have a link to the build, just to see how you did it, and what I was doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

Ideally, I think the detonate could be the replacement for overcharge, so that when the overcharge was active, or on cool down, the detonate was available on that some button (the one on the skill bar). Sort of an overcharge>OVERCHARGE EXPLOSION! So the tool belt skill would become the remote, with 3 modes:

Mode 1: [Default] Turret Defense – Fight closest, defend itself. Fix LoS, prioritization of enemy NPCs or PC in sPvP, and even marginal improvement with a basic aggro table (like a worm would have since they are stationary).

Mode 2: Target My Target – If I choose to target a door in WvW for some PvDoor action, the net turret would uselessly oblige me, but when I switch to an incoming invader, it immediately updates it target and fires at it on it’s next cycle. A VERY useful addition here would be a time indicator on the turret for its firing cycle, perhaps a little circle with a sweeping animation that is translucent. This would allow for target changes as the cycle is coming around for ranged-remote combat.

Mode 3: Standby – Turret hangs out, smokes a cigarette, talks about indie music. This might be overkill and be handled by not targeting anything in Mode 2.

I agree with Rezzet, for the most part, it does depend on the dungeon and how you like to play. There are things you can do as an engineer that have very high skill ceilings, and there are other things you can do that let you auto attack and stand back a bit.

That being said, there are things engineers have excellent access to that make runs a bit easier, whichever spec you decide to run. For instance, we have at least 2 traits and a few skills on different weapons/kits that allow for deep stacking of Vulnerability. That is a condition that for each stack, a target receives +1% incoming damage, to a max of 25 stacks (25%). This is an EXCELLENT boss fight mechanic in every dungeon in the game.

We can also spec to remove conditions, for at least a bit of support. With the Formula 409 trait, super elixir/fumigate from the elixir gun(neither count as elixirs, btw), and changes to the heal turret, we can remove a number of conditions in regular rotation and that doesn’t include projectile finishers in our light fields (which should not be counted on TOO much in a fight).

There are also specific mechanics in certain fights that we can equip appropriately for, and our versatility becomes a strength in runs like fractals, where you don’t KNOW what you are walking into, and the ability to have max range (grenades), a LOT of CC (rifle+net turret tool belt skill), keeping up condition removal as I mentioned before, projectile walls (toss Elixir U/magnetic bubble in front of other players), op running skills (slick shoes, yes, I use them in the swamp fractal), etc. is an excellent contribution to the group.

What you should be focusing on first is survival, however, and what your best options are for that. No matter how little DPS or control or support you bring to the table, you never sankitten a group as bad as if you spend most of your time on the ground.

My personal rule has always been, gear for DPS and runes for survival, split your traits down the middle and always food (and applicable consumable) up.

If you want to start with a more tanky gear set, there is soldier stat karma armor in Orr at the temples when they clear, and even if you go half soldier’s and half knights, it is a good start for a tankier build.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Tolmos.8395:

Honestly, just an “attack my target” hotkey would be perfect to fix the issue.

I agree, just that would improve turrets in PvP and WvW by 100%. Although it would be nice to also have an option to stop them from firing. Also, it would be nice if they would automatically not waste shots by firing as soon as something comes into “range,” even though that target is on the opposite side of a wall.

Also, hitboxes, survivability, damage, traits, cooldowns, and utility should be improved. After that, turrets will be pretty good!

So, what you are saying is that maybe we just need a remote control?

I would be quite interested in that. Perhaps instead of having the detonate button on our tool belt, we had 3 modes to chose from once the turret was placed: Standby, attack nearest(or defend yourself mode), and attack what I am attacking.

Perhaps a “Remote Control” trait would do away with detonating turrets manually, or do away with overcharging if you wanted to keep detonate, and place the 3 modes in a cycle on your skill bar.

nakoda.4213:

edit: @lunyboy; thanks, that’s a prime summary.

Feel free to add to it, man, I just aggregated what everyone else has been saying. If anyone here would know how to use it in harmony with other kits/skills, it would be the people running FT most of the time (as you do) and we would all welcome the insight, even if it were just things we might not know.

Let’s do what we can to make this board more of a resource.

So let’s productively outline what the better points of the FT are to newer people, who think it looks cool, but maybe aren’t using it to the best of its or their ability.

1. FT is not a projectile, and therefore, can’t be reflected. No guardian wall, no Jade elemental, no magnetic bubble, no mesmer feedback and turn it around on us. I use it in the Maw fractal for this very reason, since I usually roll with grenades and a pistol, and the prybar/wrench combo are much shorter range, FT is a perfect compromise. Also, for WvW applications, it goes RIGHT THROUGH tower doors as well as other things.

2. Have burning on your target first, if possible. FT#1 does more damage to a burning target, BUT applies burning on the 10th and final tick. Toss your Napalm into your target area first to increase your dps 10% immediately. Alternatively, Incendiary Powder, a 10 pt trait in Explosives will give you 100% chance of 4 seconds of burning on crit, so this will apply the condition faster, if you have a reasonable crit chance.

3. Have the correct target selected. GW2 has a targeting system that could be called lacking by only the most generous standards, and using the Flamethrower requires a certain amount of camera dance. Think of the Flamejet as a directional AoE, and you want to keep your targets as close to being in it as possible. If you have the wrong target selected, the system WILL move the entire jet in their direction, despite being wholly out of range. You can then right-mouse-button camera track the target you WANT to hit, but you will get occasional misses, and even hit a few things that really don’t make any sense. (I think this has to do with the universal coordinate system using geometric offsets to minimize lag instead of cycling whole sets of coordinates)

4. The FT#2 does a nice bit of damage and detonates for a very short range AoE, but targeting is key as it is VERY SLOW. Test this in the mists when you get a chance, using different spec amulets, just to get feel for how it works. I usually double tap it at short range for max melee damage.

5. The Air Blast FT#3 skill will blow back projectiles as well as up to 5 targets, and interrupts anyone who gets knocked back. When it was stated that this maybe be one of the best AoE knockbacks in the game, it was not hyperbole. I use it for all TYPES of situations, and the cool down is so low, it offsets the fact that it does no damage quite well.

6. The AoE Blind on skill #5 has been mentioned, but is a good “oh crap” skill when getting Heartseekered. Or if you see people spinning or twirling toward you.

As you can tell by my points, I primarily use the FT for a utility and to keep myself entertained. Feel free to add positive, “best practices” points or usage cases for each skill, and lets see if we can pull this one out of the negativity and try to help.

Why does blind affect our explosion? Stability… sure… but blind?

And charge that thing faster, that delay is ridiculous. I either have to yoink the stomper (if there is only 1) out of the air with the #2 skill, and HOPE my blast charges while they are thinking about their next move, or watch them DPS me down WELL before it charges.

>.<

timidobserver.7925:

Yes, Turrets can now perform better but still be ultimately useless.

/thread.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Soon.5240:

The fact is that Engineers are just fun. I’ve rolled over 1,250 hours as one, and only around 30 combined as the other classes. Not one day goes by when I don’t laugh out loud at how ridiculous the combination of kits and weapons are. Dropping nails, pulling someone with a magnet, wacking them with a prybar — then fumigating them and dropping an acid bomb, then bopping out to the shooting them with a bolt of lightening from your belt buckle… I mean, come on, what other class can come close to this much fun.

Nothing can beat that.

Favorite stupid build so far: Full power and crit damage Elixir Gun with net turret. Stupidest build I’ve made to date, but god kitten it is it funny to kill people with it xD

Full rabid exotic equivalent armor and the elixir gun will melt zombies in Orr like hot peanut butter, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t done it myself. I wish Fumigate was more like FT 1, though, and with SUCH low damage, I really feel it should be a 1 sec cool down, or 2 at most. Because conditions are broken as heck in this game.

P/S #5 stun them if they melee, block what they are throwing at you. Supply crate for another stun, and also pop the shield bubble for an interrupt. The turrets from the supply crate will see the thief coming out of stealth before you will, and the net turret in there is excellent for CCing them. I have had thieves come out of stealth just to kill the net turret from the supply crate. That is an excellent time for Pistol #3, and Magnet>Prybar, get that confusion up, and follow up with pistol 2 at short range(because it might as well be a melee skill), making their heals less effective.

If they have you at like 50% health before you activate anything, pop elixir S and watch them blow through their initiative for nothing unless they are really competent.

Just going to address these inline… won’t get into the rest at the moment…

tigirius.9014:

When rezzing people we should have the option for a bandage drops,

We have the when we go down (it’s a trait), or when can drop a heal turret (it lasts for a few seconds, hopefully), throw bandages (trait), and our Elixir Gun regen WORKS WHEN PERFORMING OTHER ACTIONS… including rezzing.

tigirius.9014:

a magnetic shield bubble,

I have Runes of Earth, so when your health gets too low, a bubble pops up (I have about 6 automatic skills/buffs, 2 elixirs, 3 protections, the shield bubble, etc. that all work when otherwise engaged). It isn’t a guardian level bubble, but it is something. We have a shield wall/smoke wall from toss Elixir U, our gear shield works even when we are doing something else for a few seconds…

tigirius.9014:

a cloak field,

Toss Elixir S does Invis OR Stability, both of which should prevent you getting knocked out of a rez, and the invis affects who you are rezzing as well. It doesn’t last long, but it will reset the aggro table until the rez is complete…

tigirius.9014:

or some other mechanism that prevents damage from bosses and random aggro changes.

Elixir S for mini-rezzes, Elixir U for speeeeed rezzes, Elixir X for Tornado or GIANT rezzes, and this doesn’t even cover things like Sup. Runes of Mercy… which is going pretty far for just rez options, but are amazing none-the-less.

Jigain.8231:

Specterryu Quipter.8412:

Back pack regenerator is pointless, it heals for almost nothing.

Incorrect. It heals for 125 per second, which is comparable to the Regeneration boon (which, at level 80, heals for 130 + (0.125 * HealPow) per second. The fact that both stack means you have a pretty decent heal-over-time setup, which is able to outheal up to six stacks of Bleeding, assuming for simplicity no Healing Power or Condition Damage modifiers.

Do not underestimate regeneration.

I think what is being said here is that it is a piddly amount of healing to give up more powerful or useful traits.

And it is, I built a full compliment of auto healing traits, runes (dolyak), skills (heal turret for stacking), and a sigil for life stealing on crits (with the old omnomberry ghosts, additionally) and I wasn’t regenerating enough HP to outheal more than one mob in Orr.

The lifesteal was nice, and I kept that part of the build for Flamethrowing, but there are a half a dozen better ways to get heals and several much more useful traits that shouldn’t be sacrificed for such little return.

But the nice thing about Engineer is that everyone gets to play the way they want if they feel it works for them, even if everyone else disagrees.

Gaffles.3296:

You do make some valid points, a torch main hand would be cool and unique but sent has stated a couple times they do not want engineers having a lot of range. We are midrange to close skirmishers with heavy (supposed) area denial. Whether this ever comes to fruition is another thing. Then again they may change their mind again in a month and give us another completely different class statement.

What?! We are tied for first place for longest range skill on grenades when traited… I can’t imagine they wouldn’t allow a LITTLE bit more, especially if it were tied to mid-range and melee skills on the same weapon.

atheria.2837:

One must start to wonder just who is doing the testing the “fixes” of the known broken pieces of this game (and as said before, proven broken – not rumored to be broken).

….

No one. The Devs play the game, I know they do, because we faced a few on NSP in WvW. But I am sure they don’t play that many engineers, for one, because the ones that have posted in this forum were not well informed about our profession, and even if they were knee-deep in dev/engineers, they don’t play with turrets.

This is why thieves get hot-patched in less than a day, because the dev/thieves probably freaked out and prioritized it.

Can you imagine if a Mesmer Clone ability got broken?

… and search around a bit: http://www.omgzombiez.com/forum/m/5463893/viewthread/6639042-koroshis-engineer-build-confusion-all-way

I would guess by the damage/skill bar/weapons that this has changed, but I love the rabid stuff… people don’t think you are hitting them for all that much because their health doesn’t drop much and then then notice the conditions.

Da Sonic.6521:

Out of curiosity, what do people from FC, ET call the general population of their own servers?

For example, I’ve taken to calling my server’s players “Hengemites” (Pronounced hen-ja-mites).

Someone mentioned HoDgoblins in one of our threads, but I usually just say “hoddies” in voice chat. I call the FC folks “the fergs,” (sometimes Fergzerg) and usually just “ET” for the… um… ET people.

Also, the the Ferg Engie who partied me in EB last night, thanks very much for the positive conversation. I enjoy fighting both ET and FC and even when we are losing things, and wanted to thank you all for the classiness and sportsmanship you fight with.

Carry on.

Flappybob.1950:

KyoHanakaze.8145:

Merlin.4058:

HoD? Hey, how’s it’s going? Good, that’s nice. Listen can we talk? Could you do something about oh I don’t know the glitchers your server seems to have a number of?

Because right now you guys have one guy running an Engineer, in our borderlands pulling people from walls, with a rifle. So if you could do something about punks like this, that’d be great. ET has it bad enough without people having to glitch. We get beat through normal play so, stop it.

While there isn’t much we can do about glitchers aside from telling them “hey, stop” providing us with maybe some screenshot proof, as well as a guild tag and something we could use as an identifier to pinpoint who it is would be very helpful.

I am all for policing that stuff, but Anet makes it clear that they want it all kept quiet and within the /report function in game. Just take a screenshot of it and put all the info you know about the guy on the report. These people will get what is coming to them.

It is also worthy to note that the engineer Tool kit, has a pulling magnet ability with a fairly fast cooldown. I see engis pull that way all the time.

I do this, as an Engineer, although I rarely run rifle in WvW. This is the Magnet from the toolkit, and it doesn’t have the range of scorpion wire, or the vacuum skills that the heavies wear, but I assure you that it is working as intended. We have no teleports nor other skills that would benefit from any glitching whatsoever, but please do screen shot and get as much info as possible. It might be beneficial to turn on high rez models for that cap as well, just to be sure we can identify who it is.

I want to see all you guys “Throw Mine” at an oncoming zerg. The lolz, they burn.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Jastorm.5972:

- A warrior can hit 9k damage with one button (kill shot, eviscerate, 100 blades) yet engi gets nerfed so they can’t use a 6k heal without interupt (elixer s)

I routinely see Hundred Blades do a lot more than 9K. More like 25K. And I wear Knight’s gear on my Warrior.

Jastorm.5972:

- A thief can spam 4.5k per heart seaker, yet engi can’t put down a turret and pick it back up for a 5 k heal…. (we have to put it down, hit the over charge.. then pick it back up)

We can use Bandage Self or Elixir H for a 5K heal (8K total for the Med Kit)

The Healing Turret is used as an alternative to Elixir-spec Engineers with Cleansing Formula 409 that additionally provides Regeneration and Area Heals to your allies.

I’m very happy with where the Engineer is at, but I guess I’m a part of the minority.

I am happy with my build and the profession is never boring, the skill ceiling is high, and there are skills that I am STILL learning. But I really don’t like that “balancing” the game has to be done at the expense of my skills that worked well, just because the sPvP guys got a little upset that we did our jobs better than they did.

I agree that if you want the epic DPS, roll a Warrior, but I really don’t like the constant nerfs that ANet keeps calling buffs. Even the ninja-nerfs in PvE with foods like the Omnomberry ghost cool-down, which was aimed those of us who could generate several crits a second. Anyone with a FT or a Grenade Kit that ran with that food knows for certain that that extra 400 hp a few times a second was helpful, but not imbalanced.

There is a lot about this game that is just borked, and unfortunately, as engineers we get the opportunity to try a lot of things and get to know the game mechanics quite well, and we see where the problems are.

We have staying power that Warriors could only dream of, can stack useful utilities for a variety of situations, can build for conditions (reasonably speaking) and build for crit damage (grenades are tied for the farthest range in the game when traited), we can hold a point, defend a tower, have projectile mitigation, condition mitigation, a tiny bit of access to stability, can build for roots, knockbacks, pulls, even a reasonable amount of party healing (not like a Guard or Ele—but still).

and even though we complain about “viable” builds, we can build for situations better than any other profession. And when in any pvp mode, our opponents NEVER know what we will be pulling out of our bag, which is always fun to imagine what they are saying to their other party members in voice chat…“What did that guy just do? It looked like he threw something, but it knocked me back and took my protection away!” “Engineers are SO BROKEN!”

That being said… some extra damage would be nice.

Been having the same issue with Bloodlust, and I swap out my pistol (the hard way, I’m an Engineer) and back when out of combat and then it works fine.

This has happened to me in WvW primarily, and I haven’t seen it in dungeons, but once or twice that I can remember in PvE.

I will attempt to switch to town clothes the next time I have this issue and try to report back.

Or as stacking sigil as well. Bloodlust and Battle would work well together, or Corruption and Battle.

Edit: ^^ What Koko said…

nakoda.4213:

the FT is a very “tanky” weapon, … get dirty with it, that’s what it’s for. power/toughness first. pre/vita next. cond/crit last.

“Tanky-ness” in this game is not overly clear to newer players, epic levels of toughness aren’t as good as having mitigating skills, buffs, traits or passives such as runes are when in any type of combat, dungeons or otherwise.

All the toughness and vitality in the world won’t help you if you can’t add those extra mitigating factors. So if you want to dive in and get your hands dirty, don’t forget to bring a metaphorical towel. Many higher level players that I know are full zerker with minimal V/T but are EXCELLENT at reading the confrontation(animations, movements, timing opponents cool downs), knowing when to move out of combat, and having their dodge-roll mapped to a more convenient location.

Silent.4378:

Im thinking about making an engineer myself, so do you guys think condition engi would be good for wvw roaming?

It is good against some professions more than others, and it deeply depends on your build. It is MUCH better with a duo, and I 2-man with guards, rangers, thieves, etc. and will try to compliment my partner. For instance, when with the thief, I try to play “bait” so I will wait ’til I see one or two in the distance, the thief will stealth, and I will harvest onions or fight a mob using pistol or something other than grenades. Then when they come up and blow their cool downs, I shield, gear shield, Elixir S and then supply crate and my partner comes in and then we annihilate them. For a ranger partner I usually switch to tool kit for a bit of melee and rifle for control, for guard partner I go rifle/grenades for max damage at range and control… etc.

There is a guy on this board that is single-handedly taking on 3 or more at a time, I think his name is SirKiroshi, and he has comments on how he deals with other professions, and usually identifies them, plans for their attacks, uses 3 kits and LOT of cc for controlling the tempo of the confrontation. He is truly excellent.

EDIT: SirKoroshi – youtube vid example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQc9V-1lwQU

Bailey.6892:

lunyboy.8672:

Bailey.6892:

lunyboy.8672:

Dirame.8521:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Dirame.8521:

Soon.5240:

Flame thrower is pretty much a power/damage weapon — not a condition weapon.

This is the reason why you guys can never figure out how to use the FT. IT IS VERY MUCH A CONDI WEAPON, if not more so than it is a power weapon because really, how much damage can you do with it in a power build anyway?

It’s neither a power or a condition weapon. It’s a flashy weapon. The damage sucks both condition and power wise. Trying to use it for damage is just screwing yourself.

Incendiary Ammo makes it a really good condi weapon. I have quite a few builds that utilize the FT to might stack and burst condis. On it’s own it’s not the most effective way to play but combined with another weapon or kit, it’s a great enabler.

With a very survivable build, I was able to hit 2k Condition Damage with the FT in WvW the other day. With Sup Sigil of Earth and Sup Sigil of Corruption on my p/s, I was able to apply quite a bit of condition damage through gates, to zergs (each tick can hit 5, then as they move, those 5 change), and had quite a bit of control.

No HGH and 25 stacks of might, pretty kitten impressive. And fun as heck. Just don’t try to take dredge with it… they are immune to the 800-per-tick burns.

What was the build you were using?

10-30-0-20-10 : Juggernaut was the key one there.

4x Sup Runes of Altruism, 2x Sup Runes of Water.

Sup Sigil of Corruption, Sup Sigil of Strength (Swap for 3 stacks every 9 seconds).

I use p/s for the extra blocks and the blast finisher, so with the fire field from FT#4-Blast the healing turret (dropping it makes 3 stacks anyway) and the shield #4 skill for 3+3+3+7+3(from the swap) and then repeat the swap and heal when available. I also use the omonomberry creme for +20% boon duration for a total additional boon uptime of 70%. So a 15 second instance of might becomes 25.5 seconds.

It is a bit over-focused, but I did want to see if it could be done… and I reached 25 stacks, without HGH several times. With the sigil of corruption fully stacked, full Karma Rabid (equivalent) gear + Trinkets (with a few Rampagers), Master Maintenance Crystal (all that toughness becomes even more useful) and an adequate amount of “in combat” status (for the Sigil of Strength to trigger) I stayed at over 2k for the better part of an hour with no HGH.

I am not a huge fan of HGH, tbh, it locks you into at least 2 potions and whatever kit you are focusing on and I would rather have at least 2 kits, with one being the tool kit and the slightly-less-than-perfect Elixir S on my bar.

This build sacrifices almost all base power, period. There is 100 in the traits, 875 in the maxed out stacks of might once you build them, but the FT is often considered to not be a great high-damage weapon anyway. But even swapping once you have full corruption stacks to even a sigil of earth resulted in EPIC bleeds, and interestingly, I tried this full CD monster in Orr with the elixir gun… and it was fun as heck and melted zombies as quickly as a crit grenade build.

Kinda wish there was a Juggernaut option for the Elixir gun…

Oh, and to the poster who is getting healed every other press of #1, switch to Mixed Berry Pie and get heal for ~375 every other proc, as they have no internal cool down.

Thank you, I do appreciate you posting that and helping out.

You are very welcome, I am glad my mad scientist streak can help someone else out

Tien.3865:

lunyboy.8672:

Oh, and to the poster who is getting healed every other press of #1, switch to Mixed Berry Pie and get heal for ~375 every other proc, as they have no internal cool down.

They were given an internal cooldown a couple months ago.

You are thinking of the Omnomberry Ghosts, and yes, they were. But according to the wiki, the mixed berry pies do not have that cool down, I guess it could be wrong.

Mixed Berry Pie – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mixed_Berry_Pie

Omnomberry Ghosts – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Omnomberry_Ghosts

Bailey.6892:

lunyboy.8672:

Dirame.8521:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Dirame.8521:

Soon.5240:

Flame thrower is pretty much a power/damage weapon — not a condition weapon.

This is the reason why you guys can never figure out how to use the FT. IT IS VERY MUCH A CONDI WEAPON, if not more so than it is a power weapon because really, how much damage can you do with it in a power build anyway?

It’s neither a power or a condition weapon. It’s a flashy weapon. The damage sucks both condition and power wise. Trying to use it for damage is just screwing yourself.

Incendiary Ammo makes it a really good condi weapon. I have quite a few builds that utilize the FT to might stack and burst condis. On it’s own it’s not the most effective way to play but combined with another weapon or kit, it’s a great enabler.

With a very survivable build, I was able to hit 2k Condition Damage with the FT in WvW the other day. With Sup Sigil of Earth and Sup Sigil of Corruption on my p/s, I was able to apply quite a bit of condition damage through gates, to zergs (each tick can hit 5, then as they move, those 5 change), and had quite a bit of control.

No HGH and 25 stacks of might, pretty kitten impressive. And fun as heck. Just don’t try to take dredge with it… they are immune to the 800-per-tick burns.

What was the build you were using?

10-30-0-20-10 : Juggernaut was the key one there.

4x Sup Runes of Altruism, 2x Sup Runes of Water.

Sup Sigil of Corruption, Sup Sigil of Strength (Swap for 3 stacks every 9 seconds).

I use p/s for the extra blocks and the blast finisher, so with the fire field from FT#4-Blast the healing turret (dropping it makes 3 stacks anyway) and the shield #4 skill for 3+3+3+7+3(from the swap) and then repeat the swap and heal when available. I also use the omonomberry creme for +20% boon duration for a total additional boon uptime of 70%. So a 15 second instance of might becomes 25.5 seconds.

It is a bit over-focused, but I did want to see if it could be done… and I reached 25 stacks, without HGH several times. With the sigil of corruption fully stacked, full Karma Rabid (equivalent) gear + Trinkets (with a few Rampagers), Master Maintenance Crystal (all that toughness becomes even more useful) and an adequate amount of “in combat” status (for the Sigil of Strength to trigger) I stayed at over 2k for the better part of an hour with no HGH.

I am not a huge fan of HGH, tbh, it locks you into at least 2 potions and whatever kit you are focusing on and I would rather have at least 2 kits, with one being the tool kit and the slightly-less-than-perfect Elixir S on my bar.

This build sacrifices almost all base power, period. There is 100 in the traits, 875 in the maxed out stacks of might once you build them, but the FT is often considered to not be a great high-damage weapon anyway. But even swapping once you have full corruption stacks to even a sigil of earth resulted in EPIC bleeds, and interestingly, I tried this full CD monster in Orr with the elixir gun… and it was fun as heck and melted zombies as quickly as a crit grenade build.

Kinda wish there was a Juggernaut option for the Elixir gun…

Oh, and to the poster who is getting healed every other press of #1, switch to Mixed Berry Pie and get heal for ~375 every other proc, as they have no internal cool down.

Dirame.8521:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Dirame.8521:

Soon.5240:

Flame thrower is pretty much a power/damage weapon — not a condition weapon.

This is the reason why you guys can never figure out how to use the FT. IT IS VERY MUCH A CONDI WEAPON, if not more so than it is a power weapon because really, how much damage can you do with it in a power build anyway?

It’s neither a power or a condition weapon. It’s a flashy weapon. The damage sucks both condition and power wise. Trying to use it for damage is just screwing yourself.

Incendiary Ammo makes it a really good condi weapon. I have quite a few builds that utilize the FT to might stack and burst condis. On it’s own it’s not the most effective way to play but combined with another weapon or kit, it’s a great enabler.

With a very survivable build, I was able to hit 2k Condition Damage with the FT in WvW the other day. With Sup Sigil of Earth and Sup Sigil of Corruption on my p/s, I was able to apply quite a bit of condition damage through gates, to zergs (each tick can hit 5, then as they move, those 5 change), and had quite a bit of control.

No HGH and 25 stacks of might, pretty kitten impressive. And fun as heck. Just don’t try to take dredge with it… they are immune to the 800-per-tick burns.

The 6th bonus does work for you if you don’t use any of your Engineer Elites, but use non-transformational racial elites… which really sticks it to you if you are a human—which I am .

I have one Elite out of 6 that would trigger this effect, hounds of Balthazar, which isn’t that great. I would recommend checking the wiki before buying any runes just because there are some pretty serious bugs in a few that seem to be very good.

The Lyssa runes are mostly used by people in Condition Damage builds (Firearms trait line) who want to extent their conditions for an extra tick, and now that the Giver’s weapon bonus is working, someone could get +30% uptime from just 2 runes, and 2 weapons, no food, no sigils (which are more specific) and nothing in the explosives trait line.

If you want to keep the first four runes, I would recommend using the Sup. Rune of water for the other two, giving you a +15% boon duration, which will help with your random boon sustainability, and whatever else you are using it for.

timidobserver.7925:

Honestly, turret specced engineers should be able to create turrets just as often as mesmers create clones. The clones are mobile and do more damage.

This is exactly the argument I make, they are a stationary weapon emplacement, and should be “bunker” enough to tank (think Ursa with rangers) which is what the thumper turret was supposed to be I guess, or be long range and high damage (or crits) like a sniper turret—ideally a well-traited rifle turret.

Not being able to move should allow them MORE damage, more toughness, more HP, and generally be more like siege, which is what we are talking about. Turrets are less like pets, and more like siege.

I like the idea of multiple instances, especially since they are highly derivative of the desktop turret defense games. Perhaps a rifle turret every 10 seconds, flame every 14, net every 15, rocket every 20 and Thumper every 30. Max of 3, 2, 2, 1, and 1 respectively. Perhaps a trait that would allow turrets to save their auto-shot until you have an in-range target selected?

Imagine the crossfire zones you could set up… Net Turrets would be the new black.

Consider not stacking quite so much into alchemy, and that some of those things that should be moved are where they are to allow for some build diversity, and mitigate some focus overlaps. For instance, If you take Enhanced Performance where it is, you can’t take both juggernaut and HGH to stack Might, because you only have 70 points to allot.

And for that matter, both EP and HGH would be in the Alchemy trait line, so there is quite a bit of overlap in those skills.

I like taking EP when I am in grenades, and don’t want to sacrifice any of my Alch traits for HGH, because I like having some wiggle room for mistakes, and there are at least 2 life-savers in there.

Might also be worth going through the bug threads and asterisk the traits that are currently broken, and drop all this into a google doc so it’s easier to share.

Soon.5240:

Acid Bomb benefits from high power/high crit damage and does some wicked things, especially in WvW when dropped in a group. I’ve seen it record 19 separate hits for over 20k damage on one drop.

Yes, it is a pulsing field, and therefore could exceed the max 5 targets like some other ground applied fields such as Necro’s marks.

Supply-removing Traps… This is going to be Trolltopia.

Dibs on placing them ALL around friendly supply camps only to have them drain all the supply from anyone who takes it.

Also, in front of tower doors, since there is only 1 – LOL.

Also, Pangloss is going to be a kittening nightmare… ROFL.

Keep has 2 gates? Good luck building siege on the second one. PvDoor forever.

This is why I don’t pug very much.

I run an Engie, and half my runs are with my smallish guild consisting of Thieves, other Engies, a couple Rangers, sometimes a Guard or two, and various Eles and Mesmers.

Heck, the most talented player that I know is a thief, and I have watched him solo bosses after unexpected wipes, and know that I am a better player for running with him.

So yeah, don’t party with folks who don’t appreciate what you bring to the fight, but cultivate a friends list of people you respect and vice versa. I am never on the short list of preferred professions as an Engie, but I am very lucky to have a good guild and others I like to run with, and who know that I would bend over backward to make things go smoothly for the whole party.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I like the 5 skills slots per weapon. I just wish there were, say, 15 skills per weapon to choose from to put into those 5 skill slots.

This is very much something I am missing as well. I can relate to one of the replies with knowing your class and how and when to use your skills because I play an Engineer. In order for me to contribute to a run in the way that a mesmer with timewarp or a guardian with the rolling buffs would, I have to know every fight in every dungeon and plan for it… sometimes exhaustively. High order fractals are especially difficult because of the large number of skills I can bring to each encounter, and how they would help my party, and knowing when to use them, and knowing when there will be holes (like no reflects or smoke screens – I slot Elixir U).

I often miss the ability to slot different skills into my bar based on my weapon set (which is very limited for my profession), but do like the kits and the swapping mechanic. If there were more skills to choose from, then I would be able to more finely tune a build, without swapping guns, shields and in some cases, full gear sets for different bosses/encounters.

It isn’t like it would be that difficult to make little select tabs on the first 5 skills to choose maybe 3 or so alternative unlockable abilities.

Seras.5702:

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

…don’t take deadly mixture with EG (you better never take it imho, not even with FT ..)….

Out of curiosity, why is this a bad trait? When running a FT/EG build I took it.
…

It isn’t that it is a “bad” trait, but the EG is a notoriously low direct damage kit. Maybe the lowest damage of any #1 skill in the game when evenly geared (and Fumigate? don’t get me started). So throwing an extra 15% in it is just kittening in the ocean.

The EG/FT are excellent condition weapons, and benefit from condition damage/duration increases, and frankly, the Alchemy line has SO many good traits that let you tune your build and survive longer that this isn’t that helpful of an addition. You would be better off taking almost any trait (except blood injection, ironically) to offset any weaknesses in the build.

This is why so few theory-crafting a FT power build actually keep this trait after boots-on-the-ground testing, because once you realized you are very close to melee range when using the FT, you start thinking that this trait line is much more useful to keep you alive.

SmoothHussler.6387:

emikochan.8504:

Arenanet said they didn’t like that people weren’t using the turret and instantly picking it up, so nerfing the instant effect makes sense.

Except it melts in aoe damage instantly. Make people have to keep it out longer, but dont substantially increase its survivability. Smart no?

Exactly, they didn’t think through the situations where this would be useful. If you are anywhere NEAR AoE damage, especially if you are a bunker/support build, you might as well hit F1 and pop a few blast finishers for all the use you will get out of the turret.

It is very depressing that the F1 skill on the med kit heals for substantially more than the Heal Turret does now without the overcharge, and is only 100 points away from HT WITH the Cleansing burst. In any situation where you and your allies are taking enough fire to warrant the AoE heals cleanse, that turret isn’t going to last the proscribed 3 seconds for overcharge… and the dropped med packs are not big enough heals nor a short enough cooldown to be useful to anyone other than the person dropping them and running though them.

Now if you SPAM the Heal Turret, then you might get the 2500 heal, you and your allies MIGHT get the overcharge and the water field MIGHT be there for 2 seconds or so… but is this something we can count on when in situations where it is needed?

Not for me. If I run HT, I stick it behind walls and behind gaps that don’t get as much AoE damage. But is seems they probably should have thought of that.

Shadowtech.5071:

I would like to start by saying the engineer down state needs a significant buff to compete with the other professions, as an adventure class it would prove useful to be able to move or rez faster on our #2 skill instead of a…pull. Sure its an interrupt but if anything stands in line of sight its blocked and our #3 down state ability is on too long of a cooldown to be used in time to save ourselves, I recommend reducing it by 3 seconds. Our number one is terrible on anything other than a condition build as well and would like if its buffed to match a different play style. Thanks.

Also, why does the blind condition affect our AoE explosions? It isn’t like they are going to miss someone stomping us.

Better downed skills, please.

emikochan.8504:

I still think picking up a turret should reset the cooldown completely or down to 5 seconds.

Something that can’t move really needs to be much tougher in this game.

Exactly. To look at the list of issues with the turrets, especially in comparison to other pet classes, the fact that they don’t move should be balanced with MORE Hp, MORE toughness, and frankly, a LOT more damage, or at least faster damage.

They should be point holding machines, stationary behemoths that can be upgraded for placement, range, self-repair (this list has been incrementally broken on some level for months), and possibly damage.

To add to the above list, turrets don’t get buffs, heals, conditions, cannot crit, and generally doesn’t benefit from any of the standard traits that affect our Engie toons. So if they are treating it as siege, which they essentially are, why doesn’t it benefit from the range, control, damage, and toughness of siege?

I need some time away from the game after this Elixir S change, it is obvious that the ANet devs are not paying attention to real game play or anyone outside of sPvP.

I was thinking of playing another profession, but I don’t think I am interested in that at the moment. A good deal of my build was built around elixir S, and the heal turret was the only turret I ever used.

But ANet won’t care, because they already have my money. Good luck y’all.

greyblue.4962:

My poor mesmer! Respec incoming then. Am I being really ignorant, or should not every ability be the same in wvw as in spvp, not just certain abilities for certain classes?

Honestly, this s about a 25% damage nerf to every Mesmer spec, even power-based ones. Expect mesmers to no longer be useful in zerg fights whatsoever, except for portal bombing.

Or, you know, ninjaing keeps… or veils, or clones for hitting the 5-target AoE limit, or time warp, or feedback… oh wait… maybe Mesmers WILL be useful in WvW after all.

Seriously.

If that were the case, we would be knee-deep in new traits.

I think ANet has to look at their data logs for use, the bug thread, and make the decision to fix our broken traits first, then add some new ones.

Nilix.2170:

Chaba.5410:

I haven’t used Elixir S in awhile (or the related 25% health trait). I used to have problems with both where it seemed like it activated but then I was dead, like maybe it was confusion or some other condition that continued to be active and kill me even though I was supposedly invulnerable.

Yeah, Elixir S doesn’t cure conditions. So if you’re burning/poisoned/confused, you’d still take damage from those. Which is another thing that REALLY bothers me about this change. I can’t Elixir C those conditions away while I’m small anymore.

If you trait into 409, doesn’t elixir S wipe conditions then? Even with the automatic S? I have tried this several times, and it always seems to work fine for me, you can still GET conditions under the effects of Elixir S, though, and the alternative GM trait that makes you immune from receiving new conditions is useful here.

But honestly, most people this deep in Alchemy are going HGH.

Kande.1930:

Liking the new healing turret, Swapped elixir S out for rocket boots. You can drop healing turret, overcharge it, magnet shield, detonate turret, then rocket boots for a triple AoE heal. Although the window to do so is really small, so you have to time it right.

I like acid bomb from the EG in this rotation, and as this would be a great support utility, that might make more sense in some situations. I am not a fan of the Rocket Boots, personally, but to each his or her own.

Yamsandjams.3267:

I’d be a bit more concerned if the thief stole a 10+ second protection buff (i.e. forge runes juggernaut build). They can already kill people in a few hits with little to no might stacks, but if you can’t kill them as fast as they can kill you, that’s when you can have problems.

I have been working on this exact build when I can find time to run SE, do you have a breakdown of it anywhere with a description of the play style? I want to run it SO bad, but am not sure if I should run soldier’s or rabid for my gear.

I tried it with Sup Rune of the Undead and maxed out at about 2k Condition damage and a significant amount of toughness on the Rabid equivalent from Orr, but I usually run a heavy protection build and am curious about the synergy with this gear.

So once the Cleansing burst happens, you get the second heal and the water field? So for maximum fast heals (or almost the same as before) you double tap 6 then F1 to detonate as soon as you see the regen come up on your buff bar?

Sepahbod.4653:

I have done FotM up to 50 before they made it impossible to do Jade Maw. I ran with 30/20/0/0/20

Rifle and zerker, but switched it for soldier and P/S as needed. Rifle/grenades for dmg, and cc, elixirkit/toolkit for utility and the last spot I ran Elixir U or Elixir S or whatever the situation called for. It is a very powerful build with lots of direct dmg and lots of utility. Obviously the build was nerfed with the change to KR, mainly because of no more double Super elixir, but nothing major.

That is amazing, I would LOVE to see a video of this, do you have a channel or any Youtube vids?

hackks.3687:

lunyboy.8672:

Primarily because they are balancing these classes now for a sPvP e-sport, and not listening to the PvE and WvW players as much, and these players with the highest skill ability are more likely to complain about what THEY consider to be game imbalancing factors without looking at the broader picture, like how to survive in Arah, or how a mid-statted Engie would contribute less to a party in any higher level fractal.

Or for that matter, how many Engies are playing their game.

If there had been a real effort to keep PvEers happy, this gap between sPvP and PvE would be much wider by now, and things like bleed caps and conditions in general would have been reworked to not be COMPLETELY USELESS in any end-game PvE content.

In an effort to prevent min-maxing and make the game “fun,” they have succeeded in letting the people who min-max anyway to dictate the nerfs for their associated classes.

This is where the Engineer is left out in the cold, because they were an after-thought, without the benefit of a focused set of professional abilities, s/he borrows from other classes, mostly with kitten versions of others abilities. Every OTHER profession has at least one pillar they can lean on for basic builds, something they can fall back on and be productive if they run with that in green armor and trinkets.

This is why the other professions, for the most part, are seeing buffs now, as the dev team goes back to those profession mission statements and says, “what is the professions primary mechanic, and what attention does it need?”

They go to the Engineers, and without actually paying attention to what they are looking for in their builds, they “balance” them based on the peaks, without looking seriously at the valleys. In this patch, we had a nerf of two of our only truly useful bunker skills, Elixir S (as you said) and the stealth on root trait. They also nerfed our healing turret, while pretending to buff it if you are able to keep it alive. Which is what we have been complaining about on ALL TURRETS SINCE DAY 1. They don’t scale with our builds, don’t crit, don’t move(that’s fine), don’t receive buffs, or heals or any other benefits from our actual builds except condition damage/duration on Flame turret (I haven’t tested this recently). With the exception of the guardians spirit weapons (which got a buff this patch) they are the most useless pet mechanic in the game, hands down.

And the Engies are back on this forum as well as countless others confused as to why HGH didn’t get nerfed (or an SD cool-down which I completely expected), because we all expected that, but the bunkers among us can’t believe that Elixir S got the hammer. We don’t have the heals to sustain a bunker build without using S the way we have, and this will be reflected in play and engineer population.

This is an issue with selection effects as much as anything else, if any ANet employee is reading this, please consider actually data-mining information on who is running which skills, traits, food, runes, and sigils on their builds and the success or failure of those individual skills against how many engineers you have lost because people considered them unplayable. Also consider the average skill of your player base when making this decisions in the future, don’t just cater to the OEs among us.

they are balancing for each WvW, PvE, and PvP

get your facts straight

They have been, my point is, running in WvW or sPvP is not a dungeon, and skills that need nerfed in sPvP don’t need nerfed in PvE.

I have my facts straight, perhaps you should read more closely.

Primarily because they are balancing these classes now for a sPvP e-sport, and not listening to the PvE and WvW players as much, and these players with the highest skill ability are more likely to complain about what THEY consider to be game imbalancing factors without looking at the broader picture, like how to survive in Arah, or how a mid-statted Engie would contribute less to a party in any higher level fractal.

Or for that matter, how many Engies are playing their game.

If there had been a real effort to keep PvEers happy, this gap between sPvP and PvE would be much wider by now, and things like bleed caps and conditions in general would have been reworked to not be COMPLETELY USELESS in any end-game PvE content.

In an effort to prevent min-maxing and make the game “fun,” they have succeeded in letting the people who min-max anyway to dictate the nerfs for their associated classes.

This is where the Engineer is left out in the cold, because they were an after-thought, without the benefit of a focused set of professional abilities, s/he borrows from other classes, mostly with kitten versions of others abilities. Every OTHER profession has at least one pillar they can lean on for basic builds, something they can fall back on and be productive if they run with that in green armor and trinkets.

This is why the other professions, for the most part, are seeing buffs now, as the dev team goes back to those profession mission statements and says, “what is the professions primary mechanic, and what attention does it need?”

They go to the Engineers, and without actually paying attention to what they are looking for in their builds, they “balance” them based on the peaks, without looking seriously at the valleys. In this patch, we had a nerf of two of our only truly useful bunker skills, Elixir S (as you said) and the stealth on root trait. They also nerfed our healing turret, while pretending to buff it if you are able to keep it alive. Which is what we have been complaining about on ALL TURRETS SINCE DAY 1. They don’t scale with our builds, don’t crit, don’t move(that’s fine), don’t receive buffs, or heals or any other benefits from our actual builds except condition damage/duration on Flame turret (I haven’t tested this recently). With the exception of the guardians spirit weapons (which got a buff this patch) they are the most useless pet mechanic in the game, hands down.

And the Engies are back on this forum as well as countless others confused as to why HGH didn’t get nerfed (or an SD cool-down which I completely expected), because we all expected that, but the bunkers among us can’t believe that Elixir S got the hammer. We don’t have the heals to sustain a bunker build without using S the way we have, and this will be reflected in play and engineer population.

This is an issue with selection effects as much as anything else, if any ANet employee is reading this, please consider actually data-mining information on who is running which skills, traits, food, runes, and sigils on their builds and the success or failure of those individual skills against how many engineers you have lost because people considered them unplayable. Also consider the average skill of your player base when making this decisions in the future, don’t just cater to the OEs among us.

MentalPause.9183:

Rfreak.6591:

@Grackleflint.4956

It doesn’t have to actually, provided they fixed the overcharge responsiveness, the water field created AND the explosion will trigger the heal.

All we have to do is hope and try the overcharge’s responsiveness

Yeah I’m really curious about the interaction here.

I know what I will be doing on the Pertinent Path this evening. If the water field is quick and stays for 5 seconds after the turret is destroyed, this means I don’t have to be kittening on the ball with my 3 blast finishers, and get more heals in. This might be a useful change after all.