Guild Wars 2

MF is broken, it doesn’t affect chests and it should. it doesn’t affect bags and it should. it doesn’t give the bonus to the party and it should. It doesn’t increase the quality of the drops but increases the bad drops dramatically every time.

Anchorwind.9016:

The Dirty Dozen:
1) Would you prefer ascended gear to be the last tier implemented for the remainder of GW2?
2) Would you prefer ascended gear to be equal to exotic gear in all statistics except agony resistance?
3) Would you prefer the level cap to remain at 80 for the remainder of GW2?
4) Would you prefer if WvW was set up on an equal playing field similar to PvP?
5) Would you prefer if WvW / PvP / PvE had separate skill functionalities?
6) Would you prefer if Magic Find was removed from the game completely?
7) Would you prefer if Magic Find was divided equally amongst all party members?
8) Is GW2 too ‘Grindy?’
9) Does GW2 need less RNG?
10) Has the Trading Post [and all its users/farmers] positively impacted the economy?
11) Do you have as much faith [and/or enthusiasm] about the game [and/or company] as you did before launch?
12) Do you reasonably expect [many of] your primary concerns to be addressed in early 2013?

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. No
7. Yes
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. No (only commenting on the TP not farmers)
11. No (design direction completely changed post launch)
12. Yes

sounds good to me, a bit of realism.

Doing that to this game would make what happened to the zones in Vanilla WoW after flying mounts were added happen to this game. It would no longer have the illusion of being large.

In fact we would suddenly see people complaining that the world is too tiny en masse if this happened. I think they need to fix the signet thing. If they aren’t going to provide everyone with an optional run speed increase without a button spam it shouldn’t be only available to three classes. Right now it’s ridiculous that even the third adventurer class doesn’t have this as a trait or as an option when equipping leg or boot enhancement gadgets. The imbalance is just weird.

I thought this was weird as well. We definitely do need this. I hope they unlock the requirement to stand perfectly still while using Pistol Whip because that’s pretty much annoying by itself. or that it’s turned off by doing anything else like turning the camera for example.

A Better Might builder – There is no engineer equivolent in the firearms or Explosives line that matches Beastmasters Might in the ranger’s line or that matches Venomous Strength in the thief’s line. Either this needs to be revamped to allow the ability to go off when drinking an elixir/using a kit combined in the same trait and moved to the Explosives or Firearms lines or there needs to be another condition from using a typical engineer ability.

Thieves and Rangers enjoy the ability to increase their damage at the beginning of the attack causing the enemy to reach 50% hitpoints rather quickly. Engineers must wait for the enemy to cause the engineer to reach 75% hitpoints before using Elixir B before receiving any of the same benefits. This needs to change. Thief/Ranger abilities combine multiple traits to add multiple stacks of might while fighting. Such as the combination of Venomous Strength Signets of Power Thrill of the Crime uses common thief abilities to charge up and easily increase might without much prep time or down time. There is no such setup for engineers.

I would suggest that engineers be given similar traits that allow for certain abilities to charge up might. Throwing potions was fun in beta, but let’s take Engineers out of the beta stage and improve them to match the sister classes. For example, Let’s keep the potion might thing but make it more available in the VII-X slots in one of the damage trait lines instead of the end of the defensive line maybe even in the I-VI of the Inventions line? And let’s add two more, 3 might when activating a kit, and 2 might when using a gadget to two other lines. This would spread out the might building to allow for more versatility. Engineers are the princesses of versatility you see.

Quickness – Other abilities that Thieves/Rangers enjoy is the ability to activate a short quickness burst. Rangers can do this manually by switching pets when traited. Thieves do this periodically while critting when traited. Engineers have no such trait. 10% chance to get quickness (2s) on a critical hit. (30 second cooldown) would significantly improve the attack speed problems we see with both pistols and rifles #1 auto attack.

Extra Damage traits – we despirately need something similar to the Thief’s Executioner trait “deal 20% extra damage when target is below 50% health” and place this in the grandmaster section of the Firearms line. Engineers have the lowest direct-increase-to-damage-increase traits out of the three should be redone. 5% here and there under often not seen or completely useless conditional experimentation doesn’t really improve the damage output, it simply causes one to be turned off for another. (IE 5% when endurance is full. 5% when the endurance is not full) Some might argue that the Ranger doesn’t have a 20% bonus to damage, AHH but it does. By choosing traits that dramatically increase the pet’s damage output it can easily match that.

This is an examination of the sister classes when compared to the Engineer (I play all three only in PVE BTW) Please refrain from turning this thread into a “engineers are fine what are you talking about” thread. We all know they are not, and the items listed below are how I believe they can improve the class overall.

Traits are the largest problem imo. Traits exist for Thieves and Rangers that simply don’t exist for Engineers adding to the problems Engineers face.

General Improvements for the Engineers Traits

First let’s move some things around to make it easier to trait.

1. Critical Damage —> Firearms
2. Condition Damage —> Explosives
3. Condition Duration —> Tools

The minor traits (those that are never chosen are very much different for the engineer then they are for the thief and ranger).

1. Example: Opening strike/Serpents Touch. Both damaging affects. Engineer gets stuck with Evasive powder keg. While fun, this trait is impractical and weak.
2. Example: Alpha Training/Lotus Poison vs Reserve Mines. Again engineer must use a defensive ability. One that doesn’t directly improve anything nor is it useful while attacking. Doesn’t improve overall damage output in the slightest.
3. Example: Precise Strike/Exposed Weakness vs Steel-Packed Powder. We finally see a slight improvement on the engineer tree but it only inflicts vulnerability. Vuln doesn’t function the same way it used to at launch and many have stated that it’s basically a waste of time trying to trait for this. What we need is a direct damage bonus like 10%.

Traits that should be added which are missing

Better Damage Bonuses – As I mentioned before, there are clear differences between the kind of bonuses to damage Engineers enjoy and those enjoyed by the sister classes. The bonuses for engineers are not only lower, they require special conditions to activate. For example: Empowering Adrenaline, get a 5% damage bonus when endurance is not full. This to me should be more like Dagger Training which has no restrictions. Some might argue that it’s more like Steady Focus, however what they fail to realize is that every bow in the game gives the ranger and thief dodge abilities so they don’t have to use their endurance and can thus keep their bonus. These naysayers will also fail to realize that Rangers get a 10% bonus while Engineers get a 5% bonus. Something here is not like the other.

Some might argue that Engineers have plenty of bonuses, I’m sorry but they’re wrong. The class does have bonuses to damage however, there is a dramatically lower initial damage output, and hardly any direct damage bonuses after the 50% mark. For example: some will argue that Target the maimed is plenty, however 5% hardly matches 10% and also must contend with a single condition damage, whereas Exposed Weakness gives it’s benefits no matter the condition. Last I checked that improves it’s chances of activating.

Some would say we should continue to use the toolbelt skills and allow these bonuses to continue to slip thru our fingers or let them be turned off in certain situations while the other two sister classes enjoy their bonuses without restrictions. I say no, it should be a completely level playing field. Engineers should have a bonus to initial damage like the sister classes.

A similar problem exists not just for burst damage builds but also for condition builds. Other classes have a non-tooltipped initial burst of damage from using skills that are designed to apply conditions that the engineer doesn’t see. You can easily see this by making a trap ranger or a Staff Mark Necro and using their skills recording them side by side with the engineer and playing the video back. There’s an initial damage output of these skills BEFORE the conditions start ticking. I’ve yet to find traits that do this on my Ranger’s traits it just occurs.

you noticed that too huh.

there’s no trait for faster speed (outside of the spam button boost) (the 25% should be in and out of combat not just in combat we don’t have seals or signets)

The skills to add damage aren’t anywhere near the same as the ranger and thief nerfing us further. Ranger and thief have abilities that increase their damage with little effort. Engineers either have to have no endurance, full endurance, do a dance while rubbing their belly and tapping their head to get close but it’s not the same.

the condition duration should be where the condition damage should be and condition damage is where critical damage should be.

It’s just weird the setup. I think if they moved this around a bit it would work out much better for diversity.

MrSilver.5269:

Whelm.9072:

Throughout the history of MMOs there have been various classes/races/builds which are comparitively less powerful or useful than their counterparts. i.e. Balancing is hard. These lesser constructs always have their few vocal supporters that argue that ‘everything is ok’ or ‘we are actually overpowered’.

In some cases these supposedly lesser classes were actually ‘ok’ in the scheme of the greater game and a place was found for them. Of course, if the developers acknowledged the deficiency and changed them in the power structure these advocates weren’t heard from again on the topic. The debate will always exist but these threads provide a good base.

What I have found however is that when a number of players display their frustration about their place in the game and they provide analysis concerning the relative power or usefulness of the class over the general population their argument is not refuted by a personal experience. “Well I can do this with my engy..” or “I can kill everyone..” are not substantial arguments. While personal experience is valid it isn’t a way to provide analysis of the class for a general population.

Some might say that the class is meant for the experienced, dedicated or well financed player. In that case, make your point known, as it may be a valid one, but it isn’t what the OP was arguing at all. The ‘Learn to play’ argument can be applied to every class so essentially what you are saying is that the engineer requires more work and dedication to achieve base results. Again, a poor argument concerning the OP’s premise.

Mostly what these class discussions bring on that count is people showing up to say “Look what I can do..” without providing any relevant reasoning. Debate the relative power or place in the class structure of the engineer for the general population or declare your point that it is a ‘learn to play’ issue for an ‘advanced’ class.

Such a great post. Well written and spot on.

The point of this thread wasn’t to claim that engineers can’t be successful, it was to alert new players to the fact that they are at the low end of the power spectrum as compared to other classes.

Exactly, and these logical fallacy arguments are tiresome. No engineer is completely broken but it is about 60% broken, especially so for pve. It cannot do the things other classes do enjoy without worry, it is not a complete class because there were many things that do not make it as versatile as they claim this class is that should have been put in like the ability to switch kits without taking up valuable utility skill space. (something ele’s do without issue) it does not provide enough damage output even with the superior sigil of fire or superior sigil of air to warrant a 30% drop or drop of any kind across the board on kits damage output which were weak to begin with (PVE) and the issues that balancing pvp on this class have caused should be fixed before anything (lack of initial damage when applying a condition, condition damage a completely different score per tick on this class as compared even to it’s sister classes thief and ranger).

All we’re asking for is that land combat be restored to the rightful numbers this class should have and that anyone looking to play this class should beware until they fix it.

I’d like to ask that two things to be implemented with these boxes:

1. They never ever drop anything but exotic loot the level of the opener.
2. They also drop T6 mats namely the harder to find ones in the open world (gossamer scraps, powerful blood, stones of all kinds but specifically Onyx Lodestones)

if not a drop then please add these harder to find T6 mats to the inventory of the vendor so we can direct buy them for these points.

xiv.7136:

OK

You guys are wrong.

Let me explain.

First of all, you need to compare:

power with 0% crit vs condition damage

not [power + crit + crit damage] DPS vs [condition] DPS

You can see why, right?

In one case, you’re using 3 stats maxed to achieve higher DPS than the other case where you are using 1 stat maxed out.

Second of all:

Condition damage ignores toughness.

This is a very big deal. Whereas direct damage is heavily mitigated by armor (toughness + defense), condition damage is not, allowing it to slice through heavy armor the same as light.

So again, instead of comparing direct damage on a paper target to condition damage on a paper target, compare them on a high armor target.

Remember – 0% crit to keep it fair.

1 stat.

Condition damage is already very strong, and allows bunker stats to be mixed in.

For people to go power+crit+critdamage, they need to be total glass cannons, and as such will spend a majority of their time in downed state.

not all bunker builds work universally the same, they have non-tooltipped abilities like a portion of the initial hit as instant damage that is different between the classes. Also, not all of the portion of the damage between the class abilities work exactly the same. The staff abilities of the necro for example will have a different damage ratio then the poison 3rd hit of a dagger attack from a thief for example.

I guess my point is this. Not all of the math is represented because I and many like me have paid attention to the behaviors of these abilities when in use and they all don’t kill the same way and they should.

There is an initial hit of damage on some class’s condi damage bunker builds that doesn’t exist even when traited and built with the same +% numbers, gear, and enhancements as the class in comparison.

Then there’s the problem of toughness not really affording that much protection vs the burst damage builds. It’s obvious when the 2 classes with 1 shot abilities can do their kills despite the added protection. I’ve seen it myself.

themaster.9802:

For the past few days now I’ve gotten a significant decrease in the amount of rares and ectos being salvaged from rares. Has anyone else come across this?

In a typical fractals run I’d normally come out with 5-7 rares or so and about 10 ecto from those rares. Now I’m lucky to even come out with 3 rares and maybe 2 ecto from those. Has my luck suddenly changed or what is going on?

Might have been hit with the DR bug the rest of us in the open world have been having to deal with for the past 3 months now. I get nothing unless it’s a fluke in the open world (such as killing a non-aggressive mob just to test out a build and suddenly I have a rare when I haven’t seen one in 5 days straight even from dragon events), so feel glad you are getting any, there’s about 1500 of us so far that haven’t been getting anything for a very long time and it’s not going to get better until they take this problem seriously or remove DR entirely from the game until they can be sure it works properly.

Mirta.5029:

Did you see them mention that now you’ll be able to chose the activities that you’ll do for the monthly?

For example, if there are 6 daily achievements available, you’ll only need to do 4 of the 6, so you can choose the achievements that you’re most interested in.

You’ll be able to skip fractals and I’ll skip WvW kill requirements. Problem solved

Oh now that’s awesome! I’d much rather do metas or some other grouping of events for my monthlies!

Chaba: tis true unfortunately, we’re never complained about.

I was thinking the same thing wasdclick only because right pvp seems to be the only place that engineers can shine.

But there’s one thing even you can’t deny and that’s this class is broken even in pvp. There are far too many bugs and inconsistancies that they need to work on to make this class a viable contender for any part of the game. You can stack toughness all you want or combine toughness with healing powers and immunities but that doesn’t help you make kills it just prolongs the fight. There’s STILL the issue of even condi damage builds in other classes three shotting players in pvp I’ve seen it myself and until all classes can 1 shot like the thief and warrior or all classes have the ability to three shot with condi builds thru careful preparation there will continue to be imbalance issues especially with the engineer.

We don’t just need a better community we need our bugs and inconsistancies squashed once and for all. it’s going on 5 months now.

aydenunited.5729:

Currently, I think most people would say we are better suited for PvP, with a few naysayers, although overall we are not anywhere near the top professions, but we can at least provide some tools and skills in PvP that are not as useful in PvE.

From what I read on the forums, Engineer is difficult to play in PvE dungeon settings.

That’s what I’m seeing that they waited too late to separate the pve pvp coding so pve was definitely broken in the process I’d use the pvp options personally because pvp seems to be the only place where there are more then 2 builds available that work.

Revan.6259:

Check out the legendary pistol, and you will quickly realize that all legendary skins are not created equal

Tell me about it, when i saw that I was like WHAAAA? why bother!

As an engineer I had hoped there would be like mini hand cannons or something awesome.

Duke.4795:

With the release of the new blogpost detailing the work in the next few months, I was wondering if one of the devs could address the issue of the direct and condition dmg disparity. Btw, this is PvE only. What I mean by this is:

1) Bleeds cap at 25 resulting in a maximum cap of ~3k dmg/sec assuming about 120 dmg bleeds.
2) It’s a lot of work for 1 class alone to maintain a constant 25 stacks of bleed, so for argument’s sake, most condition dmg classes will NOT be doing 3k dmg/sec
3) Direct dmg (most notably warriors and mesmers) can do >5-6k dmg/sec with minimal effort. If you don’t believe, go check out Strife’s DPS calculation with an Axe warrior. 2.5-3k crits (with 100% crit) PER AUTOATTACK with the axe which hits like every 1/3 of a second.

Condition dmg specs need to do some very creative things (like Nemesis’ Hybrid Necro) to even come close to the dmg output of direct dmg specs. I am not advocating a nerf to direct dmg, but rather an adjustment to the condition dmg. Direct dmg gets scaling off of precision, power and crit dmg, while condition dmg scales off of only Condition dmg and condition duration. Bleeds, burns and poisons need a slightly improved condition dmg coefficient in addition to a slight raise to the bleed cap.

It’s true and on top of this there’s a disparity between the damage output of condi abilities between the classes. For some reason they feel the need to make the damage different for the same weapons between the classes it never makes for a more evenly matched system.

Like rifle doing different base damage between warrior and engi.

Then we have the lack of initial damage we find between the classes like the damage for the final dagger attack that does poison on the thief/the fumigate ability on the engi’s EG not doing the initial hit that accompanies the classes like ele/ranger traps/necro marks builds.

I’m serious there’s a problem here no one is looking at or poopooing because they play a class that doesn’t have this issue. When I play my engi there should be an initial amount of damage on those abilities that apply condis just like if i were playing my trap ranger.

This initial damage is the reason why we see the ability of necro staff users and ranger trap throwers to three shot mobs with condi damage in pve but we don’t see that with the engineer. The initial damage form the combo field on the thief is the same way, the initial damage is missing.

If you test this you will see that the condi damage will tick with these abilities however nothing else comes off the enemy on these classes with the issue.

On the classes like a trap ranger for example you will see large chunks of damage come off of the enemies and a couple of nanoseconds later you’ll see the condi damage ticks appear. So some damage is occurring that’s not necessarily in the tooltips with how these abilities behave.

I would love to know this too LOL the weirdest things have a cast time on this game. It doesn’t help with thieves btw so it’s not necessary, we can hide in the long AOE stealth and then run up and grab it unencumbered

Kaizer.7135:

tigirius.9014:

Gab Superstar.4059:

tigirius.9014:

I find it fascinating that the naysayers who claim that these classes aren’t op play those two classes themselves. Yeah that’s unbiased.

Let me bring it into perspective for you. So long as only two classes can 1-2 shot people, there will be imbalance. All classes need the ability to do that and so far I’m not seeing it. If an outsider can see the imbalance then there’s definitely an imbalance because I’m not posting because someone killed me or because I play that class in pvp and want to keep the power going for the class, I’m posting because I know this is one of the major problems. It’s not the class it’s that they allowed only two classes this setup in the game. That’s what’s op about it and that’s the imbalance.

Yeah. And every class needs the ability to portal teams into keeps. And every class needs the health pool of a warrior. And every class needs the boon upkeep of a guardian. And every class needs the conditions of a necro. And every class needs the…

See where I am going?

EDIT: Also, not a very good or interesting video, sorry.

just another one of the thieves or warriors posting. you were the only one going there not me, still not convincing sorry.

The truth on the other hand….

I take it you’ve never seen a D/D ele?

Never seen any other class 2 shot anyone other then thief or warrior.

This guy is many things but wrong is not one of them. This game instead of having more metas now has a single dungeon. as it stands right now it’s 180 from the manifesto and the prelaunch design interviews.

I’d say AC is best imo

you can attach screenies to support tickets. no infractions that way

Gab Superstar.4059:

tigirius.9014:

I find it fascinating that the naysayers who claim that these classes aren’t op play those two classes themselves. Yeah that’s unbiased.

Let me bring it into perspective for you. So long as only two classes can 1-2 shot people, there will be imbalance. All classes need the ability to do that and so far I’m not seeing it. If an outsider can see the imbalance then there’s definitely an imbalance because I’m not posting because someone killed me or because I play that class in pvp and want to keep the power going for the class, I’m posting because I know this is one of the major problems. It’s not the class it’s that they allowed only two classes this setup in the game. That’s what’s op about it and that’s the imbalance.

Yeah. And every class needs the ability to portal teams into keeps. And every class needs the health pool of a warrior. And every class needs the boon upkeep of a guardian. And every class needs the conditions of a necro. And every class needs the…

See where I am going?

EDIT: Also, not a very good or interesting video, sorry.

just another one of the thieves or warriors posting. you were the only one going there not me, still not convincing sorry.

The truth on the other hand….

Absolutely I’m on board for the full loot issues being addressed, reward for time spent is very important for PVE in any game. There are always goals to be met even in RNG and if RNG isn’t working they need a new system, utilize that Karma more effectively for everything including the end game gear like crafted exotics and asended. Make T6 mats available via karma so that crafters don’t rely on the RNG to make their gear, we spent the time getting to 400 let us have the ability to craft the gear on par with everyone who runs dungeons to get their gear. It’s only right we simply used a different means to an end a different niche on the cogwheel.

Make all level zones have meta events that drop rares and exotics for completion for level 80 and above not just level 55+. Fix the vet/champ problem. Make the rewards worth the effort.

I’d love to see also new metas instead of expansions onto dungeons (unless of course they plan on doing both) but I think the metas are the best start since they did receive while bugged a new dungeon for the dungeoneer crowd.

I find it fascinating that the naysayers who claim that these classes aren’t op play those two classes themselves. Yeah that’s unbiased.

Let me bring it into perspective for you. So long as only two classes can 1-2 shot people, there will be imbalance. All classes need the ability to do that and so far I’m not seeing it. If an outsider can see the imbalance then there’s definitely an imbalance because I’m not posting because someone killed me or because I play that class in pvp and want to keep the power going for the class, I’m posting because I know this is one of the major problems. It’s not the class it’s that they allowed only two classes this setup in the game. That’s what’s op about it and that’s the imbalance.

Most of the complaints you’ll find are end game concerns and you’ll see this, around level 60 the toughness, resistance, vitality of all mobs almost doubles from what they were at level 50 because it’s a huge difference between those mobs and level 60+. Once you reach level 80 it’s really bad (unless you are a warrior with a rifle or a two handed sword) especially in Orr. You’ll see what we mean. I had no problems while leveling, when I reached level 80 and tried to use bombs FT or EG I was basically SOL. The bugs certainly don’t help but what REALLY doesn’t help and you’ll notice this immediately if you play a ranger, necro, mesmer is that every other class that does condi damage does an initial hit of damage when applying those conditions but the engineer does not, it becomes apparent when you reach level 80.

Yeah I’m still not seeing anything that justifies a 33% decrease in base damage on grenades or the adjustments to the other myriad kit abilities we have as engi’s. I used this on FT and it did do a small burst but it certainly didn’t instakill anything and it never did enough that I didn’t STILL have to go thru long drawn out fighting like 8-10 hits each despite every build I tried or the gear i had. It’s basically a non issue.

I wouldn’t worry about it considering they have very few hitpoints and die easily from most monsters swinging aoe hits.

Prolly one of the other reasons why these should have been bots instead of stationary so they follow the engi everywhere.

I agree with the restrictions. The loot issue is the biggest for me. If they returned loot to the rest of the world instead of that single dungeon this game never needed and removed DR entirely from the open world, then everything would be fine imo. I had fun the 1 month we got rewarded for our time. Oh well.

Xriah.5743:

Just curious how others feel about this.

I’ve got an alt for each class in the game. However, I find myself with very little reason to play them. With the elimination of the holy trinity and one single faction, I just can’t find a good reason to play anything but my main.

I stuck it out for one of my other characters (Mesmer) and got him to 80. I haven’t touched him since. Gearing him up seems like a waste of gold and there isn’t anything he can do that my Ele couldn’t do. Yeah it’s a different playstyle…but in the end, there’s no variation on what you’re doing, just how you’re doing it.

How does everyone else feel about it?

In the same boat. I’m in a little deeper tho, engis are becoming progressively more broken and Engi was supposed to be my main. Well I leveled him but once the nerfs started reaching their apex I learned quickly I couldn’t keep playing in pve. Wasted too much money respeccing him over and over (and no I wasn’t one of those grenadiers I was a part bomber part FT)

I then set my eyes on thief because I was disappointed in the Ranger (I only play adventurer classes or those that wear leather.) The process to level my thief was fun because it was so completely different from the other classes (part of the reason why i liked engi too). But when it came to the ranger, as an avid hunter from WoW I found it lacking. There’s no emotional bond between the tamed and the ranger. There’s no rare skin to tame, no awesome pet like no other standard pet to have (like animal spirits) there’s nothing really to work towards on this toon as a ranger. So why bother gearing.

I did manage to finally get enough gear (thru purchasing mind you) the mats. Let me tell you hard it is to get the mats together as a legit farmer in this game to put together a single set of armor. Ever since the loot rate lowering, the introduction of DR, and the breaking of MF in the open world it’s impossible to solo gear without spending money in the TP. It’s criminal and It’s pretty much why I don’t play. Tried the other night when i saw they had an update just to see what the drop rates would be like, still the same.

I don’t blame you OP there’s really no reason to gear up an alt. Why play all the classes unless you wanna learn them intimately for the purposes of improving pvp.

Part of the issue is rewards. I think if there wasn’t a chance that a precursor would drop amongst all of the junk one gets from the dragon events we wouldn’t see anyone doing the dragon events ever again unless they were there for the first time. Risk vs reward needs a complete overhaul in this title.

It’s my theory as to why people aren’t doing these events.

Tosha Daydreamer.9251:

Is there ascended gear in sPVP? I thought it was PvE/WvW only.

Personally, I don’t feel like I “need” to get ascended – only if I want to do a lot of fractals (which I don’t). For Pve, exotics are still good enough and no one notices a 1% increase in stats in the WvW zergs.

Just wait, we already have people denying others from grouping on the basis of nerfs to a class (engineer) if this continues and ascended isn’t properly addressed you’ll see people denying others because they don’t have ascended gear on when doing other dungeons including those they come out with after Fractals that might not have the agony effect.

I was part of the group that warned people that people would disappear from the world once Fractals became the only method of gaining loot. Sure enough….

Karizee.8076:

tigirius.9014:

This is exactly my sentiment OP, hopefully you’ll enjoy what it has to offer pre-max level. Once you reach level 80 however you’ll notice a huge difference a massive grind for very little return and a push toward the gem-gold conversion to stay competative. That is in fact the majority of the complaints in this game so far, that and the sudden focus on a single dungeon.

The only thing grindy is going for a legendary, they designed it that way for people that wanted to put in a thousand hours to get a really rare item.

Otherwise gearing your character is very easy, much easier than pay to play games like WoW where they need to stre-e-e-e-tch out that payment plan.

Not anymore it’s not, ever since Nov 16th there’s a very large number of people who no longer get gear or the appropriate T6 mats to craft anymore all due to DR, dungeon-focused-RNG, lower drop rates, and completely useless rewards from large meta events. to claim everything is fine is irresponsible. I agree I didn’t like the stretch of wow either but GW2 is no longer GW2 compared to it’s first month.

Anymras.5729:

I think this should likewise be applied to turret detonations and rocket explosions – and any other trait saying “Explosions” without specifying a source should also affect Pistol 1, Turret detonations and Rocket explosions.

Not to mention all of the mines including the racials. Heck the Charr toolbelt Hidden Pistol ability isn’t affected by piercing shots of all things, thought they’d use the same bullets and the engi is the only one who can use that ability. It’s just weird that all these racials aren’t affected by the traits when the engi/race combo are the only way to get those or to use them.

This game hasn’t been ultra casual since they interduced the patches that broke MF that lowered the drop rates even on ectos from salvages and all of the loot was focused only in WvW and a single dungeon but keep on believing that.

If you think it was ultra casual the first month would have been considered that since we saw great loot from level 80 zone mobs, real rewards from doing large group metas like dragon events, and have the ability to farm unimpeded by DR.

Ultra casual =/= buying gold, Ultra casual = the ability to do everything solo without a group and getting the same rewards as those who run dungeons or raids (if this game had raids) or those who do pvp of all kinds. That’s ultracasual.

What you’re describing is closer to pay to win since the legendaries will soon have the ascended gear scores giving a distinct advantage.

Gehenna.3625:

I also enjoyed it a lot…the first month. I hope you like it better.

This is exactly my sentiment OP, hopefully you’ll enjoy what it has to offer pre-max level. Once you reach level 80 however you’ll notice a huge difference a massive grind for very little return and a push toward the gem-gold conversion to stay competative. That is in fact the majority of the complaints in this game so far, that and the sudden focus on a single dungeon.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Ummm, No Dragoon. Here’s the math:

Grenades, with the Grenadier trait (which you should ALWAYS take if you have this kit) makes a crit about 500 damage. Normal, is about 350. So that’s about 1.1k (1.5k) for grenades. Grenade kit without it is about 700 damage. Bombs is about 700 damage, 1.1k on critical. The normal damage is the same between them and with the trait, the grenade kit is better.

However, that’s not why you choose one over the other. Bomb kit rewards pushing in with two fields (Fire and Smoke) and a fantastic cripple. Grenade kit has great range (1500 with the trait).

The tool belt skill for Grenade kit is for damage. No question there. The tool kit skill for grenade kit is for bunking. No question there either.

It really depends on what you need. I’ve used builds that have both in them which are designed to vomit conditions on enemies and keep them off points in PvP. Overall, their damage is pretty kitten close.

Yeah bombs could def use a buff especially since it makes us more vulnerable by bringing in melee range.

Alarox.4590:

Even the bugs are RNG.

I reported this in the engi bug thingy and the bugs forum too.

Laughed so hard at the RNG thing. xD

Logged in tonight just to farm some orichalcum on the off chance they fix the engineer’s bugs soon. killed about twenty enemies (just the ones killing me). after the 11th kill DR snuck in and so did the bones.

My first one is Jafost camp, walked in there not a single body in sight. only a few Risen killed them nothing happened to the camp.

My second, is an underwater rich mithril vein and an underwater orichalcum vein both completely invisible even when i kill the veteran Sea Scorpion down there and his friend. nothing. It’s usually located in the shore under a ginormous bone. Prolly a dragon’s.

Then finally, while trying to help out a complete stranger in some coral my target kept resetting. I targetted him to rez him and it kept resetting with no mobs around. I right clicked him to rez.

Happened to my husband too on his ranger and he does melee only with the mouse so there’s definitely something happening here.

Raine.1394:

critickitten.1498:

FourTwenty.4268:

critickitten.1498:

Ascended Average: (1-0.5)1209 + 0.52.07*1209 = 1855.8 average damage
Exotic Average: (1-0.49)1209 + 0.492.02*1209 = 1813.3 average damage

Which means that you’re actually dealing 2.3% more damage on average.

oh dear lord! please stop the production of this game because new gear gives players a 2.3% advantage over another player who choose not to grind. what a incredibly overpowered gearset that needs to be removed this instant! how DARE anet give those progression players a 2.3% increase for MONTHS of grinding

/sarcasm(you know, for those that just dont get it)

you all need to quit kitten and moaning about a 2.3% increase, it’s incredibly pathetic

Correction: it’s a 2.3% increase with only three pieces of gear. And those pieces of gear have some of the smallest stat boosts out of any equipment category.

The gulf will be MUCH wider once they introduce accessories, armor, and weapons.

For example, let’s just pretend that the increase in stats between an Ascended item and an Exotic is “only” 10% (it’s actually larger than that in many cases, especially Critical Damage, but we’ll just pretend it’s not).

So, given the established stats for an Exotic set of armor, we could reasonably expect that our armor set will boost us to 347 Power, 246 Precision, and 18% Critical Damage. And of course, we’ll be hitting harder with our new Ascended weapon, dealing 1095-1210 damage with 197 Power, 141 Precision, and 10% Critical Damage. And we’ll have some shiny new Ascended earrings and amulets, so we’ll be sitting at a cool 222 Power, 158 Precision, and 12% Critical Damage.

Meaning we’re now doing:
1152.5 * (916+197+300+347+222+262) / (916+968) = 1373 damage per strike
[4+((916+300+141+246+158+171)-916)/21] = 52% chance to deal (150+18+10+12+21) = 221% damage.

New Ascended Average: 1373*(1-0.52) + 1373*0.52*2.21 = 2236.9 average damage

Oh hey, look at that, we’re dealing 23% more damage than the Exotic equipped guy. But that’s still such a small number, surely it won’t affect WvW that much! Nevermind, of course, that these ballpark estimates are quite likely far below the actual figures, as Ascended rings and back items are far stronger than just +10% to Exotics in many cases. This clearly won’t impact the metagame, no sir.

And then of course the gulf will continue to grow after they raise the level cap and introduce the next tier of items after this one, because some people just hit that Ascended wall so early, ya know? Gotta make sure they still have stuff to do!

And viola, you’re already on the treadmill and you don’t even realize it.

GW1 completely avoided this with a hard level cap and a set power level for all items. GW2 tried to reinvent the wheel when all it had to do was look at its brother’s notes on the subject. There is no reason for Ascended gear to even exist, and the fact that it’s only just the start is plenty of reason to worry.

I really appreciate your posts. Thanks for going to the trouble of doing the math. I tend to see the problem clearly in the abstract but it is always helpful to have a concrete demonstration.

Same here Thanks!

That’s the problem with the arguments that ascended armor isn’t more powerful and doesn’t give a clear advantage in WvW and PVE is that they conveniently forget the entire scope of the gear we haven’t seen yet or how it will be distributed. The wider the gap the worse the problem and more then likely we’ll see an exodus away from this title if that does happen.

I’m playing other games waiting for the day that my engineer won’t be completely useless in pve. I’m also waiting for them to fix the DR and lower loot drops issues and the broken MF so that legit farmers which they profess to accept and want as members of their playerbase are no longer punished.

they don’t and that’s one of the things they need to fix. The only people who can use this toolbelt skill are the charr engineers so they need to make it work with piercing and bleeding traits.

mifbifgiggle.6713:

Furril.7640:

lack of any viable build.

We still have a few viable builds. I hate people who think grenade kit is the only good thing we have. I personally thought it was one of the least powerful kits.

Actually in pve we don’t.

I hate when pvpers think that pvp is the only aspect of the game and their niche builds mean the class works perfectly.

My complaints have all been pve which is the bulk of the complaints people will see. There isn’t an argument that engis can’t perform in pvp there is a very valid one that engis cannot perform like the other classes in pve which is largely due to them “balancing” pvp. so they have alot of rebuffing to do on the pve side to make this class viable again starting with the scaling including the healing scaling which almost none of the skills for healing scale with +healing gear and then there are the weapons as well.

I suggested something like this where we are given 2 bars to switch between each 1-5 per bar would select an ability either from a kit or our standard weapons that way we’d truly be versatile and be able to perform better. we’d still be able to switch to kits but we wouldn’t need to for anything other then the aoe attacks from kit refinement.

Mackdose.6504:

tigirius.9014:

@Mackdose

The very fact that you have to go to the fractals to get drops, you have to go to fractals to get ascended items so far is part of my point. They’ve already begun this process to say that they might not continue it is naive at best and to say that this problem doesn’t exist is completely false. GW2’s current design (post launch mind started about a month after launch to those of us paying attention) limits rewards for open world events but allows them to flow normally (barring any DR bugs or loot drop issues with accounts) limits gameplay via a lack of reward system that basically is so bad that new players who didn’t play the first month and thus didn’t have access to the initial loot tables to buy gold to gear their main once they reach level 80. Unless of course you think it’s normal to have to run endless fractal runs just to get enough gold to buy the exotics one needs? And when I say gear I mean everything down to multiple weapons for the classes that use them, runes, sigils, jewelry all exotic. Imagine how expensive that might be for ascended if they go down the gold path with that? It’s no theory it’s happening right now in TP. The evidence is there.

It’s easily the power creep scenario with ascended as the next step, whether you believe it’s true or not.

Good thing that there are more ways to get those items than buying them from the TP. Or did you forget that?

Which just supported my gold theory right there. Now do you understand what I mean? If you’ve not played since day 1 you don’t get the gold needed to handle the new pricing for things so where do you go for that pricing? You buy gems for gold, (or other methods I won’t mention) but the concept is the same. Get more people to be forced to buy gold to get their character geared.

That’s the biggest issue this game has right now the complete monetization of the power creep. Unless they change that they will have more and more players who don’t like extreme farming hit that wall.

Thereon.3495:

So roughly translated, open world events will have collectable tokens for you to trade for various items (just theorising!). If this is the case then I just hope that that youre limited to the amount of tokens you can earn in a day so to avoid issues with people grinding specific areas.

I certainly hope so this would definitely bring people back to the world.
Altho karma would remain useless beyond the first set of exotics.

I would like to request that certain engineer skills be turned into AOE fields.

1. the AOE created by switching to the flamethrower kit while Kit Refinement is traited.
2. the acid damage attack (when Acidic Elixirs are traited) to be turned into an AOE acid field (poison for the purpose of condis) much like the ones that the poison spewing grubs do with periodic damage hits if enemies stay in the cloud.
3. smoke vent on the flame thrower to be turned into a blinding combo field much like the Black Powder thief effect.