Guild Wars 2

@a t s e: lol, so much wrong info. Eles never have 1500 range. It’s 1200 max with staff and then they have no RTL. Most users have around 600 range when using RTL. And an ele can never outrun a thief or warrior. Ele mobility was nerfed to the ground. Not saying warrior’s should get nerfed, but ele’s should get reverted as we’re naturally MUCH squishier and deal way less damage.

Cirian.8917:

The current looks of my Elementalist, Warrior and Guardian. I like to include cultural pieces if I can.

Does anyone know what gloves those are? On the warrior.

This is the picture. https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/58180/gw331.jpg

Link? Probably cause we’re flashy.

I don’t think you guys understand this… It’s not having 15-25 stacks once that’s gamebreaking. It’s having that at ALL times during the fight. And nobody cares if the build isn’t in Spvp or not good for zergs because there are other ways to play.

Brienson.7319:

purgatoryz.6038:

Have you seen the engi and warrior roaming videos? These runes are heavily abused because there’s no internal cooldown on the 5 stacks.

Expect a massive nerf in a future patch. Anything less would be extremely surprising.

The only thing it is abusing is the stupidity of people who can’t handle a gimmick build that’s completely shut down by stability and a single condi clear.

Of course. How could I forget not to use stability all the time. Oh right, only warrior and guardian have them for crazy uptime. And you’re right, one condition clear is of course enough for the confusion (unless he also has some bleeds, poison on you) and for the confusion in the future that is stacked right back in 5 seconds.

The runes are amazingly broken but none of them are so cheesy as the thief, who just presses 2 buttons, 1 and 4.

I do agree with the others. The runes should really be nerfed hard and the classes that are supposed to have confusion, need their weapon skills/traits buffed.

@Nearlight: I cannot believe what you just said. Initiative is the reason it’s wildly OP because you can daze, daze, daze, daze, auto attack, stealth (heal or blinding powder), sneak attack, daze, daze, daze. Very skilled, not OP at all.

Yes other classes also use this rune but they don’t have unlimited CC unlike you. With some initiative regen you can have easily 15+ stacks at all times. And guess what? I don’t ahve unlimited condition removal, which everyone seems to think I do. If I use my condition removal, he just puts the stacks rights back. And he has access to bleeds to, in case you don’t remember the pistol auto attack.

The runes are broken as hell, on all classes, but the thief can spam CC, unlike any other class.

I’ve just been killed by a thief abusing pistol 4 to give me 25 stacks of confusion because of these kittenty runes. How come that when engineers find a way to exploit something (rune of tormenting), it gets fixed minutes after but when god class thief abuses something, they get away with it. I couldn’t do kitten, due to this broken rune but of course the thief finds this amusing and goes with it.

I don’t think anyone wants to see gameplay from a class set up that requires little skill. It’s incredibly boring and I hope it gets nerfed into the ground.

I’ve played shatter builds extensively and have recently begun to use the Blackwater Mesmer (what Osi is using) and hands down it’s by far the best build there is. I’m actually in the guild of Osi and we’ve talked about it. This might just be the strongest mesmer build ever created, for WvW that is.

- You are in stealth 60-80% of the time, thus very tanky. Stealth also gives you boons like aegis, protection and regen, which helps your defense ever more.
- People literally will go for your clones if you dance in stealth like you should. They’re putting bleeds and other conditions in aoe around them. A nice aoe on 3 clones staggered can put a LOT of bleeding on 5 targets.
- The new runes of perplexity are amazing. You can have 5-8 stacks of confusion aoe due to interrupt and 10-15 on a single target on your own. You miss direct damage burst but have this confusion burst. It is still very strong if it’s stacked high.
- Good team support possible. Your utilities aren’t that set in stone so you can always swap out for Null Field if your team likes that.
- High armor due to rabid armor.
- It is simply amazing and you can easily go 1v3. Maybe not win but definitely kill one and get away. No one can get you.

I have played over 500 hours on my thief and cannot play it anymore because it’s so cheesy. It’s also extremely easy compared to other classes. Compared to my engineer, I feel like I press 2 buttons on my thief to kill someone. On my engineer it’s over 15. It’s a lot more button pressing and to achieve something you often have to press 2 (swapping kits).

I just fought a thief who always ran from me when I got him low and only challenged me when his bas venom is up. I don’t have a stunbreak so that’s the only times he could actually damage me. Venom, 5, steal, 1. That was it.

Everyone who still plays a thief, is A) a noob who needs this class someone who only likes ganking people C) someone that can’t press more than 5 buttons.

You are hopeless…

Been using Blackwater since today. It’s amazing.

That’s stupid. Kind of a waste then.

Could anyone tell me a bit better what this does? Say that I have the traits that air and fire do 10% more damage. If I have lingering attunements, do they have the potential to stack to 20%? It seems so but I heard it’s bugged or broken.

Pistol/pistol or shield if you want some CC. Nades, Elixir Gun, Tool Kit are all viable options, even bomb kit. You’ll focus on condition duration and damage in weapons and runes. Build probably 30 in first line but there are actually tons of options…

With just pistols and nades you can get access to these conditions: bleeds, poison, confusion, burning, cripple, immobilize, blind, chill

I thought on swap sigils have a 10 sec cooldown?

I should get myself a set carrion. However, I play different classes and don’t have loads of gold and I like toughness on Rabid.

I was once against an upleveled engineer with AR, 409, on my own condition engineer. There was also a lv 80 guardian. I had dropped the guardian 4 times before I finally got him killed and had to leave the engineer alone cause I just could not drop him.

I don’t think it’s OP, just a counter to the condition heavy meta.

^ Get better. Engineer is quite a powerful profession. Although some stuff needs to be reworked, you shouldn’t have problems if you pick up some kits.

sorrow.2364:

vinceftw.5086:

You’re making yourself look like a fool, sorry. Aegis gets removed by a backstab and the thief is still in stealth, same with other invuln and blocks.

Then the problem is how stealth works which is too forgiving, not retaliation.

vinceftw.5086:

That consistent time window you’re talking about by the way, is 3-4 seconds. During this time, he can still deal quite some nasty damage with auto-attacks. Besides, most burst builds actually have a multitude of hits. Mesmer Blurred Frenzy and mind wrack is 9-10 hits on yourself. Elementalist burst with S/D procs a lot of retaliation. Same with Static Discharge burst engineer who also have quick hits from 3k damage, not one big 10k. Same with a HB warrior…

So, what’s your point?
Reading this portion of your post, looks like that you want to prove the opposite of what I think you would like to prove: retaliation hits everyone at the same level.

vinceftw.5086:

If I read your posts you’re probably a thief. Almost the only profession that barely gets hurt by retaliation. Or a guardian, that loves his free damage without doing anything.

This just makes you look stupid.

What my point is that your claim that it doesn’t hurt burst builds as much is false. It hurts most burst builds as much as sustained damage. Since you said it’s designed to counter sustained, you say, that is also not true. Retaliation is ridiculous. Not so much in a 1v1 situation (but even then) but the fact that you can give it to everyone and their mother, in the case of guardians.

sorrow.2364:

Rozbuska.5263:

Well if you hit with FT for 300 and get back 300 while thief hits you for 5k and get back 300 is something wrong.

There isn’t something wrong because you won’t just hit for 300. You will hit for 300 10 times and deal even more damage caused by burning.

Those 5k damage from the thief can be avoided just by an aegis, a single dodge, an invulnerability, a block or whatever you want. Then the thief can’t hit you for 5k for a consistent time window.

Those 10+ hits can’t be just avoided by those skill, that’s why retaliation is there.

You’re making yourself look like a fool, sorry. Aegis gets removed by a backstab and the thief is still in stealth, same with other invuln and blocks. That consistent time window you’re talking about by the way, is 3-4 seconds. During this time, he can still deal quite some nasty damage with auto-attacks. Besides, most burst builds actually have a multitude of hits. Mesmer Blurred Frenzy and mind wrack is 9-10 hits on yourself. Elementalist burst with S/D procs a lot of retaliation. Same with Static Discharge burst engineer who also have quick hits from 3k damage, not one big 10k. Same with a HB warrior…

If I read your posts you’re probably a thief. Almost the only profession that barely gets hurt by retaliation. Or a guardian, that loves his free damage without doing anything.

My proposition is that a player gets 2 hits per second max from retaliation. This way, it’s still the same for burst/1 hit builds and not suicide for players with a multi hit attack.

@akamon: except that Retaliation is way more accessible and is way less unforgiving for the attacking player. The boon uptime is simply too much for it to be balanced in its current state. Either add and ICD, or decrease the uptime. I’d go for option A.

Hey Osi, thanks for replying earlier to me on mail Just to let you know, your mailbox is now full. I tried replying with a thanks, haha

Lol of course P/D is unkillable, but it’s also insanely easy to play and thus boring. I find it funny you say ele needs to get nerfed (attunement swaps) just so you have an easier time using 1 and 5 against them.

Also, sigil of doom + sigil of energy share the same cooldown. You make yourself look like a fool claiming to ahve the best build blablabla when you don’t know this basic info.

LOl my engi fully geared for condition damage has 1.5k condition damage, no stacks. How do you ever expect to get to 2.2k?

I’m in almost full berserkers except 2 knight’s armor pieces, chest and legs and 2/3 cavalier trinkets. As for spec, I’d go for a shatter spec. You have clones to divert from you, more uptime on distortion (invuln shatter) and strong aoe damage. A mind wrack can kill a group of 5 if they were at 50% hp. (not that this happens often)

Geff.1930:

vinceftw.5086:

Geff.1930:

These include rangers, necros, eles and to a lesser extent engis.

Do you even engi?

Most engineer build use a pistol and grenades. That gives them access to bleeds, poison, chill, immob, cripple, confusion, burning, chill and blind.

Compared to an elementalist, engineer is way better at spreading lots of different conditions.

I admit, out of all the classes engi is my least played. Most of my experience comes only from fighting against them. I said to a lesser extent engis because it is equally likely that you will see a bunker/CC based engi as you will see a condition based one, from my experience. I was not attempting to diminish their condition granting prowess.

Same can be said for elementalist though right now, the meta for them is a bursty build, some go bunker but I haven’t encountered a condition one yet.

Instead of having all these different other options, I think the commander tag is the main reason for zerging. A lot of players just enter a map and go to the nearest blue dorrito. If we’d remove these tags, we’d basically have no real direction and we would actually have to communicate a bit in map chat instead of following the zerg.

People that want to group up, like a guild, will still be able to. Right now, zerging is the way to go, to most people’s detriment. Besides, you will still have zergs in higher tiers albeit smaller, more coordinated and funner.

I mostly roam alone and go to enemy borderlands. This because I know enemies are in close proximity and camps are close too. There are also less zergs.

Geff.1930:

These include rangers, necros, eles and to a lesser extent engis.

Do you even engi?

Most engineer build use a pistol and grenades. That gives them access to bleeds, poison, chill, immob, cripple, confusion, burning, chill and blind.

Compared to an elementalist, engineer is way better at spreading lots of different conditions.

@Zumi: Whisperblade is the one handed version.

In my opinion, Bolt is way cooler. It’s the best legendary in the game to me and actually the only legendary I consider getting.

Nope, I like confusion as it is now. I do like the idea for a new condition though. It suits the mesmer and it’d be great for a CC build.

@Preacher: on the other hand you could have picked invigorating speed which gives you perma vigor. Perma vigor means a dodge every 5 seconds instead of 10 which in the end, gives you way more survivability than SRD.

Legit Prep In.5893:

What use are those 1-2 condi removal skills in any fight with necro /condi ranger lately you are just food haha

A condition engineer is worse than a condi ranger imo. I just try to use the same tactic as on my mesmer, who has no removal. Hit them hard and then go on the defensive. Pople are used to avoiding the big hits but it goes the same for conditions, but now it’s not1 big hit but many small ones.

Fior example, on my engi, I try to land my prybar/static shot, blow torch and some nades and then go on the defensive with gear shield and some kiting.

I agree with the condition removal claim. My Non-HGH build is weak to that. I only have my healing turret.

I agree. The only gadget I actually use is rocket boots. The new ideas for might stacking are interesting but I rather use sigil of energy/corruption. Coupled with constant vigor it gives me quite some dodges while my conditions tick away. Also, you ahve to remember that runes of the undead add quite some condition damage on itself. It boosts it by 200-300 somewhere in my WvW build, that’s 7-9 might stacks I just have without any stacking, permanently. I think might stacking can be great but it’s a bit of a crutch. They can be converted, stolen, and it’s more offensive orientated. I like having 2 kits for multiple purposes.

Besides, our conditions are strong enough to not need might stacking imo. My bleeds tick for 133 with full corruption I believe. I rather have my runes/sigils and traits have a more defensive set up.

It depends on what kind of engineer you want to be playing. I feel like condition engineer can output some really nasty damage while still being strong defensively due to tool kit blocks/toughness and cripples.

I haven’t encountered that very often. 7/10 it works for me I’d say.

I also feel like HGH is overrated. You have to maintain 20+ stacks to actualy do the damage you can with other runes. This is for WvW by the way, as sPvP has way lower condition damage.

I run with a 1.45k condition damage build, no might stacks. With Might stacking runes I has only 1.2k where I get up to 1.7k with a good stack going. Yes, this is higher, but I also lose diversity in kits and utilities and I only have these burst might stacks every 20 seconds or so. I rather take my 2 kit build with no rocket turrets that’s almost as strong but isn’t a) limited to taking 3 elixir traits and b) uses utilities that help me survive in other ways. With HGH it’s basically kill or be killed. With toolkit, grenades and rocket boots, I can outrun small group of players and kite them very long.

Also, to the OP: I don’t like your suggestion for kits. While buffing them is good, I actually love the engineer playstyle of only swapping in to useful skills. Every other class is limited with a cooldown, making them use lesser skills. We don’t have cooldowns, which makes it so we always use whatever is best for the situation. That’s what seperates the best engineers from the regular ones.

There is always a skill useful that’s not on cooldown and we always have access to them. Gear shield is on cooldown for 3 secs? No problem, swap to something else, use 2 skills and go back. I love this and it essentialy means absolute freedom in playstyle. While I think other things need to be brought up and fixed, kits is not one of them.

It does actually pull your target right up to your nose as I combo it with Prybar every time. However, it sometimes bugs out and barely pulls the target.

1. Fire and Air doesn’t work. They share the same cooldown. Don’t add in an on swap-sigil as well because they do that as well. Probably best with Bloodlust.

2. You do realize that most people dodge the 2nd attack after Magnet. My standard condition burst is often Magnet, Prybar and Static Shot/Blowtorch. More often than not 1 of those 2 misses because they dodged. And if they didn’t, they’re noobs. I actually now auto attack mostly to bait out a dodge.

3. I also don’t see how Might stacking runes benefit a build like this seeing as how you end up with 9 stacks. 9 stacks is not a lot, especialyl when you’d end up with around 6 without those runes. That’s barely 105 power. At least use Sigil of Battle if you want might stacking runes.

4. 2083 attack, 3118 with 9 might. Strong might you are using. Might gives 35 power, 9 times that is 315, not 1.1k like you think it is.

I think this build is a little bit of everything, which is okay, but doesn’t really fit anything that well.

It doesn’t require to be in melee, the damage is insanely quickly and it actually hits quite hard all together. While I don’t think it’ll replace D/D, what I do think is that we now have 2 viable builds.

In WvW, thieves are godmode. And check my signature, I have one myself.

Yeah, guardian can do everything, which is great. But the reason it goes bunker is because of it’s limited mobility. This is exclusively from spvp pov. An ele, engineer and most other classes can push far point better, so that’s why guardians often just bunker and stay on a point.

Another thing is that all damage skills are really recognizable, people know to avoid what.

The problem is the design of Pve. There is simply no reason to not go for damage. This is different from WvW where you can’t Always go full zerker. That’s why to me, WvW is a real game type. Because in there, more than damage counts.

Very good post. I feel the same way. I love playing my engineer in WvW for small scale combat or for zerg fighting when there’s no retaliation up. If there’s retaliation up, I’ll kill myself due to delay of throwing 4 grenade tosses.

To me that’s not a problem of the engineer, but design of retaliation. It should should have in ICD of 0,5-1 second. Seeing as how confusion got nerfed AGAIN (not triggering on extra effects) I don’t see how retaliation can still be in the game on this level.

I also feel the same about engineer CC. Many are really good for sPvP node defending/pushing but it fails in bigger groups. Area way too small, self CC and single target CC’s are not enough. I especially hate the self CC and it makes me use P/P over rifle. Glad that Rocket Boots got changed, now I finally use it, but they had to remove the stunbreaker…

I liked it when I was still upleveled in WvW but now I rather pick other traits. It isn’t bad, but sometimes you haven’t planned it and then it goes into effect, messing up what you wanted to do.

It should become stability. Heheheheh :P

DargorV.8571:

Nobody’s getting replaced.

Lasy I checked this is GW2, there’s no hardcore content, no raids, no arena rating.

Unless your guild/friends are a bunch of self-important kittens there really isn’t a “Bring X class to win” mentality in this game.

In which case, you’re better off finding new people to play with.

I’m not in any sort of teams like that, I’m talking about sPvP meta where they only take the best classes at what they do. Nowadays, you see this most often: bunker guardian, 2 necros, 1 mesmer, 1 ele. Engineer used to be on that list but it isn’t so much anymore.

Wow, awesome research. Like Blood Red Anarchid has said, I’ve run into the same conclusion. I run pistol/pistol and rocket boots. If I can get rocket kick and blow torch off, IP really isn’t necessary so I’ll probably make the switch to shrapnel. If you don’t have a reliable way for burning, go with IP. Even if it might do a little less damage in the end, it’s an extra condition on top of bleeds, making it harder to remove.

I’m wondering though, would it be viable to give up grenade recharge or extra grenade for shrapnel?