Engie balance patch notes preview - gyros get reworked

The balance team posted the Engie changes for next week's balance patch in the main forum. Check out the gyro changes -

EngineerWith this update, we're reworking one of the less reliable skill sets: gyros. While potent, their difficulty to use and to optimize has brought them to a spot where they're not really desirable outside of a few niche situations. As part of this rework, gyros are being reclassified as wells, and the scrapper's particular version of them is mobile and point-blank to enhance the scrapper's melee-oriented playstyle.

• The gyro class of skills has been reworked and changed to wells. Gyros are now no longer targetable and instead hover over the engineer to grant their effects.• Flame Blast: This skill now targets the ground and will explode automatically when it hits the targeted location.• Light Strike: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to display incorrect damage in PvP when a trait is equipped with Crystal Configuration: Storm.• Blast Gyro Tag: This skill has been reworked and renamed Blast Gyro. The gyro now creates a fire field that follows the engineer while it pulses might to nearby allies every second during its countdown to a significant explosion.• Medic Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a water field that follows the engineer while it pulses heals to the player and nearby allies every second.• Bulwark Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a lightning field that follows the engineer while it grants them barrier every second and redirects some damage from nearby allies to the engineer.• Purge Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a light field that follows the engineer while it removes conditions from the player and nearby allies every second.• Shredder Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now follows the engineer and performs a whirl finisher that inflicts damage on nearby enemies every second.• Sneak Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a smoke field that follows the engineer while it grants stealth to the player and nearby allies every second.• Shocking Speed: This trait now increases the radius of effect of all gyro skills and causes them to grant superspeed to nearby allies on their final pulse.• Expert Examination: This trait no longer alters a gyro's behavior to inflict weakness and vulnerability upon its detonation.• Crystal Configuration: Storm: Projectiles fired by this trait no longer deal reduced damage. Updated the tool tip to now use the phrase "projectile range" instead of "range threshold."• Crystal Configuration: Eclipse: Reduced this trait's stability duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.• Crystal Configuration: Zephyr: This trait now causes Holo Leap to inflict cripple for 1 second in addition to its previous effects.

Traveling wells and immune to damage. So now we get to be watered down berserkers/tempests. Without a meaningful weapon swap. The change to bulwark gyro seems a bit pointless now too because as nothing's been done to curb power creep it's effectively been turned into a suicide button. They couldn't have done something similar to gyros for turrets? At least with all the overdone cleave out there and what with they're being stationary?

At least we don't have to wait another week to know that nothing's actually changed for the better. Especially in the competitive modes.

The changes seem to improve the gyros and make them easier to access and use for more players. There are a few things which appear to be questionable (e. g. Bulwark Gyro "... redirects some damage from nearby allies to the engineer.") but the majority of the points look interesting. The Holosmith changes also look nice, especially because I belong to the 0.0001 % of players who actually use Crystal Configuration: Storm.

However, following the long tradition of this board, when I like a patch you do not. So welcome to yet another episode of "This upcoming patch will ruin the Engineer completely!"

If you have to take Shocking Speed to get 600 range gyros again that might be bad, but on the other hand if it extends the radius of the gyro toolbelt skills then that's potentially just okayish. Don't like the sound of the new Bulwark Gyro because the damage reduction was really good too. Depends on how much barrier you get and how well it scales with healing power.

These changes may not be unique but they are functionally similar to what we've asked for. Gyros will follow us instead of lagging behind and now they give out useful standardized buffs (might, barrier, etc). We now have group superspeed back with the new Shocking Speed, though not quite on-demand. The new bulwark may be a good tanking gyro, depending on the numbers they gave it. I hope there is still CC on Blast Gyro, and that the damage has been increased on Shredder Gyro.

Now that they are wells, they can grant a small amount of quickness with Runes of the Chronomancer. Not much but it's something.

Config changes are nice, especially on Zephyr. Makes Holosmith a far better roamer, as they're able to catch people better. Storm should have never dealt less damage than, so that change is nice too.

Ground-targeted flame blast was one of the most requested changes ever.

So, all in all I'm pretty content, but we have to see the numbers to really be sure. But we certainly gained a lot of reliability this patch. I'm still not sure if they have a place in PvE as of yet, but I am hoping someone will find something useful for them. Perhaps as a healer+tank hybrid for some bosses?

"Enhance the scrappers melee oriented playstyle"

Played p/p gyro scrapper entire HoT and still choose that over hammer. Thanks Anet for acknowledging us.

Anyway, going by the changes its going to be less miraging (IA gutted in WvW) and more scrappering for sure for a while. Will be interesting to see if this truly makes it more viable roamer again but notice how no cds or durations are stated, yet that is significant differences (skills pulsing per second, what is madness!?!?). It may look like buffs, but it could be major nerfs as well. Stealth gyro in particular will make or break it since its one of the main reasons for even choosing scrapper today.

A moving lightfield that pulses condi cleanse?

I hope the duration and CD are good.

Clean ALL the conditions!!!

Mostly worried about reworked gyro duration.Will sneak gyro stay 30 seconds for example?Edit: 600 radius smoke field that follows engineer seems pretty strong.

I'm hoping all utility gyros stay at their current CDs.

The heal gyro could be really strong relative to med kit.

Stealth gyro could be very strong for WvW depending on cooldown. It'll basically be mass invis / smoke screen with smoke field.

Bulwark gyro itself is iffy, but the skill was usually taken for projectile destruction.

I can't wait to try out the gyro changes, but only then I'd be able to have an opinion of it. Interesting though, specially with the walking smoke field, I can see using that for potentially bigger groups - can it be blasted for each pulse to eventually stealth a bigger group?

Ive always loved scrapper and now have a reason to dust him off! These changes sound so interesting. Mobile fields!? Heck yea!

I wonder what will happen to toolbelt skills tho. If they stay as they are, Heal Gyro will provide a loooooong portable water field

The gyro changes seems to be pretty nice overall, and depending on the durations they may end up quite useful. We'll have to see about the bulwark though, as deflecting that damage to the engineer may end up rather deadly in WvW. I guess they meant for the engineer to heal with super speed, given the lightning field it provides. We'll see how it works.On that regard, we'll have to see the change in Shocking Speed means they replaced the whole trait or if the gyro effects are added to the current effects. We'll see about it.

I'd really like a decent PvP Kit build.

@Manuhell.2759 said:We'll have to see about the bulwark though, as deflecting that damage to the engineer may end up rather deadly in WvW. I guess they meant for the engineer to heal with super speed, given the lightning field it provides. We'll see how it works.To be fair, the gyro itself has little purpose in large scale wvw as it blows instantly, especially after final salvo was gutted (they all blow for no purpose). So if it kills you... Dont use it. The shield should still be worth it. Hopefully the new design at least works better solo/smallscale.

Great patch for the Scrapper, I'm curious to how it feels like playing him when the patch goes live.

However, I want to point out that the Scrappers core class mechanic, the function gyro is still really lackluster, especially in PvE and should be reworked. Like a default "well" ability that does damage around you or something by pressing f5? Or holding f5 so you could also use the normal f5 of your elite skill. At least something else than the current gyro because it's really not a great core mechanic compared to any other elite specialization.

Also, give Engineer finally a weapon swap. I don't like being dependent on using ranged weapon kits because they reduce my build diversity, especially on hammer scrapper and sword holosmith. By giving engineer weapon swap and a second condition weapon and maybe a melee mace by default would help this class so much!

Looking Forward to those changes .Although the stability reduction on eclipse is to much (3s would be fine too) and the Zephyr cripple is unnecessary imo. But lets see :)

For WvW Medi Scrapper these changes look really good to me. I'm glad that Blast Gyro will have some functionality again, as I love the toolbelt utility Bypass Coating, but have recently been using Elixir B in it's place.

Bulwark Gyro itself is good because of Defensive Field, but I like how this changes it to provide some defensive utility (barrier) as well as offensive (might stacking). Not sure what I think about redirecting the damage to the engineer, because as someone said above, running into an enemy's bomb might just turn into a suicide run. I guess it will come down to what portion of damage is directed to the engineer. Looking forward to the patch.

Eager to try out the reworked gyros. Depending on the cooldown of the gyros and the duration of the fields, scrapper might find its place in wvw as either an even better support than it is now or a great off-tank duelist/support in small roaming groups. Pvp scrapper might also be better than before.

I wonder if blast gyro still has the knock-back or if it is purely for damage now. Along with the shredder gyro, I'm curious to see if scrapper can be a dps option in pve. Looking forward to see the numbers on these skills.

I thought this was a typo. These are my dream changes for renegade but scrapper got them....

I am very excited about the changes to Gyro's, this has been a long time coming.

@"Sodeni.6041" I think Function Gyro will actually be in a better place now since, per the patch notes, "Gyros are no longer targetable". As it is now Function Gyro can be destroyed or CC'd, so this should be a big QoL change even to Function in that regard. I know you said in PVE but I still think this is an indirect buff to it.

(Speaking mostly about WvW) I understand the trepidation around Bulwark redirecting damage to the engineer but it also states that it pulses barrier and we don't know the details yet. Either way, if your taking adaptive armor with this and also getting barrier from the gyro hopefully it wont be too bad. Also, portable lightning field!? Come on now, you're like a portable daze machine for anyone with leaps. I damn well know i'll be running Bulwark once the patch hits.

so bulwark gyro turns from an incredibly powerful group damage mitigation tool into a suicide button. got it. thanks team.

maybe i'll actually use some of the other non-elite gyros now though.

I don't know where people are getting the preview for the balance patch, but I was only curious to see what they're planning on doing with engineer.

@stone cold.8609 said:As part of this rework, gyros are being reclassified as wells, and the scrapper's particular version of them is mobile and point-blank to enhance the scrapper's melee-oriented playstyle.• The gyro class of skills has been reworked and changed to wells. Gyros are now no longer targetable and instead hover over the engineer to grant their effects.

So many engineers wanted this change and I'm glad it's finally happening. The path finding for gyros was always messy, so making gyros hover over the Scrapper as well as being AoE skills like wells will greatly buff Scrapper gyro builds.

• Flame Blast: This skill now targets the ground and will explode automatically when it hits the targeted location.

Thank you! As much as I love playing core engineer, spamming Flame Blast just to apply the stronger burn can be quite tedious and will often mess up rotations. This buff will greatly benefit core engineer.

• Blast Gyro Tag: This skill has been reworked and renamed Blast Gyro. The gyro now creates a fire field that follows the engineer while it pulses might to nearby allies every second during its countdown to a significant explosion.• Medic Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a water field that follows the engineer while it pulses heals to the player and nearby allies every second.

This is very similar to Tempest's overload skills. I always considered Blast Gyro Tag as one of the worst gyros for Scrapper, but now it may be useful for something other than being an single target CC skill.

As for Medic Gyro, I do like it, but that would somewhat make the toolbelt skill Reconstruction Field obsolete. If Medic Gyro creates a water field, what's the point of having Reconstruction Field create an additional water field with the only difference being that it grants protection for a short duration?

• Bulwark Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a lightning field that follows the engineer while it grants them barrier every second and redirects some damage from nearby allies to the engineer.

Some engineers may have mixed reactions to this change and I can see why. It may seem like suicide especially if you have allies that take lots of damage, but I can only see this gyro being useful for tanky builds or support Scrapper builds with plenty of healing capabilies.

• Purge Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a light field that follows the engineer while it removes conditions from the player and nearby allies every second.

Good change as the other gyros from the beginning of the list. Instead of removing a few conditions every couple of seconds, it now gives the Scrapper a light fields in which they can use combo finishers to remove even more conditions from themselves and their allies, which is what this gyro is intended for.

• Shredder Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now follows the engineer and performs a whirl finisher that inflicts damage on nearby enemies every second.

Not much to say about this one considering how little of an impact this gyro makes. At least it'll be slightly better than before.

• Sneak Gyro: This skill has been reworked. The gyro now creates a smoke field that follows the engineer while it grants stealth to the player and nearby allies every second.

Like Blast Gyro, Medic Gyro, Bulwark Gyro and Purge Gyro, this is a good change. The stealth duration on Sneak Gyro is already great, but adding in the ability for allies to increase the stealth duration even further just makes it even better.

• Shocking Speed: This trait now increases the radius of effect of all gyro skills and causes them to grant superspeed to nearby allies on their final pulse.

Finally, a trait that improves gyros. Having their combo fields radius increased and giving superspeed to allies on the final pulse is in my opinion better than simply having superspeed granted to allies by using leap or blast finishers.

• Crystal Configuration: Eclipse: Reduced this trait's stability duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.

If this ends up being in the balance patch on Tuesday, I and many other people will be very happy. Well, everyone except holosmith mains.

Finally gyros are worth using. Removing the AI was a long-requested feature, and it looks like they listened on that. Now the question is if scrapper has enough tankiness/damage output to hold its own in pvp still against the likes of condi mirage.