Congratulaions on build diversity and gameplay clarity, feat Scrapper

In the last balance patch, scrapper was reworked another time. Goal was clearly to nerf the bunker scrapper spec, which could prove to be quite hard to kill.Well, it was a success. Bunker scrapper disappeared completely. However remember how scrapper was advertised as a melee brawler elite spec? Here's the old reveal article:https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-scrapper-engineers-elite-specialization/So what is left from scrappers bruiser playstyle? Almost nothing, everything is tied to barrier, and the only source of barrier for scrapper is the grandmaster minor trait (15% of outgoing damage, also -300 vitality penalty for this) and bulwark gyro, which requires allies and lets you tank their damage as well. Adaptive armor is only active when barrier is active, and barrier is almost never active on a brawler or bunker build since it is tied to outgoing damage.So it's no surprise that the only scrapper build for pvp is basically a squishy rifle build buffing itself up with elixiers and rng rampage, only choosing scrapper for it's damage traits (which are quite good right now). It's actually the only build that can utilize the new barrier trait efficiently.

The funny thing about it: There is an efficient bruiser build for holosmith instead. S/Sh with high protection uptime, decent cleanse and ok burst with photon forge mode. https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Holosmith_-_Protection_HoloSo, contrary to the descriptions on the official GW2 homepage, scrapper and holo have their roles reversed atm. Scrapper is the squishy burst build and holo the tanky brawler. Beside that, the current scrapper variant would also work with core engi, however scrapper happens to have superior offense traits, so it's chosen instead. In terms of gameplay clarity, this is just terrible, and I can't imagine that people want to play scrapper for elixier-based burst builds using rifle.

@UBcktieDL.5318 said:-snip

The drunk scrapper build has been around for a while now... it's existed in some form or another since scrapper was a thing. It's only coming to prominence now because it's one of the few semi-viable competitive builds for scrapper left. Ironically, what was once a gimmick build has become one of the few left standing.

@Ivantreil.3092

@Vagrant.7206 said:

@UBcktieDL.5318 said:-snip

Yup, and, the sad thing about this build i made years ago, is that i originally named it Drunk Engi because in essence the build has nothing to do with being a Scrapper at all.

No Hammer, no Gyros, no tanking, you are glass actually, the sole purpose of this build is abuse Elixirs and take the best traits for that, which for some blatant reason Scrapper have traits that help with that, but if those traits where in another trait line there would be absolute zero reasons for use Scrapper at all.

What happened Anet?

@Ivantreil.3092 said:

What happened Anet?

I guess someone tried the drunk scrapper build in Anet's HQ, I guess someone in their balance team^^So Scrapper basically requires another rework, however I also think that Scrappers current offensive traits should be moved to a core traitline to preserve the build. Maybe Firearms line? It currently doesn't have too many good traits for power engi.

@UBcktieDL.5318 said:

@Ivantreil.3092 said:

What happened Anet?

Heh, if they actually cared about the build, they would have brought back the condi cleanse upon using an Elixir that was in the Alchemical Tinctures trait, but yeah, i like the build, but as how Scrapper is, it will be used for the wrong reasons, while it still remains any remote usage that is.

A relocation to the Firearms trait is a good idea actually.