How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]
Chaith.8256
Member ✭✭✭✭
Updated meta: April 2021
Here's what it would take to create near perfect build diversity across Core Engineer, Scrapper, and Holosmith in PvP primarily, but also keeping other game modes in mind.
Disclaimer, these are the changes I think are necessary to individually bring each choice to life - multiple changes together may not be balanced and aren't necessarily intended to work together.
This thread is a no power creep zone, that specifically means not raising the current meta PvP builds past their current limit.
Core Engineer:
General Changes: Friendly Projectile changes: Thrown Elixirs, Med Kits, these are now ALL unblockable.
Weapon Skills
1.) Pistol #1: Fragmentation shot: Is now an explosion. Fragmentation Shot now also applies bleeds on the 120 radius explosion in addition to the projectile. Decreased aftercast so an attack roughly fires every .5s.
2.) Pistol #2: Poison Dart Volley Is now piercing. Reduced cast time from 1.75s to 1.25s.
3.) Rifle #3: Added ammunition, maximum 2 ammo, 2s ICD between ammo use.
4.) Rifle #4: Instead of self knockback, Engineer will execute 300 distance retreat.
Kits
1.) Toolkit #1: Damage combo increased 15%. Thwack reduced from 1s to .75s.
1.) Toolkit #2. Box of Nails increased Radius from 240 to 300. Cripple increases from 2s to 3s per pulse. Cast time reduced from 3/4s to 1/2s
2.) Toolkit #3: Pry Bar Damage increased by 15%.
3.) Elixir Gun #2: Increased number of bounces by 1.
4.) Elixir Gun #3: Poison duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds. No longer tracks targets, rather fires in a frontal cone.
5.) Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes over the cast from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did. Increased burning from 4s to 5s.
6.) Flamethrower #4: Napalm, increased burning from 3s to 5s.
7.) Flamethrower toolbelt: Incendiary Ammo cooldown decreased from 50s to 30s to be more in line with push toward slow, ramping damage changes.
8.) Flamethrower #5: Smoke vent, this skill has two ammunition. (2s ICD between charges.)
9.) Med Kit #2: Bandage blast, projectiles now track to allies in the area of effect.
10.) Bomb Kit #2: Fire Bomb's first pulse applies 2 burning instead of one in PvP and WvW
11.) Bomb Kit #5: All Glue Bomb pulses will immobilize enemies, not just the initial pulse - however, each target may only be affected by the immobilize once. Cripple condition changed into slow.
12.) Bomb Kit Toolbelt: Big Ol' Bomb now unblockable, suggestion by Zex Anthon.8673.
13.) Mortar Toolbelt: **This skill has been re-worked, Orbital Strike: Empower your next Mortar Shot to leave behind a lesser Timed Charge at it's location. 8s CD. (half damage & half burn **
Turret Related Changes:
1.) General Turret changes:
- Removed functionality to pick up turrets & reduce cooldown.
- Turrets no longer auto-attack.
- Cooldown starts immediately on use so it's not punishing to keep the turret alive.
- Turret duration reduced to 10s before auto-detonating.
- Turrets deliver a short point-blank knockback on death (120 distance).
- Thumper Turret reduced from 40s to 30s cd.
- Rocket Turret reduced from 40s to 30s cd.
- Rifle Turret increased cooldown from 20s to 30s cd.
- Flame Turret increased cooldown from 20s to 30s cd.
- Thumper Turret will only Knock up foes once when placed, instead of twice.
- Flame Turret Overcharge, overcharges immediately, in addition to its blind effect, Smoke Screen burns enemies on the same interval. Added burning pitch gfx to the smokescreen.
- Rifle Turret Overcharge, instead of firing faster for 10s, rapid-fire 10 shots over 3 seconds.
- Toolbelt skills for Thumper Turret & Net Turret - reduced from 38s to 25s.
- Toolbelt skill for Flame Turret, Throw Napalm, radius increased from 180 to 240.
- Toolbelt skill for Rocket Turret, Rocket, velocity increased 50%.
2.) Experimental Turrets: Rocket Turret's Retaliation increased from 3 to 5 seconds. Healing Turret Vigor increased from 3 to 5 seconds. Flame Turret's might stacks increased from 3 to 5 stacks. In addition to its current effects, if a turret reaches the end of its 10s lifespan, the turret performs a second overcharged attack as a parting gift. Reflective shields activate simultaneously with the turret being placed, but are reduced from 3s to 2s duration.
Utility Skills
1.) Personal Battering Ram: Currently: Launches foe, 130 range. New: Target limit increased to 5, and range of Ram attack extended to 450. No longer tracks targets, rather fires in a frontal cone.
2.) Slick Shoes: Currently: Spray oil, knocking enemies down for 2 seconds, affects once per target. New: Given two ammunition, ammunition recharge, 20 seconds. 2s ICD between using ammunition. (Note: Each use of Slick Shoes still only affects an enemy once.)
3.) Mine Field: Currently: Plant 5 mines around yourself. New: Instead, place a 300 radius field on the ground that lasts for 5 seconds. At every 1 second interval where a foe within the field is moving, a mine explodes on their position. Maximum 2 explosions per second. (Note: The mine's damage, radius, and boon remove effects are the same as the current Mine Field mines.)
4.) Utility Goggles: No longer removes blind. Now, ability cooldown is reduced by 2s for every condition present on the Engineer upon use.
Elite Skills
1.) Elixir X: New: Drink Elixir X to become a monstrous alchemical being. (Bar icon mouseover: Test Subject X). Transform looks like a potion/alchemy re-skinned version of: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Subject_Alpha.jpg . Engineers while transformed into Test Subject X gain 2,000 toughness and vitality, a similar durability compared to Rampage. Stability x2, 3s, boon interval: 3s.
- #1 "Thrash", 1/2s cast, 120 range, Damage: 244 (1.6), Number of targets: 3. -> "Hammer Fist", 1/2s cast, 120 range, Damage: 244 (1.6), Number of targets: 3. -> "Brutalize" 1s cast, 120 range, Damage: 304 (2.0), Number of targets: 3, launches foes upwards for 1 second.
- #2 "Liquefy", dissolve and dash toward a foe, reappearing with a cloud of steam, blinding foes. 3/4s cast. Evade: 1s. 5 second cooldown. 600 range
- #3 "Rapid Metamorphosis", Sharp bone erupts from the skin, granting yourself retaliation, (3s) resistance (3s) and cause each hit in the next 3 seconds to apply bleeding and cripple. Bleed, 6s. Cripple, 1s 1/2s cast. 6 second cooldown.
- #4 "Spine Barrage", Fire a cluster of arcing spines at a target area, damaging foes. 1/2s cast. 9s cooldown. 240 radius area. 900 range. 770 (2.0) damage. (8 simultaneous hits) If under the effect of Rapid Metamorphosis, projectiles are empowered to immobilize those struck by any projectiles for 2 seconds total. (Grenade barrage like ability.)
- #5 "Toxic eruption," Launch and poison foes in a cone with a forceful blast of hazardous waste. 1+1/4s cast. 9 second cooldown. 450 range frontal cone. 532 (2.0) damage. 3 Poison, 10 seconds. Number of targets: 5. (Chaotic release-like ability.)
Healing Skills
1.) Bandage Self: New: Cast time reduced to .75s to be consistent with other heals.
Core Engineer Traits
Explosives
1.) Shrapnel: Increased bleeding from one stack to two, but duration reduced from 6s to 4s. (This will create a greater Synergy with Sanguine Array.)
Firearms
1.) Juggernaut: Currently: Gain might and stability while wielding a flamethrower. New: Effect extended to Bomb Kit. (This is appropriate given bomb kit's similar risky positioning requirement and lack of defense.)
2.) Serrated Steel: Currently: Bleeding duration increased by 15%. New: In addition to its previous effects, inflicting Bleeding on a Target will also inflict torment (2s) (1s ICD).
3.) Incendiary Powder: Has been partially reworked. Now, in addition to increasing burn duration, every strike from Rifle and Pistol skills will burn the target for 1s.
Inventions
1.) Automated Medical Response: Currently: Heal skills recharged when you're struck below 25% health. New: Instead of current effects, when reviving an ally, grant protection to nearby allies for 4 seconds. 180 radius. 20s ICD. Affects allies in the downed state.
2.) Autodefense Bomb Dispenser: Currently: Drop a smoke bomb when disabled. In addition to its previous effects, all Smoke Bomb effects empowered to grant 3 seconds of stealth to up to 5 allies on the first pulse.
3.) Energy Amplifier: Currently: When you are under the effects of Regeneration, gain +250 healing. New: In addition to its previous effects, your healing to allies is increased by 5/10/15% for each 25/50/75% target's health missing.
4.) Bunker down removed, now Bionic throwing-arm New: Bombs can now be thrown up to 300 distance units away as projectiles. Increased the range of Grenades, mines, and thrown Elixirs by 300.
Alchemy
1.) Backpack Regenerator: Currently: Recover health each second while in an Engineering kit. New: Healing reduced to 80 per second, down from 117. Using a skill in a kit grants a stacking buff for 5 seconds, one stack per unique kit. Regeneration effect stacks up to 3 times.
Tools:
1.) Takedown Round: Currently: Striking a target above the health threshold places a delayed explosive charge on them. New: Instead of it's previous effects, launching a foe does devastating damage. 250 (1.2coeff) (Overcharged Shot, Big Ol' Bomb, Thumper Turret, Personal Battering Ram, Tornado, Booby Trap, Blast Gyro, Holographic Shockwave, Prime Light Beam.)
Scrapper
- Function Gyro considered a gyro for all mechanics. I shouldn't have to say this
Utility skills
1.) Medic Gyro: Reconstruction Field instant to return to consistency with Defense Field.
2.) Shredder Gyro: No longer creates whirl finishers. Now, each strike from shredder gyro removes the protection boon from enemies, and applies 2 vulnerability for 6s
3.) **Spare Capacitor: Dazes over the 4 pulses, daze duration reduced from 2s to .5s.
Traits
1.) Damage Dampener - Currently: Delays 20% incoming damage by 2 seconds. New: Instead of its current effects, Scrapper's Gyro effects reduce damage taken by 10% on those affected.
2.) Expert Examination - changed to "on disable" rather than on daze or stun.
Holosmith
Nerfs:
Corona Burst: Quickness no longer incorrectly speeds up the "charge up" time after the actual cast.
Heat Therapy: Healing reduced in PvP from 39 to 20.
Utility Skills
1.) Coolant Blast - Always grants additional small heal over time. New above high heat threshold effect: Vents 25 heat. No longer chills or applies frost aura.
2.) Flash Spark - Instead of granting light aura when over the heat threshold, grant stability for 3s.
Traits
1.) Solar Focusing Lens: Currently: First few attacks after entering Photon Forge or Overheating do 10% more damage and burn. New: In addition to its current effects, prevents the Engineer from suffering from the self damage over time component of overheating. (Note: This trait combined with Photonic Blasting Module will allow you to take no negative effects from Overheating.)
2.) New Suggestion for Crystal Configuration: Storm:
**Crystal Configuration: Storm: - New: Photon Forge skill #1 deals 15% increased damage, is an explosion, and increases range by 60, to 300.
3.) Photonic Blasting Module: New: In addition to its current effects, PBM allows use of Toolbelt skills while overheated - while overheated, all heat % bonuses are energized to the highest tier available.
Immediately vent at 10 heat per second.
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Forum Lord Chaith
Comments
Hmm, seems a step in the right direction, be nice to actually use my Engineer ingame instead of having to play another class to be an actual viable contribution to the gaming community. Medkit is very sacrificial, need to be made into a ranged mechanic, I'd say something akin to the flamethrower mechanism, the 1 skill does frost damage and the final tick, hmm provide some sort of boon and maybe chill the target. be a tanky spec to close to moderate range group support kit.
If you want to create build diversity, one major thing to do would be to reduce the dependence on Elixirs/Alchemy for cleansing conditions. It's pretty limiting that pvp/wvw builds are forced to run that traitline. I'd remove the "elixirs cleanse condi" trait and increase cleanse on Engi's base heals (eg. +2 conditions cleansed per heal, added to toolbelt skill or base skill, or +1 each).
Now you can actually run different setups (I personally like - Explosions/Tools/Holo) without sacrificing nearly all your cleanse. That frees up a traitline and it also frees up utility skills.
Firearms: Also need a change for "modified ammunition", this trait looks more like necro damage trait. And honestly say "skilled marksman" does not change anything.
...were you really bored or something?
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Forum Lord Chaith
I like these changes. Would also like if they just got rid of turrets all together and gave us something in their place since they are useless, even if it means healing turret goes bye bye. Turrets will never be balanced again and they will forever remain in useless territory so why not get rid of them?Guess we can just add this and your changes to the list of things that will never get added ever, though it was a nice to imagine these.
Also Med Kit bby pls.
All clutter should remain outside of PvP, I know better than to suggest that they become an effective option while taking way less thought and skill. They can remain an option for low level open world PvE content
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Forum Lord Chaith
Modified ammunition, that's a very important trait in PvE. It's like 26% additional power raid damage.
Skilled Marksman I'd change though now you mention it.
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Forum Lord Chaith
You have a lot of interesting ideas, thanks for pitching in as usual specially in the official forums Chaith. And good luck this season
In a way, I find these solutions both "too much" and "not enough". At this point I'd like a total remake of the class, both traits and skills, maybe even the way kits and toolbelt works. But there are very good ideas in this post, and I hope the devs will finally understand that engineers are left behind since expansions because of their class mechanic.
As a dedicated core rifle engi, i tottally love the changes you suggested for firearms, it really rewards specing for offensiveness.
In another subject, what about some buffs in our other healing skills, a cast reduction in Self-bandage or Elixir H?
My first thought when reading through is that Juggernaut would be OP.
I added cast time shaves to Elixir H and Bandage Self to match Coolant Blast, Healing Turret, A.E.D. Removed RNG from Elixir H skills and halved duration of boons
Not for current builds, Juggernaut relies on camping the kit, you get nothing until you've been sitting in it for 3 seconds, so Photon Forge or Swapping Kits will kill it, Juggernaut has always been bad because you have to literally camp it to utilize it. With my proposition, Core Engi could make best use of Juggernaut, with Static Discharge being simultaneously fixed, and a good Rifle master trait, it'd be lit.
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Forum Lord Chaith
Oh I agree, I'd love it. But, Rifle/Holosmith is already pretty kitten good. Adding full time might gen and stabo while Forge is cooling down? I'll take it, but I can see the qq from all the other classes already.
Rifle Holo does not run Firearms currently because the Rocket Boots disengage is pretty valuable, if Firearms could fight well like the Explosives' Mine Trail build, it'd be interesting. Personally I doubt if the extra stability would be a must have, for the first 3 seconds after leaving Photon Forge you'd be unable to disengage or get stab. Honestly I'd also like to see Holosmith use other options like Crystal Configuration: Zephyr instead of the Stability as well.
Edit: extending the stab to 5s duration and 5s interval would make it less appealing to Holo due to the increased wait upon entering rifle and making it more vulnerable to CC/boon stripping.
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Forum Lord Chaith
I recall that at one point ArenaNet indicated they were considering making Explosive Shot and Jump Shot classify as explosions. Never happened in the end, but it would make pistol more worthwhile.
Sooner or later they really are going to have to recognise that it can't be left as-is. Maybe when they want to introduce an elite spec with an offhand?
Hah, yeah, Pistol mainhand is just not even in the ballpark. Probably my suggested buffs aren't enough.
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Forum Lord Chaith
No more buffs please, core engi is already pretty good, its iust that holo and broken specs overshadow it, id rather everything be nerfed down to core engi level instead.
condi vanilla engi is almost identical in damage to holosmith, here's a comparison of the two:
If anything, both variants need a bit more love to compete with every other strong PoF DPS, they are getting much closer between each other though. Weaver still a huge anomaly.
Heck, Shattershot has basically everything Fragmentation Shot used to have... and the rev players regard renegade shortbow as bad. Granted, you have to consider the other skills as well, but that was pretty much the first thing I thought when I saw Shattershot: "Isn't this exactly what pre-nerf engineer pistol used to do?"
I personally loved it all except for maybe serrated steel which kinda scares me a bit while you would need to take firearms and give up either alchemy or inventions eng has pretty easy access to bleeding in like almost every possible set up imaginable lol.
dead traits - this is good for you?
Core Engi will get further PvP buffs, there's no avoiding that. The new balanced tier in PvP is: Holosmith, Chrono, D/P Daredevil, Tempest, core Ele, core S/D Thief, arguably Spellbreaker and a few others. Core Engi is multiple tiers below the tier ArenaNet is actively buffing and nerfing these classes to.
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Forum Lord Chaith
Removing superspeed would remove Holosmith from my WvW guild's main use for it and I'd probably go back to playing revenant for them.
The meta in WvW right now requires high mobility to help counter pirate shipping. I'm not sure Anet would make such a drastic skill-split between PvP and WvW.
it would be interesting to see your build. Link me if you do not mind. Hate this pirate ship meta, also forced to play rev because of it. And i dont knowhow you play without stability trait...its not ok on wvw, only bcs of alot of CCs/
did you check out my suggested changes to Scrapper? Having Final Salvo fields move with your position will fill any group needs for that
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Forum Lord Chaith
If you knew engis history with anet you'd realise engi almost never gets buffed and only nerfed, pre pof engi rifle was dog kitten and anet never once even tried to buff it which disproves you thinking core engi will get buffed. Like i said, core engi isnt being used as much because holo is a pure upgrade over it. Ive played core engi in pvp, and i had no issues with any of those builds besides spellbreaker and chrono. Core engi is perfectly fine and balanced, anet just gotta nerf everything else down to its level and this game will finally be close to balanced.
I have always wondered why a trait like no scope exists, it is only a partial fury source while up close and has no other added benefit to it, think @Chaith.8256 's suggestion is good but maybe too similar to where I think he got the idea from (Retribution, radiance traitline from guard). That tier has no power option too.
Also not sure if you noticed that explosives has a tier where there's two VERY similar traits for power builds (blasting zone and glass cannon), seems a bit redundant. Not sure if we can get some insight from a dev but I am taging the one that usually talks here and sometimes responds to people's questions on engi: @Robert Gee.9246
Quite true, Condi Engi is a perfect example of this, i totally remember how i was a condition bomb with such build back then in the first few seasons.
I have tested it with today's season and it's defenitely not the same, the build has been overwhelmed by the powercreep, it seems like my big threatening skills barely do anything against my opponents. and oh my, poor of me if i am the one getting condi bombed.
As a core engineer, i agree with your statement \Cool Guy, the only thing i hate of it is how clunky and/or slow the pace of the build is, so much time to see those big numbers rolling...
You can be a victim about it, most profession forums are, lul, but after the buffs to Acro, Strength, and Radiance, I think I'm starting to sense a trend. In HoT they were doing damage control on ridiculously OP things, way more OP than Scourge/FB are now, comparatively. PoF and recently pre-pof we saw lots of ArenaNet balance attempts to bring up the specs holding the rear, I'm certain that will continue.
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Forum Lord Chaith
Yeah obviously it is a huge parallel to the Radiance buffed trait, just a different trigger being 10+ might instead of retal.
No Scope hasn't fit into any meta build, no meta build has ever included Firearms since core spec overhaul in 2015, if I recall correctly.
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Forum Lord Chaith
Nice try kid but your the one whos asking for buffs, im not a victim since i feel engi is in a great spot atm where its high risk/high reward. Lol anet buffs doesnt mean kitten dude, most of them are usually lackluster buffs like "increased auto attack damage by 3%". As i said, core engi is only bad cause holo is a complete upgrade to the power build and the condi build is just overshadow by all the broken pof specs. If anet listens to people like you then everything would be op (some of the buffs you wrequested were just flat out broken).
Well, no disrespect, but you're just wrong on lots of things:
1.) ArenaNet buffs do mean kitten, dude, Radiance, Acrobatics, Strength, these trait lines became awesome instead of being kitten.
2.) Core Engi is not only bad because Holo is an upgrade, it's bad because it's bottom tier in PvP every spec is better than core engi outside other bottom-tiers like Necro, Renegade, etc.
Also its not really helpful to say ur changes r broke kid without explanation..
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Forum Lord Chaith
Can you please at least bring constructive/factual arguments to the topic?, every single profession sub is a cesspool of your kind of people, illogical, jaded, angry.
Most of the things he talks about and offers as suggestions already exist in game btw, the whole radiance traitline was reworked and has giant buffs to power guard on retal already there. The GM trait that interacts with retaliation is a whopping 50% crit rate, the previous tier is 10% damage and 250 Ferocity.
My thoughts exactly, 'anet will never buff X cause we're the forgotten red-headed step child of the GW2 Profession' seems to be a recurring theme on every profession forum eh
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Forum Lord Chaith
I been maining engineer on different accounts. I used to play guild wars 2 when queens dale champion trains were a thing and we had to buy trait books at 1g /5g /10g.
I seen engineer get nerfed hundreds of times. It doesn't feel good when a company doesn't try to communicate with you about what they think (or programmer design / intent / supposed to be) when it comes to engineer.
Engineer is very under powered. In all game modes. We generally require the most hands on rotations and skills / reflexes and knowledge requirements - and we perform fairly "average" compared to other specs and professions.
I play engineer because i feel drawn to it - subconsciously - and i enjoy it. Granted engineer has a good chunk of useless skills (so does everyother profession ) but i think engineer is literally the worst profession in the game since PoF released.
My biggest problem with engineer is that it takes more work and more effort to deal decent damage / heal better / tank better / = just be better in combat - than other professions. But that's mostly a pvp problems not a pve problem.
Engineer has no aegis, resistance, very little stability, very little quickness, huge cast times, mediocre power and condi damage, We have no unique mechanic and super speed is given out to other professions , we are not very tanky even with toughness and vitality, and if we go full berserker or condi build - are damage is not as good as say - a warrior or necro or a thief.
Engineer is just a solo player mess and i think holosmith is actually the strongest spec / build right now currently. Scrapper is ok...decent team work ...but as i played scrapper - i could never be a roamer (even in zerk gear) like a thief or a mesmer.
I am sure engineer is quite strong in spvp and 1v1s and for pve they should be able to do competitive damage - so there's that going for them. But engineer is very painful to play as when you look at your traits and they don't feel rewarding or powerful and you can't do much "outplays".
I do remember celestial power rifle and OP turrest and chemical healing bombs. Engineer had their broken moments. OH yea scrapper in HOT so tanky and powerful.
Yea good times i miss those times.
You're also wrong on a lot of things, all those traitlines you listed were already very good at the beginning at the game then got nerfed and buffed over and over again. If anet has a habit of buffing underperforming things then why are there still useless traitlines and skills across the board (like thief critical strikes, necro death magic, warrior arms). I never said engi was underpowered (you did tho lmao) I think its the most balanced class in the game atm which is why I said all your buffs were pointless and would just add more powercreep to the game. Also based on your profile history i can tell you just love to kitten people off, esp since you actually think firebrand support is broken.
This is overly pessimistic, > @Coolguy.8702 said:
Core Engi is underpowered in PvP, no amount of nerfs to anything else will make it good, cause they'd have to nerf 15 specs. Firebrand makes tempest obsolete in PvP, it should be fair to where they both are useful. I'm not trying to tick people off.. Unless the truth hurts
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Forum Lord Chaith
Except its not, i dunno if you're new to engi but ive won plenty this season playing a classic static discharge boon spam build, less damage then holo but more sustain as it should be, firebrand making tempest obsolete is mainly cause scourge (which is broken as kitten and will be nerfed...) just wipes tempest off the game due to tempest not having enough cleanse to handle it. Firebrand has less healing but more stability and cleanse to make up for it.
First time Engi here, grats on your God of PvP title with Static Discharge core Engi
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Forum Lord Chaith
Relevant:
Do you know who you're talking to?
I basically run this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAsenEIDlIjVID2XBcJjlBD7LAseePg1n7TQpvHWETiA-jFCEQBwb/Bmo0AAnAAHqMbjKBbjeA/p+jLfAABAQAM0hO0hO0hGpAWdrF-w
Stab comes from my party. Yea, it's tough sometimes if a teammate misses their rotation but that's what Elixir S is for, LOL. We play a modified pirate ship where we actually do pushes too because if you don't attempt pushes you allow the opponent to optimize for ranged damage only, which hurts. I'd prefer to run rifle, which I started with when PoF came out, but rifle doesn't really have cleave. I swap to rifle and replace Hard Light Arena with something else if I'm not zerging. The recent change to sword is pretty nice.
Scapper is in a weird place ever since the dazes were removed from gyros. It got relegated to typical engi "jack of all trades" role where it attempted to be a supporty class with some dps - bruiser I guess. It didn't feel at all distinct from anything. And Scrapper is even more melee-oriented than Holosmith, in a meta that is very anti-melee.... I've already been feeling like I need to slot in grenades or even replace prime light beam with mortar kit due to the pirate ship because without rifle I can only really lay down the damage when we engage close up.
Thanks for the lulz.
I think Scrapper should become more useful in WvW group content. It has WvW written all over it. A good idea would be for Decisive Renown to instead of granting might, instead, grant 10 targets maximum for abilities that apply super speed to allies.
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Forum Lord Chaith
I think Scrapper should become more useful in WvW. Having Decisive Renown instead of granting might, increasing the amount of allies that benefit from the Scrapper's super speed to 10 would help a lot, I added that to my list of suggestions
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Forum Lord Chaith
How about a modification to Chemical Rounds ? Tell me what you think of that :
Chemical Rounds
Increase the condition duration and the attack speed of pistol skills if you wield two pistols.
Duration Increase : 30%
Attack Speed Increase : 30%
I imagine that while you have this trait equipped, you alternaterively fire with each pistol instead of only shooting with one hand for Fragmentation Shot and Poison Dart Volley. It would be classy and fun while not being that OP since you would win DPS on 1. and 2. but loose DPS for Blowtorch, which is your main damaging skill. You'll lose the bonus if you equip Pistol + Shield, but I don't think your main source of DPS comes from 1. 2. 3. when playing a build with Shield. I even doubt people would take Firearms trait line. My proposition be the most effective in PvP, where an Engineer would more consistantly apply conditions while camping Pistol for range attacks. (since the kits providing conditions are mainly melee).
Pistols #1 and #2 are really bad, a 30% speed boost would be very welcome, at the expense of reduced duration. Animation change would be awesome too. Overall, I think this change would be very welcome, but the trait is currently not dead, if Pistol Mainhand or any condi builds were worthy, 50% base Condi duration would be clearly better than the alternatives.
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Forum Lord Chaith
They should nerf 15 specs though. If everything is OP, then .. everything is OP. They wont, but they should..
Holo is considered balanced and I still feel like I'm doing too much damage to everything.
Convince people that core War, core Guard, core Ele, core Thief builds need to be nerfed down to Engineer level, I'm not that masochistic. The new 'balanced' tier will be where a lot of HoT elite specs sit after the years of toning down. There's nothing wrong with that, imo.
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Forum Lord Chaith