How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]

[Chaith.8256]

@Tehologist.5841 said:I still feel holo mode being a tool belt skill is killing build diversity in competitive modes. The synergy with static discharge and kinetic battery is why holo forge damage gets constantly nerfed. I also feel always giving up something by choosing rifle vs pistol shield which kits do not compensate for. Either mobility and immobilize of rifle or blind/block and defense of pistol shield. With weapon swap and kits would still be weak, but at least viable.

I can't wholly agree with some of these statements,

If you don't run Photon Wall for the quick Toolbelt Activation every 7s, then you have very little synergy with Static Discharge and only decent synergy with Kinetic Battery. Photon Forge has no synergy with Static Discharge in fact (the bolts fly randomly into the ground). Without Photon Wall, most Holosmith builds will run Adrenal Implant over Kinetic Battery in fact. It doesn't have overpowered synergy. Particle Accelerator could possibly see some shaving tweaks though.

Also, Rifle and Toolkit have a very well rounded weapon combo synergy that has historically replaced off-hand Shield's functionality in PvP quite well. Rifle & Toolkit was everything before Core Specs & HoT. Shield is quite obsolete in PvP currently too, Double Elixir S and Photon Wall serve better than using Shield. Shield is still a fun option with Overshield + Sword/Shield tank Holo.

[Peutrifectus.4830]

Almost every other option still feels inferior to alchemy holosmith... sigh.

Ima just be having fun with my core Condi build over here playing harder and getting rekt.

As a PvPer, I've never played so much PvE as much as this season :/

[Chaith.8256]

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:Almost every other option still feels inferior to alchemy holosmith... sigh.

Ima just be having fun with my core Condi build over here playing harder and getting rekt.

As a PvPer, I've never played so much PvE as much as this season :/

Scrapper could feel really good as a bruiser damage dealer with just a few positive tweaks. It wouldn't even take close to what I have suggested for Scrapper to eclipse Holosmith in many situations.

Core really will always be inferior until kits get some more damage and survivability associated with them. I've suggested many adaptations so Kit users (core Engi) can fight more as an equal, such as:

• Backpack Regenerator - granting a short stacking regeneration every time you use a skill in each unique kit.
• Streamlined Kits - still grants swiftness the same, but instead of the random effects going off, proc one condition removal, with each kit on a unique 20s ICD.
• Various buffs to eGun, FT, Bombs, Tool Kit damage & utility.

Really it's just been a super long time waiting for ArenaNet to give core Engi the treatment that Core Guard, Core Thief, Core Warrior got with their big buffs to traitlines that don't very well mesh with their Elite Specs.

[Iozeph.5617]

@Chaith.8256 said:

@"Peutrifectus.4830" said:Almost every other option still feels inferior to alchemy holosmith... sigh.

Ima just be having fun with my core Condi build over here playing harder and getting rekt.

As a PvPer, I've never played so much PvE as much as this season :/

Scrapper could feel really good as a bruiser damage dealer with just a few positive tweaks. It wouldn't even take close to what I have suggested for Scrapper to eclipse Holosmith in many situations.

Core really will always be inferior until kits get some more damage and survivability associated with them. I've suggested many adaptations so Kit users (core Engi) can fight more as an equal, such as:

• Backpack Regenerator - granting a short stacking regeneration every time you use a skill in each
  unique
  kit.
• Streamlined Kits - still grants swiftness the same, but instead of the random effects going off, proc one condition removal, with each kit on a unique 20s ICD.
• Various buffs to eGun, FT, Bombs, Tool Kit damage & utility.

Really it's just been a super long time waiting for ArenaNet to give core Engi the treatment that Core Guard, Core Thief, Core Warrior got with their big buffs to traitlines that don't very well mesh with their Elite Specs.

How do they give us that treatment? We're too complex. We need to be streamlined. Something- several somethings have to go. But everyone has their favourite aspect of the engineer. Is it gadgets, turrets, some of our kits? Who decides?

It's why most new Engineer players gravitate toward Holo, and rightly so, because it's the ticket to easy damage/survival/success. Even with the influx of new players we're otherwise still a niche player base. There's no incentive to streamline core Engineers in a good way for the sake of a few old burnouts and holdouts because they did that in a sense with Holo and they're still invested in selling both it and PoF. Most requests for something meaningful are just met with - 'What? You got Holosmith what more do you want?'

Holo needs to be nerfed, and hard, but it's a one trick pony. You take away its damage, limit its CC, and then it's just an extremely simplified core engineer with a sword and a light show.

But to compete Core spec needs big damage. Not the changes to bomb kit -which apart from being massively telegraphed suicide is now ferocious, massively-telegraphed suicide, and not damage that takes the first quarter of a battle to ramp up(conditions) only to have it cleansed or converted because it smacks of playing with your food just long enough for it to get off the plate and eat you. We need reliable burst damage from range.

And say somehow the stars aligned and we got that damage? We'll just see the elite specs exalted even more by giving them useful adjuncts to their own unique ability sets -again either because the elites are still more survivable or they've much easier rotations. I'd love to see your changes go through if only to see movement in some sort of direction, even if it's one I don't one hundred percent agree with. I just don't see it happening.

I'm honest and self-conscious enough to admit that in the end it comes down to the burnouts and holdouts, myself included, just not wanting to play Holo. I understand that non-Holo we're just too slow for today's game. We're just not versatile any more. We're sold as versatile but between the dubious elixirs, useless gadgets, practically vestigial turrets, and lackluster kits and base weapons we're just nostalgically holding onto -we've become encumbered by a bunch of outdated gimcrackery we don't even have the bar space to effectively use.

TLDR; In short we've become this guy now-

[Naix.8156]

The path to tweaking core engineer would be via making 3 traitlines desirable enough that the player has to choose (ala core guardian + warrior) or going the harder route and tweaking kits and the elite toolbelt skills.

Buffing the offensive or offensive-utility of toolbelt elite skills would help the core engineer out. Holos don't have access to the elite toolbelt slot, and by buffing the offensive efficiency of that skill slot it makes it less effective for tanky scrappers.

Kits are a tough one to touch. You'd want to again push the offensive output of kits so that it could be an option to select as tradeoff for Holo. Holo has a short kit duration cd lockout associated with it, and if you are using a kit you also aren't getting anything out of your Photon Forge - they don't synergize well by design. The more difficult part is that core engineer has really leaned on the survival and utility of kits to function, which are both things that a tanky scrapper would really benefit from as well. Base engineer's weapon selection also contributes to the issue as they aren't (and likely were never intended) to be self sufficient and instead would encourage pairing with utility skills to cover one another's short comings (or stack on their strong suit).

TLDR - core engineer is pretty much completely eff'ed for competitive play; just be happy that it at least has a build option for raid content

[Chaith.8256]

@Iozeph.5617 said:How do they give us that treatment? We're too complex. We need to be streamlined. Something- several somethings have to go. But everyone has their favourite aspect of the engineer. Is it gadgets, turrets, some of our kits? Who decides?

I think all the answers to this question are already being shouted out. As a poster after you has said, and as per many Engi suggestions:

Buff things that Holo and Scrapper to a degree cannot access, such as:

• Possibly buffing F5 skills that Holosmith literally can't use.
• Introducing defensive & offensive traits that scale off of taking multiple kits.
• Buffing the sustained damage of kits
• Buffing the PvP utility of Explosives, Firearms when used together (impossible to additionally run Alchemy & Elite spec)

Who decides will obviously be the balance devs, as always, this isn't a democracy.....

[Chaith.8256]

A couple new suggestions added for purity of purpose on kit auto-attacks. I'm actually not meming though.

• Elixir Gun #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers generously re-added to the base damage
• Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

[Chaith.8256]

New Suggestion to fix a low-key unfair mechanic that Holosmith uses:

Stop Corona Burst's 'charge up' and detonation period being affected by quickness. It's not a cast time that quickness should affect.. this seems like more of a helpful bug that does a couple things for Holo. #1, this makes the Corona burst detonation more unpredictable because you have a different dodge timing whether he's casted it with Quickness or not - making it more of an investment of your primary focus rather than a mechanic that you can build up muscle memory to conquer.

My reasoning: Make Corona burst's detonation rightfully more predictable, stop the quickness double dipping nature of Corona Burst, and return parity between Corona burst and all other charge up activation skills, (Orbital Strike, Big Ol' Bomb,) that rightfully do not get their fuses sped up by Quickness.

[migcun.5240]

Hello everyone!

So here is my copy paste of some ideas !

"Scrapper could actually have some gyros working like signets, like other classes, since you have gyros flying around you and applying it's buff on you just like any other signet.And when you use them the signet effect is off until the recharged coldow .

All I know is that scrapper needs buffs to the specialisation. Power, healing, and toughness should have increased scale values on this class, so you can have your role more effectively and be on the same lv as any other DPS classes.

We also could change the traits mechanics and merge some of them all together, allowing the traits to have more impact on your playing style, and giving 3 new traits on the last row:

a DPS trait, increasing the benefit of power on gear or even the dmg of your weapons skills and reducing the coldow on your gyros and tollbelts.

healing : increasing the scale of healing power on items, reducing the cd on healing skills and increasing it's effects.

toughness: increase the scale of your toughness given by your gear and increase the amount of dmg that can be absorbed by your barriers.

We need some empower to our roles, the fact is that scrapper does not scale as good as any other playable class, that's why we will never be equal until a decent fix"

[Zex Anthon.8673]

@Chaith.8256 said:

My reasoning: Make Corona burst's detonation rightfully more predictable, stop the quickness double dipping nature of Corona Burst, and return parity between Corona burst and all other charge up activation skills, (Orbital Strike, Big Ol' Bomb,) that rightfully do not get their fuses sped up by Quickness.

I agree with your changes to corona burst. However, I find Big Ol' Bomb to be more similar to Prime Light Beam. Big Ol' Bomb should be unblockable with a shorter fuse time, in exchange for a longer cool down and a more noticeable bomb. The bomb could be bigger and painted red to make it more noticeable. This way you would have to actively dodge to avoid Big Ol' Bomb instead of ignoring it and simply walking away, or blocking it with aegis.

With that said why not make Big Ol' Bomb, or any bomb for that matter, affected by quickness. Prime light beam gets affected by quickness. Big Ol' Bomb could get a flashing light that flashes faster as its about to blow, so that the skill is more telegraphed and you would know if its affected by quickness or not. There may be some limitations with the game mechanics that would make it difficult to implement, but that's for the devs to worry about.

[Chaith.8256]

@Zex Anthon.8673 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

My reasoning: Make Corona burst's detonation rightfully more predictable, stop the quickness double dipping nature of Corona Burst, and return parity between Corona burst and all other charge up activation skills, (Orbital Strike, Big Ol' Bomb,) that rightfully do not get their fuses sped up by Quickness.

I agree with your changes to corona burst. However, I find Big Ol' Bomb to be more similar to Prime Light Beam. Big Ol' Bomb should be unblockable with a shorter fuse time, in exchange for a longer cool down and a more noticeable bomb. The bomb could be bigger and painted red to make it more noticeable. This way you would have to actively dodge to avoid Big Ol' Bomb instead of ignoring it and simply walking away, or blocking it with aegis.

With that said why not make Big Ol' Bomb, or any bomb for that matter, affected by quickness. Prime light beam gets affected by quickness. Big Ol' Bomb could get a flashing light that flashes faster as its about to blow, so that the skill is more telegraphed and you would know if its affected by quickness or not. There may be some limitations with the game mechanics that would make it difficult to implement, but that's for the devs to worry about.

Big ol' Bomb is affected by Quickness, it's usually 1/2s cast and it becomes faster with quickness. I understand what you're referring to, but besides Corona Burst, I don't think any abilities have a charge up that's not a cast that's affected by quickness.

Buffing Big Ol' Bomb I'm not against in other ways, but I think it's good for skills that have charge up delays to always be consistent so players can memorize when to react.

Adding unlockable to Big Ol' Bomb I'm very down with. It's a very cool signature move that should be more prevalent.

[Iozeph.5617]

How to balance everything that's bad on Engineer? If the sky was the limit I'd say delete the Holosmith for a start- better still delete Holo and Scrapper (and all the other elites for that matter). That way we wouldn't be relegated to begging for improvements that are limited to the short list of things unusable by either Holo or Scrapper out of fear of making them stronger.

As it is, that list is absurdly short and most of the things confined to it won't make a damnable lick of difference to our success so long as the overblown elites are still free to run roughshod all over core specs with minimal effort required by comparison.

[Ghos.1326]

@Chaith.8256 said:A couple new suggestions added for purity of purpose on kit auto-attacks. I'm actually not meming though.

• Elixir Gun #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers generously re-added to the base damage
• Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

I would actually be ok with the flamethrower's number of attacks being reduced in exchange to bring burning on each attack proc. Very good suggestion.

[Iozeph.5617]

@Ghos.1326 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:A couple new suggestions added for purity of purpose on kit auto-attacks. I'm actually not meming though.

• Elixir Gun #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers generously re-added to the base damage
• Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

I would actually be ok with the flamethrower's number of attacks being reduced in exchange to bring burning on each attack proc. Very good suggestion.

And you still have -whether it's ten strikes or three- a terrible, short range, slow tracking, easily avoidable, damage kit that still only tickles opponents in the same space of time that most other overblown elites are going to floor you, finish you, and spam emote your corpse.

What I'd rather see instead of keeping number of attacks is an all the time application of burning that stacks as long as the flamethrower is kept on targets. And a rework of what we have now which, if we're honest, is just a rubbish blow torch into an actual flamethrower.

Give flamethrower a fuel tank. Tap it lightly and you hit a group of opponents for the old range value of four hundred odd and double the damage of a current Flame Jet tick. Hold down the button and the range extends in front of you in a constant stream, piercing shields and targets(and not limited by number of targets hit) as it continues applying stacks of burning up to an eventual range of twelve hundred(actual flamethrowers could fire a distance of roughly forty metres if using jellied petrol) -which then the engineer will only be able to maintain for five or so seconds(perhaps improved with traits) before the tank runs dry and they have to wait for it to refill. The weapon is still usable even if a fraction of the tank replenishes but the majority of it must be filled in order to see those extended ranges because the range has to build over time as the button is held down.

Then what you have is a narrow stream, mid to long range burst weapon which still requires a bit of strategy on the part of the player to use- instead of just keeping the button held down all day long cycling Flame Jet to little good effect.

[Chaith.8256]

@Iozeph.5617 said:

@Ghos.1326 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:A couple new suggestions added for purity of purpose on kit auto-attacks. I'm actually not meming though.

• Elixir Gun #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers generously re-added to the base damage
• Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

I would actually be ok with the flamethrower's number of attacks being reduced in exchange to bring burning on each attack proc. Very good suggestion.

And you still have -whether it's ten strikes or three- a terrible, short range, slow tracking, easily avoidable, damage kit that still only tickles opponents in the same space of time that most other overblown elites are going to floor you, finish you, and spam emote your corpse.

What I'd rather see instead of keeping number of attacks is an all the time application of burning that stacks as long as the flamethrower is kept on targets. And a rework of what we have now which, if we're honest, is just a rubbish blow torch into an actual flamethrower.

Give flamethrower a fuel tank. Tap it lightly and you hit a group of opponents for the old range value of four hundred odd and double the damage of a current Flame Jet tick. Hold down the button and the range extends in front of you in a constant stream, piercing shields and targets(and not limited by number of targets hit) as it continues applying stacks of burning up to an eventual range of twelve hundred(actual flamethrowers could fire a distance of roughly forty metres if using jellied petrol) -which then the engineer will only be able to maintain for five or so seconds(perhaps improved with traits) before the tank runs dry and they have to wait for it to refill. The weapon is still usable even if a fraction of the tank replenishes but the majority of it must be filled in order to see those extended ranges because the range has to build over time as the button is held down.

Then what you have is a narrow stream, mid to long range burst weapon which still requires a bit of strategy on the part of the player to use- instead of just keeping the button held down all day long cycling Flame Jet to little good effect.

• Unique resource mechanic,
• Burn on all 10 hits,
• Hits twice current damage
• 1200 range bursts,
• Is an auto attack

Seems realistic

[Ghos.1326]

@Iozeph.5617 said:

@Ghos.1326 said:

@"Chaith.8256" said:A couple new suggestions added for purity of purpose on kit auto-attacks. I'm actually not meming though.

• Elixir Gun #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers generously re-added to the base damage
• Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

I would actually be ok with the flamethrower's number of attacks being reduced in exchange to bring burning on each attack proc. Very good suggestion.

And you still have -whether it's ten strikes or three- a terrible, short range, slow tracking, easily avoidable, damage kit that still only tickles opponents in the same space of time that most other overblown elites are going to floor you, finish you, and spam emote your corpse.

What I'd rather see instead of keeping number of attacks is an all the time application of burning that stacks as long as the flamethrower is kept on targets. And a rework of what we have now which, if we're honest, is just a rubbish blow torch into an actual flamethrower.

Give flamethrower a fuel tank. Tap it lightly and you hit a group of opponents for the old range value of four hundred odd and double the damage of a current Flame Jet tick. Hold down the button and the range extends in front of you in a constant stream, piercing shields and targets(and not limited by number of targets hit) as it continues applying stacks of burning up to an eventual range of twelve hundred(actual flamethrowers could fire a distance of roughly forty metres if using jellied petrol) -which then the engineer will only be able to maintain for five or so seconds(perhaps improved with traits) before the tank runs dry and they have to wait for it to refill. The weapon is still usable even if a fraction of the tank replenishes but the majority of it must be filled in order to see those extended ranges because the range has to build over time as the button is held down.

Then what you have is a narrow stream, mid to long range burst weapon which still requires a bit of strategy on the part of the player to use- instead of just keeping the button held down all day long cycling Flame Jet to little good effect.

flame jet, as a power source, can actually put out some impressive numbers, but you need pretty much near 100% crit chance, a better and more constant source of burning, and quickness. whether a very small burning proc for around .10 or .20 seconds for each attack or less attacks but each attack puts out enough burning to keep one stack on the opponent is implemented would really help buff the kit. The kit itself is, according to anet, supposed to keep a steady amount of burning on the target. I don't think increasing range would be a good idea though, the weapon is more a small skirmish mid range kind of weapon, whether you run condition or power.

Part of the issue power-wise is the juggernaut trait. The trait just doesn't give the defensive tools that the flamethrower kit would need to survive in close-mid range skirmishes. 2 major examples of this is juggernaut lacks defense enhancing stats to give, like toughness, protection, or vitality, and the stability/might proc only happens when you are in the kit for 3 seconds.

Part of the issue condition wise is the 2 and 4 skills. the 2 skill still shoots a super slow ball of fire, of which you can control the explosion. I suggest making the projectile a bit faster, or even changing the 2 skill entirely and giving it a charge mechanic. As for the 4 skill, I think a wider area of effect, or a change in the area's shape would do it some good. It can't really provide much pressure because of this, as you can just pretty much side step out of it and be fine until it's gone. I also think a unique interaction between the other attacks and the 4 skill should be implemented for a more unique and strategically diverse approach to combat when using the flamethrower.

All in all, we don't want to do too much damage increase for power because it has the potential to become way too strong, nor do we want to go overboard with condition application because it would be way too burst for a condition damage build. As far as conditions go, as well, I would suggest increasing the burning times on the other skills a little more, to help keep burning on targets like the weapon kit is supposed to. I think these above changes would really help put the flamethrower kit in a unique hybrid role. But it really all needs to start with juggernaut. the effects of juggernaut should proc when entering the kit immediately, and then continue to proc if you camp into it after every 3 seconds. This way, the engineer could still swap kits, OR choose to camp into the kit at will, instead of being forced to camp into it currently. IF they choose to keep it as is, then some defensive measures must be added into the juggernaut trait besides just stability if they are going to keep advocating keeping the flamethrower kit as your "main hand weapon", otherwise you won't really get any use out of the trait at all and the flamethrower, without all of these suggested changes that both Chaith and I made, will continue to be a mediocre weapon choice in the current meta.

[Iozeph.5617]

@"Ghos.1326" said:flame jet, as a power source, can actually put out some impressive numbers, but you need pretty much near 100% crit chance, a better and more constant source of burning, and quickness. whether a very small burning proc for around .10 or .20 seconds for each attack or less attacks but each attack puts out enough burning to keep one stack on the opponent is implemented would really help buff the kit. The kit itself is, according to anet, supposed to keep a steady amount of burning on the target. I don't think increasing range would be a good idea though, the weapon is more a small skirmish mid range kind of weapon, whether you run condition or power.

Part of the issue power-wise is the juggernaut trait. The trait just doesn't give the defensive tools that the flamethrower kit would need to survive in close-mid range skirmishes. 2 major examples of this is juggernaut lacks defense enhancing stats to give, like toughness, protection, or vitality, and the stability/might proc only happens when you are in the kit for 3 seconds.

Part of the issue condition wise is the 2 and 4 skills. the 2 skill still shoots a super slow ball of fire, of which you can control the explosion. I suggest making the projectile a bit faster, or even changing the 2 skill entirely and giving it a charge mechanic. As for the 4 skill, I think a wider area of effect, or a change in the area's shape would do it some good. It can't really provide much pressure because of this, as you can just pretty much side step out of it and be fine until it's gone. I also think a unique interaction between the other attacks and the 4 skill should be implemented for a more unique and strategically diverse approach to combat when using the flamethrower.

All in all, we don't want to do too much damage increase for power because it has the potential to become way too strong, nor do we want to go overboard with condition application because it would be way too burst for a condition damage build. As far as conditions go, as well, I would suggest increasing the burning times on the other skills a little more, to help keep burning on targets like the weapon kit is supposed to. I think these above changes would really help put the flamethrower kit in a unique hybrid role. But it really all needs to start with juggernaut. the effects of juggernaut should proc when entering the kit immediately, and then continue to proc if you camp into it after every 3 seconds. This way, the engineer could still swap kits, OR choose to camp into the kit at will, instead of being forced to camp into it currently. IF they choose to keep it as is, then some defensive measures must be added into the juggernaut trait besides just stability if they are going to keep advocating keeping the flamethrower kit as your "main hand weapon", otherwise you won't really get any use out of the trait at all and the flamethrower, without all of these suggested changes that both Chaith and I made, will continue to be a mediocre weapon choice in the current meta.

Flame jet has to be kept on a target and has to hit the last tick to burn to do that damage and it has to be there for a while. Who do you know -apart from new or bad players- who's going to just stand still in a competitive mode for all that? Especially today? Doesn't have to be flame thrower, it could be anything, any kit, but core needs a burst weapon, even if it's half and half power/condi burst, capable of good range.

As for flamethrower, to me the whole purpose for two seems to be for blasting fire fields for might stacking. It's probably why the projectile is so slow- so that players are able to do just that- it needs to be removed because it shares the same sort of cludgy mechanic as the old staff two on guardian. It would be better to take a page from the new guardian staff. The whole kit could take from several sources for improvements - here's a quick rundown of how I'd change it around;

1) Fire Stream as listed above- fuel tank(limited duration) twelve hundred range max double damage of current single tic. Short duration burning stacks applied for every second the stream passed through an enemy.

2) Fire Blast. Ground targeted, and applies applies short duration blind(three seconds) to those caught within the blast. Doesn't apply burning itself but if it hits someone or something affected by burning those stacks have their duration refreshed. Blast finisher and obviously meant to be used in conjunction with the field created by Wide Dispersion.

3)Wide Dispersion, an instant, wide frontal cone attack which sets everything caught within on fire and leaves a short-duration, cone-shaped fire field(takes the place of Napalm) on the ground in front of the Engineer.

4)Rock-It! - Mobility skill. Combination of Warrior GreatSword Whirlwind and Elementalist Staff(fire) Burning Retreat. When button is pressed a directional graphic will show in a line which is movable around the engineer(the arrow seen before exectuing whirlwind attack with War GS). It extends for nine or twelve hundred range(whichever's ultimately more balanced). When released the Engineer will be shot across the ground leaved a burning trail in their wake(Burning retreat.) Usable to fling themselves in the direction of the line(regardless of facing). This could be into combat or used for escape. Good over most flat or gently sloping terrain but subject to collision and wall slide -as is Whirlwind attack/Burning Retreat- until the 'Rock-It!' effect jet has completed. Those caught in the fire trail have burning applied as described for Fire Stream above)

5)F.A.E.(Fuel Air Explosive)- Engineer hurls a tank of napalm(the fuel tank) at a target area. Wide, circular, long-duration field field with knockdown effect (2 sec). Benefits from Explosives traits. Applies burning every second to those caught within. Explosion counts as a blast finisher and refreshes any previous burning stacks on the target. Use of F.A.E. completely depletes the fuel tank for Fire Stream. If the tank is empty at the time of use then refilling is delayed for another three to five seconds.

I believe there's a place within PvE and cooperative play for a condition refresh mechanic. It could be overpowered in some cases but with all the immunity, resistance, and cleansing out there it would still be situational enough that I don't believe it would dominate. Would a fuel tank value need to be assigned to abilities two through four? Don't know, but it's something to explore as well.

[The Ace.9105]

@"Chaith.8256" said:Updated after August balance patch, 2018

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. Strap in, have fun imagining all these new toys and builds to play with.

Disclaimer, these are the changes I think are necessary to bring each dead skill or trait into a balanced side-grade, or part of a brand new build, and do this with the least amount of functionality changes.

The goal is to have more than just Rifle Holosmith around the "great" tier on metabattle. Ideally Scrapper and core Engi could compete with other core builds, and balanced HoT/PoF ones.

Engineer =/= Holosmith

This thread is a no power creep zone, that means not raising the one current strong specialization past its current limit.

Core Engineer:

General Changes: Projectile changes: Thrown Elixirs, Med Kits, these are now unblockable.

Weapon Skills1.) Pistol #1: Fragmentation shot increased damage by 20%. Is now an explosion. Fragmentation Shot now bleeds on the 120 radius explosion instead of the projectile. Decreased aftercasts so an attack roughly fires every .5s.

2.) Pistol #2: Poison Dart Volley Is now piercing. Increased damage by 20%. Now applies .75s of weakness per dart, in addition to its previous effects. Removed projectile spread.

Kits1.) 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 #1: Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers re-added to the base damage

4.) Elixir Gun #2: Glob Shot cooldown reduced to 5s from 8s, grants 4s swiftness to the Engineer for each target hit. Damage increased by 15%. Now homes in on the initial target and bounces between enemies only. This change will allow invigorating speed to be reliably harnessed by core/scrapper.

5.) Elixir Gun #3: Poison duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds.

6.) Elixir Gun #4: Acid Bomb damage increased by 15%

7.) Flamethrower #1: Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

8.) Flamethrower #2: Flame Blast now ground targeted and explodes on contact, like Elementalist's Phoenix.

9.) Flamethrower #4: Napalm, this skill now destroys projectiles.

10.) Flamethrower toolbelt: In Pvp/WvW, 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.

9.) Med Kit #2: Banage blast, reduced bandages launched from 5 to 3. Drastically increased the hitbox of bandage projectiles and tightened spread. Un-used bandages at the end of the arc will spawn on the ground for 5 seconds.

10.) Bomb Kit #2: Fire Bomb's first pulse applies 2 burning instead of 1.

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. Puddle duration increased to 5 seconds.

12.) Bomb Kit Toolbelt: Big Ol' Bomb now unblockable, suggestion by Zex Anthon.8673.

13.) Mortar Toolbelt: Orbital strike Toolbelt skill damage increased by 40%.

Turret Related Changes:1.) General Turret changes:

• Turrets deliver a short point-blank knockback on death (120 distance).
• Reduce Thumper, Rocket, Net Turret cooldown to 20s.
• Thumper Turret will only Knock up foes once when placed, instead of twice.
• Supply Crate CD reduced to 90s.
• Turrets no longer auto-attack.
• Cooldown starts immediately on use so they're always of some use to keep alive.
• Removed functionality to pick up turrets & reduce cooldown.
• Turret duration reduced to 10s before detonating.
• 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 an overcharged attack as a parting gift. Reflective shields activate without delay, but are reduced to 2s duration.

Utility Skills1.) Utility Goggles: Currently: Break stuns, gain fury and immunity to blind for ten seconds. New: Break stuns, gain fury and immunity to all debilitating conditions (blind, weakness, vulnerability.)

2.) Personal Battering Ram: Currently: Launches foe, 130 range. New: Target limit increased to 5, and range of Ram attack extended to 450.

3.) 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.)

4.) Throw Mine: Currently: Throw a mine that damages, knocks back, and removes a boon. New: Instead of removing a boon, Throw mine can only remove stability.

5.) 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.)

6.) Toss Elixir R: Currently: Remove conditions and Revive allies. New: Cooldown Reduced from 90s to 75s, now actually removes one condition per pulse.

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 surge toward a foe, reappearing with a cloud of steam, blinding foes. 3/4s cast. Evade: 1s. 5 second cooldown. 600 range

• 3 "Primordial Frenzy", Grant yourself quickness (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, pinning and damaging foes. 1/2s cast. 9s cooldown. 240 radius area. 900 range. 770 (2.0) damage. Immobilize, 2 seconds. (Arcing arrow-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.) Toss Elixir H: **New: Instead of its current effects, Toss Elixir H will create a 240 radius light field that pulses 4x, duration 3s, removing 1 condition from allies and healing for 319 per pulse.

2.) Bandage Self: New: Cast time reduced to .75s to be consistent with other heals.

Core Engineer Traits

General trait changes:Inventions' 'Bunker Down' trait switches places with Explosives 'Short Fuse' trait.

Explosives

1.) Short Fuse, now Bunker Down. Currently: On crit, drop a mine & bandage. New: To reflect being reduced from a GM trait, reduced mine damage and healing from dropped med packs by 25%.

2.) Orbital Command: Currently: when striking enemies below 50%, cast a lesser orbital strike.New: In addition to its current effects, Increased the velocity of Mortar shots by 50%.

Firearms1.) Juggernaut: Currently: Gain might and stability while wielding a flamethrower. New: Effect extended to Bomb Kit and Grenade Kit.

2.) Serrated Steel: Currently: Bleeding duration increased by 33%. New: In addition to its previous effects, inflicting Bleeding on a Target will also inflict vulnerability (5s) (1s ICD)

3.) Incendiary Powder: Cooldown decreased from 10s to 5s to be more in line with push toward ramping condition damage over time.

Inventions1.) Automated Medical Response: Currently: Heal skills recharged when you're struck below 25% health. **New: Increased revive speed by 10%. When you begin to revive an ally, unleash a large wave of healing vapours, healing allies & removing a condition. One condition removed, Healing: 2500 (.5 healing coeff), Radius: 360.

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 initial pulse.

3.) Soothing Detonation: Currently: Blast combo finishers heal nearby allies for a small amount. New: Instead, successful Blast finisher combos cause an additional Blast combo: Water as well. 2s ICD added.

4.) 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.

5.) Bunker down, now 'Short Fuse'. Currently: Bombs have shorter fuse time and 20% reduced recharge. New: In addition to its current effects, bomb explosions heal allies 145 (.15). Re-name to Elixir Infused Bombs!

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 the stacking buff for 5 seconds, one stack per unique kit. Maximum stack of 3.

2.) Comeback Cure: Currently: Removing conditions grants regeneration. New: Removing conditions grants barrier. 750 barrier.

Tools:

1.) **Streamlined Kits: Trait re-worked. Now, Swapping a kit removes one condition and grants 20 seconds of swiftness. 20s Global ICD on gaining the swiftness portion, but each kit has a separate 20s ICD for the condition removal.

Scrapper

Class mechanic changes:

Function Gyro as a class mechanic needs to be good for solo Scrappers and more flexible should there not be a need for stomping/reviving.

Function Gyro: You gain access to the Function Gyro which can be used to finish a foe, bolster or revive an ally at range.

• "Function Gyro Charged" buff now reduces damage taken by all sources by 10%
• The ability to bolster a living ally added to the Function Gyro.
• Using Function Gyro on a targeted ally will order your gyro to their position instead, and apply "Overdrive"
• Overdrive, periodically gain quickness, superspeed, and barrier. Duration: 2s per pulse, 3 pulses, 2000 barrier per pulse.

General Gyro Changes:

Gyros are being re-branded as a 10Target affecting WvW niche. Medic Gyro's healing, Bulwark's Watchful Eye, Blast Gyro's Explosion, Shredder Gyro's attacks, these all will affect either 10 allies or enemies.

Due to lack of incentive to keep Gyros alive, (pathing, A.I, longer cooldown), Gyros have been tweaked to be more reliable and never undesirable to be kept alive longer.

• Cooldown of Gyros begins on activation, not death.
• Cooldown of Bulwark, Purge, Shredder, Medic increased to 25 seconds cooldown in all game modes.
• Maximum Gyro lifespan set to 15s for all.

Hammer:

1.) Increased the range of the Hammer Auto-Attack from 130 to170

2.) Electro Whirl's reflecting effect activates immediately.

3.) Rocket Charge now evades for the entire animation instead of 3 miniature evades, added 3s of cripple per hit. Damage reduced by 20% to compensate.

4.) Shock shield now provides a barrier to allies as well as the Scrapper, the barrier for other allies would be stronger: appr. 400/pulse.

5.) Thunderclap now inflicts 3 vulnerability per pulse, up from 1.

Utility skills1.) Medic Gyro: Reconstruction Field instant to return to consistency with Defense Field.

2.) Medic Gyro: Heals in a 600 radius to be consistent with Bulwark's Watchful Eye buff.

3.) Purge Gyro: Removes conditions as a caster with 600 range instead of pathing to and booping allies.

4.) Chemical Field: In addition to its current effects, first pulse will also apply resistance to allies for 3 seconds.

4.) Shredder Gyro: No longer creates whirl finishers. Now, each strike from shredder gyro rends the protection boon from enemies, and applies 2 vulnerability for 6s

5.) Spare Capacitor: Dazes over the 4 pulses, daze duration reduced from 2s to .5s. Damage tripled, current damage is non-existent

Traits1.) Shocking Speed - Currently: Leap & Blast finishers in lightning fields applies 5 seconds of superspeed around you. New: All leap and blast finishers apply 2 seconds of Superspeed around you, internal cooldown removed.

2.) Expert Examination - Trait removed and replaced. New: High Performance Alloy - Activated Gyros take no damage for 3 seconds and grant protection to nearby allies. 3s Protection, 240 radius.

3.) Mass Momentum - Currently: Gain power based on your toughness, gain might when you have stability. New: No longer gain power.While under the effects of stability, you can no longer score glancing attacks, gain might.

4.) Final Salvo: Currently: Spawn a lightning field when a gyro is destroyed, granting Superspeed.New: Lightning field now mobile and centered around the Scrapper's position rather than where the Gyro dies.

5.) Applied force: Currently: Gain quickness when you gain might above the threshold. New: In addition to its current effects, while under the effects of quickness and past the 10 might threshold, gain 1s of Superspeed. 1s Interval.

Holosmith

Disclaimer: Low Priority changes ahead. Holosmith has two good configurations in PvP but like every spec has lots of janky utilities and overly niche traits, like a trait only good for running Yaks. A few shaves to overly good traits included.

Utility Skills1.) Coolant Blast - Always grants additional small heal over time. New above high heat threshold effect: Expel 25 heat. No longer chills or applies frost aura.

Traits1.) 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 damage from Overheating.)

2.) Heat Therapy scaling with Healing Power - increased from 0.006 to 0.025. With 500 healing this allows Heat Therapy to heal around 19% more than with a 0 healing stat loadout. (Note: Currently, 500 healing makes heat therapy 4.6% better, needless to say, that's a pitiful increase for the opportunity cost on running an amulet like Avatar/Sages/Celestial over getting Power/Precision/Ferocity/Vit/Toughness)

3.) Crystal Configuration: Storm - Currently: Photon Forge #1 now fires explosive projectiles. New: Photon Forge #1 now fires explosive beams of light, not projectiles, 10% damage penalty removed.(Note: This allows the mode change to not be unjustly affected by projectile hate.)

4.) Crystal Configuration: Zephyr - Currently: Holo Leap removes movement impairing conditions and grants superspeed instead of swiftness. New: Instead of granting superspeed instead of swiftness, increases the attack range of Holo leap from 600 to 900, (travel distance of Holo Leap from 450 to 750.) Adds .75s evade to Holo Leap. This trait increases the cooldown of Holo Leap to 5s, and increases swiftness duration to 5s.

5) Photonic Blasting Module: New: In addition to its current effects, while overheated, all heat % bonuses are energized to the highest tier available to the skill.

I know pretty much nothing about engi or holo but when i am facing them it feels like the rune of vampirism is back in the game.

Doing insane damage and aoe cc with 900 radius is pretty op and it can't be countered that well cause the holo doesn't have the risk of dying due to passive invuln + elixir s with heal. Holo can just kite everything forever with leaps and insta burst ppl down with cc combo while being focused just procs the invuln kite and repeat.

[Chaith.8256]

@The Ace.9105 said:

@"Chaith.8256" said:

Updated after August balance patch, 2018

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. Strap in, have fun imagining all these new toys and builds to play with.

Disclaimer, these are the changes I think are necessary to bring each dead skill or trait into a balanced side-grade, or part of a brand new build, and do this with the least amount of functionality changes.

The goal is to have more than just Rifle Holosmith around the "great" tier on metabattle. Ideally Scrapper and core Engi could compete with other core builds, and balanced HoT/PoF ones.

Engineer =/= Holosmith

This thread is a no power creep zone, that means not raising the one current strong specialization past its current limit.

Core Engineer:

General Changes:

Projectile changes: Thrown Elixirs, Med Kits, these are now unblockable.

Weapon Skills1.) Pistol #1: Fragmentation shot increased damage by 20%. Is now an explosion. Fragmentation Shot now bleeds on the 120 radius explosion instead of the projectile. Decreased aftercasts so an attack roughly fires every .5s.

2.) Pistol #2: Poison Dart Volley Is now piercing. Increased damage by 20%. Now applies .75s of weakness per dart, in addition to its previous effects. Removed projectile spread.

Kits1.) 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 #1:

Tranquilizer Dart Bleeding removed and bleeding numbers re-added to the base damage

4.) Elixir Gun #2: Glob Shot cooldown reduced to 5s from 8s, grants 4s swiftness to the Engineer for each target hit. Damage increased by 15%.

Now homes in on the initial target and bounces between enemies only.

This change will allow invigorating speed to be reliably harnessed by core/scrapper.

5.) Elixir Gun #3: Poison duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds.

6.) Elixir Gun #4: Acid Bomb damage increased by 15%

7.) Flamethrower #1:

Reduced amount of strikes from 10 to 3. Each strike causes burning, like how the 10th hit previously did.

8.) Flamethrower #2: Flame Blast now ground targeted and explodes on contact, like Elementalist's Phoenix.

9.) Flamethrower #4:

Napalm, this skill now destroys projectiles.

10.)

Flamethrower toolbelt: In Pvp/WvW, 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.

9.)

Med Kit #2: Banage blast, reduced bandages launched from 5 to 3. Drastically increased the hitbox of bandage projectiles and tightened spread. Un-used bandages at the end of the arc will spawn on the ground for 5 seconds.

10.)

Bomb Kit #2: Fire Bomb's first pulse applies 2 burning instead of 1.

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. Puddle duration increased to 5 seconds.

12.)

Bomb Kit Toolbelt: Big Ol' Bomb now unblockable, suggestion by Zex Anthon.8673.

13.)

Mortar Toolbelt: Orbital strike Toolbelt skill damage increased by 40%.

Turret Related Changes:1.) General Turret changes:

• Turrets deliver a short point-blank knockback on death (120 distance).
• Reduce Thumper, Rocket, Net Turret cooldown to 20s.
• Thumper Turret will only Knock up foes once when placed, instead of twice.
• Supply Crate CD reduced to 90s.
• Turrets no longer auto-attack.
• Cooldown starts immediately on use so they're always of some use to keep alive.
• Removed functionality to pick up turrets & reduce cooldown.
• Turret duration reduced to 10s before detonating.
• 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 an overcharged attack as a parting gift.

Reflective shields activate without delay, but are reduced to 2s duration.

Utility Skills1.) Utility Goggles: Currently: Break stuns, gain fury and immunity to blind for ten seconds. New: Break stuns, gain fury and immunity to all debilitating conditions (blind, weakness, vulnerability.)

2.) Personal Battering Ram: Currently: Launches foe, 130 range. New:

Target limit increased to 5,

and range of Ram attack extended to 450.

3.) 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.)

4.) Throw Mine: Currently: Throw a mine that damages, knocks back, and removes a boon. New: Instead of removing a boon, Throw mine can only remove stability.

5.) 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.)

6.) Toss Elixir R: Currently: Remove conditions and Revive allies.

New: Cooldown Reduced from 90s to 75s, now actually removes one condition per pulse.

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 surge toward a foe, reappearing with a cloud of steam, blinding foes. 3/4s cast. Evade: 1s. 5 second cooldown. 600 range

• 3 "Primordial Frenzy", Grant yourself quickness (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, pinning and damaging foes. 1/2s cast. 9s cooldown. 240 radius area. 900 range. 770 (2.0) damage. Immobilize, 2 seconds. (Arcing arrow-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.) Toss Elixir H: **New: Instead of its current effects, Toss Elixir H will create a 240 radius light field that pulses 4x, duration 3s, removing 1 condition from allies and healing for 319 per pulse.

2.)

Bandage Self: New: Cast time reduced to .75s to be consistent with other heals.

Core Engineer Traits

General trait changes:Inventions' 'Bunker Down' trait switches places with Explosives 'Short Fuse' trait.

Explosives

1.) Short Fuse, now

Bunker Down

. Currently: On crit, drop a mine & bandage. New: To reflect being reduced from a GM trait, reduced mine damage and healing from dropped med packs by 25%.

2.) Orbital Command: Currently: when striking enemies below 50%, cast a lesser orbital strike.New: In addition to its current effects,

Increased the velocity of Mortar shots by 50%

.

Firearms1.) Juggernaut: Currently: Gain might and stability while wielding a flamethrower.

New: Effect extended to Bomb Kit and Grenade Kit.

2.) Serrated Steel: Currently: Bleeding duration increased by 33%.

New: In addition to its previous effects, inflicting Bleeding on a Target will also inflict vulnerability (5s)

(1s ICD)

3.) Incendiary Powder:

Cooldown decreased from 10s to 5s to be more in line with push toward ramping condition damage over time.

Inventions1.) Automated Medical Response: Currently: Heal skills recharged when you're struck below 25% health. **New: Increased revive speed by 10%. When you begin to revive an ally, unleash a large wave of healing vapours, healing allies & removing a condition. One condition removed, Healing: 2500 (.5 healing coeff), Radius: 360.

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 initial pulse.

3.) Soothing Detonation: Currently: Blast combo finishers heal nearby allies for a small amount. New: Instead, successful Blast finisher combos cause an additional Blast combo: Water as well. 2s ICD added.

4.) 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.

5.) Bunker down,

now 'Short Fuse'.

Currently: Bombs have shorter fuse time and 20% reduced recharge. New: In addition to its current effects, bomb explosions heal allies 145 (.15). Re-name to Elixir Infused Bombs!

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 the stacking buff for 5 seconds, one stack per unique kit. Maximum stack of 3.

2.)

Comeback Cure: Currently: Removing conditions grants regeneration. New: Removing conditions grants barrier. 750 barrier.

Tools:

1.) **Streamlined Kits: Trait re-worked. Now, Swapping a kit removes one condition and grants 20 seconds of swiftness. 20s Global ICD on gaining the swiftness portion, but each kit has a separate 20s ICD for the condition removal.

Scrapper

Class mechanic changes:

Function Gyro as a class mechanic needs to be good for solo Scrappers and more flexible should there not be a need for stomping/reviving.

Function Gyro: You gain access to the Function Gyro which can be used to finish a foe,

bolster

or revive an ally at range.

• "Function Gyro Charged" buff now reduces damage taken by all sources by 10%
• The ability to bolster a living ally added to the Function Gyro.
• Using Function Gyro on a targeted ally will order your gyro to their position instead, and apply "Overdrive"
• Overdrive, periodically gain quickness, superspeed, and barrier. Duration: 2s per pulse, 3 pulses, 2000 barrier per pulse.

General Gyro Changes:

Gyros are being re-branded as a 10Target affecting WvW niche.

Medic Gyro's healing, Bulwark's Watchful Eye, Blast Gyro's Explosion, Shredder Gyro's attacks, these all will affect either 10 allies or enemies.

Due to lack of incentive to keep Gyros alive, (pathing, A.I, longer cooldown), Gyros have been tweaked to be more reliable and never undesirable to be kept alive longer.

• Cooldown of Gyros begins on activation, not death.
• Cooldown of Bulwark, Purge, Shredder, Medic increased to 25 seconds cooldown in all game modes.
• Maximum Gyro lifespan set to 15s for all.

Hammer:

1.)

Increased the range of the Hammer Auto-Attack from 130 to170

2.)

Electro Whirl's reflecting effect activates immediately.

3.)

Rocket Charge now evades for the entire animation instead of 3 miniature evades, added 3s of cripple per hit. Damage reduced by 20% to compensate.

4.)

Shock shield now provides a barrier to allies as well as the Scrapper, the barrier for other allies would be stronger: appr. 400/pulse.

5.)

Thunderclap now inflicts 3 vulnerability per pulse, up from 1.

Utility skills1.) Medic Gyro: Reconstruction Field instant to return to consistency with Defense Field.

2.)

Medic Gyro: Heals in a 600 radius to be consistent with Bulwark's Watchful Eye buff.

3.)

Purge Gyro: Removes conditions as a caster with 600 range instead of pathing to and booping allies.

4.)

Chemical Field: In addition to its current effects, first pulse will also apply resistance to allies for 3 seconds.

4.)

Shredder Gyro: No longer creates whirl finishers. Now, each strike from shredder gyro rends the protection boon from enemies, and applies 2 vulnerability for 6s

5.)

Spare Capacitor: Dazes over the 4 pulses, daze duration reduced from 2s to .5s. Damage tripled, current damage is non-existent

Traits1.) Shocking Speed - Currently: Leap & Blast finishers in lightning fields applies 5 seconds of superspeed around you. New: All leap and blast finishers apply 2 seconds of Superspeed around you, internal cooldown removed.

2.) Expert Examination - Trait removed and replaced.

New: High Performance Alloy - Activated Gyros take no damage for 3 seconds and grant protection to nearby allies. 3s Protection, 240 radius.

3.) Mass Momentum - Currently: Gain power based on your toughness, gain might when you have stability. New:

No longer gain power.While under the effects of stability, you can no longer score glancing attacks, gain might.

4.) Final Salvo: Currently: Spawn a lightning field when a gyro is destroyed, granting Superspeed.New: Lightning field now mobile and centered around the Scrapper's position rather than where the Gyro dies.

5.) Applied force: Currently: Gain quickness when you gain might above the threshold.

New: In addition to its current effects, while under the effects of quickness and past the 10 might threshold, gain 1s of Superspeed. 1s Interval.

Holosmith

Disclaimer: Low Priority changes ahead. Holosmith has two good configurations in PvP but like every spec has lots of janky utilities and overly niche traits, like a trait only good for running Yaks. A few shaves to overly good traits included.

Utility Skills1.) Coolant Blast - Always grants additional small heal over time. New above high heat threshold effect: Expel 25 heat. No longer chills or applies frost aura.

Traits1.) 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 damage from Overheating.)

2.) Heat Therapy scaling with Healing Power - increased from 0.006 to 0.025. With 500 healing this allows Heat Therapy to heal around 19% more than with a 0 healing stat loadout. (Note: Currently, 500 healing makes heat therapy 4.6% better, needless to say, that's a pitiful increase for the opportunity cost on running an amulet like Avatar/Sages/Celestial over getting Power/Precision/Ferocity/Vit/Toughness)

3.) Crystal Configuration: Storm - Currently: Photon Forge #1 now fires explosive projectiles. New: Photon Forge #1 now fires explosive beams of light,

not projectiles, 10% damage penalty removed.

(Note: This allows the mode change to not be unjustly affected by projectile hate.)

4.) Crystal Configuration: Zephyr - Currently: Holo Leap removes movement impairing conditions and grants superspeed instead of swiftness. New: Instead of granting superspeed instead of swiftness, increases the attack range of Holo leap from 600 to 900, (travel distance of Holo Leap from 450 to 750.) Adds .75s evade to Holo Leap. This trait increases the cooldown of Holo Leap to 5s, and increases swiftness duration to 5s.

5) Photonic Blasting Module: New: In addition to its current effects, while overheated, all heat % bonuses are energized to the highest tier available to the skill.

I know pretty much nothing about engi or holo but when i am facing them it feels like the rune of vampirism is back in the game.

Doing insane damage and aoe cc with 900 radius is pretty op and it can't be countered that well cause the holo doesn't have the risk of dying due to passive invuln + elixir s with heal. Holo can just kite everything forever with leaps and insta burst ppl down with cc combo while being focused just procs the invuln kite and repeat.

Maybe not the correct thread for this, in this Thread we really don't focus on things that are considered meta. I've suggested nerfs to holo and may share more of my nerf ideas though.

[Chaith.8256]

Additional Holosmith Nerf Suggestions:

• Exit Photon Forge: No longer considered a Toolbelt Skill for the purposes of all Toolbelt traits: (Quickness, Vigor, Static). All Toolbelt traits still affect Engage Photon Forge.
• Corona Burst: No longer "charges up" and donates faster when used with Quickness. Quickness still properly affects the initial cast time.
• Corona Burst: Vulnerability per Strike reduced from 8 to 5 in PvP.
• Holographic Shockwave: Radius reduced from 600 to 240, and becomes only capable of hitting on the same Z-Axis. Damage and scaling increased by 150%
• Heat therapy: Base healing reduced by 25%, heal scaling increased to compensate.

[Silinsar.6298]

@"Chaith.8256" said:Additional Holosmith Nerf Suggestions:

• Exit Photon Forge: No longer considered a Toolbelt Skill for the purposes of all Toolbelt traits: (Quickness, Vigor, Static). All Toolbelt traits still affect Engage Photon Forge.
• Corona Burst: No longer "charges up" and donates faster when used with Quickness. Quickness still properly affects the initial cast time.
• Corona Burst: Vulnerability per Strike reduced from 8 to 5 in PvP.
• Holographic Shockwave: Radius reduced from 600 to 240, and becomes only capable of hitting on the same Z-Axis. Damage and scaling increased by 150%
• Heat therapy: Base healing reduced by 25%, heal scaling increased to compensate.

1. Reasonable. Overall some core TB skills could use CD shaves. Seems odd the Holo's the best TB trigger machine.
2. Agree.
3. Agree.
4. This one I don't understand (beside the fact that it often gets complained about). Restricting the axis would make it buggy. There are already enough skills in the game that are frustrating to use because they don't hit when someone's 1mm below or above you in certain places. These should be cut, not added to. Adding a LoS check would make more sense, though other skills should get treated equally then. 240 range would mean you have to be on top of moving when starting to use it and/or quickness will be a even more important factor to hit with it, introducing another reason to stack / abuse high quickness uptimes on holo. Damage is what Holo really doesn't need anymore and shockwave already auto crits. Also there's no base damage for skills, just scaling damage, so I don't get what you mean by "damage and scaling". The problem with shockwave is that it's a high impact AoE that doesn't get its radius properly visualized for the enemies. At the edge you can never sure if it'll hit you or not and the effect doesn't drop off with range. I'd either make the shockwave deal less damage and only a KB over 300 range or make it only hit beyond 120 range (and display the radius with a circle) so you can counterplay it by either sticking to the Holo or outrunning it. Another way to nerf it in less of a whack-a-mole style would be to just tone down its speed slightly. Anyway, nerf the skill by enabling more counterplay, not by reducing utility on an almost solely damage-focused skillset.
5. Would start with 15% and fixing the healing gained by the heat loss through TRV. Also, what'd you change the scaling to? Hard to gauge the impact of a nerf without having a value for the countermeasure.

[Chaith.8256]

@Silinsar.6298

If you look up skills on the gw2 wiki you'll see every attack is displayed like this:

245 (.50).

When I say increase base damage and scaling by X%, it means both of those numbers in the calculation. Seems there's a fundamental difference in how we calculate damage.

As for holographic shockwave, being like every other skill is what I suggested because it's cheap on developer time. AoEs don't do LoS checks... Jump shot, worldly impact, they don't care about LoS. They also don't hit on multi-z-axis levels. They're fine. You may be more in favor of reinventing the wheel, I agree, a LoS check would be favorable if it were simple enough.

In regards to tweaking Heat Therapy, only a small nerf, and a small buff to heal stat synergy. 10% difference to each or so. This is intended as a small shave to meta, and small buff to Inventions holo/off meta amulets.

[Silinsar.6298]

@Chaith.8256 said:If you look up skills on the gw2 wiki you'll see every attack is displayed like this:

245 (.50).

When I say increase base damage and scaling by X%, it means both of those numbers in the calculation. Seems there's a fundamental difference in how we calculate damage.

The number is a result of the skill specific modifier, the default armor for tool tips (2600), the default power at level 80 (1000) and the average exotic weapon strength of the weapon used. There is no skill specific base damage. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage#Direct_damage

@Chaith.8256 said:As for holographic shockwave, being like every other skill is what I suggested because it's cheap on developer time. AoEs don't do LoS checks... Jump shot, worldly impact, they don't care about LoS. They also don't hit on multi-z-axis levels. They're fine. You may be more in favor of reinventing the wheel, I agree, a LoS check would be favorable if it were simple enough.

I disagree. Skill like worldly impact and jump shot should hit if the target's in the radius despite the elevation. That aside, I'd still like to here your thoughts and reasoning behind the radius decrease and damage buff. As stated, I think there are better ways to nerf the skill and make the interactions with it more interesting.

@Chaith.8256 said:In regards to tweaking Heat Therapy, only a small nerf, and a small buff to heal stat synergy. 10% difference to each or so. This is intended as a small shave to meta, and small buff to Inventions holo/off meta amulets.

25% would maybe be too much, 10%-15% would be a better start. Just asked for a value because your suggestion was oddly specific about one part and vague on the other.

[Curennos.9307]

Oh my god, please yes @ those scrapper changes. I adore the concept of a support-y brawler who isn't immortal because their support skills work better on allies than themselves. A+

[Chaith.8256]

New Suggestion for Crystal Configuration: Storm:

Crystal Configuration: Storm: - Increased range and added explosive nature on Photon Forge abilities.

• Photon Forge#1 Chain: Range increased to 900. Explosive beam attack, not projectiles. 10% damage reduction removed.
• Holo Leap: Range of attack increased to 900 from 600. Movement remains same at 450. Explosion.
• Corona Burst: Radius increased from 240 to 300. Explosion.
• Photon Blitz: Range increased to 900 from 600. Explosive projectile.
• Holographic Shockwave: Range increased to 300. Explosion. (Previous nerf suggestion reduced it to 240 radius, and to essentially deal much increased damage.)