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Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Engineer
Adamantium.3682 replied to Rubi Bayer.8493's topic in Engineer
I think overall the Engi spear has a consistent theme and the skills fit together, but needs some cleanup. I like the mobility and the aesthetics are great. I think each skill serves a good purpose I wouldn't suggest changing the function of any of them. Engi weapons have always been more of a utility than a main weapon and I think the spear fits in that, the skills are all useful in various ways as utility or burst damage setup. Brief comments on each individual skill below, in summary I think the spear is pretty close to being ready for prime time I would just like it to play a bit faster than it does. Auto attack: underwhelming, but it's an auto. Can't really expect to camp any main hand weapon as an Engi, and while the refresh of Focused is a nice idea the auto attack chain overall feels weak even with that. Maybe another bleed or two later in the chain would incentivize using the AA chain help even if it applies to Focused target only. Skill 2: Covered quite a lot already, it needs to stick to your target. Going through the target isn't going to work. I didn't quite understand why this sometimes didn't even take me all the way to a target when the skill said it was in range, and then sometime shoots me all the way through them. Overall quite a messy ability currently. Also the Focused status is really hard to see. I don't want it to be lost in the buff bar but it would be nice if it could be bigger, brighter, and/or a shape that's more noticeable. Skill 3: I like this ability a lot but it's so small. Maybe this is in line with other skills of this nature but on Engineer it feels small when I can swap into bomb kit and have 240 radius. Skill 3 spear flipover: This is also a cool ability but seems clunky and inconsistent on when or if it lands? Also seems really slow when throwing it feels like it should hit before the damage actually lands like there's some kind of delay. Can't throw backwards which combined with all the movement on the weapon causes problems. There will be lots of times you're not perfectly facing your target and this skill should still be able to work. Charges timer and duration of this skill being available feels good. Skill 4: Cool ability but again feels a bit clunky. It's long cast time makes it hard to land an interrupt, maybe intentional because it's quite a lot of CC but it feels slow to me. It also seems to miss a lot and the hitbox feels much smaller than the animation. Skill 5: Satisfying to use but really slow and too much aftercast. I would like a slightly longer leap but the biggest issue is how slow the skill is. -
I like this a lot, I had suggested this after beta #1. A unique trait for confusion would be good on Mechanist. How about each proc can inflict 1 burning/bleed/whatever with a cool down. Could be a flat damage and/or duration bonus but that's boring. Any other unique ability would be cool too. A buff to confusion also has the added benefit it buffs mace and signets more than kits. So it doesn't push kits even further into OP territory it just gives a bit more of a unique space for Mechanist skills.
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Condi signet could be nerfed about 15-20% but place on both Mech and Engi Reward good placement to double drop
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Mechanist was improved nicely from first beta, I think it is viable now across multiple builds but could use a bit more fine tuning. Here are some spots I think could use a final look before EOD. Support seems like it's in a great spot now, other builds could use a few adjustments IMO. Mech The Mech still doesn't respond immediately all the time. Sometimes (mostly PvP) when it is not using the skill you commanded you have no idea if it's just buggy or breakbar down. It would be really nice QOL to put a small blue line somewhere, under its health bar maybe or vertical next to the summon/dismiss button to show remaining breakbar. Make it red when broken or something, just too hard to keep track of. Attack/return commands along with near mandatory use of Shift Signet (more on that below) has functionally fixed a lot of the pathing issues even if they are still there under the surface. There are still mechanics it dies too and it is very inconsistent and confusing. I assume there are still bugs here, but W4 no mechanics kill it W1 VG greens kill it. Maybe it is not possible, but I'll echo something from my first set of feedback: it would be really cool if the mech could do combo finishers. It has some obvious leaps, blasts, whirls it would add another level to use those combos in the right spot. Right now the mech feels like just press the skills off cooldown (for dps) so some additional choice of effects with finishers would be really cool I think. Underwater is broken, which seems pretty intentional with the depth charges skill. I have to trust this means there will be basically no underwater combat in the future. There is so little of it in the game now this doesn't really bother me but it does make the mech come across as a bit "unfinished". Mace Better but can't compete in DPS builds. For now I am okay with the Mech rocket attack being bound to Mace #3 because vanilla weapons don't need any more help (and it would thematically makes no sense). Also this is how Holo heat works. However the mace as a whole is not competitive with pistols for damage. I would like to see some buffs to the auto attack so that it is worth using in place of grenade spam. I appreciate that there were buffs from beta 1 but it is not enough when pistol is still benching so much higher and it's so much easier to use (range). Mace requires melee so inherently more difficult to use even if stacking is prevalent. Requires elite spec. I think there is justification to make Mace better condi damage. I'd love to fill a rotation with Mace autos instead of Grenade autos. The change to 1/2 + 1/2 stun on Mace #3 is sort of annoying, doesn't give you as big an opening as you had before. I understand it is more breakbar damage but the duration made it more usable in the past. Signets I have a concern with signets on Engineer as a concept. The whole idea of signets is hold for a passive effect, or use for a more powerful effect and temporarily lose the passive. That's great and on every other class that choice exists. With Engineer that is simply not a real choice, there's just no other skills to use. To hold signets you are stuck using 1 weapon or possibly the one kit you brought to complement the signets (and the same skills for 9 years). There is no weapon swap or attunements to compliment your skills you have 5 weapon skills only. In practice this means we are back to kit builds because the sacrifice for using traditional signets is too great. Shift Signet is incredible, basically required in almost any build. On one hand that is bad, a single skill should not be required in almost all builds. On the other hand nerfing Shift Signet brings it down the level of the other signets and falls into the dilemma above where signets are just not attractive on Engineer. Some choice could be opened up by putting the boon share passive on a minor trait. Rectifier Signet does basically nothing for the Mech due to high health pool. A proportional increase to what this heals on Mech would be nice. As of now our other heals are better the only thing the signet has going for it is keeping Mech alive. But with such small numbers it doesn't do that. Barrier, Superconducting, Force all have their uses but they are outclassed by other options. They need to be closer to Shift's level to be viable options in builds against the same old kits we've been running for years. Need better active and passive effects across the board. Overclock signet gets a special mention, it's just so bad. I like the idea of an emergency recall for Mech but if the tradeoff is 90s!?!? cooldown then I would rather remove that from this signet. This should be basically a Prime Light Beam coming from the Mech with confusion in addition to the burning. Maybe pull enemies into the beam instead of a knockback. It's just such a cool looking/sounding skill but damage is bad and the cooldown is dreadful. The passive is neat but will not make or break a build to a get a few more seconds on each signet. I'd like to see the active buffed a LOT, and the passive improved as well. Maybe put the Mech recall on the passive somehow like in addition to signet cooldown the summon mech cooldown after it dies is like -50%. Traits Overall traits are good there's a couple head scratchers I will mention but you can fill out 2-3 decent builds from what is here now. I think the grandmaster traits are the messiest right now. To counter the Mech skins/dyes complaint in every other post I would like to see the Mech Frame traits and Mech Core traits also affect the Mech skin like the Mech Arms do. It would be variety and more identifiable counter play in PvP. I'm not against skins/dyes but it just doesn't seem like how pets work in this game so this would be a nice compromise IMO. Instead of toughness/vitality being added on every single minor trait now it's just 2/3. I don't know why this wasn't fully addressed. It's just stretching the functionality out to multiple places for no reason, put it all on one trait and free up a spot for another ability. Mech Frame: Channeling Circuits - Crisis Zone should be a lightning field. It's just a small ring of white (red to enemies) very hard to see when it is active and where it is in the heat of combat. Mech Core: Jade Dynamo - Jade Mortar is just not good, very low condition damage. This is the grandmaster skill for condi Mech it should be impactful but this one is bad. It seems it does more damage for power builds for some reason, hits hard with decent multiplier but it's in the condi trait line. The trait effect should be 100% of mech attacks are explosives just to start with but I have my issues with this being in condi trait line at all. This is a really cool and unique effect using another trait line for the mech so I like that but if you look closer at the explosives on hit effects they lean mostly power outside of one bleed (gain fury, ferocity, big boomer). This whole trait seems to lean more power in a condi line which is confusing. Mech Core: J-Drive - Sky Circus damage it does is really low and the CC is okay but nothing to write home about for a grandmaster. The passive of this trait for the Mech to call down attacks when "away"... well the goal is to never have him away. So this part of the trait should not activate. If it does activate it should be massive damage but I would rather see it changed to something rewarding with the actual mech itself, which is the whole point of the spec. Another issue the signet passive being permanent. This is really tricky and fits in with my previous comments on signets. This feels very necessary to use signets effectively, you just can't hold on to them for their passive effects when you have nothing else to use on your skill bar. I would really like to see this move to a minor trait and make room for a fresh new effect (two new effects if we also drop the whole aerial bombardment thing). I'm encouraged by the good work done between betas, I really look forward to playing the release version of Mechanist, hopefully with some of the above adjustments. Thanks for reading!
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Hello, I have played Engineer for more than 80% of my time in this game since launch. This is the reveal I was looking forward to the most and the only one I feel like I can provide a detailed level of feedback. Trying to keep the main design decisions and offer suggestions for numbers/trait tweaks in line with what Anet generally has done in the past. I think the Mechanist was done quite well for a beta preview. Both Support builds and Condi dps builds look like they have potential for the live game. Power DPS is lacking and to me this is okay our other two elite specs fill different types of power damage roles. It's also possible a high CC power/cele build is pretty viable in PvP. If Mechanist provides legitimate support and condi dps builds at the very least then I think that would be a success and really fill out the roles that an Engineer can provide overall. Regarding support: target caps need cleanup globally. Make everything 5 or 10, not a mix where some builds are taken purely due to the number of targets they can hit. Also Mechanists need Fortifying Bond. Condi dps tuning is currently disappointing because you end up playing essentially a core build with Mechanist instead of Tools. I would really like to see a Mace build with the condi signet be more competitive. To be clear I do not think mace/signet needs to be strictly better than the "core Mech" build and some feedback I've seen goes wrong here. Ideally we could find a place in balance that they are similar enough that mace and condi signet + a kit or two or other utility options is competitive with 4-kit dual pistols. For those who don't want to play piano on their keyboard anymore they are still viable for top DPS roles. For example, if "core build" Mechanists can bench 40k I think it would be ideal if Mace + Signet was 38-40k. Similar to rifle Holo build vs sword Holo build. Mech The mech looks great, animations are cool. The spec lives and dies by the Mech more than any other pet profession, so it really needs AI cleanup and responsiveness. Too often it is running in weird directions, not standing near enough to me for the skills to work, and not doing the skills I am commanding. It's not endearing when the Mech uses an AOE skill 1200 units away from any enemies, it's frustrating. In terms of surviving the Mech is decently beefy but the breakbar in PvE is awful. Breaks too fast due to liberal application of Slow, Immob, chill, knockback, etc and 5s seems like a lifetime. Double breakbar strength and make the stun 3s, split modes if needed. Also 100s CD is insane, 30s max. There's been lots said about this already, moving on... Oh, right one thing. Crash Down/Recall has got to be F5 for consistency. Let F4 be attack, return, or some other AI function. Mace I think the Mace is fun you get a lot out of 3 skills. Aside from some numbers tweaking this came out of the gate strong. Auto chain feels good. Condi numbers are a little low to be competitive with 4-kit builds, depending on how other changes come together some more condis and damage could be added. Signets Rectifier is boring but it works, however I don't see a justification for a 30s cooldown. Should be 20 or 25 max. Barrier is nice, would really like to see a combo field (Ethereal for synergy with all the confusion in this spec). Force is really weird to me, stun break on an AOE knockback feels bad. I've been using it for stun break and scattering mobs annoys players around you. I would remove stun break from this skill, alternatively make the knockback an AOE pull same range same breakbar amount so it doesn't hurt our party if we use it. Shift gets the stun break if removed from force. Aside from feeling really slow (weird on a skill making you faster) it's a neat skill serves a couple different functions. I'd make it instant like other shadow steps especially with stun break. 1/4 max without. Superconducting should be larger on the Mech (like barrier signet), Mech is right on the edge of range currently. Also needs more condis on it or make the field drop on both Mechanist and Mech, rewarding good positioning with overlapping fields. Right now it's weaker than one concussion bomb at 50% longer CD (and lack of the rest of the bomb kit). Lastly with Superconducting, I'd like an ethereal field instead of lightning for the confusion synergy. Jade Buster Cannon... oof this hits like a wet noodle. Two different uses is cool but I don't see why this shouldn't rival Prime Light Beam for damage they are very similar skills. Heck give it a trail on the ground too (confusion of course). 60s CD. Additionally I'm not sure how many builds using other signets would not use this signet as well, maybe give another passive effect and just reduce cooldowns as baseline. Not an exciting passive currently, maybe some interaction with the Mechanist or the Mech landing hits, some stacking effect would be neat. Or give the increased effectiveness to all passive signets here on the elite signet. Minor Traits I think traits need the most work on Mechanist so I will go through them all. Not trying to look at huge changes but some tweaks that would help what I see as the main issues. The minors feel cheap, the last one overrides the previous two (stats) and there's just not a lot of substance. Nothing for the Mechanist if the Mech dies, nothing to synergize with other trait lines. All stats should inherit 100% on the very first minor, should simplify things and allow some choice in skills you want the Mech to have rather than being driven by stats. If there is a balance concern here then the Mech should be tuned directly to match the full stat inheritance but I suspect this wouldn't be a problem, not like the Mech is getting a ton of healing power in a full dps build. I would like to see the minor traits do something for the Mechanist directly, possibly some kind of synergy with the rest of Engineer. Barrier application does something special, CC applies some amount of barrier, some effect when confusion is applied, something when boons are applied, etc. Some interesting interaction that gives the Mechanist a unique way to interact with the rest of the Engineer. Fortifying Bond as the last minor would be great. Maybe bring elements of the signet GM to a minor trait (gain a lesser passive effect when on cooldown). Major Traits 1 (Mech Arms) It's cool that Mech Arms changes the look of the Mech. Would really like to see that extend to the Frame and Core traits. Would help a little with some customization that people want (not super important to me but I get it) and allow a little better counterplay in PvP being able to recognize the physical appearance Single Edge Cutters: Rolling Smash is great, I'm generally using this on the Mech regardless of the rest of build it's just a solid skill if I don't need to cap Might. Is it a technical possibility to give Mech finishers? I think that would really enhance the feeling of the Mech being the main focus of the Mechanist if it could also proc its own combo finishers, get leap auras, etc. This should be a leap. Maybe ground target to let us have a little better control of the Mech. High Impact Drivers: Explosive Knuckle is a good skill obviously for support but in any build that wants might. I like that it's geared toward one type of build but still useful enough generally to apply to other builds. That is a good trait design it's not too locked in to one thing. Jade Cannons: Spark Revolver is okay I generally prefer melee so I use Cutters. One issue I noticed is the other Mech major trait skills remain melee so the Mech still runs in if you use a condi or support trait later in the build. That should be fixed to make them all ranged, also the other skills become 900 range and this is 1200 so the Mech uses this skill then has to walk forward to continue fighting, just seems a bit clunky. Continuing with finishers all Mech ranged attacks get 20% projectile finisher (including this skill) would be cool. I prefer the other two Mech Arms but if this makes all other skills ranged it rounds out a generally solid set of Mech Arm options. Major Traits 2 (Mech Frames) Conductive Alloys: Discharge Array is a decent idea but not enough damage. I'd love to see a lightning field it's right there in the name. I'd add more confusion here or add burning, possibly poison since that's an Engineer condi lacking in Mechanist. I hate to ask for more visual effects but I think this is hard to see in PvP nothing really on the ground indicating damage/CC is happening. I'd really like to see a unique confusion bonus somewhere on Mechanist to help bridge the gap between mace/signet and 4-kit as mentioned above. This might be the right spot for it. +X% damage for confusion is one option, something more unique would be cool like additional effects when skills are activated or some way to refresh durations, etc. Channeling Conduits: Crisis Zone is very cool. Usually this works instantly, which is important for Aegis. Sometimes the Mech just ignores our command and that is really bad for Aegis needs. Feels a little long CD 30s would be great. This is also a great trait because it gives a new ability! Why are those so few and far between? Barrier grants Alacrity is awesome two new boons for Engineer really making support viable. Good work on this one. Variable Mass Distributor: Core Reactor Shot is a not bad but feels outclassed because the trait gives nothing else to the Mechanist. 100% projectile finisher here if possible. Maybe some cool stacking ability whenever CC is used would fit well in this trait line. Major Traits 3 (Mech Core) Jade Dynamo: Jade Mortar is really slow and easy to avoid/miss, but doesn't feel like it has the payoff to justify. More damage and burning is needed (blast finisher?). Ground target that would help a lot in better Mech control. Lingering field should be on the table as well. As for the trait abliity inheriting explosives on hit is a really neat idea but it doesn't really pan out at 33%. Should be 100% explosion chance, Shrapnel is still only 33% chance for 1 bleed. Barrier Engine: Barrier Burst another great skill for support. Mechanist loses Toss Elixir B, can't use Defense Field, lost all AOE stabilty access so I want to suggest replacing Vigor with Stab, but in fairness this is still a really solid trait. The barrier pulse is really strong when combined with other skills and mace, numbers might need tuning down. But 3s pulse should remain for Alacrity. This could be a whirl finisher. J-Drive: Sky Circus is a little disappointing it just doesn't hit as much as it sounds like it should. For being the grandmaster in the power/CC line I think more than just the landing should CC (which doesn't appear to target anything, this would be another great ground target candidate). Each missle should Daze, the landing should also be a blast finisher. The evade is a nice way to avoid damage. The trait ability signet buff is good but I really feel that should be baseline in some form because signets don't feel great without it. Due to lack of weapon swap, and a signet taking the spot of a kit, there just aren't many skills to use. I get the tradeoff of signets is to hold passive or use for stronger effect but it's not the same as Warrior, Guardian, Ele, Ranger, Necro, etc. On Engineer you need some skills to use it doesn't feel great to hold a skill for passive effect when you also have no weapon swap, no kit, no toolbelt, no other skills to use. Maybe a minor trait allows lesser passive effects to remain when using signets and this trait instead buffs signets in a different way.
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[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization
Adamantium.3682 replied to Sodeni.6041's topic in Engineer
I could definitely get behind dual maces, aesthetically would be a great fit. They could easily make them ranged too, nothing immediately comes to mind on how... but it never stopped them with hammer, dagger, staff, axe, or greatsword. Maybe more I can't remember. Mesmer greatsword might be a good inspiration, auto attack could be like a lightning chain attack then go from there. -
[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization
Adamantium.3682 replied to Sodeni.6041's topic in Engineer
Does the Med Kit/healer build overhaul change anyone's mind away from support? The first page of this post when it came out shortly after PoF was heavily in favor of support, be it staff or something else as long as it was support. Anyone changing their mind now, or do we want a new spec and weapon more focused on support to pair with Alchemy and Inventions? I still want to see something ranged personally, although not opposed to a 1H weapon. Something to pair with shield would be nice, but only as a dual wield like Spellbreakers got because Engis really need some more weapon choices. Ideally the offhand would be something in between pistol and shield in terms of functionality so as to offer choice, and the main hand would be pretty heavy support to pair with shield or the new offhand depending on how the skills work out. -
How to balance every single thing that's bad on Engineer [PvP]
Adamantium.3682 replied to Chaith.8256's topic in Engineer
Auto launching walls would lead to launching it at times you may not want to. I don't like skills doing things I don't want them to and losing control over then. I'm okay with the manual activation I would just like a little more grace period. If extending the block duration is unbalanced then just let the launch ability linger for a couple more seconds -
[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization
Adamantium.3682 replied to Sodeni.6041's topic in Engineer
I like the idea of an elite spec that allows weapon swap and introduces 1-2 new weapon sets. Change kits to a related skill to drive away from kits altogether. Like make tool kit a block, grenade kit a big aoe skill, etc. Give them ammo to balance. We can talk all day about "clearly Holosmith was designed to move away from kits" but I don't buy it. As long as kits exist and can be used they will be. An elite spec would have to remove that option completely to really move away from the kit dependence. It's totally doable I think, just takes some creative balancing to offset the loss of kits. I just think it has to be a wholesale commitment and not a short cooldown. -
[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization
Adamantium.3682 replied to Sodeni.6041's topic in Engineer
God please no more AI. Why do we always seem to come back to this? -
[Poll] Weapon for the next Engineer Elite Specialization
Adamantium.3682 replied to Sodeni.6041's topic in Engineer
I guess everyone should stop complaining about Engineer being to melee focused if they're going to vote for another melee weapon! Joking aside, that's a lot more votes for mace than I expected. Something ranged I would like. I think another DPS spec would be boring and repetitive so I would like it to be supportive. I voted crossbow but anything with range would be fine with me. -
I also have a little more of a desert explorer theme I've been bouncing back and forth on.https://imgur.com/a/DwGRf
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Going full pirate mode for POF 3 pic album