Jerus.4350

Yeah, I’d probably go traited Rifle Turret for Fury before pack runes, but if you need the utility slots, it’s an option for sure. as far as gear, Scrapper has a lot of free BD, so some Harrier/Givers and then either Minstrel or Magi for more healing power. Toughness isn’t a no go, most people, especially PUGs, are going to tank with more than the minimum toughness, but you’re right in that it should be considered. The Acid Bomb comment is the reason I’m replying, you do know that it can be canceled by weapon swap such that you don’t do more than a quick hop in place, right? and hScrapper is cool, nothing wrong with it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but it’s fully functional at this point. All it’s missing is Aegis.

Welp, with this: Scrapper Blast Gyro: Reduced cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only. Increased might duration from 8 seconds to 15 seconds in PvE only. We're probably going to just take Blast Gyro by default now, meaning Function Gyro is freed up, and pqScrapper can give 11+ might stacks.

But you’re using it… if all scrapper got was a mediocre rez/stomp skill covering our elite skill toolbelt, that would be a horrible eScpec design IMO. The only reason it’s not available is because you decided it was more important to you to get more DPS. That’s a you problem not a design problem. If Function Gyro was actually required for quickness (it was more so before than it is now) I could agree, but it’s not. and Sub optimal is only true if you’re holding function gyro for no reason, if you’re actually making use of it then that’s the better choice than like 1k more DPS. Make a choice, that’s why we have options, theorycrafting is about opportunity cost and identifying your needs.

Yes, but not by a ton, like it's a solid option if you want more might for your group, and it's probably more DPS than the old setup still.

If you're taking Blast Gyro, you don't have to hit either off cooldown as you have WAY more potential uptime than you need even with full zerker gear(~136% uptime). Just Rocket Charge, Throw Mine, and AAR is enough to cover quickness(~101% uptime), using Function Gyro is to add wiggle room (~118% uptime), and if you add Blast Gyro on top you can space out the usage of whichever skills you want. Though, if I'm taking Blast Gyro it's because I want to contribute to Might uptime and then I'll probably do Blast->Function just for the extra 3 might stacks. The change has a lot of options you can take. Here is a list of skills and theoretical uptimes in full zerker. Mix and match to find what works for you, or add some boon duration (These are calculated with 24$ BD which is what you get from the power ->Concentration conversion with the trait). NAME THEORETICAL UPTIME PER SKILL FUNCTION GYRO 14.29% FLAME BLAST 44.12% BIG OL'BOMB 16.67% HEALING TURRET 16.67% INFUSION BOMB 11.54% MAGNETIC INVERSION 16.67% ACID BOMB 20.00% ROCKET CHARGE 44.44% THROW MINE 25.86% JUMP SHOT 16.67% RIFLE TURRET 16.67% RUMBLE 7.69% Aim-Assisted Rocket 11.32% Lightning Hammer 100.00% Blast Gyro 14.29%

I feel like Engi has always been some kind of amalgamation of mad scientists, and they aren’t really known for safety, in fact quite the opposite.

Ohh? Do you happen to know the %? I don’t do much in regards to home instances so I have no idea, but curious if you can ex axe/choya tonic at full speed in there without superspeed?

😆, yeah, I mean I got 5 Engi's, I just don't like having to log to different toons.

Can we get the cap raised to 12? Y’all gave me too many Engi builds I like, I need more slots to save them (and the fashion to go along with them). Are we going to get more? Can we please?

Full Viper with Firebrand Runes, pistols with Geomancy (or bursting) and Earth sigils. Standard condi Explosions/Firearms traits. Whatever you want for first Scrapper trait, then object in motion and kinetic accelerators of course. Then yeah it’s standard 3-4 kit condi Engi rotation making sure to prioritize FT2 for quickness and Big ol Bomb. There is actually a lot of leeway such that function gyro isn’t needed, but the way I run it simplified a little I want to hit it at least once every few cooldowns worth (so as long as I’m not completely ignoring it I’m fine). Meaning Function can be saved for rez/stab/superspeed/filler quickness. Heal Turret or Medkit can also be taken for some extra quickness, not bad to load up some extra at the start of phases or before you have to run off for a mechanic. Hits ~32.5k if played well, for me 30kish haha. I think you’re right on the old one just flowing, but it was also just “keep these 5 things on cooldown” and easier in that regard. I can say I’ve screwed up quite a bit on this new one by poorly planning fields. Slowly getting used to it. I think it will grow on people as they get used to it and find the variations and boon duration levels that fit them. Technically Function gyro isn’t needed on pqScrapper either but it helps superspeed uptime and gives leeway that I think most of us need at this point. If you add Healing Turret, there is a lot of flex and you can more comfortably use hammer 3.

I wouldn’t call old Scrapper OP at all, but when I read a lot of the complaints about the change it basically comes down to “I liked it before when it was simpler”. I think that’s a completely valid opinion, I think I’d say I liked the old pqScrapper more, it was super comfy. But, when I see people making just false claims about how the new version doesn’t work, or is fundamentally broken, I can’t help but roll my eyes, and that’s when I’m thinking “yeah you just miss how easy it was”. In the end new scrapper is very functional. Some quality of life things were lost in exchange for more damage on pqScrapper, a very viable condi quick build, and an objectively superior heal build(in PVE). I’ll take it. Plus I’m a bit bias in that I actually really like the combo field mechanic and I’m glad ANet is pushing that, not that Engi ever shouldn’t have been utilizing it. So obviously I like this change, feels very Engi to me as a player from back when you took Ele and Engi builds specifically to might stack (and Ele for broken conjures).

Talking post overheat from PBM or just Solar Focusing Lens? Post overheat it’s up to 15% modifier and SFL another 10% if you get it in those 2 Electrowhirl hits and not have it eaten by some pulsing/low damage skill. Potentially more than Scrapper, but Scrapper also has the 5% from stab/SS/swiftness that holo doesn’t, so I don’t think it’s be that crazy.

If the thing you’re doing can be completed in the time of 2 skill casts, does it really matter? I don’t disagree that pqScrapper doesn’t feel as comfy as it used to, but after playing it for a bit in OW yesterday, it’s hardly bad. Having Throw mine stun things followed by dazed from lightning leaps and then thunderclap really makes wiping out a group of trash a breeze.

Medkit only needs to be camped when your team is taking damage that it shouldn’t. With proper timing of your elixir heals (mortar and eg 5) you can easily cover most damage. Then you can combo water fields for healing as well as hit medkit 2/4. Boons in general just got easier with the open utility slots. Blast gyro or FT + Thumper has become my default. Thumper giving protection and Blast Gyro/FT providing the firefield for might blasting. I feel Blast Gyro is a little better with regards to might as it spikes you up quick giving you time to layer on blasts, where FT is a slower ramp up but comes with additional utility. Fury is the only thing I lack and I could take Rifle Turret for that instead of thumper, prot just gets a little tighter. Lots of DPS share fury though so I’m not as worried about it usually. Superspeed is less but it’s still there on Heal and function if you trait it, Superspeed does t need to be 100% uptime though, just when you need it. hScrapper, at least in PVE, is just better and more flexible now, as long as you can keep up somewhat with the blast rotations, something that was already important if you cared about providing might. I feel like these changes increased the skill floor to just do the base level job (provide quick) but greatly increases the potential of hScrapper and cqScrapper, where pqScrapper is higher damage less QoL.

No argument from me. PMech will be hammer, pCore will be hammer, holo PBM will be hammer, and Scrapper will be hammer. Holo ECSU will be the only good non hammer build.

I’d like to see swords 50 heat bonuses get baked in to its viable for other specs. It’s just I don’t think other weapons need holo heat bonuses. Hammer is already good enough, and Rifle needs a straight buff, not just while having heat.

Shortbow is coming much later (end of the year ish iirc). This is just a beta for being able to use all the current weapon options on any spec the profession has.

I was also hoping dual daggers, then we could get a screwdriver as the thematic weapon and I’d be happy.

I’m not sure hammer needs a buff, and Rifle I think needs a bug fix and potentially a base buff, not just in Holo. Right now rifle auto has an aftercast that shouldn’t be there. As for hammer being good enough, I’ve already seen someone push it to 39k with PBM trait, that’s solid. If hammer got 50%+ heat bonuses and 100%+ heat bonuses, I fear sword would completely fall out of play, and that’s not great. Let Sword be the ECSU choice, and hammer is already better sub 100 heat and is good enough to make the PBM trait viable again for power.

I did a little testing on different weapons. I was curious where Sword actually stood. Note, this is with a little bit of scuffed beta gear, but it's consistent with each other and that's what counts. I've also removed AAR trait damage because while the weapons may affect it's proc rate, it's going to be much less of a difference than the isolated attempts suggest. And the last caveat, the Hammer with Thunderclap removed, is just with it mathed out, so it'd be slightly higher if actually done correctly, but this was a slapdash "get an idea" test. Weapon Testing Sword w/Sw2 <50 Heat: 12735 Sword w/Sw2 >50 Heat 15966 Mace w/M3 12066 Hammer w/H2 & Thunderclap 17994 Hammer w/H2 Thunderclap Removed 16195 So, from this, sword isn't quite as bad as I thought, but still pretty bad in it's current state. Mace is worse, so it's still going to be the Power Mainhand of choice, but ugh, not great. Now, if you're above 50% heat, then we're talking. That's what I'm hoping can change, can we get the 50-100 heat bonuses baked into the sword? Leave the 100+ bonuses from ECSU trait as a Holo thing. Baking in the 50 Heat bonuses would make Sword pretty much in line with Hammer without it's 5 skill, which I think makes sense for a primary only weapon. I don't think this would be much of an impact for Holo, just makes overheating or forgetting to pre-heat slightly less punishing. Then all we need is a power offhand to go with Sword 😉

It’s called opportunity costs, if you want to save function gyro build for it, it’s quite easy. Actually condi quick Scrapper has that basically built in already and hScrapper has so many options it’s silly (take FT and it’s like 70%+ uptime alone). Power qScrapper you can take healing turret and save the function gyro. We have so many options right now, find one that works for you.

Excited for this but I really hope they do something to address the heat modifications on Sword, otherwise it’s not going to see use anywhere outside Holo and likewise Holo will likely not use anything else either. hScrapper Mace is a given. Hammer core power and pMech have me interested (almost certainly better). Don’t see myself doing anything else regarding the new match-ups. EDIT RECAP: so turns out hammer Holo ain’t bad at all, didn’t think it would be as close to ECSU sword as it’s looking . Core and mech power builds going hammer was a given. HScrapper mace is pretty busted, but I don’t hate that, yes quick becomes even free-er but it already was and might/prot/fury are the sticking points. That’s what I saw that was good from the Beta. But, what about the bad. Sword as predicted is pretty bad. I think it could be fixed with baking in the 50 heat modifier, and while that sounds like a big buff to Holo… not really, at least in PVE, little extra if you’re playing poorly but generally you want to avoid sword under 50 heat and even under 100 heat, so I don’t see much of a gain for a more competent Holo player. RIFLE! we had a major rework and even though rifle still wasn’t all that great it was the best option and it was fun. Then rifle changed again and now rifle has a bugged extra long aftercast animation on the auto. If the animation can’t be fixed (I’d prefer it was) could we get a ~15% damage buff to compensate? Also that’d still have it pretty well behind hammer. I don’t think some damage buffs to blunderbuss or jump shot would be out of line either. Hammer changes things, but isn’t Ele war horn levels of damage, it just makes pcore Engi compete (if it owns expansions to get weapon mastery), makes pMech not be less than most support builds, and gives Holo a PBM trait power option (roughly the same dps as ECSU sword). I think it makes more sense to push rifle and sword towards hammer than the reverse, especially considering how much Scrapper already relies on the current balance of hammer. Overall fun beta, fun idea, and I’m sure the devs were fully aware that necessary numbers tweaks were going to come out of it 😅

FT on hScrapper is a good pick, provides a long firefield to get blasts in for quick and might. FT makes quickness super easy on it but not at all necessary. hScrapper has 2 free slots that can be used to provide additional boon coverage, CC, or other utility and FT, Blast Gyro, Thumper turret, Bulwark Gyro, Throw Mine, and Rifle Turret are all utilities I see myself using there. HScrapper is looking solid and competitive with other options. For DPS qScrapper, FT is terrible for power, basically every alternative will be better DPS. But, condi qScrapper is a thing now and that is powered by FT. DPS qScrapper is looking like a solid pick, just don’t do FT on Power, it’s bad.

I’d really like the grace period back. With this change the whole idea of a second entity to fight with is kind of shattered. If we have to be side by side at all times, what’s the point? I can agree that the potential that a fully powered mech at ranged could be oppressive, but honestly dps mech has been nerfed so much I don’t think it’s a problem anymore. Let that be its thing while it sits back in a lower tier potential. Or, at least give us back the grace period so we can have at least some advantage if we are smart about it.

Got it, was just thinking home instance will be taking a hit as far as speedy application of quickness. I think you’re right that what we have all has the potential to hit things and put us in combat. I was reading this as “useable while out of combat” and we have plenty of that, we’re not reliant on energy or being in combat, but we won’t have passive applications that can’t put us in combat.