GrayHawk.7560

At least in PvE with DE try run P/P trickery, Crit Strikes and DE. In Trickery take either bottom, top, middle or bottom, top, top (if you run one pistol in each hand so the weapon swap keeps you on P/P, Crit Strikes run bottom, middle, bottom, even in its nerfed state Invigorating Precision is OK for a bit of extra sustain. In DE take the whole middle line. For gear until you're used to things you can run with Marauder for the extra health, either scholar or pack runes. Keep the weapons berserker or assassin's though. Sigils try force and any of strength/blood/paralyzation/accuracy. Utilities healing signet, power signet and thieves guild are the primary the other two slots are flexible. Personally my LI version uses the precision signet and either shadow step, haste or roll for initiative. That should be a good start. Cast thieves guild, Mark your targets and every 5 kills your thieves guild will be full recharged so you have a permanent 3 companions to tank, CC and deal extra damage for you. This helps a lot with survivability. Your marked target will also explode on death dealing some decent AoE damage so killchaining is very easy. Playstyle is basically mark an enemy, kite it spam 3, when you have 5 malice use your stolen skill, press 1 then go back to spamming 3 until Mark is up again then repeat. If you run the version with a pistol in each hand you can weapon swap for extra initiative. Use P4 and thieves guild for CC. With the above you should pretty much have permanent 25 might, fury, swiftness, quickness and vigor so yoi do very well on self boons. Can't really add much re PvP, don't play a lot of it.

Check out Paper Roll's channel on YouTube. His main is now a Celestial Untamed (uses a few pieces of Dire gear too) and the build is actually really really strong. Directing you to the channel instead of posting the build because he deserves the views on it and because the class can be a bit tricky to play and his explanations on his choices are very valuable.

Don't focus on glass DPS. This will echo what a fair few people above have said but here is my 2c - GS with Staff on swap, energy sigils on both, I like cleansing on staff for convenience but that's personal preference. Cele gear actually works quite well. Your TTK will be lower but Vindi can venefit from the extra boon duration, vit and toughness quite well. Rev can buff its own crit chance enough to make Cele at least somewhat viable. For legends Alliance Stance and Jalis will give you all the tools you need for damage, boons, CC and survivability. Mix trait choices for both damage and survivability, eg go with the healing dodge and the battle scars traits. Vindi shits out vuln and both builds and consumes scars very quickly, along with your 4 heals and healing dodge your sustain is actually very very impressive.

It 100% comes down to your preference on playstyle and class fantasy. There are very strong builds for both. A lot of the complaints you see are very over exaggerated and for the most part are about things we'll beyond what a new player will be doing (high end PvP, WvW, Raids, Fractals etc). As a new player enjoy the open world and get a feel for each game mode, 99% of the time you won't be interacting with the outlier events that people are complaining about occur and by the time you do I guarantee you will have both a Warrior AND a Necro. Upcoming balance may also shift things around. For my subjective 2c on the classes (I enjoy them both for the record) - Necro is probably the safer all round pick since Reaper is one of the strongest / easiest Open aworld builds available, Scourge is outright broken it's incredibly good in many places and Harbinger is one of the more polished of the new elites. You also have a variety of playstyles due to summons etc. Warrior can be very fun and it looks like you enjoy the fluidity, options and big numbers and that's great, go with it. Despite general comments Warrior is very much meta across the board in endgame PvE thanks to banners and it can be quite a fun style. As for the elites, they too are fun but different feeling. Unpopular opinion but I really enjoy Bladesworn (in Openworld and instanced PVE). After the last changes it really isn't as stagnant as people make out and you have enough access to movement skills, blocks, stunbreaks and stability to offset the downsides in most cases. The sustain is very fun and landing Dragon Triggers is very satisfying and is a massive dopamine rush every time. From your write up on what you enjoy about Warrior I think you'll enjoy it a lot. Here is a good tip, if you go to the PVP lobby you can try out all of the builds on static golems for free as they are all unlocked there. Unfortunately it uses PvP balancing but you can at least get an idea of how each elite spec, all the weapons etc feel. Go mess around in the PvP lobby with each spec and each weapon and see what captivates you the most.

If running full ascended and precision infusions (bit out of my budget at the moment) this set up is very similar to REM's with slightly better values. With Fury it's 98.26% crit chance, 100% bleed uptime, 50% on confusion, torment and poison. 171% crit damage multiplier and decent Power and Condi Damage. Can run offhand sword in a swap set and the sword trait in Dueling or be lazy and rum blind trait in Dueling and stay with pistol offhand. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiBBgqhrllW6QCZsxukSmbjW+WdxfA-zRRYmxtrIExDS8KISqFKI9dSEhBPk9wbBmfL-e It's mostly for open world since you can tweak the gear more if you have spotter around in a group scenario.

Sigil of Absorption is officially my favourite utility Sigil now, basically any class with a lot of dazes eg Thief, Ranger, Engi, Warrior etc are all now boon rippers.

I found this as well (with pretty limited testing in fairness). I mean it isn't staff Mirage with old torment runes levels but top line of Virtuoso, Inspiration and Illusions and running a couple of phantasm's was pretty solid on everything I tested. It may even be overkill on aegis generation to be honest. Virtuoso also works pretty well with Cele gear weirdly enough which also compliments the playstyle. TTK isn't particularly high played this way but it's definitely serviceable. With all the aegis you pump out plus other blocks, distortion, evades, dazes and constant small heals it actually ends up doing well pretty well. It's a lot more of an active sustain playstyle kind of like guardian relying on aegis and blinds to compensate for its health pool.

What do you mean Vindicator doesn't have support primarily in mind? Half of it's new elite legend is 100% support based, and it has a full support/heal traitline (including a heal plus barrier dodge). They can also dual legend to Ventari or Jalis. On top of the above you get 4 heal skills (two on Legendary Alliance, one on Kurzick's elite and one on the normal legend) all on incredibly short cool downs (aside from life leach from battle scars and Vindicator puts out a huge amount of Vuln so the scars stack up quickly and can get procced equally fast with GS 5 or Luxon side's heal). Now I do agree with you that it probably doesn't have the best sustain of the new set and I agree that would go to Mechanist or Specter but it's pretty kitten close.

Having the same issue but with silver and copper, they think my consumables are salvage items now....

Was just in Drytop fighting one of the mini bosses and my mech ended up under the sand in limbo (skills unusable etc) stuck in a mountain until I used shift signer and that brought it out again.

Sometimes the dodge mechanic visual cancels as well, the dodge happens but the character model just stands there

The flow feels decent not sure what it is they've sped up to make it feel that way but it does even Viktor's kitten urn ce in clutch a couple of times. The biggest "issue" I ran into was not finding stats that suited a full hybrid style that could take advantage of the whole kit. I essentially button spammed Alliance in group events and very rarely ran into energy or endurance issues. The skills cooldowns on Alliance are so negligible that they don't feel like they're there at all. Even the sustain felt decent (albeit more active than before). Battle scars heals less sure but Vindi shits out so much Vuln I didn't even feel it. The kit now has 3 heal skills plus Viktor's ashes and the Vindi heals basically have no meaningful downtime. Typing on my phone with 3 hou4s sleep so don't feel like going through every skill but the class really didn't feel bad to play in my opinion at least. As for the post beta changes they said they will make changes in the future not by release. There are definitely some minor tweaks across the board but it's to numbers not mechanics (save for the "bug" fix). Major changes will probably happen in the next big balance patch.

I plus 1 this, would settle for a float / knockdown as well.

The compounding chemicals heal and resultant barrier is tiny though? Scrapper is far more durable because of the barrier re-sustain on top of the same constant regen. The alacrity only really benefits the flamethrower in that you can get a few extra blast finishers, blinds and knock backs off and that's fairly meh. You're also tied to a pretty specific mech set up and gear that will contradict the flamethrower itself. The only real utilities that will benefit from the alacrity thanks to the lack of a tool belt are the signets. Because of that you're tied to using sky circus for J drive In order to get the alacrity your mech has to give up precision and ferocity making it more of a support and also forcing a lean into condi. The flamethrower is primarily a power weapon so you're pretty much stuck with celestial, vipers or sinister and a either a hybrid or condi set up. There are enough trade offs in the build to stop it from being OP but it is very fun to kitten around with.

I enjoy the signets how they are pretty much. A 5 Signet or 4 Signet build is fairly realistic without the toolbelt skills that accompany the normal utilities. Just going to echo on the above post though, the elite definitely needs a damage buff if we're to use it for that. It should at the very least be closer to the damage and function of Prime Light Beam otherwise its pretty much a golem resummon button. Not the biggest fan of force Signet either, just feels very underwhelming compared to some of the others. Thing is basically Sky Circus is a mandatory choice almost, if we're essentially forced (or ever so gently pushed) to use multiple signets J Drive is basically required for the build to really shine which limits build diversity somewhat at least when solo.

Genuinely sounds like a targeting issue more than a holo issue tbh

I pretty much have this post in the feedback thread but not sure if it will be buried so popping it in as a separate topic as well. Most of this concept relates to open world but it would probably carry over to other modes as well. After messing around this beta- 1. I do really enjoy the spec and I feel its nearly there. 2. The nerf to the power spec was overly harsh rendering it a dismal choice. A full Trailblazer/ Undead runes spec is still pretty strong but that gear set up is getting pretty stale. The same can be said for full celestial which may actually arguably be better (speaking for open world here). 3. The mech needs to be usable under water. 4. Jade Cannon still feels pretty weak and not really a compelling option to use at the risk of not being able to re-summon the Mech. The proposed solution: 1. I really believe this will address a lot of the issues people are having whilst keeping the class fantasy A-net are going for. I'm not sure if its too late in the day to make these changes but the technology already exists in the game it will just be a matter of implementing it - 1.1 shift the current mech commands down one, I.e. F1 becomes F2, F2 becomes F3, F3 becomes F4 and F4 becomes F5 like the rest of the Engineer specs. For the new F1 give us back the tool belt for the healing skill only. That will at least allow Med Kit to be used and give a bit of diversity in skills; 1.2 introduce a 'Soul beast' type mechanic. Mechanist clearly uses base ranger conceptually, why not add the extra bit of the merge mechanic that SB gets. The idea is this, when the Mech is unsummoned or down for repairs it becomes something like an exosuit of armour or something similar. While in this state the Mechanist's stats can be bumped up a bit relative to the selected traits to compensate for losing the Mech and more importantly you can retain the Mech Command skills even if its in a reduced / modified form. This will make up for losing the tool belt to a degree while being all around less punishing and still fulfilling the design of Mech Commands in lieu of the toolbelt and the traits affecting the Mech more than the player. It can still be balanced such that the spec is stronger with the Mech out but at least it won't be as punishing in the downtime and the loss of the toolbelt won't feel as bad. Like I said the command skills can even tweak down etc but keep a lot of the utility if the toolbelt that we love so much. Eg condi cleanses, stun breaks etc. In effect our toolbelt will be chosen from traits not utilities; 1.3 the exo-suit state can also be the underwater state if they don't want to give us the separate Mech, at least that will be something; 1.4 give back Jade Syphon and de-couple Rocket Punch from mace 3 but just make the Mechs priorities different, if it receives a command that command cancels/ overrides its Jade Syphon or Rocket Punch. I really believe the above solution will go a long way to addressing many of the issues in a clean, fun and relatively unique way.

Re posting this suggestion here from the main feedback thread as I think it's still relevant - Here is my feedback after messing around this beta- 1. Here are my suggested changes, I really believe this will address a lot of the issues people are having whilst keeping the class fantasy A-net are going for. I'm not sure if its too late in the day to make these changes but the technology already exists in the game it will just be a matter of implementing it - - 1.1 shift the current mech commands down one, I.e. F1 becomes F2, F2 becomes F3, F3 becomes F4 and F4 becomes F5 like the rest of the specs mechanics. At the new F1 give us back the tool belt for the healing skill only. That will at least allow Med Kit to be used and give a bit of diversity in skills; 1.2 introduce a 'Soul beast' type mechanic. When the Mech is unsummoned or down for repairs it becomes an exosuit of armour. While in this state the Mechanist's stats can be bumped up a bit to compensate for losing the Mech and more importantly you can retain the Mech Command skills even if its in a reduced / modified form. This will make up for losing the tool belt to a degree while being all around less punishing and still fulfilling the design of Mech Commands in lieu of the toolbelt and the traits affecting the Mech more than the player; 1.3 the exo-suit state can also be the underwater state if they don't want to give us the separate Mech, at least that will be something; 1.4 give back Jade Syphon and de-couple Rocket Punch from mace 3 but just make the Mechs priorities different, if it received a command that cancels / overrides its Jade Syphon or Rocket Punch. I really believe the above solution will go a long way to addressing many of the issues in a clean, fun and relatively unique way.

Here is my feedback after messing around this beta- 1. I do really enjoy the spec and I feel its nearly there. 2. The nerf to the power spec was overly harsh rendering it a dismal choice. A full Trailblazer/ Undead runes spec is still pretty strong but that gear set up is getting pretty stale. 3. The mech needs to be usable under water. 4. Jade Cannon still feels pretty weak and not really a compelling option to use at the risk of not being able to re-summon the Mech. 5. Here are my suggested changes, I really believe this will address a lot of the issues people are having whilst keeping the class fantasy A-net are going for. I'm not sure if its too late in the day to make these changes but the technology already exists in the game it will just be a matter of implementing it - 5.1 shift the current mech commands down one, I.e. F1 becomes F2, F2 becomes F3, F3 becomes F4 and F4 becomes F5 like the rest of the specs mechanics. At the new F1 give us back the tool belt for the healing skill only. That will at least allow Med Kit to be used and give a bit of diversity in skills; 5.2 introduce a 'Soul beast' type mechanic. When the Mech is unsummoned or down for repairs it becomes an exosuit of armour. While in this state the Mechanist's stats can be bumped up a bit to compensate for losing the Mech and more importantly you can retain the Mech Command skills even if its in a reduced / modified form. This will make up for losing the tool belt to a degree while being all around less punishing and still fulfilling the design of Mech Commands in lieu of the toolbelt and the traits affecting the Mech more than the player; 5.3 the exo-suit state can also be the underwater state if they don't want to give us the separate Mech, at least that will be something; 5.4 give back Jade Syphon and de-couple Rocket Punch from mace 3 but just make the Mechs priorities different, if it received a command that cancels/ overrides its Jade Syphon or Rocket Punch. I really believe the above solution will go a long way to addressing many of the issues in a clean, fun and relatively unique way.

In general looking very positive. Will just comment on my two favourite specs/mains- Vindicator - looking really good, thank you for taking on all the feedback. Only real comments are: 1. I'm disappointed the Urn wasn't reworked totally, the skill is just plain awful, hopefully the changes to it will make it a bit better to use; 2. Spear needs a better damage modifier, surprised that was left untouched; 3. F2 could do with a bit more flavour all around but I have no doubt doubt that will probably be worked on as you guys get more time to do so. Mechanist - cautiously optimistic, very happy to have proper pet controls, that's a huge plus. My biggest concern is getting rid of the Mechs autos and trying them to the mace, similarly a bit concerned regarding a lot more interplay between the Mech and Signets. As much as I love to see the mace and Signet buffs as a profession Mechanist is feeling quite restrictive, you're basically now tied in to mace, probably mace shield, and either full or close to full signets. That's not too awful subjectively because I really enjoyed the Mech, mace and signets and I can see the design vision which I think is being executed well. It's just quite a shift from regular Engi which is often played for its versatility. Will also need to see how the new scaling feels. All in all as I said, I'm cautiously optimistic provided one enjoys the design you are going for with it (which I do).

So far so good, really enjoying it but have just been bumbling around in PvE mostly. It definitely feels very very strong. As for constructive feedback- -The abilities could feel a bit more impactful maybe (ther certainly are but they didn't feel 'meaty' hope that makes sense) -I agree with most of the posters about that we should get some iteration of the tool belt back when the golem isn't summoned - some more control would be nice, I have seen similar complaints in the Untamed thread. Perhaps consider putting normal commands on Ctrl, thay would make things which are already good infinitely better. (One last item on the wishlist, the ability to dye our mech would be brilliant)

Yeh seems to have been fixed my side as well thankfully, allowed me to get my build going. Will delete the bug post.

Fixed

Pretty much agree with both the quoted post and yours To be honest. I don't think 5 signet will be mandatory but it may be optimal. The signets are also going to cooldown very very fast at this rate if traited that way so will probably be used a bit more actively than we think. I'm personally not super against a 5 signet build even though it stops some current identity. The signet seem quite strong and varied with the only one to really swap out being either the power or condi signet depending on if you're running a power / condi build. For hybrid may take both and give up the shadow step.

It has a breakbary to theoretically prevent that. Depending how strong the breakbar is and how many mechs get dropped it mayyyyy be plausible between the breakbar, barriers and shadowstep to be able to drop the mech, spam the skills shadow step and despawn before much damage is taken which will allow you to resummon it again 10 seconds later. Could possibly even crash down, shadow step use its mega laser thing then despawn at the risk of losing the elite resummon for a bit if things go wrong. Wouldn't work with a single mech but with multiples it may not be the worst idea ever as a zerg buster. Guess we'll see tonight how it plays out. As a side note, given the mech's mixed attack types and support potential and the fact that it takes on some of your stats, celestial may not be a bad set to use which will also add some tankiness.