Coolster.2536

Those sound like the same thing to me, since I doubt there's many situations where you would want to camp a conjure weapon

You could use Healing Turret, and combined with shortbow, you can cover a lot of the same bases as Med Kit (heals, cleanses, blasts), but you lose vigor and swiftness. I am also unsure if Healing Turret can upkeep regeneration while detonating it off cooldown for more Flock procs.

I was using Shortbow on Heal Alac Mechanist, trying to use skill 5 for fights where the boss moves around a lot (Ankka, Cerus splits, etc.) and I just found it lacking since there are weapons on other classes that give the same amount of superspeed for a lower cooldown

I also want to add that 3s of Superspeed on a skill with a 25s cooldown feels really bad. It should be 5s, at least!

I don't mind these changes, but I wonder if you'll still get resistance when you dodge while rooted, since... you know... you can't dodge while rooted....

Making them like spirit weapons would be good and all, but I think making them like traps/preparations achieves what you're asking for while also preserving the "bunker" feel.

I like kits. They offer a lot of versatility and dynamic decision-making in combat, but they should really be our profession mechanic instead of the Toolbelt. F1 could be the DPS kit, F2 would be the Support kit, F3 can be the defense/mobility kit, and slap Mortar kit on the F4. Still leaves F5 open for Function Gyro, Photon Forge, and Recall Mech. Then our utilities can be reworked and modernized. Rework Turrets to work like Traps/Preparations. Rework Gadgets to work like Mantras. Rework Elixirs to be like Harbinger's, and take the most useful Toolbelt kills and rework them to be the utilities to replace kits.

Played around with the new shortbow in Strikes and in the Special Forces Training area, and I'd like to jot down my observations SB 4->5->2->3 gives 14 Might. With Barrier Burst on Mechanist, that's 24 might. If you're fast enough, you can even fit in Acid Bomb or precast Throw Mine and get the full 25 stacks. With Blast Gyro on Scrapper, you only need SB 2->5 and you got 25 Might SB 3 (Living Shadows) is a Dark Field, but it doesn't have the ring that other combo fields, like SB 4 ( Liquid Wrath), has. SB 5 (Borrowed Time) is no longer an Ethereal Field. Now we're stuck with Streamlined Kits being our only access to an Ethereal Field again.... The Blast finisher on it now is cool, but Ethereal Fields are cooler. The auto attack (Arc Detonator) feels tacked on. It's like it's only there because you need an auto attack. It could at least be a Projectile Finisher or maybe the shock damage could have the Explosion Tag to interact with traits, but I'd really like if it interacted with the Chain Reactions in any way at all. Chain Availability feels short. It would be nice if the availability window was lengthened to 5-6s instead of 4. Something I liked with the beta implementation Chain Reactions was that if you only wanted might or only wanted barrier, you could set up your reactions to only do that one thing but get a lot of it. The current implementation is a lot quicker and more reactive, but it doesn't have that set up and pay off it had before (even though it did take too long to set up) Having additional Protection on Liquid Wrath Chain Reaction feels a little... boring? I mean, more protection is good, but I don't feel like I'd ever want to chain react specifically for it, especially since the initial impact gives a good bit of it. I think it'd be more interesting if it gave stacks of Unblockable, like Warrior's Line Breaker on Staff, or maybe just a different boon like Resolution or Vigor. Borrowed Time leaves behind 3 marks, but only one of them can affect a target. I feel like that defeats the purpose of having them hit 3 times. If I expertly place the AoE such that my ally gets hit by 2 marks, they'll only get 1 hit of Superspeed. Even if the initial impact only hitting once is intended, only one mark will Chain React and the other 2 won't do anything. In which case, why leave 3 marks if I can only use one of them? This is definitely the second-most disappointing skill on the Shortbow since the devs hyped up playing with the shapes of the skills. Borrowed Time could use a different ground target indicator to better telegraph which direction the line of marks will go in. Also, it seems to go behind you if you try to drop the aoe on yourself while running. Generally, you want to be giving superspeed in front of you when running away, not behind. 😛 I think it'd be nice if the skills kept the "vial-arrow" effect from the beta. Sometimes it's hard to see where I left a mark, and maybe having that arrow head on the ground would make it easier to tell. A thin blue circle can get obscured very easily. Not a huge issue since the marks don't last long anyway, but it would still be neat to have.

There's likely a usability issue with Conjures as kits. Elementalists can swap attunements without canceling attack animations. Engineers can swap kits without canceling attack animations. Combining both would allow you to swap attunements and conjure kits simultaneously without interrupting animations. As an example rotation: Fire Sword 2 -> Equip Flame Axe during animation -> Flame Axe 2 -> Attune Earth during animation -> Flame Axe 5 -> Drop Flame Axe during Animation -> Earth Sword 2 -> Attune Air during animation. While this would allow for a great deal of skill expression, I think the average player would not like how unintuitive such a rotation would likely end up being.

Changes definitely make it more useable. I wonder if the marks still allow for big chain reaction bursts, or if once the mark is consumed the next arrow will chain a different effect.

It’s also an AoE rez/stomp that can be traited to give stability or more barrier. 35s seems really good considering other AoE rezzes are like 70-90s

One more thing: I'm not sure how I feel about new arrows chaining to previously detonated arrows. On one hand, it makes it quick and easy to keep the chain going or to get instant effects. On the other, it was really annoying when I was trying to set up a new chain but if I placed them too close to my previous chain, I basically just wasted my skill since I didn't get the chain bonus I wanted. Maybe it's just a "Learn to Play" thing, but it was frustrating when it happened.

I liked the concept for shortbow. I thought it was going to add really interesting totem gameplay, similar to Renegade spirits. Leaving massive area denials while bruiser'ing up yourself and allies, but it all just fell flat. You could give an 8k barrier with Animated Sand, a massive burst heal from chaining Living Shadows, or instant 25 Might with Liquid Wrath, but with how long it takes to set up, whoever you were trying to give it to would be long gone before the chain went off. Even with chaining the arrows one-by-one, the effect of the first arrow would end before the fourth arrow landed. And with how small the radii are, that "massive area denial" only ends up being like 400 radius at best, if the opponents actually feel it. The lingering effects by themselves are really weak. With how the conditions are on Shortbow, you'd need Expertise to make them stronger, but healers want Healing Power and Concentration. You know what stat set has Healing Power, Concentration, and Expertise? Celestial, and Celestial Healers are not known to do very much healing. The boon access on Shortbow is very poor for being a "support" weapon. Mace/Shield was three boons in Regeneration, Vigor, and Protection, while all Shortbow has is Might. Shortbow not having Protection makes me consider not running Inventions, since I feel Inventions is a boring traitline, but the only other option, Tools, is even worse for Support builds than Inventions, so the adept tier in Inventions just ends up as a dead tier, especially on Heal Mechanist. As a whole, I really don't see what niche shortbow is supposed to fill. It's too slow, immobile, and unimpactful to see use in sPVP or WvW and the support it provides is worse than other options to see use in PvE. On the plus side, Shortbow makes Engineer the first class to have every combo field in the game! Below is a list of nitpicks and suggestions I had and I hope they're useful in making Shortbow better. As I said before, I like the totem playstyle, so I don't want the entire concept scrapped, but I do want it made more flexible to fit Engineer's versatility. Arc Detonator could interact with the rest of the Shortbows kit more, since it's all you have after setting up a big chain. Maybe like "Attacking the same target 5 times tags them with a spare canister that will chain if the target is hit with any arrow" or something. As a support, you're doing nothing while setting up arrows to be chained. Consider moving the detonation effect to trigger on impact and then we detonate to start a chain reaction Remove the fuse animation and just have the canisters blow up instantly. Most of the arrows are too weak to for the fuse time to be meaningful. Maybe keep it for Borrowed Time, since I can see people wanting a tell to dodge the stun. Increase the radius to at least 240. Consider allowing the chain bonuses to have a larger radius than the canisters, otherwise it'll just encourage dropping everything in the same spot, instead of spreading them out to cover a larger area. I'm not sure how I feel about barrier on Animated Sand and healing on Living Shadows. Barrier and Healing effectively do the same thing, so it makes these skills feel redundant to me. Most weapons pre-SotO seem to have one or the other, but not both. Borrowed Time is probably the best skill on the weapon, but chaining the slow is a very weak effect. I think it'd be very interesting if the skill had a pull instead of a stun. core Engineer doesn't have an AoE pull, so putting one on shortbow would solve that problem and allowing it to chain would be like having a mini-Gravity Well Boon access on the Shortbow is very poor. Engineer doesn't have an easy way to share Fury, Aegis, Resolution, or Resistance to allies, but if you want it to compete with Mace/Shield, it will at least need Protection. Honestly, it seems like you want Shortbow to replace Medkit or Elixir Gun. But Shortbow doesn't do enough to take one of those out of the equation or shore up Engineer's other weaknesses to make it an option over shield. It feels more like a utility weapon than a support one, which is bad on a class that can't weapon swap. Visuals I know visuals and animations are a WIP, but to add my 2 cents on Shortbow's visuals Animated Sand: Ground effect is distinct enough, but the chain animation just looks like a fart cloud. It'd be cool if you reused the swirling bone animation from Scourge Sand Shades and make them bigger to be more noticeable (and hopefully not too visually cluttered) Living Shadows: The Ground effect looks really similar to Liquid Wrath. Consider making it less indigo and more purple/black/red. The chain effect also looks a lot like Mesmer's purple magic. It'd be cool if you reused the walking shadows effect from Specter Wells for it, though Specter Wells are notoriously visually cluttered. Liquid Wrath: Ground effect looks similar to Living Shadows. Consider making it the same type of blue from Cleansing Flame (Guard Torch 5). The chain effect looks about right, but it could stay fire-y for a bit longer instead of turning into a cloud Borrowed Time: Good. Arc Detonator: Good. The spark-y sound is a nice touch. I like this design and could be interesting. Though wouldn't it feel clunky since you'd have to Kneel -> drop payload -> Stand Up -> DPS to get any effects of the chain bonus? +1 to this idea. I had another idea where Mechanical Genius worked similar to Compounding Power or Deadly Blades on Virtuoso, but folding Shift Signet into Mechanical Genius is a much better idea to balance the Mech.

I was thinking more Warrior's OH Sword, but to answer your question: There are some mechanics that 2 health bars can't eat 😛

On one hand, I wanted OH Sword to have a channeled block and be a utility weapon. On the other, THE SWORDS DESIRE BLOOD!

Well I got bad news for you...

Can the cooldown remain at 20 seconds? Otherwise Sword/Pistol power builds won't be able to proc Relic of Fireworks with their weapon abilities, which is the preferred power dps relic for Engineers. Also it'd be nice if it also did Poison or Confusion damage as well to pair with condition builds.

Honestly, I feel Bunker Down is in the wrong place. It's this hybrid damage/heal skill in an entirely defensive traitline. I'd like to see it rolled into Grenadier (also make the Velocity increase baseline) or Big Boomer and replace it with a different trait, like maybe Explosions or Blast Finishers grant Regen to allies. I think Mecha Legs is fine as is. It's a QoL skill for solo PvE. I've found it useful in some builds. Reduce aftercast on Rifle Burst so it's DPS is the same as the old 3-shot Rifle Burst (as it was supposed to be after the November 29, 2022 Balance patch) +1 Personally, I'd like to see that Confusion trait in Tools rather than Firearms, so some DPS builds have a reason to take Tools over Explosives, but I want it either way. Delete Mechanical Genius. It's a terrible balancing mechanic that forces boring gameplay. Instead, replace it with something functionally similar to Mesmer's Compounding Power so players are rewarded for using Mech Commands in a thoughtful way (and it's a significant DPS loss to leave them on auto) Delete Crash Down (Mech F4) and replace with a GTAoE ability that repositions the mech (also give Stow Pet button so we can still hide the mech) Make Shift Signet's boon sharing baseline so it isn't borderline mandatory on DPS builds Make Rocket Punch a Mech Command skill so it triggers toolbelt traits (in lieu of an F5 ability) Give back the ability for the Mech to trigger Explosives traits 😋

Untamed and Mechanist use the same UI and Untamed DOES use F1-5 for their Pet controls, so F6-7 are the next best buttons. If you find them to be an issue, you can rebind them under Skills in the Controls settings menu (I use Shift+1 for Attack my Target and Shift +2 for Return to Me)

iirc, swapping to Dragon’s is a 6 DPS gain over full Berserker’s. You do gain about the same amount of vitality as a Tier 9 Jade Bot Core, but given how much a PITA it is to get Dragon’s stats, it’s generally not worth going for.

I think the 3 shots where removed because of PvP. In PvP it’s really hard to counter constant 3 packets of damage from 1200 range. It just rips through blind and aegis while also only reducing damage by 1/3. Basically, if you don’t have any projectile blocks (which many don’t) or aren’t good with LoS’ing, you would get creamed. Just fixing the aftercast would go a long way to making it more fluid (also buff damage in PvP)

Probably more thematics than anything else (e.g. Flame Ram)

You forgot Gadgeteer making Personal Battering Ram apply Burning 😛

You misunderstood. Boons from Mech abilities always originated from the Mech. If the Player was off in Narnia, they wouldn't get the Boons from the Mech, but the Mech's Boons used the Player's Boon Duration instead of the Mech's. Same for Conditions applied by the Mech's abilities: they used the Player's Condition Damage and Duration.The change is to make it so the Mech is using it's own Concentration/Condition Damage/Expertise for Boons/Conditions. This also means that if the Player is out of Range of the Mech, the boons applied will have shorter duration and Conditions applied will do less damage over a shorter duration. I think this will end up being a buff rather than a nerf (in PvE, at least. Probably a nerf in PvP/WvW tho...). Because of how big the Auto Attack range is, there are situations where the Mech can hit the target, but be just outside of Boon/Mechanical Genius range and end up whiffing some of it's abilities. The smaller range should cut down on the amount of those types of situations.

Woot! Engineer Pistol buffs! Now the only thing left on my Engi Pistol wishlist is swapping Glue Shot with Acid Bomb. Then P/P Engi will be perfect.