DragoTheWise.7256

It wasn't documented in the patch notes, but it looks like this bugged has been fixed. Finally had some time to test it. Thanks!

Looking at the Engi changes, A lot is pretty good here. I welcome the holosmith buffs and adjustments to the medkit. However, I do have a few notes: I can see this being taken if folks use the new upcoming shortbow since overshield would be the standard if using shield. However, just like other skills that need healing skill for use traits (Cleansing Synergy, Reconstruction Enclosure), this will block Heal Mechs being able to use this due to heal kit tool belt being blocked. It is bizarre that if someone takes Mech and uses heal kit, three traits in a trait line, 2 of them in the minor category, just can't be accessed/used. I don't know about this change. If it does end up going through, the name/icon should be changed as it doesn't sound like the rework really meets the "Mecha Legs" name. I kinda prefer to keep the movement speed + soft CC flat reduction. I know ya'll wanted to "alongside some reworks of less-used traits in the inventions specialization" but really out of the 3 master traits that need reworks it would be Experimental Turrets. I know that means most likely a turret rework, but ya'll will need to tackle it eventually. While this is a welcome change, is the grace period issue going to be fixed? https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/141080-mechanical-genius-grace-period-doesnt-work/#comment-2069978

It is a great addition to the game and I hope that they do more stuff like this in the future

I checked to see if this was fixed in the latest patch and just wasn't posted as a fix. It is still bugged.

Was playing my Heal Mech on HTCM and noticed that the Grace Period that was brought back for Mechs actually doesn't work. See the example here: You can see I activate it once and it goes on a normal CD while near the Mech. I then go away and wait for the grace period buff to appear and hit F2 while I have about 1.5 s of the buff left. The CD goes on a much longer CD. This will happen with the F3 as well. This grace period is a different one from what we had originally- a buff that constantly ticket down from 5 and was refreshed when near the mech. Regardless, the new grace period will need to be fixed or use the old method that already worked. Let me know if I'm missing something but looks bugged to me.

Engineer Shortbow’s beta debut shows a pretty weak support weapon that is clumsy and slow. It requires the player too much manual interaction to provide support resulting in the player not able to deliver what is needed quickly. With how slow the skills are, it feels more like a longbow than the snappiness that usually comes with using short bow skills. The current AOE radius for skills 2-5 are too small making it difficult to provide support within GW2’s combat system. I’m not sure the auto skill fits the theme either. The skills need to have a look over as to what this weapon is really trying to fill for Engineer as it feels like it does not add much to the Engineer’s kit. It is a hard weapon in its current form to be used in GW2’s combat system. I get that it is like a slightly faster thief preparation skill but on a range weapon, but it just doesn’t quite work. Main issues for me- Too slow for support- There are plenty of support skills that have long range, however, they have a much snappier response. Support needs to have range skills that happen when they are used to help allies immediately… like Druid CA 3. We can’t have the following: fire the arrow, wait for the arrow to prime, then hit the flip skill, then the slight delay for activate. And that is just one arrow. If we want to even have an additional arrow to cause a chain skill, that takes up more time. Allies more often need to move out of the way by the time an activation is triggered or just trying to setup bonus chain reactions, it also doesn’t help the AOEs are currently so small. AOE Radius- The current AOE radius is too small. Trying to use this in PvE and WvW was a nightmare. Anyone just moving slightly ended up not getting the benefits of the AOE by the time it was triggered. Unless you are using this on MO or a stationary boss, you are going to miss a lot. For WvW, I did a mix of roaming and zerg fighting and it was difficult to get the skills to line up to help allies. Sometimes if we held a tiny choke for a short time, there was some decent use, but it quickly went away due to how GW2’s combat works with the amount of movement. Lack of boons- The only real boon that this weapon gives is might which is a boon that Engi doesn’t have an issue generating in the first place. Why not put some boons on the weapon that Engi normally doesn’t have access to like resolution or resistance? Maybe add protection so that it can be competitive with mace/shield? It also makes the first line in Inventions having an issue of a “good” for selection without shield to provide protection to allies. Identity- I get that for range support Engis are a lacking; however, with how slow this is, a lack of boons, and short range, I just don’t see many folks actually adapting this weapon compared to what we have now. There is a question as to what it exactly this is filling for the Engi considering the current kit outside of just range support. It doesn’t have very good damage scaling as it is supposed to be a full-on support weapon but skill 1 focuses on damage. I realize there won’t be any big sweeping changes nor a complete pivot to a different type of weapon like most folks were hoping for in the first place. However, short term, the following could at least help the weapon work better with what we have. Short term fixes- Make the AOE skills (2-5) more snappy- While the chain reaction allows faster activation once one is activated, that won’t always be the case as you wouldn’t want to blow the full kit. The initial skills just take a little too long to setup and then activate. Simply removing the fuse time may have this work better. Increase the AOE Radius- Right now it is set to 180. Needs to be up’d to 240 at minimum but I would prefer around 300 considering how much it takes to setup these AOEs. Boons- I would like to see one more boon added, perhaps adding it to skill 3 and removing one of the condis or removing the condi removal. The boon could be protection or give a boon that Engi doesn’t have such as resolution. Or change Skill 4 to provide a more variety of boons since Engis tend to have might already covered. Explosions- Considering the theme of the weapon, I would like to add the Explosion trait to skills 2-5. At the very least, skill 2 since that is already a blast finisher. Skill 1 needs to be changed- I’m not sure why a focused support weapon with really low damage scaling has a skill that is focused on damage. Either adjust the damage scaling or change it to meet that support theme. In terms of bugs, I only noticed the following: Mech- Using skill 3 didn’t activate the mech’s Mech Fighter ability. If this isn’t fixed, it will be one more thing a Mech player will be losing in addition to Reconstruction Enclosure. Skill 1- Tool tip says it would apply weakness in the description but rest of the tool tip shows that Vulnerability is applied instead. Skill 1- This didn’t arc like normal shortbow arrows do. I would assume that the final version will have the arcing. Before I close, I do want to touch on what felt good about the weapon- Barrier generation: Has tons of it and was one of the few parts that came in handy for support. Extra fields: Provides engi with fields we don’t normally have; however, using said fields appropriately can be an issue. When in play, I mainly focused on the main skills’ use and not so much about the field it would be giving me especially since setting up chains will have a field overlapping the other ones. Skills 2-5 non-projectile: At least in my play, it seemed that the skills could be placed anywhere and were not subjected to reflections/absorption. This is a benefit to not only try to place skills in the middle of battle, but also against the enemy via the non-lethal condis. Healing/condi cleanse- While the Engi kit already has plenty of this, it was OK to have a main hand weapon to have this. Theme- I really do like the theme of the Essences of various magics strapped to arrows to be used by the Engi. It really fits within the world of Tyria. In closing, the weapon needs work. The short-term fixes will at least give it a bump in usability but may not take over mace/shield. I would focus on cleaning the weapon up in the short-term and then later down the road trying to fix its functionality to be a bit less manual intensive and possibility adjusting its mechanic. Try to make it competitive against our support options so that we can chose for the correct situation and allow some flexibility for utility skills.

From an Engi perspective, I'm liking a lot of these changes and I appreciate the fixes for the relics on Mech. Also, thank you very much for giving the grace time back on Mechanical Genius; it'll give me a little more wiggle room for support engi and I'm sure the DPS folks will appreciate it. I think the only thing that I'm unsure about is Emergency Elixir tied to elite use. This may cause problems for those using mortar kit and messing up a better opportunity to use it. Even then, if an engi wants to have it activated, it may force a use of an elite skill when it isn't an opportune moment to do so. I understand trying to get traits to be more active, but this one may be really tough to do. Also, can we just make Toss Elixir B not be random anymore? I've always thought it was strange that while stab is guaranteed, the other boons are not. Depending on the boon you get, it'll be helpful or not helpful depending on the situation. Removing swiftness narrows the boons given, but it would just be nicer to have a flat set of boons and knowing what they are.

I for sure like having hammer available to the other specs along with mace giving heal scrapper a much better option. Sword seems to be a bit weak outside of holo since it relies on the heat mechanic. Maybe a scrapper could use it to generate extra self quickness but that's all I can think of right now. I think it would be nice to try to look at getting what weapons we do have to interact with the heat mechanic for holosmith. I always thought it was odd that it was only done on sword but other professions get other weapons to have a spec's mechanic added in such as ambush skills.

I really hope that Mechanical Genius gets another look. At the very least, put back the grace period while working on a better solution. It is a little much to try to ensure you and the mech is close together. Sure, both doing melee makes this easy, but if one is ranged and the other isn't, that makes it difficult. In addition, trying to move out of damage most likely will get you out of the small AOE, so the game punishes you for playing one of GW2's combat strengths- movement in combat. I get that it is a tricky issue, but its current implementation isn't the right call. I've seen some folks mention to instead grant a bonus when near the mech instead of a penalty. I feel like this is the same issues ya'll ran into with some of the fractal instabilities. I'd say take what you learned from those changes and implement them here.

Yeah, a grace period needs to be added back. It really punishes the player for any sort of repositioning for even a few seconds.

Mechanical Genius no longer has a grace timer. Is this intentional or a bug? I'm hoping it is the former... but if not seems a bit too punishing to not have that grace timer anymore since the mech can sometimes be finicky in addition, it is punishing for player the need to reposition as needed.

I really like the theme that they are setting. Love to get back into some demons/realm of torment. Irt the Commander, I think they are due to face all the trauma they've had over the years. They haven't had a chance to slow down and really take the time to take care of themselves emotionally and mentally. Just taking care of one thing after another again and again and again. Not slowing down unless the Commander is knocked out from an injury. The Commander is ripe for manipulation and tbh, I hope we see the Commander break down and just let it all out. I want to hear the buried emotions surface and pour out now that the dragon saga is complete. I want to hear the Commander cry whether that is by themselves or with someone else. I really hoping the demon pushes it to that breaking point. I doubt the Commander will ever fully recover (the commander did die after all) but at least they would be able to resolve these emotions and thoughts to a point.

Yeah, we just did Cairn and MO CM and didn't get credit though everyone was in instance before we turned on the CM mote, so unsure what caused the prevention. Something is for sure screwy and needs to be looked at.

Yeah, whatever was done in the last update for the fight has made it seem she just chains swapping sides. In addition, the stated change of tail lining up with the CC bar didn't actually change anything. I've been through 2 or 3 metas now since the change and only 1 time was there a CC bar that didn't line up with the tail.

I really enjoy this fight, but the RNG is really killing me. Two full runs tonight, all CC's happened a bit after the squad was trying to knock out the tail, and in addition she was doing bite attacks after we had already phased her. This note in the patch notes- "Updated the defiance bar mechanic of the final encounter in the Battle for the Jade Sea meta-event to be more consistent and not reliant on chance. This change should ensure more opportunities for players to engage with the defiance bar mechanic and allow for additional damage phases." Something hasn't lined up right. Before this patch, I had more consistent breakbars. May not have gotten all of them but at least the runs I was in were getting most of them. I would like the team to take a look at what circumstances the defiance bar is suppose to come up. Nothing like this happens in Raids where things are way more consistent.