Mechanist Feedback Thread

[tetmikem.5608]

I LOVE engi.  I started the expac as Scrapper to maintain some realistic RP cause how would I know about Mechanist before getting to Cantha?  After I met the Mechanist NPC in game I decided I can spec it now.  I was a mechanist for like 5 minutes before I realised I have no heart for it at all, and cba even using it.  Like, it sparked zero joy in me.  Back to Scrapper and immediately felt happy again.  

 

And the Mech is still not useable underwater?  Come on Anet........

Edited March 3, 2022 by tetmikem.5608

[Forestnator.6298]

2 hours ago, tetmikem.5608 said:

I LOVE engi.  I started the expac as Scrapper to maintain some realistic RP cause how would I know about Mechanist before getting to Cantha?  After I met the Mechanist NPC in game I decided I can spec it now.  I was a mechanist for like 5 minutes before I realised I have no heart for it at all, and cba even using it.  Like, it sparked zero joy in me.  Back to Scrapper and immediately felt happy again.  

 

And the Mech is still not useable underwater?  Come on Anet........

 

I felt the same: loving scrapper with all its aspects. Felt lost and unconnected when I tried Mech. But I continued playing it and I start to love it. Just don't play this boring "all-signet" Mech. I love grenades, so I build this power based build for open world:

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PegAk6lxy0YvMXWKOyLvRfA-zRZYBRDhnvYQBzhOUGtmAVUAq9RCjNwbJwlN-e

 

Mortar combo fields with Mace#2 and #3 are nice combos, so is shield#4 and #5. Signet passives also available while they are on cooldown allows a much more active playstyle.

 

Mech gets all your boons with Shift Signet which allows alot of nice synergies:

Rune of the Pack affects your Mech twice. Buff food "Fried Golden Dumplings" not also gives yourself alot of Might with 100% crit chance and grenades (which hit 3 times) but also your Mech! Sigil of Rage does give yourself quickness but also your Mech - and due to the 100% crit chance it will always apply immediately when entering battle - which makes activating all 3 Mech Skills much more a joy (it feels much less laggy with quickness). 

 

Enjoying this actually a bit more then my so loved grenade scrapper.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Forestnator.6298

[Luthan.5236]

Additionaly - what I dislike: The bot is spawned/summoned on map travel ... all the time. Even if he got sent back ("stowed"). Find this annoying. Don't need him when exploring without monsters nearby or when in the home instance gathering. Then I need to make him go away again first.

But I guess rangers had (or still have) the similar problem with the pet.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Darkhart.4769]

So after participating in all the betas and having experience with all the changes with mechanist, right now the only feedback i have is that of all the signet, the (force signet) is the most uninteresting in terms of its active effects, with its single damage hit with knockback and no more stun break it feels lackluster.

I would suggest replacing its active ability with the now unused mech Jade Siphon ability that was available to the mech in the first mechanist beta. The Jade siphon ability has a 3 consecutive hit damage strike with might and weakness (replacing the might with lifesteal would feel appropriate with a skill call siphon and would help sustain the mech with an active damage skill). To me having the Jade Siphon on force signet would be better in term of its identity of a damage dealing skill and plus having more reason for player to use its active ability rather than just bringing it for its passive and knockback as other source of CC are plenty for mechanist.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Darkhart.4769

[Kalibri.5861]

Just have to reiterate a couple things that have already been said. Mech colour drives me crazy, and in many cases I can't see it at all, so please, please let us change it somehow (and/or skin it, or even 'capture' other mech designs/colours like Rangers can). Also, the fact that the mech is spawned every single time I hop off a mount or change maps drives me completely bonkers. Please retain the last-used state of the mech somehow (either spawned or despawned) so that I can use F4 as a stun opener if I want to. Super frustrating to have to constantly recall it.

Those are my main criticisms. Overall, the spec still seems way stronger for less effort than any of the other engineer specs, at least in PvE, and obviously I think this should be compared against all other classes and their specs in terms of capability. It's fun for now to faceroll mobs, but it's making the game nigh-AFKable for me which isn't really much of a game at all at that point. Also, I'm used to having more flexibility, and I feel like this spec really locks a lot of that down by taking away the tool belt. It's... just... generally more powerful but less interesting to play than holo, sadly.

Oh, one other thing - lack of underwater mech is a travesty. We need this. Please make it work.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Kalibri.5861

[santenal.1054]

Increase the leap range of mace #2. (to give mace/shield and mace/pistol builds some reasonable mobility)

Edited March 4, 2022 by santenal.1054

[Scolix.4879]

21 hours ago, tetmikem.5608 said:

I LOVE engi.  I started the expac as Scrapper to maintain some realistic RP cause how would I know about Mechanist before getting to Cantha?  After I met the Mechanist NPC in game I decided I can spec it now.  I was a mechanist for like 5 minutes before I realised I have no heart for it at all, and cba even using it.  Like, it sparked zero joy in me.  Back to Scrapper and immediately felt happy again.  

 

And the Mech is still not useable underwater?  Come on Anet........

I kind of feel the same but its the mech for me its just too large and the AI to me feels exactly like every other pet class in any mmo ever created that i have tried its just too annoying to play. The mechanist spec itself is extremely easy to play and i do like to play it for a little bit but the pet AI and the size of the golem just ruins the spec for me.

[keramatzmode.1906]

Anet, why can't my golem get 80% crit? Did you capped their precision at 2500?
This might be a bug. It was fine before the patch today.

Edited March 4, 2022 by keramatzmode.1906

[santenal.1054]

Make crisis zone (F2 skill/trait) a more reliable stun breaker/utility skill. The mech is too often out of range and too slow to return for it to be a reliable utility skill. This is the most important trait/skill of the whole class (together with shift signet), it decides how usable mechanist will be in PVP/WVW so dont ignore this.

Look at this video, Im standing quite close to my mech yet just out of range. This skill can't be relied on in a player vs player situation where everyone is moving all the time. (Or is it not the range but target priority? I often get the feeling that allies recieve the stunbreaker/boons instead of me) 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by santenal.1054

[abelsgmx.7530]

If your mech die you lost all the mechanist potential and mech is very weak

[Nate.8146]

I played the mechanist for the whole campaign and then some. There's a few issues I'd like to report about it.

 

1. In the Soo-Won meta, she claps the mech in one shot. There's just not enough time to get yourself out of that AOE zone and recall your mech. Compare this to the golem in Ecovald Wilds meta. The mech takes no damage standing in the middle of that void pool and takes no damage with his thunderclap insta-kill. The mech needs to be invulnerable to these mechanics.

 

2. It still doesn't sit well with me that I have to equip a mace in order to maximize the mech's potential. Despite that, whenever I activate rocket fist and the mech does its copy attack, I cannot activate or queue any of the mech's function skills for a couple seconds. It's really frustrating to mash those hotkeys until the mech finally reacts.

 

3. The mech really kills immersion. It's big and bulky, and it has two travel modes. Slow walk or zippy dash. There's no logic or behaviour to stand away from NPCs or other players, or to adjust its walking speed to match my character's speed. My mech will dash a mile in front of me, then rubber band behind me as if it's some error correction. I'm trying to enjoy the story, but my mech is standing inside the character that's talking. I had no choice but to remove the mech most of the time, which is unfortunate, and I don't think that was the intended quality you were aiming for.

 

4. I mentioned it before, but it's still important to bring up. In large zerg fights, I can't see or know what my mech is doing. I activate Overclock Signet and I don't see that laser beam. I'm not sure if any actual damage is happening because sometimes I don't even see the pet damage display on the enemy. The player and its mech need to always be at the highest priority of the renderer. Filter out some other effect or players, but the player must always see their own skills. We also need some kind of icon above our mech so that we can see where they are in a crowd. So far activating the Superconducting Signet is the only way I can find my mech, and more often then not it's not where I want it to be.

 

5. I also mentioned this before and it's even more prevalent of an issue in EoD zones due to the number of inclines in the landscape and building architect. Ranged mech skills do not hit enemies on an incline. For example, in Dragon's End, the defence event that spawns near the spiritualist cult in the middle western side of the map (that big white wolf creature). There's a ramp that climbs up to the main plaza.  Some enemies spawn below the ramp, some above. If the mech is above or below those enemies, its range skills will often miss the target. I've seen it cast the overclock beam directly into the terrain instead of the enemy. The same goes for the Spark Revolver skill and the mech's basic auto attack. Mortar based skills sometimes work, but if the mech is at the bottom of the ramp, the mortar may collide with the terrain due to the mech not firing at a higher angle.

 

6. You know by now a lot of people have been asking for a functioning mech underwater. At the very least, please add 3 complementary underwater function skills to replace the mech's land based function skills. You need to restore balance to the 4 toolbar skills you took away from us. Depth Charges has a long cooldown and doesn't contribute anything to a fight. If that's how it's going to be, then just give us the ability to auto-switch professions when entering underwater. I'd rather the mech be left as a terrestrial only profession if you guys are shelving underwater content.

7. When mounting or gliding, your mech disappears. Any boon stacks it acquired are now lost. This is unfair when some mechanics require you to glide away and come back. I suggest that you keep the boon timer running and when the mech reappears, the remaining boons and their duration are restored.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Nate.8146

[meowmi.4916]

My only gripe on this is the Profession Skill bindings...

Why is summon and de-summon skill Profession 4? 

 

Why not keep it consistent as it always was with Profession Skill 1 being connecting to your Healing Skill, Profession 2 with Utility 1, and so forth?

Other than that, the class is alright hehe.  Not really a fan of having a pet especially a huge one that has weird pathing when you roam around.

[santenal.1054]

The hard CC of sky circus becomes utterly useless when combined with the ranged version of the mech arms. (sky circus being a ranged attack already makes is pretty bad on it's own)

 

Also the nonsensical balance decision (25/2/2020) of "no damage on hard cc skills" affect alot of mechanist skills in competitive game modes. (Rocket Fist Prototype,  Core Reactor Shot , Sky Circus , Force Signet, Rocket punch)

 

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by santenal.1054

[Obtena.7952]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:12 PM, Alcatraznc.3869 said:

 

A Mechanist without the golem is basically a worse core engineer. Even Holosmith out of the forge mod remains kind of a core engineer for the simple fact that it doesnt lose its belt skill. And holosmith only has to wait around 10 sec to cooldown from the heat unlike the golem's 50 second.

 

What you're saying is that playing a class with only 2 active branch is still "quite a bit"...Which is wrong. I dont know any other class right now that basically loses the very thing that makes it unique for the sake of a temporary gimmick and a branch that only boost that temporary gimmick. Hell even the Mesmer doesnt really lose the shatter, instead the shatter is being reworked. I suppose Scourge technically fit that description but the sands generate so much barrier and can apply some decent condition that it is almost the same. If Anet doesnt want engineer to have a permanent pet, then they should not remove our toolbelt skill AND make an entire branch that's basically only buffing the golem. 

This is a valid complaint IMO ... and it does occurs in other places in the game as well (berserker being my favourite target of this complaint). Luckily, it's really hard to lose your golem at the moment, or if you do, you likely didn't stand a chance in that encounter in the first place. 

Personally, I think there are better solutions than Golem just disappearing when it's 'broken'. 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Obtena.7952

[Darkhart.4769]

Today I learn after getting the specter, Anet develop the the ability to continuous auto attack an ally target but only with the Specter's scepter. At first I was ecstatic because I though this meant other profession may be able to target ally as well and can auto attack on them whenever its appropriate but I was disappointed after using the engineer Med kit skill 1 as it cant auto attack on an ally like the scepter. Pleasex3 give this function to the Engineer Med Kit's skill 1. Its only uses is to heal allies and cant damage enemies, It having the auto attack function on ally make as much sense as the thief scepter.

[WipZedKay.5316]

Something I've noticed is that ''attack my target'' and the button to swap between ''guard/avoid combat'' are bound to the same key. When pressing the key, the mech does change which target it attacks and does not swap combat initiative. It's already weird enough that these two things are bound to the same key but then profession skill 5 is not used at all???

 

Based on other comments I've seen both here and on other places online, a lot of people would prefer having mech recall on profession skill 5 as it would make the most sense with people used to Holosmith and Scrapper. That would leave profession skill 4 unused which could be ''attack my target'', profession skill 6 for ''return to me'' and lastly profession kill 7 for ''guard/avoid combat''. All keys would be properly utilized instead of having two on the same key and it would generally feel better from previous experience on engineer as a whole.

Edited March 8, 2022 by Rayamon.4358

[Patrick.9531]

Speaking for PVE only, but I've been loving the Mechanist Elite as soon as I started playing it. It seems the most well done of all the EoD elites. I love the different configurable roles for the mech, which help keeps it fresh. It's a nice touch that it does damage when you respawn it at the start of combat.. The mech was so interesting I didn't even bother with the mace until recently. I haven't had many problems with the AI, but I haven't been using it in a support role. 

[aceofbass.2163]

I really REALLY appreciate Anet for hearing me out on my mechanist specialization suggestion way back some years now. Also, they did a very good job on the slot skills, traits, the toolbar replacement with customization (which was the point of the mechanist and they nailed it). However though, what I don't like about it is the AI aspect of it. Usual troubles with AI like line of sight, positioning, or tracking. Sometimes I feel like a clown when facing targets with phase shifter unstable magic (the one where it avoids attacks outside the designated area) or when the target takes a sharp turn on a corner and wastes the jade buster cannon due to line of sight.

 

Sigh we went a step back IMO. We knew AIs were problematic that's why scrapper gyros were scrapped and became wells. 

 

Or maybe I'm just not used to playing with AIs cos I don't ranger or necro 🤔

addendum: I am talking about mechanist 333 traits I don't really know if all statements above holds true for the melee option

Edited March 9, 2022 by aceofbass.2163
addendum

[MrForz.1953]

10 hours ago, aceofbass.2163 said:

Or maybe I'm just not used to playing with AIs cos I don't ranger or necro 🤔

 

Rangers dealt with that kind of fiasco until the pet was made pretty much irrelevant (Druid), or conveniently got out of the way (Soulbeast). Right now Mechanists discover the joys of AI much like Bladesworns discover the shortcomings of kits.

[Desh.7028]

Excellent. One of my favorite EoD specs even with the small issues. The condition build is my choice right now but I'm considering getting a support item set because that's good too apparently.

 

The Mech abilities (in particular F2 and F3 with the cannon for some reason) are anything but responsive though.

 

Also the mech not being dyable kind of gatekeeps the spec from end game, luckily all the otherwise questionable ultra green/gold weapons now find a home. At first I found the model too large (and if it's not my mech I still do) but it's pretty and something one can get used to.

[Wiggely.7320]

1. I want the signets passive to keep going, not linked to a dps trait like J-Drive. Make it a minor trait.

2. The boon sharing shouldn't be linked to a signet at all. And since there's all sorts of double-dipping, maybe the boon sharing should see a better mechanic to buff our mechs instead.

3. I want my mech to fight closer to me. Especially in a support build!
It goes way beyond the range of it's own abilities all the freaking time. I should be in it's 'fighting circle' unless I send it of.
So no rubber banding all the time, no wandering of, no attacking at random distances...
I can't be recalling all the time, and shift signet in wvw is insane if you have to waste it on simple repositioning. And this brings up point 1 again: if I use shift signet, I lose my speed buff and the boon sharing, and you really want me to waste that just to get my own pet at my side?
Avoid combat isn't the solution either, but so far it's best I can do with it in a bigger fight. This shouldn't be.

 

4. delaying on the abilities is stupid and annoying. A delay on a stunbreaker? Really...?

5. the difference, in the same build, between survivability in a pve open world cluster, or in a wvw cluster... is a bit too big.
It replaces tanks in open world pve, but never ever survives more than one push in wvw, even on passive. Balance it a bit maybe.
It also has 55k hp in pve and suddenly 32k when I enter wvw in same gear and build.
Of course it has to be more 'killable' in pvp and wvw, but the difference is a bit too much right now.

This is meant as feedback, since these clearly seem intentional design and no bugs.

 

[Scolix.4879]

Mechanist to me has a nice team and i especially love it because i play as Asura but the mech AI is what totally ruins the spec for me and the reason i just can't play it as my main. The mech ai feels like its a carbon copy of old wow hunter AI that constantly is anywhere but where i want it to be and playing as mechanist feels like i am constantly on a escort quest where my quest npc is attacking everything on sight.

[Xionor.8963]

So far maintaining the alacrity is a lot more annoying compared to Renegade/Mesmer as your Mech is sometimes all over the place and you need to keep attacking with mace 1. This creates the problem that if the enemy is mobile, invincible, you get CC'd, you want ro revive a player, etc. your alacrity output gets harshly affected. That's why I think the trait "channeling conduits" could spread alacrity every 3 seconds to help you keep alacrity up in those phases.

Also why does the force signet do knockback instead of pull. His main weapon is a mace. Why would I want to push enemies away?

He also only does 20k dps as power/boon which is pretty low compared to Renegade power/boon with 28k. Mechanist does also give barrier but Renegade gives passive life steal, his elite also gives a lot of life steal and his heal is an aoe heal. The bombardment of the J-Drive trait could also work when the mech is out to boost his dps but make it that it only happens when the player attacks an enemy x times like orbital strike from the explosive trait Aim-Assisted Rocket.

The overclock signet is terrible to use as it requires you to manually click on the furthes enemy so that the laser hits multiple enemies. It should always shoot at the maximum distance no matter how close the enemy you target with it is.

When the F1 skill is on cooldown it should swap to "attack my target"

Edited March 16, 2022 by Xionor.8963

[Duglaive.5236]

On 3/5/2022 at 8:25 AM, Nate.8146 said:

I played the mechanist for the whole campaign and then some. There's a few issues I'd like to report about it.

 

1. In the Soo-Won meta, she claps the mech in one shot. There's just not enough time to get yourself out of that AOE zone and recall your mech. Compare this to the golem in Ecovald Wilds meta. The mech takes no damage standing in the middle of that void pool and takes no damage with his thunderclap insta-kill. The mech needs to be invulnerable to these mechanics.

 

2. It still doesn't sit well with me that I have to equip a mace in order to maximize the mech's potential. Despite that, whenever I activate rocket fist and the mech does its copy attack, I cannot activate or queue any of the mech's function skills for a couple seconds. It's really frustrating to mash those hotkeys until the mech finally reacts.

 

3. The mech really kills immersion. It's big and bulky, and it has two travel modes. Slow walk or zippy dash. There's no logic or behaviour to stand away from NPCs or other players, or to adjust its walking speed to match my character's speed. My mech will dash a mile in front of me, then rubber band behind me as if it's some error correction. I'm trying to enjoy the story, but my mech is standing inside the character that's talking. I had no choice but to remove the mech most of the time, which is unfortunate, and I don't think that was the intended quality you were aiming for.

 

4. I mentioned it before, but it's still important to bring up. In large zerg fights, I can't see or know what my mech is doing. I activate Overclock Signet and I don't see that laser beam. I'm not sure if any actual damage is happening because sometimes I don't even see the pet damage display on the enemy. The player and its mech need to always be at the highest priority of the renderer. Filter out some other effect or players, but the player must always see their own skills. We also need some kind of icon above our mech so that we can see where they are in a crowd. So far activating the Superconducting Signet is the only way I can find my mech, and more often then not it's not where I want it to be.

 

5. I also mentioned this before and it's even more prevalent of an issue in EoD zones due to the number of inclines in the landscape and building architect. Ranged mech skills do not hit enemies on an incline. For example, in Dragon's End, the defence event that spawns near the spiritualist cult in the middle western side of the map (that big white wolf creature). There's a ramp that climbs up to the main plaza.  Some enemies spawn below the ramp, some above. If the mech is above or below those enemies, its range skills will often miss the target. I've seen it cast the overclock beam directly into the terrain instead of the enemy. The same goes for the Spark Revolver skill and the mech's basic auto attack. Mortar based skills sometimes work, but if the mech is at the bottom of the ramp, the mortar may collide with the terrain due to the mech not firing at a higher angle.

 

6. You know by now a lot of people have been asking for a functioning mech underwater. At the very least, please add 3 complementary underwater function skills to replace the mech's land based function skills. You need to restore balance to the 4 toolbar skills you took away from us. Depth Charges has a long cooldown and doesn't contribute anything to a fight. If that's how it's going to be, then just give us the ability to auto-switch professions when entering underwater. I'd rather the mech be left as a terrestrial only profession if you guys are shelving underwater content.

7. When mounting or gliding, your mech disappears. Any boon stacks it acquired are now lost. This is unfair when some mechanics require you to glide away and come back. I suggest that you keep the boon timer running and when the mech reappears, the remaining boons and their duration are restored.

 

I haven't looked in on this thread in awhile (mainly spending "GW2 time" fine-tuning my mechanist's gear and play), but this is such a fantastic analysis and summary that I had to note it and post hoping that others will take the time to read it fully. Thanks, Nate; excellent write-up 👍

Edited March 12, 2022 by Duglaive.5236

[Vagrant.7206]

On 3/9/2022 at 7:37 PM, MrForz.1953 said:

Rangers dealt with that kind of fiasco until the pet was made pretty much irrelevant (Druid), or conveniently got out of the way (Soulbeast). Right now Mechanists discover the joys of AI much like Bladesworns discover the shortcomings of kits.

Core engineer, Scrapper, and now the Mechanist have all had to put up with bad AI (Turrets, gyros pre-rework, and now mech). They keep trying this over and over, and it keeps failing spectacularly. 

The only engineer spec that didn't have to deal with AI to begin with was Holosmith. Now that scrapper has also joined the field, it's seeing some usefulness.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Vagrant.7206