How do you use your Mech in bigger WvW fights?

[Wiggely.7320]

As the title says...
Do you put the mech on 'avoid combat' and let it just spam barrier (if traited) every 3 seconds? And than use it's abilities that aoe but not go for a target?
Seems a huge loss in both dps and utility there.

Do you constantly recall it and than use it's abilities?

Mine goes all over the place, all the time.
It's chasing new targets when the initial player got downed, it's rubber banding with an incredible stretch, it's very slow in responding to the abilities I actually press...
Basically it's either not at the right place when I need it, or it's dead.Because that too: it dies in about 2 pushes.

Most of this is going to be 'me' and not the mech, so I am asking: what do you others do with it in any fight that gets a bit bigger (organised or not).

Is it even viable in such fights, or is it 'scrapper only'?

[Dracomet.3648]

You don't.

 

Play Scrapper.

[Wiggely.7320]

8 minutes ago, Dracomet.3648 said:

You don't.

 

Play Scrapper.

I was afraid you were going to say that...

[MrForz.1953]

Sadly that's where it's at, you simply don't bring a Mechanist to WvW.

[Arheundel.6451]

You don't 😂😂, welcome to the world of "if not scrapper/firebrand/renegade/scourge....wtf are you doing here in our zerg?"....yeah but hey you get to play your sidenode duellist in pvp with your golem...enjoy as that will the best you'll achieve with Machinist for the next 5-6 years .

[ArchonWing.9480]

Your mech isn't going to do any damage anyways to a zerg, so just take defensive stats.

You want to set your mech to passive mode and mostly use it to give support. Only time you should set it to attack is when  they are downed enemy players but in a danger zone. Use Shift Signet when your mech gets low.

Run Mechanist 2-2-3, not 2-2-2. Barrier burst is too slow to help in a real fight. Keeping signet passives always will keep you alive, and therefore your mech.

Assuming you don't have a proper party for you, and you probably won't, take Juggernaut +FT  to give your mech stab. This will prevent your mech's bar from being easily broken.

Other than that it's really just provide alacrity and barrier.

And yes you should probably play scrapper, but without a proper comp, it's not particularly fun either.

Edited March 14, 2022 by ArchonWing.9480

[Alcatraznc.3869]

Mechanist is a PvE spec. The only reason it works in SPvP is because SPvP is a small map and it's only 5 v 5 (and honestly you almost never face 5 people at the same time).

 

WvW is huge and fairly open map. There is no restriction on how many thing you can face at once. The only build I can see people run if an alac bot build but if you're really looking for an alac bot, Renegade is better. Hell Chrono is arguably better as well. In a fight Mechanist is decent in a 1 v 1 but scales very poorly compared to other. In a 1 v 2 it is horrible and it only get worse as the number increases.

 

For WvW stick to Holosmith and Scrapper, unless you're a masochist 

[bambi.6214]

There is no place for the Mechanist in WvW. Maybe trolling around in 1v1, and even core engi is better for that purpose coz it'd withstand 1v2, where mechanist would fall quickly. 

 

4 hours ago, Alcatraznc.3869 said:

Mechanist is a PvE spec. The only reason it works in SPvP is because SPvP is a small map and it's only 5 v 5 (and honestly you almost never face 5 people at the same time).

..and honestly, you take Mechanist to sPvP only to park on a node and go AFK.

[Arheundel.6451]

Whooooooooooooooaaa! 

Hold on now guys! I did not check before commenting, but mechanist can recall the mech at any time so what you complain about? This changes everything because you are lucky this mechanist is not an actual pet class where ..the pet dies and nothing you can do about it, or maybe there is something I am missing 

[rrusse.7058]

I could see Mechanist working all right for havoc or small groups like a roamer. As @Alcatraz.1957 mentioned, it works well in 5v5 PvP due to the small scale, so taking camps is similar to taking nodes. Think of it as an alternative to Holosmith Roaming perhaps.

As it was also mentioned by @ArchonWing.9480, It will likely need defensive stats and the mech needs to be set to passive mode as it will likely get mowed down being too far off and then you're just a worse off core Engineer with no toolbelt skills.

[Rising Blade.9206]

best you can do with mechanist in wvw zerg fights is trait J-drive and always have the mech inactive. at least you can annoy the enemy with those airstrikes and do some small damage if it matters while you're shooting with your mortar kit.

just play scrapper

[Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365]

4 hours ago, Rising Blade.9206 said:

best you can do with mechanist in wvw zerg fights is trait J-drive and always have the mech inactive. at least you can annoy the enemy with those airstrikes and do some small damage if it matters while you're shooting with your mortar kit.

just play scrapper

the only one thats gonna be annoyed is yourself with how randomly those air strikes happen... like how hard is it to make the come at a set interval isntead of this random kitten frequency?

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Engi mains probs know better. 

 

But what I have seen in zerg fights with clouds around them is either bunkers or dps with great mobility and range. 

 

Those with range usually never roam alone and try to pick targets down from range and with stuff like toolkit pull into Mech laser blast and rifle CC etc. But generally difficult to pull with clouds and zergs. 

 

The tanker builds I have seen basically throw the mech on enemies stealthing to reveal them by hitting the mech, or to support the flanking roamers. That's about it. 

 

 

[Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365]

considering how it seems they removed the defiance bar its not gonna see any use in wvw. gj

[LucianDK.8615]

37 minutes ago, Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:

considering how it seems they removed the defiance bar its not gonna see any use in wvw. gj

People qqed over they couldnt kill it.

[Overedge.2435]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:47 AM, Arheundel.6451 said:

Whooooooooooooooaaa! 

Hold on now guys! I did not check before commenting, but mechanist can recall the mech at any time so what you complain about? This changes everything because you are lucky this mechanist is not an actual pet class where ..the pet dies and nothing you can do about it, or maybe there is something I am missing 

In the case of ranger, a wounded pet can be swapped or merged in order to keep a pet on the field. Even if a non-soulbeast gets both pets down, the ranger still has the benefit of three traitlines that all still provide benefit to the ranger.

In the case of mechanist, the player themselves gain nothing from the mechanist traitline -- if the mech isn't on the field, then you're left with something even worse than core engi, because you have only two effective traitlines and no toolbelt.

1 hour ago, Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:

considering how it seems they removed the defiance bar its not gonna see any use in wvw. gj

I just...don't understand this. I took my mechanist into WvW for one night, and on multiple occasions watched my mech get burned down in seconds, only to pop my elite to recall it and have it burned again, even before it could take action. In 1v1s, any class with even a modicum of mobility could kite both me and my mech while whittling away at it, and when it was gone, my mech-less mechanist was helpless.

54 minutes ago, LucianDK.8615 said:

People qqed over they couldnt kill it.

The mech is too easy to kill even before this nerf. If someone struggles with killing the mech, they have larger problems than an enemy mechanist.

On 3/13/2022 at 2:09 PM, Wiggely.7320 said:

As the title says...
Do you put the mech on 'avoid combat' and let it just spam barrier (if traited) every 3 seconds? And than use it's abilities that aoe but not go for a target?
Seems a huge loss in both dps and utility there.

Do you constantly recall it and than use it's abilities?

Mine goes all over the place, all the time.
It's chasing new targets when the initial player got downed, it's rubber banding with an incredible stretch, it's very slow in responding to the abilities I actually press...
Basically it's either not at the right place when I need it, or it's dead.Because that too: it dies in about 2 pushes.

Most of this is going to be 'me' and not the mech, so I am asking: what do you others do with it in any fight that gets a bit bigger (organised or not).

Is it even viable in such fights, or is it 'scrapper only'?

There are viable builds for scrapper, holo, and even core engi. Mechanist is half a class attached to a broken AI. 

[Tails.9372]

1 hour ago, LucianDK.8615 said:

People qqed over they couldnt kill it.

Did they? I know people QQed on the mech in sPvP but I didn't see any complaining in regard to WvW. From what I've seen the common consensus in WvW was that the mechanist is just an overall worse scrapper but I'm not surprised to see that A-Net nerfed it regardless.

Edited March 15, 2022 by Tails.9372

[aceofbass.2163]

Well as a general rule, do not bring AIs into WvW. They are a liability. 

[Gorem.8104]

3 hours ago, Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:

considering how it seems they removed the defiance bar its not gonna see any use in wvw. gj

The Ranger pet Treatment there, the whole reason it had those things was to help it live in competitive modes as they learnt from Ranger pets that die all the time and are useless in wvw. Now? Its a spec without its pet entirely. 

[ArchonWing.9480]

9 hours ago, Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:

considering how it seems they removed the defiance bar its not gonna see any use in wvw. gj

Oh, RIP.

[bambi.6214]

16 hours ago, Gorem.8104 said:

The Ranger pet Treatment there, the whole reason it had those things was to help it live in competitive modes as they learnt from Ranger pets that die all the time and are useless in wvw. Now? Its a spec without its pet entirely. 

Ranger is designed around having a pet. Lots of skills can break stun on both of the player and the AI, the pets gets a lot of boons etc.

Meanwhile Engi indeed does have an AoE stun break, but it's on a toolbelt skill, so lmao.

[Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365]

3 hours ago, Samug.6512 said:

Ranger is designed around having a pet. Lots of skills can break stun on both of the player and the AI, the pets gets a lot of boons etc.

Meanwhile Engi indeed does have an AoE stun break, but it's on a toolbelt skill, so lmao.

and on a diff e-spec

[DontBlink.3706]

Really a shame they removed defiance from wvw.  Anything melee needs some sort of stun resistance, which defiance was doing it before.  Now bubbles kind of ruin the ranged part of it. 

 

With defiance, you could use the melee to get picks and shift signet away, but now I guess you just don't

[Bunny.9834]

The PvE and Competitive Split really highlights the weakness of the Mech/AI specs. Without the big numbers that you get from PvE, you have just a have deadweight floating all over the place. 
 

 

[ArchonWing.9480]

On 3/17/2022 at 3:08 AM, DontBlink.3706 said:

Really a shame they removed defiance from wvw.  Anything melee needs some sort of stun resistance, which defiance was doing it before.  Now bubbles kind of ruin the ranged part of it. 

 

With defiance, you could use the melee to get picks and shift signet away, but now I guess you just don't

Lumping WvW/PvP balance is a frequent transgression in this game since some stuff just doesn't scale very well.

I mean I guess it was an improvement from shoving pve focused changes in but ehhh.