Engi changes previewed so far on Feb 3 preview

[lorddarkflare.9186]

4 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

I personally think that an explosion tag is something that every engineer mainhand weapon should have. Mace has it, hammer has it, rifle has it.

Sword doesn't, but it comes with the photon forge that grants an explosion tag on corona burst.

Explosion tags should get the same treatment like symbols on guardian, every weapon has them.

 

I want to agree with this, but the synergy with the explosives  is already so strong. It would cement it as mandatory.

Given it more thought, and I think I actually agree.

Edited February 3, 2023 by lorddarkflare.9186

[Revy.1945]

"We want Scrapper to choose between damage or sustain in their second trait line, but we're also nerfing Flamethrower in WvW." How am I suppose to do damage in a zerg? Rifle, Pistol, Grenade, Mortar all get reflected or do very little DPS. Hammer has a radius of 130-240 on it's cleave. If the problem is Holosmith, then nerf Holosmith.

[Kuma.1503]

Frankly, I'm just glad they didn't decide to randomly nerf HAM or Condi Mech this patch. 

Pistol aftercast fix might also allow condi builds to pistol auto instead of grenade autoing which is huge for QoL. This plus the Poison dart volley buff make me excited to play condi engi. It also makes it more worthwhile to play the more difficult Condi Alacrity Mechanist over Power alacrity. 

Other minor trait buffs improve this playstyle further. I'm happy with this. 

 

For Scrapper... Just give them back their quickness in PvP, and in WvW make their quickness only apply to themselves. That's literally all it needs. It was neither too weak nor too strong in PvP before they randomly gutted it for no reason. Just undo that awful change, and leave it alone. 

[SleepyBat.9034]

2 minutes ago, Revy.1945 said:

"We want Scrapper to choose between damage or sustain in their second trait line, but we're also nerfing Flamethrower in WvW." How am I suppose to do damage in a zerg? Rifle, Pistol, Grenade, Mortar all get reflected or do very little DPS. Hammer has a radius of 130-240 on it's cleave. If the problem is Holosmith, then nerf Holosmith.

Why would the problem be holosmith? Both classes use FT in zergs.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

Rifle in all PvP content remains trash.

 

But because Anet is at least making an effort to improve pistol, I'll let them off the hook for now.

[hanabal lecter.2495]

New damage dampener should be made aoe for allies atleast in pve.

[Zzik.5873]

Beeeurr no chaange for engi rifle, we still have the worst weapons of the game, still have auto attack on f1/f2/f3 on mech wich is stupid design, scrapper still have an awecull elite drone in wvw, bubble still pretty useless in wvw. Some support mech buff, for some reason?

[Coolster.2536]

2 hours ago, Jalad Lantana.3027 said:

Baffled: What does "fixed bug where mech was source of boons instead of Mech" mean?

Currently, boons/conditions applied by the Mech uses the player's stats instead of it's own. They're fixing it so boons/conditions applied by the Mech uses the Mech's stats.

1 hour ago, Kuma.1503 said:

Frankly, I'm just glad they didn't decide to randomly nerf HAM or Condi Mech this patch.

Condi Mech did get a bit of a nerf. Sigil and Rune effects, and Thermal Vision won't apply to the Mech's condis, so the current condi Mech build will lose 10% Condi Damage and 10% Condi Durations on conditions applied by the Mech

[Jerus.4350]

1 hour ago, Coolster.2536 said:

 

Condi Mech did get a bit of a nerf. Sigil and Rune effects, and Thermal Vision won't apply to the Mech's condis, so the current condi Mech build will lose 10% Condi Damage and 10% Condi Durations on conditions applied by the Mech

True, but it is also gaining it's own Incendiary Ammo proc, or at least the reference to it's own ICD seems to imply that.  If so we're looking at ~750 DPS coming back.  Add on the Mech Auto bug fix and pistol buffs and we'll see where it lands. 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Jerus.4350

[Ravenwulfe.5360]

Well, that's a whole lot of nothing for scrappers. And oh boy mechs mace range got nerfed whatever will they do with these other good buffs... Object in Motion is still far superior to Damage Dampener. I mean whoopy, regeneration. The delayed damage was better.

 

I guess on the positive side with this lot of nothing here they at least didn't try to nerf the gyros yet.

[Ten.2617]

My feedback about the pistols:

 

[Infusion.7149]

23 hours ago, Ravenwulfe.5360 said:

Well, that's a whole lot of nothing for scrappers. And oh boy mechs mace range got nerfed whatever will they do with these other good buffs... Object in Motion is still far superior to Damage Dampener. I mean whoopy, regeneration. The delayed damage was better.

 

I guess on the positive side with this lot of nothing here they at least didn't try to nerf the gyros yet.

For clarity : The range reduction is on the mech (the ones that aren't the ranged variant) not the mace.
 Crash Down — Jade Mech CJ-1: Fixed an issue that caused melee autoattacks to be slower than intended. Reduced the range of the first two melee strikes from 240 to 130.

There is also little reason to use Object in Motion on heal scrapper as it is simply a strike damage boost. Unlike heal mechanist you don't do appreciable DPS while in med kit. Also the wording suggests it isn't the regeneration boon, its going to be a new heal trait named Rapid Regeneration that heals the scrapper making it better in WVW and for tanking in PVE. This is not a new trait, it is bringing back an old one https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Regeneration

The full extent of the preview notes can be read here

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/127247-february-14-balance-update-preview/

Edited February 5, 2023 by Infusion.7149

[bethekey.8314]

Having played a decent amount of condi mech in PvP, I think shorter mech melee range is a buff. Before, the melee range was about the same as the condi signet / superconducting whatever, leaving a very small window to hit your target. With the mech hugging the target, condi abilities will more reliably hit.

[MrForz.1953]

The short range is definitely a buff. It was maddening not to have the Disrcharge Array/Signet hit the target the mech was auto-attacking.

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, MrForz.1953 said:

The short range is definitely a buff. It was maddening not to have the Disrcharge Array/Signet hit the target the mech was auto-attacking.

(QoL) buff for PvE, nerf for PvP I'd say.

With the shorter range, mech will struggle more to hit moving targets in PvP with a melee setup.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Kodama.6453

[ThunderX.6591]

4 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

(QoL) buff for PvE, nerf for PvP I'd say.

With the shorter range, mech will struggle more to hit moving targets in PvP with a melee setup.

In PVE is literally the same considering many enemy (Expecially normal and Vet one) run and move around a lot, if you aren't meele them (they target you 80% of the time, not the Robot), so will be a lot harder to do damage to them if they move even a bit............. (autoattack have some casttime, aren't istant for the robot)

Edited February 5, 2023 by ThunderX.6591

[coro.3176]

On 2/3/2023 at 12:22 PM, Infusion.7149 said:

• Mechanical Genius buff from 6s to 10s --- wow they are keeping it

If they want to keep this, fine, but this isn't enough of a fix. It's still annoying at 10s. I'd say at minimum 20s buff and ideally there would be some painless way to manage mech distance, especially in the face of weird pathing. Eg. Make the return command teleport the mech to you, or add a leash mode where the mech can't get out of M.G. range.

[Infinity.2876]

On 2/3/2023 at 12:22 PM, Infusion.7149 said:

Damage Dampener: This trait has been replaced with Rapid Regeneration. Rapid Regeneration heals the scrapper while they are under the effects of either swiftness or superspeed.

THIS IS AWESOME

(depends on coeff)

[Infusion.7149]

43 minutes ago, coro.3176 said:

If they want to keep this, fine, but this isn't enough of a fix. It's still annoying at 10s. I'd say at minimum 20s buff and ideally there would be some painless way to manage mech distance, especially in the face of weird pathing. Eg. Make the return command teleport the mech to you, or add a leash mode where the mech can't get out of M.G. range.

I said it at the introduction of the trait change that the autocasts should have been removed instead and if DPS uptime is an issue then ranged mech should be the focus. Passive gameplay isn't good , but introducing artificial annoyances to penalize people is not good design. Just looking at the description of Mechanical Genius solidifies its status as a hackjob fix. This is especially true due to the pathing of the melee mech.
 

17 minutes ago, Infinity.2876 said:

THIS IS AWESOME

(depends on coeff)

It is not new, it is a return of a removed trait.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Regeneration

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

OMG they actually buffed pistol. Poggies 

[Sensations.9507]

I am surprised no one is talking about Holosmith at all...  Arguably the 'truest' form of engineer left of any of the elite specs.  Power Holo is doing ok.  Condi Holo is so bad they took it down from almost every benchmark/meta website because it is so far behind condi mech.

 

Condi mech just got bug fixes and minor buffs.  The mech now applies additional conditions from traits when it crits.

 

I dont understand this.  Mech can heal/boon support and dps/pure dps....  Yet Condi Holosmith who cant do a single thing in PVE except dps like a weaver/deadeye/dragonhunter/soulbeast/virtuoso doesn't even do enough damage to get a benchmark... LOL

 

How is this not the most glaring issue for engineers?  Even Power Holo is not doing too great compared to its competition but its at least doing well enough on fights that favor power.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Sensations.9507

[Zzik.5873]

I want my 3x burst animation back... I hate the new rifle auto... I hate it... I also dislike the new animation on rifle 5... it was fine with the nice new 3x burst animation. But now auto and skill 5 look ugly... it was better before you change stuff... miss the self cc on skill 3 its had PERSONALITY. Now its lame and generic.

[JohnnyRico.8591]

On 2/4/2023 at 8:44 PM, Infusion.7149 said:

There is also little reason to use Object in Motion on heal scrapper as it is simply a strike damage boost. Unlike heal mechanist you don't do appreciable DPS while in med kit. Also the wording suggests it isn't the regeneration boon, its going to be a new heal trait named Rapid Regeneration that heals the scrapper making it better in WVW and for tanking in PVE. This is not a new trait, it is bringing back an old one https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Regeneration

The full extent of the preview notes can be read here

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/127247-february-14-balance-update-preview/

Agree with the logic about it being for heal scrapper, that is really where this trait makes sense....I think the real issue is that according to their own notes, the goal was to address bruiser scrapper builds. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to do that. 

 

Maybe I am just missing how anet defines bruiser. I think bruiser, I think consistent offensive pressure, ability to stay in melee range, and the ability to tank hits. 

 

I don't remember Rapid Regen in its original form scaling well, and even then, if you are playing that "in your face" type playstyle, I don't think you would be stacking healing power and sacrificing damage.

 

I think if they really wanted to address bruiser type builds, they should have just rolled adaptive armor effects into impact savant, maybe dial the numbers down a bit if it were overkill, and made rapid regen a GM trait scaling off of power, or something like that. 

 

Who knows, maybe the raw numbers will be increased. I just don't see how Rapid Regen will ever be able to compete with Object in Motion and its potential 15% increase in dmg outside of heal scrapper builds.

[Dediggefedde.4961]

I wonder if they bring back the original rapid regeneration.

Perhaps it is less overpowered with MDF nerved, but once it was the reason for complaints that RR+MDF with regen medkit carried groups in WvW and PvP pretty hard.

[Infusion.7149]

1 hour ago, JohnnyRico.8591 said:

Agree with the logic about it being for heal scrapper, that is really where this trait makes sense....I think the real issue is that according to their own notes, the goal was to address bruiser scrapper builds. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to do that. 

 

Maybe I am just missing how anet defines bruiser. I think bruiser, I think consistent offensive pressure, ability to stay in melee range, and the ability to tank hits. 

 

I don't remember Rapid Regen in its original form scaling well, and even then, if you are playing that "in your face" type playstyle, I don't think you would be stacking healing power and sacrificing damage.

 

I think if they really wanted to address bruiser type builds, they should have just rolled adaptive armor effects into impact savant, maybe dial the numbers down a bit if it were overkill, and made rapid regen a GM trait scaling off of power, or something like that. 

 

Who knows, maybe the raw numbers will be increased. I just don't see how Rapid Regen will ever be able to compete with Object in Motion and its potential 15% increase in dmg outside of heal scrapper builds.

If you check the wiki page it is 300+ health per second with superspeed and no healing power.

A major issue with scrapper is if you are not hitting your target (i.e. being kited) then you really are not tanky because your barrier generation drops significantly. So this is certainly an option although not a good one if you are going for outright DPS (i.e. in PVE).

In PvP only 10% of DPS converts to barrier , in WvW 15% of DPS converts to barrier so a 300 health per second that stacks with regen means ~3K DPS equivalent sustain in PVP and ~2K DPS in WVW which is about inline with autoing. That is in contrast to PvE where you can do ~18-20K autoing so they balanced it at 5% DPS to barrier.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Infusion.7149