Major Mechanical Genius problems

[armormaniac.2957]

I believe it was stated before that Anet would like to "reward" players for having good positioning with your pet. As it stands if you have even half a toe outside the very short range you instantly incur the penalty. Before you had about 8 seconds to get back into range which was ok for the most part. 

This is just a cruel change punishing mech players for things almost entirely out of their control.

Not to mention using the ranged arms is entirely out of the question now for power mech.

A nice change could include a buff for keeping your pet within range to give it a sense of high risk high reward rather than completely punish for not being able to keep a pet leashed that has the brain of a goldfish. 

Overall this change makes it feel like Anet really does not want people to play mech.

 

[Gendalfs.7521]

1 hour ago, armormaniac.2957 said:

As it stands if you have even half a toe outside the very short range you instantly incur the penalty. Before you had about 8 seconds to get back into range which was ok for the most part. 

Maybe its a bug?

Anyway they could just increase the range to not insane numbers. 360 what is this? A joke?

 

[StanUK.3214]

Hard agree with OP. Prior to 6/27 patch there was some grace time allowed with mechanical genius. Now I lose it for a few seconds just running off from a standing start, because the Mech takes time to  catch up with you. I'm fine with how it has been re-worked in principle, but even a 6s grace period would fix the issue for me at least.

Other things that would help here include a bit more generosity on the radius threshold. Oh and fixing the AI so that the Mech doesn't 'go rogue' during fights (Octovine is notorious for this).

[ellaqwent.7493]

Quote

360 what is this? A joke?

This is just astonishing. And of course Mechanical Genius doesn't decrease recharge in sPvP so the second your mech walks off the node you're capping / defending, you have a 60 45 second cooldown on Discharge Array or Sky Circus. I mean, the whole ethos of the Mechanist is for your mech to do most of your damage and now that damage is dependant on the AI not jetting it off to smell some flowers as it's so prone to do. This whole range requirement has been asinine from the outset, but at least before today you still had buttons to press instead of just watching cooldowns.

I've been an engi main since launch and with every "balance" patch I become more and more convinced that they're trying to purge engineer from the game through a death by 1,000 cuts and force us all to become healbrands. Oh, yeah. They nerfed med kit too because apparently support scrapper is too OP and support firebrand is still not OP enough. [eye.roll]

Edited June 28, 2023 by ellaqwent.7493

[coro.3176]

Is it bugged in WvW for anyone? I feel like I'm doing even less damage with the mech than before, as if it's not getting the full stat value for attack on jade cannons. It's getting the full health value though. Did they change how the scaling works?

[Jerus.4350]

I’d really like the grace period back.  With this change the whole idea of a second entity to fight with is kind of shattered.  If we have to be side by side at all times, what’s the point?  I can agree that the potential that a fully powered mech at ranged could be oppressive, but honestly dps mech has been nerfed so much I don’t think it’s a problem anymore.  Let that be its thing while it sits back in a lower tier potential.  Or, at least give us back the grace period so we can have at least some advantage if we are smart about it.

[DragoTheWise.7256]

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

[armormaniac.2957]

One thing I saw someone talk about is instead of punishing for not being next to the pet why not gain a nice buff for making sure its close. That way your not needlessly punishing players but instead incentivizing and rewarding for keeping track of the pet.

[loregnum.3619]

Anet: "dodge incoming attacks and move around instead of standing there"

also Anet" if you dodge and get 3.2 inches outside of our tiny range with your mech, you will be penalized!"

You can't make this up.

The 8 second grace period before was fine and it was fairly easy to manage most of the time. Having no period is absurd to the point I hope it is a bug because how crazy is someone to come up with that change and not see the glaring issue it causes. 

It's like all they do is make changes based on characters standing in front of a stationary golem.

[LameMule.4137]

Not to mention the fact that it was just a stat loss that would recover once back in range, not a hard cooldown debuff that locks us out for the entire duration of said cooldown even should we reposition within the necessary range.

It's pretty hard nerf for how braindead the pet AI is. Now we have to stay stacked on top of our mech at all times to avoid what is essentially a 50% debuff to damage that won't recover once back in range if an ability goes off while outside of 360. The stats would just come back, the cooldown does not while the cooldown is ongoing. Where the stats would just come back, I'll still be waiting the full 30 seconds (or 37.5 without Jade Dynamo equipped) the moment I pop Core Reactor Shot outside of 360, even should I be within range a second or two later.

Maybe update the cooldowns once we're back in range, giving us a small % back to still take a hit to the cooldowns but not penalize us a mandatory 50% damage output with the full cooldown because we happened to be just barely outside of what might as well be melee range?

I don't mind tweaks and penalties but this one feels real bad. Can we just have the option to sacrifice our mech for a damage buff or two at this point? I still like the mechanist playstyle but this makes me not want to play with the mech. The stat penalty felt smooth even though they had the same effect of cutting the damage by 50%. This change to the cooldowns just feels jank. A punish is fine, but a punish with no recovery while the cooldown is ongoing feels like poo.

I just want a rifle class that's fun to me and that's mech but this ain't it Anet.

Edited June 28, 2023 by LameMule.4137

[Darkhart.4769]

Or you know don't set auto on all your Mech Skill and use it appropriately rather than just let it spam off cooldown. Before the auto pet skill update, we mechanist use to press their skill manually. Its nice to do it again. Plus for stationary boss fight nothing much changes anyway, Its mostly punish player in pvp and wvw for overextending your mech from you. I rather have my mech stat at 100% because the 50% stat reduction penalty is far more punishing than higher cooldown on its skill.

[LameMule.4137]

7 minutes ago, Darkhart.4769 said:

Its mostly punish player in pvp and wvw for overextending your mech from you. I rather have my mech stat at 100% because the 50% stat reduction penalty is far more punishing than higher cooldown on its skill.

If it's to punish PvP and WvW then it should be tweaked this way solely for PvP and WvW. In PvE if it's not a single target stacked boss fight, the mech goes galloping off all the kitten time even with Jade Cannons equipped with Spark Revolver on manual and especially with either of the melee abilities and during add phases and more this is going to murder output more than a quick recovery to stats once back in range would ever do.

Edited June 28, 2023 by LameMule.4137

[Darkhart.4769]

25 minutes ago, LameMule.4137 said:

If it's to punish PvP and WvW then it should be tweaked this way solely for PvP and WvW. In PvE if it's not a single target stacked boss fight, the mech goes galloping off all the kitten time even with Jade Cannons equipped with Spark Revolver on manual and especially with either of the melee abilities and during add phases and more this is going to murder output more than a quick recovery to stats once back in range would ever do.

So just tested all the Mech skill in wvw and pve 80 lvl map. The only problem I found is Spark Revolver is not effected by Mechanical Genius so its a confirm bug increasing its cooldown every time it is use. Other than that I stand by with my previous statement. I have no problem with the increase cd as punishment. I have full control with my mech when using the class in pve,fractal,strike and wvw. My advice hot key F6 and F7 to control your mech. I have three build that uses all my mech fighting style whether in melee, range and condi melee. I have no problem controlling my mech how I want it to function so that is up to individual player now. The only middle ground I would agree on this topic will probably be the grace period.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Darkhart.4769

[shaz.8572]

I agree that the change for the cool down is  a valid change, would like either this to be changed by increasing the range and SHOWING if with in range on the SKILLS to allow you to see before you trigger, or allowing a short cool down window like a few seconds to allow for the mech being outside of the short range we get. 

Over all the cool down mechanic is ok as a trade off, its just a bit restrictive as it currently is. 

[Tails.9372]

16 hours ago, armormaniac.2957 said:

I believe it was stated before that Anet would like to "reward" players for having good positioning with your pet.

They did but that is an issue in and of itself as what exactly "good positioning" entails is entirely context dependent e.g.: if you use the shotgun skill of your rifle then being at point blank range to maximize your damage is "good positioning", if you use the boon support skill of your mech then standing close to it so you can also get these buffs is "good positioning" and if the boss stands inside of a deadly AoE then not standing in it is also "good positioning".

All of these things mentioned above have one thing in common though: they feel natural but on the other hand there is nothing natural about their "let's hug your pet" mechanic. This has nothing to do with rewarding "good positioning" and is more of an annoyance based on a  whim the devs had than anything else which they seem to stubbornly cling to for no real reason.

[StanUK.3214]

4 hours ago, Darkhart.4769 said:

Or you know don't set auto on all your Mech Skill and use it appropriately rather than just let it spam off cooldown. Before the auto pet skill update, we mechanist use to press their skill manually. Its nice to do it again. Plus for stationary boss fight nothing much changes anyway, Its mostly punish player in pvp and wvw for overextending your mech from you. I rather have my mech stat at 100% because the 50% stat reduction penalty is far more punishing than higher cooldown on its skill.

I've never had my Mech skills set to auto and have always used them manually - I enjoy playing it that way. But even with stationary boss fights, if you get knocked-back, teleported etc. (yeah, gitgud I know) or have stop-start action where mobility is key, or where there are multiple targets then the removal of the grace period hurts here.

I have zero issues with the cd penalty, or the old stat penalty - they are sensible changes to balance the class, but the current MG mechanic is hard punishing in PvE. I can understand this implementation in competitive modes, but this feels like one where the PvE version needs to be a bit more forgiving (moreso considering the AI of the mech).

[jcluzio.6207]

On fights with frequent repositioning, it's too easy to get the penalty. Was spamming for it to return to me but it's not fun to to this and it the mech starts to loose a lot of its value this way.

The mech should be fun to use, and not a baby you need to keep your eyes at all times.

[LameMule.4137]

11 hours ago, jcluzio.6207 said:

Was spamming for it to return to me but it's not fun to to this and it the mech starts to loose a lot of its value this way.

Exactly. We now have to spam the follow skill constantly. Anywhere we go, being required to spam follow (and with the braindead AI, even THAT doesn't work sometimes as it STILL runs off to gods only know where in the combat cluster to get lost at the edge of kitten all) is terrible gameplay.

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 6/28/2023 at 3:45 AM, armormaniac.2957 said:

I believe it was stated before that Anet would like to "reward" players for having good positioning with your pet. As it stands if you have even half a toe outside the very short range you instantly incur the penalty. Before you had about 8 seconds to get back into range which was ok for the most part. 

This is just a cruel change punishing mech players for things almost entirely out of their control.

Not to mention using the ranged arms is entirely out of the question now for power mech.

A nice change could include a buff for keeping your pet within range to give it a sense of high risk high reward rather than completely punish for not being able to keep a pet leashed that has the brain of a goldfish. 

Overall this change makes it feel like Anet really does not want people to play mech.

 

Yep, another Eng nerf, thanks Anet!

[Zzik.5873]

Mechanical genius as a whole is just a bad unfun mechanic to work around, before when it was just a stat penality, it was mostly ingorable, now its just plain unfun and annoying. Anet is killing the spec, that with the mace wtf change... plus all the previous nerf...

[Orsol.7184]

There is one thing I see a lot of dev (and other people as well) misunderstand a lot. When you said you want to "reward" player it means you give them a bonus if they do the thing you want them to.

In this case this is not a reward for people who get a good positioning, it's a punishment for people who don't.

And, well, if the goal is to follow your golem or have your golem follow you then you should have made a gyro not a golem.