44 replies to this topic

[Biff Rangoon]

Aduah, on 25 June 2015 - 09:37 PM, said:

Sure. I need to do what I can to salvage this armour and runes. I dont currently have the will to make another set. So I'm open to suggestion as long as it is something I can play.

He was using something like this in pvp (though this is a wvw version). Looking at it, I think there's room for more optimization, tbh, but I'm certainly not that knowledgeable with engineers and he was doing very well.

Le build.

Notes:

• He said he was considering dire trinkets for wvw
  
• He said bombs can work well instead of grenades, in which case you'd trait short fuse
  
• He doesn't use grenadier in favour of the direct damage trait (seems nuts to me, so this has grenadier)
  
• He had an interesting argument for Alchemy over Inventions. Not sure if it's optimal or not, but it seemed to give him some decent sustain

Anyway, good luck. Don't know how close this was to what you're running, but it seemed to work for him.

[Aduah]

Blackthorn, on 25 June 2015 - 09:43 PM, said:

You probably know this already, but if it's an ascended set, you can change the stats on it now using this. You lose the runes and infusions (which I know is no small loss for you), but it saves you having to deal with time-gated crafting and the massive amount of materials needed.

Yea I heard about that, but if I really have to change my build to the extent of using armour, I'll likely transfer the armour to another class that can use a Condi/bunker/perlex armour (Maybe my thief or something) and just make a new set. Either way its no small loss of money, but If I can make use of it on another class, I'd rather do that.

[Aduah]

Biff Rangoon, on 25 June 2015 - 10:25 PM, said:

He was using something like this in pvp (though this is a wvw version). Looking at it, I think there's room for more optimization, tbh, but I'm certainly not that knowledgeable with engineers and he was doing very well.

Le build.

Notes:

• He said he was considering dire trinkets for wvw
  
  
• He said bombs can work well instead of grenades, in which case you'd trait short fuse
  
  
• He doesn't use grenadier in favour of the direct damage trait (seems nuts to me, so this has grenadier)
  
  
• He had an interesting argument for Alchemy over Inventions. Not sure if it's optimal or not, but it seemed to give him some decent sustain

Anyway, good luck. Don't know how close this was to what you're running, but it seemed to work for him.

Thanks for the build. Its very very similar to what I currently run. But I run tools instead of Alchemy. And my explosives line is geared more towards the bombs. So glass cannon (because the grenadier trait, afaik is completely useless unless im running grenades and the fall damge doesn't do me much good either). As far as my utilities go I Run rocket boots (for escape and stun), elixer gun, and bombs. Toyed with mortar kit, was disappointed so I'll also probably be sticking with crate like is in the build.

As far as my trinkets go, I have an odd mix. Rabid, Rabid+Dire, Celestial, Rabid+Clerics, and Zerk all ascended except my Backapack(rabid) and an earring (celestial) ( I never completely optimaized my trinkets. Just put on whatever I received). And my weapons are Rabid & Zerk.

Once again, Thanks for the build. Brings me back to having some faith that my build can be salvaged.

[UltraEM]

Aduah, on 25 June 2015 - 09:37 PM, said:

Mortar kit is okay, but I noticed (maybe it was bugged) that it didn't do much dmg.  I seriously was getting MAYBE 200-550 dmg. Its was completely useless. considering the cast time and delay, especially for an elite.

I tended to get around 500-950 in WvW, maybe 1000+ with might stacks and crits, but I can't be sure because there were so many effects and numbers on the screen whenever I used it. I did manage to use the Mortar's arc to destroy an AC build site before it was built. The waterfield and chillfield are probably the best things about it, aside from the awesome Orbital Strike, which does two strikes of around 2500+ damage each, both blast finishers.

[Slein Jinn]

Aduah, on 25 June 2015 - 09:37 PM, said:

Mortar kit is okay, but I noticed (maybe it was bugged) that it didn't do much dmg.  I seriously was getting MAYBE 200-550 dmg. Its was completely useless. considering the cast time and delay, especially for an elite.

It's a Power weapon, and you don't have any.  

Aduah, on 25 June 2015 - 09:37 PM, said:

Grenades could very well be the weapon of god (they of course aren't), but if I don't know how to control it, what good does it do me?

So practise and get better.  "It was hard so I gave up" isn't how you succeed.  

Grenades also got a 100% velocity increase, which raises the skill floor for using them quite a bit.

[UltraEM]

Yeah, grenades, despite their range reduction, are actually a lot better for me now. I rarely needed 1500 range on my grenades anyway (with their old speed and arc, plus my ping, it was only good for stationary targets at that range; Mortar 1 fills in this role alright) and preferred to get in close and spam the thing where it's difficult to dodge/strafe to safety. Grenades at close range are much more dangerous now (especially since Grenade Barrage is still broken - 12 grenades instead of 6).

[Aduah]

Slein Jinn, on 26 June 2015 - 01:27 AM, said:

So practise and get better.  "It was hard so I gave up" isn't how you succeed.  

Grenades also got a 100% velocity increase, which raises the skill floor for using them quite a bit.

Wow, You are right. I might now have to actually keep grenades in my arsenal. Grenades now are obnoxiously powerful. I was actually able to take a camp out without needing to heal before swords popped, Considering almost every one of my grenades crit. I'll just need to get better at aiming these suckers.

Especially since, as ultra said, grenade barrage is broken. I'll enjoy that while I can. Holy Cow.

Edit: I also think I'm throwing 4 grenades instead of 3.

[UltraEM]

Aduah, on 26 June 2015 - 04:38 AM, said:

Edit: I also think I'm throwing 4 grenades instead of 3.

I had a feeling I wasn't the only one that felt this way. I usually see 3 grenades thrown, but when I throw grenades at gates, up to 5 numbers pop out for some reason, when it's supposed to be 3.

[Silvernis]

Aduah, on 26 June 2015 - 04:38 AM, said:

Wow, You are right. I might now have to actually keep grenades in my arsenal. Grenades now are obnoxiously powerful. I was actually able to take a camp out without needing to heal before swords popped, Considering almost every one of my grenades crit. I'll just need to get better at aiming these suckers.

Especially since, as ultra said, grenade barrage is broken. I'll enjoy that while I can. Holy Cow.

Edit: I also think I'm throwing 4 grenades instead of 3.

This makes me vaguely irritated. I hate using grenades. Aiming issues aside, spamming them makes my wrist hurt noticeably more than it does after playing any other build/class, so of course they're the kit that ANet decided to make ridiculously strong.

[Slein Jinn]

Silvernis, on 26 June 2015 - 08:06 AM, said:

This makes me vaguely irritated. I hate using grenades. Aiming issues aside, spamming them makes my wrist hurt noticeably more than it does after playing any other build/class, so of course they're the kit that ANet decided to make ridiculously strong.

They were always the strongest offensive kit for small-scale combat.  Grenades haven't not been in the Engineer meta basically since launch.  If you have physical problems using them, then your keybinds and/or settings are probably bad.  Most players run really awful settings/keybinds, and Engineer is one of the classes that most punishes that.

[Silvernis]

Slein Jinn, on 26 June 2015 - 08:48 AM, said:

They were always the strongest offensive kit for small-scale combat.  Grenades haven't not been in the Engineer meta basically since launch.  If you have physical problems using them, then your keybinds and/or settings are probably bad.  Most players run really awful settings/keybinds, and Engineer is one of the classes that most punishes that.

I dunno. I've been trying grenades off and on over the past several weeks, and I can definitely see why they're meta, but even if they're strong, they still feel awkward to me. I can dance through my pistol/shield and other kits without issue, but for whatever reason, grenades seem really clunky to use with the ground targeting. Admittedly, it may well be a keybind issue. My setup is generally pretty comfortable and reliable provided I pay attention, but I'm sure there's room for improvement.

[Aduah]

UltraEM, on 26 June 2015 - 06:45 AM, said:

I had a feeling I wasn't the only one that felt this way. I usually see 3 grenades thrown, but when I throw grenades at gates, up to 5 numbers pop out for some reason, when it's supposed to be 3.

Well I first noticed it when taking seiege down. I thought it was my imagination, the spread on the grenades are pretty erratic sometimes. I most consistently saw 4 numbers, and once thought I saw 5. Thought it was imagination, guess not since you're experiencing it.

Silvernis, on 26 June 2015 - 08:06 AM, said:

This makes me vaguely irritated. I hate using grenades. Aiming issues aside, spamming them makes my wrist hurt noticeably more than it does after playing any other build/class, so of course they're the kit that ANet decided to make ridiculously strong.

Do you have cast on button release turned on? It saves  you the extra click, which might help your wrist. I don't know if thats the issue. You could also turn on fast cast (I think its called) where the targeted skilll executes at your cursor location as soon as you press the button. I don't recommend that though if you have issues aiming.

I had a hard time with toolbelt and any skill that required the f keys, so I bought a mouse that I could program so its all easily at my thumb tips.

[Silvernis]

Aduah, on 26 June 2015 - 03:36 PM, said:

Do you have cast on button release turned on? It saves  you the extra click, which might help your wrist. I don't know if thats the issue. You could also turn on fast cast (I think its called) where the targeted skilll executes at your cursor location as soon as you press the button. I don't recommend that though if you have issues aiming.

I had a hard time with toolbelt and any skill that required the f keys, so I bought a mouse that I could program so its all easily at my thumb tips.

I'm not using cast-on-release, but that might be worth experimenting with. Cast-at-cursor just seems like a bad idea; I lose my cursor more often than I care to admit, so I don't want to be randomly casting stuff without knowing where I'm aiming.

I rebound all the F key skills to XCVB (elite on N) way back in beta. It's admittedly susceptible to fat-fingering, but it works well enough if I pay attention.

[UltraEM]

I just press the skill number twice instead of clicking (I'm not the best at tracking the position of my cursor). Pressing "1" (or any other of the weapon/kit skills) brings up the circle and pressing "1" again activates the skill. Works with any targeted skill and I find it a lot easier than pressing the skill key and then clicking.

[Slein Jinn]

Aduah, on 26 June 2015 - 03:36 PM, said:

Well I first noticed it when taking seiege down. I thought it was my imagination, the spread on the grenades are pretty erratic sometimes. I most consistently saw 4 numbers, and once thought I saw 5. Thought it was imagination, guess not since you're experiencing it.

Here's the deal:
Traited Grenades are piercing targets now.  So individual grenades can do double damage if they pass through a target--dealing damage--then impact the ground next to that target--dealing damage again.  I don't know whether this behaviour is working as intended or due to change, but I hope it stays as-is, because as the 100% projectile velocity increase raised the skill floor for Grenades, the piercing raises the skill ceiling.  If you use them to their full potential, Grenades are unquestionably the strongest offensive tool in the Engineer arsenal right now.  (I suspect they created the new Grenadier trait by first copying Rangers' Lead the Wind trait, and left the piercing mechanic unintentionally, but that's pure supposition.)

[Silvernis]

UltraEM, on 26 June 2015 - 10:06 PM, said:

I just press the skill number twice instead of clicking (I'm not the best at tracking the position of my cursor). Pressing "1" (or any other of the weapon/kit skills) brings up the circle and pressing "1" again activates the skill. Works with any targeted skill and I find it a lot easier than pressing the skill key and then clicking.

That's what I do with pretty much any ground-targeted skill. Grenades just seem really spammy and button-mashy, though.

[matthen]

I tried Grenade Kit with the post patch grenadier trait, and I think it's ridiculously easy to burst with it. I am not sure it raises the skill ceiling that much.

The fields on mortar are more interesting, as are some of the other trait combos, but I am not planning on playing engie much until ANET comments on grenade piercing. Don't want to be crutching on it to hard.

Frankly, I am still trying to figure out which profession isn't broken in some way...

[Slein Jinn]

matthen, on 29 June 2015 - 07:13 PM, said:

I tried Grenade Kit with the post patch grenadier trait, and I think it's ridiculously easy to burst with it. I am not sure it raises the skill ceiling that much.

If you're referring to Grenade Barrage, that's got its own set of issues.  It's not being affected by the piercing trait or cooldown reduction traits--it's just plain generating thirteen grenades.  For the regular Grenade skills, though, actually utilising the piercing to get extra damage against a sentient target is certainly a skill shot.

[UltraEM]

I wonder how long it'll take them to fix Grenade Barrage

[Aduah]

Grenadier trait disabled till next release.

https://forum-en.gui...rarily-Disabled