wasss.1208

In my experience, disable based builds are pretty inconsistent, in larger scales (or even in GvG), because they have to affect the enemy. If they have stability, the whole trait is worthless. And everyone running around with stability is pretty much given in large scale. Superspeed is a gamechanger in WvW, in my oppinion. If there is an option to get AoE superspeed in your build easily, it's a nobrainer pick.

I just want a trait, that turns the mech into a glorified Ventari tablet. It no longer has hp, hitbox, auto attack, or anything. It becomes a simple effect, when the trait is picked. It relocates with F1, does its F-2-3-4 skill, when pressed, and cc once with F5. This way I wouldn't be inconvinienced by the clunky AI, if I would ever try to play support mech. And I could actually try to play this spec in WvW zergs.

Power is probably recommended, because it is usable on most encounters. In raids, at least. Apart from that, Power Holo is pretty simple to use. Condi Holo is one of the hardest builds in the game at the moment. Luckily enough Condi Mech is pretty beginner friendly as well, so you have that as a backup. If you want to keep mech as an option, do not pick Grieving gear, because it doesn't work with it.

I stopped maining Engineer one or two patches ago. Core Engineer is at least viable in PvE, and can have some fun with it, but I really dislike Takedown Rounds, so I don't play this build as often, as I could. Scrapper has been ruined for me, after they changed how they provided quickness. And the justification was horrible as well. Instead of filling your bar with one kind of skill, and spamming them on cooldown, now you are filling your bar with an another kind of skill, and spamming them on cooldown. At least they are buffing DPS scrapper, which I always found fun, and will definitely play some of it during the next balance cycle. Holosmith is good, but I've played it for 5 years, I want something fresh. Mechanist is nonexistent in my eyes. It's the bane of Engineer, and we would've been better off, if it never existed. In PvP, you play Holo, which has been the case since 2017, or 'Nades, which has been the case since 2020. It's incredibly stale. Every now and then I hop on, to theorycraft a new core build, but it usually just gets farmed by meta builds, so I put the gamemode down, until the next core buffs. Shame those buffs usually arrive after 3 nerfs to core, because they refuse to touch the elit specs first. WvW is whatever. It is the wild west, I can enjoy anything there. Although after the Support Scrapper changes, I don't really feel like zerging with Engineer.

Because they dislike passive procs. And their cooldowns reflected that. 100 seconds for 3k barrier, 100 seconds for 3 condi conversion? Those were incredibly awful. Now you can have that 3 condi conversion every14,5-30 seconds, and could proc that 3k barrier every 20 second, at best 120 at worst. This also means, that you have more power over when to get these. On the other hand, I can make a build now, that cleanses something like 8 conditions on heal, so on heal cleanses are definitely plenty at the moment.

They probably buffed Scrapper sustain, to nudge players toward a bruiser playstyle. They'll probably follow-up these changes next patch (hopefully not in 3 months), if they weren't enough. In the meantime, there is Tools Holo, that wasn't relying on 'nade kit, so that should be unaffected. And with nade out of the picture now, they can actually adress the issues of the profession, and start buffing things, because "It'll be broken with 'nades." should no longer be an issue.

Yeah. Its wild. Also, you cannot expect DPS players to stand in a 180 AoE. Most boongivers nowdays give out their stuff in a 300-360 radius. Some easily goes up to 600. And just hitting them once isn't enough, you would want the ticking effect to get full value out of it. And if your team manage to pull it off you win... 🥁 drumroll 🥁 25 stack of might! 🥳 🎉 Give it damage condies, and good damage scaling, so we can at least try to bomb with it in WvW.

His last stream was 5 years ago, so even he is back, he isn't streaming.

In group content healers are doing 3 things: Give boons, give heals, and handle mechanics (if they can), so people with good damage output can do their thing better. You don't need to worry about damage, unless you are in a really minmaxed speedclear group, that wants to shave 2 seconds off of an encounters time. Open world events are quite similar. Your job is to keep the damage dealers topped off, and booned up. That said, camping your healer weapon is not always the best course of action. It is definitely a viable strategy, but you usually need things from your other set of weapons. Like druids usually camp X/WH, because of the boons, and only swap to staff, when they need big heals, because staff has no useful boons on it, only heals.

Pretty much. But that makes the fact even sadder, that it'll be probably a pure support weapon. Unblockable support abilities are nothing to write home about. Those are the baseline. If these abilities had a way to build into a proper power, or utility weapon, then it could become useful in WvW. Otherwise in zerging, this will be a huge "we will move there in 2 seconds" marker, or "we will push, because engi buffs and empower prestacking started". And we will still need to give up x/shield, or hammer, which gives pretty good defensive/mobility/cc skills for supports.

I just made a joke an hour ago, that they could just rework turrets to be "arrow" skills, add them to the chain reaction mechanic, and we might actually see them used, unlike turrets.

At first glance, I don't dislike this. I'm curious what kind of effects we'll be able to get out of the chain reactions. From the previewed skills, and the wording of the post, it seems like this will be a pure support weapon. It would be nice, if some of the skills/chain reactions would apply a good burst of conditions. But this is just my personal wish. Apart from this, the weapon objectively needs: A blast finisher on low cooldown, so Scrappers could pick it up. Without this, support Scrapper just cannot work. A crowd-control skill, for it to be even considered in PvP. For someone to pick this up, they are paying a hefty opportunity cost, and have to give up x/shield, that gives pretty good survivability/utility, or hammer, which does the same. Supports really need all the personal sustain they can get their hands on in PvP. Not rooted animations, on 2-5. As people pointed it out, the animation seems to use Guardian/Ranger LB5 animation, which both are animationlocks. The weapon would feel awful to play, if every non AA skill would root you in your place. Not must have, but it would be nice to have: An explosive tagged skill, so it can interact with the Explosives traitline. Large area for the skills. This is especially important in competitive modes, where things get hectic, and people spread out, or relocate quickly. There is a reason why the only viable supports in PvP have 600 area support skills. Fast travel time for skills. Not sure, if they appear on the spot, instantly, or it needs more time based on the distance. Either way, it would be nice if our target would be still in the area, when the skill arrives. Anyways, ranting over, we'll see how it plays during the beta.

This is the peak PvP content I'm here for.

For the confused people: "They should buff it in pvp/wvw at least, since they joinked quickness."

They would have to look at explosive tags on weapons first. Scrapper has one on low cd, Rifle has one AA, and P/P has none. They could update the weapons, so all of them has an explosion tag on a ~4-6 second skill, then give us a grandmaster, that gives ~6-8 seconds of quickness. It could definitely work, and wouldn't be an outlier compared to Herald, Bladesworn ... and all the rest of the crew, that provide their boon, by just existing. Alternatively they could lowball this amount, so healer builds are forced into boon duration, which they do anyways, but dpssupports will slot in either mine, grenade, or both, which provide multiple explosions. This is also a great alternative! It wouldn't force us to slot any skill, just force us, to spam toolbelts. As a DPS player, you do that anyways, as a healer player, boon duration will help you out. Or they could just slap 10 seconds of quickness on a single toolbelt use, plus whatever extra boon duration the trait gives. Will it overcap quickness? Obviously. Does it matter? Considering what the other alternatives bring, I would argue, that it doesn't.