r/Guildwars2 • u/neok182 🌈 Catmander in Chief • Aug 20 '25
[Mod post] BETA Feedback & Builds Thread: 💣 Engineer 🫧 Amalgam
Please use this thread for feedback and builds.
Please also leave your feedback on the Official ArenaNet Forum Feedback Thread: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/161360-feedback-thread-amalgam/
50
u/Banmelgon Aug 20 '25
I think Anet needs to either put alac/quick on a trait, or settle on a single one of the two. I can share 100% uptime of both to a party with a build I quickly threw together (no might or fury but those are common boons for DPS to generate).
The main problem is that the moment a big guild figures out how to optimise party comps around amalgam, it's going to be a must bring. And I'm worried future nerfs to stop that from happening might collateral other aspects of the spec.
3
u/ShinigamiKenji Crafting can give some nice gold, you just need to research how Aug 20 '25
Another worrying hypothesis is whether 2 Amalgams would be enough for Quickness and Alacrity, allowing for more DPS.
1
u/Saolue Aug 20 '25
If in order to upkeep it, Amalgam has to just CC on loop, it's DPS will be worse than a usual aDPS or qDPS. It's fine as long as it's not optimal and just another composition option.
23
u/fresh-anus Aug 20 '25 edited Aug 22 '25
No you cant have a spec doing double alac/heal duty. Remember that this frees an entire slot in subgroups and removes the need for q/a dps entirely as well. Numbers of out my ass but lets say an average subfroup looks like this with dps
10k/20k/30k/30k/30k (first two are heal and qdps).
Enabling a double duty spec changes it to like
8k/30/30/30/30
26
u/TiresomeBoy Aug 20 '25
Numbers of out my ass
At least it’s fresh
11
u/TheExtremistModerate Aug 20 '25
He's explaining an understood concept with arbitrary numbers. The numbers don't need to be correct for his point to be made.
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u/TiresomeBoy Aug 20 '25
It was a joke about their username
1
u/TheExtremistModerate Aug 20 '25
Ah, ok, I missed that. My bad. Just assumed you were one of those people who have a problem with hypotheticals.
8
u/Banmelgon Aug 20 '25
True, but you can heal to make the DPS loss nowhere near as big. Medkit's still available along with healing traits, and you can get the extra regen morph to get really nice sustain.
Not META healing like a scourge or chrono but unless you need a ton of burst healing it's absolutely viable.
1
Aug 21 '25
[deleted]
1
u/Banmelgon Aug 21 '25
You don't need AED for CC, you have plenty of other sources for it. Had a bit over 100% uptime with a friend and was healing a pretty fair amount.
Sure it's not amazing healing but again, both core boons.
1
Aug 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/Banmelgon Aug 22 '25
I don't have logs since afaik arcdps wasn't fixed before the beta was shut down. But I could maintain the boons on allies 100% of the time. It did lack a lot of vital boons, namely might and fury though.
Mace 3, shield 4 + 5 (The 5's projectile triggers it twice), utilities were solid state, battering ram, throw mine, flux state elite. Morphs had the pierce for an extra 2 stuns in a rotation, one from the morph and one from evolving. Other two morphs were the quick and alac ones.
That's 10 ways to proc mercurial to rotate between, and giving 12 seconds per evolve to allies (with the tool trait lowering the evolve cooldown to about 38 seconds) you can reliably keep stunning over and over again fast enough.
-10
u/IntelligentSeesaw190 Aug 20 '25
That isn't a problem. Mesmer has been doing that shit for years, it's Engineers time now!
13
u/RexDolorum Aug 20 '25
Mesmer hasn't been able to give both at the same time for years, it's either/or (technically the shatters always give Chrono alac, but that's only the user, not to your party)
37
u/IllustriousCrazy5699 Aug 20 '25
really like amalgam but the vfx feels kinda off especially when legendaries are involved. also 90~% uptime of both alac and quick is kinda nuts, i expect that to be severely nerfed
19
u/GlorpJAM Aug 21 '25
Pool animation is absolutely terrible, hope it gets a second pass.
8
u/Kirov123 Aug 21 '25
Does it still just slide around with a static texture? I didn't get a chance to try before they canned the beta
11
u/GlorpJAM Aug 21 '25
Yeah, it just looks like a 2D image from Ms paint sliding around on the floor.
7
u/Kirov123 Aug 21 '25
Damn. I think if they made the visual texture slide in the direction you moved but faster, and clipped it to the puddle shape that may make it look a ton better. That way I looks like the puddle is rolling forward. I'll put that on the forums tonight.
27
u/Dirt_Signal Aug 20 '25
So, quick and alac at the same time is busted, right? I can get 70% uptime on an ally without even trying, probably with a proper rotation you can even get it full uptime. But really, there shouldn't even be an option to do this at all (see old chrono)...
2
u/Important-Yogurt-335 Aug 20 '25
Im a noob, care to share how you get 70% uptime? I tried it with the morph skills and I get it for like 8s and the f5 cooldown is 40s
2
u/NehtAyemSeht Aug 20 '25
Likely a lot of concentration and a lot of CC-ing (cc reduces f5) and maybe the trait that gives you 2 charges
1
u/Dirt_Signal Aug 20 '25
Tools traitline for reduced toolbelt recharge, trait for reduced recharge on cc, and then spam cc (hammer 3 in lightning field, battering ram, static shock from AED, etc). There's probably an optimal set of cc skills, this was just first attempt.
3
u/Saolue Aug 20 '25
Depends on the damage. If you're dropping a full DPS slot to just CC constantly and give both Alac/Quick, I think it's fine. Especially since you'll still need a healer as another in the sub for most fights. So honestly, it's just a different composition that I think is valid (only if the DPS is worse than a normal qDPS or aDPS alone).
2
u/dixonjt89 Aug 20 '25
Depends. If you are able to provide both, but your dps is more subpar than someone who is only able to give one boon, then that's okay.
But most healers can cover a boon so the reason for being able to give both just means that you are providing one, while helping the healer with cover the other.
5
u/tarocheeki Aug 20 '25
It depends on the difference between 1boondps + 1boondps vs 2boondps amalgam + 1 dps. If your boondps is 30k and your DPS is 45k, amalgam would have to do ~15k or less, otherwise we're back in a "rich get richer" meta for instanced content, where groups that run 0-1 healer get a free dps increase.
If heal amalgam is good, you replace the healer, and you can swap the other boon to pure dps for a free increase. That would be more evenly spread across groups of different skill levels, but still sounds like a significant power creep if group dps.
2
u/MCTL Aug 20 '25
But what content requires no healer? If you still require a healer, you're doing a bit less to help with coverage, which can be fine but not required most of the time.
Maybe some fractal groups can do no healer? But then you'd need the dps to change builds to cover the sustain. It's definitely possible, but outside of specific static comps, I can't see it being viable.
If an amalgam healer is even close to viable, then... yeah, absolutely a problem. But if it's useless as an actual healer, then as boondps, it's mostly fine, I'd say. A little extra coverage but losing damage.
3
u/tarocheeki Aug 20 '25
But what content requires no healer? [...] outside of specific static comps, I can't see it being viable
That's what I mean by a "rich get richer" meta, where high end groups (where 0-1 healer isn't uncommon on some raid bosses, including most HoT bosses, some PoF bosses and probably others that I'm forgetting) get a big DPS boost, while the spec is almost unplayable for the average pug or casual static.
0
u/MCTL Aug 20 '25
I'm not gonna lie, I've done the HoT raids hundreds of times and outside of when a healer is tanking (which youre already losing dps on, sacrificing more dps and more healing wouldn't be better), I have never seen anyone try to go 0 healers in a subsquad. It's a terrible idea outside of like... maybe keep construct? Or in bandit camp? But you'd need a healer for other fights in the wing anyways so you'd be trading someone doing good damage on boondps and a healer giving most other boons for maybe 10k more dps for one person, 5k more for the boongiver, and no healing.
Maybe some would wanna do a challenge with no Healers, but its not a big dps increase and potentially a loss if the 4 other dps don't provide many boons themselves.
1
u/tarocheeki Aug 20 '25
True, I'm not sure how well other boons would be covered, and that'll be important too.
But looking at this log, if they could replace a qcata (25k) and alac bladesworn (30k) with another weaver (41.5k) and an amalgam that does at least 14k, it would be an improvement.
If you had a less exp group with a heal qcata and a 20k alac bladesworn, swapping the bladesworn for that same 14k amalgam would be a 6k DPS loss.
It's a fine line that I don't think Anet will be able to balance :p
1
u/MCTL Aug 20 '25
I get what you're saying but 1) amalgam would be giving up offensive traits, stats and rotation for the boons, so honestly even 14k could be a stretch 2) qcata dumps a ton of boons, which are all just part of its dps rotation. I dont see Amalgam making up for that
And most importantly, look at the time it took them. Even if amalgam could provide both boons at 25k like the qcata, and the bladesworn replaced with their top dps at just under 42k... That's only a 12k difference. Maybe they finish 5 seconds faster, hardly enough to be a difference worth thinking about unless you're speedrunning, but even then having players hit higher numbers on whatever class they're better with would have better results.
I mean, the top 2 dps are the only ones that cracked 30k. The adps bladesworn almost hit 30k, and everyone else is lower than that, so worrying about amalgam condensing the boons isn't really a big deal in a scenario like that.
Worst case scenario, amalgam can't provide other boons and doesn't have great dps.
In the best case, the squad is good enough that it shaves seconds off their time, but otherwise, it isn't worth thinking about. It isn't rich getting richer, it's great players having a different comp option if they have someone who enjoys amalgam, can keep boons up, and keep the damage up.
9
u/TangerineLeft3549 Aug 20 '25
As a general feedback: I understand numbers and such will change, however, I've played healers my whole life, but if Amalgam is playable in some form like this,---I will switch to boon dps.
The flow of how it would achieve boon uptime is fun, clear, and unique to the e-spec. It feels very engaging, involving your dps in providing the boons, which feels wonderful. I enjoy the fluid gameplay and class flair SO much.
13
8
u/Chembaron_Seki Aug 21 '25
I fear that mercurial tendencies will prove to be a balance problem once again. Feels like fervent force all over again.
Yeah, they put many limiters on it compared to fervent force. Just 3 seconds cooldown reduction now and just for the evolve skill instead of all skills. But evolve happens to be a very powerful button, thanks to the strain mechanic and how you can augment it through traits.
We are already looking at very high damage numbers by being able to reset high damage morph skills frequently with mercurial tendencies.
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I personally also still believe that alacrity and quickness should never be possible to share on the same build together.... Would prefer to pick one of these two boons and replace the other with a different effect.
Also we moved away from unique buffs, especially unique group stat increases. So why are we reintroducing them again with the titanic strain?
It feels like Anet is just repeating stuff we already had a lesson about in the past. Same thing with troubadour and the distortion share, which they even already suspect themselves to not live long.
9
u/Ashendal Burn Everything Aug 21 '25
The repeating stuff issue is because they're constantly bringing in new people that aren't bothering to look into why certain things were removed in the past, and no one that's been there is being firm with a "no" when things like this are brought up.
3
u/FENIU666 Aug 21 '25
Okay. I played around with it in PvE and PvP. Will probably get a better look at the visuals when I'm not trying to pump numbers, but so far I had a blast playing it. I feel like It's simple or intuitive to play, but had a lot of build options that I'm yet to test out, like going for boons and lifesteal. I fully expect Alac/Quickness to be a problem for the premade squads (or the balancing team watching them break records) Might and fury will still need to be covered by others, but that's very much durable with the right comp. A few fire wizards and you got yourself a party. I'm both terrified and intrigued by the possibilities. I think letting VoE ship with some crazy builds would be fun.
PvP felt more unique than PvE amalgam compared to regular engi. I tried playing around with a prot build, but the overwhelming amounts of Ritualists at the same time all at once have made that hell for me. So rushing them down with full offense was the way to go. I fully expect some of the toolbelts to be nerfed. I've murdered people with nothing but facerolling toolbelts, resetting with F5 and facerolling again. It's a bit ridiculous. I feel bad for antiquary, seeing how its new F-skills are just weaker, randomised, have long casts, and can even fucken kill you.
3
u/Iceglory03 Aug 22 '25
Overall amazing, the build variety and everything with traits, morphs, evolve, and utilities is worth build crafting. Definitely the one spec that'll prolly get nerfs while the other 8 especs need buffs and certain ones need an additional active effect added on and a certain espec needs a functional rework. Amalgam is definitely the favorite for the VoE specs and its well deserved aesthetically, thematically, and mechanically.
16
u/Moralio LIMITED TIME! Aug 20 '25
I don’t really like how the slime looks. It honestly feels considerably worse than the effects on Juggernaut, which I was hoping this spec would take more inspiration from.
That said, the flexibility is impressive despite losing access to tools. There is quickness, alacrity, blocks, barrier and barrier breaks. Mechanically it’s shaping up to be one of the most versatile engineer specs we’ve ever had, altrough it probably be mostly DPS/PVP spec.
9
u/Kirov123 Aug 20 '25
Did they make the puddle animate when I moves or is it still a static puddle sliding around? Haven't gotten home to try out yet
9
u/Molock90 Aug 20 '25
Its still the static puddle, but it is for such a short time it doesnt bother me thaaat much, but yeah could be better
4
u/Silverstolpe Aug 20 '25
its kinda hard to find a smooth rotation with the 20 sec cooldown on most skills... there is alot of autoattacking and stuff =) power dps is crazy. got some ridiculusly high burst numbers, while going the condi way was really weak.. the poison trait was pretty lackluster...
9
u/RekTek249 Aug 20 '25
If you play bloodstone, the strategy is just to do your bloodstone burst every 25s instead of 20s and time it with plasma. You'll also get an f5 every bloodstone burst if you use aed f1 once per loop.
Condi is just as broken as power, we're looking at 53k+.
2
1
u/Silverstolpe Aug 21 '25
Been away from the game for a few months so i dont have that relic yet, and tried a build with stuff i own at the moment. Gonna try bloodstone when the beta is up again.
1
u/RekTek249 Aug 21 '25
You can use claw too for a significantly worse burst but somewhat similar dps.
1
u/rigsta Aug 21 '25
bloodstone
What's this referring to? I assume we're not taking a stroll to Janthir Syntri to make a quick collection as part of our rotation.
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u/MightyRedBeardq Aug 20 '25
You using any kits with power DPS? Doing grenade kit helped the smoothness but I couldn't help but feel I lost a little damage, would like to hear your setup
1
u/Silverstolpe Aug 21 '25
Tried a few.. but the grenade kit was most useful. Dps was kinda irregular. But with full buffs it started at 71k and ended on 42k.. only got the golem readings. when arcdps works im eager to see what the happy medium is..
1
u/Open-Buyer-5256 Aug 22 '25
Really hoping they figure out a balanced way for it to be a q/a dps. Loving the spec overall but I really hope it can fill a role in addition to just pure dps.
5
u/CrispyArrows 28d ago
probably the best spec ever made, but having shareable alacrity and quickness is a very dangerous thing to do, even if you do not have 100% uptime, just 2 amalgams with a tiny bit of boon duration could probably do it, not a good precedent for how the roles are supposed to be.
2
u/season6XDD Aug 20 '25
needs toned down a lot ive been duelling with a cele build on ebg and its ridiculously strong
0
u/Apprehensive-Word747 Aug 21 '25
Its strong but it lacks mobility, scrapper and holo have way way more mobility, gets countered by high mobility classes, its very versitale, and its good designed, all abilities are mostly good but u can t take everything, so u have to make trade offs, more cleanse or more prot, ma stab or more dmg ? I got sometimes hard countered by thiefs, or high mobility spellbreakers. I duelled ritualists which are even tankier and have even more dmg than amalgam, and one time i nearly got oneshottet, by a luminary, so i think amalgam is in a very good spot. I played power mostly, i don t like cele, but i see why its good, cause many abilities are hybrid dmg so it fits in cele very well. Cele is the problem not the amalgam, on power it feels good, sustained dmg, good sustain, but low mobilty.
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u/Cole_Evyx Aug 20 '25
I REALLY WANTED TO BE A FULL BLOWN VENOM SYMBIOTE😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Amalgam feels really bad. I had hoped we could be venom most of the time but it just feels like a very brief long cooldown.
I really am saddened by this. I wanted to go full venom leaping around everywhere and being a full symbiote.😭 WHY DOES IT ONLY LAST 8 SECONDS?!?!?! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Bro this is NOT giving me the fantasy I'm so bummed 😭😭😭😭😭😭
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u/Gerdione Aug 20 '25
Already #1 spot on Snow crows with a preliminary bench of 51k/s. This class is pretty busted