Guild Wars 2

I remember ANet talking about this after the game launched, but i haven’t seen anything about it since then. My suggestion is a second weapon set for Elementalist and Engineer just like the other professions. But the Elementalist and Engineer shouldn’t be able to change the weapon in battle like the other professions.

The ele and the engineer have a great deal of flexibility as is. They really shouldn’t need another weapon set.

I know they are flexible, but as i said i shouldn’t be a weapon set you can switch in battle, only out of battle. So instead of having extra weapons in the backpack you could have them in an extra weapon set like the other professions.

They have a smaller set of weapons available. Therefore it takes smaller volume of equipment. All on equal terms.

That may be true, but i don’t see the argument. My argument would be that it would make the Engineer more fun to play and as far as i can see it dosen’t take anything away from the other professions. It’s not like a Guardian is less fun to play because an Engineer has an extra weapon set.

well lack of a second set puts focus on the unique profession mechanics, your second weapon set is the kits/elements, adding a second weapon set would detract from that.

even if it was out of combat switch only how long before the complaint of why cant they switch in combat comes in.

of course then other professions might then complain that they don’t get kits or multiple loadouts per weaponset

really this change wouldn’t bring anything to the game other than potentially more complaints

I see your point and i agree that some people would complain. But i really see it as a way to easier store an extra set of weapons and i even though you’re probably right in your assumption i would hope that it wouldn’t be a big deal.

You have an out of combat weapon swap already. Just like every class in the game that wants more weapons than they can hold. It’s called keeping extra weapons in your inventory and activating them while not in combat.

See, everyone is still on equal footing.

What Engineers are dying for is actually to have Weapons/kits with an identity. Right now our kits are a mix-mash of power & condition skills. Take Grenades for example, why is every skill condition but the auto attack……Or why Pistol/Pistol can scale as pretty well with Power/Prec/Crit Damage builds when it should clearly be a Condition damage weapon.

Part of being versatile is being able to swap between very diverse, but specialized kits/weapons.

Personally I would love to see Wrench Kit swap it’s #1 for bleed instead of invul and that would make it good enough to be condition built and make grenades just power heavy and change shrapnal to invul and poison to daze.

Kal Spiro.9745:

You have an out of combat weapon swap already. Just like every class in the game that wants more weapons than they can hold. It’s called keeping extra weapons in your inventory and activating them while not in combat.

See, everyone is still on equal footing.

No need to be condescending, i know how the inventory works, i’m making a suggestion and you can like or not. It’s pretty clear from the answers so far that my suggestion is game breaking for a lot of peolpe. So we’ll leave it at that.

Kal Spiro.9745:

You have an out of combat weapon swap already. Just like every class in the game that wants more weapons than they can hold. It’s called keeping extra weapons in your inventory and activating them while not in combat.

See, everyone is still on equal footing.

so all eles and engineers have 2 less bag slots than everyone else because of their class?

yep, equal footing

ok, being less sarcastic now, I’d like to point out that eles and engineers have no real way of switching range in combat, on my mesmer I just switch to GS if I need to go long range, a DD ele is screwed, the argument that they get attunements instead falls flat in that they can all be described as “melee with x” as in, melee with burning, melee with mobility, melee with healing and melee with bleeding.

a staff or sceptre COULD act as a short range weapon, but that’s not really the point, the point I’m making is that if an ele is caught in a fight with daggers, and the fight isn’t melee friendly (hi kol) they’re really out of luck

one of the other arguments I hear is that it would make eles a nightmare to fight against in pvp. the people making these arguments have likely never played an ele before, since the ele’s playstyle is described now as “grand piano with your keyboard”, even the best pvper’s brain would melt having to rotate between 40 skills at once, especially when a single mistake is often fatal.

IMO eles SHOULD get weapon swap, and even in combat, if the weapon swap also put their attunements on CD as well

as for engineers, I really can’t think of a good reason why not to give them a weapon swap, the weapons focus on different areas, so it’s not like the damage boost would be significant

Elementalists have 20 weapon skills on one weapon (60 total)
Engineers are able to rotate through kits to have access to up 20 weapon skills also.

Thief gets 20 weapon skills total, only having access to 10 with weapon swap and shares initiative on both. I would rather have cooldowns and 20 weapon skills at my disposal (4 without cooldowns) than only be able to spam an ability 3x before running out of initiative.

Elementalists and Engineers have far more versatilty than any other profession with Warriors not far behind them.

Calcifire.1864:

Kal Spiro.9745:

You have an out of combat weapon swap already. Just like every class in the game that wants more weapons than they can hold. It’s called keeping extra weapons in your inventory and activating them while not in combat.

See, everyone is still on equal footing.

so all eles and engineers have 2 less bag slots than everyone else because of their class?

yep, equal footing

ok, being less sarcastic now, I’d like to point out that eles and engineers have no real way of switching range in combat, on my mesmer I just switch to GS if I need to go long range, a DD ele is screwed, the argument that they get attunements instead falls flat in that they can all be described as “melee with x” as in, melee with burning, melee with mobility, melee with healing and melee with bleeding.

a staff or sceptre COULD act as a short range weapon, but that’s not really the point, the point I’m making is that if an ele is caught in a fight with daggers, and the fight isn’t melee friendly (hi kol) they’re really out of luck

one of the other arguments I hear is that it would make eles a nightmare to fight against in pvp. the people making these arguments have likely never played an ele before, since the ele’s playstyle is described now as “grand piano with your keyboard”, even the best pvper’s brain would melt having to rotate between 40 skills at once, especially when a single mistake is often fatal.

IMO eles SHOULD get weapon swap, and even in combat, if the weapon swap also put their attunements on CD as well

as for engineers, I really can’t think of a good reason why not to give them a weapon swap, the weapons focus on different areas, so it’s not like the damage boost would be significant

You make some very good points. Particularly the bolded bit which I’ve been saying for MONTHS.

First of all, the bag issue is kinda not a big one (not aimed specifically at you but at everyone who brings it up). The reason I say this is I carry weapons on all my level 80 characters in invisible bags. My ele and engi both have their spare weapons stowed for then they need it (as well as my necro and guardian). So the out of combat weapon swap is kinda unnecessary. I would however love to see a weapon swap on eles and to a lesser degree engi. I understand why engi doesn’t have the swap but I’d still like to see it implemented, as long as it doesn’t effect the kit swap time.

I’ve seen people say it before and I myself will say it again: Elementalists are the only class who can’t swap from range to melee mid battle. I’ve had moments where I decide to change to melee and have to stop, open the inventory, put my daggers on, and then follow my party. The problem in this is when I want to get back to staff I have to run to somewhere out of combat, wait (if it doesn’t bug) put my staff back on, and rejoin my party. That’s excluding the fact that one dagger will always end up in a random bag as opposed to my invisible bag I keep for safe weapon storage. You might say I could go scepter/dagger for melee/range combat sure. I however enjoy the ability to AoE and then move in for melee. With a second slot I’d probably do the same as I do on my necro: I run scepter/dagger and staff and swap to dagger/dagger when I want to move in for melee.

If a cool down is added to attunements upon weapon swap (I swap from staff to daggers while in water, I must wait for water to cooldown before changing elements while in dagger) I don’t see it was a problem or being “op” in any way. As mentioned, playing ele and swapping elements isn’t a simple thing. I don’t consider myself a highly skilled ele where daggers are concerned but I’ve been killed by my fair share of them. I am AMAZED when I see them. I’m somewhere in the range of 200-300 hours on my ele and I feel like I’ve only just begun to really learn how to play it. As I see it though, a weapon swap isn’t gonna break the game.

jeez this again, if anything either ALL professions get one or more extra out of weapon swaps, or none gets it, engi and ele already are using the least bag space for extra weapons due to the limited amount of weapons they can use, so don’t see why only they should be allowed to use even less, if the other professions cant as well…

To all those who are saying engineers and elementalists have the least number of weapon sets available, I’d like to point out that elementalists have the same number of weapon sets as thieves who have in-combat weapon swapping. So, in my opinion, the argument of ‘least number of weapon sets’ is invalid for at least the elementalist.

I still am against in-combat swapping for elementalists. I think that being one of the more powerful classes in game we need to always be prepared for battles. If you don’t know the fights in a dungeon, ask someone if ranged or melee is better. If you get caught in a bad situation in the world, make the best of it. Worst comes to worst, there are plenty of escape skills at our disposal. Play smart and you should never need to swap weapons in combat as an elementalist.

That said, I still don’t see how an out-of-combat weapon swap will hurt anyone. The only thing it does is allow us to do what we can already do 3x faster at the touch of one button.

Kasaeva.4691:

To all those who are saying engineers and elementalists have the least number of weapon sets available, I’d like to point out that elementalists have the same number of weapon sets as thieves who have in-combat weapon swapping. So, in my opinion, the argument of ‘least number of weapon sets’ is invalid for at least the elementalist.

Wrong, ele have 1 2handed (staff), 2 main hand (dagger and scepter) and 2 off hand (dagger and focus)
Thief have 1 handed (shortbow), 3 main hand (dagger, sword, pistol) and 2 off hand (dagger and pistol)

Add to this that the main hand #3 skill changes depending on the main hand you could argue this makes the amount of weapon sets bigger than any other class with same amount of weapon, but even if we don’t factor that in, thief still have one more main hand and same amount of 2handed and off hand weapon as ele

i would like to see an out of combat weapon swap for ele (so i dont have to open up my inven and equip staff each time i need range; and then swap back to d/d when i dont)

but i dont see the need on engi… rifle or pistol? they both serve different builds (but the same-ish function)… p/p or p/s? implementing a weapon swap just for that seems a bit pointless…

GummiBear.2756:

Kasaeva.4691:

To all those who are saying engineers and elementalists have the least number of weapon sets available, I’d like to point out that elementalists have the same number of weapon sets as thieves who have in-combat weapon swapping. So, in my opinion, the argument of ‘least number of weapon sets’ is invalid for at least the elementalist.

Wrong, ele have 1 2handed (staff), 2 main hand (dagger and scepter) and 2 off hand (dagger and focus)
Thief have 1 handed (shortbow), 3 main hand (dagger, sword, pistol) and 2 off hand (dagger and pistol)

Hmm missed one somewhere. My bad.

Regardless, it’s one weapon set. When compared to the warrior’s 19, I feel like the difference is negligible. What makes 6 qualify for ease of access but not 5?

The Ele doesn’t need an in-combat weapon swap. I haven’t played Engineer enough to really have an opinion. As far as out-of-combat weapon swap…you’re basically asking for weapon storage slots that take them out of your inventory.

So, in order to be fair, why not just have weapon slots available for every weapon that a given profession can use, for every profession? Put one slot in the weapon skill tab of the hero panel for each type of weapon (two slots for cases where weapons can be dual-wielded) and allow the player to equip weapons from those slots easily while out of combat. When a new weapon is equipped, the previous weapon is put into its slot. This would prevent anyone’s weapons from wasting bag space.

Honestly, an Ele with five weapons in their bags is much better off than warriors who carry around all of their various weapons.

In spite of how utterly game breaking and unfair some people seem to think it would be, I came here to suggest the same as the OP.

The two classes are limited currently to 1 weapon set because of their class mechanics. Get it.

But, most especially for the elle, every other class in the game, has the option of switching from melle to a ranged weapon. Having that ability prior to a battle would be nothing more than convenient.

Whether or not every other class should then have weapon slots for every single weapon they can conceivably use “in order to be fair” is an entirely different suggestion/topic.

The engineer doesn’t really need it any more than any other class. But even though the Elle can pull out a conjured weapon, they are time and charge limited, making them poor substitutes.

I could care less about the “need” for keeping all the weapons for my other classes in their respective inventory. It’s not at all necisary to run with more than your preffered sets. It only bothers me that it is “necessary” to swap on the elle, (Fight Claw of Jormag, or defend a keep in WvW with D/D, anyone?) but by all means consider adding an out of combat tertiary weapon system to all classes. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.

You could even make tertiary slots cost skill points to unlock.

Adding the ability to swap weapons while in combat as an elementalist would really take away from the unique play mechanics of the class. I have two level 80 characters and one of them is an ele. There are points where it would be nice if I had access to a scepter skill or a dagger skill. However, that limitation is there for a reason.

Learning how to use the skills at your disposal with your chosen weapon type is a big part of playing the class. Determining when to change attunements to get the most of out skills is a critical part of the play style. Knowing when to switch to a different weapon set is also part of it. I always carry a complete set of elementalist weapons with me wherever I go. This is so I can always be prepared to change my play style before a fight. Sometimes you get caught in a tricky situation and your chosen weapon isn’t the best weapon for the job. But the same could be said for utilities, elites, and healing skills. You just adapt and deal with it.

Yes, the extra weapons take up a few slots in your inventory. And to that I say, so what? Salvage some loot. Deposit collectibles. Clean out your inventory at regular intervals. I rarely end up with a full inventory and I have an 18 slot invisible bag full of stuff I always bring with me.

With 20 skills available with a single weapon, and the ability to rapidly swap attunements, adding the ability to swap weapons would cause an already powerful class to become even more powerful.

yay, this thread again!

Hit “H”
Double click.

Can only be done out of combat anyway.
if its an offhand that can be used in your main hand, you right click then left click. same clicks either way.

I understand the desire for a “cool weapon swap” for eles and engis (I have an engineer), but its simply not needed. Why add something to the game for something you can already do, and very simply?

I’m going to have to say no to this. The Engineer doesn’t need the functionality and the Ele should have conjures work as a secondary weapon set until their duration or charges run out.

Let me just say it again, with fewer words.

As game breaking and unfair as some people seem to think it would be, having the ability to for the Elementalist to switch between two weapon sets when out of combat would be nothing more than convenient.

Thank you for taking the time to read a suggestion.

I’d be for this if it purely were an out of combat swap. Inventories can get cluttered, making it hard to find which particular weapon you’re wanting to switch out. Having a pre-loaded set safe from vendoring etc would just be a quality of life thing, not a game play changer.

Not hard to carry a second weapon set in your inventory…
I run staff ele pretty much everywhere except the dredge fractal, where i bust out my scepter/dagger for the projectile control.

I agree with the op, as long as it is out of combat. But for spvp purposes it should also be only allowed when out of combat for like 8 seconds or something. If they want to avoid conflict and be on the move without having to open a menu to swap weapon (not possible in tpvp) then why not. It takes the hassle away of opening the inventory and swapping weapons in an unorganized fashion.

Convenience is why elementalists should have a second weapon set or maybe four like in GW1, It’s quite irritating to have to switch weapons when there have been better options for doing so without having to tinker around every so often for certain situations. Though as mentioned previously because of the huge weapon skill pool the option to switch should be locked out for elementalists in combat otherwise it would obviously be overpowered.

Elemes dont needs in 2nd weapon slot - they must be nerfed instead, coz they are overpowered.

But Engis must have 2nd weapon slot.

As someone with an Elementalist and an Engineer at level 80 with similar play times logged on each one, I can say that not having access to weapon swapping isn’t an issue for either class.

However, Engineers need to be able to keep a weapon kit in their second weapon slot with the standard 10 second cooldown attached. Having to sacrifice utility skills just for quick weapon swapping is one of the biggest issues the Engineer has and if you can’t see that you clearly are not a kit using Engineer. Most Engineer builds that rely on kits have to make sacrifices such as boons and stunbreakers in order to just have all the tools available to be “versatile”.

Pity the game doesn’t just have an inbuilt macro for choosing a set of weapons/utilities ex-combat. Saves on tedium, and doesn’t matter balance-wise.