Guild Wars 2

I love the Scrapper specialization. However it is mostly due to the hammer and the specialization tree itself. That said, the unique profession mechanic is lackluster and situational at best and the skills added are useless due to the gyro’s low HP and not great IA. I have read a few threads on how to improve the class mechanic and this is my take on it.

First, the class mechanic is almost non existent and really hard to use. It offers no mechanical difference from the engineer and there is absolutely zero cost of opportunity for bringing the elite spec in this regard. Here, every other spec wins some mechanic but looses on another. What I suggest is transform the toolbelt skills to gyro skills, where all the drones will be here and all skills in your utility will no longer give you a skill in this bar. You would have Medic Gyro (F1), Blast Gyro (F2), Bulwark Gyro (F3), Purge Gyro (F4), Sneak Gyro (F5). This would add the cost of opportunity of the scrapper. Additionaly instead of having a recharge these would function on a fuel system which mechanically would work like upkeep skills on the Revenant, where there is a regeneration rate and each gyro you maintain consumes an amount of fuel per second.

Second, the skills we would get would be survival skills that can fit the scrapper theme nicely. All these skills would be centered at fuel management and generation. The heal can give a certain amount of HP and fuel gets refilled (the more fuel you have to regenerate the less HP you gain). The utilities can grant an aditional regeneration rate for some time, a flat amount of fuel gets added, faster recharge of gyros, consume all fuel and explode all gyros. The elite can recharge all fuel and heal gyros.

Finally, gyros themselves need a HP increase in order to survive most situations. Also, they need a speed increase in order to keep up with the engineer. I read somewhere that the gyros themselves can maybe use the mobile AoE technology to be on the Scrapper at all times and this would work great.

Let me know what you guys think of my ideas. And yes, I know it is probably too late to implement any of these changes.

I like that idea a lot.

I’d add that the gyros should be able to function underwater since right now none of the new elite spec’s skills can function underwater.

I like that as well.

I also think that Elite Specs should replace a part of the core mechanic of a profession for something different. As you described it now simply adds to the core by giving you an additional weapon and some extra skills. The core function of toolbelt does not change.

So yeah, a trade-off like this seems good.

The scrapper really is missing something special that a normal engi cant have. It changes nothing to your core mechanic.

+1. but sadly too late for such a drastic change.

thing only is op… without the toolbelt engineer looses a lot of stuff like blast finishers, stun breaks, the ability to throw potions, nuke turrets for finishers, knockbacks, condition pressure, strong attacks and much more :\. Id alter your versiona little.. basically a “toolbelt switch”. Basically you can swap your toolbelt like a rev does his legends, the entire bar gets replaced with a gyro remote that lets you deploy and nuke em what gives you their toolbelt effects… basically nuked medic turns to his waterfield toolbelt skill while sneak does its reveal move and purge unloads its poison field and so on. If you swap your toolbelt you get the entire swarm of gyros swarming arround you what gives the enemie sorta an indicator that you are about to command your gyros and to swap back to the regular toolbelt gets a reasonable cooldown of 15-20 secs to not be able to just spam skills like a madman, also you need to judge if you need the gyro itself or just its toolbelt, cause if you need the toolbelt you gotta destroy it so there is the element of strategy and also counterplay. The drones themselfes keep their high cooldowns and low HP cause you dont need to sacrifice your already rather limited utility slots on the drones and the (imo completely stupid) function gyro gets activated while in gyro remote mode too. There.. engaging mechanic where you need to judge if you need your toolbelt that wont be available for a (in a battle) long time or if you need your gyros to use a different tactic. But noooope, lets make the mechanic a pretty stupid and easy to kill gyro that you only see at two situations that can happen in battles, make it 30 second cooldown and make the rest of the spec skills (CEPT the hammer) underwhelming compared to kits and elixirs… oh well… atleast ireno´s favourite child the druid turns out nicely…

Aravind.9610:

I’d add that the gyros should be able to function underwater since right now none of the new elite spec’s skills can function underwater.

Agreed, this should apply to all elite specs where they should work underwater in some way. Hopefully we can get an underwater revamp where all skills and traits work (in some modified way) in the next expansion.

Faab.8049:

I like that as well.
I also think that Elite Specs should replace a part of the core mechanic of a profession for something different. As you described it now simply adds to the core by giving you an additional weapon and some extra skills. The core function of toolbelt does not change.
So yeah, a trade-off like this seems good.

I don’t think necessarily they should replace the core mechanic (like in the dragonhunter, reaper) they could perfectly add to it (like in the druid, chronomancer), the problem is that the extra mechanic is almost unusable unless in two very specific situations, it is complicated to target and apply which makes it mechanically convoluted.

Basaltface.2786:

thing only is op… without the toolbelt engineer looses a lot of stuff like blast finishers, stun breaks, the ability to throw potions, nuke turrets for finishers, knockbacks, condition pressure, strong attacks and much more :\. Id alter your versiona little.. basically a “toolbelt switch”. Basically you can swap your toolbelt like a rev does his legends, the entire bar gets replaced with a gyro remote that lets you deploy and nuke em what gives you their toolbelt effects… basically nuked medic turns to his waterfield toolbelt skill while sneak does its reveal move and purge unloads its poison field and so on. If you swap your toolbelt you get the entire swarm of gyros swarming arround you what gives the enemie sorta an indicator that you are about to command your gyros and to swap back to the regular toolbelt gets a reasonable cooldown of 15-20 secs to not be able to just spam skills like a madman, also you need to judge if you need the gyro itself or just its toolbelt, cause if you need the toolbelt you gotta destroy it so there is the element of strategy and also counterplay. The drones themselfes keep their high cooldowns and low HP cause you dont need to sacrifice your already rather limited utility slots on the drones and the (imo completely stupid) function gyro gets activated while in gyro remote mode too. There.. engaging mechanic where you need to judge if you need your toolbelt that wont be available for a (in a battle) long time or if you need your gyros to use a different tactic. But noooope, lets make the mechanic a pretty stupid and easy to kill gyro that you only see at two situations that can happen in battles, make it 30 second cooldown and make the rest of the spec skills (CEPT the hammer) underwhelming compared to kits and elixirs… oh well… atleast ireno´s favourite child the druid turns out nicely…

First, let’s not turn this into a thread of attacking other elite specs. I love the druid and what it brings to the table. Let’s keep the conversation on topic and exclusively to what the engineer brings to the table.

Second, I think it is OK for engineer to loose some mechanics from the toolbelt. Essentially it becomes a cost of opportunity and that is an important trade off of being a scrapper. It cannot only be gain extra things without loosing anything, specially when our traits and weapon already synergy well with other stuff from the Engie. I do agree that maybe giving enemies the hint of what you are going to do depending on your bots might be problematic, however the herald works similarly with the glint auras. I think this adds counterplay to the gyros if you pay attention to their design, this justifies the buff in HP and utility. I think tho adding a second skill on the toolbelt after you summon (which could be the current toolbelts for gyros) could be useful. They could modify them a bit so the Scrapper does not loose as much utility from sacrificing the toolbelts for the gyros.

^ So loosing a crucial mechanic is alright?

Like the druid lost his base pet mechanic? Nope still there unchanged.
The Zerker his base adrenaline bar? Nope still there and built out.
The Guard his virtues? Nope but new ones focused arround the new playstyle.
The Chrono his shatters? Nope just built out with a new shatter.
The Tempest his attunements? Nope built out with overcharge.
The Herald his legend swapping? Nope built out with Facet of nature.
The Reaper his shroud? Nope but changed for a more melee centric setup.
The Daredevil the initiative bar? Nope, still there unchanged.

All mechanics are still there and where either altered but kept the overall function or stuff added ontop, why would the engineer just casually loose parts of his mechanic, specially given that an engineer does need the toolbelt to pull of many things the engineer is meant to do… like combos? How would he use his turrets proper with using them as blast finishers? What happens to the stunbreak of the e-gun? Whats with throwing elixirs like elixir-r that can rez or elixir-u with its possible wall of reflect or smoke wall? Whats with the mortar orbital strike? The ability to nuke your crate turrets? Polymorph moa from the elixir-x? BoB from the Bomb kit? Grenade barrage? Incendiary Ammo? And so many more.. well each skill brings a toolbelt, cept the racial elites… Skills like this offer more then gyros ever will in their current state. Hell in fact the gyro toolbelts are more usefull then the darn things themselfes.

Would you accept a mesmer that cannot shatter anymore? How about an ele that cant switch attunements? A Revenant that can only use 1 legend? A thief without initiative?
Ranger without pet? Eh.. well many want that… so i give you that. But still see what i mean? Engi skills usually work together with the toolbelt in a way, shape or form. Would i want to skip out on them for drones? Hell no, never. Would i skip out on them for a while to use drones to change up my tactics? Sure, anytime. Out with the bulwark gyro to buff my defence while i reveal that annoying thief that got me in my backside with the nuking of the stealth gyro before dropping the shredder and nuking it to get the lightning field and stun him and then unleash hell on earth on the guy with my hammer. Then i swap back to my toolbelt and keep on using those skills. That would be awesome.

Also that was a dig at Ireno for the imo weakest mechanic of all specs… not the druid, druid is epic and all hail to all who like it.

Basaltface.2786:

snip.

What I am suggesting is a change in the mechanics. A new set of toolbelt skills, from the current to a gyro-centric set. It is a lot like the dragonhunter loosing access to his current virtues and gaining access to the new ones, or the necromancer loosing death shroud and gaining reaper shroud. I guess an offcombat switch to select if you are using gyros or toolbelts would not be the worst, the button could work similarly to the ranger’s menu to select the pet.

If you have any ideas on how to improve the mechanics I am suggesting I think that would be great. While I do believe that it is way to late to change any of them, since release is only 3 weeks away. Maybe give Irenio some ideas on how to change it post HoT launch.