Guild Wars 2

Jus wondering here if the Engineer profession, is mainly a alchemical inventor type of profession. It seems a lot of Guild Wars 2 professions are inspired by old D&D classes. I decided to look up the Alchemist class from D&D and it’s very similar to the engineer in the use of Potions, poisons and bombs.

See link : http://vidshomepage.weebly.com/alchemist-pathfinder.html

So with that said, alongside the trait line alchemy and explosives, it’s safe to assume that the Engineer was inspired by the D&D Alchemist. I guess lore wise, if an engineer wishes to invest more focus into alchemical studies, it would make that particular Engineer, more of a alchemist than a engineer of mechanical inventions I think…

What do all of you think?

I think there’s a bit of common sources happening, but the GW2 engineer isn’t a descendent of the Pathfinder alchemist. It’s worth noting that ANet wanted to make an engineer character all the way back in 2005, but the technology level of GW1 didn’t support it… and that’s why they made the ritualist with a similar playstyle instead!

I think what’s happened in the context of the GW2 engineer is that ArenaNet recognised that a certain amount of chemistry was going to be involved with the engineer regardless – making gunpowder, explosives, incendiaries and so on – and basically decided to roll with it and make the engineer a full-on alchemist to give a wider range of utilities.

It also fits what was typical back in the day – nowadays, science is at a point where people have to specialise to have any chance of pushing the envelope, but a few centuries ago there was a good chance that any learned inventor had also dabbled enough in other areas to be a competent chemist, pharmacist and amateur scientist (by the standards of the day, anyway…) as well as a mechanical engineer.

Some point at least.
We can find other influences to them as well, though.

There is some heavy influence in abilities based on the scientist character of “The Goonies” and I believe we got some Team Fortress 2 hints as well.

However the role of an Engineer might have been come much more naturaly then you think as mechanical contraptions are heavily woven into the narrative.
If we follow the theme from engineering to other “non-magic” advances, then a chemist/alchemist direction would make a lot of sense.

However it might not be called that in Guild Wars 2, even though there are similiarities which could be exploited with future skill updates.

If some people get their way, then there might even be a subclass for the engineer, called an Alchemist (see ragnarok online, that would actually be really cool though), which uses more potions than mechanical means.