Guild Wars 2

Recently I posted an idea to alter the engineer primary mechanic from the tool belt to simply being F-bar kits similar to elementalist attunements. This idea was less than well received, but some of the feedback has led me to an alternative idea.

Generally speaking the attitude about the engineer’s Tool Belt system tends to center around one of two beliefs; the first being that the engineer primary mechanic is simply having a lot of skills. That the tool belt is not meant to be some manner of significant feature in and of itself, but rather the importance of it is the ability to have four additional skill slots. The other belief, and the one I personally subscribe to, is that the tool belt is merely a form of compensation, or a consolation prize. In essence Arena Net realized from the start how important kits were to our profession, and understood that they kit system forced us to sacrifice one or more utility slots. As such the Tool Belt is a way of compensating for that, and allowing us to have those slots back.

The problem I have with both of those arguments is best summed up in a single world; choice. Such a huge draw of both Guild Wars 2 and the MMO genre in general is the ability to –to a point- fashion your own custom character builds; to use the tools provided to you to create a character template that at least feels unique, and allows us the illusion of playing our own personalized characters. However the current kit/Tool Belt system run directly counter to this. So many times people have told me, in response to recent arguments, that we do have choice; that we can choose what kits to bring, and how many to bring. All the while oblivious to the fact that every single one of their suggestions still carries with it the necessity of kits. We’re free to choose any build we want, so long as we have at least one kit.

You can have any color [Model T] you want, as long as it’s black.
-Henry Ford

Likewise the Tool Belt is only an illusion of choice, and a poor one at that. We have no real freedom with the Tool Belt; instead being forced to take whatever skills it gives us based on our utility selections. And since we are forced to take at least one kit, that means we are in turn forced to take at least one kit determined Tool Belt skill. This is, at least to me, a pretty big problem and directly counter to one of the main reasons I play MMOs in the first place. So I have a deceptively simple solution.

Make Tool Belt skills freely selectable.

Nothing else needs to be changed. The individual balance and power of traits and tool belt skills can be saved for another day. Tool Belt slots can continue to unlock in time with utility slots. Tool Belt skills can continue to unlock as bonuses when purchasing their “parent” utility skills. The only difference, the only change, is that we may now selection what four Tool Belt skills we want to use with impunity, regardless of our utility selections.

I have two primary arguments for this, the first being outlined above. I will briefly cover it again now simply to be concise. In short; I think that having Tool Belt skills locked in with our utility skills denies us a great deal of build diversity and customization, and undermines the intended purpose of allowing us to still have our utility slots in spite of the unspoken need to slot kits regardless of our personal preferences. Making these Tool Belt skills freely selectable solves both of those issues.

The second reason is pretty basic as well; it just makes more sense. Think about real life for a moment. Think about mechanics and engineers, plumbers and carpenters. These men and women wear tool belts, but why? What benefit does that garment offer? Well clearly it allows ready access to commonly used tools, or tools selected specifically for the task at hand without having to bring their entire collection. A plumber can bring a large wrench with him on his belt without having to lug around that heavy tool box and his entire wrench collection. A carpenter can bring a hammer without having to strap his entire workshop on his back. So it only makes sense that here, on Guild Wars 2, an engineer should be able to carry around a few grenades to barrage their enemies without having to march around everywhere they go with their entire explosive kitten nal.

I like this idea. Not a whole lot else to say.

This one is more reasonable. The only drawback is that it would necessitate nerfs, since right now the strongest toolbelt skills are often paired with relatively weak utilities. The ability to pair the strongest toolbelt skills with the strongest utilities would obviously make our builds flat-out better with zero drawbacks. Since we’re currently pretty well-balanced, it stands to reason that after becoming much better we would be OP.

Elixir R toolbelt would be the first one to get nerfed, but there would be others. Still, it may be worth it for greater flexibility. On the other hand, engineers are easily the most flexible profession in the game already, so I’m not sure the devs will be interested in making them even more flexible, at the cost of balance and accessibility.