Guild Wars 2

The following is a wall of text. I apologise, but press on and you will be rewarded. Maybe. Also, the topic is too long for one post. Soz!

Abstract:
kits: utility slot = toggle; belt slot = stowed or equipped state
turrets: utility slot = turret; belt slot = skill supplement or detonate
elixirs: utility slot = elixir (tossable); belt slot = cond mist
gadgets: utility slot = gadget; belt slot = skill supplement

changes proposed are as follows:

kits = toolbelt stowed vs equipped state
turrets = cooldown fixes and target control
elixirs = tossable utility and cond mist belt
gadgets = grant stun break and add teleportation device

I am going to preface this by saying that I like the engineer as it is, which is to say that the mechanic of kit swapping, supplemented with toolbelt skills, gadgets, elixirs, and turrets appeals to me. The addition of the toolbelt as a kind of compensation for the lost utility slot is a very good idea, in my opinion, but many of the skills are more like “having an app for that” than they are part of the “operating system”. That is, for all my defense of this class (which will never stop), I still recognize the problems we have.

In all of our discussions about how to improve the engie, we have brought up each and every facet of the profession and offered changes, but we’ve never looked at the toolbelt separately from the utilities to which they are linked. We have only ever talked about them as these add ons rather than as skills. this is because the toolbelt skills do indeed under perform. I do not think that the class needs a redesign or any major changes. I believe that the class needs bug fixes and balances and minor changes in order to bring the engie into a more cohesive unit, one where it doesn’t feel as though each of the possible specs are competing with one another because they all under perform in one way or another.

It is my firm belief, then, that the toolbelt is where the problem lies with the class, and not with the kits or other utilities. What follows is my take on what could be done to the toolbelt skills to improve our versatility rather than hinder it as they do now.

Remember: These are just ideas.

I like our mechanic of kit swapping. I think that the toolbelt skills need to be worked on, and buffed so that they are more reliable as utilities. I get why they wanted RNG, it makes the toolbelt more “versatile” in a way by overloading it with potential as a compensation for the loss of a utility slot. Yet, our performance is bottlenecked by an algorithm rather than left in the hands of the player. The RNG has to go. There is no place for random effects in a game where player skill determines the performance of the player’s character. If I push ABC, the only thing that should stop me from achieving result XYZ is intervention from another player or from an npc opponent. If I push ABC and get MNO instead of XYZ because of some unreliable element on my side, that makes me a liability to my krewe, period. The RNG has to go.

I envision the toolbelt as the place where I hang my kits and elixirs etc, when they are stowed just like, while I’d rather not use external analogy, Batman’s belt. As such, I think that, for kits especially, the toolbelt skill ought to reflect the state of the kit, equipped or stowed. For example, the elixir gun’s current toolbelt skill is a healing mist similar to the healing turrets regeneration mist. What if, while stowed, the toolbelt skill recieved a cond removal as well (heal+cond removal every 45-60 seconds). Then, when equipped (since there is super elixir handy), the toolbelt skill achanges to add poison to the next three shots. Similarly, a stowed flamethrower could have a “vent heat” that does aoe dmg in a small radius, and while equipped we get the incidiary ammo.

You could still use the toolbelt skill, then swap and retain the buff for a different weapon, allowing mixtures of attack types happen. toolkit would have a stun breaker while equipped (“ha HA fools, you tried to stop me with my toolkit at hand!”), and throw wrench is a perfectly acceptable equipped utility, especially with the power wrench trait. More brainstorm; grenade kit would keep barrage during equipped state to maintain the rhythm for 100nades, but the stowed state could be something useful like a smoke grenade that grants a bit o stealth, so you can bamf, back off a bit and set up for your next barrage cycle now that it is on that pesky KR timer. The land mine utility could become bomb kit’s stowed state (because let’s face it, land mine has many uses, but an entire utility slot it should not take), and big ole bomb would retain it’s titanic poise. Medkit is already set to fit within this framework. (Remember: these are all just ideas, and I want them to be as simple to implement as possible for Anet)

1/con’t…

…con’t/1

Turrets already function this way (net shot, surprise shot, rocket, shockwave), and our group buff sharing combo fields are precisely why we can detonate them at will. there is perhaps logic here as well as to why the cooldowns are so long. spamming our buff combo fields may be abusable, also .. i personally wouldnt want to have to play like a vanilla WoW pally constantly having to rebuff everyone. that said, cooldowns are ridiculously long and need to be adjusted. also, if I am an engineer who uses turrets, I want to depend on them as much as a ranger depends on his/her pet. I should be able to dictate its target, I should be able to pick it up and move it without penalty, but if you must have one, I think that the timers should be scaled:

picked up: 15 seconds
opponent destroyed: 30 seconds
self destroyed: 45 seconds (fair for the buff rotations, no?)

We could then alter the T2 Inventions Trait Autotool Installation to both regen turrets automatically as well as provide that much missing 20% cooldown reduction (12, 24, 36 seconds).

I should want to maintain turrets with the toolkit because it would be worth my time, not a frenzied race to pretend like I can repair the kitten things before they fall apart. The timers as they are now are a slap in the face like we are being forced to crawl around and pick up the pieces before building another turret. If I can fit a flamethrower, a wrench, a refillable box of nails, a jug of napalm, a spear, a harpoon, a net, a prybar, an unlimited supply of bandages and elixirs, and a rifle on my person, I think it is reasonable to assume that I can fit several deploy-able (yes, anet, it is hyphenated) turrets in there too. Fix the cooldowns.

Now, since starting this post I’ve become fond of this idea of mist effects, so let us extend the notion to our Elixirs proper. Let’s be honest, elixir toolbelt skills are an exercise in redundancy that makes two buttons out of what ought to be one, that is, why can’t I just throw my elixir from the utility bar? Drop the RNG, make the elixirs apply all the buffs youve given them (adjust timers to compensate), and allow us to throw them. In general, reduce all of the timers by 10% (and leave fast acting elixirs as is, so that it still applies a 20% reduction to the new timers in addition to this reduction). The toolbelt skills then, so as not to be redundant, and to be fun, will mist out conditions to foes, making our elixir builds more deadly, and offering more utility to builds that have only one exlixir.

Elixir B? Weakness and vulnerability. Elixir S? Haste, yes used as a debuff (!hehe! cant catch me!). Elixir U? Drop the RNG crap, give us Stability and Quickness for 6 seconds at the cost of 3 seconds of Haste and Quickening Zephyr. Its mist toolbelt skill can apply Frenzy and Quickening Zephyr to foes. Elixir R? A blinding mist (specially designed to refract the light of the sun one thousand times brighter!) that blinds nearby foes so that you can revive allies (a blatant rip off of the thief ability, or what have you); Elixir R proper would be its current toolbelt skill on a 90 second timer. Elixir C? Confusion. I would also merge the end regen which was formerly part of Elixir R in this model to C, so that it converts conds and refills endurance. In order to balance this, limit the cond conversion per ally to 3. Drop the RNG, for the love of video games.

Finally, we have gadgets. To be honest, these utility skills already have two useful states, and already fit within the framework I have suggested. With the exception of landmine (which I would drop and turn in to the bomb kit’s stowed toolbelt skill), I would not change much. What I would do, however, is grant EVERY gadget a stun breaker. I would remove the self cripple from Rocket boots (and from overcharge shot) while retaining the gap creation ability. I would add a pulsing 1sec cripple to slick shoes oil slick. Battering Ram ought to daze its target for 2 seconds.

Since landmine is reduced from full utility (assuming you think it is one, lawl) to a toolbelt skill, it needs a replacement, and so I give you: PDA (Personelle Delivery Attenuator). This is a portal that functions like mesmer portal, something I can safely say we all want, that the profession needs.

And for the love of Pete (hi Pete!), no RNG please.

/2quid

Feel free to savage my ideas and make them better, faster, stronger!

I agree with some some of what you said.

It would be very unique for us to have two forms of every Tool Belt skill, and would make up for the “50-50” split they have going for us right now. Where a Utility Skill’s functionality is based off of both Tool Belt and Utility slot.

So from what I understand, you want to give us three abilities per Utility slot? So we would have:

Elixir B
Tool Belt:
Elixir B before use
Elixir B after use

Awesome post, I agree RNG must go.

Aristio.2784:

I agree with some some of what you said.

It would be very unique for us to have two forms of every Tool Belt skill, and would make up for the “50-50” split they have going for us right now. Where a Utility Skill’s functionality is based off of both Tool Belt and Utility slot.

So from what I understand, you want to give us three abilities per Utility slot? So we would have:

Elixir B
Tool Belt:
Elixir B before use
Elixir B after use

not quite, I suppose a tldr summary might clarify:

kits: utility slot = toggle; belt slot = stowed or equipped state
turrets: utility slot = turret; belt slot = skill supplement or detonate
elixirs: utility slot = elixir (tossable); belt slot = cond mist
gadgets: utility slot = gadget; belt slot = skill supplement

changes proposed are as follows:

kits = toolbelt stowed vs equipped state
turrets = cooldown fixes and target control
elixirs = tossable utility and cond mist belt
gadgets = grant stun break and add teleportation device

when I get home, I will add this tldr to my post!