Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been sifting through my Engineer skills and traits, and just finding a bunch of weird things that I honestly can’t bring myself to be okay with. There are just so many bizarre choices ArenaNet made with Engineers that I don’t understand.

For instance:
Every other class has signets. Engineers have zero. That means every other class has access to several passive boon options while Engineers don’t. I know that every class is different from one another, but I just don’t see what the logic behind this could be. What is it about Engineers that makes them have no need for passive bonuses, but every other class needs the option?

I recall in the beta that the Speedy Kits trait was pretty neat. Basically it gave Engineers a Swiftness buff that refreshed every 5 seconds if they had a kit on. In live, they changed it so that it only refreshes if you swap into a kit. What exactly is the reasoning behind this? Do Engineers seriously have to swap in and out of kits every 5 seconds to get some swiftness? It’s the exact same thing, ArenaNet just changed it so we have to push more buttons for seemingly no reason.

Adrenal Implants is a 30-point Major Trait that gives 50% Endurance Regeneration. And yet Rangers have a 5-point Minor Trait that gives the exact same thing. Again, I know that classes are supposed to differentiate themselves between one another, but.. what? Why do Engineers have to spend 25 points more, make a choice between it and other traits, and why is it in a non-defensive trait line? Don’t quite understand this choice at all.

Reserve Mines, the 15-point Minor Trait in the Explosives line, is absolutely terrible. For those that don’t know, these mines do NOT explode if you get downed. I don’t know about other Engineers, but this makes the trait near useless in dungeons. If I ever drop below 25% health, I can count on me being downed along with it, or shortly afterwards. If it is supposed to be a trait that helps us get back up and recover, it needs to be changed to working while downed.

The Major Trait Fast-Acting Elixirs isn’t bad. But I don’t see why it doesn’t affect Elixir X to make it more appealing.

The Utility Skill Elixir U is great. But what’s with the Toolbelt skill? First off, it doesn’t even describe what it actually does. “Random skill at location” doesn’t mean anything to players. It actually only chooses between 3 spells, so why not just say what effects it has potentially like our other random-effect spells? Now onto the bigger issue with Toss Elixir U. Not knowing which spell I’ll get isn’t that terrible.. but it is when the effects are so completely different from each other. The three effects are a blind/projectile block, projectile reflection, and a stealth. If I lucked into having it blind my enemies, I’d have to throw the elixir in the area they are in.. but if I lucked into having it stealth my group, I’d want it closer to my allies. These are just effects that are too different to be in the same varying, random-effect spell.

Everybody already talks about and knows that equipping kits destroys any weapon stats and/or sigils that you may have wanted, and I hope ArenaNet is already aware of and working on this.

Med Kit is a fine healing ability. I really enjoy it.. but I really hate that the default target isn’t myself. I’ve run into too many situations where my allies were running by me and they accidentally stole my packages. My build relies on me having Swiftness and Fury, so this is pretty frustrating. I’ve even had a Guardian’s Spirit Weapon run by and take it from me. I don’t know what ArenaNet could do to fix this skill while still allowing Engineers to use it for Support, but I still thought I’d give this a mention.

That’s all that I can think of right now.. any thoughts?

Some of my oddities I guess:

Armour mods is inferior to the warrior version in every way.
Coated Bullets is inferior to the warriors crack shot in every way.
Elixir S is superior to mist form in every way.
Warriors get a minor trait that increases damage against bleeding foes by 10%, engineers get one that does so by 5%.
Elementalists have a minor trait that increases damage per boon by 2%, engineers have one that increases damage by 1% per boon.
Necros have a minor trait that causes bleed on crit 66% of the time, engineers have one that causes it 30% of the time. (Not sure if they have an ICD or its duration though)

Weird how Arenanet allows skills/traits that are functionally the exact same, but balances them differently.

Lyuben.2613:

Some of my oddities I guess:

Armour mods is inferior to the warrior version in every way.
Coated Bullets is inferior to the warriors crack shot in every way.
Elixir S is superior to mist form in every way.
Warriors get a minor trait that increases damage against bleeding foes by 10%, engineers get one that does so by 5%.
Elementalists have a minor trait that increases damage per boon by 2%, engineers have one that increases damage by 1% per boon.
Necros have a minor trait that causes bleed on crit 66% of the time, engineers have one that causes it 30% of the time. (Not sure if they have an ICD or its duration though)

Weird how Arenanet allows skills/traits that are functionally the exact same, but balances them differently.

It could be because Elementalists can only stack roughly half as many boons as engineers reliably. For Necros, there is a lot more opportunity cost going for a crit build + that trait than, say, engineer going for a crit build +bleed on crit trait. I don’t think I can rationalize the warrior stuff.

Also, before you possibly shut me down completely Lyuben, I’m just trying to offer what might be ANet’s rationale behind these values, I don’t know if there is actual weight behind my statements – maybe elementalists can stack the same number of boons as an engineer reliably while speccing for that trait. I haven’t looked hard enough at the trait trees for other professions to give a complete, comprehensive opinion.

interesting thoughts, here’s what i think. (also i’m by no stretch an xp engi, but loving it)

Every other class has signets. Engineers have zero.

at first i thought the same, was a tad annoyed that there were no sigs, but engi’s really have a different set of mechanics. we also have access to a lot of different choices.
on a lore standpoint, i think one could argue that engineers are completely non magic users and signets are traditionally based from signet rings from which the user can gain magical powers.

AlietteFaye.7316:

I recall in the beta that the Speedy Kits trait was pretty neat.

i would expect this to come down to a simple balance issue, it’s an inconvenience to continually cycle kits just to get the swiftness every 5 sec, and no-one is going to do that in the heat of a pvp battle, not when they could be using critical skills to down a foe.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Adrenal Implants is a 30-point Major Trait that gives 50% Endurance Regeneration. And yet Rangers have a 5-point Minor Trait that gives the exact same thing.

i agree with this, i was a bit confused as to this also.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Reserve Mines, the 15-point Minor Trait in the Explosives line, is absolutely terrible.

yeah, i’m not a huge fan of it, and i certainly don’t rely on it. it can be nice in pvp, but i don’t see it being a game changer, but it is only a minor trait and only 15 points in, maybe it should be more of a 5point trait i don’t know. if they exploded on down it would be nice

AlietteFaye.7316:

The Major Trait Fast-Acting Elixirs isn’t bad. But I don’t see why it doesn’t affect Elixir X to make it more appealing.

i agree here, it’s not so powerful of an elite skill that being 20% faster cd would make it broken.

AlietteFaye.7316:

The Utility Skill Elixir U is great. But what’s with the Toolbelt skill?

hmm, i think it just takes time getting used to it, i use it mainly as a projectile defense, as 2 of the possible walls are proj defense. personally using a p/s, having mag shield’s blast it’s very utilitarian being able to stealth everyone, or area retal, or area chaos armour. might be nice to have the list of possible skills i agree

AlietteFaye.7316:

Everybody already talks about and knows that equipping kits destroys any weapon stats and/or sigils that you may have wanted, and I hope ArenaNet is already aware of and working on this.

from what i’ve read they are aware and are looking into it.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Med Kit is a fine healing ability. I really enjoy it.. but I really hate that the default target isn’t myself.

there’s the thrown med trait i think which is for aiding allies, but i’ve not found other people stealing my medpacs, especially when running in a straight line forwards. so i can’t really comment

MarioMetroid.6953:

Lyuben.2613:

Some of my oddities I guess:

Armour mods is inferior to the warrior version in every way.
Coated Bullets is inferior to the warriors crack shot in every way.
Elixir S is superior to mist form in every way.
Warriors get a minor trait that increases damage against bleeding foes by 10%, engineers get one that does so by 5%.
Elementalists have a minor trait that increases damage per boon by 2%, engineers have one that increases damage by 1% per boon.
Necros have a minor trait that causes bleed on crit 66% of the time, engineers have one that causes it 30% of the time. (Not sure if they have an ICD or its duration though)

Weird how Arenanet allows skills/traits that are functionally the exact same, but balances them differently.

It could be because Elementalists can only stack roughly half as many boons as engineers reliably. For Necros, there is a lot more opportunity cost going for a crit build + that trait than, say, engineer going for a crit build +bleed on crit trait. I don’t think I can rationalize the warrior stuff.

Also, before you possibly shut me down completely Lyuben, I’m just trying to offer what might be ANet’s rationale behind these values, I don’t know if there is actual weight behind my statements – maybe elementalists can stack the same number of boons as an engineer reliably while speccing for that trait. I haven’t looked hard enough at the trait trees for other professions to give a complete, comprehensive opinion.

I understand that there could be some rationale of course.

The problem I have though is… its literally the same skill but balanced differently.

Often the simplest explanation is the right one, and it seems simpler that engineers were the first class to be balanced. As Arenanet famously stated during BWE3, being with shippable traits, and all else came after them in terms of balance.

I’d honestly have skills be equal, if they are copies, or give them something to differentiate them.

Having the same skill but better hurts man. It hurts your soul.

I think many of the issues I have with the Engineer are bugs.

The shield 4 skill, Magnetic Inversion I believe it’s called, doesn’t seem to blow back enemies a lot of the time, this is very painful particularly against a thief, since the 4 skill is my initial go to knockdown skill. This bug often get’s me killed.

Throw Mine Skill doesn’t work in the Clocktower. It just simply, does not work. Throw Mine also behaves oddly with skill that affect projeciles. The mine usually dissappears, but I can often still use the next skill to explode it, which does nothing, but I have to use it so that it will go back on cooldown.

I find Elixir R (the toss elixir is really useful though) and the goggles to be generally useless since it doesn’t break immobilize. And while I really love Rocket Boots, it’s not uncommon for it to bug out, or even to get immobilized DURING the knockback, in both cases I’ve knocked myself out for about two seconds for zero gain.

There’s only one Elite skill that’s reasonable to use in PvP. I believe we all know which one that is.

The Necromancer sometimes doesn’t seem to trigger my shield 5 stun (I realize there’s a certain distance, I’m talking about when the Necro is close enough to normally trigger it). I’m not certain why this is, but I think it’s because some of the Necro attacks aren’t projectiles, they instead just appear at the target.

The Pistol 3 skill doesn’t bounce as many times as it says it will.

The Pistol 2 skill misses most of the shots making it a poor DPS choice over the pistol 1 skill unless if the target is standing still and I’m up close to it, or if it’s a wall. I often just use it until I get one hit in for the poison stack then cancel it and start using my pistol 1 skill.

Don’t get me wrong though, I really enjoy the Engineer it just still needs a lot of debugging and maybe a little bit of reworking.

We do have our share off of odd funky traits.

As far as signets go we get the same utility minus the passives put into gadgets. Some of the passives were broken off into traits like power shoes / leg mods.

I’d like to see passives added to gadgets to help the compete a little bit better with elixirs which currently get a lot more play thanks to trait support.

StickMan.7549:

at first i thought the same, was a tad annoyed that there were no sigs, but engi’s really have a different set of mechanics. we also have access to a lot of different choices.
on a lore standpoint, i think one could argue that engineers are completely non magic users and signets are traditionally based from signet rings from which the user can gain magical powers.

I understand that we have different mechanics.. but so do all classes. And yet all but the Engineers get passive-buffs. I just don’t see what exactly it is about the Engineer that doesn’t grant them the same value of having a passive bonus added to activated skills.

StickMan.7549:

i would expect this to come down to a simple balance issue, it’s an inconvenience to continually cycle kits just to get the swiftness every 5 sec, and no-one is going to do that in the heat of a pvp battle, not when they could be using critical skills to down a foe.

I understand what you’re trying to say.. but I don’t think adding annoyance is how to balance anything.

StickMan.7549:

hmm, i think it just takes time getting used to it, i use it mainly as a projectile defense, as 2 of the possible walls are proj defense. personally using a p/s, having mag shield’s blast it’s very utilitarian being able to stealth everyone, or area retal, or area chaos armour. might be nice to have the list of possible skills i agree

It’s not that I can’t get used to it, it’s that the effect variance is awful. As I said, not knowing what I’m going to get from using the skill, and having each of the effects need to be placed differently for effectiveness, is counteractive.

StickMan.7549:

Med Kit is a fine healing ability. I really enjoy it.. but I really hate that the default target isn’t myself.

there’s the thrown med trait i think which is for aiding allies, but i’ve not found other people stealing my medpacs, especially when running in a straight line forwards. so i can’t really comment[/quote]
I do a lot of dungeon runs. A lot of the time, I’m not walking forward. It’s a little bit of a nuisance to walk into what I’m using to buff myself as is.

Karast.1927:

We do have our share off of odd funky traits.

As far as signets go we get the same utility minus the passives put into gadgets. Some of the passives were broken off into traits like power shoes / leg mods.

I’d like to see passives added to gadgets to help the compete a little bit better with elixirs which currently get a lot more play thanks to trait support.

I understand that we can get them through traits, but it’s kind of ridiculous to say that Engineers can get the same by spending their trait points while the other classes can just HAVE them. I know you’re not saying that, but it’s just kind of lame that it’s the only way for an Engineer to gain access to passive buffs.

As far as signets are concerned, you have to realize they just don’t make sense in the context of how the Engineer class mechanic works. It’s not just about it being different, it’s about it being literally tied to the skills we choose.

Signets, by design, are meant to be a cost analysis. You have to make the decision if you want a passive playstyle and effectively eschew skills for signets. Sure you might use some of them, but for the most part you just want the passive and let them sit there.

The engineer class mechanic requires every skill to give you an active toolbelt skill. This means the engineer would be the only class that has signets and keep the passive bonus, while just using their toolbelt skills instead. It just doesn’t make sense with the class.

Personally, I think signets should be either made more rare or removed entirely, but thats purely my own personal taste. They promote a passive playstyle (lol 5 signet gs warriors). Utility skills shouldn’t be passive bonuses imo.

Grundnir.3852:

As far as signets are concerned, you have to realize they just don’t make sense in the context of how the Engineer class mechanic works. It’s not just about it being different, it’s about it being literally tied to the skills we choose.

Signets, by design, are meant to be a cost analysis. You have to make the decision if you want a passive playstyle and effectively eschew skills for signets. Sure you might use some of them, but for the most part you just want the passive and let them sit there.

The engineer class mechanic requires every skill to give you an active toolbelt skill. This means the engineer would be the only class that has signets and keep the passive bonus, while just using their toolbelt skills instead. It just doesn’t make sense with the class.

Personally, I think signets should be either made more rare or removed entirely, but thats purely my own personal taste. They promote a passive playstyle (lol 5 signet gs warriors). Utility skills shouldn’t be passive bonuses imo.

I’m not saying that Engineers need to have signets. But with every other class having passive boosts, how can you honestly say that it’s not even option for Engineers? Like somebody said above, it’d be neat to add them as a function to the Gadgets. Rocket Boots can give you passive movement speed, for example. If every class gets them, Engineer shouldn’t be knocked out of the equation.

I do agree that passive bonuses are mainly used simply for their passive effects, though. And while it is true, that just means that the passive bonuses are extremely useful, and that they have 100% uptime possibilities for several buffs. As compared to Engineers where, yes we do have some 100% uptime buffs, but we have to use skills and waste their CD for it.

I’m not saying we need signets, but it would just be nice to have something passively on us without having to spend trait points in it. There are several passive bonuses that are great to use while roaming big areas like cities. (Thieves have Signet of Shadows for this, as an example.)

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

Signets= elixirs?

I must have missed the part where elixirs have passive and active effects…

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

So Anet’s idea of balance in this instance is… we will give every class a passive boost in performance, and to the engineers… here is a potion that MIGHT give you something good.. or it might give you something utterly useless for your situation… How does that even make sense?

I mean, there are always oddities in the game, and thats great, but this seems a bit… illogical to me.

Lyuben.2613:

Signets= elixirs?

I must have missed the part where elixirs have passive and active effects…

Don’t be so dense. I was not making a rock hard literal comparison. I am sayin that they are our version of signets, essentially.

Brutus Tarsi.1283:

So Anet’s idea of balance in this instance is… we will give every class a passive boost in performance, and to the engineers… here is a potion that MIGHT give you something good.. or it might give you something utterly useless for your situation… How does that even make sense?

I mean, there are always oddities in the game, and thats great, but this seems a bit… illogical to me.

I missed the part everything had to be exactly equal between all classes and races. Do you find it reasonable for all classes to demand to have a special class mechanic for each utility as we do?

coglin.1496:

Don’t be so dense. I was not making a rock hard literal comparison. I am sayin that they are our version of signets, essentially.

Brutus Tarsi.1283:

So Anet’s idea of balance in this instance is… we will give every class a passive boost in performance, and to the engineers… here is a potion that MIGHT give you something good.. or it might give you something utterly useless for your situation… How does that even make sense?

I mean, there are always oddities in the game, and thats great, but this seems a bit… illogical to me.

I missed the part everything had to be exactly equal between all classes and races. Do you find it reasonable for all classes to demand to have a special class mechanic for each utility as we do?

No, but I’m only talking about your silly suggestion that signets=elixirs.

Lore wise, they are nothing alike. Mechanically, they are nothing alike.

Its like saying, turrets=shouts.

It has no meaning.

Lyuben.2613:

No, but I’m only talking about your silly suggestion that signets=elixirs.

Lore wise, they are nothing alike. Mechanically, they are nothing alike.

Its like saying, turrets=shouts.

It has no meaning.

Silly? Perhaps you need to learn to read.

I never suggested signets = elixirs or that elixirs = signets.

I said we have “elixirs in place of signets”. If you do not want to have a serious conversation, and you prefer to make things up, and claim folks stated things that they did not, then why didn’t you just say so. I will now turn my keyboard over to my 10 year old, and he will finish any further debate with you Lyuben.

Of coarse Lore wise they are nothing alike. That is the point. The lore of signets are exactly why engineers do not use them.

I am sorry you are upset that Tyrian science has not replicated signets on a scientific level to be a perfect scientific reflection of signets. If you have not figure out by now that engineers are different from other classes, then there is no hope for you. But it is just plain dense and illogical for it to be so prominent, and common knowledge that engineers are a different class entirely, just to see you and others constantly posting whine post about how we do not have exact replicating abilities of other classes.

If you are so unhappy with elixirs and our class mechanic, and demand signets, for Pete’s sake, go play a class with signets.

coglin.1496:

Lyuben.2613:

No, but I’m only talking about your silly suggestion that signets=elixirs.

Lore wise, they are nothing alike. Mechanically, they are nothing alike.

Its like saying, turrets=shouts.

It has no meaning.

Silly? Perhaps you need to learn to read.

I never suggested signets = elixirs or that elixirs = signets.

I said we have “elixirs in place of signets”. If you do not want to have a serious conversation, and you prefer to make things up, and claim folks stated things that they did not, then why didn’t you just say so. I will now turn my keyboard over to my 10 year old, and he will finish any further debate with you Lyuben.

But why elixirs? Why not turrets? Why not kits? Why not gadgets? They share the common trait that they have nothing to do with signets, just like elixirs.

Elixirs have nothing in common with signets, at all.

Lyuben.2613:

But why elixirs? Why not turrets? Why not kits? Why not gadgets? They share the common trait that they have nothing to do with signets, just like elixirs.

Elixirs have nothing in common with signets, at all.

Why not go play a signet class then? The whole point is that they have nothing in common at all.

Seriously, as much as you complain about every single aspect of the engineer and have done so since beta, are you just that much of a masochist, that you continue to play it as much as you hate it?

coglin.1496:

Lyuben.2613:

But why elixirs? Why not turrets? Why not kits? Why not gadgets? They share the common trait that they have nothing to do with signets, just like elixirs.

Elixirs have nothing in common with signets, at all.

Why not go play a signet class then? The whole point is that they have nothing in common at all.

Seriously, as much as you complain about every single aspect of the engineer and have done so since beta, are you just that much of a masochist, that you continue to play it as much as you hate it?

Learn. To. Read.

I don’t care about signets, I care about your comment
“we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.”

You directly claim that either by lore, or by mechanics that signets are like elixirs.

Now you seem to be backtracking.

You made a silly claim, and I called you out on it.

I never said I wanted signets. I was just questioning the non existent logic of the quote above from you.

Lyuben.2613:

I don’t care about signets, I care about your comment
“we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.”

You directly claim that either by lore, or by mechanics that signets are like elixirs.

Now you seem to be backtracking.

You made a silly claim, and I called you out on it.

I never said I wanted signets. I was just questioning the non existent logic of the quote above from you.

Please by all mean, find a post I made and quote it here where I said

“signets are like elixirs.” I very clearly explained that they are different, I went on in detail to point out that they work with our class mechanic, then further pointed out why we do not use one of the two.

Interesting how you feel your lack of comprehension is an example of me backtracking. But I guess I should expect as much from someone who continues to play a class they hate so much that they do nothing but nit pick apart every ability, and complain about it post after post.

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

There. You directly made the claim.

You directly say this: “we have elixirs in place of signets. There fore we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs”

You clearly suggested that the two are very similar.

And again, you are so desparate to distract people from the fact that you clearly said “we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs”, that you are making up kitten about me hating the engineer and nitpicking.

You said it, stop denying it.

Lyuben.2613:

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

There. You directly made the claim.

It doesn’t take a literary genius to know that
“we have elixirs in place of signet”
is not
“signets are elixirs”

coglin.1496:

Lyuben.2613:

coglin.1496:

Engineers do not use signets, because of 2 reasons. One explanation Anet put out on this question in beta was that engineers do not believe in magic and signets are pure magic. 2, we have elixirs in place of signets. There for we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs.

There. You directly made the claim.

It doesn’t take a literary genius to know that
“we have elixirs in place of signet”
is not
“signets are like elixirs”

“we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs”

You are saying that here, elixirs are the same as signets in all but name.

That is not saying “in place of signets”, that is saying “we essentially have signets, only they are named elixirs”

A is A, and A is not B. You clearly said that signets were like elixirs, in one way or another.

coglin.1496:

Brutus Tarsi.1283:

So Anet’s idea of balance in this instance is… we will give every class a passive boost in performance, and to the engineers… here is a potion that MIGHT give you something good.. or it might give you something utterly useless for your situation… How does that even make sense?

I mean, there are always oddities in the game, and thats great, but this seems a bit… illogical to me.

I missed the part everything had to be exactly equal between all classes and races. Do you find it reasonable for all classes to demand to have a special class mechanic for each utility as we do?

I never said things had to be exactly equal… but saying elixirs is our signets raises the question of balance. Are our elixirs balanced to other classes signets? Signets have a passive boon that is on as long as the active ability isn’t used. We … don’t.

Elixirs provide multiple boons (maybe that is the balance, I don’t know enough about other class signets to speak to this well) only when activated, and provide nothing while on cooldown, or while not being used.

So signets = provide something all the time, either a passive or an active (the only down time being the signet CD itself) compared to elixirs which provide something only when activated. There has to be something else involved if we can say that ANet has these two balanced. The randomness of the elixirs tossed in makes for an even screwy mess in terms of balance.

They could always give the Engineer signets in the form of passive gadgets. After all, they give them the ability to get Leg Mods and Adrenal Implants – Why not modify a few of the regular gadget skills to grant bonuses even when inactive?

Here, I’ve made a list of the gadgets I think could be made into passive things, and how they might work (in a general sense):

Utility Goggles: A smaller boost than the regular goggles, to reflect that they’re in ‘low-power’ mode (maybe a quarter or something?), with an overcharge that’s functionally identical to the current Utility Goggles. Passive only works when overcharge is available.

Rocket Boots: Maybe they increase dodge distance or give a passive burning effect (by using the boots to facilitate movement without flying comically backward and laying there like an kitten for a couple seconds). Same as above – passive effect only works when you can do the regular effect.

Slick Shoes: Maybe a much more minor increase to speed. Not even 25%, like Thieves get with their Signet, but maybe 10% or something. Or, to keep it similar to the regular use, maybe a very short blind effect on dodge, from flying oil.

Not sure how they’d handle the toolbelt, of course. I’ve not played enough of the other classes to know what would be balanced or not.

well that escalated quickly,

Aliette, all good points, and i think that adding a passive effect to gadgets could be a cool compromise/adaption.

elixir u, i dunno, i like how it is, and i like the randomness of it, it’s like the elixir is unstable or something :P

on the speedy kits, what i meant was that it’s a trade off not a nuisance (in combat that is). rather than simply using a nade kit or ft or w/e and having perma swiftness, if you want that swiftness while in combat you have to spend that second rekitting. it is annoying comparatively to not having to do anything for the swiftness like it used to be sure, but i think now it’s more balanced.

med kit, i guess it’s just the mechanic they chose for it. though i know what you mean when grabbing those extra packs it’s annoying when you wikitten would just heal you instead.

I actually suggested the gadgets thing could potentially be a trait ages ago.

I suggest changing the trait “always prepared”, which is yet another boring ‘on downed’ filler traits that no one uses, into something more useful, namely a gadget related trait, that makes gadgets like sigils.

I would also swap it as a grandmaster trait with adrenal implant. C’mon guys… 50% is so easy to get for other professions, lets not pretend that its worth grandmaster.

I’d go:

PBR- Power
Slick Shoes- 10% speed
Rocket Boots- Condi Damage
Goggles- Crit Chance
Mine- Toughness

I’ll tell you why a lot of the things are balanced they are… cause if we got 10% bleed bonus like some classes do, then grenades are painful. You can have a 6% chance on a crit for each grenade you throw (2-3) to put on a bleed stack with a certain trait. That means you have 18% chance to toss on a bleed stack on top of your bleeding grenades that automatically give it. Basically the engineer has to be balanced if you are going as a condition-type. I stack vulnerability like crazy (grenade spam from a distance I Admit) as well as a multitude of other conditions. So it’s not uncommon for me to max out the stacks fairly easy within a few seconds and keep it up there.

Also Adrenal implants do not stack with vigor btw. Probably explains why it’s a grand-master trait instead of the low level trait it used to be. They didn’t want anyone choosing both thinking they stack. By putting it in grand master, the chances of someone going for the 10 vigor trait bonus is slimmer.

Also side note – you have to be really really careful with the engineer when it comes to balancing, we can get absurdly powerful really easy because of the flexibility of the class. So if you are going to suggest things, you literally have to make sure nothing else in our class can make it broken or OP.

“Also side note – you have to be really really careful with the engineer when it comes to balancing, we can get absurdly powerful really easy because of the flexibility of the class.”

This is the big thing. We have so gatdang many skills and abilities that interact and chain with each other that individual ones can’t be too powerful, lest the whole package become overwhelmingly powerful in the right hands. Unfortunately, that also makes each one seem underwhelming and the simpler builds tend to perform a little under par.

We’re forever going to be the most polarizing class because of that. Difficult to balance at all, and nearly impossible to balance for both sides at once.

Some little things annoy me more than the big ones. For instance I personally prefer the stealth from throw Elixir S and would like that alone to be the effect while stability can go to something like throw elixir C. In its current form its almost unusable for me.

Battering ram and slick shoes are redundant, but besides that having two shoe gadgets subtlety annoys me.

No cool engineer themed asura elites on human characters.