Guild Wars 2

A while back it was Implied that –at some point- Arena Net would be granting all professions additional weapons, and perhaps eventually have access to all weapons. Since hearing this I’ve felt that the staff was one of the most interesting potential options, largely because no one seems to be able to figure out what to do with it. Most seem to gravitate to electrical attacks, placing the weapon as some time of stun-rod. A good idea, but as has been stated before tends to invoke images of a wind attunement elementalist.

Because of this I thought I would just throw my idea out here for everyone to mull over. This idea wasn’t inspired by other professions, although after forming the initial idea I looked to the warrior for some skills, and the older version of the engineer for others. The core concept here was inspired by the dredge, and is themed heavily around sonic waves and vibration rather than electrical, as I imagine the staff acting as more of a massive, weaponized tuning fork.

1; Bash > Heavy Strike > Helmet Crack
Bash: Bash your foe.
Heavy Strike: Bash your foe again.
Helmet Crack: Smash your foe, making them vulnerable.

2; Obliterate
Spin around and attack all nearby foes.

3; Sound Wave
Fly backward, damaging foes and evading attacks (basically the old Rocket Boots, only minus the self CC).

4; Sonic Boom
Triggers a sonic boom at your location, knocking down foes and dealing massive damage.

5; Resonator Shield
Creates a personal shield that briefly reflects projectiles.

i love the idea of melee staffs tho this sounds more like a thief or ranger skills engi would probably have more CC

A potential problem with this is that most of the staves in the game look delicate and ornamental and it would look a bit silly to bash an enemy over the head with one, but other than that, sure why not?

If Anet actually does open up all weapons to all professions the engineer would get more new skills than anyone else because we currently have the smallest weapon selection. They’d also have to come up with a lot of odd stuff like scepter skills for thieves and rifle skills for necromancers.

What kind of thematically appropriate thing is an engineer supposed to do with an axe?

Personally I would much prefer a hammer or a mace… there is the wrench skin already (at least thematically).

Some of these skills are already basically done with other weapons. The reflection/knockback on shield would be 2 options on one weapon which would now be seperated into 2 weapon skills… it would just be less flexible (ignoring the proposed damage stuffs).

dredge staff, now that would make a nice kit /environmental weapon :p
but yes most staffs look too fragile, hammer/mace could be a viable melee option for us yes.
and i doubt all weapons for all classes, as Stice said, imagine a necro with a rifle :p
maybe 1 or 2 extra weapons i could see that happen without too much copy pasting from other classes

Engineers are all about the gadgets, alchemy and explosives.

The suggested idea includes none of these..

Staff is something I could foresee for Thieves, Rangers, or Warriors, but Engineers? It sounds a little…unintuitive.

I could more easily imagine a hammer or torch, or perhaps an axe or a mace.

Bunnymancer.6901:

Engineers are all about the gadgets, alchemy and explosives.

The suggested idea includes none of these..

So a six foot cylindrical device that produces waves of sonic vibration as a means of creating concussive force from a distance doesn’t qualify as a “gadget?”

Can engis summon guile too as an elite?

Stice.5204:

A potential problem with this is that most of the staves in the game look delicate and ornamental and it would look a bit silly to bash an enemy over the head with one

Bro.

Hipshotting with sniper rifles.

Engineer doesn’t care.

Hmm, at first I agreed with a lot of posts in this thread about the staff not really fitting an Engineer. Then I thought it doesn’t have to be a spell casting staff, or even a ranged weapon at all. Something that combines a lot of the ideas people have been putting out for Engineer hammer skills, but on a staff. Maybe the hammer is more blunt force (and our technology improves the impacts of each hit), where the staff is more of a giant Swiss Army knife if you will. It would be a quarterstaff, where an electric shock comes out of one end, fire shoots out of the other, we could activate an anti-gravity device to suck people to a spot (much like the Aspect Arena fire skill), etc. Maybe we could drop a personal Asura portal similar in functionality to Shadowstep.

I see potential for two different melee weapons, one more finesse and one more brute force.

I had a suggestion to make the engi use a staff as well but mine focused on the idea that the Staff was a lightning rod/Tuning Fork with ranged attacks. You can see my suggestions here.