Guild Wars 2

So the collaborative initiative that’s been going on regarding PvE has to do with horizontal progression for characters. One thing I am pushing is the fact that engineers are left out of a great many aspects of horizontal progression. Check out my post here (it’s fairly succinct, I think) and please speak up if you agree.

I agree with the cosmetical problems on engineer. I don’t agree with your opinion in build diversity. Engineer has in my opinion the best build diversity of all classes. Not saying we have great build diversity, but better diversity then others.

if this means “more” build-options, fine
but I don’t want to see already existing builds getting ridiculed by adding shiny new stuff that is too overpowered to even come back to the basics anymore.
therefore I’ll sit back, observe and rage / smile later.

Kits are a GREAT Strength not weakness of engineers.
Kits are like having multiple utilities versus having too few weapons (our kits do much more than a standard weapon).
Kits provide great build diversity on top of the builds you can make without them.

Engineer cosmetics are some of the best. I get that you don’t like the look of being a nerdy hobosack toting half crazy-half brilliant engineer, but that is the theme they are going for. I like the visuals. It would be a waste of time for them to focus on skins for just one class. so a cosmetic fix needs to be aware that art for each class is inefficient.

It would just be better if they allowed you to hide certain pieces (back, etc).
I don’t really want engineers NOT to look unique and different because of their gadgets. But that is just one opinion.

In short, I disagree with your post but respect the time you took and opinions you have.

Bombsaway.7198:

Kits are a GREAT Strength not weakness of engineers.
Kits are like having multiple utilities versus having too few weapons (our kits do much more than a standard weapon).
Kits provide great build diversity on top of the builds you can make without them.

Oh, really nice.
Except for the part where we lack a second weapon slot and our main weapon dps is reduced due to the possibility of using kits – getting fixed penalties for optional utilities unlike any other class, and having to spend utility slots on top of that.

Bombsaway.7198:

Engineer cosmetics are some of the best. I get that you don’t like the look of being a nerdy hobosack toting half crazy-half brilliant engineer, but that is the theme they are going for. I like the visuals. It would be a waste of time for them to focus on skins for just one class. so a cosmetic fix needs to be aware that art for each class is inefficient.

It would just be better if they allowed you to hide certain pieces (back, etc).
I don’t really want engineers NOT to look unique and different because of their gadgets. But that is just one opinion.

In short, I disagree with your post but respect the time you took and opinions you have.

Considering that most of the endgame is about cosmetics, having an hobosack that can’t be disabled and a weapon that replaces your main ones can be quite annoying (especially since backpacks and weapons are often the only things introduced in living stories, if not meta-achievement rewards as far as back go).
Not to talk about legendaries – covered by kits almost all the time.

Hi guys! Thanks for the feedback. I’m wondering about a couple of things:

How do engineers have “the best build diversity of all the classes,” Forestnator?
How do kits do “much more than a standard weapon,” Bombsaway?

When I talk about build diversity, I’m talking about diversity among engineers. Ignore all the other classes for just a second and hang with me. There are three types of weapon-wielding engineers. You can either use a rifle, dual pistols or a pistol and a shield. You cannot swap weapons. We all use one of those three combinations.

But! You do get 5 more slots to customize!

One of four profession-based heal skills.
One of three profession-based elite skills.

That’s pretty common- nobody has a ton of diversity when it comes to heal or elite skills, right? But it stacks on top of our lack of diverse weapon choices. And then we get to the final three slots.

You can either take the disadvantage of only using one of our three weapon combinations, or you can use one of these three diversity-building slots to have a weapon swap.

So assuming you want a weapon swap, now we have some further diversity. You can swap to one of five different weapon kits. That’s a third of our utilities out of commission, just to get a weapon swap that no other class has to sacrifice in any way to get.

I would really like to know how kits give us more build diversity, taking all of this into account.

My ideal solution would be to have the option to enable one kit on the weapon swap button, and to have at least one more weapon choice for main weapons. (Hammer and main-hand mace would be my dream there.)

As far as visual diversity goes, I want an eccentric and brilliant-looking engineer, actually. And I don’t want to look like every other engineer in the entire game in order to accomplish that. I also don’t want my weapon and backpack to be constantly hidden by a kit, but I’d take that if we could somehow customize the appearance of the kits to suit the theme we are going for, since that’s kind of the idea of cosmetic customization.

The idea that it’s a “waste of time to focus on skins for just one class” is not valid. Engineers are the ONLY class that needs to be fixed cosmetically, because no other class has their appearance dictated by their profession.

Engineers already don’t look unique and different- they all look like cookie cutters due to lack of visual diversity. Engineers are brilliant and wealthy, and if they were going to come up with some sort of profession-wide “uniform,” it would not be raggedy hobo sacks, in my opinion. But, honestly, of all the professions in the game, engineers are the least likely to have a uniform- again, this is just in my opinion.

I’m not talking about adding an I-win button, Arantheal. It’s not about shinies or new skills or somehow destroying old builds. It’s about putting us on even footing with the rest of the game.

Manuhell, thanks for the comments. Absolutely spot on. Additionally, if I were discussing vertical progression, kits don’t take your weapon damage into account. But the topic provided is only about horizontal progression.

Anyway, I’m off to celebrate the new year. Have a good and safe one, everyone!