Guild Wars 2

Nekroseth.5186:

I understand your resons for it, but thats actually quite not right. Noone here should have the right, to sort out, what needs to be presented and what not.

for example : i have an idea to give some option to Egnineers to play rifle as a ranged weapon (with some kit or weapons swap ect…) but it wont be in the list, i would feel terrible, and it would be the fault of someone’s personal opinion?

The problem is, not only would it not be selected, but propably would shut out the idea for ever !!! Becaue the devs would say, “ah we wont implement that because ppl didnt like it that moch, it didnt made it inside” ….

Leave the selection and categorization to devs, i am sure they are working on forum insanely, just dont show anything…..some of the ideas here might also be on there way.

I wasn’t saying that people should stop submitting ideas. I was simply saying that if people wanted to ask questions, provide suggestions/improvements – on the ideas we’ve already got, just to flesh them out a bit more, that it would be an acceptable response. I never said “cut off on all new ideas!”…

Subhuman Filth

“All sorts of detail on a really good idea!” -LoreChief

I love this idea, and thank you for putting in all the detail you did. Can you come up with a shorter version of this to tack onto the front page?

Also, slight update to the front page – a doomed warning for all of us I’m afraid..

Tab targeting for grenade kit on land.

Mines to change while underwater, like depth charges, or the barrel shaped ones. Closer mine spawning and wider detection of enemies on land.

Spherical zone spawning for the Elixir Gun Kit #5 healing zone centered on the engineer and spherical zone spawning tab targeting of underwater #5 poison grenades, last time i used them they were still circular as if i was on land.

Change Shotgun #3 to multiple shots.

Change rocketboots to no longer cause a mini knockdown when used and allow them to release stuns instead of the potion.

Change one of the grenade kits abilities to allow for occasional or single use stun from concussion instead of confusion for better CC or even on the bomb kit as well not broken by dots.

Change the nets from the harpoon gun to autodeploy as soon as they hit the target.

Change underwater potions to disperse in a sphere with the engineer as the centerpoint instead of hitting a the potion button twice to disperse it.

Lower the cooldown on being able to redeploy turrets when they are simply picked up and not blown to bits.

Give us an item slot or ability to run 10% faster like most of the other professions in the game. (without having to press a button, just a passive buff please) I switch from my thief or ranger and feel like my engineer is walking thru mud.

Give us ammo slots for all professions that use bullets, so we can place a specific type to cause a specific type of damage without the need for them to be limited to cooldown abilities.

Improve the duration on the flamethrower kit’s #5 ability, Vent Smoke, so that it will blind for about 5-6 seconds like the thief dagger/pistol ability Black Powder. That would help with survivability in places like Orr.

BAZOOKA, RPG, ROCKET LAUNCHER kit we have homing torpedoes why not a homing missle

and maybe an elite skill that boosts the current kit u have equipped

turn the mortar into a howitzer not the grape shooter it is now

I am absolutely against changing the pistol skills. MH pistol especially so. Possibly adjust the ones we have ever so slightly, but definitely not change them as Subhuman suggest. The last thing the class needs is MH pistol changes.

LoreChief.8391:

Subhuman Filth

“All sorts of detail on a really good idea!” -LoreChief

I love this idea, and thank you for putting in all the detail you did. Can you come up with a shorter version of this to tack onto the front page?

Haha, alright. How about

-Rework pistol to be rewarding, strategic, and powerful in line with weapons other classes enjoy.

Pistol #2 does 1800-2000 for me with no power in any gear and pure condition builds, and that does not count the condition damage.

Pistol #3 does a nice blind and the confusion is great condition damage, and works with the other 2 condition damage skills we have.

Reworking the pistol is the worst idea out there. They simply need to allow explosive shot to have 1s more on the bleed, if not 2s. Problem solved.

Threw up another small update on the main post. We’re seriously running out of room for suggestions!

Should we do the engi-bug route and make a wiki page for these suggestions, start another thread, or what?

coglin.1496:

Pistol #2 does 1800-2000 for me with no power in any gear and pure condition builds, and that does not count the condition damage.

Pistol #3 does a nice blind and the confusion is great condition damage, and works with the other 2 condition damage skills we have.

Reworking the pistol is the worst idea out there. They simply need to allow explosive shot to have 1s more on the bleed, if not 2s. Problem solved.

I urge you to play literally any other class in the game, or even compare this to a grenade or FT build. Those numbers are not large. I agree with you that pistol 3 is excellent for the on-demand blind, but that does nothing to push the weapon to the forefront of an engineer’s arsenal. You can get near 100% of the usefulness of the pistol by switching into it for a fraction of a second to pop off the static shot or potentially the dart volley then immediately switching back. It feels more like 2 utility skills than a proper weapon. Compare that to thief sword or warrior axe/sword.

I do play other classes. I have 3 professions to 80, and the others to 50.

Just how large are those numbers? I asked because you appear to take the direct damage at face value and neglect the fact that I have 1500 condition damage and figure in the condition damage to the numbers in my post.

Engineer with full nightmare/rabid amulet and gem:

poison dart volley against medium target: ~1000 direct damage on average, plus 14*225 over the course of 14 seconds.

Explosive shot does ~175 damage per shot (generously) + 226 bleed damage over 2.5 seconds. fires about 2 shots every 1.25s
Kills the medium dummy in about 14 seconds.

Thief with divinity runes and berserker amulet/gem
autoattack: ~1800-2000 dps
Pistol whip: ~4000 damage over about 1.2 seconds
kills the medium target in about 7 seconds. Slightly faster with both shortbow and dagger, but we’re comparing apples to apples here.

Warrior with identical gear
Axe autoattack: about 3.4k dps.
kills the medium target in about 4.4 seconds

These are all pure glass cannon builds, with traits and gear catering to the strengths of the individual weapons. In addition, condition builds actually reduce the damage of everyone else in a party because of the way conditions overlap (or rather, fail to), but this is a systemic problem with condition damage, not the pistol itself. Please recognize that something is in fact wrong with this weapon, due to both this fact and the fact that it is completely strategically void. Optimum efficiency comes from mashing attacks the second they are on cooldown with no regard for enemy placement or activity.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

Explosive shot does ~175 damage per shot (generously) + 226 poison damage over 2.5 seconds. fires about 2 shots every 1.25s
Kills the medium dummy in about 14 seconds.

Not sure what build your using, but my explosive shot does double the direct damage your claiming. As well it does bleeds not poison.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

Engineer with full nightmare/rabid amulet and ring poison dart volley against medium target: ~1000 direct damage on average, plus 14*225 over the course of 14 seconds.

Not sure what stats your using, but with runes of the undead and rabid amulet, my poison dart volley is 1800-2000 direct damage, plus the poison damage.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

Thief with divinity runes and berserker amulet/gem
autoattack: ~1800-2000 dps
Pistol whip: ~4000 damage over about 1.2 seconds
kills the medium target in about 7 seconds. Slightly faster with both shortbow and dagger, but we’re comparing apples to apples here.

Warrior with identical gear
Axe autoattack: about 3.4k dps.
kills the medium target in about 4.4 seconds

Your sure not being reasonable here, because your comparing the 2 most solid burst damage classes in “glass cannon” divinity gear and +crit% gear to engineer condition damage build. That it no manner, a reasonable comparison.

I am sorry, but how do you expect to compare a condition damage engineer with a non-damage trait set up (I say non-damage confidently based on the damage you claim here in that gear) to the top two burst damage classes in full glass cannon/burst gear.

This comparison isn’t reasonable, much less logical.

coglin.1496:

Not sure what build your using, but my explosive shot does double the direct damage your claiming. As well it does bleeds not poison.

Perhaps you mean poison dart volley

No, I meant explosive shot. I used pvp gear to equalize the differences in gear, so the damage is inherently going to be lower than what you see in pve across the board. If I were to use pve gear numbers, the damage gap would be far more pronounced between engineer and the others simply because of the way that power and crit geometrically scale compared to condition’s pathetic linear scaling. Power/crit with pistols would show higher numbers, but even that is pitiful compared to what the others put out.

Edit: My mistake, I wrote poison instead of bleed. Corrected, and everything else stands true.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

226 bleed damage over 2.5 seconds. fires about 2 shots every 1.25s

Sorry but it would take about 2800 condition damage to do 226 bleeds. That is not possible or reasonable. Typo?

coglin.1496:

Not sure what stats your using, but with runes of the undead and rabid amulet, my poison dart volley is 1800-2000 direct damage, plus the poison damage.

I’m using 10/30/0/30/0, the traditional build used to optimize pistol damage. I have no idea how you would be getting twice the direct damage with identical gear. Switching to berserker might do that, but your condition damage would certainly suffer. I am doing weighted averages for damage per hit based on crit rate and crit damage. Your crits will be higher than this number, your regular hits lower.

coglin.1496:

Your sure not being reasonable here, because your comparing the 2 most solid burst damage classes in “glass cannon” divinity gear and +crit% gear to engineer condition damage build. That it no manner, a reasonable comparison.

I am sorry, but how do you expect to compare a condition damage engineer with a non-damage trait set up (I say non-damage confidently based on the damage you claim here in that gear) to the top two burst damage classes in full glass cannon/burst gear.

This comparison isn’t reasonable, much less logical.

I used extreme examples to underscore the magnitude of the pistol’s weakness, but I’m certain you could perform similar tests with guardian, mesmer, and others that would similarly support my claim. They might only kill targets 50% faster, rather than 100%, but that’s not much to back the assertion that pistol is powerful, is it? I used condition damage to challenge your assertion that your pure condition damage engineer does effective damage.

And because you brought it up…

Engineer with zerk amulet and gem, full divinity runes:
Explosive shot- ~400 damage per hit + 120 bleed damage over 2 seconds
Poison dart volley: ~2700 direct damage over 1.75 seconds + 120*11 seconds
Kills the medium dummy in a little over 11 seconds.

Better, still not good.

coglin.1496:

Sorry but it would take about 2800 condition damage to do 226 bleeds. That is not possible or reasonable. Typo?

The total damage is 226, divided over 2.5 seconds. The actual damage per tick is considerably less.

Better but not good is a matter of opinion to be honest. Sure, they can do more damage but they cannot touch our survivability.

That being said, I am absolutely in agree-ance that pistols need more damage, but they are not near as bas as everyone tries to over suggest.

I wasn’t comparing classes, I was demonstrating that pistol, as a primary weapon, is inadequate compared to the offerings presented by other classes, and indeed compared to a few (really just one) of our kits. The difference is we have no choice as to whether or not to take a primary weapon, and if that weapon is relegated to being couple of situational tools, then I don’t think that’s a terribly acceptable situation to be placed in.

I don’t think the engineer is a bad class, and I’ve never tried to make that claim here. I think the class definitely needs some work, but that’s not really relevant to the issue at hand.

My points boil down to:
1. Pistol does inadequate damage for a primary weapon, and
2. The way pistol does its damage is uninspired, boring, and devoid of thought on the part of the player, basically boiling down to mash-on-cooldown. This is un-fun.

I think I’ve adequately covered why these things are, in fact, true.

I would like to see;

The rifle build be completely revamped;

At the moment it feels and looks bland.

The standard attack hip-shot looks poor. When holding a large sniper rifle I want it to feel like thats exactly what I’m doing. Engineers should be about precision and the current rifle moves don’t feel that way they feel sloppy.

I’d also like to see better sound content for the rifle moves which feel like there is more impact. currently they sound weaker than the pistol.

I’d also like to see more variation in weapons such as a automatic weapon like the gatling gun or
a machine gun type.

I would like to place the request, that if indeed it is true that the FlameThrower kit’s #1 ability only hits 3 enemies, this is definitely inconsistent with the reality of the actual weapon and needs changing ASAP please. Even if it hits 5-6 enemies at a time that would be more realistic. And if it’s a bug I apologize for posting this here.

tigirius.9014:

I would like to place the request, that if indeed it is true that the FlameThrower kit’s #1 ability only hits 3 enemies, this is definitely inconsistent with the reality of the actual weapon and needs changing ASAP please. Even if it hits 5-6 enemies at a time that would be more realistic. And if it’s a bug I apologize for posting this here.

I do not use the FT primarily. But I find it hard to believe that it is the only AoE in the game that hits less then 5, although it is possible that it could be a bug.. My explosive shot can hit unlimited enemies but only hits 3 on those dummies as well. So it may be safe to say it is an issue with the dummies and not the FT.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

2. The way pistol does its damage is uninspired, boring, and devoid of thought on the part of the player, basically boiling down to mash-on-cooldown. This is un-fun.

I think I’ve adequately covered why these things are, in fact, true.

Mmmkkay.

Hard to take anyone seriously, who is so full of themselves that they demand everyone accept their opinions as fact.

Feel free to provide a single fact, as you claim it, that they are uninspired, boring, and devoid of thought.

I for one disagree with you. I feel they are well inspired, not boring at all, and well themed with condition damage thy are intended to do.

coglin.1496:

tigirius.9014:

I would like to place the request, that if indeed it is true that the FlameThrower kit’s #1 ability only hits 3 enemies, this is definitely inconsistent with the reality of the actual weapon and needs changing ASAP please. Even if it hits 5-6 enemies at a time that would be more realistic. And if it’s a bug I apologize for posting this here.

I do not use the FT primarily. But I find it hard to believe that it is the only AoE in the game that hits less then 5, although it is possible that it could be a bug.. My explosive shot can hit unlimited enemies but only hits 3 on those dummies as well. So it may be safe to say it is an issue with the dummies and not the FT.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

2. The way pistol does its damage is uninspired, boring, and devoid of thought on the part of the player, basically boiling down to mash-on-cooldown. This is un-fun.

I think I’ve adequately covered why these things are, in fact, true.

Mmmkkay.

Hard to take anyone seriously, who is so full of themselves that they demand everyone accept their opinions as fact.

Feel free to provide a single fact, as you claim it, that they are uninspired, boring, and devoid of thought.

I for one disagree with you. I feel they are well inspired, not boring at all, and well themed with condition damage thy are intended to do.

I really like pistol #3 actually. 1 and 2 feel really lackluster though, they scale better with power than condition damage anyway.

Ad hominem adds nothing to the discussion and you’d do well to abandon it. Insulting me personally isn’t going to do you any favors.

Let me try to rephrase why I think pistol is boring. Of the three skills on the weapon, there is only one for which any argument could be made that it has some tactical use, and that is, of course, static shot. Explosive shot is a filler skill that does (inadequate) raw damage, and there is no reason not to use poison dart volley on cooldown. Poison uptime to cover heals is a non-issue because, with zero traits or salient runes, it produces a 12.5s poison on an 8 second cooldown, a 156% uptime on the condition which also does more direct dps than explosive shot.

I’m more than happy to concede that static shot is not inherently a poorly designed skill. Skillfully applied, it can cancel out a large incoming attack or punish a quick flurry of small ones. However, in light of the rest of the weapon’s function, this ability is pidgeonholed cleanly into something that you quickly swap to pistol to use, then quickly swap to something else to carry on with whatever it is you were doing. The problem is that it is disadvantageous to use our primary weapon for more than about a second at a time, even when fully traited to utilize the pistol. Of course, in pve it’s virtually guaranteed that you’re just going to hit it on cooldown due to the clockwork regularity of mob attacks and the amount of damage the skill does.

Subhuman Filth.9562:

Ad hominem adds nothing to the discussion and you’d do well to abandon it. Insulting me personally isn’t going to do you any favors.

Let me try to rephrase why I think pistol is boring. Of the three skills on the weapon, there is only one for which any argument could be made that it has some tactical use, and that is, of course, static shot. Explosive shot is a filler skill that does (inadequate) raw damage, and there is no reason not to use poison dart volley on cooldown. Poison uptime to cover heals is a non-issue because, with zero traits or salient runes, it produces a 12.5s poison on an 8 second cooldown, a 156% uptime on the condition which also does more direct dps than explosive shot.

I’m more than happy to concede that static shot is not inherently a poorly designed skill. Skillfully applied, it can cancel out a large incoming attack or punish a quick flurry of small ones. However, in light of the rest of the weapon’s function, this ability is pidgeonholed cleanly into something that you quickly swap to pistol to use, then quickly swap to something else to carry on with whatever it is you were doing. The problem is that it is disadvantageous to use our primary weapon for more than about a second at a time, even when fully traited to utilize the pistol. Of course, in pve it’s virtually guaranteed that you’re just going to hit it on cooldown due to the clockwork regularity of mob attacks and the amount of damage the skill does.

Very true, rifle isn’t much different though except its just blunderbuss instead of static shot and poison volley.

I really dislike pistol #2 as well.

blunderbuss as a 3 hit combo…mmmm come at me thief. also considering the guild rifle skin…how about making it a real shot gun? i mean that’s definitely ol’ faithful. the auto attack should be a weaker blunderbuss skill. i wouldn’t mind losing the 1200 range to about ~600. that’s what net shot is for besides, hitting a keep with eng rifle is just…no. that’s why we have grenades.

I am sure it has been mentioned, but Kits need to be scaled with weapons. On top of that Kits need the sigil proc from weapons as well.

Reason: pretty self explanatory, our kits are kinda weak w/o weapon scaling and procs from sigils.

A reliable means to perform long-range combat.

Terrahero.9358:

A reliable means to perform long-range combat.

Still win fights at range with just hipshot, and no I’m not glass cannon.

I would like 2 more useable elites for competitive play (or even general usefulness). Elixir X needs to be something unique, even if it is still chaotic (but not a transform), mortar should be scrapped for something else.

What I would love to see is have something similar to the Elemental classes where you have different stances, F5 F6 F7 F8 keys could be designated to switch between kits because I feel sometimes your making a compromise when you have to decide between carrying a kit, a skill or a turret.

I would love grenades to have a glowing ball animation to make them look a little bit more high tech. Would be nice if grenade attack 1 would do fire dmg. Change Icon of attack 2 to be an little spike ball because it make it look like it should be a fire dmg attak.

I would love for the Engeneer to have a little more range, some enemies you get too close they mess you up, and you get a little far and your outta range to hit the enemy.

Would love to have a dps bump into the other kits, I use the grenade kit because it’s the only real option for dps, but it requires so much input that my wrist hurts sometimes compared to playing other classes. Playing the engeneer class should not be about compromises.

Kits I would love to see.
Combine the healing and elixir kit into one. It would be nice to have your elixir kit be the healing kit. have more ranged heal options instead of the elixir gun’s one big aoe heal.

Grenade launcher kit.
Musket like machine that lobs grenades instead of the regular grenade kit, maybe have the ability to lock into enemy instead of manual aiming all the shots.

The wrench kit is nice, would be nice if it included some sort of Armour buff so that you could withstand more hits at closer range.

Merge Bomb kit and Mine kit together, add proximity to help detonate bombs.

Give us a different weapon even if there is no hot swap ability.

Reading through the thread I was struck by this:

I want more traits to affect Gadgets. Currently, the only trait that affects them is the reduced cooldown one. Right now Gadgets are overshadowed by other utility skills we have that have equal or greater use.

and

Injecting some of my own ideas here. Skill type; “Augments”. Arms, legs, chest and head (chest = healing augment).
……

(sorry just trimming for sake of space).

I thought that the body augments is a cool concept for the engineer so why not combine the two?

Idea: steampunk exoskeleton components that get damaged and less effective as the engineer gets hurt. (It would be awesome to have the visual components show damage).

Mechanics: Make gadgets into the engineer’s form of signets, with important differences.

First, the passive effects are only gained via traits. Second, the passive effect is always active, unlike signets. However, the passive effect’s magnitude is linked to three different mechanics 1) the engineer’s current health, 2) the ability cooldown, 3) the toolbelt cooldown.

My reasoning is that the gadgets are already balanced for the current numbers, so by adding on all of these requirements for the additional effect it would avoid making them overpowered.

All the numbers and effects below are just my initial guesses. The main core of the idea is just to add more depth, complexity, and flavor to the gadgets which are my personal favorite parts of the class.

Inventions
Stabilized Armor: You take 5% less damage when your endurance is full.
Slick shoes passive: Grants 15% faster endurance regeneration.

Energized Armor: 5% of your toughness is converted to power.
Throw Mine Passive: 25% chance to drop a mine when hit

Power Shoes: 10% faster movement speed in combat.
Rocket Boots Passive: 50% chance to grant 2 seconds of stability after dodge

Tools
Speedy Gadgets: Gadgets recharge 20% faster.

Always Prepared: Drop bandages and a flamethrower or elixir gun when downed.
Personal Battering Ram Passive: +10% condition duration

Scope: Gain 10% critical hit chance while standing still.
Utility Goggles Passive: Engineer Projectile finishers gain +80% combo chance

From a PvP standpoint?

Boon Removal. Mine doesn’t count, it’s trash that removes just one boon. I’m talking about a cleansing wall similar to Null Field that removes several or all boons.

The reason why I want Boon Removal is because the Engineer has effectively zero sources of stability. Anyone who has played serious PvP for more than an hour has seen how rampant it is and how much of PvP revolves around people either having it or not.

Among all the classes, let’s see:

Warriors have a solid stability source in Balanced Stance.

Guardians have some of the best stability sources in the game in their shout and consecration.

Rangers have to put in a hefty trait investment to receive signet active bonuses, but in doing so he can receive an invulnerability signet on top of his stability signet.

Thieves has stability only in the related Steal item and his Dagger Storm elite. However, this is likely to compensate for the numerous stunbreakers and sources of stealth that he gets. After all, we’re talking about the only class that gets a stunbreaker on a weapon skill, and the one with the most teleports in the game.

Mesmers receive stability only in the associated Mantra, but they have numerous sources of invulnerability, which I will count as a pseudo-stability.

Elementalists have an invulnerability and a stability, as well as having one of the best stability traits in the game.

And finally, the last two: The Necromancer and the Engineer.

The Necromancer is in a similar situation as the Engineer, although even he isn’t in as bad of a situation. The Necromancer can at least trait to receive a reliable stability if he really wants it, even if it is a hefty trait investment. Beyond that, he can only receive it from his elite.

The Engineer, however?

Let’s see:

He gets an invulnerability, and on that skill he gets a (maybe) stability for 4 seconds. Beyond that, he can only receive stability on his elite skill.

Now, at first, I thought that this would make sense from a game design standpoint. The engineer has the most CC abilities in the game. It makes sense that in return for all that, he would also be easily CC’d himself.

Except that it doesn’t work that way.

Any time in Tourney PvP where you need to CC someone off a point, they will use stability to counter you, and then CC you back. Because the engineer doesn’t have any reliable stability, he simply can’t play this game of back-and-forth.

But wait, you say! He must have other tools he can use instead of stability to play on par with the other classes. What about blinds and immobilizes? He has those too, and those bypass stability.

The answer? No. That isn’t enough.

No, I can’t keep up a perma blind on that Hammer Guardian at mid on Kyhlo to avoid getting CC’d. Oh, and don’t forget, he can summon his hammer that will push me back on every third hit, and that can’t be blinded!

No, I can’t reliably defend myself against a mesmer that just stands at 1200 range and spams phantasms and his magic bullet and his Domination signet!

No, I can’t defend a point reliably at all against anyone who has just one skill that Pushes, Launches, or Pulls! Because there will be one time when he isn’t blinded or CC’d and has a clear shot on me, and then he will immobilize me and CC me off the point, neutralizing it in the 2 seconds he managed to push me off the point!

The main reason why this problem exists isn’t because Engineer doesn’t have stability. Several classes have no easily accessible utility skill that applies stability. Mesmers, who have to rely on distortion to survive, can’t contest a point while invulnerable. Then why am I not complaining about Mesmer gameplay?

Well, that’s simple. Because out of all the classes, probably the one thing that has been one of the stupidest game design choices I’ve ever seen was limiting effective boon removal to two classes: Necromancer and Mesmer. Several classes can remove boons through traits, and every class has access to the sigil that removes boons on crit. However, these are all on cooldowns and will randomly proc. They will proc on that regeneration that was ticking for 5 health a second, removing that, and then not doing anything about the stability that went up a moment later that enabled the enemy to launch a critical attack.

The only reliable, on-demand boon removal belongs to the Mesmer and Necromancer, the only classes with skills that can remove multiple or all boons on an enemy at once.

If Engineer had more boon removal, I wouldn’t care about him not having stability. It would be a fun “CC them before they CC you” sort of gameplay, which I think matches the game design of the class. Without boon removal, however, it becomes a horrible waiting game, all during which the Engineer can be CC’d because he has effectively zero stability.

Grappling Hook

I use the tool kit as part of my build and was very disappointed with the magnet power. The range is so ridiculously short that enemies in pvp will often just move out of range before it goes off, often without even noticing me trying to pull them.

I’d like to see the range extended to something useful, or have the power replaced with a grappling hook that would pull the engineer to the target. I would particularly like to see a vertical motion component to this, so that the engi could pull up to enemies on ledges, up stairs, etc.

This would be useful as a gap closer for the rest of the tool set and also provide some supplementary movement speed outside of combat depending on how it was implemented.

Aegael.6938:

The reason why I want Boon Removal is because the Engineer has effectively zero sources of stability. Anyone who has played serious PvP for more than an hour has seen how rampant it is and how much of PvP revolves around people either having it or not.

Among all the classes, let’s see:

Warriors have a solid stability source in Balanced Stance.

Guardians have some of the best stability sources in the game in their shout and consecration.

Rangers have to put in a hefty trait investment to receive signet active bonuses, but in doing so he can receive an invulnerability signet on top of his stability signet.

Thieves has stability only in the related Steal item and his Dagger Storm elite. However, this is likely to compensate for the numerous stunbreakers and sources of stealth that he gets. After all, we’re talking about the only class that gets a stunbreaker on a weapon skill, and the one with the most teleports in the game.

Mesmers receive stability only in the associated Mantra, but they have numerous sources of invulnerability, which I will count as a pseudo-stability.

Elementalists have an invulnerability and a stability, as well as having one of the best stability traits in the game.

And finally, the last two: The Necromancer and the Engineer.

The Necromancer is in a similar situation as the Engineer, although even he isn’t in as bad of a situation. The Necromancer can at least trait to receive a reliable stability if he really wants it, even if it is a hefty trait investment. Beyond that, he can only receive it from his elite.

The Engineer, however?

Let’s see:

He gets an invulnerability, and on that skill he gets a (maybe) stability for 4 seconds. Beyond that, he can only receive stability on his elite skill.

Absolutely, it seems to me that something went wrong in the testing phase of the classes because all of the scout classes got shafted on this one thing. None of the medium armor types have regular abilities that give them stability for any amount of time without a special circumstance or some extremely long timer.

It does effect more then just pvp. There are plenty of jump puzzles I can’t do as a scout class (which is all I play BTW) because in order to be effective at them you basically have to have a stability ability usable every 1 minute. smh

The other thing that bothers me is that in order to run faster out of combat I have to either use a potion with an extremely long timer, use my rubber boots which usually has 45 sec timer for 4 seconds of run speed, or trait myself to gain run speed when i put on a kit, but not permanently mind you like the seals ans sigils of other classes (even the ranger gets a perm one) but a temporary where I have to constantly switch back and forth between kits to keep the buff going to travel well. It’s not good in Ore either because if you aren’t traited to use kits in Orr but you have to have them on the toolbar to run, then when you get attacked (which happens every few steps) you’re stuck with what you have on.

Mhaer.7368:

Reading through the thread I was struck by this:

I want more traits to affect Gadgets. Currently, the only trait that affects them is the reduced cooldown one. Right now Gadgets are overshadowed by other utility skills we have that have equal or greater use.

and

Injecting some of my own ideas here. Skill type; “Augments”. Arms, legs, chest and head (chest = healing augment).
……

(sorry just trimming for sake of space).

I thought that the body augments is a cool concept for the engineer so why not combine the two?

Idea: steampunk exoskeleton components that get damaged and less effective as the engineer gets hurt. (It would be awesome to have the visual components show damage).

Mechanics: Make gadgets into the engineer’s form of signets, with important differences.

First, the passive effects are only gained via traits. Second, the passive effect is always active, unlike signets. However, the passive effect’s magnitude is linked to three different mechanics 1) the engineer’s current health, 2) the ability cooldown, 3) the toolbelt cooldown.

My reasoning is that the gadgets are already balanced for the current numbers, so by adding on all of these requirements for the additional effect it would avoid making them overpowered.

All the numbers and effects below are just my initial guesses. The main core of the idea is just to add more depth, complexity, and flavor to the gadgets which are my personal favorite parts of the class.

Inventions
Stabilized Armor: You take 5% less damage when your endurance is full.
Slick shoes passive: Grants 15% faster endurance regeneration.

Energized Armor: 5% of your toughness is converted to power.
Throw Mine Passive: 25% chance to drop a mine when hit

Power Shoes: 10% faster movement speed in combat.
Rocket Boots Passive: 50% chance to grant 2 seconds of stability after dodge

Tools
Speedy Gadgets: Gadgets recharge 20% faster.

Always Prepared: Drop bandages and a flamethrower or elixir gun when downed.
Personal Battering Ram Passive: +10% condition duration

Scope: Gain 10% critical hit chance while standing still.
Utility Goggles Passive: Engineer Projectile finishers gain +80% combo chance

Personally I think the rocket boots should have the passive of faster run speed and the trait for power boots to give stability when wearing rocket boots (meaning having the thing on the toolbar and getting the speed buff). They could even turn off these buffs for the duration of the cooldown like they’ve done on other classes to ensure that if it’s used it takes some time to build back up to be used again for balance.

Some more ideas.

As an idea for a source of stability, I have three ideas, each revolving around the seldom-used turrets.

1. An entirely new turret that pulses stability.

2. Make an old turret, such as the Thumper Turret, pulse stability.

3. Or, my idea. You could create a new trait that buffs turrets.

My idea was that you could create a trait that causes all turrets to pulse stability to nearby allies. Because turrets are already extremely fragile, I fail to see how this would be overpowered. It would bring refreshing new gameplay to Engineer PvP and grant him the powerful pointholding he currently lacks, while simultaneously making turrets a much more valuable asset to the team rather than tiny ticks of damage that even the squishiest thief wouldn’t notice. It could be 30 in Inventions, to finally give people a reason to spec 30 in that traitline…I feel as if almost every major trait in that line is completely useless…Most of them are barely noticeable passives, like “reduce damage by 5% when endurance is full.” I’d be happy to see any new traits that buff skill lines or kitswapping rather than incredibly boring passives. Throw out a minefield below X hp, reduce damage by 5%, increase damage by 5%. These are all boring. Maybe useful, but pretty boring.

Anyways, back on turrets: At least make turrets scale with power. They already scale with condition damage. They truly aren’t overpowered in any way in high level PvE or PvP, and they’re fragile on top of that. I know Anet probably wanted to have turrets not do all the work for you to prevent PvE afkers, but right now, the turrets don’t do ANY of the work for you. Currently, out of all the utility turrets, I only use rocket turret for the decent damage and command knockdown. If I ever use any other turrets, it’s because I’m building a crappy build just for fun and wishing turrets were good.

Also, turrets are typically more useful when exploded than when actually up. You can trait them to knock back, and they do flat ~1800 damage irrespective of your Power. Personally, I would make turret knockback base functionality just because turrets are currently so awful.

And finally, on Turrets, the Mortar is completely useless in PvP and general PvE compared to the other elites. Believe me, I’ve tried to make it work. It isn’t affected by your stats at all, not condition damage, power, condition duration, or healing power. The tooltips on the respective skills change, but the actual numbers when you fire the thing are always the same. The Mortar can’t crit, the knockback is on a gigantic spread and unreliable, with a huge cooldown. The heal would be good…if it scaled with healing power. Everything does mediocre damage, and the caltrops calculate damage based on zero condition damage. The 10s Frost Field is the only redeeming aspect of the elite, and I’m not going to take an elite just for that one condition that can be removed. MAYBE it has a niche use in WvW siege, but please, don’t make us the kittened class that has only two usable elites and then one we can sometimes use in just one aspect of the game. Don’t even forget, that if you try to use it in WvW, it can be instantly killed by other enemies with range, because it only has 1400 range and is incredibly easy to break.

And on the topic of the range…why the hell does it have a shorter range than traited grenades? A small cannon has less range than my throwing arm? I would not complain about this elite at all if you just gave it 5000 range. It wouldn’t be powerful, but it would have extreme ranged support, and it would be possible to provide small support on distant points in PvP and WvW. Apparently, the Elite Supplies trait doesn’t even affect this elite yet, and some turret traits affect this while others don’t. Please clarify trait descriptions and give us more interesting traits. We’re the engineers, after all. We leap into the air like crazy idiots and drink elixirs of questionable origin. We shouldn’t have such stagnant traits.

1) Range of Pistol and Rifle increased to max range (1200 or whatever max is). For those of us that have fired guns and shot arrows…. we know bullets go much farther than an arrow. It is highly odd to be kited by Ranger shooting arrows and our bullets fall short. (only in fantasy movies and comics do arrows travel absurd distances, which may be the influence)

2) Tool Kit redesign. Seems no one likes it. It’s just boring. Swing a wrench, toss nails, pull out a magnet… eh… (we need a melee option, but this doesn’t fulfill it)

A friend and I discussed making it “Engineer Tools” and not “any person tools”. Also, making it both melee AND ranged. If the target is close, the melee hits and the range hits. If target is far, only the range hits. The goal is to bring targets close for max damage.

For the new Tool Kit.
A Laser Wielding Saber (like that little known movie in a galaxy far far away) for the #1 skill, which has chain attacks. First is a melee electrical slash that does ranged arcs of electrical burning. Second is a wide swing that bursts with a cone of sparks causing 1 sec blindness. Third is a 360 spin followed by a confusion ray. Or some such design (would be nice to have a more reliable way to put up low stacks of short duration Confusion besides 3 abilities on 15 second cooldowns on 3 separate weapon sets—only 1 of which is ranged).
A Mini ‘Golem-esque’ Robot for #2 skill. Engineer deploys a moving Bob-omb type robot pet (fusion of Mario Bros, Charr, and Asura) that repeatedly attacks target with one type action upon deployment and switches to another action when chained again. (whatever actions seem best, like throwing small bombs or launching poison spikes or electrocuting or force field blocking) Limit on how many can be active at once, if they aren’t destroyed before the short cooldown is ready again.
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that flies out in a line, striking the target and everything in its path. Drops sticky napalm in a line, causing Cripple and Burning.
A Grappling Hook for the #4 ability that does pierce and bleed damage in a line (hits multiple mobs if lined up), and yanks them all to the engineer and immobilizes them.
A Gizmo for the #5 ability. Places AoE shield on all nearby, granting stability, and reflects damage back to the source.

Or something like that…. unique flavor for the Engineer, with personality and use.

3) Personal Asura Portal. Set up a portal at your location with traps. Toss out a far range (2000 or so) other end, that then activates and pulls in all enemies (400-600 range), causing them to trigger the traps and be at your location.

-Parachute instead of launching grenades trait on falldamage, thus removing abit of fall damage and we can use the grenade lobbing when falling down. Raining death from above. Usefull in wvw.

Mhaer.7368:

Scope: Gain 10% critical hit chance while standing still.
Utility Goggles Passive: Engineer Projectile finishers gain +80% combo chance

Oh god yes, this would make me take utility goggles every time so I can combo with hip shot like a mad man.

Instead of having separate turret skills, why not just have a customizable turret weapon set with other tool and repair skills? It would definitely make for dynamic gameplay and more in-combat options (seeing as Engi’s can’t weapon swap). Also, what about a cluster-bomb turret that shoots a bunch of small bombs in the direction of a target and explode a couple seconds later? Would be kind of cool.

What if Engi’s could master siege weapons as well? I know they can make controllable turrets, but what about the ability to create a build around setting up small, controllable siege weapons? Maybe a weapon set, at least? Now I’m not talking about building huge trebuchets in 2 seconds, but maybe cannons or small-scale ballistas that might be helpful in both melee and siege contexts. It would be kind of nice since there is already a tool-based weapon set that could work with turrets and siege weapons.

Two things:
1. The ability to swap weapons when we don’t have a kit in our skill bar.
We don’t all run kits(even though max effectiveness reuires you too), so why are we being forced to one weapon?We’re engineers, we should be pulling all sorts of crap out of pockets. Guns, grenades, bombs, elixers, giant wrenches, and yes, more guns.

2. Mobile turrets trait and/or the toolbelt skill to make them mobile instead of boom or lockdown/overcharge that makes them actually be able to take a hit.
Turrets currently are really cruddy since they are destroyed so easily and their damage is pretty small. I think It would be pretty sweet if turrets would follow you or automatically guide themselves out of aoe.
I lied.
3. Mortar that functions as a turret when you aren’t manning it.
Sitting in your mortar isn’t always the best idea, especially in WvW where they break the second an ele looks at it funny. Where engineers already have turrets, why can’t we tweak the mortar to behave like one too? It would simply rotate between the #1 and 2# skill, or just use the #1, any amount of damage without exposing yourself using it would be fine
Why not more?
4. A nice tweak to #2 downed ability would be hold down button to pull target instead of forcing pull, for the interrupt lolz n trollz.
But seriously, there are times when we only want to interupt instead of pull. It feels like our downed skills were made with only PvE in mind.

Lord Aargadon.4135:

Two things:
1. The ability to swap weapons when we don’t have a kit in our skill bar.
We don’t all run kits(even though max effectiveness reuires you too), so why are we being forced to one weapon?We’re engineers, we should be pulling all sorts of crap out of pockets. Guns, grenades, bombs, elixers, giant wrenches, and yes, more guns.

2. Mobile turrets trait and/or the toolbelt skill to make them mobile instead of boom or lockdown/overcharge that makes them actually be able to take a hit.
Turrets currently are really cruddy since they are destroyed so easily and their damage is pretty small. I think It would be pretty sweet if turrets would follow you or automatically guide themselves out of aoe.
I lied.
3. Mortar that functions as a turret when you aren’t manning it.
Sitting in your mortar isn’t always the best idea, especially in WvW where they break the second an ele looks at it funny. Where engineers already have turrets, why can’t we tweak the mortar to behave like one too? It would simply rotate between the #1 and 2# skill, or just use the #1, any amount of damage without exposing yourself using it would be fine
Why not more?
4. A nice tweak to #2 downed ability would be hold down button to pull target instead of forcing pull, for the interrupt lolz n trollz.
But seriously, there are times when we only want to interupt instead of pull. It feels like our downed skills were made with only PvE in mind.

You make some really nice points. #1 and 3 would be very convenient, but I want to talk to #2 a bit more, as that could be sweeter. Sure, it would be nice if we could advance an age and put wheels on turrets, but what if we could switch turrets between mobile and stationary? And, while mobile, they have a lesser effect but also act as decoys that take damage whenever your char is attacked. It would kind of balance things out and give more meaning to mobile turrets without making them seem like broken (possibly never-ending) team boons.

Love these ideas LoreChief, especially the shotgun kit, rifle skills, and hammer.

Entaurrus Silver.3820:

Sure, it would be nice if we could advance an age and put wheels on turrets, but what if we could switch turrets between mobile and stationary? And, while mobile, they have a lesser effect but also act as decoys that take damage whenever your char is attacked. It would kind of balance things out and give more meaning to mobile turrets without making them seem like broken (possibly never-ending) team boons.

Hmmm, I do kinda like that idea, but I didn’t fully explain my own. First since they have pathetic Hp, I would like the stationary version to have a hp/armor bonus, make them slightly harder to kill than illusions when stationary, but about the same as they are now when mobile with a slowed or weaker attack. Considering they are still pretty weak and having to recharge, I don’t think you need to worry about them being OP.

id like to see mines replaced with motion sensor(or contact explosion)
replace batting ram(just dont see ANY point)
make rifle turret toolkit skill daze or stun..(rifle turret may need some more atk speed considering the low dmg/ scale kits dmg with sigils and weapons)
Rocket boots tool kit would be awesome if it fired you forward.
id like a visual effect while under elixir B like an aura of some sort

thats all i can think of for now.

I would like to see a barrage long range build with a kit that would be named the sniper kit. The sniper kit whilst activated changes the 1-5 skills on the rifle to a longer range but slower attack and take up a utility slot. The sniper would deal 50% more damage though to compensate without making it overpowered. The abilities would be as follows:

1: Sniper fire- Moderate Damage and adds 2 stacks of vunerability
2: Piercing shot: 2 seconds cast time ignores 25% of toughness
3: Fall back!: Leap back avoiding damage and leaving a glue bomb at your feet 30 second cooldown
4: Go for the legs: Shoots foe in the leg crippling foes if they are facing you or immobilize for 1 second if facing away.
5: Boom headshot!: A fatal shot that does 30% more damage if the foe is below 25% health 20 second cooldown

Opinion?

…man, this isn’t a suggestion, but it’s kind of hilarious to imagine how the UI would look if all these ideas were implemented. There’d be indicators freakin’ everywhere. But, you know what? That’d just be a great way to reinforce that you’re playing an Engineer, somebody whose off-screen job (you know, building, maintaining, inventing, mixing, testing and enhancing all that nifty-swifty/absolutely useless gadgetry and so forth) is incredibly complicated.

OH WAIT I DO HAVE A SUGGESTION (or three) i just didn’t remember it (them) until a second ago.

Suggestions:

A way to snap view over to the turrets (basically treating them as your character, as far as field-of-view is concerned, with a toggle) would be neat. Let you use them as a sort of scouting thing, perhaps including some kind of targeting mechanism. Perhaps have it function via a sub-button of the placed turret (so you’ve got the Overcharge icon, then a smaller button, probably about 1/4 or so, in the corner of the Overcharge, that switches view to turret when clicked or something), or have a row of buttons above turrets on the Utility Skills.

On the note of targeting mechanisms: It would be stellar to be able to tell your turrets to attack particular enemies. Again, not entirely certain how to implement, besides again with the sub-buttons or things over the turret icon on the Utility bar. If both involved a button over the turrets, reduce both to 50% size so they can share space, maybe.

Last suggestions: A Health and/or Cycle meter for turrets, to display on the Overcharge icon. Health bar tells how much health turret has remaining (duh) and Cycle could tell where in the turret’s fire cycle it is (to enable more precise timing of Overcharges). A pause button for turret cycles, too, maybe, to make them more precisely controlled.

Of course, pretty much all of the suggestions I just made, aside from the health/cycle meters, would clutter up the UI somethin’ fierce. I’m not good at UI design.

Infinitus.3712:

I would like to see a barrage long range build with a kit that would be named the sniper kit. The sniper kit whilst activated changes the 1-5 skills on the rifle to a longer range but slower attack and take up a utility slot.
Opinion?

I absolutely love the idea. We get to keep our weapon skin, viable long range combat, and its not per se a kit, since it still uses our weapon stats and upgrades. You sir, are genious. If this could be done with the rifle, I think a similar thing could be done with pistol and shield maybe for those that use em. This functions almost identically to attunements, same weapon, but a skill changes the weapon skills. But don’t call this a kit, call it a weapon mod, the new engineer specific skill type.

Lord Aargadon.4135:

Infinitus.3712:

I would like to see a barrage long range build with a kit that would be named the sniper kit. The sniper kit whilst activated changes the 1-5 skills on the rifle to a longer range but slower attack and take up a utility slot.
Opinion?

I absolutely love the idea. We get to keep our weapon skin, viable long range combat, and its not per se a kit, since it still uses our weapon stats and upgrades. You sir, are genious. If this could be done with the rifle, I think a similar thing could be done with pistol and shield maybe for those that use em. This functions almost identically to attunements, same weapon, but a skill changes the weapon skills. But don’t call this a kit, call it a weapon mod, the new engineer specific skill type.

Thank you very much for the positive response! I think mod’s is more fitting as they are at the end of the day modifications of the original weapons so go go arena net take note ;D

Support Turrets that work like Spirits in GW1, see my post here somewhere about support turruts.

E.g. Turrets that grant boons once every few secs, or Turrets that soak up incoming dmg, Turrets that spew combo fields (fire, water, dark w/e).

Other than giving greandes an auto-attack so that we can actually move somewhat effectively in combat, I believe makin the rifle more of a long ranged weapon to be an important suggestion.

I propose 2 kits per weapon (rifle and pistol) that requires us to have the weapon equipped in order to take effect. A shotgun kit and a sniper kit for the rifle would be very appropriate whereas a gunman kit and a condition kit for pistol would help us diversify our damage abilities.

It’s just an idea I had but I believe it to have some potential.

Yes, having kits with your mainhand weapon would be amazing. Because the main gimmick of the class is that we can’t weaponswap, I would take it even if it meant that we were stuck in whatever kit we were once we entered combat. (Initiate combat in sniper kit rifle, stuck in sniper kit rifle and can’t swap to shotgun)

It would improve our weapon choices a lot. I don’t think tying the kit to both a utility and a wielded weapon is viable, though.

I haven’t seen every post, so apologies if this has been said;

I’d like to see the mechanics of the mine kit changed for one. There are hundreds of types of mines in the real world and having the mine kit here should be tailored in such a way to make it desireable and feared. Conditions should be added to mines because mines are, by design, created to cause debilitation, bleeding and even burning. The damage of mines should be adjusted to be extremely heavy and used more like a trap skill than as a main weapon skill. We should have trip-wire sets and directional sets so we can actually make our own ambushes. This would be so fun in all aspects of the game. I would be fine with the creation of our mine lays being a channeled ability. These should be things that are difficult to set up, but worth it when they go off. Finally, the radius of explosions, especially for mines and bombs needs to be much larger imo. These are giant explosives, not firecrackers.

I do think grenades are fine as is and I am having a “blast” with them.

I would also love to see the engineer having a much more desireable role in siege. We have the mortar, but most people say it is hard to use and the damage is subpar. The added ability of a self deployed rocket launcher, cannon, or ballista would be interesting.

Engineers should be able to repair siege equipment…I mean c’mon, no brainer. Even if it meant we had to use supply to do so.