Well, I’m not sure that was really a question instead of a suggestion looking for confirmation…
At any rate, I partly agree with the sentiment that engineers are strongly directed towards using kits due to in game mechanics. A counterbalance to not having a weapon swap is that kits can be swapped in and out very frequently. Additionally, superior runes of the engineer (what one could consider our “default” runes) have +5% damage while holding a bundle, which one can interpret as saying engineers are “supposed” to use kits in their build (although one can make similar arguments for other professions).
However, there are still effective builds that don’t use kits. There’s a traditional elixir-based, pistol/pistol build that is still reasonably effective in all modes of play despite the post-beta nerfs to it. I use from time to time in sPvP.
Additionally, you forgot to take your toolbelt skills into account. While engineers won’t be able to swap weapons, they do gain four additional skills based on the utilities they have equipped. While generally considered secondary to utility skills in power, some of them are actually quite useful and shouldn’t be discounted. In a way, you effectively have eight utilities that help make up for a lack of a weapon swap.
Furthermore, you seem to make the assumption that auto-attacking is not an effective way to deal damage. However, sometimes the best choice in combat is to simply use your auto-attack and not put your other abilities, which may have important utility, on cooldown. I can understand your angle with the pistol since engineer pistol is very weak (probably the weakest auto-attack in the game), but don’t underestimate the mileage you can get out of your auto-attack.
As far as skills go, I’d say it’s a case of quality over quantity. Were there certain utility skills you were planning on using as opposed to a kit? Simply suggesting that we need weapon swap because we have less skills available to us than another profession isn’t a very strong point. I don’t remember the name, but someone has a handful of WvW videos out with a build similar to the one I described above that can demonstrate the effectiveness of kitless builds.
In any case, I’d suggest at least giving the kits a try. My original build for my engg used three elixirs on the toolbelt, but after I had tried out the elixir gun I found that it was an exceptional fit for my build, and now it has a more or less permanent place on my utility bar.
and yeah i forgot about toolbelt, doh !