As it is every build uses 4-6 into Explosives, Healing Turret, 2 kits and Supply Crate with good reason. Engi has consistently suffered pigeon-holing because so many other skills and trait lines are flat out unviable, for both PvE and PvP. Turrets received attention, albeit in the wrong place, as did Elixir’s to some extent but Gadgets have remain consistently mediocre across all game modes. In short here are my suggestions to make them more viable and increase overall build variety:
- Reduce cool downs significantly: Right now one of their main problems is that there are individual kit skills that do better, eg. FT’s Airblast rivals Personal Battering Ram, as well as providing simply more. Kits are so fundamental to Engi’s viability they are the standard to which other skills should be balanced. By reducing cooldowns to that of regular weapon skills (10-20s) it promotes the more active and flexible playstyle kits offer.
- Better trait synergy: The Gadgeteer trait is the only real attempt at rewarding Gadget use, and is one of the worst GM traits in the game. The boons are very short in duration and don’t correspond to their gadget well. Eg. a whole 6 seconds of aegis on using Throw Mine, which is an offensive skill anyway. My idea would be to re-assign boons (eg. fury goes to mine), have the effects proc when using their toolbelt skills, double their durations and apply the boons to nearby allies. I would also move Speedy Gadgets to the Master tier, rename it ‘Gadget Master’ and add ‘you can now equip a Gadget in your elite slot’. Let’s face it, Engi has the worst elite choices for PvE and one of the biggest drawbacks of equipping anything but a kit is the sheer utility you lose. This would help alleviate our skill slot pressure.
Individual Skill Changes
- AED: Recharge reduced to 30s. Turned into a HoT like Troll Unguent for 10s. Each pulse whilst your health is <75% heals a condition, <50% has increased healing and if you reach <25% whilst it’s active you instantly gain a large amount of health. Tooltbelt skill is now a short ranged PBAoE.
- Utility Goggles: Recharged reduced to 25s. Blindness immunity reduced to 5s. Tooltbelt skill also reduced to 25s.
- Rocket Boots: Toolbelt skill has increased base damage and hugely increased power scaling. Range also increased to 450
- Personal Battering Ram: Now slams the ground similar to Warrior’s Stomp skill. Launch reduced to 300 from 450. Power scaling increased dramatically. Toolbelt skill breaks stun and has drastically increased power scaling (a stunbreak on this low a cooldown would fit in with the upcoming CC/Stability changes).
- Throw Mine: Power scaling increased, proximity radius increased. Toolbelt skill is now in a uniform pattern in a much tighter spread around the player and reduced to 0.5s cast time.
(edited by Aretak.3826)