Guild Wars 2

This is an attempt at consolidating feedback for Engineers regarding the upcoming Specialisation changes a la Gates Assassin’s Necro and Ele threads that attempt to pull together a cogent, developer comprehensible narrative of how the players perceive the Engineer will fare.

Quoting from Gates:

Here’s what I want to see:

1. If you have old posts with suggestions, link to them and I’ll include it.
2. If you have ideas for reworks, post them here.
3. If you have a build type that you’ve always wanted to see for elementalist, post it!
4. You don’t need to work with what they gave you. Feel free to completely make up your own traits!
5. While I am the PvP Forum Specialist, I’ll try to include everything I can, even if it dips into PvE and WvW.

Feel free to link threads (quoting notable comments within would be good) that you feel should be addressed regarding the state of the Engineer moving forward.

To start us all off, here’s Chaith’s comprehensive specialisations review that serves as an excellent springboard for discussion.

To kick us off:

A lot of people in the community have been wondering what was in store for Engineers’s meta PvP builds after the newly announced specializations come in, and the answer to that is: Who knows yet! snip

So, let’s start with the general Engineer changes.

Profession Changes:

• Forceful Explosives baseline.
• Accellerant-Packed Turrets baseline. Turrets will only knock back on detonation, not death.
• Rifled Barrels baseline.
• Coated Bullets baseline.
• Med Kit will see a re-work.
• Elites will get a corresponding f5 Toolbelt ability
• Mortar becomes a kit, and a re-work.
• Supply Crate will become a detonatable Turret, ie, reworked.
• Toss Elixir X, a new f5 ability that will transform any enemies affected briefly into a Moa.
• Grenadier’s ‘throw an extra nade’ functionality is now baseline.
• Grenade kit’s range will be nerfed to 900.
• Pistol 1 and Rifle 5 become explosions, benefitting from all explosion related traits.

The following current functionalities have been deleted, and likely won’t be reworked, moved, or re-introduced. If these really underutilized traits that very few people took were things that you absolutely needed for your build/playstyle to work, and new traits don’t provide it, then you might as well speak up!

• Acidic Elixirs.
• Empowering Adrenaline.
• Exploit Weakness.
• Reserve Mines.
• Enhanced Performance.
• Short Fuse.
• Synaptic Overload.
• Fireforged Trigger.
• Sitting Duck.
• Rifle Mod
• Go For The Eyes.
• Bunker Down.
• (All Inventions Minor Traits, including Automated Medical Response)
• Protective Shield.
• Stabilized Armor.
• Energized Armor.
• Cloaking Device.
• Power Shoes.
• Elite Supplies.
• Auto-Tool Installation.
• Rifled Turret Barrels.
• Energy Conversion Matrix.
• Acidic Coating.
• Blood Injection.
• Potent Elixirs.
• Enduring Damage.
• Deployable Turrets.
• Scope.
• Armor Mods.

Well my only contribution so far is that I hope the Mortar Kit is really good.

The reason why I picked Engineer to learn is so that I can have grenades to rain down on people from afar, whilst also being a really strong class in mid-range skirmishing.

With Grenade Kit having its range reduced from 1500 (who uses grenades without Grenadier?) to 900, I might genuinely stop playing Engineer when this patch hits unless Mortar Kit can fill that gap well in a way that feels fun.

Also, I’m pretty sure that Short Fuse isn’t being removed as I remember someone talking about it making bombs have an actual shorter fuse – as in shorter time to detonation.

In really general terms, I don’t have major complaints about the Explosives or Firearms lines. The majority of my concerns are tied to Inventions, Alchemy and Tools. I think that the traits in these lines need to be evaluated to see if they fit in with the concept of the line they are in. I think many of the trait ideas are good, but misplaced.

Inventions – This line is clearly aimed to be the turret line, and many of the traits earmarked here have the potential to be fun and interesting. Unfortunately, other than turrets, I don’t think there is a clear identity for what this line does. While the concepts for these traits are intriguing, I don’t see a clear theme for this line other than “things that keep people alive”.

If you look at the stuff that certainly belongs in the line, I think you have a strong case for making this whole line revolve around the concept of “Bunker Down”. This tree could be a very compelling tree for the general idea of “I’m going to plant my feet in this spot and you cannot move me”. Turrets play into this very well, and so does the trait Bunker Down, but the bulk of the other traits in the line are targeted at supporting allies, which doesn’t seem to fit the idea as well.

Traits that I feel would be appropriate in this line: Protection Injection, Invigorating Speed, Reinforced Shield, Backpack Regenerator, Experimental Turrets, ROBO LEGS, Bunker Down, Automated Response, Fortified Turrets + Metal Plating

Alchemy – This line is obviously targeted at elixirs and the elixir gun, which ostensibly makes it the tree you use to support your allies. However, much like the inventions line, this tree doesn’t seem to have a clearly defined purpose. The majority of the traits outside of the elixir traits are targeted at self sustain and protection, while the elixirs are by far the biggest tool that engineers have to support others.

I think that this tree needs to be tailored around group support and work with elixirs and other AoE healing/cleansing traits to be the tree you go into if you want to help your allies. There are several good traits outlined in the Inventions line that will allow an engineer to fill that role, but I think the distribution across the two lines needs to be looked at.

I would pull Cleansing formula 409 back into the Alchemy tree and make it compete with HGH (Think shout heals vs. Phalanx Strength for warriors). 409 is not currently a thrilling GM trait, but is probably too strong to stay in the master tier. It may be good enough if you combine 409 with Fast Acting elixirs.

Traits that I think belong in this line: Blast On Heal Skill, Elixir Gun Trait, Heal-Splosion, Med Kit Trait, Self Regulating Defenses, HGH + Fast Acting Elixirs, Incoming heals heal allies for a %, Cleansing Formula 409 + Fast Acting Elixirs

Tools – This line is tied to gadgets, but the rest of the tree is essentially open to all kinds of fun stuff. I’d say that this tree has the most potential for crazy, random and fun ideas of any trait line in the game. Unfortunately, there is virtually no identity to the line. It is basically Speedy Kits and Static discharge. Cleansing formula 409 feels out of place here and half of the traits are placeholders.

This is a great place to take things that don’t exactly fit in the other lines and make them fun and exciting. There is a great opportunity to make Kit Refinement into something people get excited about as a GM trait because the engineering community really wants that to be a strong choice again. It could easily be one of the most fun GM traits for the class.

The Baws.5164:

Well my only contribution so far is that I hope the Mortar Kit is really good.

The reason why I picked Engineer to learn is so that I can have grenades to rain down on people from afar, whilst also being a really strong class in mid-range skirmishing.

With Grenade Kit having its range reduced from 1500 (who uses grenades without Grenadier?) to 900, I might genuinely stop playing Engineer when this patch hits unless Mortar Kit can fill that gap well in a way that feels fun.

Also, I’m pretty sure that Short Fuse isn’t being removed as I remember someone talking about it making bombs have an actual shorter fuse – as in shorter time to detonation.

Short Fuse functionality is being removed, there will be no way to reduce the CD of bombs and grenades, which is what Short Fuse is. The new Short Fuse is only the current Short Fuse in name only.

@Knox

Inventions has a heavy focus on healing and group support with 6 traits, as opposed to the only 2 turret traits. I would say that’s a pretty clear identity. If anything, turrets are the afterthought.

5 of the 9 Major traits in Inventions are bunker-centric. 5 of 9 Alchemy traits are as well. Not counting minors, both lines have 3 group support traits.

The minor traits tell a story that is the opposite of the skill types associated with the two lines. Elixirs are group support not unlike shouts when they are thrown, while turrets are stationary area denial and self defense.

Additionally, having access to strong support and strong bunker traits spread across the two lines allows a bit too much access to pick and choose those types of skills.

Warriors have to choose between shout heals and might stacking. Guardians don’t get Monk’s Focus and AH and they can’t get healing symbols and Pure of Voice.

By spreading these traits out across multiple trees, you open the potential for a 00666 engy with Adrenal implant, 409, Protection Injection, Backpack Regen, HGH, Blasty heals, healing Blasts, and Cascading heals. If he slotted 4 elixirs, the level of group support he’d crank out is unreal.

Some of my thoughts:
All traitlines should have their very specific theme, clearly showing what one can achieve with them.

- Explosives, in the proposed iteration, is our power dps line, featuring enhancements to nades, bombkit, throw mine and mortar, while also focusing on vulnerability, blast-finishers and dmg modifiers to further enhance our dmg. This line is very clearly structured so far, and as long as the TBD’s fit into this scheme, there is not really anything I’d like to change about it.

- Firearms seems to become our new condi, precision and mobility traitline. It currently seems to support rifle/pistol and Flamethrower primarely. Modified ammunition barely fits into this line since it enhances our power-dps depending on how much conditions we have on a target. while this trait is very powerful in PvE (fly-by condis get applied by the whole group), it does not make much sense to enhance our power dps with a trait that requires condi-oriented builds to become effective in solo play. This trait should enhance our crit-chance (to fit the lines’ theme) or be moved to explosives or tools.

- Inventions seems to be our healing and condi-clearing line. It also support turrets, but since they recently got nerfed into the ground, they currently feel like dead weight to the class, and a-net should consider to remove/rework all related traits to them, and give us completely new utilities instead, supported by the now-free trait spots. Also it would only be natural to move backpack regenerator into this line, as well reintroducing elixir-infused bombs for this line. Yes, the new healsplosion trait looks interesting, but for the sake of build diversity, both options should be available. If a-net would remove experimental turrets, like suggested above, we would have 1 free spot in the master tier, where both traits can compete against – and therefore exclude – each other. Further, cleaning formula 409 would fit well into this line, if it were reworked to clear condis on Toolbelt use. The reason for having this trait, with this new effect in this line, would inventions in general turn into a line that offers defensive enhancements to all our utilities, including gadgets (finally).

- Alchemy should be our boon-support and elixir-enhancement line. Currently it features traits for the former and additionally elixir gun & Medkit. To increase its effectiveness, increased elixir duration should be re-introduced and our shield-trait (that is now buffing protection) should also be moved into this line. Also acidic elixirs should be reintroduced, but only the ripping boons-effect, without the dmg proc, to keep the functionality of throw elixir S.

- Tools seems to become our toolbelt, toolkit and gadget trait-line. To make it viable beyond just taking it for the TB cd’s and mobility, Static discharge should be homing at the currently-selected target, regardless what skill it actually got triggered from (thrown elixirs / self-buffs / stunbreaker should also send a bolt directly to the target), Kit-refinement should be reworked to only trigger in combat, and the gadget trait should give gadgets direct enhancements (PBR becomes an aoe-knockback, Throw mine rips more boons, rocketboots become a stunbreaker, slickshoes clears immob / chill / cripple, A.E.D. transmutes damaging condis if triggered (including confusion), utility-goggles daze the current target for 1 sec). Also armor mod should be reintroduced, so we can profit from the defender runes like we currently do, while also getting stabilized armor back as trait in the tools line.

When it comes to our utilities, most of them are totally fine, even tho I’d like to see our turrets getting reworked in a manner that allows us to use them as stationary, but somewhat mobile mantras, that require active play & proper “maintenance”, while still keeping the required workload on the player from these changes as limited as possible, so turrets do not feel like a burden for those who choose to run them, so here are my suggestions to rework them.
-Turrets don’t have a AA.
-Turrets have a finite number of charges.
-If all charges are used up, the turret explodes & goes on full cd’s.
-Turrets can be picked up and re-placed without a cd, if their mantras are not completely used up. 10 sec after it got picked up, the remaining charges get reseted and the turret goes on its regular cd (reduced by 25%). If the player already carries a turret which has partly used charges, this turret goes on a regular cd (reduced by 25%) as soon as the player tries to pick up an additional turret.
- Fortified turrets only procs when turrets with full charges are placed the first time.
-The actual turret-cd’s / dmg / heal values are up for balancing

My ideas would be the following:
- Rifle turret: 3 charges
Fires a bouncing projectile that does more dmg the more targets it bounces from (up to 4 bounces) / applies torment (4 sec cd)
- rocket turret: 2 charges
fires a homing rocket at the target, doing aoe-dmg & 1sec daze on impact (4 sec cd)
- net turret: 2 charges
Immobilizes the target (4 sec cd)
- Flame-turret: 3 charges
Burns&blinds up to 5 targets in a 45° cone (4 sec cd)
- Thumper turret: 2 charges
Knock-back all close targets (up to 5) and applies cripple (4 sec cd)
- Healing turret: 2 charges
Heals up to 5 allies / clears x condition(s) / puts down a waterfield (4sec cd)
Heals the engi when it goes on cd (picked up/reseted or destroyed)

Possible traits are:
-20% cd reduction & 1 additional charge (grandmaster)
-immunity to condis/crits & fortified turrets (master)

An idea that I think would be a great Elixir Gun trait is something like this:
Reduce Cooldowns on Elixir Gun skills by 20%, All elixir traits now also work on Elixir F, Fumigate, and Super Elixir (impact only) the same way they do for thrown elixirs.

Hey I just had a few thoughts or ideas about the engineer class. Some of which is just my personal ideas of what I’d like to see with the trait/specializations. Mostly I find that the ideas was rather good.

Fortified turret. Could you have the reflect renew itself upon skill activation maybe? I see the skill activate as if putting energy through the turret and there by activating a small shield for a few seconds of protection of the unit while it does it’s thing.

I’d like to see turrets get more healing from the wrench and maybe a little more life as the wrench just dose not heal the turrets that quickly and is the only method at this point for healing turrets. And you have to target the turret maybe have a passive heal while the wrench is equipped and more healing when used.

Elixir-X at this point transforming a few targets into moa for a very short time dose not really speak much for an elite skill. On the other hand an implosion effect… Tossing a potion that when hits creates a gravity / tornado that pulls targets in the area to it’s center. holding them there and reflecting their attacks back on them for the duration. Then when that ends sends the targets flying with a knock back effect as the implosion goes to explosion. Another idea was a solar flask in which causes a bright flash in an area blinding targets and a few flame shock waves for a set duration in the area also sounds nice.

I also noticed that power shoes was taken from the mix was this added in another trait like in the robo legs? One of the things I found odd is that there was some professions that did not have a trait or skill that gave them increase in movement speed. Gaurdians, Mesmers and now looks like Engineer will join them. Granted they can access swiftness through skills but that requires making them take those skills and still falling behind if others still have the skill or trait that increased movement speed passively. Maybe this 25% loss could be added to rocket boots. Would make sense that rocket boots would include it.

I’d have liked to seen more random spell types added to the elixir u. Or maybe changed into a kit that you can toss elixirs with spell effects.

I have to say out of all the trait lines alchemy seems to be the most lacking. This is of course my opinion. Mostly I find the only useful thing out hgh, 409 and fast acting is fast acting. Might comes from a large number of places, so 409 just don’t cut it in my opinion and and the fast acting and hgh just don’t make a grand master. It does not alter my play style. I’d say it would be a master at best. if you add all three then maybe but still I’d probably would ignore it . I’d rather have the fast acting as an adept or as is as a master. I think the devs should put more thought into the alchemy line. Conditions, healing, status effects. Alchemy could be used to alter play style in different ways. Just my opinion but alchemy or chemicals is what is used to make explosives, to make flame throwers and all these other interesting effects that are made. But the traits do not seem to reflect that much at all.

As an example.

I was thinking that an alchemist would take the time to modify their weapons.
Perhaps a grandmaster trait that gave grenades a second effect based on the grenade after all the grenades may be explosives but chemicals is what makes it do so.

Grenade +5% damage perhaps
Shrapnel Grenade leaves a short fire field or burns
Flash Grenade causes short confusion or stun effect
Frost Grenade causes freeze effect
Poison grenade causes weakness

Another thought is to make the glue effects on the gun and bombs flammable giving it a field effect that when it comes into contact with burning or fire it does a short explosion and causes a short duration fire field.

I also thought the elixir gun trait “Increased dosage” or something. changing skill number one to inflict slow and lower the targets resistance to conditions. Either allowing conditions to do more damage like Vulnerability or increases duration of conditions applied.

Just for a few ideas

I have 1 idea.
Don’t kittening nerf the grenades!

robertul.3679:

I have 1 idea.
Don’t kittening nerf the grenades!

Err, they get buffed oO
3 nades per skill is baseline, and if you take explosives you get vuln-spam and +10% dmg for free.
The new grenadier trait will even increase their impact AoE and projectile velocity…

If you speak about the range nerf from 1500 down to 900, that hardly can be perceived as a nerf since they never were effective beyond 300-600 anyways.
Sure, it’s a bit inconvenient for bombing walls, but mortar most likely will become our go-to solution for long-range combat. And having a frost-field with 1200-1500 range is awesome for setting up defenders for a focused bomb from your group.

Hmm, I should have double posted so I could reserve space for notable quotes. Oh well, too late now.

Knox.8962:

Inventions snip
Traits that I feel would be appropriate in this line: Protection Injection, Invigorating Speed, Reinforced Shield, Backpack Regenerator, Experimental Turrets, ROBO LEGS, Bunker Down, Automated Response, Fortified Turrets + Metal Plating

Knox.8962:

Alchemy snip
Traits that I think belong in this line: Blast On Heal Skill, Elixir Gun Trait, Heal-Splosion, Med Kit Trait, Self Regulating Defenses, HGH + Fast Acting Elixirs, Incoming heals heal allies for a %, Cleansing Formula 409 + Fast Acting Elixirs

Hmm, your revised Inventions trait structure still leaves the possibility of running 2-3 turrets (Healing Turret, Rifle Turret, X) and coupling that to Heal-SPLOSION. This would leave a healy bunker build to look like:

• Invigorating Speed/Reinforced Shield. ROBO LEGS. Fortified Turrets + Metal Plating
• Blast on Heal. Heal-SPLOSION. HGH+Fast Acting Elixirs for use with Elixir S; or the Cascade % incoming heal to allies.
• Option of running 409 in Tools to eke out a bit more cleanse, or for more endurance regen through Adrenal Implant. Explosives for the EPK Blast Finisher would also work.

A build like this essentially treats Turrets like short term Blast Finishers for excellent spike healing and projectile mitigation (just blow them up after 3 seconds).

This is not to say that a sustain bunker shouldn’t work; just to emphasise that you don’t really have many gains or opportunity costs either by shuffling things between Inventions and Alchemy. After all, people who are bunkering are probably going to take them both anyway. The theme may or may not matter; but if the builds are the same, then you haven’t really accomplished much. As a result, the only significant change here is moving ROBO LEGS down from Firearms to Inventions.

Knox.8962:

Tools – This line is tied to gadgets, but the rest of the tree is essentially open to all kinds of fun stuff. I’d say that this tree has the most potential for crazy, random and fun ideas of any trait line in the game. Unfortunately, there is virtually no identity to the line. It is basically Speedy Kits and Static discharge. Cleansing formula 409 feels out of place here and half of the traits are placeholders.
snip

I agree with this. Anet needs to make a decision; just as they did with Elementalist Elemental Attunement, whether something that is potentially so powerful should or should not be Master or Grandmaster. If they make it GM, then the caveats such as lack of control should be taken away. If they make it Master and leave it unchanged, it will still be picked, but for the Speedy Kits consolidation rather than actual usefulness of the Kit Refinement procs. As for the TBDs, we can only speculate.

I would say that the Tools line needs the most work. Not because it is inherently bad, but because in those 9 traits Anet somehow has to get stuff that works for nearly all builds. This is probably the reason behind all the TBDs.

I would start with the Minors and work from there. The previous incarnation of Tools had an emphasis on the interaction of Toolbelt skills; but only insofar as the Minors. Unfortunately the Minors have little synergy. So an improved version could look like:
Minor Traits

• Adrenaline Pump: Restore 10 Endurance when using a Toolbelt skill.
  • Nothing really needs to be changed here.
• Inertial Converter: Reduce the cooldown of Recharging Toolbelt skills by 10% for every successfully evaded attack.
  • The previous 25% HP threshold full recharge is super clutch, but runs counter to the developers wanting to eliminate passive play. It also buffs Toolbelt centric Static Discharge builds more than other builds that may wish to with-hold their Toolbelts.
• TBD: Current proposal is to add back 20% Toolbelt recharge, everything else up in the air. I would propose:
  • 20% Toolbelt recharge. When a Toolbelt skill is used, gain 50-100 Ferocity for 10 seconds.
  • This returns some lost Ferocity due to the Specialisations changes. Again though, it requires active play.
  • For a more build agnostic implementation, instead make the next attack a Critical Hit. (Essentially an Intelligence Sigil proc). This buffs Crit-proc conditions and Zerker builds equally; but is significantly harder to balance.

MonMalthias.4763:

• Inertial Converter: Reduce the cooldown of Recharging Toolbelt skills by 10% for every successfully evaded attack.
  • The previous 25% HP threshold full recharge is super clutch, but runs counter to the developers wanting to eliminate passive play. It also buffs Toolbelt centric Static Discharge builds more than other builds that may wish to with-hold their Toolbelts.

This trait to me is an interesting topic, i was thinking about how strong or weak the new elite tool belt skills would be with a trait that completely refreshes said skills especially considering alot of engineers will be dipping into the tool line purely for the perma swiftness, in its current state its not such a big deal since it can be quite hard to control the effect and in the current state of the engineer the only spec that can utilize this trait very well is a static discharge engineer other builds can get surprise bonuses out of it but generally there is no real playstyle around it, however when this patch hits what i feel is a clear problem is how they plan to balance elite toolbelt skills around this trait if they don’t remove it completely, we have seen how quite effective the new toss elixir X is so id assume it would get a hefty cd but why wouldn’t i drop that toss elixir X immediately just because i know ill be able to use it again long befor it came off cd and while there are arguments as to why i shouldn’t use it right away if i were to use it for an immediate advantage ill always be able to use it when im in trouble.

Inertial converters current state its great for SD builds because of how the synergy between the toolbelt skills and the trait so i think it should stay but leaving it as is could be an overly big buff to just about any build that dips into the new tools trait line which could be alot if not all meta engineer builds, now your idea would just make it stupidly overpowered because we could just spam toolbelt skills for endurance and spam dodges for reduced cds on tool belt skills which would be ridiculous but i think its potentially a better alternative, if we gave your idea a 1 second internal cooldown and a static amount rather then a percentage maybe 2 seconds off toolbelt skills then we could utilize it effectively with the toolbelt centric builds that utilize those short CD toolbelt skills and i think would promote healthy use of dodges essentially do i shorten those CDs or do i save my endurance just incase i actually need to dodge something, dodges as they are now are needlessly spammed so at least it would add some extra thought into why your dodging rather then just avoiding damage.

as an extra thought on static discharge. one of the things i feel currently keep sd engi out of the meta is either lack of damage or lack of defenses, you can take utility googles /rifle turret and toolkit and easily take down most enemys very quickly but you fall over to a small breeze, alternatively take elixir S or elixir gin over utility goggles and that loss of damage on your burst rotation is at very least 10%(in my build that is full glass its more around 20ish%) but you get more defenses now the new trait explosive rocket belt thingy could be that extra bit of damage that we need to make sd a viable choice but i really dont want more passive procs, id much rather see that trait in the bin, but if we were to take your idea with my suggested changes we could potentially buff the short and long term damage output enough that it would be able to take more defensive options.

Considering that i suggested a similar trait some weeks ago (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/SUGGESTION-for-Tools-TBD-Trait/5004064 – albeit (imho) more powerful, as it was supposed to be a grandmaster in my version) i would agree with something like that.
Despite being our class mechanic, toolbelts are really lacking traits-wise. It wouldn’t be bad having some more toolbelt-centered traits.
And gadget ones, as well.

Regarding our specializations, i think we don’t have enough informations so far.
Many of our traits are still to be decided (or announced, at least). And many lack important data we would need to circumstantiate their effective power.
Basically, we know what we’re losing, but not what we’re getting.

as i detailed in this, pve and pvp look like theyll get cool buffs/changes and since its only unfinished i dont have a whole lot to spout about those games modes besides “looks good!”. however, in wvw, the loss of AMR, cloaking device, and stab armor will cripple engi’s survivability. i sincerely hope they dont just delete those traits. i also hope i dont need to choose a line only for robo legs / speedy kits, because my most reliable roaming build depends on the other 3 trait lines.

MonMalthias.4763:

snip
Hmm, your revised Inventions trait structure still leaves the possibility of running 2-3 turrets (Healing Turret, Rifle Turret, X) and coupling that to Heal-SPLOSION. This would leave a healy bunker build to look like:

• Invigorating Speed/Reinforced Shield. ROBO LEGS. Fortified Turrets + Metal Plating
• Blast on Heal. Heal-SPLOSION. HGH+Fast Acting Elixirs for use with Elixir S; or the Cascade % incoming heal to allies.
• Option of running 409 in Tools to eke out a bit more cleanse, or for more endurance regen through Adrenal Implant. Explosives for the EPK Blast Finisher would also work.

A build like this essentially treats Turrets like short term Blast Finishers for excellent spike healing and projectile mitigation (just blow them up after 3 seconds).

This is not to say that a sustain bunker shouldn’t work; just to emphasise that you don’t really have many gains or opportunity costs either by shuffling things between Inventions and Alchemy. After all, people who are bunkering are probably going to take them both anyway. The theme may or may not matter; but if the builds are the same, then you haven’t really accomplished much. As a result, the only significant change here is moving ROBO LEGS down from Firearms to Inventions.

There is significantly less group support in the build you have here than the 409 + HGH monstrosity that I posted before. You’d be able to remove a silly number of AoE conditions and stack a lot of might on your party as well, not to mention the even higher levels of condi removal and might you’d have on yourself.

Ultimately, I think the elixir traits provide such a high level of support that they need to be chosen against some of the other group support skills. I don’t think it is healthy for both options to be available at the same time.

You can find my thoughts on the shown core spec changes here.

All in all I’m pretty satisfied with the traits shown; there aren’t many builds I’ve used that are getting nerfed or destroyed, although a few niche usage traits are gone now. Of course, this could change depending on the coefficients, cooldowns, etc, that they give the new traits, but unless the healing on blast finisher usage is really low I think we’ll be in a pretty good place for PvP. The changes to burning and poison (stacking and change to damage base/coeffs) could either screw us over or buff us significantly, or both, depending on how they’re handled, but this is true of a lot of classes as well.

Kit balance is good right now, though I would make a few adjustments if I could (the TBD Elixir Gun trait could help with this, though I’d like to change a couple skills on it as well). Non-kit balance unfortunately isn’t. Gadgets need work, elixirs need work. I touched on some problems with these and suggested trait changes in my thread, but I don’t remember if I listed all the changes I would make to gadgets. Turrets need a rework. I’ll write up a full thread on that when I have the time. Heal skills other than Healing Turret need work, though luckily Med Kit is being looked at. Elixir H needs the random element removed, and AED needs a decent toolbelt skill, and trait changes could be made to help both.

I feel these traits should be considered for the Engie;

EXPLOSIVES:
Shrapnel:
Successful Blast finishers apply bleed and cripple to nearby foes.
-Always suggested this rework for Shrapnel because I think requires a lot more timing and skill.

FIREARMS:
Puncture wounds:
Pistol/Rifle Shots that pierce cause additional bleeding to foes affected.
- This means the shots have to hit multiple enmies in order to cause additional bleeding to them. Just like the cripple on the guardian longbow.

INVENTIONS:
Do Not Touch
Overcharged turrets explode and deal massive damage when hit. Turret cooldowns reduced by 20% ICD 30s
- Proposed as a GM trait if it were to be implemented so that players can decide between keeping their turrets alive and using them for a long time or making them tools for burst.

ALCHEMY:
Deadly Mixture:
Throwing down two or more elixirs at the same location creates an acid pool at target location. Applies Bleed, cripple and vulnerabily per tick. Lasts 5s (10s CD)
-Proposed as an Adept trait for an additional damage option for pure Elixir builds.

MEDIC!
Rezzing an Ally whilst wielding a medkit stuns all nearby enemies for 1s.
Ressurect allies 30% faster whilst wielding a Medkit. Medkits heal for more and can be thrown. Medkits also increased ally downed health by 10% when used on a downed ally.
- Proposed as the new Medkit trait.

Imbued Stimulant
Allies affected by your Medkit Auto get 3 stacks of might, Swiftness and Fury for 30s.
-Another Medkit trait… that… may … never be used… sigh.

TOOLS:
Oscillating Electro-Graviton Generator [OEGG]
After 3 successful dodges your OEGG is charged up. The next hit you take is blocked and knocks all enemies in the area, back. 30s CD
- Proposed as a Master tier trait for defensive purposes.

Sad to see the back of Fireforged Trigger. Been a staple of my three kit condi rifle bleed build for well over a year.

Another trait that should be considered for Engie should be;

Concussive Force
Deal 10% more damage to foes that are stunned, knocked back, knocked down or launched. Foes 150 units outside the radius of Big Ol’ Bomb are dazed.

No. That would be such a bad trait in my opinion. Personally I do not want another trait that only has value 10%-15% of the time.

coglin.1867:

No. That would be such a bad trait in my opinion. Personally I do not want another trait that only has value 10%-15% of the time.

It’s all about burst and maximizing the tools that we have to launch, KD and kB enemies. For those who wish to play that way, (like me) I think this would be a great trait to have as a sub-effect to another trait or sitting on adept/master tier on it’s own.

thats actually one of the better trait ideas that ive seen.

mostly cuz its not a passive proc. you have to combo things to make it work, and it would be very strong when your combo works. itd be great against trash in pve, where the ai already encourages us to lure mobs to places of our choosing, which is usually right next to a wall that wont actually move mobs when they get launched so we can get a full 3 secs of extra damage after using BoB.

yes its flat dps, so that isnt too interesting, but i certainly dont think that trait would be bad.

First, my concerns about following missing traits:

Power Shoes: This was a really good option when you didn’t want to go tools tree. Now that we can’t just put 2 point to tools tree for speedy kits, this trait should become more important to have. But you removed it while you should have done the opposite.

Cloaking Device: This was a really good target drop trait. I would LOVE to see this one merge with power shoes and put back in inventions tree.

Sitting Duck: This one was actually my go to trait if i ever put points in firearms. Useful for burst and pve builds for 5 instant vuln. Really good fill for condition builds. I dont know how and where to put this back but i think its worth not losing this trait.

Potent Elixir: Did i miss you talking about this one? Is this baseline or added to hgh? If its not, it really should be either of those.

Enduring Damage: This one was a nice boost when engaging battles. Burst and pve builds will be effected by this loss of dps.

Also some traits could use an update. Because some of them conflict with others or lack synergy or just feels lackluster.

Adrenal Implants: This is where I am disappointed the most. I used to run this trait with speedy kits and static discharge. Now it will be forgetten because people will always pick speedy kits over this now that power shoes are gone. If you want vigor you are now forced to go whole two trees. And if you don’t want to do that and pick this trait you are left without any speed bonus now that power shoes are gone. This trait should be synergizing with toolbelt somehow. Please reconsider making changes about this trait.

Tools Tree: I think you should add more things for our actual profession mechanic which is toolbelt. The only major trait which is directly related to toolbelt is static discharge at the moment. We could totally use more traits about toolbelt. Which could add new mechanics for toolbelt or even simple things like cooldown recharge like you did with other professions. Now that you are overhauling engineer, i dont see any reason to not add more toolbelt traits.

Modified Ammunition: This one always felt like meh. Its not amazingly good or build definingly unique. Its just like %10-12 damage boost at peaks even for massive boss fights. You should either boost the damage or add some kind of functionality to it.

Incendiery Powder: Now that burning is stacking intensity, this one should be adding 2-3 stack of burning or be cooldown free. To be honest, removing cooldown would make it crazy op with that duration so i don’t know.

Automated Response: I honestly don’t know what to do with this one. It doesn’t synergize with anything, it doesn’t have an effect on playstyle(like it used to do) or don’t even have a reason to use that i could think of. Maybe you should just make it lower the condition duration to like %25 without any health requirement.

New Shield Trait: I don’t think protection is a way to go here. Because these skils are designed to avoid the damage via reflect and block, not tanking the damage. The amazing thing to do with this trait would be increase the reflect and block duration.

It’s not confirmed that Power Shoes has been removed. During the stream, they said it will become part of the new Robo Legs trait, but we didn’t see the numbers, so we don’t know whether they meant it’s replaced in spirit by the swiftness bonus, or if Robo Legs applies 25% movement speed bonus on top of the other effects.