Guild Wars 2

No, really. Play the ranger. You’ll understand.

Sigils are like potions, turrets are like spirits and traps, and the feel of how the character plays. I’ve played both professions a lot, and the engineer is basically like half of the ranger class.

The problem is:

- The engineer has no pet.
- The engineer can’t properly do close quarters combat.

Now I’d add ‘the engineer can’t weapon swap,’ but that’s where kits come in, and I’m okay with that.

Torchlight II has already fixed this by allowing the engineer to use close quarters weaponry and by giving them pets. This is exactly what we need in Guild Wars 2. When I was thinking about the engineer before properly getting my hands on it, I imaginedt hem as having some kind of mechanical drone (I even had this thing going about my engineer’s arachnidrone on tumblr, just for laughs) which would help deal with these issues.

Really, the fix for the engineer is to make it more like the ranger.

Give them a pet, allow them to use close quarters weaponry. Don’t give them weapon switching because of kits, but right now the engineer feels like a half-finished class. It needs to feel like a fully finished class.

And I’m going to toss a piece of art into the mix, just because.

I really feel though that this is what they need to feel ‘right,’ to feel complete. This didn’t occur to me really until I played the ranger. As an engineer, every time I play it now, I feel like a limited ranger. It’s really not at all right.

The art was done by the talented bard-core over on tumblr as a commission for me.

So the fix for a class you don’t like is to make them like another class?
Ugh. No, no pets needed. If I want pets I simply play a ranger…

Sounds like you should just play your Ranger. Most of us have no interest/want for pets. I personally don’t even use turrets. I wouldn’t mind having a melee weapon option, though I wouldn’t use it much unless it was op.

Kryil.6045:

So the fix for a class you don’t like is to make them like another class?
Ugh. No, no pets needed. If I want pets I simply play a ranger…

That’s not what I’m saying at all. Please read the post… or even the title.

I’m saying that the engineer is already a ranger. Basically, they took what a ranger was and stripped it down. But they didn’t know where to go from there, so they left it as is. Instead of leaving it as a broken mess, they might as well build it back up to what it was originally.

And from there they can deviate. They can make pets behave differently to ranger pets and do different things. The main problem with an engineer though, having played both professions, is that it’s an ‘almost ranger.’

I don’t believe it should play or feel like the ranger and giving it a pet would only make it a ranger clone. It needs some small tweaks to bring it’s damage in line, a little more reliablility on its’ support, and a lot of bugs fixed. Once those things are accomplished we can look at the problem of range and the problem of randomness that make the class frustrating at times. Cleaning all of that should make it a standout class that feels like an Engineer and not like a Ranger.

The problem is is that it already does play like a ranger. I wish people would play the ranger to see what I mean. And I’m not saying ‘you should turn the engineer into a ranger,’ because that’s not what I mean at all. But what I’m saying is that they stripped a ranger down and then used that to create the engineer, but then left the class half-finished.

The problem is is that the engineer already plays quite like a ranger. I didn’t do that. ArenaNet did. If you play both professions a lot, you begin to see it after a while. But whereas the ranger has ways to deal with the problems of the class, the engineer doesn’t.

they didn’t strip down the Ranger to make the Engineer. The ideas are vastly dissimilar. A hunter/warrior in tune with nature and a tinkerer/alchemist playing with machines are opposites. Gameplay-wise I believe this was one of the reason they gave Engineers a shorter range, to keep them from feeling too similar. I agree with that. You’re taking this in the wrong direction if you want to fix the class.

I personally play both a Ranger and an Engineer as well and I can not see the similarities, that might be because the way I play the ranger is quite different from the way I play the Engineer. Do you think it is possible that you are trying to force an Engineer to play like a Ranger?
I do like the idea of clockwork companions, but I would not want to make them mandatory. Maybe something for an expansion?

I cant stand pets I love engineer so far and my only complaint is that we don’t have a melee weapon just wish we could us daggers or hammer.

I would like to see our range increased … ranger throwing axes 900, engi using gun 900 wtf.

Disagree. The Engineer feels like a complete class and even if it didn’t, why would you “fix” it by making it more similar to an already existing class? Engineer =/= ranger with a passion for mechanics.

The engineer is a skirmisher class and is capable at all ranges depending on how you build and trait. You can make a completely viable melee engineer with toolkit, bombkit, pistol/shield and a number of utilities are also melee range. It will also play nothing like a ranger and has it’s own unique flavor.

TheKow.7604:

I cant stand pets I love engineer so far and my only complaint is that we don’t have a melee weapon just wish we could us daggers or hammer.

We do, it’s called the toolkit. It uses a wrench to twhack things, but it is essentially like using a hammer. Bombs are also melee range, but they are pretty unique in feeling compared to any other weapon. I wouldn’t be against having a melee hammer, but the option to melee is there already if you want to.

I think the engineer should get a Dolyak to carry his turrets as pet. Lol. Or maybe some upgraded Dolyak that acts as slow moving turret with automatically shooting guns tied to his back.

I don’t want a pet for my engi. I’m happy blowing up turrets and knocking people all over the place.

What I wouldn’t mind having though is a utility skill that removes pet aggro from me so they’ll leave me a lone while I finish off their master. Think of it like a pocket full of dog treats, or throwing a steak to a guard dog :P

@OP. Im sorry you feel that way. But i guarantee you its your play style, not the class.
It looks to me you are trying to play an engineer as a ranger, not an engineer as an engineer. Engineers are not weak, i would say built right they are probably the #1 pvp class.

Engineers are not a pet class… they are a turret class, if that’s how you want to build them. Stationary stupid machines that shoot the wrong target and long CD between shots. Do they need some love, i can see it. Does the engineer need a mechanical pet to follow him around? I don’t think we do.

Does an engineer need close quarters weaponry? Heck no. Honestly I see a few areas where the engineer may need a nerf. Not going to say where cause i don’t want to bring it to light. At least not yet. My burst dmg for mid and close range combat is crazy stupid and I have the survivability to back it up. Our full ranged AoE dmg is up there at being the best in the game.

TL/DR: you are playing an engineer as a ranger, not as an engineer…. An OP mid/close range SPvP combatant and a lethal AoE long ranged WvW threat.

I have to agree with everyone else that you’re (op) most likely playing the Engineer as a ranger.

I got both classes and it’s like day n night. So yeah stop playing Engi as a ranger or start playing your ranger full time.

I completely disagree on giving Engineers pets. Iduno why, you would think that they NEED them. Is this guy trolling? I can’t really take this to seriously..to be honest.

I don’t really agree on having pets, but i’ve always wanted to have a robodog.

Yes we could use a melee weapon, how about a main-hand torch? To go with shield. off-hand

But I disagree with you, engineer is nothing at all like the ranger. They’re miles and miles apart.
If you wanted to compare something with ranger, it would be thief. So you’re saying engineer and thief are about the same too?

I don’t think giving them any sort of pet is the solution. We don’t need to make engineers rangers with guns and a mechanical pet. You may as well go ranger. WoW made the mistake of homogenizing their classes too much and we can see what good that did. Rather, better close combat capabilities or better defense buffs is probably the way to go. Their combos are also too finicky and not as apparent as other classes, which I think need to be fixed.

Complete bunk. I play both classes and don’t feel that the Engineer is an “incomplete Ranger”. In fact, when playing my Ranger, I miss having kits at my disposal and feel like my Ranger is the one missing something. The Ranger isn’t missing anything, it’s just that it’s different and involves less juggling of skills in general than the Engineer.

I love how people who don’t know how to play the Engineer call it broken. Yes yes, I just told you to learn to play.

Can your ranger run into a group of mobs and spam aoes second after second and heal himself at the same time…. and survive? I think not =P

I play both but in comparison to engi ranger feels… not so much fun. Once you play with the kits you will never go back And Anet finally fixed the autoattack on them.

How is the engineer even remotely like a ranger? I played a ranger for a day or so but I must say they are just so boring compared to engineer. The randomness and chaos is what makes this class sokittenfun!