Guild Wars 2

With the reveal that Dragon Hunters would be getting traps, a lot of us assumed that no other elite specialisations would be getting the same utility type and Engineer would have to get something else. However, Tempest was revealed to get shouts like the Reaper, so ANet have not added an arbitrary limitation to their design with the first wave of elite specialisations.

That means, traps are back on the menu boys! or at least not off the table. So this begs the question, what would you like to see if we got traps? or even wells or shouts. This is ofcourse assuming that the drones we saw are a part of the class mechanic or the hammer skills and not the utility skills.

Personally, I’d like to see more synergy with explotions. If shrapnel got rebalanced to all explosives and not grenades tripple proc, then the cribble and bleed from it could be great for explosive traps.

I hope we dont get ether of those cheap mechanic. Colin said that engi have coolest elite spec so I think we will ge something much cooler that those:-)

Rune of the Trapper, yes plix >.<

I don’t see traps on engie spec seeing as it’s melee hammer stuff and traps are more about preparation in advance. Doesn’t go well with the flow.

Maybe Tricks ? Tricks seem like a good fit for engie going in with a hammer of doom.

Rozbuska.5263:

I hope we dont get ether of those cheap mechanic. Colin said that engi have coolest elite spec so I think we will ge something much cooler that those:-)

Source for Colin saying that?

Killyox.3950:

Maybe Tricks ? Tricks seem like a good fit for engie going in with a hammer of doom.

What are tricks? Are you refearing to thiefs class specific utility name? Because we have that, they are called gadgets. Every class have this, an utility category for skills that don’t fit into any other categories. Physical for Warriors, Survival for Ranger, Tricks for Thiefs, Gadgets for Engineers, etc. All this categories have nothing that defines them besides the class they are a part of.

Shouts are easily defined, it’s an Point Blank AoE effect, Signets are defined by having a passive and an active ability, Wells are pulsing AoE fields, etc. What makes a trick?

Traps would be interesting (could have some nice synergy with mine/minefield and bombs). I just assumed it would be minions and the minions would be the little drone things we see in the HoT video.

Killyox.3950:

Rozbuska.5263:

I hope we dont get ether of those cheap mechanic. Colin said that engi have coolest elite spec so I think we will ge something much cooler that those:-)

Source for Colin saying that?

Dont remember exactly it was in one of those interviews short after HoT announcement. With Bog Otter I think.

People just didn’t pay attention to the wording used in the blog posts. We already knew multiple elite specializations could have got access to shouts.

One specialization will have access to traps, while at least one profession’s elite specialization will be a full set of six shouts.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

And this also dismisses Traps as an utility type for engineers. One class will have access to them, and they’ve already revealed who they are – that is, dragonhunters.

Doesn’t changes the fact that we’ve seen orbiting drones in the trailer, and actually data mined textures for drones as well recently.

This leaves the following options:
- stances with drone-animations while being active.
- drone minions
- signets with drone-animations while being passive.
- Mantras with drone-animations being used as visual “charges”. (and that one is already borderline reasonable)

That’s it.
Traps don’t fit well with the theme of moving drones.
Tricks don’t fit well with the theme of moving drones.
Turrets don’t fit well with the theme of moving drones.
And also shouts don’t fit well with the theme of moving drones.

Do we need traps?
We have throw mine & mine-field… doesn’t makes sense, especially since we will go into melee with our hammer, so setting up traps there would be counter-intuitive, since we stick to our target, so couldn’t catch fleeing opponents with them.
Do we need tricks?
We have gadgets. They operate exactly like tricks. Various cd’s, some propel you, others buff you, others operate as traps…
Do we need a turret-rework?
Yes. Is it fixed with mobile drones? No. because that would turn turrets into minions. Also, why would they show a turret-rework in their trailer for an future expansion, while showcasing other classes’ elite-specializations!?
Do we need shouts?
Insta-cast abilities affecting a bunch of people in our vicinity? Would be awesome, but we get drone-animations. Explain me how shouts are related to drones, orbiting your character?

Now that its been mentioned, my money is on stances of some sort. Thing about engi is that they’re so diverse in what they can already do, it’ll be hard to figure out what gap could be filled. Maybe this’ll be a bunker of sorts?

I see two possibilities:

1) Our Elite Spec give us weapon swap. If this is the case, all engineers will have a ranged weapon. Luring someone in with ranged, laying down some traps and crushing them would be a different play style.

2) We get some other mechanic, and are given either signets or mantras. It might even be minions. Regardless, it will offer some passive power/defense, with burst abilities.

I’m not sure which concept I prefer. However, I’m more inclined to believe that the flying bots were not part of the hammer skill set. So I’m more inclined to believe that number 2 is what is coming. Also engineer weapons don’t go well together. So it would be hard to make p/p & rifle work, etc. So weapon swap wouldn’t work well on this class.

Shouts could have worked easily for drones, imho – we just have to think of them as orders given to the drones.
That’s not something new either, by the way. It would just mirror how the ranger uses his shouts, albeit he interacts with the pet in that case.
Even then, i doubt they’ve given shouts to three or more profession, so while the option is still on the table, i don’t think it is likely to see them on the engineer’s elite specialization.

I envision these “Drones” akin to Necro pets. I’m imagining them hovering along side the Engie shooting lasers, grenades, fire, etc. Now, the question is will they be as broken and useless as Necro pets are in their current state.

The main issue I see with the theory that the drones are Minions, or turret reworks, or any other kind of “different purpose for each drone” idea, is that the recently-datamined pictures for the drones shows them all to have the exact same model, with just skin changes between each one. Unless that’s work-in-progress stuff (which wouldn’t make a lot of sense, as it’d have thus been a waste of time to make full-blown textures for each of them), that means that whatever their purpose, it will likely be the same between every single drone.

It could, perhaps, be something akin to Jagged Horror, a spammable cannon fodder Minion, with some “prettiness” thrown in with randomized textures upon creation. Or, maybe they’re a roundabout approach to Signets or Banners, with the former’s active ability simply being “attack”. But whatever it is, I don’t think they’ll have terribly unique functions compared to one another.

It is possible our drones are a change to toolbelt skills. It would requier a lot of work, but they might even change every singel toolbelt skill. Could be that every toolbelt skill summons a drone that uses a similar ability passivly and you can reactivate them to send them to a location or overcharge them. It was more than 10 drone skins datamined, so if they are all going to be used, it might not be our utilities.

Toolbox.9375:

The main issue I see with the theory that the drones are Minions, or turret reworks, or any other kind of “different purpose for each drone” idea, is that the recently-datamined pictures for the drones shows them all to have the exact same model, with just skin changes between each one. Unless that’s work-in-progress stuff (which wouldn’t make a lot of sense, as it’d have thus been a waste of time to make full-blown textures for each of them), that means that whatever their purpose, it will likely be the same between every single drone.

It could, perhaps, be something akin to Jagged Horror, a spammable cannon fodder Minion, with some “prettiness” thrown in with randomized textures upon creation. Or, maybe they’re a roundabout approach to Signets or Banners, with the former’s active ability simply being “attack”. But whatever it is, I don’t think they’ll have terribly unique functions compared to one another.

They havent all same model. It was one model where that_shaman add multiple textures combination to show us how it should look

The dones flied too perfectly with us to be minions unless there will be a major AI update for pets. I think they will “stick to us” and do additional effects. Can’t say more about that topic atm

Xyonon.3987:

The dones flied too perfectly with us to be minions unless there will be a major AI update for pets. I think they will “stick to us” and do additional effects. Can’t say more about that topic atm

That’s true, they behaved almost like an aura. Revenants have the Vengeful Hammers skill that makes hammers encircle them and damage foes, maybe the drones are similar. Different auras (dmg foes, heal allies, remove condis, buff allies) for each drone type?

Zera.8907:

I envision these “Drones” akin to Necro pets. I’m imagining them hovering along side the Engie shooting lasers, grenades, fire, etc. Now, the question is will they be as broken and useless as Necro pets are in their current state.

Er yes they will be.

No plz. I want those drones/signets so badly!

Rozbuska.5263:

They havent all same model. It was one model where that_shaman add multiple textures combination to show us how it should look

Ohhh. I am mistaken, then, I thought the textures were official.

Everyone keeps assuming we’ll be getting another class’ utility skill type, but I’m not sure that will be the case. Our existing utilities aren’t shared with any other class so far, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our elite spec added an engineer-specific new skill type as well.

glehmann.9586:

Everyone keeps assuming we’ll be getting another class’ utility skill type, but I’m not sure that will be the case. Our existing utilities aren’t shared with any other class so far, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our elite spec added an engineer-specific new skill type as well.

Well, now that you make think about that you may be right! Still i’m hoping for a signet like type of skills

I just want to point out, in the elite specialization reveal post, they said that “at least one spec would be getting shouts”, which came true in regards to tempest, but I don’t think they’d make repeats for other classes.

Rozbuska.5263:

I hope we dont get ether of those cheap mechanic. Colin said that engi have coolest elite spec so I think we will ge something much cooler that those:-)

They also said that coated bullets and rifle piercing will be base lin now we have nothing of that