What Engi traits should be baseline?
Speedy Kits. Pretty much every successful engineer build ever takes it. Not having to put 2 into tools to get it opens quite a few more build choices.
Agreed… nothing else really needs to be baseline imo.
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(A) The ones that are so weak that no-one ever takes them,
(B) or the ones that are so strong that every build is kinda forced to take them.
traits that will become baseline: grenadier (A) / coated bullets (B) / rifled barrels (A) / forceful explosives (A)
traits that will become minors (therefore available for all builds that pick that line): Explosive Powder (A)
So yea, give us speedy kits (A) as baseline, especially since the new “speedy kits” trait is paired with kit refinement, a trait that promotes completely opposite play to speedy kits, and will bring you in combat with nearby players / npc’s when you actually want to stay out of it, and will potentially reveal you. And that finally would release our builds to be shunned into the tools line, when in fact it should be a powerful option to go into, IF a player decides to do so, instead of punishing players who decide against it.
Enhanced performance (B) should not become baseline, but become the new minor in Alchemy. It brings good synergy with HgH, and as a stand-alone it fits well into our boon-focused line.
Go for the eyes (B) should be preserved as baseline.
Armor Mods (A) is a really powerful trait that comes with great synergy to defender runes, which in turn bolsters every engi that decides to roam together with guardians. Please keep this trait in the tools line, be it as minor or grandmaster. I had so much fun with it.
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I don’t really think anything else should be made baseline than what already has been, except maybe rifle mod.
As for speedy kits, just because a trait is always picked does not mean it should be made baseline. Having permanent swiftness for no investment at all would just be too strong. I do agree that pairing it with kit refinement was stupid, that trait is terrible in every single way, and only served to Nerf speedy kits by making it a major trait.
I will second the decoupling of speedy kits and kite refinement. After the changes that have gone into kit refinement since beta, I have rarely found anything outside of very niche use for it. The two traits serve completely different functions.
I would love to see it made a Grandmaster and each of the effects given individual cooldowns. I look at is a very defining trait, which seems to be what they are going for with putting things in the Grandmaster line post-work.
I like armor mods as well to be honest. It’s a powerful trait that gives me some of the counter potential that Medi-Guard has against thieves. I’d love to see it combined with Acidic Coating, another defensive option that is actually somewhat useful at mitigating a melee burst when they are both taken. Call it Fail-safe Measure (or stick with Armor Mods), and have it activate on Gadget use (not toolbelt though) with that same 15 second cooldown. I would use that Gadget Grandmaster in an SD build in a heartbeat!
Grenadier and steel packed were always a REALLY dumb design.
Grenades go from garbage to OP in what was 5 levels, to now instantly at level 80.
Grenadier+Steel packed represents something like a 85% damage increase for grenades.
so yeah, grenades being 3 default makes alot of sense.
Coated bullets is sortof the same. A huge deal for pistols, “almost” single handedly making them viable. So much so they inexplicably nerfed p1 power coeff, a while back, when it already was woefully underpowered. Just to make sure pistols were unusable? who knows…
speedy kits should not be default, but should be reworked. its too good as well. But not in a sense it makes a build viable. its OP in that it removes any player choice, you are making a mistake not taking it will pretty much all builds.
Kit refinement being default I would like, but being forced into combat is an issue. A redesign on a few of the skills that do that, would be nice.
Speedy kits can’t be made baseline. Perma-swiftness by default? No, that’s too strong.
Mind you, it still requires you take a kit for that, but that’s a whole separate issue.
In reality, engineer does have a decent number of alternatives to speedy kits. For instance, infused precision is an often underrated trait, though that’s partly because people don’t like investing in firearms. There’s also power shoes for passive move speed, essentially giving you runes of the traveller. You can even take certain utilities like elixir B and rocket boots to help you out in the mobility department.
So I still think speedy kits should be a trait that you need to take, they just need to be sure that there’s decent alternatives to speedy kits so not everyone is forced into tools. Oddly enough, I think packaging it with kit refinement will actually make people disinclined to take it since they just don’t want to fuss with kit refinement at all.
Of course, there’s still a lot of fleshing out that needs to be done for the engineer traits, so I think it might be a bit early to make sweeping judgments as of yet.
Speedy kits can’t be made baseline. Perma-swiftness by default? No, that’s too strong.
Guardians have that, not to mention Necros, Thieves, Ranger, and Ele’s get +25% at the cost of a signet, Warriors and engies can get it through a trait.
Honestly, does anyone but mesmers not run with at least 25% runspeed perma?
Speedy kits can’t be made baseline. Perma-swiftness by default? No, that’s too strong.
Guardians have that, not to mention Necros, Thieves, Ranger, and Ele’s get +25% at the cost of a signet, Warriors and engies can get it through a trait.
Honestly, does anyone but mesmers not run with at least 25% runspeed perma?
The point is exactly that though, you need to make a decision to get that. Simply giving it baseline doesn’t make any sense, especially since kits provide all sorts of other utility. For rangers, eles, thieves, and necros, the entire point of taking the signet is to get the move speed. It’s not like you take a kit and all it does is give you move speed.
I think there’s improvements that can be made to speedy kits (i.e. not having to constantly swap), but making it baseline is not one of them.
As for speedy kits, just because a trait is always picked does not mean it should be made baseline. Having permanent swiftness for no investment at all would just be too strong. I do agree that pairing it with kit refinement was stupid, that trait is terrible in every single way, and only served to Nerf speedy kits by making it a major trait.
I agree with something always being picked doesn’t mean baseline. I disagree with the “nerf.” It’s 6 or nothing in trait lines now and you can only pick one from each tier. Would you rather have SD and SK be in the same tier and prevent you from running both? I would hate this personally.
With that in mind, I really hope they make it proc only when in combat because I can easily see it being really annoying if this keeps putting you in combat when you just want to move faster. If they change this, it actually adds a lot of utility. If not, it’s just a nerf to engineers wanting to run around the PvE maps.
PvP SD Engi, swap to medkit or toolkit for bursts of speed or magnetic aura is a nice buff and a reason to bring medkit over HT.
PvE, poke with rifle then bomb kit to pull them it. Very nice especially with the new short fuse trait as it adds utility such as mesmer focus or guardian GS pulls.
What does the new mortar kit get?
The rest are basically niche/boring but it’s not that terrible of a trait when tacked on to something… unless again, it procs OOC and then messes everything up.