Guild Wars 2

Alchemy Experimental Turrets and Gadgeterer

Buffs in Common:
Retaliation
Vigor
Fury
Might

Different:
Aegis v Protection
Regeneration v Swiftness

Overall, the boons are largely overlapping.

TURRETS provide:
AE
Pulse Every 10 Seconds
You can pick up a turret and reset it often faster than the cooldown of the gadget!

Turret v Gadget Uptime Given Pulsing
3/10 seconds Protection
10/10 seconds Swiftness
5/10 seconds Fury
3/10 seconds Vigor
3/10 Seconds Retaliation
10/10 Seconds 3x might

Now Look at Gadgets
3/40 Seconds Retaliation
5/25 Seconds Fury
4/20 Seconds Vigor
8/60 Seconds Regeneration
6/18 Seconds Aegis
6/40 Seconds 5x Might

Overall, UNLESS I am desperately wanting gadgets over a turret, the turret grossly outperforms on providing boons given:
1. Much Higher uptime
2. Largely Same Boons
3. AE Effect 600 units. HUGE.
4. Works on Elite Skill Supply Crate Turrets (assumption based on fortified turret description)

What would make gadgets far better would be to:
Remove a condition every 10 seconds replacing the condition removed with the following additional boon. Does not work when utility is on cool down. However, upon utility activation, engineer receives additional boon

Different skills that are for different purposes entirely. Gagdet’s are selfish, Turrets aren’t.

You want to burst something down fast? Grab Ut.Goggles, get 5 stacks of Might, 10 stacks of Vuln and 10s of fury to boot.

Want to support your team? Give them Regen, Prot and Vigor for 3s every 10secs with Healing Turret and Thumper Turret.

I agree that you cant really compare the two traits. However; The gadgeteer still feels a bit weak for a grandmaster trait. I think it would be interesting if the corresponding toolbelt skills also got an upgrade. For example:
1. AED gives condi removal on main and 5 second weakness on Static Shock
2. PBR gives fury and LPBR knocksback
3. Rocket boots gives vigor and Rocket kick dazes for 1 sec
4. Slick shoes gives regen and super speed gives knockdown on enemies in the way
5. Throw mine gives aegis and mine field creates an aoe blind
6. Utility goggles gets might and analyze gets vulnerability and 3 stacks of 100% crit

Rodrigo.1486:

I agree that you cant really compare the two traits. However; The gadgeteer still feels a bit weak for a grandmaster trait. I think it would be interesting if the corresponding toolbelt skills also got an upgrade. For example:
1. AED gives condi removal on main and 5 second weakness on Static Shock
2. PBR gives fury and LPBR knocksback
3. Rocket boots gives vigor and Rocket kick dazes for 1 sec
4. Slick shoes gives regen and super speed gives knockdown on enemies in the way
5. Throw mine gives aegis and mine field creates an aoe blind
6. Utility goggles gets might and analyze gets vulnerability and 3 stacks of 100% crit

I also agree that Gadgeteer seems weak, though I think some of these changes would make it OP (specifically the hard CC-oriented ones on short cd toolbelt skills).
One of the main problems people have with gadgets is that they don’t offer much compared to kits. I think there is a simple fix to this, which would also make Gadgeteer better: reduce gadget and gadget toolbelt cooldowns.

My thoughts on specific gadgets:
Utility goggles – 40sec cd and 30sec cd on toolbelt. Unless I’m running a super-bursty SD build, there is no reason to take this skill over something like Elixir Gun, which offers a stun break on a similar cooldown but much more utility. I think utility goggles cd should be reduced to 25-30 seconds and the toolbelt cd to 20 seconds.
Portable Battering Ram – FT offers an AOE knockback with instant cast on a 15sec cd, as well as other features, so why should I take a single target knockback gadget with a cast time on a 25 second cd? I think PBR cooldown needs to be around 15-20 seconds and maybe have some other bonus too. The toolbelt cd is fine.
AED – this heal is known to be unpopular…I think reducing the cooldown to 30 seconds or so would help a lot. It still provides no protection against conditions, however.
Rocket boots – this skill has become really popular in PVP and WvW, I don’t think it needs to be improved. The toolbelt cd could be reduced to around 20 seconds though.
Slick shoes – another good skill in PvP and WvW – the cooldowns are long but well worth it. I don’t think a reduction is necessary.
Throw mine – This skill and the toolbelt have short cooldowns but are not popular. Why should I drop an explosive every 15 seconds or so when I can just take bomb kit and drop an explosive that hits twice as hard every second? The only unique feature of the mine is the boon removal, but this doesn’t seem to be enough to make it worthwhile. Rather than a cd reduction, I think throw mine and the toolbelt need a significant damage increase, or more utility (e.g. 1-2sec of cripple per minefield mine and 5 sec of cripple on throw mine?)

TLDR – Well, this was a long post and somewhat off-topic, but the reduction of gadget cooldowns would make gadgets more viable in relation to kits and would also improve the effectiveness of the Gadgeteer trait. As others have mentioned, adding condition removal to the Gadgeteer trait would also help to overcome one of the shortcomings of gadgets and why gadget builds are unpopular right now.

I think you may want to give more credit to PBR. Keep in mind it is a launch rather than a knockback which means that when you land it your target will sit on a floor for a couple of seconds. You may want to try overcharge shot to magnet to prybar to PBR. All attacks should hit, and your enemy is lying on the floor helpless (barring stability/ stun breaks) for your next attack or two… maybe static shock discharge.

Rodrigo.1486:

I think you may want to give more credit to PBR. Keep in mind it is a launch rather than a knockback which means that when you land it your target will sit on a floor for a couple of seconds. You may want to try overcharge shot to magnet to prybar to PBR. All attacks should hit, and your enemy is lying on the floor helpless (barring stability/ stun breaks) for your next attack or two… maybe static shock discharge.

Fair enough. I primarily play WvW, where players often need versatility, mobility, and/or some sort of defense (temporary invulnerability/block, stealth, etc.). Unfortunately, PBR doesn’t provide the versatility of a kit, nor does it provide any defense. That said, I can understand that it could be more valuable in PvP for CC/bursting a single target, but I still think it could be more versatile, since it’s only generally used in static discharge builds. It would be great if all utilities would be competitive across PvE, WvW, and PvP, but that sounds pretty impossible to do.

Rodrigo.1486:

I agree that you cant really compare the two traits. However; The gadgeteer still feels a bit weak for a grandmaster trait. I think it would be interesting if the corresponding toolbelt skills also got an upgrade. For example:
1. AED gives condi removal on main and 5 second weakness on Static Shock
2. PBR gives fury and LPBR knocksback
3. Rocket boots gives vigor and Rocket kick dazes for 1 sec
4. Slick shoes gives regen and super speed gives knockdown on enemies in the way
5. Throw mine gives aegis and mine field creates an aoe blind
6. Utility goggles gets might and analyze gets vulnerability and 3 stacks of 100% crit

I think anet should have merged the 20% reduction in gadget cd and gadgeteer and open a new master trait for the tools trait line such as a toolbelt ability or something to give gadgets a passive effect that way while your gadgets are not being used you actually benefit slightly with constant passive buffs and the mix of gadgeteer making your gadgets on use feel like you really are gaining something with the on use effect for those desperate moments heck i could get used to a trait something like
Q.U.I.C (Quantum Universal Ingenious Charger) Idk something funny
50% chance on critical to reduce the cooldown of your toolbelt abilities by 1 sec 2 sec cd or something