I could count on one hand the number of Engineers I’ve seen in my time playing Guild Wars 2. Perhaps I’m unfortunate to not encounter more, but I find myself shouting with excitement when I do encounter one. When I ask the player how he or she finds the profession, as I always do, I’ve never received any response other than “It’s OK”. Hardly a ringing endorsement.
The Engineer is often seen as a convoluted profession that stands unique against all others. Kits, Tool belt skills, turrets, elixirs with random properties and no second weapon are a melting pot of ideas and influences and all, to some degree, play a key part in bringing the profession into some sort of odd cohesion.
At times I can understand the lack of enthusiasm around the profession. The clash of ideas and aesthetics are at times confusing. Is it an eccentric alchemist, with its use of chemical elixirs or is it technology based with its use of flamethrowers and turrets? Does it really need either?
Part of my primary complaint with the Engineer is that the profession has spread itself so thinly across so many avenues that I’m not sure anyone knows what its true purpose is. Many of the principal design decisions behind the Engineer, however, I believe are functional and reasonably refreshing.
Being restricted to only one weapon set at a time, while seemingly dull in comparison to the Elementalist, is more than acceptable in the knowledge that you technically have at your disposal 4 kits and 2 additional weapons sets (Bomb, Grenade, Medical and Mine Kit as well as Elixir Gun, Flamethrower and Tool Kit).
In addition, you also have access to 6 turrets, all entirely unique in their damage dealing, 5 elixirs that all serve individual purposes, from invulnerability to guaranteed boons or group revival, and 4 gadget skills that aim to free you from or prevent you being stunned.
The choices before a player when entering the Mists for the first time are incredibly daunting and the options, when combined with traits are seemingly endless. However, it quickly becomes apparent that there are gaping flaws in the engineer’s current skill sets and design and that beginning to rectify them is a task I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
Weapon Skills
Overall, I would consider I’m relatively happy with the standard weapons available. The rifle is strange in that it acts more as a close quarter tool than the long-range equivalent of the Warriors and subsequently turns the Engineer into a midline fighter, leaving the profession with no true long range option for World versus World. Skills such as overcharged shot also, at times, feel like they punish the Engineer unnecessarily when alternative profession such as the ranger have risk free knockbacks (overcharged shot launches you as well as your opponent back a great distance). Jump Shot is also in need of some fine tuning as the animation is often slow to trigger and pathing in the air is often a little shaky.
Where the pistol (and dual wielding pistols) is concerned, unlike the raw direct damage afforded by the rifle, it leans more into the realms of relying on condition damage and attrition, rather than through Power or Precision alone. Its use of bleeds, burns and poisons are at times incredibly limiting and based on the volume of skills available to other professions, can quickly be removed, resulting in a significant damage loss if that were to happen.
As the only mainhand weapon useable with the shield (which is easily the best weapon available to the Engineer), you’re left with no options as to how you deal your damage from your main hand if you dislike kits or feel you cannot spare a skill slot to equip them. Evening out the pistol so that each of it skills is first and foremost direct damage, comparable to that of the rifle, would go some way in reducing an engineers need to unnecessarily stack condition damage and thus spreading itself even thinner.
Weapon Kits
I believe all the weapon kits available to the Engineer are, in some form, in desperate need of change or revision and that based on this, I currently avoid using them. Principally, I believe that the Engineer at level 7, just like every other profession, should unlock a second weapon slot. Once the player has unlocked either the Elixir Gun, Flamethrower or Tool Kit skills, the individual can then equip one of these as their second weapon, without sacrificing a skill slot.
This would really lend itself to supporting those who choose a turret playstyle (who would obviously equip Tool Kit, to be able to repair them) or pistol and shield (who are potentially seeking the support provided by Elixir Gun or more offensive play of the Flamethrower).
It could be argued that the ability to equip multiple kits and thus gain access to dozens of new skills shouldn’t permit a second weapon set, but this unnecessary restriction (and mindset) only serves to reinforce the convoluted image of the profession.
The fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is would it really unbalance the profession to see it have a second weapon set, determined by a single weapon kit of your choosing? Any other kits the player wanted access to would then be at the cost of a skill slot.
In terms of physical skills, all weapon kits need a damage increase across the board, with all three dealing pitiful numbers. The Tool Kit in particular is at times woefully inadequate; Smack damage is too low, though the turret repair is a wonderful nod to Team Fortress 2. Box of Nails is entirely unimaginative, has too smaller radius and lasts too little time (2 seconds, really?). Magnet is notably worse than Backdraft but does blend well with Pry Bar. Gear shield is excellent though its cooldown feels overly long and finally Pry Bar’s cooldown is far too long, especially in comparison to Air Blast. This leaves the question; “why take Tool Kit over Flamethrower?”
Where the Elixir Gun and Flamethrower are concerned, the Elixir Gun in particular really needs Tranquilizer Dart revising so that it deals a good punch of damage but also causes weakness and vulnerability, rather than a random chance of either. The other skills I really enjoy, but they still require a huge damage increase leaving the weapon almost exclusive to a group use only.
The changes I would make to Flamethrower are that it should cause burning by default across all its skills (why on earth do I need to trait this?) but also have Flame Blast fire directly at my target rather than have it in its current form, as an inaccurate lumbering boulder that often explodes having passed your opponent by. I would also increase the range of all the skills. Flamethrowers are capable of firing across great distances.
Finally, I would like to see all Kits (including devices) remember that I’ve set skill 1 to auto-attack as default. It’s incredibly frustrating to equip the flamethrower, set skill 1 to auto attack only to have to re-set it every time I’ve unequipped the weapon.
Device Kits
Most of the device kits serve a purpose, though there are problems with all of them. The first change I would recommend is that the Grenade Kit should function similarly to the Necromancers staff, by removing the ground targeting from skill 1 (Grenade) while retaining the ground targeting element of skills 2 to 5. Grenade should, when used, fly at your target similar to any other player projectile but cause a minor AOE explosion (similar to Explosive Shot). This would add much needed mobility to the Kit. I would also like to see, when using quick-casting and holding the right mouse button the cursor remain on the screen. It’s currently impossible, in its current form, to see where you are aiming as the cursor disappears.
Mine Kit and Bomb Kit I would like to see merged, though the name Mine Kit retained. Mines are OK for defending an area but are time consuming to lay, deal poor damage and the kit itself actually a little boring. In contrast, Bomb Kit’s utility is wonderful but the playstyle enforced by it (dropping them at your feet with them on a very short timer) makes for a very clumsy, hit and miss method of fighting. It feels incredibly impractical to run around placing bombs at your feet in the hopes someone stays in the blast radius. I see it as a much more practical solution for each individual Mine to have the properties of Bomb Kit (Mine, Fire Mine, Concussion Mine, Smoke Mine, Glue Mine).
This would still allow those who want to protect an area the opportunity to lay down defences, but would also still allow those who enjoy the uglier method of dropping bombs at their feet to do so (the mines would instantly explode the moment anyone was in their radius).
As for Med Kit? That’s just great as it is.
Turrets
I have several issues with turrets. The first is that Detonate needs to remain on the skill bar, and the overcharge needs to move to the Utility bar (F1-F4). This would then allow turrets to benefit from Ingenuity. Secondly, I would like to see the cooldown of re-using a turret after you’ve picked it up significantly reduced. At the moment, picking up your turrets doesn’t feel like enough of an incentive when it only results in a 50% cooldown, especially when a fight could break out seconds later and leaving you with two unusable skill slots. I don’t believe a cooldown of 5 seconds, after picking up your turret, is too unreasonable (the overcharge cooldown would remain the same).
Thirdly, a rate of fire increase for all turrets and a damage increase would be more than welcome. It is currently agonising waiting for Rocket Turret or Net Turret to fire and really undermines their use.
As an addition to the line-up and for something a little different, what about a Shield Turret? Acting similarly to Magnetic Field it could protect anyone inside the field or could be overcharged to push back foes.
Elixirs
I love Elixirs. I think they are such a fun addition to the profession that really add an instant element of battle hardiness. My problem however is any random element, to any of the elixirs (this includes Elixir X). The prospect of random effects can be approached either positively or negatively. Some people embrace the prospect of the unknown, reacting accordingly. Some dislike the lack of a guarantee and will avoid their use at all costs.
Primarily confined to the Tool belt skills, though Elixir U is guilty, I really have a significant dislike with randomness. In competitive PvP, guarantees and knowing exactly what your skills will do can be seen as a cornerstone in planning and preparation. On too many occasions have I died as a result of Elixir U or Elixir S’ tool belt skill giving me what I didn’t want, rather than what I did.
I shouldn’t when trying to run away from a group of players have to cross my fingers and pray to the gods that Elixir S just might grant me stealth or Elixir U grant me Veil of Invisibility. On the flip side, how am I suppose to adequately support my team with such randomness? I can’t possibly begin to help them through the use of my tool belt skills if what they need is a Smoke Screen, only for me to throw down Veil of Invisibility.
There is a reason that Elixir B is as popular as it is and that’s because it provides three buffs that never change. The tool belt component of the skill however is still as poor as the others. Why not have it provide allies in the area with all three buffs (just like the primary skill) but increase its cooldown or lower the boon duration?
What I think each of these tool belt skills needs (including a total revision of Elixir U) is to have unique, individual skills, specific to the Engineer.
- Elixir B - Drink Elixir B, gaining fury, might and swiftness.
- Toss Elixir B - Toss Elixir B granting fury and might to allies in the area.
- Elixir C - Drink Elixir C, converting all conditions into boons (retaliation, vigor and regeneration)
- Toss Elixir C – Toss Elixir C, converting one condition into regeneration.
- Elixir R (remains the same)
- Elixir S (remains the same)
- Toss Elixir S – Toss Elixir S granting stealth to all allies in the area.
- Elixir U – Drink Elixir U gaining Quickening Zephyr and Frenzy
- Toss Elixir U – Toss Elixir U creating Magnetic Field at your location (the shield will push back foes after 3 seconds)
- Elixir H – Heal yourself and gain protection and swiftness.
- Toss Elixir H – Throw Elixir H granting protection and swiftness to allies in the area.
Where Elixir X is concerned, this too suffers the same problems of randomness. Just as you were hoping for Tornado to knock the offending players from a keep wall, you get Plague. Or just as you want to really beat a player down you get Tornado instead of Rampage. Would it not be a better solution to see the Engineer adopt some elements of all these elites, while remaining in Engineer form?
For example, you drink Elixir X:
- Gain Stability (15s) and Might (15s)
- Become surrounded by a Locus Swarm (15s) that cripples and bleeds opponents.
- Your skill bar is replaced with several or similar skills from Tornado and Rampage such as:
- Skill 1: Chain Lightning
- Skill 2: Dash
- Skill 3: Dust Devil
- Skill 4: Stoning
- Skill 5: Stomp
Elixir X would then give the Engineer a very offensive based Elite, that shares all the components or influence from all 3 Elites the existing Elixir grants access to, but would still allow you to remain mobile.
To balance it, if that were a concern, you could always keep the health of the Engineer the same (rather than it increasing) similar in functionality to a Rangers Rampage As One.
Final Thoughts
I’ve said a great deal about the Engineer and have tried, in some way, to really reign in some of my thoughts on the profession. This piece could have potentially spiralled into more than twice the length it is now. However, I feel that I’ve gotten across my main concerns about the profession and more than I could have by providing feedback on a forum or bug report. If ArenaNet were to implement what I’ve suggested (though this is all entirely subjective and I must stress that this entire post is all personal opinion) I would be incredibly happy with the Engineer and feel that it would bring much needed cohesion and competitiveness to the profession. In its current form and based on much of its random play style (unless you ignore Elixirs entirely) I’m not sure it has any chance of competing against its rivals.
Comments
Tbh im planing the Engineer will be my last 5 alt. First i fought i will not do him but after testing beta i end up with conclusion that i hate mele combat so i will skip warrior, guardian & thief. And the 2 reasons that i will do him are he is range and i have 1 last free spot to fill.
I completely disagree with changing the kits and merging them so drastically. I feel that they add a lot of differing playstyles to the profession. While I respect Xerin and his gameplay videos, I think that he's letting too much of his personal preferences get the better of his judgment. Just because he does not like the various kits we have does not mean we should get rid of them or that others, like me, did not find them useful. The Bomb Kit is absolutely my favorite kit followed by the med kit and mine kit.
The same goes for the weapon skills for the Rifle as well. I think that the complexity and higher skill level requirement of the Engineer should stay the same as it is now rather than, for a lack of a better word, dumbed down. I have many more thoughts on the profession but I just can't fit them all here.
I wholeheartedly agree with every assessment you've given the Engineer here, Xerin. I've mained an Engineer through each of the Beta Events now, and they just feel grossly underpowered in their damage, and unreliable in their support.
The more core element I've found the Engineer capable of performing well is control. Net Shot is a very cheap immobilize and Glue Shot/Glue Bomb both offer AoE areas of control. The turrets help utilize the sense of control as well, but instead of controlling foes directly, the turrets help control the terrain. Putting the Overcharge skills on the toolbelt to benefit from Ingenuity is a genius idea, and I don't know why Arenanet hasn't done this already.
I believe anywhere between a 5-10s cooldown would be just fine for picking up a turret and replacing it. This could allow an Engineer to save a turret before detonation and re-deploy it, or redeploy a turret to a more tactical position once foes arrived.
Some excellent ideas in there mate, especially the Bomb/Mine merging idea. As you mentioned, neither of them feel good in their current format, but I think the kit would be well worth taking if they were combined.
One thing I also disliked about the Engineer (as well as many of the above points) are the traits. They feel far too rigid for my liking, forcing you to go down a particular line depending on your build. As a Thief or Warrior, I felt that there were some really good Trait choices in every line, giving me many build options, no matter which weapon set I chose to use.
As an Engineer though, putting 30 points in Power and 30 in Precision when built as a Turret Engineer leaves very few Trait choices. The vast majority of Power choices revolve around the Bomb, Grenade and Mine kit, the Toughness line is all about Turrets, Vitality about Elixirs etc. It simply feels far too restrictive to force the player into certain Trait builds based on the choice of Utility Skills.
I completely agree that the Engineer, as it is right now, is the black sheep. The most underwhelming profession of all. The one that other professions will look down upon.
I'm not sure if you've noticed this, but sigils on weapons don't affect weapon kits' damage. This is a problem because it means that kits' damage don't scale with the player's gear progression.
Grenades themselves need a damage buff overall, or else they'll just be a weaker condition skill set than dual pistols.
I also feel the med kit is a hit or miss. It really depends on if other players can see and/or care to pick up a med pack that provides only a small amount of healing (which I think needs scaling buff according to player level). The antidote and stim brew (maybe add Vigor boon though) are fine. What I would like to see is a better visual indicator, like a ring of light around the dropped kits, with a light symbol on top indicating what the dropped item is. I also would like it if the med kit shoots (via ground targeting) the packs, rather than dropping it. Why should I get close to my ally near a monster/AoE just to drop off a med pack? This would make the med kit have a far more useful support potential; the healing turret could be the set-and-forget option, while the med kit, while not as useful in inexperienced hands, could be a true proactive support option.
Other than that, I agree with everything you've said 100%. I especially like your Elixir X revision; I'd use it a whole lot more if I could have that kind of thing. Maybe make the Engineer be more proficient at rifles and pistols than other classes, since that's their main weapons. As of now, I don't see much of a damage reason to use rifle Engineer over rifle Warrior, or dual pistol Engineer over dual pistol Thief.
Deadpan snarking isn't.
I've only PvE'd with the engineer, but I think it should be obvious to ArenaNet that the random component needs to go. Correct me if I am wrong, but if they fixed that one element, they at least would have something viable at launch day. If you've played the engineer in Warhammer Online you will get a better idea of how to correctly build the class for mobility. Ground targeting is clumsy when you need to be a mobile class. Utility classes need to be able to be mobile - especially when stuck with mid range abilities. IMO this is an 'oops' on ArenaNet's part. They got caught up in the coolness on paper, but did not implement it well. I am surprised this class has gotten this far without some correcting of its basic systems.
The overcharged shot is another example of something that is unique but doesn't pass the 'function' test.
Engineer is the class I played most during the BWE, and will definitely be one that I focus on most after launch (along with the warrior, probably). If the class feels 'cobbled together,' I think it was designed that way. It also fits the flavor: where other classes have their well-known thematic and mechanical focuses (elementalists have their flashy, big boom magic; thieves are agile and dangerous; guardians maintain the skirmish line), the engineer's focus is that it has no focus. The engineer is the 'jack-of-all-trades' of the classes.
This is part of what drew me to the class. Even with all the weapon choices the other classes get, they didn't feel near as versatile as the engineer did. It's the Swiss army knife of the game: change out your utility skills and you almost have a whole new class. When I was out adventuring, I was regularly changing my build to suit the situation I was expecting. If I was going into a small event alone, I stuck with the pistol and shield for crowd control and had a rifle turret for extra damage. If I was heading into a large, popular event, I took a healing turret and elixir gun so I could play support, or a grenade kit if I was expecting groups of enemies.
I do share a lot of concerns, though. While the flamethrower was really fun, the Flame Jet was a little under whelming for the loud, awesome effect. If they want to keep the range so short, they should probably just pull back the visual effect itself so it's not as misleading. I also found the Med Kit undesirable. The healing turret was much easier to implement, and I feel like the hard-to-see med packs and vials were picked up more on accident than anything. I'd rather see the kit condensed to a normal skill that 'throws up' a bunch of med packs into the area when activated that heal, remove a condition, and provide a boon all in one. I'll definitely make sure to voice these concerns during the next beta event.
I think it would be fun to play a gun-toting Sylvari Mesmer. :3
While I agree with some of the arguments and potential buffs, there are others that I don't. For example, during the Stress Test I focused primarily on the Bomb Kit. It was so much fun learning how to effectively use it! One of the complaints in this article is that you can't expect the enemy to still be in range of the bomb as it goes off. Well, that's why you not only have certain bombs that snare (Glue Bomb), but you also have the ability to immobilize foes with the Rifle (Net Shot), Pistol (Glue Shot, however the duration of immobilization needs to be increased on this one, 1 second is nothing), and Shield (Static Shield). Since a lot of people seem to like the Flame Thrower, you can throw Back Draft into that mix to keep enemies in their radius.
Another area brought up that I do not agree with is an increase in base damage by the Flame Thrower, Grenades, Bombs, and Mines. These all cause AoE damage, increasing their overall damage will push them into being overpowered by causing so much damage to multiple foes at once. AoE skills always cause less damage than direct hit skills. Otherwise, why take direct hit skills when you can have an AoE skill to hit multiple enemies for the same amount of damage?
I love the Engineer! I have had so much fun playing as one and it will definitely be my main character.
I agree with you Death (some great points, everyone) the versatility of the Engineer is what keeps drawing me back to it as well, but what it does do takes so much more effort than other professions. I think with a few tweaks here and there, it would be in a really great place.
I think the profession is very much about being adaptive and choosing your circumstances.
I'm going to try this build next phase
Nice article and a good summary of some of the complaints.
I must say I strongly disagree on changing anything about the mine & bomb kit except for their damage numbers though. I enjoyed both of them. If anything would have to change about those kits I would hope for a distinction between the pvp and pve skills.
On getting a kit to swap to at level 7 I also have many doubts, I'm afraid it would clash with my playstyle of switching back and forth between the kit and the weapon in less than 3 seconds, because weapons tend to have a 10 second cooldown to swap back.
I do agree on most of the points on elixirs, turrets and weapon kits. As for turrets, I think the rate of fire is good enough if they would only fire when they have a clear shot (line of sight).
Anyhow, I love the engineer as it is now and I will love the engineer at release no doubt.
Can't wait to meet you on the eternal battlefields!
I like the concept of the Engineer, but the elixirs are really the main thing that I can't stand about them. I'm considering trying one on the next BWE, partially out of interest, but largely in the hopes that by playing it, I can get some feedback out to Arenanet on how to fix it.
I really do hope they implement some of the fix-it ideas, like switching the Detonate and Overcharge skills around - that's such a glaring issue at the moment.
My own engineering deterrent - aside from the unimpressive numbers (though I still intend my charr alt to be an engineer) - is the lack of customization & over-reliance on traits...
Now that I've been able to play with them, I just LOVE what sigils bring to the table - to the point where I'm seriously having trouble committing to 2H weapons over dual-wielding alternatives! (Ask Jon Peters for a 2nd sigil slot on 2H'ers please. ^_^)
Missing out on the sigil system - and not being able to even visually customize weapon kits/backpacks - is a really big downside in the battle for my affections, and what that isn't balanced out by some positive factor.
This leaves traits as the only way to introduce flavor (functionality in some cases!), which is far from ideal; it doesn't leave much potential for freestyle investment (e.g. takes 25 points in Explosives to bring explosives kits on par with the 2 sigil slots of theif dual pistols), and it leaves the PvE engineer bound to costly trait resets when they want to enjoy the "flexibility" their kits bestow.
Most professions have, at most, a single enhancement/cooldown-reduction trait and a meager +5% damage option for each weapon - easily obtainable with 10 points in a line, and nothing to get hung up on if you don't have it (may take a universal trait in that slot instead).
The engineer however is clearly gimping themselves at level 80 if they take a kit/utility theme without a full 30 points in the corresponding line(s); you can't just drop Grenade/Bomb Kit into an Inventions/Alchemy build, or equip 3-5 Elixirs in an Explosives/Firearms build.
I know this post is going on a bit, but I would like to make one positive suggestion too! ^_^
I'd very much like to see a compensating inherent passive effect while using each & every kit, to compensate for sigils and get away from trait reliance: e.g.
> Bomb Kit: Increased Toughness, 50% snare & Stun reduction.
> Flamethrower: All attacks have a 20% chance to cause Burning (like a randomized Virtue of Justice).
> Med Kit: 20% Increased revive speed (so being an actual battlefield medic).
> Tool Kit: While equipped, increases the recharge speed of Turret, Overcharge and Gadget skills by 33% (we know from Chill that recharge speed can be manipulated).
Many people haven't realized it yet due to playing at such low levels, but you will need to trait for the skills you're using if you want to be viable, and that gives us one of the problems with multiple weapon kits, the way they interact with traits. It's likely that if you're running 2 weapon kits, you won't be able to trait one to it's maximum ability, thus you'll be gimping yourself.
For that reason, I agree with those that argue that Engineers should be able to equip one weapon kit as a weapon swap instead of them being 7-9 utility skills.
During the next BWE I am only going to play an engineer. I need more time to get a feel for the class to determine if it is one that I want to play come launch day.
Hey guys, guess what! This game isn't just about PvP. Leave some flavor in there, the class is cool as it is.
Launch day for me will include playing a Sylvari Mesmer... the only thing that could pull me away from that decision is if they included the Ritualist class. :)
I will likely give Engineer a try, probly as an Asura.
engineer will be 1 of the best spvp class. have been playing this 1. engineer build for now on both betas, absolute loving that build <3
and some of the reasons, and builds.
1. Pistol Bleed, max condition dmg(with build+items+orrian runes)
this will destroy every class, just stack the poison allday long. my pistol poison dmg was 450~ and normally could stack like 6-9 stacks for enemy. and ofcoorz batteringram + slick shoes for enemy player control.
2. Max Deff+HP with turret build.
nobody can cap the point when you build every crap in there.
I looked into using 2x Sigil of Superior Venom, does it stack? (i.e 20% duration?)
not sure about the stacking, but there is only 1?? poison for engi so not so usefull...
I was describing if you equip Superior Sigil of Venom on both pistols :)
I enjoyed Engineer during BWE1, I only played it in PvE though because I plan to main Mesmer and didn't want to ruin that experience. I have no real complaints, they could make the F-key turret planting skills mobile like they are for the 7-9 keys. But other than that I liked the class and it may be my first alt, if not second, as there's no other classes I can think of that look that fun to me.
I'm willing to bet there will be an explosion of the engineer profession when the Asura get unlocked. I mean come on...they were made for that job. XD
Excellent article. I don't agree with everything you said, I found turrets to be my strongest tools in both PvE and PvP, but great insight, nonetheless. I hope this article and discussion reaches the right ears. :)
I agree.
The problem with the engineer is that ArenaNet believes that the diversity makes up for it, which it doesn't. The engineer is the only class I really want to play, because I like tech in my RPGs, but it is many, many magnitudes weaker than the weakest profession. Really, pick a profession - any profession, and then compare side by side with the engineer.
The engineer just needs to be damage buffed across the board, and that's the underlying sentiment of this blog, really. Compare the engineer with its closest counterpart (in game mechanics terms), the elementalist, and you'll find that the elementalist is one of the best professions, and the engineer is just way at the bottom of the pile. There's no excuse.
Sometimes I get this feeling that the balance team hates me for picking an engineer, and that it's almost like they want to actively discourage people from playing the engineer. That's idiotic. The problem I have with this is that, having played all the classes, the engineer is mechanically the most interesting. It's just that it's shit. That's the problem. The output of the engineer has been so drastically reduced that it can't keep up with any profession in any role.
I think that the engineer needs to be at least as good as the elementalist, frankly. But that's just not happening. It's like the lack of power that the engineer has in every possible regard was just an oversight. In fact, at this point, the engineer is so weak that they might as well only have seven professions. I found it genuinely punishing to play.
That's not what I want from a game, ArenaNet. The issue I have is that ArenaNet promised me that there wouldn't be right or wrong professions or races to pick, that I wouldn't be punished by my choice. But because the engineer is many magnitudes weaker than everything else, I do feel punished. I feel that I cannot contribute in any way, shape, or form.
With every other profession I played I felt like I was contributing to a dynamic event, every other profession. Guardian, warrior, mesmer, ranger, necromancer, elementalist, thief, it just didn't matter. But I felt useless as an engineer, I felt weaker than the NPCs.
That's the problem.
The engineer just has no output in regards to anything. They need to fix that, because otherwise anyone who picks engineer IS making the wrong choice. And that is a choice that just shouldn't exist within the game. If there is one thing that ArenaNet desperately needs to look at fixing right now before anything else, it's how completely useless the engineer is in all roles.
Good read, some points I do agree on, some I do not.
A major point I absolutely back you on is the Elixir changes, I'm mainly a support type player, so having the Elixirs only benefit me were really a turn-off, adding the throw skills could open up new doors for all builds.
I also agree with most of your turret suggestions, especially the cooldown after pick up and the refire rate on rockets and nets.
I do not agree, however, on merging kits, this limits the versatility of the class (not the player, but the class itself). If anything the number of kits with specialized jobs should be going up, as it opens new paths for builds, most of GW2 classes are pretty limited in what you can build (the main difference for other classes is that they can swap weapons/stance dance), I feel as if Arenanet should split paths for taking rather than merging them.
But I do agree with the problems you pointed out with the kits, specifically the mine and tool kits, the mine kit is decently impactful but woefully limited, and the tool kit really is just a walking turret healer, the other skills, with the exception of gear shield, are all pretty lackluster. At this point I see no use for the mine kit (as point defending can be better done by turrets themselves), and I would only take the tool kit if I'm using a turret heavy build.
Having played the Engineer in both BWEs to L32 I pretty much agree with what you have said. I have really enjoyed the play style, but I have also felt forced to play one particular way where weapons are concerned.
It appears that no other weapon choice except pistol and shield is truly optimal.
Rifle is fine so long as the enemy never closes with you, or there are 2 of them.
Off hand pistol is just a waste of time. Its abilities compared to the shield are far to weak. Surely using two pistols would do more damage than one. But since doing so does not increase damage then one might as well use a shield, especially since the shield skills are of real use.
The worst design decision by ANet is that skills have variable scaling of damage via Power. It doesn't make much sense. And to make this an even harder problem, the scaling coefficients vary between professions more than inside one profession (i.e. warrior skills scale by power by .3 to .4, engineer skills scale by .15 to .2 ). This makes power based damage builds an impossibility for the engineer.
Please refer to this video of Team Paradigm vs ArenaNet team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5kdzBPUxeI condition engineer vs power based rifle engineer, who does no damage.
Second biggest problem is that tons of engineer skills do no damage at all. What I mean by that is that where another profession might have skill that does CC, that skill also does 600-1000 damage, while engineer has a lot of CC (and other) skills that do 0 damage. For instance warrior's mace and hammer skills that KD, stun, daze, AoE knockback, AoE stun also hit for 1000 damage. This allows for much higher DPS while CCing the opponent. Engineer's air blast, net shot, magnet, battering ram, battering ram toolbelt do no damage, pry bar, freeze grenade, box of nails etc do mini amount of damage. This gives engineer poor time compression of his abilities (i.e. how much of his power he can bring to bear in a short timeframe - he has lots of abilities but it takes a lot of time before he can use all of them - conversely elementalist has good time compression as the mere act of switching attunements buffs allies with boons and creates effects around him - with appropriate traits).
Last, elixirs. I greatly dislike them. I dislike their randomness. But what's even worse, the randomness is not being offset by shorter recharges. For instance elixir X is random, but it has 30 sec shorter recharge than any of the elites it copies (I would rather see this difference be bigger). This should be the case for all random elixirs, but it isn't.
Throw elixir U spawns: smoke screen, veil of invisibility, wall of reflection. The skill has 60 second cooldown, while these spells have 30, 90, 45 second cooldowns respectively. IMO to offset it's randomness the skill should have shorter recharge than the spells it spawns, which in this case where average is 55, should be 45 seconds at most (35 rather).
Throw elixir S spawns invisiblity half of the time. Similar skill on thief has same recharge of 60 sec. I just think the random skill should have shorter recharge than that.
Throw elixir C gives one random boon to allies on 30 second recharge, which is horrible.
Same goes for throw elixir H and elixir H.
And last Elixir B. I don't know why people like it. When it had 20 second recharge is was kinda OK, but now at 40 second recharge it's complete crap. 10 seconds of swiftness and fury on 40 second recharge (I don't care about a single stack of might). Horrible.
And throw Elixir B gives one buff to allies on 20 second recharge. Compare that with Ranger's call of the wild, which puts all three boons on allies, 15 second ones, and has 35 second recharge. Much better.
It's simply hard to buff allies with engineer with these horrible skills. All random elixirs needs their recharges cut by 50%.
P.S. randomness isn't neccesarily bad. Look at Mesmer staff. Skills 1, 4 and 5 have random effects. But that isn't the problem because skill 1 is spammble and 4 and 5 hit multiple times, so randomness is not an issue at all. But elixirs have recharges 30-60 sec and hit once. Then random roll becomes extremely important, which is bad. Make elixirs semi spammable or make them produce fields that proc multiple times like chaos storm.