Kodama.6453

> @"Lan Deathrider.5910" said: > They can run condi pretty well. As far as I know, ancient seeds is literally the only source of damaging conditions that gets added by druid and it comes with a condition damage penalty for your pet. I think people are running druid in these builds because of their supportive features to self sustain, not because it really adds so much towards a condition damage playstyle. If you really seek to improve your ability to deal damage through conditions, then running soulbeast is better. Meanwhile other support elite specs are directly improving the condition playstyle for their classes. Firebrand adds alot of burning to guardian. Scourge adds alot of boon corrupt, torment, burning... So my point is: druid by itself is basically entirely supportive. Meanwhile other support specs have some condition damage mixed in to run as an alternative build. > Just means that Firebrands don't have a proper tradeoff now doesn't it? Honestly Imbued Haste should have a stat penalty on it. Ditto for Laser's Edge for Holo. Can't say I agree with that conclusion for holosmith. The premise of this discussion was that some specs are allowed to go for several gameplay niches while druid is more restricted. Looking at holosmith, it basically really is just played in one niche: dps. Which is entirely on purpose, considering that holosmith is supposed to be engineers prime dps spec.

> @"Shaogin.2679" said: > > I listed it because it is widely used as a support spec and performs incredibly well in the role. Also, even if you want to deny it as a support spec, there is no point in delving into an off topic rant about it here, since it neither disproves my point nor does it have anything to do with this thread. I agree with your general point, it was always weird for me that druid is basically hard locked into a healer support role while other support elite specs have no such restrictions. One of my major complaints about firebrands in the past has been that they are just too versatile. It feels like they can do basically everything, since their elite spec mechanic just gives them so many different tools. But I read repeatedly that people claim scrapper to be a support elite spec, which is not true. So it is not supporting your argument here. Scrapper has decent dps builds, because it is supposed to have these as as bruiser spec. Spellbreaker and Daredevil also get to have their viable dps builds in comparison. So whenever this misconception pops up, I try to fight it. Especially since I wish for engineer to get a proper support elite spec in the future.

> @"Samug.6512" said: > I don't get the point of this whole discussion. A little floating orb, 4-legged creature or a floating fire monster, they all use the same algorithms to follow a player around, choose their pathing or the target. And those are simply bad. We don't have direct control over them, we cant rely on them, just give us a spec that doesn't have those, case closed. I just want to provide arguments beyond "AI bad" to get the point across that engineer really shouldn't get minions as their next elite spec skill type.... Minions don't provide something great for engineer, both thematically and mechanically.

> @"Teratus.2859" said: > > > If you are objectively looking into minions, even the minions suggested in this thread here, what exactly are they? They are summoned units which are attacking our enemy and have some special effects attached (like CC, conditions, etc.). And this is also what turrets are.... they are summoned units which attack our enemies with their auto attacks and some special abilities attached (again, CC, conditions, etc.). It is true that Anet tries to make skills distinct between classes, even if they share the same skill type. And I think this is a good thing. I personally enjoy alot that necromancer, chronomancer and scrapper are all using wells, yet they are using them all differently. However, I don't think that this was really a factor for gyros here. If they would have wanted to make them attacking minions like for the necromancer, then they could have done it and give it something else to make them distinct from necromancer's minions. Like making them insta-cast, giving them health degend, or any other effect you can come up with. > I do think that Minions get far to side lined in this stigma that they exist to deal damage thus minions suck because they are mediocre at doing that. > Personally I have gotten far far more use out of minions as a hybrid support and damage mechanic thanks to their excessive lifesteal capability and Dark bond, the latter being basically a 25 second protection buff that stacks with the protection boon. > Thus Minions excel primarily on tankier builds as a form of sustain by constantly feeding you health and reducing your damage.. they're mainly a support mechanic for Necromancers not an offensive one as most people seem to think they are. That is my point, turrets are the same. While they do damage, they are really not exceeding at it. But they add more utility to the engineer and also defense, like reflec, boons, CC, etc. That is exactly what I mean, theoretically, turrets also work better on tankier builds, since their damage doesn't scale with your stats. And they give you more survivability and utility. And just like minions, they also give supportive features, since they are sharing boons with allies and the healing turret also heals. If you think about it, then necromancer's minions and engineer's turrets are really doing the same thing, just in different ways. > > That is backed up heavily as well by the fact that all Minion traits are in the Death and Blood Magic traitlines. > These two traitlines focus almost entirely on defence and support, not offense and damage. > It's also a point of note as well that minion damage is static! and is not affected by the players stats etc.. thus minion damage is far more beneficial to Necro's running low damage builds.. tanks basically > This gives necros the ability to benefit fairly well from power tank stat combos, basically being very very tanky without being completely useless in damage as most tanks would be in those sets. See the comment before, all you say here is true for turrets as well. The only turret trait we have is adding defense (reflec) and support (boons), but no damage. And turret's damage is also static. > > I don't see that happening though tbh.. and largely for the same reason I expect we'll never see minions or pets get added to any other class in the game. > AFK farming has put a pretty negative stigma onto these kinds of skill types and made a lot of people pretty bitter towards the existence of AI mechanics that require no player input to use. > Mostly and I can speak for myself here too, it comes from people who are fans of pets and minions etc > We are constantly fearing that some mechanics we love and enjoy in the game will end up being crippled and ruined because of bad actor players abusing them.. > And even if that doesn't come to pass, at the very least it's likely Anet will avoid putting more of them into the game for that very reason. > As much as we love these mechanics and would love to play other classes with summoner playstyles.. we don't expect it to ever happen largely thanks to bad players who abuse them and ruin it for everyone. > I think it can happen, many suggestions were made in these forums already about that. You can't expect turrets to stay the same as dealing damage constantly without imput, tho. There needs to be more input from the engineer, some interaction that requires the engineer to actively do something with them. > > Tbh I think it would be pretty difficult to incorporate a bio engineering theme into a build without some kind of companion system.. > Not impossible but difficult, best I can think of that might work.. is maybe a signet style mechanic that is themed on implants that grant passive effects and active effects when their skill is used. > Tie it into some kind of adrenaline/life force like system too and it could be interesting.. passive effects only apply when you have adrenaline/life force from combat and slowly drain it while the active effects require a large energy investment to use or something. > There are more ways to represent bioengineering, you just have to be creative. I suggested an elite spec myself, the plaguedoctor, and associated that elite spec with corruptions, for example. This could represent dangerous chemicals and concoctions, which the engineer uses to enhance the strength of his allies, but they come with downsides, which could be thematically explained as "side effects". It is also pretty easy to differentiate these from the necromancer corruptions. For example, you could make these skills cost a flat amount of health from the engineer to get used instead of applying conditions to yourself. Another way would be to make these corruptions AoE buffs for allies and instead of just the engineer suffering conditions when these skills are used, you inflict conditions on all affected allies. Which could have great synergy with purity of purpose. First you buff your allies and put conditions on them, then you clean these conditions inflicted by you to turn them into boons instead. You could use preparations. Thematically, the engineer could place tanks filled with different concoctions and gases on the battlefield. Once he triggers them, they spread these chemicals or biological weapons in the area. These are just two examples, but I think there are tons of more ways to represent bioengineering both thematically and mechanically in this game. > It would if you were looking to gain a similar level of control as Ranger pets but if it had the same level of control as a Minion it wouldn't be a problem. > If you also factor in the inability to swap pets there maybe a lot of wiggle room to get around those lack of control options. > They could always do it a bit like soulbeast and have a fusion mechanic that functions like a transform skill or weapon kit, replacing your weapon skills. > Another way they can make it different is that rather than your pet fuse to you like a soulbeast, you fuse into your pet instead automatically being ported to your hybrids location, and defusing from your pet could be made into an offensive effect as well. > > So basically what i've just said here is this new spec would be a mix and match of Soulbeast and Death Shroud mechanics XD So basically, just tag on a single big minion onto the engineer. Can't say I am a fan of that idea. With just this one single minion as a **class mechanic**, the gameplay would need to get heavily based on it. And if the gameplay is based on this minion, then having absolutely no control over it would feel terrible to play with.... Also I would like to avoid another transformation mechanic for the engineer that replaces weapon skills. Holosmith has already done that.

> @"Shaogin.2679" said: > > The issue is that some classes were placed into this rule set of "there must be a trade off", while other classes skate on by nearly un-touched by this whole trade-off thing Anet was shooting for at one point. For instance, look at the Druid. For some reason it is the only support in the entire game so far that had its damaged nerfed (the pets) due to being a support spec. Firebrand, Scourge, Tempest, Scrapper, and Renegade are all capable of perfectly viable PvE DPS builds despite also being support specs. I have to point out once again: Scrapper is **NOT** a support spec by design!! Scrapper is currently used as a support in environments like WvW, but this is because of other reasons. They are used because their gyros are giving some supportive qualities and engineer in general lacks a third support specialization (we just have inventions + alchemy). If you are looking into scrapper's design closely, you see that the spec really doesn't provide that much support. In the trait line, the only supportive qualities found are some super speed share. But the very big majority of scrapper traits are absolutely selfish in nature. Even all 3 grandmaster traits are just giving benefits to the scrapper themselves and nothing for allies: * more barrier and reduced condition damage taken by the scrapper * stuns and dazes grant the scrapper stability and super speed * gain quickness based on your might and extra power while you have quickness Another evidence is that the used support scrapper build has an entirely **dead grandmaster minor trait**. The grandmaster minor is converting 15% of your strike damage into barrier, but this support build doesn't deal any damage at all! It is camping the med kit all day to keep healing and doesn't even invest any stats in power! Want more? The weapon. Scrapper's hammer has emphasis on damage, CC and **personal defense**. Support elite specs have supportive weapons which are either granting boons to allies or healing them. Scrapper's hammer does neither. Scrapper, as **repeatedly stated by Anet themselves**, is supposed to be a bruiser spec! Which is defined by having some damage, while having a heavy focus on CC and durability. Scrapper is not a support spec like firebrand, scourge, tempest or druid. It is a bruiser, like spellbreaker or daredevil.

> @"Teratus.2859" said: > I get what you mean, although i'd grant the title to anything that expands significantly into the theme of the class. > I'd give it to a Machinist with minions just because it's something that works very well with the theme of Engineer and they don't have anything like that right now. > The original concept of Gyros was a step towards that although I'd say Anet failed pretty badly with it the first time and just replaced it entirely with Well drones. > I blame this more on Anet not wanting to encroach on Necro territory with Minion play but that's what most Minion fans want them to do with things like this, we like Minions so we want more Minions not some hollow replica that just fails across the board and everyone ends up hating. I don't think that it was because "Anet didn't want to encroach on necro territory". I think the thing here is that Anet wanted gyros to feel distinct and special in the engineers pool of skills. If you are objectively looking into minions, even the minions suggested in this thread here, what exactly are they? They are summoned units which are attacking our enemy and have some special effects attached (like CC, conditions, etc.). And this is also what turrets are.... they are summoned units which attack our enemies with their auto attacks and some special abilities attached (again, CC, conditions, etc.). The only differences in gameplay are that minions are mobile and in this case here, they are time restricted (since they are degenerating health). But they fulfill the same job: attacking the enemy for us, CC them and serve as meat shields. Gyros in their original implementation were different. They were more passive in nature, 4 of the 6 gyros added didn't have offensive capabilities and just were supporting others through pulsing effects (damage reduction, condi clean, healing, stealth). What was also unique for them was that they were the only minion type in the game which was instantly cast in majority (4 out of 6 gyros had no cast time, including the healing one), but that is just a minor point. Anet wanted to go the minion route for engineer, but at the same time they have to feel different from turrets. You can't just let them be units which are attacking the enemy for us, that's just mobile turrets and wouldn't feel new for the engineer at all. > There's a fair bit of variety to explore there which is why some people want more types of construct's. > For the most part though people just really like companion play and want to see it more embraced on other classes which is a weakness of Gw2 for them as currently Ranger and Necro are the only classes with decent companion capabilities. > Elementalist has summons but this is a weak element of their class imo and needs some serious improvements to make Summoners a viable style for Ele's to play. I see what you mean, but at the same time, I don't know why people expect companion play to get enhanced on engineer specifically... Engineer already has the companion playstyle, we have our turrets. The actual problem here is that turrets are not viable in any game mode, since they were nerfed to oblivion. But this is more an argument for turrets being in need of buffs and actual niches in the game you can run them without being a liability. Instead of replacing turrets with a new minion type and let them be forgotten, I would advocate to rework turrets from the ground to properly represent the companion playstyle inside our class. > Bioengineering would fit well into a minion based spec, instead of just mechanical creatures you could have these crazy mutilated cyborg creatures lol > I expect some people would not enjoy that sort of thing though.. looking at all these twisted and mangled animals with metal sticking out of them XD Here we have the same problem to tackle again: if you represent the bioengineering theme with minions, you have to make minions distinct in gameplay from turrets. They need a new mechanic that is more than just "I summon them and they attack my enemy". And considering that gyros already failed as an experimental minion type, I prefer to avoid minions completely for engineer in the future, tbh. > Could also go with the pet mechanic instead of Minions and have the Engineers pets be some sort of engineered Hybrids, they could make a really fun quest out of that as well, have you go around collecting pets like Rangers do but instead of using them you need to collect all the required pets in a specific line to unlock a specific hybrid creature that you can use. > That would be really fun imo and a good way to avoid crossing pet issues.. Rangers only use Natural creatures, Engineers only use Hybrids. > Alchemy is also something i'd like to see more expanded on as well for Engineers. Pet mechanic could be interesting, I guess. The problem I see with this is that it seems almost impossible to control a pet in a nuanced level without the engineer having to give up their entire toolbelt. And giving up the entire toolbelt requires an extreme amount of compensation in power, since this mechanic holds quite alot of our power budget.

> @"Teratus.2859" said: > Because Gyros are not minions, nor were they technically ever minions. > They were more akin to summons mechanically and now they're "wells" > > Thematically they're little floating drones.. hardly minion like at all and not impressive as a visual summon creature, They fit the scrapper style sure but I would categorically disagree with anyone who claims that Gyros would be the same thing as large mechanical creatures like a Mechanical Devourer or Spider. > They are vastly different visually and especially since the rework, mechanically. > > When people want minions they don't want little floating orbs or special effects that have a visual companion like creature like Gyros are now.. they want AI controlled companions that aid you in battle, same applies to Ranger pets. > Gyros as they work today have far more in common with the Hammers that Revenant can summon around them, they're not even remotely minion like. > > You can argue they used to be minion like but it's a moot point really since they're not anymore so the way I see it that re-opens the door for a Machinist like spec for the Engineer. > Why this is a thematically superb concept is because Engineer is an inventor spec that greatly meshes well with both Charr and Asura's technological advancements, especially Asura and their tendency to construct Golems as multipurpose utility vehicles that they use for Transport, protection, combat, warfare, exploration and construction etc. > Having an Engineer spec that focuses on building powerful mechanical companions to protect and fight along side them like Pets and Minions absolutely fits the theme of this profession, and Gyros while also fitting the theme are more akin to Smart Mines or Grenades than they are to mechanical companions that fill the minion role perfectly. > I guess I didn't get my point across well here. When I think about a "thematically superb" concept for a new elite spec, then it would be something that explores yet unexplored niches of the engineer thematics. Artificial devourers and spiders are different from gyros. But they share one trope with each other, which is _mechanical constructs_. What I don't understand is that people seem to always associate the engineer profession with these mechanical constructs, but the class represents so much more. Holosmith was a great elite spec after scrapper because it was exploring a completely different niche. Instead of mechanical constructs and electricity, this time lasers and the hard light technology has been the focus. Which feels quite different and refreshing. This is why I can't see this concept here as thematically superb. It is exploring the theme of mechanical constructs once again, which was already done with scrapper. What I would truly consider to be great thematically would be a focus on once again a completely different thematical niche of the engineer. Bioengineering or chemicals would be such an opportunity, for example, since neither scrapper nor holosmith explored these themes in the slightest and thy are part of the engineer niches as well. I prefer to have more diversity when it comes to the elite specs.

> @"Konrad Curze.5130" said: > > a warrior with berserker on cooldown is literally a core warrior with 2 trait lines instead of 3. zero effect whatsoever. False. Effects which you can get from the berserker trait line while berserk mode is on cooldown: * rage skills inflict burning * 7% of precision is converted into ferocity * +120/+240 condition damage, based on you using a torch or not * increased burning duration, fire aura on crit and berserker skills detonating fire auras to inflict damage and burning

> @"Oxstar.7643" said: > > @"Kodama.6453" said: > > > @"Lonami.2987" said: > > > * They don't need a new Personal Story, and the old stories don't need to be adapted for them. New races get a short introduction, and then start their story right as the expansion begins. Previous stories are not available (play the old races if you want to experience them). > > > > How does that work with the story? Currently, it makes sense since the story builds up to our character becoming Aurene's champion to bring balance to the world. > > > > Now you want to throw in a new race, which was not part of the pact previously, and they are Aurene's champion out of nowhere? And the forthgoing story keeps treating us as the guy who was always at Aurene's side since her birth, yet we were not around when that actually happened? > > > > If the story is supposed to make any sense with a new race, then you have to add them retrospectively. Not just as a random soldier who joined the fight when we travelled towards Cantha. > > But this concept has been done before in mmorpgs. Remember WoW and the death knights? They skipped over a large part of the story but had their unique own story, and then joined the main story after that. Now let's assume a new race that starts in Cantha is pre-leveled to the lowest level area and this is where they start. It would focus on what most people come to the expansion for anyways, and bring a unique sense to the race. It could actually work. I never played WoW, so I am not sure how that was handled there exactly and how the story plays out. Is there something similar like the Aurene situation? Like I mentioned, the difficult part is that the protagonist is supposed to be Aurene's champion since her birth. We have a strong link to her and it is defining the entire story. Our relationship with Aurene is the base of everything that is going on, how we are defeating the elder dragons and let Aurene take their place in the natural order and such. New races would struggle to find into this story, since they simply **can't** be Aurene's champion when they joined the pact just with our travel to Cantha. That's why the race would need to get added retrospectively, which comes with it's own problems.

I would like to see more about the Skritt and Hylek.

> @"Konrad Curze.5130" said: > > @"Grand Marshal.4098" said: > > Spellbreaker has 2 adrenaline bars but can only use T1 bursts. So Grandmasters like Cleansing Ire, Berserker's Power lose a lot of their potential from Core builds. > > > > As for Berserker, the inability to use bursts outside of Berserk Mode and when it's activated you get a tooughness penalty on top of the fact that your bursts are T1 bursts again, is a bit of an overkill for the spec in competetive. I really hope for some balance on Berserker. As in: F2 to exit Berserk Mode, no toughness penalty (if not a toughness buff, like 100 extra toughness), or lower Berserk Mode CD. Berserkers on CD are sitting ducks waiting to be killed. > > > > P.S. Whatever the new spec is, I wonder if they go for T1 bursts again, or if they will maintain the T2 and T3 bursts on it. What will the trade-off be hmm. > > Berserker is easily the most stupidly, horribly designed spec on the whole game > > It's essentially a warrior with only 2 trait lines 30-40% of the time Honestly, I don't get why some people have such a huge problem with how the berserker trait line functions. Holosmith goes even further than this class, the **entire** trait line is built on the photonforge, not a single trait in that line works without the photonforge at all. Yet you don't read people complaining all the time "holosmith has no trait line 50% of the time!"....

> @"Lonami.2987" said: > * They don't need a new Personal Story, and the old stories don't need to be adapted for them. New races get a short introduction, and then start their story right as the expansion begins. Previous stories are not available (play the old races if you want to experience them). How does that work with the story? Currently, it makes sense since the story builds up to our character becoming Aurene's champion to bring balance to the world. Now you want to throw in a new race, which was not part of the pact previously, and they are Aurene's champion out of nowhere? And the forthgoing story keeps treating us as the guy who was always at Aurene's side since her birth, yet we were not around when that actually happened? If the story is supposed to make any sense with a new race, then you have to add them retrospectively. Not just as a random soldier who joined the fight when we travelled towards Cantha.

I really liked my Ritualist in GW1, but that was just because there hasn't been a technology based class in that game. After experiencing the engineer, I can never go back. :cry:

> @"Grand Marshal.4098" said: > > I agree and I'm not even an engi main. I like the idea so much, that I run around with a Crapper or Core build dedicated to the elixirs and the elixir gun, with double pistols ofc, treating it like a "toxic waste management" type of deal lmao. I even wasted gold for the LS1 backpack which is the injection used in the tower of nightmares, and ofc an aqua breather as to not inhale that gas. > > Laughs aside though, I am a difficult player when it comes to playing condi builds, but this spec I would definitely play a lot! Now it's up to each one of us how it will function, what skills and mechanic it will get etc, as long as it's fun. I do the same, using a condition build that uses elixirs to get buffs. Also am wearing the gasmask skin from LS1 as well as the injector backpack you are using, haha. I really like the chemical aspects of the engineer class, yet there is no elite spec to showcase it really. I would love to see that changed and play as a chemical maniac in endgame content and be viable with it!

> @"ZarexWolf.5637" said: > > Honestly, I can see plague doctor being a thing for Engineer. Alchemy did take a dive in fairness, but maybe Plague Doctor can rectify that? Also curious if the image used for it will display another Charr or an Asura this time. I am pretty sure that the image will show another Charr. If you are looking at the elite spec images, then they are **always** represented by the same race for each individual class. * Engineer | Scrapper | Holosmith: Charr (if they really wanted to change this, they should have picked either a human for holosmith, because the Elonian humans invented the technology, or an Asura, since holosmith uses the Asuran aesthetics) * Ranger | Druid | Soulbeast: Sylvari * Necromancer | Reaper | Scourge: Asura You can go on with this for every single class, it is always the same race showcasing the new elite spec. I personally would love to see a Charr wearing a gasmask on the image and wearing the new gloves for the plaguedoctors as well (scrapper got helmet and holosmith shoulders, looking at all the elite spec armor pieces, the next spec should get gloves).

> @"Ashantara.8731" said: > > @"Tyson.5160" said: > > Yet Sadizi does say entities and not strictly Elder Dragons which would fit nicely for the Spirits of the Wild, especially if they are balancing the magic with one another. They may also need Braham in terms of harnessing the power too, which may take him out of the story for a while. > > Well, it certainly would make for a _great_ turn of events. I prefer Norn mythology over Asuran sciene explanation and Elder Dragons - it would help steering Guild Wars back into the genre of classic fantasy, which would make for exciting story-telling instead of boring magi-tech blahblah. I actually enjoy the scientific approach to this stuff. The game is still heavily based on fantasy. But scientific approaches to magic enables way better storytelling in my opinion. The best magic systems I encountered so far have been in romans which had pseudo-scientific explanations about how magic actually works. Because this attaches rules and mechanisms to magic. Without these, magic will serve as a deus ex machina in any given situation. If you don't clearly define what magic really is and how it works/what it can do, then you can always use the cop out of "the character suddenly uses a magic spell that does this and that and BOOM, they are saved!". Which is.... extremely boring. If your magic system has clear rules, which are communicated with the audience, then you can create situations which can not easily be solved through some magic mambo-jambo and your characters have to find a more creative way to solve situations.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > I don't disagree with you but all I say is that we do have prejudices about this lore which can mislead us into many many many fantasies. Just the necromancer could have 4 very different e-specs based on the lore of the 4 boss of the single mission of Naphui quarter. Just looking at the concept of "Envoy" for the necromancer can open countless possibilities as well. > > The engineer specifically could be based on either the kurzicks (and their walking juggernaut armor), the Luxons (and their weaponized turtles), the Am fah like you said (but also the Jade brotherhood) or something totally different like the Empire agents or even Sailors travelling between Shin Jea and the continent... There is many possibilities. Personally, granted the lore of cantha and the endless wars between kurzicks and Luxons, I'd lean more toward the concept of "sapper" for an engineer because creating such job would have suited the needs of these 2 factions that regularly take outposts from each other more than a "plaguedoctor" concept that could make an area unfit to occupy (poison/chemicals can leave semi-permanent and unwanted environmental scars). > > Lore can be twisted and evolved into many directions when it come to e-specs. I am biased towards the plaguedoctor, since alchemy is my favourite thematic from the engineer. Also Anet removed alot of chemical warfare when it comes to thematics from the engineer over the years. The alchemy trait line used to be about aggressive usage of chemicals just as well as the supportive nature of it. Acid coating, acidic elixirs, deathly mixture, etc. All this stuff got removed to reshape alchemy as a purely supportive trait line in the end. I would like these thematics to return and an alchemy based elite spec would be the best way to achieve this. Also it would fill an interesting thematical niche for the engineer elite specs in my opinion. The hightech and mechanical aspects of their thematics are already covered thanks to scrapper and holosmith. Having the chemical aspects of the class represented in an elite spec would be great in my opinion to give some thematical variety between the specs. A sapper wouldn't really achieve that in my opinion, it would just be another spec that builds stuff with most likely a mechanical design, just like the scrapper. Hell, even the names are damn close, just a cr is differentiating sapper from scrapper, lmao. And the part about environmental scars... I think this works perfectly fine for Cantha. Cantha wasn't just Shing Jea, Kurzick and Luxon. A huge part of the map back then has been Kaineng, which already in times of GW1 has been a huge city with overpopulation, slums, and other social problems. I can imagine that Kaineng has grown over the years and became a very "steampunky" and polluted city, tbh.

> @"Veprovina.4876" said: > I know right? Especially because Null Field, the skill mesmer supports are kinda built around (if you want to boonstrip), can be blocked. > It's the only boonstrip that can be blocked btw, all the other professions get to have their boonstrips uninterrupted, but not ours, cause screw Mesmers, we're OP witho our buggy skills, inconsistent profession mechanic and 2 dodges apparently... So why not just kitten us more with being unable to boonstrip like everyone else. Null Field is not the only unblockable boonstrip. Making factually wrong statements doesn't really help your case. Examples of Boonstrips which can get blocked besides Null Field: * True Nature * Mine Field * Unholy Feast * Dark Pact * Enfeebling Blood * Feast of Corruption * Nightfall That's not even all. The list goes on and on.

You have sword 3 as well as photonforge 2 as gap closers, which usually should be enough to close in on them to keep dealing damage. Sword 3 also cripples the enemy to make it easier to keep sticking on them.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > To expand a bit on my latest post, I don't think taking a necromancer boss (Kuonhgsang here) as a starting point for an e-spec is the path ANet will take, even if it's possible to twist the lore nicely like I've done. It might not be totally unrelated thought. I really hope that they will intertwine the new elite specs closely with the Canthan lore. It's one of the reasons I want the engineer elite spec to be a plaguedoctor, since it just works so perfectly well with Canthan history in which the plague ravaged the land and the organisation of the Am Fah, which tried to weaponize it. Which is also the reason why I thought it would be great to give engineer corruption skills. The Am Fah were experimenting with a powerful, but at the same time harmful, disease to strengthen their men. This could be well represented by giving the engineer corruption skills.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said: > > @"Kodama.6453" said: > > **Corruption**: The premise of getting powerful effects, but having to pay for it with self-harm, is really interesting. I would love to see this skill type added to engineer for a plaguedoctor elite spec, representing dangerous chemicals to apply conditions on enemies and buffs on allies, but having to pay with a flat health cost to use them. > > Don't holosmith already somehow give the engineer a taste of selfharm with "overheat"? Just and only if you are using the Photonic Blasting Module. If you are using the other 2 grandmaster traits, then no, not really. Experienced holosmiths will not overheat at all to eat the penalty and even if they would overheat, then this is just a punishment for misplay and not rewarded with a great effect. My idea is to build an utility type around that idea, which specifically would also aid the support playstyle I am aiming for with that elite spec. One of our major support grandmaster traits, medical dispersion field, has some really weird interactions. In some cases, it will just share the healing with allies if the engineer is not already at full hp. If we give this support elite spec utility skills which cost a flat amount of health, then they can create this "missing health situation" by themselves to enable more healing for allies from MDF.

> @"Teratus.2859" said: > Thematically it looks superb.. Minions are skill type that would fit the Engineer really well. > > Other than theme though I'll have to agree with others here who are criticising it. > Well agree with everything except the trash talking of minions as a mechanic, I like Minions and have made great builds using them over the years and would love to see more classes get minion mechanics so I say Minion's are awesome and the haters can shut it!! lmao > > But in all seriousness, I would support engi minions but it would have to be done very very right to make it worth it. Minions aside, how is it thematically superb? This spec basically is "a mechanic who builds mechanical units to aid him". That is **literally** what the scrapper is. But instead of mechanical minions with different shapes, he has gyros to aid him which share a general design with nuances based on their function. I can not agree that something that just repeats what another elite spec already did is "thematically superb".

Have to commend the effort put into this concept, but in the end I have to agree with Samug that I definitely do not want this elite spec to happen. **Thematic**: Thematically, this spec is just repeating what was already done with scrapper, focusing on constructing mechanical minions. In general, thematically this just feels like a different take on the scrapper, even the "parts" mechanic could be represented with "scrap" instead and actually was even suggested many times as a mechanic for scrapper before it got it's big rework. Engineer has a wide array of thematics and since the "mechanist" is already explored, I would personally enjoy more to look into the chemical aspects of engineering next. **Gameplay**: The gameplay mostly reads like another bruiser spec and once again, that is scrapper already. What engineer needs is: a proper support elite spec and condition damage. So basically something that fills the same niche like scourge for the necromancer. This spec here does basically everything, but just very little.... It has some conditions, some power damage, some healing, some boons, but it doesn't really excel at anything.

Some of my favourites: **Venom**: I like the idea of buffing x next outgoing attacks from allies, it kinda reminds me of some of the weapon spells which ritualists could use in GW1 and ritualist has been my favourite class back then. Unfortunately, the effects are kinda boring, the most interesting one is the healing skill skelk venom. **Corruption**: The premise of getting powerful effects, but having to pay for it with self-harm, is really interesting. I would love to see this skill type added to engineer for a plaguedoctor elite spec, representing dangerous chemicals to apply conditions on enemies and buffs on allies, but having to pay with a flat health cost to use them. **Well**: Especially the wells that scrapper received with the rework are great skills and really fun to use in my opinion. It is great how diverse this skill type tends to be across the different classes (scrapper, necromancer, chronomancer, all their wells feel hugely different). **Elixir**: Alchemy is my favourite theme in the game (hence why I hope the next engineer elite spec is alchemy based), so I love elixirs. I also like that Anet tagged some skills outside of the actual elixir utility skill type as elixirs, notably on elixir gun and mortar kit. I think it would be great to add more of that in the future, maybe give engineer an alchemy based elite spec with a **weapon skill** tagged as an elixir as well? ____________________________________________________________________ But as an engineer main, gadgets and turrets are in deep trouble and need reworks desperately to become viable. **Turret**: This skill type needs heavy changes. Personally, I would remove their ability to auto attack in favour of giving turret skills a more powerful burst. I discussed this idea in an own thread here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/104832/a-complete-turret-rework-is-long-overdue/p1 **Gadget**: This skill type is actually ok on a mechanical level, but some of them are just really underpowered. Who would ever to consider to slot in utility goggles in their current version?

> @"Tseison.4659" said: > **Spirit Weapons:** I like the idea but I think its time to chuck the a.i minions and just have the spirit weapons become an actual bundle that you can use in combat. It will give that Ritualist Weapons feeling too. These skills are no AI minions for quite some time now. They reworked them and now they are basically just AoE skills with the spirit weapons just being a fancy animation for them.