What do you guys think of Golemancer as the next engineer elite?

I had the thought in passing that the next engineer elite would be the Golemancer.

Weapon : MaceThe made would focus in doing heavy single target damge hit,stun and confuse conditions. It's meant to represent a wrench whacking a person or a golem. The basic would be called percussive maintenance

The toolbelt would be replaced with pet command skills/golem combat skills for you to be able to order around your golem when outside of it

The utility skills would be like a minion Necro with a bunch of tiny mini golems focused for different utilities and damage

And the Ult would be to get inside your golem and switch to a golem skillset

I'd love the idea for either a personal questline or a gear set to customize the golem to the person's tastes but I don't think Anet would do that but I can dream.

But that's just the rough sketch if my idea nothing big. If you guys think you can make it better or you think it's a poor idea and that they could do better let me know in the comments I'm 100% willing to discuss better ideas, improvements to this rough draft, and criticisms to the idea of golemancers whether due to lore or just simple dislike of the idea.

I think engi has enough AI that got changed over the time and they are still useless for the most part. It lacks a support focused elite spec and utility skills.

Gyros at launch were exactly like those golems you described and elite skill is essentially a holo forge.

@steki.1478 said:I think engi has enough AI that got changed over the time and they are still useless for the most part. It lacks a support focused elite spec and utility skills.

Gyros at launch were exactly like those golems you described and elite skill is essentially a holo forge.

Fair play, I figured it could be a fun more lore intensive elite that would fit into the world nicely. It's however as you said kinda derivative so it's probably not what ANet has in mind.

I agree that engineer really doesn't need more minions, we got 2 historically. Turrets are still waiting for a complete rework to make them at least kinda useful in any game mode and gyros have been a failure, too, so they got reworked into wells instead.

Additionally, a golemancer would be heavily Asuran flavoured. While I understand that the holosmith draws inspiration from Zephyrite crystal magic, the spec still looks heavily Asuran. So I doubt that they will give us an Asuran elite spec in the near future.

Personally, I would prefer an elite spec that focuses on the chemical aspects of our engineers. We got the "mechanical" aspects covered (scrapper) and also the futuristic hightech side of engineering (holosmith). Chemical warfare is still mostly untouched thematically in elite specs.

Turrets and minions are already a problem with afk farmers and farming bots.. adding more minion style options to classes is something I doubt is going to happen largely thanks to those people.

Shame really, I like minions and I enjoy summon playstyles, but I don't see it happening on future specs.

I wonder if some kind of Alchemist in search of mastering the Philosopher's Stone, Metal Transmutation (turn people into gold etc), Golems and the elixir of Immortality would be fitting. At least the Philosopher's Stone is already a one of the many craftings materials so.

@"Legion.4198" said:I wonder if some kind of Alchemist in search of mastering the Philosopher's Stone, Metal Transmutation (turn people into gold etc), Golems and the elixir of Immortality would be fitting. At least the Philosopher's Stone is already a one of the many craftings materials so.

If we get an elite spec with alchemy theme, I would like them to explore Hylek lore with it some more.

Hylek are one of the more "primitive" societies in Tyria, yet they are known to be exceptional alchemists. That's because of their natural resistance against a wide array of poisons and toxins, which allowed them to experiment with more dangerous chemicals unharmed.

Especially since Anet removed so many "dangerous chemicals" from the engineer thematically, this is something I want to explore.Acidic elixirs, acidic coating, deadly mixture.... these are all gone. And while I can understand why they were removed when it comes to gameplay, this also removed the "poisoner" feeling of the engineer. The alchemy trait line is now purely supportive.

I want to be a maniac wearing his gasmask and spreading poison gas and acid all over the place again. =(

@Kodama.6453 said:

@"Legion.4198" said:I wonder if some kind of Alchemist in search of mastering the Philosopher's Stone, Metal Transmutation (turn people into gold etc), Golems and the elixir of Immortality would be fitting. At least the Philosopher's Stone is already a one of the many craftings materials so.

How about a using the Chinese elements in Wuxing as a basis? I can see acids being related to wood. Replace the Engineer's tool belt mechanic with transmutations that cause or are charged by condis.

@Neodogstar.8592 said:I had the thought in passing that the next engineer elite would be the Golemancer.

Weapon : MaceThe made would focus in doing heavy single target damge hit,stun and confuse conditions. It's meant to represent a wrench whacking a person or a golem. The basic would be called percussive maintenance

The toolbelt would be replaced with pet command skills/golem combat skills for you to be able to order around your golem when outside of it

The utility skills would be like a minion Necro with a bunch of tiny mini golems focused for different utilities and damage

And the Ult would be to get inside your golem and switch to a golem skillset

I'd love the idea for either a personal questline or a gear set to customize the golem to the person's tastes but I don't think Anet would do that but I can dream.

But that's just the rough sketch if my idea nothing big. If you guys think you can make it better or you think it's a poor idea and that they could do better let me know in the comments I'm 100% willing to discuss better ideas, improvements to this rough draft, and criticisms to the idea of golemancers whether due to lore or just simple dislike of the idea.

I personally would want some type of medicine man theme for the Engineer's next espec, since it would fit the whole Asian theme very well. it would be a support focused espec.

I think it should be a racial mastery to get people to play other races, not an engineer Elite!

Additionally, I'd like to see mace as a baseline core power melee weapon, because CORE ENGINEER DOESNT HAVE A MELEE WEAPON AT ALL, OR A MH POWER WEAPON!!!

@Opopanax.1803 said:I think it should be a racial mastery to get people to play other races, not an engineer Elite!

Additionally, I'd like to see mace as a baseline core power melee weapon, because CORE ENGINEER DOESNT HAVE A MELEE WEAPON AT ALL, OR A MH POWER WEAPON!!!

Or a offhand power weapons, shield with due respect is kind of one isssssh (more utility than dps to be honest). But yeah core should have main hand and offhand mace.

Edit: Also Holo should had offhand sword with the main hand one.

No UINo Minions

It’s the only thing that I will refuse to play... we had gyro minions (not anymore, thanks Anet!!), we still have useless turrets...

We find deserve to be punished again with more s1lly AI Minions, thanks!

@ApaWanka.2698 said:No UINo Minions

It’s the only thing that I will refuse to play... we had gyro minions (not anymore, thanks Anet!!), we still have useless turrets...

We find deserve to be punished again with more s1lly AI Minions, thanks!

Some love to play with IA, drone where just an awefull implementation.

@Makuragee.3058 said:

@"ApaWanka.2698" said:No UINo Minions

It’s the only thing that I will refuse to play... we had gyro minions (not anymore, thanks Anet!!), we still have useless turrets...

We find deserve to be punished again with more s1lly AI Minions, thanks!

Yeah, but I would reserve the AI elite specs for classes which don't already have access to AI.Elite specs are supposed to bring something new to the class. Giving the minionmaster playstyle to a class that doesn't have the ability to summon multiple allies makes more sense than giving it to the engineer.

We already have turrets, that's our "minionmaster fantasy". We don't really need more of this.I would give either warrior or thief a minion type, but not engineer.

Thinking of the Golemancers of our time Zojja and Taimi, we could follow those examples and control our own golem(suit). Combat with two phases.Phase 1: Golem is standing next to us, Utilities, Heal and Elite Skills come from the golem to either aid us or harm the enemy.Phase 2: We enter the golem, Utilities, Heal and Elite Skills change/have slightly different effects. Similar mechanic as Beastmaster.

For the AI, we could use turret mechanics. The golem just stands near us, walks with us and shoots/launches its abilities on us/our opponents within a certain range. As with Scruffy and Mr. Sparkles, the golem would move slower than the player, so you either have to buff it up or mount up. Using the Elite Specialization could come with the trade-off of sacrificing our precious mobility for ... whatever they come up with.

Not a huge fan of Minion-Master or yet a 2nd Photon Forge. Beastmaster fusion mechanic might be better.

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:Thinking of the Golemancers of our time Zojja and Taimi, we could follow those examples and control our own golem(suit). Combat with two phases.Phase 1: Golem is standing next to us, Utilities, Heal and Elite Skills come from the golem to either aid us or harm the enemy.Phase 2: We enter the golem, Utilities, Heal and Elite Skills change/have slightly different effects. Similar mechanic as Beastmaster.

For the AI, we could use turret mechanics. The golem just stands near us, walks with us and shoots/launches its abilities on us/our opponents within a certain range. As with Scruffy and Mr. Sparkles, the golem would move slower than the player, so you either have to buff it up or mount up. Using the Elite Specialization could come with the trade-off of sacrificing our precious mobility for ... whatever they come up with.

Not a huge fan of Minion-Master or yet a 2nd Photon Forge. Beastmaster fusion mechanic might be better.

I like your idea, we could have glyph utility skill it fit with the flip skill idea.

@Ghos.1326 said:

@Neodogstar.8592 said:I had the thought in passing that the next engineer elite would be the Golemancer.

Weapon : MaceThe made would focus in doing heavy single target damge hit,stun and confuse conditions. It's meant to represent a wrench whacking a person or a golem. The basic would be called percussive maintenance

The toolbelt would be replaced with pet command skills/golem combat skills for you to be able to order around your golem when outside of it

The utility skills would be like a minion Necro with a bunch of tiny mini golems focused for different utilities and damage

And the Ult would be to get inside your golem and switch to a golem skillset

I'd love the idea for either a personal questline or a gear set to customize the golem to the person's tastes but I don't think Anet would do that but I can dream.

But that's just the rough sketch if my idea nothing big. If you guys think you can make it better or you think it's a poor idea and that they could do better let me know in the comments I'm 100% willing to discuss better ideas, improvements to this rough draft, and criticisms to the idea of golemancers whether due to lore or just simple dislike of the idea.

Could combine well with a poison/acid theme for more aggressive options. Most of the elite specialisations intended for a support role are designed so they can also support a DPS-oriented approach with different gear, traits, weapon(s) and skills, after all.

I'ld like to toss in two ideas concerning this. First of all I agree, AI ist far from looking stellar right now. Thus suit would be better than golem in my eyes. I thought of two ways to implement them:1) Make the suit be only the elite skill. If you activate it, it is deployed at target location and replaces the weapon-skillbar of whoever picks it up with five new skills. Those skills are not fixed though but depend on the skills you used prior to deploying. --> some modular design/ addaptive learning. This way it would interact widely with core skills (toolbar skills in case of kits.2) Make a full set of suits (skills 6-0) which replace the utility-skillbar of the wearer. So once you enter one of these suits you gain new skills 6-0 for the time being. This would be something different.

I would love either version or any other interesting golemmancer.So far. Btw. please excuse my writing. It's been a while since I've written anything in english.

I want a mace too and have another option aside the to me useless pistol.

I want a support summoner AKA necromancer pet, with a focus on group boon support! Mace should be core engineer weapon....

Several things engineer could use:

• A weapon intended to be used at max range. Pistols and rifle are both best used in close to mid range, no weapon is designed for max range. Our ranged kits are also best used in close range due to their laboriously long flight times.
• A core, main-hand power weapon.
• A support-oriented spec.
• A means of dealing with projectile hate.

What engineer does not need:

• More AI. Gyros were absolute garbage until they deleted the AI, and turrets are still a joke.
• More melee-focused specs. Scrapper and holo are both melee-focused. Most core weapons and kits are optimally used in close range.

Several ideas spring to mind to fit these themes:

• An alchemist elite spec (using harpoon gun), focused on team support through transmutations and concoctions.
• A sound-based elite spec (using shield mainhand or shortbow) that provides support through shouts, chants, or a boombox, cuz why not.
• An elite spec based off of the Green Arrow (using shortbow or longbow) that uses specialty arrows, with unique devices for team support/dps.

@"Vagrant.7206" said:Several things engineer could use:

• A weapon intended to be used at max range. Pistols and rifle are both best used in close to mid range, no weapon is designed for max range. Our ranged kits are also best used in close range due to their laboriously long flight times.
• A core, main-hand power weapon.
• A support-oriented spec.
• A means of dealing with projectile hate.

What engineer does not need:

• More AI. Gyros were absolute garbage until they deleted the AI, and turrets are still a joke.
• More melee-focused specs. Scrapper and holo are both melee-focused. Most core weapons and kits are optimally used in close range.

Several ideas spring to mind to fit these themes:

• An alchemist elite spec (using harpoon gun), focused on team support through transmutations and concoctions.
• A sound-based elite spec (using shield mainhand or shortbow) that provides support through shouts, chants, or a boombox, cuz why not.
• An elite spec based off of the Green Arrow (using shortbow or longbow) that uses specialty arrows, with unique devices for team support/dps.

I agree with your bullet points, but would also add that the next elite spec should enhance our ability to deal condition damage.Both elite specs so far, scrapper and holosmith, have been power damage focused primarily.

Also we could really use some more utility skills which help us deal condition damage in some way. If engineers want to go condi, they still have to pick 3 kits, because almost our entire conditions are on kits.Gadgets are primarily power damage, elixirs are neutral (since they are just self buffs) and turrets also favor power with the exception of the flame turret.

So something that is similar to necromancer's scourge e-spec would be great, giving us support effects as well as conditions.I could imagine this to work best with the alchemy theme, since this is already intertwined with support for us and also meshes well with a conditions playstyle. We could use chemicals to spread poison, confusion... even torment or burning.

And another point you didn't consider:Yes, we can really use a ranged weapon. But all your ideas for weapons are limited to bows and the speargun (I don't count mainhand shield because I highly doubt that offhand weapons will become available to the mainhand).

Anet already created some ranged versions of traditional melee weapons, like mesmer's greatsword, revenant's hammer.And engineer is a class with high level of technology, it is possible that we also get a weapon usually utilised in melee as a ranged weapon instead. Possible candidates could be axes, maces, or daggers.And since spellbreaker has shown that an e-spec can get a weapon as dual wield, I think this could be given to us, too.

Yeah, we've seen that ArenaNet can make elite specialisations that provide either condi DPS or support depending on build. Firebrand is an even better example.

Long range weapons...personally, I'm partial to a staff used as a lightning rod, but a chemical theme would really probably work best with a trick arrow approach. I'm not sure about turning melee weapons into range, since that's usually done with magic, but there is precedent in scrapper hammer 5 and the holosmith sword skill that throws projectiles. Still, that sort of thing seems to better fit other technologies (such as using magnetism to manipulate a thrown weapon). Possibly mace could work, with the associated skin being stick grenade like?

@"draxynnic.3719" said:Yeah, we've seen that ArenaNet can make elite specialisations that provide either condi DPS or support depending on build. Firebrand is an even better example.

Long range weapons...personally, I'm partial to a staff used as a lightning rod, but a chemical theme would really probably work best with a trick arrow approach. I'm not sure about turning melee weapons into range, since that's usually done with magic, but there is precedent in scrapper hammer 5 and the holosmith sword skill that throws projectiles. Still, that sort of thing seems to better fit other technologies (such as using magnetism to manipulate a thrown weapon). Possibly mace could work, with the associated skin being stick grenade like?

I can see a staff working for engineer as well.But using it as a lightning rod is really unlikely in my opinion. Engineer has so many unique ways to utilise weapons that I don't think they will just recycle something they have already done with scrapper hammer. Electricity most likely won't be a theme for the next e-spec for the engineer.

A mace looking like a stick grenade can work. Especially if the skin makes the head of the mace look like a flask filled with chemicals.But there are other approaches for "ranged melee weapons".

For example, we could get axes and each slash is sending out splashes of acid with projectiles looking similar like vapor blade's.

@Kodama.6453 said:

@"draxynnic.3719" said:Yeah, we've seen that ArenaNet can make elite specialisations that provide either condi DPS or support depending on build. Firebrand is an even better example.

Long range weapons...personally, I'm partial to a staff used as a lightning rod, but a chemical theme would really probably work best with a trick arrow approach. I'm not sure about turning melee weapons into range, since that's usually done with magic, but there is precedent in scrapper hammer 5 and the holosmith sword skill that throws projectiles. Still, that sort of thing seems to better fit other technologies (such as using magnetism to manipulate a thrown weapon). Possibly mace could work, with the associated skin being stick grenade like?

I see where you're coming from, but there is a degree of "yes, but not really". Scrapper hammer is... well, basically it's a melee weapon with electricity-based aesthetics. In fact, I seem to recall there being evidence that it was originally themed more as a rocket hammer and got switched to electricity partway through development.

Gonna be honest here, one of the things that disappoints me with Guild Wars 2 professions is that there isn't really a 'pick out an enemy and blast them with lightning' approach, a la the classic GW1 air elementalist. At the moment, that isn't really there. Scrapper hammer, elementalist dagger, and elementalist dagger are all pretty much "melee weapon with electric animations". Elementalist staff chain lightning is a tickle (air on staff is more of a support attunement), which pretty much just leaves scepter air - and the long ramp-up time of Arc Lightning makes that feel like a tickle as well.

The frustrating thing is that there are a lot of environmental weapons for various hearts and events that do have the right feel, mostly asura but some charr (I think the device used in the Jenk Cutspecter event might even be a staff, but it's been a while since I've done it). At the moment, though, the closest to really getting that 'I'm going to strike my enemies down with lightning bolts' feel as that comes from a profession comes from mesmer greatsword and scepter. Practically speaking, I don't think it's ever going to come from GW2 elementalist because its playstyle is based so heavily on attunement swapping, but I think it could fit into engineer.

Axes sending out splashes like vapor blades... honestly, throwing out bladelike projectiles from a bladed weapon feels more like the sort of thing you'd expect from magic. Yes, holosmith does that, but holosmith is explicitly heavily technomagic. On the general principle of throwing out splashes of something, I think mace is a better fit, since most maces have a solid head that an engineer could build a reservoir into and make into an aspergillum. Which would give an iconic look for a weapon to be used with a plaguedoctor theme - make it look like one of those vapour dispensers that were used by historical plague doctors.

That said, splashing liquid out of something is... not exactly something that screams 1200 range to me. :p Delivering various concoctions via arrows with alchemical heads, though, could well fit. There's also the aspect that a lot of people are hoping for mace as a melee option for core, and if mace comes as an elite specialisation weapon, that'd kill that dream altogether.