This post originally came from the WvW/PvP split skill thread. I wanted y'all's opinion on these ideas.

Ok, I slept on the changes in the notes and I realized that ArenaNet probably doesn't have somebody who plays engineer as a main on their balance team. I wanted to make a few suggestions to improve the underperforming aspects of the class. While I think the holosmith nerfs are excessive, I recognize that people have been having issues with it. I think the stability nerf to Corona Burst is probably the biggest nerf, whether it was realized or not.

Anyway, here goes:

Scrapper

The barrier additions did a lot to make Scrapper potentially useful again. While the class is still painful to use in PvE, many of its woes in PvP/WvW can be resolved:

• First and foremost, fix the dang bug with function gyro. If the function gyro is meant to be Scrapper's unique mechanic, it can't be as buggy as it is now.
• Second, the barrier additions were nice, but didn't go far enough. The healing power coefficient on them is extremely low, to the point where a max healing power build and a no-healing power build have virtually no difference on barrier generation. This runs counter to the idea of strategically choosing your amulet and runes.
• Damage on all hammer skills needs to be tuned up a smidge. This could be accomplished by making Perfectly Weighted baseline.
• Rocket charge as it stands does not function particularly effectively as a gap closer. Please make the final leap on the chain go a longer distance. I'd also suggest making all three leaps combo finishers once again, especially since Final Salvo is less useful.
• Gyros overall need more health. They die too easily as it stands right now, severely reducing their effectiveness. Purge gyro should also be immune to conditions, or at least pulse resistance on itself.

Core Engi

Ok, core engi is a doozy to approach because it's so far behind most of the core classes in PvP. Core engineer is already very clunky, and very simple number changes that have been proposed are not enough to address some of its woes. The underlying problem stems from core engineer's reliance on kits to do the job. But kits as a whole are slow and hard to rotate in real combat situations. To this end, I hope the following suggestions will highlight some ideas:

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.
• There is currently no reason to ever take medkit as it stands. It's simply one of the worst team healing skills in the game. Please, please look into actually making it useful, as engineers cannot run a support role with it.
• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.
• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.
• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.
• Flamethrower should have its power coefficients across the board increased by 20%. Flamethrower AA should deal 0.5s of burning per tick, so there's an actual reason to use the AA. The rest of the skills are pretty much fine.
• Mortar kit needs more damage overall. As it stands, it certainly does not feel like an elite skill. If flight times are reduced, a 50% increase in damage coefficient would be sufficient, although I'd recommend a 100% increase in damage coefficient.
• Grenade kit is actually in an ok position besides flight times. I might recommend adding some functionality that gives it a small chance to be unblockable, but maybe that's too much.
• Rifle, pistol, and shield should have heat interactions with holosmith. It's really bizarre that they don't.
• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times OR cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.
• Glue shot should apply slow to enemies and swiftness to allies.
• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.
• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.
• Consider adding condi damage buffs (ala Potent Poison) to core engineer's traitlines. Given our low condi application rate and lack of cover condis, we need something to make up the difference.
• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

Really good idea with juggernaut trait! But still , how you deal with condi dmg as core engi? Or stability - forced anyway to pick up alchemy trait line. Core engi have one biggest problem - he is trapped in kit traits. How can I take bomb kit? Fuse reduce and cd reduce is too goood to pick all explosion trait line , or velocity increase on nade kit. Good example how kits should work is elixir gun. Now he don't have his own trait, but he increasing his power via synergy from HGH and Condi Boon transform. Same can be told about nade and bomb kit, but their traits should or MUST be baseline. Remove kit traits is step forward. Replace it with synergy traits to current kits (explosion for nades and bombs , firrarms FT, tools toolkit...) Like EG - I mean traits, that work even without kit!

Agree in 100% with your suggested Scrapper changes. I'd love to see more team-shared barrier, like the one from Decisive Renown (give barrier on res).For core Engi, entire Firearms line is a mess - it has cool power traits but Grandmasters are completely out of place.

Gyros and Turrets should be merged into one TYPE called "Invention." This way both benefit from traits that improve said "inventions." It makes sense from a flavor stand-point and balance standpoint.

Med Kit should be team-heals, barriers, and defense.

1. Med Blast 1 skill should apply a barrier at the end of the blast and improve healing by 60%
2. Placebo Effect - Convert 2 boons to conditions on foes (240 radius). Convert 2 conditions to boons on allies (240 radius).
3. Healing Bomb - Bomb. Explosion. 5 second water field with initial impact heal of 445. Lasts 3 seconds. Pulses every second.
4. Healing Shield - Shield. 3 second Block that heals allies 360 radius around the caster for 5% of incoming damage blocked.
5. Elixir L - Elixir. 6 second Light Field that cleanses 1 condition every second from 5 allies standing in it. Blinds foes on initial impact.

Tool Belt can stay the same with Med Kit.

@"padreadamo.3986" said:Gyros and Turrets should be merged into one TYPE called "Invention." This way both benefit from traits that improve said "inventions." It makes sense from a flavor stand-point and balance standpoint.

Med Kit should be team-heals, barriers, and defense.

1. Med Blast 1 skill should apply a barrier at the end of the blast and improve healing by 60%
2. Placebo Effect - Convert 2 boons to conditions on foes (240 radius). Convert 2 conditions to boons on allies (240 radius).
3. Healing Bomb - Bomb. Explosion. 5 second water field with initial impact heal of 445. Lasts 3 seconds. Pulses every second.
4. Healing Shield - Shield. 3 second Block that heals allies 360 radius around the caster for 5% of incoming damage blocked.
5. Elixir L - Elixir. 6 second Light Field that cleanses 1 condition every second from 5 allies standing in it. Blinds foes on initial impact.

Tool Belt can stay the same with Med Kit.

I kind of like this idea. Though instead of barrier on last hit for skill 1, healing shield can pulse barrier every second while the shield is up, that way barrier is not spammed but still accessible, and the barrier should be a decent amount considering it's skill 4. lovely idea though.

@"Vagrant.7206" said:This post originally came from the WvW/PvP split skill thread. I wanted y'all's opinion on these ideas.

---

Ok, I slept on the changes in the notes and I realized that ArenaNet probably doesn't have somebody who plays engineer as a main on their balance team. I wanted to make a few suggestions to improve the underperforming aspects of the class. While I think the holosmith nerfs are excessive, I recognize that people have been having issues with it. I think the stability nerf to Corona Burst is probably the biggest nerf, whether it was realized or not.

Anyway, here goes:

---

Scrapper

The barrier additions did a lot to make Scrapper potentially useful again. While the class is still painful to use in PvE, many of its woes in PvP/WvW can be resolved:

• First and foremost, fix the dang bug with function gyro. If the function gyro is meant to be Scrapper's unique mechanic, it can't be as buggy as it is now.
• Second, the barrier additions were nice, but didn't go far enough. The healing power coefficient on them is extremely low, to the point where a max healing power build and a no-healing power build have virtually no difference on barrier generation. This runs counter to the idea of strategically choosing your amulet and runes.
• Damage on all hammer skills needs to be tuned up a smidge. This could be accomplished by making Perfectly Weighted baseline.
• Rocket charge as it stands does not function particularly effectively as a gap closer. Please make the final leap on the chain go a longer distance. I'd also suggest making all three leaps combo finishers once again, especially since Final Salvo is less useful.
• Gyros overall need more health. They die too easily as it stands right now, severely reducing their effectiveness. Purge gyro should also be immune to conditions, or at least pulse resistance on itself.

---

Core Engi

Ok, core engi is a doozy to approach because it's so far behind most of the core classes in PvP. Core engineer is already very clunky, and very simple number changes that have been proposed are not enough to address some of its woes. The underlying problem stems from core engineer's reliance on kits to do the job. But kits as a whole are slow and hard to rotate in real combat situations. To this end, I hope the following suggestions will highlight some ideas:

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.
• There is currently no reason to ever take medkit as it stands. It's simply one of the worst team healing skills in the game. Please, please look into actually making it useful, as engineers cannot run a support role with it.
• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.
• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.
• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.
• Flamethrower should have its power coefficients across the board increased by 20%. Flamethrower AA should deal 0.5s of burning per tick, so there's an actual reason to use the AA. The rest of the skills are pretty much fine.
• Mortar kit needs more damage overall. As it stands, it certainly does not feel like an elite skill. If flight times are reduced, a 50% increase in damage coefficient would be sufficient, although I'd recommend a 100% increase in damage coefficient.
• Grenade kit is actually in an ok position besides flight times. I might recommend adding some functionality that gives it a small chance to be unblockable, but maybe that's too much.
• Rifle, pistol, and shield should have heat interactions with holosmith. It's really bizarre that they don't.
• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times OR cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.
• Glue shot should apply slow to enemies and swiftness to allies.
• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.
• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.
• Consider adding condi damage buffs (ala Potent Poison) to core engineer's traitlines. Given our low condi application rate and lack of cover condis, we need something to make up the difference.
• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

Hey, take a look at some of my possible changes for Firearms trait line and Scrapper, and tell me what you think.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/31652/scrapper-trait-change#latest

The biggest improvement we could have is not having traits directly effect only certain kits. Perhaps, traits apply improvements to all kits depending on the one/s equipped. Traits tied to kits make for boring, predictable builds.

@Ghos.1326 said:

@"Vagrant.7206" said:This post originally came from the

WvW/PvP split skill thread

. I wanted y'all's opinion on these ideas.

---

Ok, I slept on the changes in the notes and I realized that ArenaNet probably doesn't have somebody who plays engineer as a main on their balance team. I wanted to make a few suggestions to improve the

underperforming

aspects of the class. While I think the holosmith nerfs are excessive, I recognize that people have been having issues with it. I think the stability nerf to Corona Burst is probably the biggest nerf, whether it was realized or not.

Anyway, here goes:

---

Scrapper

The barrier additions did a lot to make Scrapper potentially useful again. While the class is still painful to use in PvE, many of its woes in PvP/WvW can be resolved:

• First and foremost, fix the dang bug with
  function gyro
  . If the function gyro is meant to be Scrapper's unique mechanic, it can't be as buggy as it is now.
• Second, the barrier additions were nice, but didn't go far enough. The healing power coefficient on them is extremely low, to the point where a max healing power build and a no-healing power build have virtually no difference on barrier generation. This runs counter to the idea of strategically choosing your amulet and runes.
• Damage on all hammer skills needs to be tuned up a smidge. This could be accomplished by making Perfectly Weighted baseline.
• Rocket charge as it stands does not function particularly effectively as a gap closer. Please make the final leap on the chain go a longer distance. I'd also suggest making all three leaps combo finishers once again, especially since Final Salvo is less useful.
• Gyros overall need more health. They die too easily as it stands right now, severely reducing their effectiveness. Purge gyro should also be immune to conditions, or at least pulse resistance on itself.

---

Core Engi

Ok, core engi is a doozy to approach because it's so far behind most of the core classes in PvP. Core engineer is already very clunky, and very simple number changes that have been proposed are not enough to address some of its woes. The underlying problem stems from core engineer's reliance on kits to do the job. But kits as a whole are slow and hard to rotate in real combat situations. To this end, I hope the following suggestions will highlight some ideas:

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.
• There is currently no reason to ever take medkit as it stands. It's simply one of the worst team healing skills in the game. Please, please look into actually making it useful, as engineers cannot run a support role with it.
• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.
• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.
• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.
• Flamethrower should have its power coefficients across the board increased by 20%. Flamethrower AA should deal 0.5s of burning per tick, so there's an actual reason to use the AA. The rest of the skills are pretty much fine.
• Mortar kit needs more damage overall. As it stands, it certainly does not feel like an elite skill. If flight times are reduced, a 50% increase in damage coefficient would be sufficient, although I'd recommend a 100% increase in damage coefficient.
• Grenade kit is actually in an ok position besides flight times. I might recommend adding some functionality that gives it a small chance to be unblockable, but maybe that's too much.
• Rifle, pistol, and shield should have heat interactions with holosmith. It's really bizarre that they don't.
• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times
  OR
  cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.
• Glue shot should apply slow to enemies and swiftness to allies.
• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.
• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.
• Consider adding condi damage buffs (ala
  Potent Poison
  ) to core engineer's traitlines. Given our low condi application rate and lack of cover condis, we need something to make up the difference.
• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

Except for modified ammunition, which looks like a nerf, they all look like straight upgrades. I'm not opposed to straight upgrades, although I wanted to address some of the largest woes core/scrapper engis face in PvP.

@Vagrant.7206 said:

@Ghos.1326 said:

@Vagrant.7206 said:This post originally came from the

WvW/PvP split skill thread

. I wanted y'all's opinion on these ideas.

---

Ok, I slept on the changes in the notes and I realized that ArenaNet probably doesn't have somebody who plays engineer as a main on their balance team. I wanted to make a few suggestions to improve the

underperforming

aspects of the class. While I think the holosmith nerfs are excessive, I recognize that people have been having issues with it. I think the stability nerf to Corona Burst is probably the biggest nerf, whether it was realized or not.

Anyway, here goes:

---

Scrapper

The barrier additions did a lot to make Scrapper potentially useful again. While the class is still painful to use in PvE, many of its woes in PvP/WvW can be resolved:

• First and foremost, fix the dang bug with
  function gyro
  . If the function gyro is meant to be Scrapper's unique mechanic, it can't be as buggy as it is now.
• Second, the barrier additions were nice, but didn't go far enough. The healing power coefficient on them is extremely low, to the point where a max healing power build and a no-healing power build have virtually no difference on barrier generation. This runs counter to the idea of strategically choosing your amulet and runes.
• Damage on all hammer skills needs to be tuned up a smidge. This could be accomplished by making Perfectly Weighted baseline.
• Rocket charge as it stands does not function particularly effectively as a gap closer. Please make the final leap on the chain go a longer distance. I'd also suggest making all three leaps combo finishers once again, especially since Final Salvo is less useful.
• Gyros overall need more health. They die too easily as it stands right now, severely reducing their effectiveness. Purge gyro should also be immune to conditions, or at least pulse resistance on itself.

---

Core Engi

Ok, core engi is a doozy to approach because it's so far behind most of the core classes in PvP. Core engineer is already very clunky, and very simple number changes that have been proposed are not enough to address some of its woes. The underlying problem stems from core engineer's reliance on kits to do the job. But kits as a whole are slow and hard to rotate in real combat situations. To this end, I hope the following suggestions will highlight some ideas:

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.
• There is currently no reason to ever take medkit as it stands. It's simply one of the worst team healing skills in the game. Please, please look into actually making it useful, as engineers cannot run a support role with it.
• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.
• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.
• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.
• Flamethrower should have its power coefficients across the board increased by 20%. Flamethrower AA should deal 0.5s of burning per tick, so there's an actual reason to use the AA. The rest of the skills are pretty much fine.
• Mortar kit needs more damage overall. As it stands, it certainly does not feel like an elite skill. If flight times are reduced, a 50% increase in damage coefficient would be sufficient, although I'd recommend a 100% increase in damage coefficient.
• Grenade kit is actually in an ok position besides flight times. I might recommend adding some functionality that gives it a small chance to be unblockable, but maybe that's too much.
• Rifle, pistol, and shield should have heat interactions with holosmith. It's really bizarre that they don't.
• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times
  OR
  cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.
• Glue shot should apply slow to enemies and swiftness to allies.
• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.
• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.
• Consider adding condi damage buffs (ala
  Potent Poison
  ) to core engineer's traitlines. Given our low condi application rate and lack of cover condis, we need something to make up the difference.
• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

I want to go through the other trait lines, and see what could be done, and also go through some of the skills. padreamo had a real lovely suggestion for the medkit kit, I really like that, but yeah I'm just experimenting with ideas and seeing what could possibly be good, and what could be bad.I guess my reasoning for the modified ammunition change was you wouldn't need to depend on applying condis to get the damage bonus, rather it's there all the time, along with some small applications of vuln (which might work well with sigil of fallability, i just kind of put the vuln application from the now dead trait heavy armor exploit), granted you can hit crits. I can see how it would be a nerf in a pve setting though, since especially in raids and fractals, the bosses are going to have pretty much all the condis pumped onto them almost at all times. Thanks for the feedback.

@"Vagrant.7206" said:

Core Engi

Ok, core engi is a doozy to approach because it's so far behind most of the core classes in PvP. Core engineer is already very clunky, and very simple number changes that have been proposed are not enough to address some of its woes. The underlying problem stems from core engineer's reliance on kits to do the job. But kits as a whole are slow and hard to rotate in real combat situations. To this end, I hope the following suggestions will highlight some ideas:

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.
• There is currently no reason to ever take medkit as it stands. It's simply one of the worst team healing skills in the game. Please, please look into actually making it useful, as engineers cannot run a support role with it.
• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.
• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.
• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.
• Flamethrower should have its power coefficients across the board increased by 20%. Flamethrower AA should deal 0.5s of burning per tick, so there's an actual reason to use the AA. The rest of the skills are pretty much fine.
• Mortar kit needs more damage overall. As it stands, it certainly does not feel like an elite skill. If flight times are reduced, a 50% increase in damage coefficient would be sufficient, although I'd recommend a 100% increase in damage coefficient.
• Grenade kit is actually in an ok position besides flight times. I might recommend adding some functionality that gives it a small chance to be unblockable, but maybe that's too much.
• Rifle, pistol, and shield should have heat interactions with holosmith. It's really bizarre that they don't.
• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times OR cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.
• Glue shot should apply slow to enemies and swiftness to allies.
• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.
• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.
• Consider adding condi damage buffs (ala Potent Poison) to core engineer's traitlines. Given our low condi application rate and lack of cover condis, we need something to make up the difference.
• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

I am a core engineer enthusiast and I know a lot about this class, I agree with almost everything! Spot on!Except for these these:

*Juggernaut: who uses flamethrowers anyway? It should be for the flame kit as it is today, but it should have a stability boon for all other kits when you swap to that kit. Because engies are walking targets, people really stop everything they are doing when they spot an engie, so they go there and whack him in two seconds.

*Mortar: the problem with the mortar is mostly the shell velocity, you really can't hit the target if it's running from a certain distance, you can hit people very well in close range, but then you get whacked so hard and dazed and interrupted.

*Glue shot: almost never hits the target, this is so hard to connect, it should have 2 charges and the second charge should be Grease shot for knocking people down. Or Glue Shot should give a Fury boon, makes sense since the enemy is trapped he can be criticaly hit too.

*Bomb kit: useless kit because the engie has to stop moving so he can plant the bomb and an engie who can't run is a dead engie. Remember the rule: engies die in two seconds. Planting bombs should give boons, just saying, swiftness makes sense, or even protection for1s.

*Grenade kit: it is ok, but the flash granade should should also Daze for1s

*Rifle is ok, but Overcharged Shot should be unblockable

Rifle could use some extra damage and the auto's too damned slow. Miss being able to spec for shot haste.

Just tuning down the out of control Holo damage would be a good start, you make virtually zero sustain sacrifices for the extra damage from Holo. To the point where the two classes are on par sustain wise, but Holo damage vs Scrapper dmg is not even in the same ballpark.

The whole rocket charge thing is meh, I dont like it coneceptually or from a game design standpoint. If you are interrupted in your rocket charge it is rng rather than player skill, yet having a skill with two leap finishers and the whole three attacks as an evade frame is also troublesome. Change it to 1 ground target leap that is at 900rng, that is all an evade frame and on the landing/completion of the leap it has a heal. For the amount of lol dmg it does that should be fine, either that or up the damage considerably, remove the evade and heal. Key concepts, it remains a gap closer, it remains a leap finisher.

As a quick opinion, Core engineer really needs a melee weapon that isn't a tool kit so they can get a bit more creative. I personally feel too limited with just Pistols and Rifle, this would make the shield relevant and allow more variety into Core, like Elixir Gun being useful and not just a poor choice if using rifle.

The AED doesn't work very well at PVP, we die many times while it is active.

I don't know how I managed to miss out on this list, but I'm glad I stumbled onto it.

@"Vagrant.7206" said:

Scrapper

Now that gyros are getting a rework on the 5th of March, I would say that Scrapper is perfectly fine in any game mode. Even in PvE where I play as support Scrapper, the rework will greatly benefit that role.

Core Engi

• Juggernaut functionality needs to be changed. Instead of granting stability and might with flamethrower equipped, it should grant +vit and +toughness per kit in your utility slots. This means if you're running 4 kits (or even 5, lul), you should get a fair amount of toughness and vit. This would give engineer some room to breathe as it swaps between kits, while also not unfairly overpowering scrapper or holo.

I remember when Juggernaut originally gave more toughness and might stacking while using the flamethrower. The current version of Juggernaut with the permanent stability is a good idea, but camping the flamethrower is incredibly boring. Instead of camping the flamethrower, why not make it so that it grants the engineer stability while using any kit?

Neither Scrapper nor Holosmith benefit from the Firearms specialization unless they play some weird condition build with pistols, so why not buff a trait that would benefit core engineer greatly? With 3+ kit builds, you have no stability. If you already used Healing Mist from the Elixir Gun and you get CCed, you're done for. Scrapper and Holosmith have enough ways to grant themselves stability without a single kit, whereas with core engineer it's almost mandatory to use kits and you end up having no access to stability.

• Grenade kit and mortar kit should have their flight times reduced. Currently you can go make coffee while waiting for mortar kit and grenade kit skills to land at max distance.

Couldn't agree more. No other profession has a trait that affects projectile velocity like Grenadier does. In PvE not using it is not too big of an issue, but not using it in PvP makes the kit completely useless. I remember when Grenadier was so simple; throw 3 grenades instead of 2 and the range is increased to 1,500. It may seem ludicrous by today's standards, but that's the one trait I would love to see reworked. Just make the projectile velocity and explosion radius baseline and have Grenadier reduce grenade skills cooldown by 20% and increase the throw range from 900 to 1,200.

• Short fuse should become baseline for bomb kit. The 1 second delay makes it impractical in PvP right now, especially considering the skill required to place the dang things properly.

Agreed. The delay really hinders the bomb kit in PvP. Similar to Grenadier, make the 0.5 fuse time baseline, have it reduce bomb skills cooldown by 20% and increase the explosion radius from 240 to 300.

• Tool kit should see double the condi application it sees now (box of nails and prybar are laughable currently), and roughly a 20% increase in power damage coefficient. This would make it closer to a usable melee skill set. I'd also recommend changing out the code for Magnet to something less glitchy -- IE Dragonhunter's "Hunter's Verdict." There's all sorts of weird glitchiness with Magnet.

Box of Nails already applies cripple, so why does the auto attack do the same thing? It's bad enough that it's incredibly slow, but why does it also apply cripple? Simply reduce the cast time on the auto attack similar to Scrapper's hammer so core engineer has at least one useful melee weapon, have it apply confusion instead of cripple, reduce the cast time on Box of Nails and increase the confusion stacks on Pry Bar.

I do agree with your suggestion on changing the code on Magnet. I've had many instances of players jumping up in the air once they got pulled.

• Pistol overall needs reduced casting times OR cover conditions. Engineer applies conditions very slowly when compared to other condi classes. It does not have the cover conditions of a necro, nor the frequent reapplication rates of a thief.

A faster cast time similar to the ranger's shortbow would be a great change for engineer's pistol auto attack. It would allow the engineer to keep consistent bleed damage on enemies. The same thing should be applied to Poison Dart Volley; have it fire the darts faster and especially remove the cone pattern which very likely will cause you to miss a shot.

• Shield needs reduced cooldowns or better utility to compete with offhand pistol.

No amount of buffs will make the shield better than the off hand pistol, at least not in power or condition damage builds. It is solid in tanking/support builds which is why you see support Scrapper doing great with the shield in PvE. Slight cooldown reduction would be appreciated though.

• Rifle's not in a bad state right now. I would say make overcharged shot unblockable, and you pretty much have it where it should be.

Considering that Overcharged Shot's range was buffed not to long ago, I would rather not see this happen.

• One seemingly unrelated issue is actually retaliation. Engineers are exposed to serious health loss from retaliation in WvW. Because grenades can theoretically hit up to 9 targets per grenade throw, retaliation can annihilate us in WvW (9x200=1800 damage per grenade toss). I don't know if there is a way to fix this without seriously reworking retaliation, but it is an important consideration for WvW.

Retaliation damage is reduced by 33.33% in PvP and WvW. If you're playing with power builds retaliation can counter you significantly, but condition builds don't suffer too much from retaliation.

There's a lot of other little niggles, particularly with core engineer's traitlines, but I think these kinds of skill changes would go a massive way to opening up core engineer in PvP.

With the upcoming balance patch aimed mostly at improving Scrapper, core engineer will have to wait. Thankfully, no nerfs have been given to core engineer and at least they're buffing the flamethrower with flame blast being a ground target skill that explodes on impact instead of having to spam it in order to apply the stronger burn. I'm glad Scrapper is having its main mechanic fixed which are the gyros, so if ArenaNet can fix the gyros, I don't see why they couldn't be able to improve a few core traits and kits.

Again, I have no idea how I missed out on this list, but I enjoyed reading it.

@Chorazin.4107 said:Just tuning down the out of control Holo damage would be a good start, you make virtually zero sustain sacrifices for the extra damage from Holo. To the point where the two classes are on par sustain wise, but Holo damage vs Scrapper dmg is not even in the same ballpark.

The whole rocket charge thing is meh, I dont like it coneceptually or from a game design standpoint. If you are interrupted in your rocket charge it is rng rather than player skill, yet having a skill with two leap finishers and the whole three attacks as an evade frame is also troublesome. Change it to 1 ground target leap that is at 900rng, that is all an evade frame and on the landing/completion of the leap it has a heal. For the amount of lol dmg it does that should be fine, either that or up the damage considerably, remove the evade and heal. Key concepts, it remains a gap closer, it remains a leap finisher.

Yeah, holo sustain needs to be toned down. They can keep their damage, it's what makes them unique, but their sustain needs to definitely come down.

@Hoodie.1045 said:Again, I have no idea how I missed out on this list, but I enjoyed reading it.

Because I wrote it last year. :tongue: Look at the date on the original post.