Can core engie get more love then number tuning

Core engy needs more then just number adjustments to weapons. But how its core skills function. The class was amazing back at release, a ton of options that didn't all suck with many different combinations to use. Now it just seems like things got nerfed while everything else got power creeped. Not even with a revert to many of the nerfs that could make some kits or abilities useful.

My ideas are to bring a bit of enjoyment and a little bit of goofiness back to the class that was once there before while still keeping it viable in other modes. Now I cant speak much for PvE, and no longer for SPvP (Havent set foot in there since hotjoins became daily rooms). But from a WvW player perspective, many of the abilities are outright crap. Things you would never slot even when given a second thought. Most notably, Gadgets, Kits and turrets. These honestly need to be redone in the way they function.

KitsFlamethrower - Make it burn per hit on its auto. You already die to retaliation when using it, no point in not making it a huge risk for a bigger reward.

Grenade Kit And Mortar- Merge them, grenades used to be amazing with there old range, but now its 900 range + slow trajectory. Not only are you having to get in harms way to throw these slow moving grenades, but since theres multiple pieces flying out, say hello to retaliation. Simply make it a grenade launcher that can fire from 1500 feet, keep its slow trajectory.

Bomb kit - Basically a suicide weapon. Honestly this just need a major damage increase. Not only are the explosives delayed, but its also weak. A trait to be able to bowl the bombs at 500-600 range should also be added.

Tool Kit - Healing turrets, in the state that they are in right now, its not really necessary. Instead the engineer should be empty handed and its first skill should be replaced with:Throw Junk- Throws random items that give random conditions depending on RNG. [Confusion, Bleed, Cripple]

Elixir kit - All I could think to add on this is more ways to provide boons and enhancements to self and teammates.

Gadgets

Throw Mine- Max Stack : 5. Recharge rate: 10 seconds.

Utility Goggles - Pulse a radar field that reveals stealthed targets within a 900 yd radius.

Rocket Boots/Slick Shoes/Personal Battering Ram - Perfect as is.

Turrets - Get rid of Overcharge on placement and pull it back to manual use. Allow for ground targeted turret placement. Increase health and toughness.

Rifle Turret - Increase Critical hit chance and Rate of fire to 1 second..

Flamethrower Turret - Change its rate of fire to 3 seconds channeled, burning application on each .5 interval with 5 second downtime between each cast.

Rocket Turret - Its overcharge should fire a barrage of rockets, after use. Rate of fire to 3 seconds with a base range of 1500. Rockets track target.

Thumper Turret - Rate of fire every 2 seconds, increased radius to 350.

While there could be more done to improve the current state of core engineer, I feel like these changes as a baseline is whats needed to bring the class's abilities up to snuff with the current speed of the game as well as make them more enjoyable to use and even become rivaled picks to a few elixirs (Obviously cant replace the condi cleanse ones.)

Agree with your overall message here, core engineer has a ton of borderline useless utilities (scrapper too since gyros basically stink). However, I'm not big on your suggestions for turrets. Id rather keep the auto overcharge but work the current experimental turrets trait into the skills - same reflect bubble and same boons. Rework experimental turrets to reduce recharge and rate of fire.

I like some of these suggestions but the FT one would definitely be OP, the auto hits 5 times per sec so even a 1s burn duration would be very powerful, and engi can easily hit 100% burn duration.

I do think turrets could use more health and toughness, considering all damage can affect them now. I don't think throwing the turrets like we used to be able to do would be good, because that would make HT more clunky to use and get the heal combo off. Also the reflective bubble should pop up immediately on placement and also be on a 10 second interval, because once they're placed all you get is a 4 second bubble and then that portion of the trait is useless until you pick them up and place them again.

I'd also like to see mainhand pistol get some power damage increases, considering that core engi doesn't have any 1 handed power weapons that means 2 of the weapons are useless since nothing else goes with shield. Either that or make a new weapon for power core engi (hah, right).

As for nades vs mortar I think mortar should be reworked to be a long range power option and keep grenades the same. Nades work especially well with shrapnel and provides all the same options mortar does sans water field, so IMO Mortar should get new skills in the 2-4 slots. I posted it somewhere else but my suggestions were a skill similar to how rocket turret underwater toolbelt works, a straight firing rocket at a higher velocity, bring back concussive barrage and make it a channel skill, akin to meteor shower, and something else power related.

Some traits could be changed to be more effective too. Takedown Round should make the explosive stick to the target, not just drop it at its location, Thermal Vision is such a good trait addition, but Pinpoint Distribution is now useless since its never a better option over TV, which has a straight up 10% dmg increase, so I think that should be removed and put Juggernaut in its place, then make a new GM trait in Firearms for a power option, since currently we have a condi one, a dmg increase on foes with condis, but no power option.

Blasting Zone should also grant 3 stacks of might on blast finish instead of 1, but lower the duration to 12 seconds. Backpack Regenerator should also just be combined with Comeback Cure and then add a new trait into the master tier.

I like the Utility Goggles change you suggested as well as Throw Mine, but I think Throw Mine should cap at 3 ammo.

@Arimas.3492 said:I like some of these suggestions but the FT one would definitely be OP, the auto hits 5 times per sec so even a 1s burn duration would be very powerful, and engi can easily hit 100% burn duration.

While I can see your point to an extent, also consider Holosmith's Photon Forge 4 skill, Photon Blitz. It hits 8x, each attack generates a 1s burn stack, and it lasts 1.5 seconds. So I wouldn't see an issue with making flamethrower 1 skill deal burning on each attack.

@Ghos.1326 said:

@Arimas.3492 said:I like some of these suggestions but the FT one would definitely be OP, the auto hits 5 times per sec so even a 1s burn duration would be very powerful, and engi can easily hit 100% burn duration.

Yes but that's also a skill with a decent cool down and in photon forge mode which also has a heat mechanic that acts as another CD. Flame jet is an auto attack that's spamable, so that's like using photon blitz over and over again.

The beginning of 2018 was the last straw of ArenaNet nerfing core engineer. Lately, they've been buffing the profession instead of nerfing it. The problem with that is that they do it very slowly and don't give the profession huge buffs. We can all agree that the removal of RNG boon application on elixirs was a good change and the number tuning on skills such as Poison Grenade may be nice, but the profession needs more refinement. It's no secret that core engineer benefits a lot from kits. Gadgets and turrets in general are bad, but to be honest I would much rather see the kits be buffed first than anything else. Not only that, but I would love to see certain traits changed so that they benefit kits and only kits.

That is in my opinion the best way to buff core engineer; to limit the trait options that the Holosmith can use. For example, the trait Iron Blooded can be changed so that it benefits the Elixir Gun. Instead of having physical and condition damage reduced for each boon you have, you now have to equip the Elixir Gun so you can have 10% physical and condition damage with proposed resistance or protection boon application, similar to how the Juggernaut trait in Firearms works.