Engineer Rifle Trait

Core engineer just has access to 3 weapon types, being rifle, pistol, and shield. 2 of these choices can get upgraded with traits, but there is no such option for our power based weapon anymore. I would like to see this return, so I would like everyone to share their thoughts how we could achieve that.

Please share your ideas here. Which trait should it replace? What should the new rifle trait do? I hope that we can provide some great concepts here. I will take the opportunity to start with my own thoughts below.

Which trait should a rifle trait replace?I see 2 good candidates for replacement in the current specialisation system.

One approach would be the traditional one. The old rifle trait used to be in the firearms trait line, which makes sense since it is... well... a firearm. The master tier in this line has 2 traits increasing condition damage, the difference between them is that one is selfish (thermal vision), while the other can be shared with allies (pinpoint distribution). If one of these gets replaced, it should probably be thermal vision, to not cut engineers group support potential. However, considering that firearms is mostly condition damage focused (and some precision) and rifle is a power based weapon, I think this one is the weaker option.

My personal favourite would be to put the trait into the explosives trait line. It might seem strange for some people, but I think it would fit both gameplaywise and thematically. Explosives is the power damage trait line and rifle is a fitting weapon for that. And looking at some of the rifle skills, they seem kinda "explosive" in nature. Rifle 3, 4, and 5 all have some explosive aspects visually. The best trait to replace would be aim-assisted rocket in the master tier. As far as I know, this trait is not really popular. The DPS it provides is small (because of the 10s ICD) and I don't know if we really need another trait that uses a damage skill on hit. Tools has something similar and so does have the grandmaster tier in explosives.

What should the new rifle trait do?Dependant on the trait line the trait will land in, I have 2 suggestions.

Firearms version: Lead BulletsRifle skills now deal an unique debuff (Lead Bullets) on critical hit, dealing X damage over time to enemies affected. Damage slightly scales with power.

Explosives version: Experimental GunpowderRifle 3+5 gain increased effect radius. Rifle 1 now explodes for small AoE damage for each enemy it hits.