Engineer's Rifle Skillset and Traits - Thoughts and Ideas

Hello everyone~

So i've been playing Guild Wars 2 for quite a while, and though i'm not a veteran player, nor an expert on both PVE and PVP content in the game, i'm having a lot of fun with this game. I enjoy A LOT playing as Engineer, and my favorite weapon is the Rifle, yet i do think it's skills seem a bit off, they doesn't have a good sinergy and could use some "love".

Within the Firearms Specialization we have some traits like "High Caliber" and "No Scope", which are mainly focussed for Rifles, and they match pretty well when used together. What called my attention here is that the "Higher Caliber" trait works ONLY under a certain limit of range, and i'm not complaining about that, it's 15% more Crit Rate just for standing closer to your target than you should.

"Okay okay, but where do you want to go with this thread?" Well, what about turning Engineer's rifle skills more into a Blunderbuss style? The closer he is, the more a threat he can be making his playstyle more aggressive in general?

Maybe some, or maybe a lot, of people would disagree with me, but i really think that turning engi's rifle into a blunderbuss style skillset would be more fitting and even more fun. So, let me get started on my thoughts on Engineer Rifle Skills:

1. Remove "Hip Shot" and "Net shot", turn "Blunderbuss" the slot 1 skillI know it seems crazy because "Blunderbuss" can deal pretty good damage up in close range, but what if they lowered it's damage just to balance it? Mermer's Greatsword 1st skill, as well Ranger's long bow 1st skill, deal more damage based on how further the target is, so i guess it would be nice to have the opposite on Engineer's kit. But what about the Net shot? Well, i may be wrong, but i think it would be really hard to balance this skill with the rest of engi's kit. For PVE point of view, this skill would remain in the same spot, but on PVP point of view, with engineer being more a threat at closer ranges, unless your target dodges the Net Shot or has a cleanse available, facing 2 seconds of immobilize against someone who would Jump Shot into your face and burst you down would feel pretty annoying...That's what i think so.

2. New Skills: Flare Shot and Leg ShotSince Hip Shot and Net Shot would be removed, as well blunderbuss would make it to slot 1, what about slots 2 and 3? I thought about 2 skill ideas that would fit into those spots:

• Flare Shot: Fire a flare at your foe, burning the target. After a brief delay, the flare explodes, inflicting vulnerability to the target and burning foes arround it.
• Leg Shot: Shot your foe in the leg, inflicting bleeding and cripple your target.

Lemme know what ya'll think of those ideas and thoughts i had, i love to discuss those kind of stuff!And again: I'm no veteran into the game, if i said/sugested something bad or ineffective, correct me! I'd love to learn more <3

Hey!

I think i saw this proposed earlier too, so you're not alone. Shotgun engis rise

I like the direction. Although condis on rifle are not that useful, i think.

It'd be nice if rifle was turned entirely into an AoE based weapon, something like this:

1: blunderbuss, but weaker2: fires flash grenade in an arc, it dazes and cripples foes for two seconds as it lands (targeting skill)3: blunderbuss backwards, leap 800 range forward from the explosion (resembles original blunderbuss damage)4: fire a fast moving unblockable rocket, it explodes upon hitting the ground, knocking foes back (300 knockback, 1200 range, 1s preparation time; targeting skill)5: rocket jump, but with half the range

The flare-shot sounds quite funny, the effects look a bit like DU ammo. I would also like to have the armor-breaking effect, like increasing damage when hitting an opponent who blocks or has active protection, targets which have barrier get the damage split (50 % on the barrier, 50 % on the HP).

That leg shot could be some sort of taser projectile. Small range, when the shot has landed, the skill turns into a trigger. When used, the target gets stunned with lightning effects. Requires line of sight for the shocking.

Jump shot could also be turned into causing a cloud of dust from the ground like blinding-powd ... wait a second, people hate stealth on Engineer. Maybe something with termite. The Engineer charges up a load of termite, jumps away triggering the ignition with the rifle, a second later a lava fountain appears (shorter leap range, no blast finisher). Players within close range could get blinded by the flashing light.

A reload skill could also be interesting. For a short duration you do nothing but reloading the rifle, which results reducing all currently active cooldowns by a certain amount of seconds. Or like with that one thief trait, reset one skill type randomly.

Engineer is a fun class, the rifle felt always a little boring to me.

At this point, I'll take any change for core engi.

@"rdigeri.7935" said:I like the direction. Although condis on rifle are not that useful, i think.Oh, hey! So, the reason i added some conditions on both Leg Shot and Flare Shot are for 2 reasons: both Firearms Spec. "Hematic Focus" and "Modified Ammunition" traits.

Hematic Focus increases by 10% your crit chance if your target is bleeding, and since blunderbuss would be making it to slot 1, i guess they would also remove it's bleeding in addition to the damage balance. It made sense to me to add another bleeding skill to compensate for Blunderbuss and make sure that these changes didn't felt like a nerf to rifle and make it less reliable.

Modified Ammunition increases your damage dealt by 2% for every condition your target have, and Flare Shot applying vulnerability + burning, as well Leg Shot applying cripple + bleeding would make a great offensive combo. My idea was a very aggressive skillset for Rifle that felt satisfying to use and thematically fun, but your idea is actually nice too!

Id defo be in favor of something like this if engie got a proper range elite spec or one of the kits got changed to actually perfor well at range

@Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:Id defo be in favor of something like this if engie got a proper range elite spec or one of the kits got changed to actually perfor well at range

I've always felt that engineer played more like a melee character, so that's why i sugested this Shotgun-style skillset for rifle. Most of his hard hitting (bursty) abilities are at very close/melee range, and core engi, aside from kits, only have 2 weapons at all at his pool. Letting pistol be the condi long range while improving the close range bursty side of the rifle build i think would be fair.

Maybe this could be really fun on PVP with Thumper Turret and the Bomb Kit i guess.

@Kaizer.8261 said:

@Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365 said:Id defo be in favor of something like this if engie got a proper range elite spec or one of the kits got changed to actually perfor well at range

I hear you mate. Ive always wanted engineer to be more like graves form league of legends, atleast the rifle part. somewhere in middle bruising around. But i also think we need a reliable power range option that has tracking projectiles or something as reliableI also want anet to expand on the explosive theme for engie more, but thats off topic