Adding a new weapon for the engineer

[Daxia.1425]

Hello,

I been enjoying my engineer for years and with the new changes i been playing a lot of medic scrapper in wvw. It made me think about the class as i was tweaking on builds and i feel we could us another weapon. Personally i would love to see a mace for the engineer, bit like the guardian and it would fit the class in my opinion. It would work nice with the shield as now we only can opt for a hammer, rifle or pistol+shield as scrapper. I believe it would be a positive addition, but what do you think?

[Iozeph.5617]

Yes, but with weapon swap added on as well.

[Dawdler.8521]

Thats what you got with holo, a sword (and in GW2 a sword or a mace is just a 1h regardless). The scrapper got the hammer.

Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway.

Personally I would still prefer a "free" kit of choice as engie weapon swap so one run with for example p/s/tk in the weapon slots. The skill kits would be stronger (no cd, unlike the weaponswap kit) but this would give engies much more flexibility.

[Iozeph.5617]

Swords and Maces aren't the same at all for most professions. Swords tend to be more about mobility and quick strikes - sometimes applying conditions, where maces tend to be more defencive, slower-swinging, and harder-hitting overall.

Say you wanted to go for a split with a soldiers build for high base strength but high toughness and vitality to make better use of the none healing power-related support/sustain abilities the class has in conjunction with a shield. A mace woudln't be a bad thing for core and the other specs to have access to at all. Then perhaps they could change the auto on Tool Kit to actually be something people want to use.

Pistol... Come on. Isn't it about time we had something better for a main-hand weapon than pistol without having to opt for an elite spec? What other profession has such a dearth of choices for main-hand weapons to where the only main-hand they have is such a piece of rubbish? Even when condi specced, which allegedly the pistol is built for, it's a hot mess. Taken, as you mentioned, because it's the only choice.

It was one of the things I hated in WoW when it came to hunters. The notion of 'stat sticks.' If I have to slot a weapon then I want to use the weapon and it had better be something worth using. Right now pistol isn't. And our kits are in no state to justify not having something better -with or without weapon swap.

It's just that bad. It truly is.

[Daxia.1425]

"Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway."

In this case it is not about doing dps but doing more support. The pistol is overal crap and only usefull for condi, though some use it on holo but thats because they want the shield options. In my case you can think of the guardian mace and what it does, but then for a healing engineer :).

And i agree with Iozeph, it's our only choice and Kits can use some upgrading for sure.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

having only 1 one handed option is pretty brutal.

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Daxia.1425" said:"Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway."

In this case it is not about doing dps but doing more support. The pistol is overal kitten and only usefull for condi, though some use it on holo but thats because they want the shield options. In my case you can think of the guardian mace and what it does, but then for a healing engineer :).

And i agree with Iozeph, it's our only choice and Kits can use some upgrading for sure.Power builds on holo that only want the shield use the superior sword. That was the point. But you wanted zerg support? Thats the hammer giving you leap finisher, whirl finisher and static field. I dont understand why you want a 1h then. I wouldnt mind another 1h but its pretty redundant.

[stone cold.8609]

Just up the damage on rifle and pistol, and buff the under performing kits.

Engies already have a melee power/support hammer, a melee power sword, a ranged power rifle, a ranged condi pistol, a support shield off hand, and a condi/support pistol off hand. I suppose if you wanted to add another weapon that wouldn't be redundant to what Engies already have, then I see two options: a melee condi/support main hand or 2 hand weapon or an offhand power/support weapon. Personally, I'd rather see a power/support offhand added if anything.

I don't really see the need for a weapon swap option for Engie, since that is one of the functions of the kit mechanic.

[Manuhell.2759]

Core engi does lack a decent main-hand. Pistol doesn't work in that regard, it's hybrid power-condi, and bad in both aspects. If they added a second MH weapon for core engi, they could properly repurpose pistol MH as a proper condi weapon, and have the other new MH as a power-based weapon.Talking about redundancy makes no sense. Engineers already have the least combinations out of normal weapons. Adding one more won't make anything redundant.

[Obtena.7952]

@"Daxia.1425" said:"Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway."

In this case it is not about doing dps but doing more support. The pistol is overal kitten and only usefull for condi, though some use it on holo but thats because they want the shield options. In my case you can think of the guardian mace and what it does, but then for a healing engineer :).

And i agree with Iozeph, it's our only choice and Kits can use some upgrading for sure.

Seems to me that the fix isn't another weapon, it's to make pistol less crap.

[Zex Anthon.8673]

@stone cold.8609 said:Just up the damage on rifle and pistol, and buff the under performing kits.

Engies already have a melee power/support hammer, a melee power sword, a ranged power rifle, a ranged condi pistol, a support shield off hand, and a condi/support pistol off hand. I suppose if you wanted to add another weapon that wouldn't be redundant to what Engies already have, then I see two options: a melee condi/support main hand or 2 hand weapon or an offhand power/support weapon. Personally, I'd rather see a power/support offhand added if anything.

Core engie only has 1 main hand weapon, which does not pair well with shield. As it stands, the only viable build that uses shield, a core weapon, is on holosmith. If core or scrapper wanted to use shield they would have to take MH pistol.

I think core engie desperately needs a main hand weapon more than another off hand, but seeing as how engie ironically has the fewest weapon sets in the game I would welcome an addition to both.

@stone cold.8609 said:I don't really see the need for a weapon swap option for Engie, since that is one of the functions of the kit mechanic.

The kit mechanic is not a weapon swap. It's actually worse. No other class has to sacrifice a utility slot to get access to additional weapon skills. Kit skills also suffer from the same issue eles have been complaining about for some time, more does not mean better. Buffing kits is not an option since you need to spread the damage over too many kits for balance purposes.

I agree that engie doesn't need a weapon swap, especially with the severe lack of weapon options. However, kits need to be reworked in order to fill the void. Anet should make kits a proper profession mechanic, and replace them with a new utility set.

[Yannir.4132]

@Obtena.7952 said:

@"Daxia.1425" said:"Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway."

In this case it is not about doing dps but doing more support. The pistol is overal kitten and only usefull for condi, though some use it on holo but thats because they want the shield options. In my case you can think of the guardian mace and what it does, but then for a healing engineer :).

And i agree with Iozeph, it's our only choice and Kits can use some upgrading for sure.

Seems to me that the fix isn't another weapon, it's to make pistol less kitten.

Even if engi pistol was the best weapon in the game, it still wouldn't be useful for the purpose OP wants a new weapon for.Unless you completely change what it does. Which I'm sure no one wants.

This isn't about performance, it's about roles. Engineer does not have a power-based, supportive, 1-handed weapon. Or a 2-handed weapon. Or a kit. Aside from Mortar maybe. Which is why there's around 0 engineers that have used shield before Holosmith became a thing. And a Core weapon should not rely on an Elite Spec to be useable.

Giving engineer more core weapons might bring more imbalance but frankly, not having it in the first place is an atrocity that must be fixed.

[Peutrifectus.4830]

No new weapon. Just make offhand sword a thing ;)

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:No new weapon. Just make offhand sword a thing ;)

Was thinking more of allowing them to use staff, and then we get double bladed lightsabers :+1:

[Obtena.7952]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@"Daxia.1425" said:"Besides, if you are a meta medic scrapper, you can run pistol/shield. The weapons are pretty much irrelevant, you're not doing much with minstrel anyway."

In this case it is not about doing dps but doing more support. The pistol is overal kitten and only usefull for condi, though some use it on holo but thats because they want the shield options. In my case you can think of the guardian mace and what it does, but then for a healing engineer :).

And i agree with Iozeph, it's our only choice and Kits can use some upgrading for sure.

Seems to me that the fix isn't another weapon, it's to make pistol less kitten.

Even if engi pistol was the best weapon in the game, it still wouldn't be useful for the purpose OP wants a new weapon for.Unless you completely change what it does. Which I'm sure no one wants.

This isn't about performance, it's about roles. Engineer does not have a power-based, supportive, 1-handed weapon. Or a 2-handed weapon. Or a kit. Aside from Mortar maybe. Which is why there's around 0 engineers that have used shield before Holosmith became a thing. And a Core weapon should not rely on an Elite Spec to be useable.

Giving engineer more core weapons might bring more imbalance but frankly, not having it in the first place is an atrocity that must be fixed.

Well, I would advocate that if pistol is so bad that it's not fitting, then yeah, it's going to be way easier for Anet to adjust pistol than it will be to give Engi a whole new weapon. It's also easier for players to justify ... Anet isn't going to just give another weapon to Engi, but we do know they are willing to change weapon skills.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

If you look at their skills, engineers have 4 skill types with 5 skills each, instead 5 skills types with 4 skills each like most other professions.They also lack a core 1h melee weapon. They have the toolkit and the bomb kit, but they are kits, they use up a skill slot, and they are 2h.

If we got a rework like the one I'm trying to put together here, then 5 of the 6 Tool kit skills would be moved to a mace and a new skill type.
The skill conversion would take the least used or least useful skills from each of the 4 types, and turn them into a new mace weapon and a 5th skill type, like traps or tricks.

So we would get a 1h melee weapon for core engineer, a new skill type to test new builds with runes that were never useful for engineer before, and the most underwhelming skills of each of the 5 types would be improved in the conversion to the 5th type.

[Yannir.4132]

@Obtena.7952 said:

Well, I would advocate that if pistol is so bad that it's not fitting, then yeah, it's going to be way easier for Anet to adjust pistol than it will be to give Engi a whole new weapon. It's also easier for players to justify ... Anet isn't going to just give another weapon to Engi, but we do know they are willing to change weapon skills.

I get what you're saying, that's just the wrong argument.Anet does change weapons but they don't change the intention and fundamental design of the weapon. Pistol, both MH and OH, is a condition DPS weapon.It's not just suddenly going to be changed to a power-based, supportive weapon, which is what OP is asking for.

While a new weapon is extremely unlikely, it's not impossible. They did give revenant trident because they were missing a second UW weapon. This is a similar case, a weapon that has clearly been missing.Last comments from Anet about this topic we've seen are pre-HoT, and they've went back on multiple things they've said won't be happening since then, like mounts, expansions not bringing powercreep, the no trinity-principle, among other things.

[alain.1659]

I would want to see a shortbow or a longbow with engi. I would want a crossbow but anet does not add new weapons to the game. So a mechanical bow would be really cool. We can say "You have failed this server!" and kill people.

[Xaylin.1860]

Considering what they are doing with Blunderbuss, they might just buff Pistol #1 and #2 power damage in close range. This would emphasize the hybrid nature of MH Pistol and give baseline Engineer an at least somewhat MH for power builds.