Panda.1967

Changes like those will never happen to elementalist or revenant. For elementalist to remove attunement swapping for a spec would require they either A) create a whole new set of weapon skills for each elementalist weapon designed to function without attunements, or B) selectively pick skills from each attunement to create a coherent and fully functional weapon skill kit for each weapon. Currently elementalist weapons are designed with attunements in mind allotting them greater flexibility in skill design since each attunement can hold different utility and function. They dont need to be insure access to CC, combos, boons, etc… somewhere in the 5 slot weapon skill set, but rather somewhere in the 20 slot weapon skill kit. Its why elementalist can have a weapon that is pure power in fire, condi on earth, support on water, and CC on air and other such combinations. Removing attunements for an elite spec is a much bigger undertaking than you think it is. We are far more likely to see a 5th attunement added with an elite spec than to ever see them removed for one. While it would be interesting to see something like what you proposed for Revenant, it too would never happen. Revenant is in the unique position of having virtually no build diversity as a direct result of its design. And funny enough, even if they did do what you said it would actually be no different than how revenant already is design wise… 5 preset utility skills with some functionality change with legend is hardly any different from 5 preset utility skills that change with legend… infact you could argue it would be actively worse than just leaving it as is. The Revenant situation there actually perfectly highlights the actual issue as to why those three mechanics are as limiting to design potential as they are… there is no feasible way to really alter, remove, or replace these mechanics that wouldn’t result in a noticeable loss in effectiveness of the professions. Regarding the thief, of course they have no problems tinkering with steal and stealth attack… those are literally the only mechanics on thief they even can tinker with… they have touched Initiative only one time, halving it on Spectre, and it has done nothing but cause problems… the only real way they can do anything to initiative is if they remove it and give thief normal weapon skill CDs but that would be a nerf. Stealth attack and steal could both vanish from thief and it wouldn’t really make an impact, they are as tacked on as most class mechanics… initiative however is completely integrated in the core function of the profession.

Steal isnt the mechanic that holds thief back and keeps every spec feeling the same… Initiative is… Warrior could have an espec that doesn't use adrenaline, but unless it is replaced with something similar (like flow for bladesworn) it renders several traits and skills from core warrior useless… a Thief however can’t have an elite spec that doesn’t use Initiative due to how intrinsically tied the mechanic is to the core functionality of the whole profession… just like how Elementalist can’t have an elite spec without Attunements and Revenant can’t have an elite spec without Legends. These three professions are restricted by those core mechanics. The mechanics for all other professions can potentially be manipulated altered or outright replaced with little to no issues. Adrenaline doesn't restrict the design of Warriors because it can be replaced and altered to fit the needs of the elite spec. Life Force & Shroud don't limit the design of Necromancers for the same reason. Mesmers don’t have to have clones or even shatters. Guardians can swap out Virtues for nearly anything. Engineers clearly don’t need to have Toolbelt skills given the fact that ANet so readily replaced them all for Mech. Rangers don’t actually have to have a pet, and ANet seems to have no issues just adding new mechanics to them without really taking anything away too…

I still want to see Ritualist, Dervish, & Paragon added as new professions… and those three all line up quite well as Light, Medium, Heavy armor respectively. Monk would be nice to see returned too, but if I have to choose between Monk & Ritualist I will always choose Ritualist… SotO had some serious missed opportunities for some good elite specs with the new core weapons… heck, Paragon would have fit perfectly as a Warrior elite spec even… would prefer it as a full profession though… Personally… I like the concept of elite specs, but I would much rather we just get new professions in their entirety… elite specs are often held back by the limitations of the core profession’s basic class mechanics… elementalists must have attunements, mesmers must do something with clones (even if it is turn them into blades), necromancers must have a use for lifeforce, warriors must use adrenaline, guardians must have virtues, ranger must always have a pet in some way, revenant & thief literally can’t have anything changed… engineer is the only profession they have ever ignored the base class mechanic on and look how that turned out… they got the most overtuned signet skills ever to compensate for the loss of toolbelt skills. Revenant, Thief, & Elementalist are the three professions who’s class mechanics hold them back the most in regards to elite spec design, because all three of them have base mechanics that are so integral to the functionality of the profession that they absolutely must be left fully intact… there is no room to play around with their mechcanics. For revenant it’s kind of worse since it was literally designed to have elite specs tacked on as new legends. It is the only profession that doesn’t ever actually experience meaningful changes with elite specs. Vindicator is the only one that managed to make the profession feel even slightly different by changing how it’s dodging works. honestly, rather than new eite specs I would much rather see them expand upon existing skill sets for each profession… add a new skill of each type, address long standing issues, and rework trait lines that are underwhelming.

I don’t think ammunition is necessary… just give them an operational range, and if the engineer leaves that range the turrets shut down and start to degrade (taking periodic damage until they are destroyed). The exact distance of the operational range would require some testing to find a range that both feels good and isn't easily exploited. I’d think 1500 range would be good, but maybe thats too far and too easy to exploit…

The main factor that played into turrets being used that way was the fact that they didn’t use your stats to determine damage (and still don’t)… instead of blanket nerfing their damage how they did, they should have simply made them scale with stats like any other skill, it would have killed off the bunker turret tank builds while still keeping turrets useable… heck simply making turrets scale with stats today would be a huge buff to turrets that would raise them from utterly useless to maybe worth taking in a fight.

Imagine if elementalist weapons had Arcane skills by default and activating an attunement temporarily changed them to stronger elemental versions but CDs were shared…

I said this same thing when the change was first announced… back then people claimed that the optimal way to use turrets was to place in a combo field and detonate… I still to this day think overcharge should be returned as a flip skill. Heck, add a chance to detonate on overcharge even…

Nope… Capcom and SqEnix have a long history of crossovers. The two companies have been working together for decades. Anet is viewed as a competitor by both as well. While crossovers are neat, they don’t tend to happen between competing companies. We would be more likely to see a crossover with a game by any of the smaller devs under the NCsoft banner.

Honestly I think one of my biggest gripes about the cosmetic systems in GW2 is the fact that some of the best cosmetics are locked to the Costume system… there are so many amazing styles we could have if only we could mix and match costume pieces with armor pieces…

1) weapon mastery training does what should have been done in the first place with espec weapons… it has never made sense to lock the weapons to the especs. I understood having them locked behind the especs, but once unlocked they should have just been unlocked like they are now. So many weapon balance issues and poor weapon design choices may have never happened had they done this in the first place. 2) for the most part, the new weapons are alright… some of them could have used some adjustments… and a couple are just awful… Elementalist Pistol and Thief Axe both honestly should have been offhand weapons, their designs and mechanics wouldn’t have even really needed to change at all either… they just aren’t good designs for standalone mainhand weapons… perfect for offhand though… Engineer Shortbow is awful… it had a cool concept but the execution both in beta and final release was horrendous. It is a prime example of why we should have been given a second beta weekend to test the changes before they went live. Revenant Scepter is also aweful, they very clearly did NOT think this weapon through to any degree. The auto attack beam is longer than the attack range, and skills 2 & 3 both do effectively the same thing as eachother, it needs a major overhaul. Loving Warrior Staff, Necromancer Swords, Ranger Maces, and Guardian Pistols. I honestly don’t understand all the hate on the symbol for guardian pistols, I swear half the people raging about it haven’t actually read how the skill even works. Melee attacks in the symbol inflict burning to up yo 5 targets inside the symbol, projectiles that passthrough (or originate within) the symbol inflict burning to their target. It makes sense for it to be placed at your feet, it makes it versatile. Enemies that get close will burn from all of your attacks, and enemies at a distance will burn from your projectiles (note: pistol 2 is the only non-projectile attack for guardian pistols)… the only issue I take with the symbol is that it isn’t accompanied by any sort of attack. And that brings us to Mesmer Rifle… my one and only gripe with this weapon is the portal… the skill is completely useless outside of group content and in group content it is still practically useless… a single use one-way portal!!! seriously Anet… you think a single use one-way portal is even remotely useful? Let us detonate the portal to warp ourselves to the portal’s location or something… give us some actually useful functionality to it. 3) I like both additions… I have issues with some of the new weapons, but thats alright… I have issue with various especs and core features/skills too… glares at the uselessness of engineer turrets… anyways… I would have still preferred to have seen a new set of especs in all honesty… weapon master training should have happened regardless, but these new weapons should have been accompanied by a new set of eapecs. Looking at what we got weapon wise I can actually see a few espec possibilities for some of them.. Elementalist: Spellslinger - marrying magic and firearms into a potently deadly combination Spellslingers use bullet skills to rain down destruction on their enemies. Guardian: Enforcer - Giardians are bastions of justice, but when in lawless lands a Guardian must take it upon themselves to become an Enforcer of justice armed with pistols and doling out Punishments to the unjust. Warrior: Paragon - Paragons are symbols of leadership and expert tacticians who will go to great lengths to ensure the survival of those who join them in battle. Unlike the paragons of old, many have now adapted spear techniques to staves while under the tyranical rule of Polowa Joko. etc… so much lost potential…

The toolbelt was devised as the class mechanic under the concept that every tool in an engineer’s toolkit is can be used in multiple ways. Toolbelt skills act as the alternative use of each utility skill. That is a Bad faith argument. Every class is fundamentally different from one another. Those of us who want weapon swap on engineer WANT TO PLAY ENGINEER. Also, it being capable of performing well doesn’t automatically make all the problems with the profession and many of its ability types go away. Engineer has a fundamental problem because of its lack of weapon swap. If you don’t play holosmith and you don’t slot a weapon kit, you are at a fundamental disadvantage in almost all content. Engineer is the ONLY profession where this problem exists. Elementalists always have attunements available, Bladesworn always have their gunsabre available, and Holosmiths always have their photon forge available. What do all other engineers have? The option of being forced to slot a weapon kit in place of a utlity… Believe it or not, there are plenty of players who love what the engineer has to offer but hate kits and want to be able to play the class to its fullest still. Weapon swap is a necessity to achieve that.

disclaimer: my wishlist may trigger some people due to the sheer number of off-hand weapons… Elementalist: Off-hand Pistol Ele Pistol feels so incomplete without and off-hand, and I still feel it should have just been an off-hand to begin with. Mesmer: Main-hand Pistol I’ve been asking for main-hand Mesmer pistol since day 1… Thief: Any off-hand… Focus, Axe, or Sword preferably Thief desperately needs a new off-hand weapon, it doesn’t really matter which one it is… Focus would be a great pairing for Scepter, and both Axe & Sword main-hands could use an off-hand counterpart. Engineer: Off-hand Axe or Main-hand Scepter I feel off-hand Axe is self explanatory… Main-hand Scepter though requires a little explanation… the thought is to have it function like a stun baton… short range or electricity themed melee auto attack, an AoE ground slam that creates an electric field, etc… I’ve been throwing this idea around since around when HoTs came out… I always thought a melee scepter stun baton was a perfect fit for engineer and paired perfectly with their shield. Guardian: Warhorn Much needed off-hand support weapon. Ranger: Shield, Rifle, or Pistols These have all been long time requests for Ranger… I’d be happy with any of these three as the next ranger weapon. Warrior: Main-hand Pistol Warrior is running out of available new weapons… MH Pistol is about the only one left that makes any sense… Necromamcer: Shield Bone Shields were an iconic item for Necromancers. Revenant: ??? I honestly have no clue what Revenant should get next… all of their weapons are so closely tied to their Legends anyways… even the new Scepter feels as if they designed it specifically to fit in with the Shield under Legendary Dragon.

That is NOT why toolbelt skills were made. Toolbelt skills were made because every profession has a class mechanic to interact with. Warriors have Adrenaline and Bursts, Mesmers have Shatters, Necromancers have Death Shroud, Rangers have Pets, Guardians have Virtues, Elementalists have Attunements… Engineers were given Toolbelt as their class mechanic way back before the first alpha test. It was stated by myself and many others back then even that the class felt incomplete with its very limited weapon selection (Pistols, Shield, & Rifle) and having to give up a utility to weapon swap. It would have been better if, and even seemed as if it was originally meant to be, that Kits were to be the Engineers class mechanic. A lot of early toolbelt skills were very poorly designed, and kits felt like they were meant to give engineer builds their identity. Med Kit originally had 4 copies of the exact same skill, Drop Med Pack, and one “stonger” version Drop Med Packs on skill 5 that dropped 5 packs at once. It was a rush job to give engineers a healing weapon kit. Mortar as others have mentioned didn’t exist at launch. Tool Kit was designed to be used with Turrets… and still is… it is quite clear in its design that it wasn’t meant to be a utility skill hut rather a class mechanic originally. the devs have even stated before in the past that Engineer had some major changes before the first alpha. Kits most likely were the original class mechanic and honestly probably should have remained that way.

Engineers are long overdue for weapon swap. They never should have been without it in the first place. I said it during Alpha, Beta, and every expansion, and I’ll say it again now. If Kits are the reason that Engineers can’t have weapon swap then they should have been the profession mechanic instead of, or in addition to, the toolbelt. They’ve added weapon swap to a profession that was originally designed to not have it before. In all honesty kits do not supplement the lack of a weapon swap in the first place, many of them are really no better than an extra set of utility skills anyways. Medkit is just 5 healing utility skills, bomb kit is just a bunch of CC utlity with some damage, elixir gun is just support utility, tool kit is literally just all utility skills and an auto attack… that leaves Grenade Kit, Flame Thrower, and Mortar Kit as actually functioning like weapons… Grenade & Mortar are virtually identical to eachother and a little awkward to use with them being entirely ground target. Flamethrower being a midrange weapon makes it a bit of an awkward weapon swap too… it’s got half the range of Rifle, Shortbow, & Pistol, and it gains barely any range over melee weapons. Also should note, Mortar kit is a waste of an elite skill if taken on any elite spec… Mortar kit is only really a good elite skill for its toolbelt skill, which you don't even get with elite specs, without its toolbelt skill it is not woth being an elite skill. People keep claiming it will cause balance issues… the same claims were made about revenant when the community demanded it get weapon swap. Adding weapon swap to Revenant hardly caused any balance issues if any. Stop making baseless speculation about how something that NONE OF US CAN EVEN TEST IN THE FIRST PLACE is going to affect balance. You DO NOT KNOW if it will cause balance issues, stop acting like you do. If you think it will, then state so as your personal opinion, stop claiming it as fact. It is your opinion, it is not a fact. It is my opinion that it won’t cause a ton of balance problems. The only “balance issues” I can see it causing would be that some engineer builds may have slightly greater access to CCs in PvP… ooo so scary… it would fix far more problems than it would create.

Its all because they have gotten stuck on this misguided kick of “passive playstyle traits are bad and need to go away” which at a surface level may seem fine, but the real problem is that the more passive traits you push into more active traits the harder it becomes to make a coherent build and the more homogeneous builds become. A lot of “passive” on crit, on projectile hit, and on (skill type) trigger traits have been reworked into on disable, on dodge, and on elite/heal skill trigger traits over the course of SotO and the second half of EoD. These changes force everyone into a specific playstyle and restrict build diversity since now you have to include specific abilities just to even have a chance of seeing the same performance your build had before and you are now burning healing and elite skills for effects you would have had from a utility skill, weapon skill, or profession ability. (Or in the case of Chronomancer’s attempting to shatter clones more often since alacrity was moved from wells to shatters for no good reason)

Changing the trigger from on Crit to on Disable is infact a MASSIVE nerf. The ICD reduction & potency increases effectively add nothing to the skill because engineer doesn’t have that much access to CC outside of a few very specific builds. Bunker Down was an engineer staple that could be used on. Any build, now it requires heavy access to CC. In PvP it may still be very potent, but in PvE it has been completely gutted in usefulness by this change. Enemies with breakbars or CC immunity cause this trait to do absolutely nothing, which actually makes it undesirable and useless in most PvE content.

About time the mine spawn location was fixed… but changing it from on critical to on disable is an absolutely MASSIVE nerf… you just utterly gutted its use against anything that has a breakbar or is just flatout CC immune… good job Anet, you simultaneously finally listened to the engineer player community and proceeded to nerf yet anpther engineer staple onto oblivion under the guise of improving it…

I think a simple change could make a big difference… for instance, the lower your initiative the higher your initiative regen is. This would make it so you spend less time waiting on initiative for low cost abilities and can reliably use high cost abilities in a more timely manner without having to camp your auto attack for long periods of time.

You’re conflating optimal with complex. There is nothing complicated about the ele pistol. Using the skills in the wrong order won’t stop you from doing damage, nor will it radically change how the weapon works. It is optimal to use the skills in a specific order, but having an optimal rotation does not equate complexity. Complexity comes from mechanics. Engi shortbow was complex because you had to reactivate skills to make them do anything and what skills you used before detonating as well as which one you detonate changed how things worked. You had to track positioning, order, and effect simultaneously to even make use of the weapon. Now that they detonate on impact though they are on the same level of complexity as most other weapons in the game. Leaving them to now just have an optimal order and the most complexity they have is simply being ground targeted.

It is impossible to please everyone in this community… hell people can’t even really agree on what is complex and what is simple… you call the Ranger’s Mace braindead simple because all you do is use the skills in order and repeat… well so what? In all honesty thats every weapon in the game… even the Elementalist’s Pistol that people call overly complicated is in actuality no more complicated to use than Ranger’s Mace. Use skill 2 or 3 stock bullet, use skill 2 or 3 again expend bullet… swap attunement and repeat… stock all bullets and use autoattack for weak elemental unload and regret not just repeating the simple uncomplicated rotation that actually does damage… it’s not actually complicated at all, its just stupid. the only weapon that actually had a complicated gimmick was Engineer Shortbow, and that gimmick got reworked into something braindead simple because it was proven to be unnecessarily complicated… with its rework the most complicated weapon mechanic in the game is Necro Staff… and its so braindead simple that it’s constantly being used by bots… if you want a complicated weapon mechanic, I’m sorry to tell you, you won’t actually find one in this game. Complicated mechanics are only on classes themselves not their weapons… complex interactions between class mechanics and weapons are a thing though with all Elementalists… as well as Holosmith with its Sword.

Necro Swords, Warrior Staff, and Ranger Mace are all implemented fairly well with minimal issues… Guardian Pistol and Mesmer Rifle have a few usability issues that need addressing still but are otherwise well done. Revenant Scepter and Engineer Shortbow are great in concept, but need some major work to make right… Elementalist Pistol and Thief Axe… there are so many issues with both of these weapons its not even funny… however the vast majority of their issues could easily have been fixed by simply converting them to offhand weapons. Elementalist pistol directly competes with Scepter for the exact same role and purpose when it should be an off-hand complement instead. Thief Axe similarly is conpetkng for a mainhand role that is already filled while its design would have worked perfectly as an offhand complement for other weapons (scepter/axe would have been amazing).

The biggest problem with it is that it really doesn’t actually do anything… it has a weak auto attack, and 2 skills that both grant the exact same buffs that are barely noticeable.

Absolutely… many of us gave feedback about charge level 3 detonating on skill reactivation only during beta… it NEEDS to detonate on contact. The skill reactivation option is fine… as an OPTION If you want to detonate it early…

Was it worth losing real expansions for? Absolutely not… this is literally attempt #3 of Anet attempting to not have full expansions in GW2… attempt 1: original Living World… Living World was intended to be how GW2 story expanded originally, but updates were too sparse and the original design for them was unsatisfying and wasn’t inviting of new players… so we got Season 2 reformatting Living World into an episodic and then the first Expansion… attempt 2: Sagas… Icebrood Saga was literally a rehash of their original plan to use living world to expand the world and story… and it failed epically… as expected… so we got a rushed ending to IBS and the release of EoD… attempt 3: mini expansions… SotO is the first of these living world seasons packaged as an expansion… and I hope anet gets the message that we are not happy with this experiment…

Will people stop misusing “maintenance mode” already… its a very old and tired joke… this game is not now nor has it ever been in maintenance mode. Maintenance mode means no active or planned development, the game is to be maintained in its current state updated only for stability and bug fixes. We’ve had content droughts, sure, but every time we knew development was happening and an update was coming. Development has never once stopped for GW2.