Engineer trait lines

[michelada.2947]

Every single time i play my engineer and i want to select the trait lanes happens the same, over and over again, i feel that engineer trait lanes are the worst of all the classes, specially when i come from my guardian or ranger, those 2 classes have an amazing range of tools in the trait lanes from defensive to offensive, while engineer options are too obvious and some of the traits are too weak or too situational, i wish something is fixed in the future .

[Vagrant.7206]

Yep, I don't know how many times we've tried listing off how stale our useful traits are, (or how interesting our useless traits are) or the fact that many are rendered utterly pointless (IE turret traits) by virtue of the fact that the skills surrounding those traits are ludicrously underpowered now. In PvP, EVERY SINGLE ENGINEER BUILD uses alchemy, specifically mid-mid-up. You can't PvP without it, or you're toast. I would urge ANet devs to look at expanding our defensive options as well as "flavorful" options to make them more useful.

Also, examine traits like modified ammunition -- who does this serve? It doesn't serve condi builds, as they aren't relying on straight damage output. It doesn't serve power builds because they don't produce enough condis. Weird traits get caught in this bizarre catch-22. Modified ammunition only proves useful in the context of raids, where it may provide a slight damage boost by virtue of a large team churning out condis.

[DGraves.3720]

Engineers were hit the hardest when the number of traits was greatly reduced. There is no way for a strong recovery specifically because almost all of the traits really need to pander to "types of play" and Engineers (sadly) have too many to really trait in a diverse manner. For instance all of the turret traits contain what would normally be in two traits but had to be condensed and then a lot of the healing was just flat out cut from the Engineer leaving damage and rather weak control. The offset is supposed to be the skills that are available but in reality they can't because the offsets themselves are also cyclical to the problem where you have independent skills that are extremely dependent on being traited corrected and of course traits that only work when you have the right skills. Since neither stands alone well improvement has to come at the core unfortunately.

[michelada.2947]

they should compact all the kit traits into a single one, this way it would leave like 4 or 5 spaces open for new trait lines

[Arimas.3492]

@michelada.2947 said:they should compact all the kit traits into a single one, this way it would leave like 4 or 5 spaces open for new trait lines

I don't think merging all if the kit traits into 1 is a good idea but there are some that would make sense merging, like backpack regenerator and health insurance or inversion enzyme. Or juggernaut and something else. I say we merge traits that only affect one kit into ones that affect engineering kits or just ones that make sense like the bomb and grenade kit traits.

I'd rather see traits more focused on engineering kits as a whole rather than each kit getting an individual trait, as that holds back other options that we could have.

Or we could just take all the traits that currently affect a single kit and make those baseline, with some exceptions like juggernaut since that would be a little much. Personally I don't think juggernaut is worthy of a GM anymore though. But yeah the traits that affect bombs/nades/tool kit could be made baseline and then the EG trait merged into backpack regenerator rather than the above example I gave.

As for juggernaut I'm not sure what I would do with that trait. I don't think flamethrower is a good option anymore for camping the kit like it used to be after the serious power nerf it got. So I could see some type of change to that.

[Chaith.8256]

I would like to see a wider variety of usefulness in the underused traits.

Firearms: Juggernaut: Gain Might and Stability when wielding Pistols, Rifle, or Flamethrower.

Alchemy: Backpack Regenerator: Gain Backpack Regenerator for ten seconds after using an Engineering Kit (this is how it actually functioned from launch until Core Specializations patch.) With Scrapper and Holosmith, you spend maybe 0%-33% in an Engineering Kit, so this trait's 117 healing multipled by the pitiful uptime = depressing.

Alchemy: Inversion Enzyme: Elixirs (not just elixir gun) that remove conditions now convert them into boons. Will no longer work on fumigate, but will be a much more solid trait overall given the baseline elixirs in Alchemy.

Tools: Static Discharge: Discharge a bolt of lightning at enemies affected by a tool belt ability or a disable. Possibly take away ability to bounce discharges

Scrapper: Decisive Renown - Reviving an ally, stomping a foe, or using a healing skill applies Decisive Renown.

Scrapper: Impact Savant - The duration of all outgoing CC (Not just stuns and dazes) are increased, and the duration of all incoming CC is reduced. (Fear, Taunt, Knockdown, blowout.)

Scrapper: Expert Examination - Disabling (not just stuns and dazes) a Foe applies vulnerability and weakens them.

Edit: The reason for changing Scrapper traits that affect dazes and stuns, with Gyros no longer dazing at all, the traits are sort of pointless.

[Vagrant.7206]

@Chaith.8256 said:Firearms: Juggernaut: Gain Might and Stability when wielding Pistols, Rifle, or Flamethrower.

Omg, yes. Engineers have so little access to stability, that this would finally feel like a worthwhile trait to take.

@Chaith.8256 said:Tools: Static Discharge: Discharge a bolt of lightning at enemies affected by a tool belt ability or a disable. Possibly take away ability to bounce discharges

The problem with static discharge is that it's almost like several different spells. The targeting is ****ed. If they could fix that bug, it would be more viable.

[santenal.1054]

The location of the Juggernaut trait has to change, it makes no sens that a trait for a condi focused kit has to compete with Incendiary Powder, a trait virtually essential for a condi build.

Make Skilled Marksman an Adept tier trait so it competes (not really) with Chemical Rounds and put Juggernaut in the Master trait tier.