GUILDWARSINSIDER

Welcome, fellow Engineers and onlookers! I hope you all weren’t too put off by Wormwood’s sneaky post last week, but I couldn’t man the fort while I was busy returning him the favor. On a related note, funeral services would be held for the recently-stabbed Lawrence, but none of us liked him. We just gave him a viking’s funeral…with lots of gunpowder.

So anyway, I think we can all relate in that we all have that one friend or family member that just seems to be perfect…but you know there’s gotta be something wrong under the surface. They’re just so handsome or beautiful and they always got good grades in school. They’ve just landed their dream job and everything seems to be going great for them.

Well, that person is us as a whole! Everyone else looks at Engineers in awe and glory as we march triumphantly across the land, mixing our concoctions and blowing up whatever we please. The sad truth, though, is that Engineers had some issues that only players of the profession were aware of. Things like effective range, damage output, utility, and survivability all had some major problems. Thankfully, ArenaNet seems to have heard some of our woes and have made some major changes to these areas. We still have some inefficiencies that will have to be ironed out, but on the whole the Engineer is in a fine state for launch!

This? I call ‘er the “Bar of Soap” because Thieves ignore it until it’s too late.

Range

Unfortunately for Engineers, we’re still kinda gimped for range. If you recall, our basic weapons (Pistols and Rifle) only have an effective range of 900, at least from what I remember. The rifle got an ever-so-small boost with Hip Shot and Net Shot’s range going up to 1,000. That still leaves us down by 200, though. That’s a range of 200 in which we can’t hit our enemies, but they can hit us! Every other profession in Tyria has a reliable means to put out damage at 1,200 range, and honestly it’s not okay that we can’t. I’m sure that with time though, our whining will be heard and addressed, much as other issues have been.

While our base weapons still only have an effective range of 900-1,000, at least with the rifle they’ve given us some incentive to use the darned thing like a shotgun! I’ll get into that a big later. Our Grenade Kit, among other buffs, got it’s range bumped up to 1,200, and that makes me happy! It still takes a keen eye and an explosive personality to land a grenade hit though, and while the grenades do appear to fly faster than they used to, it’s still going to take skill to actually land them on an enemy’s head.

Damage

Literally the number one complaint I had about my chosen profession is that we simply didn’t do all that much damage. How is that even possible, what with the kind of artillery we throw around at even the slightest whim?

I throw grenades to kill every critter I see in the Black Citadel.

Seriously, how is that fortress not a pile of twisted, smoking metal by now? How are we not doing serious damage to everything we touch? Well, thankfully it seems as though our damage potential has gone up a bit since BWE2. Some of the contributing factors are simple damage increases, while others are changes to mechanics that were much needed.

• Explosive Shot, the Pistol’s primary attack, now has a much wider explosive range, roughly double what it used to be. It definitely feels a lot bigger, and we do much more damage because we’re simply hitting more collateral targets. While it doesn’t really help for single-target encounters, we don’t really need it to, because that’s why we have a rifle!

• After playing almost the whole weekend with the Ol’ Jerry, I think the rifle is finally in a good state.

  • Hip Shot does much more damage than it used to, a needed and appreciated change.

  • Blunderbuss actually had a damage reduction, but it has a new effect: Blunderbuss now applies up to 4 stacks of Bleeding, depending on how close you are to the target(s). And yes, if you didn’t know, you can hit multiple enemies with one Blunderbuss shot!

  • This new bleeding effect is a nice balance, and the damage reduction is made up for if you apply even a single stack of bleeding (which you would, if you hit your target at all), so really Blunderbuss got a nice damage buff.

  • Jump Shot does way more damage than it used to, and just generally feels a lot less clunky than it used to. It’s nothing major, but I know I really appreciate it!

Jump Shot just feels cooler now, y’know?

• Y’know how you could trait Grenades to have a chance at throwing 2 at a time? No? Well that’s because no one used the Grenade Kit before! Except me, and that’s only because it was the most entertaining method of ridding the world of slimy filthy vermin. On a related note: Thieves do not handle having grenades thrown at them very well. Anyways, everyone and their Granny will be using the Grenade Kit because throwing 2 grenades at once is now part of the standard package! That trait that gave a chance at 2 grenades now gives a chance at 3. This counts as a damage increase because the damage of each grenade effectively doubled. This is awesome because grenades were incredibly underpowered before.

• I wont go into huge detail about underwater combat, but there was a general damage boost to all underwater combat abilities, and Timed Charge applies more stacks of Vulnerability than it used to, effectively increasing damage output.

Utility and Survivability

Engineers are useful and squishy. Its amazing how proportional those two attributes are, isn’t it? Must be why Thieves are so darned hard to kill, they’re just not all that useful! (Bazinga!) So what changes came about to help us do our jobs a little better by staying alive a little longer?

• Firstly, the Pistol’s Glue Shot received a much needed change: after the initial glue has set in, any enemies that walk over it will be Crippled. That is a huge change, and honestly I was starting to think that it’s exclusion was a bug, not a design oversight.

• I didn’t have time to try the Bomb Kit, but I would certainly hope that the Glue Bomb has the same effect!

• The new traits, Energized Armor and Juggernaut seems to help address Engineer survivability by encouraging the stacking of Toughness, especially while toting around with the Flame Thrower. It makes me feel kinda like this guy!

• That’s awesome! On a sadder, but expected note: you can no longer fire the Flame Thrower and Elixir Gun abilities behind you. Sad day!

New Stuff

While most of the changes to the Engineer were changes to existing effects, we did get two major changes. The first change is sorely needed and highly appreciated: the downed skill Booby Trap now launches enemies away when used. Engineers finally have a method of interrupting that killing blow animation, just like every other profession! The second change is a brand new skill that replaced Mine Kit: Throw Mine!

So tiny and destructive…

This new skill is all of my want wrapped into a small, explosive, hard-to-see package that people walk right over! The old Mine Kit was clunky and not very fun at all. This ability redesign is my favorite Engineer change since the Engineer was announced as a profession!

• The skill itself works basically like the old mines used to: you toss one out onto the ground and after .7 seconds of arming itself, it’ll explode as soon as someone steps on it.

• Someone near it but not tripping the mine? Press the button again! KABOOM!

• This mine is so awesome that it knocks back, deals damage, and removes boons.

• The Toolbelt skill for it is phenomenal as well. Remember throwing mines out one at a time? That’s so old-school, Grandpa! The kids these days just hit F1 and throw out all 5 mines at once. We can detonate them all by hitting F1 again.

• I think this was a bug more than anything, but I think that you actually had to detonate the Toolbelt mines for the cooldown to reset. That needs to change if it’s intended, and is my only complaint on the skill.

Come at me, Bro!

“Engineers are kinda just generally support characters” is something I might have said a few months ago (Don’t tell Centurion, he doesn’t like anyone stealing his support…erm…thunder). After this last weekend, though, I wouldn’t even dream of it! Engineers are king of the mountain, as they should be! It might be a mountain of TNT and chemical waste, but it’s our mountain!

Are you guys excited for the changes? Are there any other glaring Engineer errors that you think need fixed before launch? We’re less than a month away now and I’m relieved that, while Engineers may still have problems, we are leaps and bounds better than what we were originally.