Engineer Ideas:
The premise behind these changes is solve multiple issues people have with Engineer;
1. Engineers are unpopular, these changes may result in a short flavor-of-the-month feel at first, but should bring them to standard popularity with other classes.
2. It will resolve some of the image issues behind engineers being non-engineerish
3. It will simplify, yet make more attractive, one of the more underpopular skill trees in game
These changes are designed specifically for turret engineers, to bring about a new class mechanic that is both fun, unique, and intuitive, while iconifying the class as a whole.
Turrets currently exist in the following form;
Healing: Healing Turret
Utility: Rifle, Rocket, Thumper, Net, Flame
Elite: None
By consolidating all turrets into one turret-based class mechanic (inevitibly replacing the tool belt skills), there can be one overall turret available to the engineer at all times, with different customizations (performed at the Turret Workshop, detailed below).
Turrets will be given independant stats from their owner, also customizable in the same manner. The below stat tables indicate level 80 values (scale appropriately for lower levels).
Rules of Turrets:
-They will have a static 25% chance to crit for 10% crit damage by default.
-They will have 0 natural condition damage by default.
-They will have 5000 HP by default.
-They will have 2000 armor by default.
-Their attack speed, movement speed & cooldown reduction is static, and determined by their configuration.
-The look of the turret is determined by the race of the Engineer. It cannot be changed unless the race of the engineer is changed.
-Turrets will follow the engineer unless directed to a specific location or they are out of range
-Turrets will automatically whatever it is you are actively in combat with
Look and Feel:
The turret will resemble a design similar to it's race of creation. Asuran turrets will be similar to floating golem construction, whereas charr turrets will be closer to a harrier-jet with a rifle mounted on it. Human would resemble a small propeller-driven wind-ship, and I'm not sure about Sylvari or Norn, but they might have designs with borrowed assistance from one of the other races. This is an attempt at making the player relate more to their Engi and their racial choice, which currently only reflects in that all turrets appear to be of Charr design regardless of race.
Turret Interface:
F2 = Defensive Skill. This skill is chosen in the turret workshop and consists of both a passive effect as well as an active one.
F3 = Offensive Skill. This skill is chosen in the turret workshop and consists of both a passive effect as well as an active one.
F4 = Assign Turret. This skill will set your turret to stand in a designated area (ground targetting) with a range of 1200. Using it again will recall your turret to your position. Assign turret is on a 30s cooldown.
Healing a turret:
-Your turrets primary source of healing will be out of combat where it will regenerate health in the same manner as a player, ranger pet, or NPC.
-If your turret dies and you are still in combat, you can [F] interact with it to regen it the same way you would a player, ranger pet, or NPC. This will take a shorter amount of time due to significantly decreased turret health as opposed to any of the above examples.
-If your turret dies and you are out of combat, you can either [F] interact as stated above, or it will slowly regenerate over a period of 20 seconds (unless combat starts in which it will stop)
Turret Workshop:
The user will be able to go to a turret workshop, and customize the turret to fit their playstyle. The turret workshop is located in every capital city including Lions Arch, and has a theme designed to it it's designated city/race. Configuration is done through an intuitive user interface window which is only available at the workshop itself, and allows the user to create what should usually result in a balanced turret situation at all times. The first two parameters listed below are adjusted with sliders that go toward/away from one of the titles or another. The second 3 are selected either via Radio button or Drop-down. The parameters are as follows:
Power vs. Range - 8 varying levels.
Mobility vs. Attack Speed - 8 varying levels.
Defensive attributes - 1 selectable
Offensive attributes - 1 selectable
Passive attributes - 1 selectable
PWR vs. RNG (slider) Level___Damage__Range___Crit Dmg____Condition Lvl 1____320_____2000____49.00%_______0 Lvl 2____370_____1800____42.00%_______75 Lvl 3____430_____1600____35.00%_______150 Lvl 4____480_____1400____28.00%_______225 Lvl 5____530_____1200____21.00%_______300 Lvl 6____580_____1000____14.00%_______375 Lvl 7____630_____800_____7.00%________450 Lvl 8____680_____600_____0.00%________525 MOV vs. A-SPD (slider) Level___Mov Speed___Atk Speed___Offense CD__Defense CD Lvl 1____150.00%_____1 per 3.1s____CD -49%____CD -0% Lvl 2____130.00%_____1 per 2.8s____CD -42%____CD -7% Lvl 3____110.00%_____1 per 2.5s____CD -35%____CD -14% Lvl 4____90.00%______1 per 2.2s____CD -28%____CD -21% Lvl 5____70.00%______1 per 1.9s____CD -21%____CD -28% Lvl 6____50.00%______1 per 1.6s____CD -14%____CD -35% Lvl 7____25.00%______1 per 1.3s____CD -7%_____CD -42% Lvl 8____0.00%_______1 per 1.0s____CD -0%_____CD -49%
Defensive Abilities (F2): You can only have one of these
1. Armored Shell (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Turret gains an additional 500 armor
Active: Turret gains 2 stacks of aegis for 5 seconds.
2. Smoke Screen (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Absorbs 10% of damage taken by Engi
Active: Turret sprays blinding gas for 5 seconds (Combo field: Smoke)
3. Space Distortion (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Energy regeneration +25%
Active: Engi teleports 900 range away in random direction
Offensive Abilities (F3): You can only have one of these
1. Sure Shot (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): All turret attacks pierce their target
Active: The next turret attack crits for 100% extra damage
2. Rapid Fire (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): All turret attacks have a 50% chance to bounce to an
adjacent target for 50% damage
Active: Turrets attack speed doubles for 5 seconds
3. Explosive Shells (30s cooldown):
Passive (not lost upon skill usage): Every seventh turret shot dazes the target for .25
seconds
Active: Turrets next attack knocks the enemy down
Passive Attribute: You can only have one of these
1. Red Shells: Everytime you activate an offensive or defensive turret ability, your turrets next attack will inflict 5s of burning.
2. Blue Chassis: Your turret emits a regenerating mist every 15s which lasts for 5s and effects surrounding allies (and itself).
3. Yellow Battery: If your turret dies, it explodes in an area dealing burning and knockback to nearby enemies.
Key changes required to Engineers:
1. Tool belt skills will need to go away, as there will be too many class mechanics on one bar. However, I don't feel that this would be a problem, since the tool-belt skills exist in their current form to account for the utility skills being eaten up by kits, and the fact that we didn't have a class mechanic otherwise. This is a benefit, as I'll state below...
2. Weapon swapping will need to be enabled on engineers! Kit skills will still take up a spot without providing an extra skill. This can be accounted for by allowing engineers to have weapon swapping. This is more important due to the fact that Engineers will now have more..
3. Weapon combinations! We currently have Pistol/Pistol, Rifle, and Pistol/Shield (in addition to kits if used). We need a real, viable, melee option, and I think that will be allowing the following additional weapon combinations to be possible:
* Hammer
* Mace
4. The above weapon skill additions, in conjunction with the configuration possibilities of the redesigned turrets, will allow engineers to spec into a melee build that does not depend on the Wrench skill.
5. The wrench kit has not been accounted for just yet, neither has the missing utility/healing skills as a result of the now missing 5 turrets. Traits, similarly, are also not yet accounted for.
6. Many parts of Engineer are still broken, non-functional, and non-synergetic. We don't have a wide variety of builds, and some skills are substantially better than others. This redesign does not account for that, and there will still need to be balancing work done all across the board to make this a whole class.
Benefits of the redesign:
1. Engineers will feel more like engineers.
2. Engineers will have more of a connection to their race.
3. Some (if not all) of the pangs of poor weapon choice, weapon combination and weapon skinning should be alleviated by the racial turrets, and non-dependance on kit-skills.
4. Turrets will finally be viable in all situations, not just PvE leveling. This is a result of allowing the player to choose how their turrets will act, as well as allowing them to have a targetting skill.
5. Engineers should find themselves no longer the least popular class to play.
