by Janet Pieterse

Created on: May 28, 2011

ArenaNet recently announced the Engineer as the 7th profession in their upcoming game, Guild Wars 2.

Described as “masters of mechanical mayhem”, that can “lay waste to foes with a wide array of mines, bombs, and grenades”, engineers are the very antithesis to the world of swords and sorcery  that has been the hallmark of Guild Wars until now.

The first profession announced for the new game was the Elementalist, a profession that controls fire, earth, air and water to create magical mayhem. The Elementalist can turn  the ground to fire, for example, or rain it down from the heavens;  lightning bolts target foes, water freezes them, seismic shocks shake the earth away from them.

In comes the Engineer, who manufactures mechanical flamethrowers and air barriers instead. Who needs magic and mystery when technology can prevail?

The second profession was the Warrior, a master of weapons such as the sword, axe, hammer, mace, longbow and even a single-target rifle. Enter the engineer with bombs and grenades - does the warrior stand a chance? It brings to mind the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Harrison Ford - confronted by an alarming sword-wielding fiend - pulls out a gun and shoots him. What an anti-climax in Guild Wars.

The third profession was the Ranger, a master of ranged attacks, with a stable of pets,  trapping skills and the ability to raise spirits that help and influence battles. In comes the Engineer with ranged grenades to just blow up the traps, tool belts with skills to enable grenade barrages, turrets that help and influence battles.  Any sensible ranger would immediately change profession to Engineer under the circumstances.

The fourth profession was the Necromancer, a practitioner of dark arts that raises minions from the dead, creates magical wells to control the surrounding area, places marks on the ground to trigger effects on foes and allies, and is able to instil fear into foes. While we don’t yet know if the Engineer can collect bodies to connect to some electrical source and  create Frankensteins, we do know the profession has turrets to control an area. Who needs the necromancer?

The fifth profession was the Guardian, the archetypal Warrior Mage. From the Warrior point of view, the weapons are much the same as those used by the Warrior - and we have already seen how they rate against bombs and grenades. From the Mage point of view, the Guardian offers spirit weapons that may

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