Guild Wars 2 Engineer profession revealed

This week sees the second to last Guild Wars 2 profession reveal, and guess what?  It's not the Mesmer.  Don't worry, Mesmer fans, you've still got one more chance, but this week goes to to a Guild Wars 2 newcomer: the Engineer.

Not surprisingly, Engineer media boast plenty of charr, what with the cat folk being the most tech savvy race.  And as their name suggests, Engineers like playing around with machines and generally science-y stuff, allowing them to build turrets and various kits to help in a fight.

Like Elementalists, Engi players can only use one weapon set at a time, but they offset this restriction with their kits, which give the Engineer special weapons and backpacks with full skill sets to replace their equipped weapon skills. 

• Weapon Kits—These are utility skills that equip a new weapon in the engineer's hands when activated. For example, the flamethrower kit creates a short-range AOE weapon the engineer can use to overwhelm foes. The flamethrower has skills like Immolate to damage nearby enemies, Air Blast to defend from ranged attacks, and Backdraft to suck enemies into range of the weapon's powerful attacks.
  
  
• Backpack Kits—When activated, these special utility kits equip a backpack that replaces the engineer's current weapon skills with a set of more specialized skills. For example, a bomb kit puts a backpack on engineers that allows them to deploy bombs with a variety of effects including smoke, concussion, and fire.

• Turrets—An engineer can deploy turrets: immobile allied devices that help defend and control an area. When a turret is deployed, the skill in that slot is replaced with its overcharged version. For example, an engineer can deploy a Thumper Turret to cause AOE damage, and then activate the overcharge version of that skill for a big thump attack that knocks down nearby enemies. An engineer can interact with deployed turrets, packing them up and moving them around. This removes the turret—and the option to overcharge it—triggering a short recharge before that turret can be deployed again. Only one of each type of turret can exist at a time.
  
  
• Tool Belt—An engineer tool belt is a set of special skills above the weapon skill bar. It enhances the effectiveness and functionality of the engineer's utility and heal skills. The tool belt can add a self-destruct skill to turrets or a detonation option to all mines. When paired with the grenade kit, the tool belt allows a grenade barrage; with the med kit, it adds a self-healing skill.

Released the latest profession reveal are several skill trailers, demonstrating what this new profession is capable of.  Not surprisingly, pistols and rifles are the Engineer's weapons of choice, and these guys show an archetypal affinity for explosives.  Check out some instances of Engineer badassery below -- screenshots can be found after the break.

Jump Shot

Glue Shot

Absorb

Rifle Turret

Grenade Satchel

Weapons

• Main Hand: Pistol
• Off Hand: Pistol, Shield
• Two-Handed: Rifle

Backpack Kits

• Tool Kit
• Grenade Kit
• Bomb Kit
• Mine Kit
• Med Kit

Weapon Kits

• Flamethrower
• Elixir Gun

Turrets

• Rifle Turret
• Thumper Turret
• Net Turret
• Flame Turret
• Healing Turret

A recent investor conference call at NCsoft suggests that Guild Wars 2 won't be released until 2012.  A beta is expected later this year.