Engineer a better weapon

[Gluttony]

I do love the idea of class specific weapons; in fact I tried to keep all my toons using only weapons designed for them. That was until I noticed how pointless it actually was for one class in particular:

As a commando, using a cannon is awesome! It is the only weapon that has area of effect (AoE), which means that a com can actually taunt without having to use a skill and gain aggro thus being an effective tank. The cannon allows a player to be an important part of the team.

The operative has dual wield, meaning they get two weapons. Not only is it pretty sweet to see an op in action, but two handed gun running means more damage per second (DPS) in exchange for less armor. Again, this plays into the class’ strength as a single target damage dealer.

Finally, we have the engineer and their weaponized gloves. Now if the tradition would hold true then I would expect some sort of advantage for choosing to keep the eng’s designated item equipped; however, I fail to see any bonus. I’d love to see a bit of an armor increase since that would be useful for the class, or maybe a longer range bonus which would allow them to sit in the background out of harm’s way.

I’m just wondering if there is any logical reason to actually lace those gloves up for combat or if a standard gun and shield is a much better choice; anyone out there actually fist pumpin’ with their engineer out?

Screenshots to illustrate my points:

ElectroRazer/Electro-Blocker (L35 gun/shield)


Aan's Embrace (crafted L40 weapon)


Stats don't lie; leveling up to 40, spending 35k to crafting some gloves and finally equipping them nets you:
+7 INT, +2 Hit%, -7 Crit, -2 Dodge, -19 Health, -99 Mana, -4/+5 Damage, -210 Armor
Can't argue with those hard numbers.