so cool - thanks a bunch! i hadn't seen much in the way of engineer stuff but if they're all steampunky... that might make me rethink my starting classes selection.

the transmorg option is one of the very few things i've read about in GW2 that is a "2 steps forward, 1 step back" sort of issue. first: yes, they have transmorg options - totally great! absolutely needed for the game. but the negatives are: you have to pay gems to do it each time, and the two items are absorbed into one item. unlike the WoW system, which is probably the best way to do it, you end up with just a single item. so if you want to switch back and forth between two looks: sorry. you have to re-farm the pretty armor over and over. not sure why they did it that way instead of the WoW way.
thanks a bunch though for that link to a zillion armors! very pretty.