Guild Wars 2

Hello there.

I’ve stopped playing GW2 after hitting 80 on my Sylvari Engineer. (that was like 2-3 weeks after game release)

Recently, I was considering coming back to the game also wondering if I should roll another character. As I love to play with the least played classes, I wanted to ask you about what is current situation, which is the least played one?

Thanks in advance!

you have it at 80.

Dang it, was hoping for other class to be more rare than an engiee… I remember at start, the higher in content I was the less engineers I could see…

It’s silly really out of the 4 lvl 80’s and 1 lvl 50-ish (Engi, Ele, Guardian, Ranger, Warrior) I find the Engi the most versatile and fun to use. I really have no idea why they are the least played if it is indeed true. Personally I would have thought necro would have been, after all who dosn’t like guns right!? O.O

Paulytnz.7619:

It’s silly really out of the 4 lvl 80’s and 1 lvl 50-ish (Engi, Ele, Guardian, Ranger, Warrior) I find the Engi the most versatile and fun to use. I really have no idea why they are the least played if it is indeed true. Personally I would have thought necro would have been, after all who dosn’t like guns right!? O.O

From discussions in game I found most people who don’t play Engi either doesn’t like the ranged-only limit, doesn’t like kits or doesn’t like the playstyle of steampunkish gunner as they prefer more classic fantasy archetypes.

I believe Engi would have been liked a lot more as an Alchemist instead.
More emphasis on alchemical potions etc and less on guns.

The engineer is, definitely, the least played class.
Probably because of its huge balancing problems and loads of other problems. (Check the engineer forums, literaly EVERY thread is about a problem, and even those which aren’t, end up in discussing a problem..)

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Paulytnz.7619:

It’s silly really out of the 4 lvl 80’s and 1 lvl 50-ish (Engi, Ele, Guardian, Ranger, Warrior) I find the Engi the most versatile and fun to use. I really have no idea why they are the least played if it is indeed true. Personally I would have thought necro would have been, after all who dosn’t like guns right!? O.O

From discussions in game I found most people who don’t play Engi either doesn’t like the ranged-only limit, doesn’t like kits or doesn’t like the playstyle of steampunkish gunner as they prefer more classic fantasy archetypes.

I believe Engi would have been liked a lot more as an Alchemist instead.
More emphasis on alchemical potions etc and less on guns.

Oh that’s just sad I find the class refreshing after so many years of playing most traditional rpgs without the shoot em up option. Then again you see Fable going down that road and there was the odd single player game such as wild arms etc.

They could still do an alchemist class and I can tell you I would NOT miss those elixirs leaving my class at all.

If I had 1 gripe about the Engi class it would be that we are less long range than rangers and warriors with a gun. Why are we the “shotgun” class without any shotgun skins? Meh nm I use flamethrower and elixir gun mostly anyways for the healing trait…

Still, Engi rules! :P

I did a poll on this some time ago, posted results here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/POLL-Race-Gender-Profession-demographics/first

After Engineer, the least played class out of the sampling I took (~300 characters) was Necromancer, followed by Thief.

I laugh when 2 traits have been broken since release. We have one trait that “makes us immune to conditions at 25%”. Sadly, it doesn’t work at all. Never has. Then another trait that allows us to throw turrets to deploy them is also broken. Some of the turets can be thrown, some can’t. We have lots of other problems (FT hit box, random obstructed and what not). It is still a fun class.

The second least played one i’d say is Necromancer followed by Ranger.

Automated response DOES work – it just does not remove conditions that are on you, it only makes you immune to new conditions. I think that’s working as intended, making you (almost) completely unkillable by condition builds would probably be too good.

But you’re right, the turret one is broken. Also, rifled barrels STILL screws up elixir gun autoattack (longer weakness, shorter bleed) and another skill that I don’t remember offhand.

Scope still does not work at all. Elite supplies STILL does not increase mortar range. Pistol’s fire rate is still 0.8s (should be 0.5s) due to the animation, explosive shot still only applies bleeding to the target, not an AoE (this might just be tooltip error)…. etc (see the huge list stickied in engineer forum)

The sheer number of bugs that have gone unfixed in almost 6 months is really almost unbelievable.

Thats kind of pointless in my eyes then. The amount of burst this game has and how fast/long 3 people can stack one condition on you, by the time you get to 25% you’re probably dead anyways. In spvp is probably the only place that it would be remotely good at, but it would be way better to get something else in that trait imo.

More people might try engineer if the weapon sets, tool belt skills, turrets, elixirs and some of the kits were made appealing.

From a layman’s point of view after levelling an engineer to 10, tested builds in Mists, and summarily deleted it.

DPS: Grenade is the go to.
Leading cause of carpal tunnel.
After the recent nade nerf, I don’t see grenades leading far ahead against FT(without elixirs) And on movement fights with a higher latency, FT would come out ahead.

FT is neither meelee nor range, possesses no safety net that usually comes with range, possesses no additional damage with the risk of melee.

It’s undoubtedly fun. Yet.. broken. But hey, I only played it to level 10.

It’s probably the least played class and you got it!

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

Morrigan.2809:

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

That’s exactly why I’ve chosen this race for engineer.
It seemed so unreal that it attracted me… a walking plant interested in mechanics and wielding a flamethrower… this was just so good to pass by (I really like to do things out of a box).

So, I downloaded game today, played a bit after a break.
Took me a while to get used to my old combos, Pistol + shield, FT & Elixir button smashing.
I now remember why I quit and didn’t reroll different class.
Back in the days, I really hated lack of sigils on main weapon influencing your kits… I’m mostly playing around with kits around, my main weapon is so rarely used that sigils in them are wasted .. in … like 80% of the time.

Was there anything addressed towards this or is it still there? It really closed me some doors of customizing my playstyle.

Redfeather.6401:

More people might try engineer if the weapon sets, tool belt skills, turrets, elixirs and some of the kits were made appealing.

So, improve everything and the profession might be more played?

Morrigan.2809:

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

I’ve never seen a Norn Engineer. I’ve seen a fair number of Sylvari Engineers.

Least played class would be warrior

Flamenco.3894:

Least played class would be warrior

Obviously.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/POLL-Race-Gender-Profession-demographics/page/2#post1469939

This is a very insightful thread. Even given its somewhat small sample size, Engineers are still shown to be the least player profession. It also shows a depressingly large amount of males must play as females. Ron Swanson would not approve.

Hostile.1842:

Morrigan.2809:

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

That’s exactly why I’ve chosen this race for engineer.
It seemed so unreal that it attracted me… a walking plant interested in mechanics and wielding a flamethrower… this was just so good to pass by (I really like to do things out of a box).

So, I downloaded game today, played a bit after a break.
Took me a while to get used to my old combos, Pistol + shield, FT & Elixir button smashing.
I now remember why I quit and didn’t reroll different class.
Back in the days, I really hated lack of sigils on main weapon influencing your kits… I’m mostly playing around with kits around, my main weapon is so rarely used that sigils in them are wasted .. in … like 80% of the time.

Was there anything addressed towards this or is it still there? It really closed me some doors of customizing my playstyle.

Sigils on your main weapons now apply to kits as well. So if you have pistol and shield, both will be on the elixir gun.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Paulytnz.7619:

It’s silly really out of the 4 lvl 80’s and 1 lvl 50-ish (Engi, Ele, Guardian, Ranger, Warrior) I find the Engi the most versatile and fun to use. I really have no idea why they are the least played if it is indeed true. Personally I would have thought necro would have been, after all who dosn’t like guns right!? O.O

From discussions in game I found most people who don’t play Engi either doesn’t like the ranged-only limit, doesn’t like kits or doesn’t like the playstyle of steampunkish gunner as they prefer more classic fantasy archetypes.

I believe Engi would have been liked a lot more as an Alchemist instead.
More emphasis on alchemical potions etc and less on guns.

They are not range only! Equip a bomb kit.

First 80 was an enginner for me, I still love to play him the most. I now have 5 80s and will level a ranger next, the only one of my 80s I dont really like is my warrior that turned 80 2 weeks ago or something.

He just feels awfully squishy in melee compared to my guardian. Both are in full dps gear, guess the 300 toughness the guardian has from talents plus the 10% dmg reduction signet makes the difference along with blinds, aegis and the reliable 8k+ heal and meditation heals.

He does pretty well at range, but my necro, mesmer and engi still feels less squishy. Necro is in pretty tanky gear, so up close or at range doesnt matter much. Engi is mix and match, PVT+zerker things/rubies, mesmer is full zerk+valkyrie mix.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Paulytnz.7619:

It’s silly really out of the 4 lvl 80’s and 1 lvl 50-ish (Engi, Ele, Guardian, Ranger, Warrior) I find the Engi the most versatile and fun to use. I really have no idea why they are the least played if it is indeed true. Personally I would have thought necro would have been, after all who dosn’t like guns right!? O.O

From discussions in game I found most people who don’t play Engi either doesn’t like the ranged-only limit, doesn’t like kits or doesn’t like the playstyle of steampunkish gunner as they prefer more classic fantasy archetypes.

I believe Engi would have been liked a lot more as an Alchemist instead.
More emphasis on alchemical potions etc and less on guns.

Engineers don’t have a ranged only limit, on most builds you spend a lot of time swtiching between melee and range (at least in sPvP / WvW), bombs are in melee range, a number of skills require you to be right in your opponents face outright or to get the max effect (blunderbuss, jump shot for the double damage, poision darts if you want all of them to hit, blowtorch, acid bomb, etc) and tool kit is a melee kit.

The real reason Engineer is the least played class, is nothing new, it happens in many MMORPGs with many different classes, it has the unpopular combination of being one of the more difficult classes to play and is somewhat underpowered.

Least played would be ranger, necro, and engi. If you like overcoming obstacles and playing against the odds any of them would be fine. Engi probably brings up the rear and since you already have it at 80, I’d stick with it. Necro and engi are the only professions I don’t have at 80. I’m waiting for a bit of rework around class design before I commit to playing the class.

kokocabana.8153:

Hostile.1842:

Morrigan.2809:

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

That’s exactly why I’ve chosen this race for engineer.
It seemed so unreal that it attracted me… a walking plant interested in mechanics and wielding a flamethrower… this was just so good to pass by (I really like to do things out of a box).

So, I downloaded game today, played a bit after a break.
Took me a while to get used to my old combos, Pistol + shield, FT & Elixir button smashing.
I now remember why I quit and didn’t reroll different class.
Back in the days, I really hated lack of sigils on main weapon influencing your kits… I’m mostly playing around with kits around, my main weapon is so rarely used that sigils in them are wasted .. in … like 80% of the time.

Was there anything addressed towards this or is it still there? It really closed me some doors of customizing my playstyle.

Sigils on your main weapons now apply to kits as well. So if you have pistol and shield, both will be on the elixir gun.

Shame its damage and healing is still considered to be useless, look at skills 2 and 3 on Elixir gun, terrible some slow moving blob that speeds you up, serious missed opportunity for a good skill there and a weaker poison flamethrower that suffers the same issues as normal flamethrower…needs looking at badly.

Super elixir cures conditions and can trigger twice with the kit trait. It’s nice that kits have exotic stats and sigils now though.

I really hope for a long list of bug fixes on tuesday…

I have just posted my Engineer build in the Engineer forums to prove we can have a VERY decent build. If any of you are interested the link is below but I warn you I almost wrote a whole book’s worth. :P

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/My-almost-perfect-Champ-soloing-Build/first#post1503012

No one really plays engineer since they possess the dubious title of weakest class in the game. I don’t think anyone is doing the engineer class in any favors with the avalanche of posts stating how gimped engineer skills and damage output is, although for the most part they are right. Maybe thief will be the next least used class in the future judging by all the hate and stigma they generate on these forums, or maybe that’s what’s adding to their usage? Who knows a fascinating paradox of sorts.

oversoul soldier.1742:

No one really plays engineer since they possess the dubious title of weakest class in the game. I don’t think anyone is doing the engineer class in any favors with the avalanche of posts stating how gimped engineer skills and damage output is, although for the most part they are right. Maybe thief will be the next least used class in the future judging by all the hate and stigma they generate on these forums, or maybe that’s what’s adding to their usage? Who knows a fascinating paradox of sorts.

I think most people just go for the most simple, lazy method of style of play. They can’t be bothered to figure out how things CAN be good their own way. You know what, if this all means that I stand out in the world for being one of the few Enginners around then yay me for not looking/playing like everyone else. However I can kick backside as well as and in a lot of cases more so than these said other classes.

Hostile.1842:

Morrigan.2809:

Sylvari engineer? OP that is probably the rarest combo in the game

I adore engineer- mine is lvl72 now and I am having a blast with her
My main is a mesmer and of all the classes I think mesmer and engi are the most fun by far.

That’s exactly why I’ve chosen this race for engineer.
It seemed so unreal that it attracted me… a walking plant interested in mechanics and wielding a flamethrower… this was just so good to pass by (I really like to do things out of a box).

So, I downloaded game today, played a bit after a break.
Took me a while to get used to my old combos, Pistol + shield, FT & Elixir button smashing.
I now remember why I quit and didn’t reroll different class.
Back in the days, I really hated lack of sigils on main weapon influencing your kits… I’m mostly playing around with kits around, my main weapon is so rarely used that sigils in them are wasted .. in … like 80% of the time.

Was there anything addressed towards this or is it still there? It really closed me some doors of customizing my playstyle.

I play pistol/ pistol with FT and grenade kit mostly and I have sigil of corruption on both my pistols. I end up with 25 stacks really fast and as long as I don’t go down it stays up. Works great so far

Paulytnz.7619:

oversoul soldier.1742:

No one really plays engineer since they possess the dubious title of weakest class in the game. I don’t think anyone is doing the engineer class in any favors with the avalanche of posts stating how gimped engineer skills and damage output is, although for the most part they are right. Maybe thief will be the next least used class in the future judging by all the hate and stigma they generate on these forums, or maybe that’s what’s adding to their usage? Who knows a fascinating paradox of sorts.

I think most people just go for the most simple, lazy method of style of play. They can’t be bothered to figure out how things CAN be good their own way. You know what, if this all means that I stand out in the world for being one of the few Enginners around then yay me for not looking/playing like everyone else. However I can kick backside as well as and in a lot of cases more so than these said other classes.

You go dude, creativity and experimenting is completely lost upon people sometimes. People implant a certain idea and it seems to stick with the masses, people have preconceptions of each class like ele has too much AoE, warrior does too much damage, guardian has too much survivability, necro is only good for conditions, the list goes on. Quite frankly I’m really tired of this mentality people have of pigeon-holing play-styles to glass cannon or bunker. Breaking the mold every now and then is nice.

I was leveling a engineer a while ago.

I want to say this:

The engineer would more fun if they had more weapons to use. Especially Melee weapons. Not talking about kits here.

Riffle, pistol, shield just don’t cut it. I want to play Melee engineer and not taking kit.

Also flame thrower seem cool but bugged. Pretty bad.

Turret idea was cool on paper, but we should have been able to mount them for new abilities.

Also the kit mechanic on the tool belt is bad. It’s not fun.

Also healing should have been designed more fun to play healing engineer, just like other roles.

Turrets are not mobile, in a game all about mobile gameplay.

There are so many more issues. The class just lose all its fun to poor designs.

Hostile.1842:

Hello there.

I’ve stopped playing GW2 after hitting 80 on my Sylvari Engineer. (that was like 2-3 weeks after game release)

Recently, I was considering coming back to the game also wondering if I should roll another character. As I love to play with the least played classes, I wanted to ask you about what is current situation, which is the least played one?

Thanks in advance!

It is Engineer..

Engineers aren’t rare just because we suffer from lackluster balancing. Compared to most other classes they are also a very “involved” class that requires experimentation and thorough knowledge of what’s at your disposal, skill-wise.

Now compare them to GW warriors and weep.