Guild Wars 2

I just started playing the game last night and, after a few false starts, found myself playing an Asuran Engineer. I find the class’ use of turrents fun, and the pistol / rifle thing is pretty cool too.
I do have a few questions though:

1. Is there more of a use for Karma than just buying rewards from quest givers?

2. Is there any attributes I should be specifically looking for on armors and weapons? (Precision, Power, etc.)

3. What crafting skills would you say are most beneficial for the Engineer?

4. Any general advice you can give to a new player?

I’m only level 8 so i haven’t gotten into Traits yet, but I’m really enjoying the game thus far. Are there any upcoming features that have the community buzzing?

Thanks ahead of time for any advice given.

1. Karma is used for a lot of stuff. You can use it to buy crafting mats (cooking mostly), crafting recipes, get components to craft a legendary weapon, and buy exotic armor at the high levels. Most players tend to hoard their karma for use at level 80. It can be a easy way to upgrade your weapons or armor on the path to 80. Some heart vendors sell some unique graphics.

2. I built my engineer with power / vitality / toughness. It really comes down to play-style though. You can aim for a tank-like built or a high damage build or anything in between.

3. Leather working is definitely useful for the engineer as you wear leather armor. Cooking is excellent for all professions. You can learn every single crafting profession in the game and max them all without losing any progress. You can only have two active crafting professions active though and it does cost money to switch between active professions (depending on level). Maxing any crafting profession from 1-400 is a guaranteed 10 levels (you gain xp based on a %).

4.
Turn on auto loot. (will deposit all items into your bags with a single keystroke)
Purchase harvesting tools asap (mining pick, axe, and sickle) to harvest all resource nodes.
You can deposit all collectables / resources directly into your bank using the small cog in your inventory’s upper right corner.

The engineer is a tough but rewarding class. Your toolbelt (F1-F4) skills will change depending on what you use in the 6-9 slots. Be sure to learn about combo fields and finishers with the gw2wiki. The engineer has access to a ton of useful combos and really will maximize your skills. The engineer requires a lot of key pressing to be at it’s best. Good luck!

The engineer’s weapons and kits, besides dealing some decent immediate damage, deal a lot of damage over time, i.e. condition damage. Armor, weapons, and jewelry increasing condition damage/duration, as well as power, precision or critical damage, increase your DPS. My thought is the faster they fall the less damage you take.

While turrets are attractive for new players, the real strength of the engineer comes with the various kits available. The flame thrower is always fun, but bombs are my favorite. Grenades are moving up the list for me, too.

Google “gw2 engineer leveling builds” to find some ideas for ideas of what various builds can do and how to play them.

As far as crafting, I second leatherworking for your armor. Hunter will allow you to craft your weapons. Jewelcrafting is also useful. Cooking is an expensive craft to get into. Harvesting your own mats is time consuming when it comes to getting sufficient ingredients to increase your skill, and the trading post will cost you.

Get in with a friendly helpful guild, one that has players that will help you learn the game and even help you through some of your more difficult events or storyline tasks. Don’t hesitate to leave a guild that doesn’t work for you.