Guild Wars 2

Profession Selection Guide (Part 1)

After completing the personal story many times and playing all 8 professions and doing quite a lot of WvWvW, I decided to make a guide, which would help players to choose a profession.

Explanation of the guide:
Ratings: * = the worst, ** = average, *** = the best
Melee damage = closer than 300 range damage output
Ranged damage = ranged damage output
Area Damage = Area of Effect damage output
Support = skills and traits to help your allies, crowd control
Survivability = avoiding death
Mobility = Ability to move fast, teleport, hide in stealth, leap
Beginner Friendly = How easy the profession is to begin with
Weapon of Choice = most popular / easiest weapons
Essential utility skills = to help players to choose efficient utility skills

Warrior
Melee damage: ***
Ranged damage: **
Area damage: **
Support: **
Survivability: **
Mobility: **
Beginner friendly: ***
Weapon of Choice: Greatsword, axe, rifle
Essential utility skills: "For Great Justice", "Shake It Off", Signet of Stamina, Banner of Discipline

The classic heavy armored warrior is a very easy profession to begin with and very popular in dungeons and other forms of pve. Warriors are very good at dishing out melee damage and their heavy armor gives them decent durability. Warrior can support its team using banners and shouts. They are not very good at getting out of combat situations, which puts them at huge risk in player-vs-player.

Why should you play a Warrior? You want the ultimate macho character and be in the front line, smashing many enemies at same time

Guardian
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: *
Area damage: **
Support: ***
Survivability: ***
Mobility: *
Beginner friendly: ***
Weapon of Choice: Greatsword, Staff, Scepter
Essential utility skills: Contemplation of Purity, "Hold the Line", "Stand Your Ground", "Save Yourselves"

Guardian is the mixture of classic healer and fighter, aka "paladin". Guardian can burn its foes, get regeneration and block attacks using its virtues. While guardian lacks in mobility and ranged attacks, it is perhaps the best profession for tanking, but nobody in Guild Wars 2 can tank like in some other games. Due its superior support skills guardian is very welcome addition to any team.

Why should you play a Guardian? You want good survivability and ability to buff and heal your allies in many ways

Engineer
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: **
Area damage: **
Support: **
Survivability: **
Mobility: **
Beginner friendly: *
Weapon of Choice: Rifle, use one of the following weapon kits
Essential utility skills: Elixir S, Grenade kit, Tool Kit, Elixir Gun

Engineer is a versatile profession, capable of doing a lot of crowd control, buffing its allies and doing area damage. Engineers have a unique feature called kits. Equipping a kit replaces all weapon skills and each utility skill gives a specific toolbelt skill, potentially giving engineer using many kits more skills at same time than any other profession. This versatility comes with a price. The slight lack of direct damage and the complexity of the profession make engineer the most difficult profession to play efficiently. Engineer can create turrets, which automatically attack enemies, but the turrets are usually easily destroyed. Many consider engineer as the weakest of all professions and certainly it is the rarest.

Why should you play an Engineer? You want quirky fun and challenge

Ranger
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: ***
Area damage: **
Support: **
Survivability: **
Mobility: **
Beginner friendly: ***
Weapon of Choice: Longbow, Shortbow, Greatsword
Essential utility skills: Signet of the Hunt, Signet of Renewal, Signet of the Wild, Quickening Zephyr

Ranger is the master of single target ranged damage using its bows. Rangers are also great underwater. Rangers can create large variety of traps and they are always with a pet, which can not only attack enemies, but also provide support, depending on the pet type e.g. Bear type pets are great at soaking up damage, while the ranger can safely attack from range. Rangers can always have two different pets equipped and swap between the pets at will. Ranger is a good all-rounder choice, unless you want fast burst damage. Being jack of all trades, rangers aren’t particularly good at anything (except long distance damage), making them not that welcome in dungeons.

Why should you play a Ranger? You want to attack your foes from range, place traps to hinder foes and have an array pets to assist you

(continue in next message, part 2)

Profession Selection Guide (Part 2)

Continuing from above message

Thief
Melee damage: ***
Ranged damage: **
Area damage: *
Support: *
Survivability: **
Mobility: ***
Beginner friendly: ***
Weapon of Choice: Dual daggers, shortbow
Essential utility skills: Shadow Refuge, Signet of Shadows, Caltrops, Shadowstep

Thief offers one of the highest burst damage in the game, while at same time being able to become invisible (stealthed) at will. Thief can also do short ranged teleports (shadowstep). Thieves are often squishy, but this is more than offset by their amazing ability to get away. The combination of fast high damage burst, extremely mobility and stealth, makes thieves the most hated profession in the game.

Why should you play a Thief? If you want to surprise kill your opponent fast and then get away easily

Elementalist
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: ***
Area damage: ***
Support: **
Survivability: **
Mobility: ***
Beginner friendly: **
Weapon of Choice: Dual daggers, Staff
Essential utility skills: Glyph of Lesser Elementals, Mist Form, Signet of Air, Cleansing Wave

Elementalist is perhaps the closest to the traditional mage / wizard. It can change between the four elements (air, earth, fire, water) at will, giving it more versatility than any other profession. Elementalist is the master of area damage. It has great mobility and durability. It can also heal and buffs its allies and summon elementals to attack its enemies.

Why should you play an Elementalist? You want to blast your foes, heal your allies and move fast like a lightning

Mesmer
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: **
Area damage: *
Support: ***
Survivability: ***
Mobility: **
Beginner friendly: **
Weapon of Choice: Greatsword, Sword, Focus
Essential utility skills: Signet of Illusions, Portal, Veil, Decoy

Mesmer is the master of illusions. It can confuse its foes and avoid damage, by swapping places with a clone, which looks like itself. The illusions automatically attack enemies, until destroyed. Destroying the illusions can great a powerful spike. Despite being a light armor profession, mesmer is great at soloing group events. Mesmer has perhaps the two most powerful elite skills in the game: Time warp and mass invisibility, which grant quickness and stealth to its allies. Mesmer’s portal skill is essential in the current meta.

Why should you play a Mesmer? You want to confuse your enemies and let them attack your clones instead of you

Necromancer
Melee damage: **
Ranged damage: **
Area damage: ***
Support: **
Survivability: ***
Mobility: **
Beginner friendly: **
Weapon of Choice: Staff, dagger
Essential utility skills: Signet of the Locust, Plague Signet, Epidemic, Spectral Grasp

Necromancer is the master of conditions and undead. It has the ability to summon undead allies aka minions, but they are rather weak and many necromancers don’t use them. Necromancer has the unique ability to enter a state called death shroud. It is basically another health pool. Having two big health pools and ability to drain life from its foes gives necromancer great survivability.

Why should you play a Necromancer? You want to be different and make your foes run away in fear and suffer

---

I will probably update this guide if there are big changes to the professions and skills.

Please bear in mind that English is not my native language. And I don’t claim to know everything about the game. Comments and questions are welcome!

Simply amazing for beginners!

Pretty darn good. Everybody is going to have different opinions, but overall it’s a pretty solid guide for beginners.

The one thing I would like to question you on is giving necros a ** on aoe damage. Necros are kings of AOE, only bested by maaaaaybe the ele. You can easily rack up tons of tags in events and wvw by using staff wells and death shroud.

Wow, very nice. I always had problems choosing class, but this makes it at least a bit easier…think i’m gonna try the thief class now!

I highly Recommend New Players and Vets to check this video out when it comes to choosing Professions. It Shows ALL 8 Professions in Combat in a short 6 minute Video!
((MUST WATCH))

Also Any New and Vet Players SHOULD Read this guide to learn about how
The Combat System works since there are NO TANKS, and NO HEALERs role:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

Ethics.4519:

Pretty darn good. Everybody is going to have different opinions, but overall it’s a pretty solid guide for beginners.

The one thing I would like to question you on is giving necros a ** on aoe damage. Necros are kings of AOE, only bested by maaaaaybe the ele. You can easily rack up tons of tags in events and wvw by using staff wells and death shroud.

You are right. Thank you for pointing out my mistake. I edited my post to correct the guide.

Of course everybody would also have their own list of utility skills for different situations and builds. I decided to select just 4 utility skills for each profession, even though some professions have a lot more good skills to choose from. I tried to select such skills which would be useful in both pve, spvp and WvWvW.

Deniara Devious.3948:

Ethics.4519:

Pretty darn good. Everybody is going to have different opinions, but overall it’s a pretty solid guide for beginners.

The one thing I would like to question you on is giving necros a ** on aoe damage. Necros are kings of AOE, only bested by maaaaaybe the ele. You can easily rack up tons of tags in events and wvw by using staff wells and death shroud.

You are right. Thank you for pointing out my mistake. I edited my post to correct the guide.

Of course everybody would also have their own list of utility skills for different situations and builds. I decided to select just 4 utility skills for each profession, even though some professions have a lot more good skills to choose from. I tried to select such skills which would be useful in both pve, spvp and WvWvW.

Check out my video above and (guide) =)

Very nice basic layout of the professions for beginners. I wished I had seen something like this when I first started. It will be very helpful when I choose my next profession. Thanks!

I like it. I agree that short/longbow are the staples of rangers, but GS seems to be one as well when it comes to close range.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have been updating the guide accordingly. More feedback is welcome.

Good stuff. Good read thank you

One really small thing for the new players. Under Guardian when they say Tank I believe they meant beefy with defense. Yes, you can wade into the fray and survive longer than the others, but playing it like a traditional tank would be limiting yourself and fairly hard to do successfully.

Mudfin.4637:

Good stuff. Good read thank you

One really small thing for the new players. Under Guardian when they say Tank I believe they meant beefy with defense. Yes, you can wade into the fray and survive longer than the others, but playing it like a traditional tank would be limiting yourself and fairly hard to do successfully.

I fully agree. Tanks in the traditional sense don’t exist in Guild Wars 2. You need to dodge and you cannot face tank forever. Still I would say it is easier to tank with Guardian than let’s say Warrior. Both have high armor and guardian actually has much less hit points to begin with, but all those boons generally give guardian much better survivability.

I adjusted the guide accordingly.

Really think this guide and DreamyAbaddon guide are great for New Players. Thanks Deniara Devious!

Thanks for your kind comments. I hope the forum administrators will make this a sticky thread, as this topic seems to be common.

I might someday (when I have time), write another concise guide on the following topics:
- Race Selection Guide (analysis of racial skills, beginning areas, personal story paths)
- Quick Start to WvWvW (10 most important things)
- Very Quick Guide to Dungeons (Good dungeon paths and builds for beginners)

Yours, Deniara / Ayna

Really nice guide.

I would definitely show this one to my friends if they just started playing Guild Wars 2. The only improvement I can think about is adding a PvP part (something like PvP strength and PvP beginner friendly) but this would most likey turn the thread into another PvP-QQ-thread so nvm. Well done.

Love the idea of a beginner selection guide except I don’t entirely agree with your summary of the mesmer profession. I would’ve made it more like this:

Melee damage: * *
Ranged damage: * *
Area damage: *
Support: * * *
Survivability: * * *
Mobility: * *
Beginner friendly: *
Weapon of Choice: Greatsword or Staff & Sword + Pistol (Focus for WvW only)
Essential utility skills: Blink, Signet of Inspiration, Decoy, Mirror Images (In PvE swap last two for nullfield and feedback), Timewarp

Most of mesmer abilities are about surviving, you survive by hiding behind clones, using CC’s, teleports, stealth. So I would definitely put three * * * in survivability.

That said I would definitely not call mesmers beginner friendly or even average, they are hard to master and don’t really come into their own till they have access to higher level traits. Not to mention to play one well isn’t easy. We have lots of survivability but to use it effectively is another matter requiring impeccable reflexes, timing and skill/utility management.

I would also recommend putting staff there as a good choice because it gives a lot more added survivability for newcomers than a greatsword does. It’s kind of more a personal preference whether someone prefers condition/support or power playstyle.
Utility is a bit trickier because it depends a lot on whether you go for a power build, condition or support build as well as whether it’s pvp or pve.

I would say signet of inspiration is a pretty safe bet for a newcomer as it gives boons passively and when used copies your boons to those around you. Blink is very much a must for newcomers it’s great for stun-breaking and getting out of trouble much easier than portal or veil would.

Then both decoy and mirror images are great for actually confusing enemies and if not at least for extra shatter material. Though if it’s in PvE dungeon settings you’d want to go for more supportive utillity like nullfield and feedback as decoy or stealth abilities will be mostly useless.

To put it short, mesmers are very utility and trait depended specialists. What weapons you use and what gametype you play as well as which roll you prefer to fulfill (damage/condition/support) alter what traits you would pick and what utility you’d equip entirely and therefore you’d work your utility and traits around your preferred gameplay style & weapon choices rather than the other way around.

You can see why I would put only one * for beginner friendly. It’s very complex to fully get your head around the profession and get the best out of them.

Fay.2735:

Love the idea of a beginner selection guide except I don’t entirely agree with your summary of the mesmer profession. I would’ve made it more like this:

Melee damage: * *
Ranged damage: * *
Area damage: *
Support: * * *
Survivability: * * *
Mobility: * *
Beginner friendly: *
Weapon of Choice: Greatsword or Staff & Sword + Pistol (Focus for WvW only)
Essential utility skills: Blink, Signet of Inspiration, Decoy, Mirror Images (In PvE swap last two for nullfield and feedback), Timewarp

Most of mesmer abilities are about surviving, you survive by hiding behind clones, using CC’s, teleports, stealth. So I would definitely put three * * * in survivability.

That said I would definitely not call mesmers beginner friendly or even average, they are hard to master and don’t really come into their own till they have access to higher level traits. Not to mention to play one well isn’t easy. We have lots of survivability but to use it effectively is another matter requiring impeccable reflexes, timing and skill/utility management.

I would also recommend putting staff there as a good choice because it gives a lot more added survivability for newcomers than a greatsword does. It’s kind of more a personal preference whether someone prefers condition/support or power playstyle.
Utility is a bit trickier because it depends a lot on whether you go for a power build, condition or support build as well as whether it’s pvp or pve.

I would say signet of inspiration is a pretty safe bet for a newcomer as it gives boons passively and when used copies your boons to those around you. Blink is very much a must for newcomers it’s great for stun-breaking and getting out of trouble much easier than portal or veil would.

…

You can see why I would put only one * for beginner friendly. It’s very complex to fully get your head around the profession and get the best out of them.

Excellent reply. I agree with you on the skills entirely. Decoy is not that useful in a dungeon, but in many dungeons feedback would be better. Same for blink etc. But I decided to select just 4 all-rounder skills for each profession. Thus many good skills were left out for other professions as well.

Staff is a great weapon for pve, but in settings like WvWvW, it tends to be a bit weaker than the greatsword because the staff auto attack animation is so slow, making it very easy to dodge. Notice that the weapon choices don’t necessarily reflect what I would play myself, just my observations what seems to be the most popular. According to my observations greatsword is the most commonly used mesmer weapon.

I disagree about the beginner friendly aspect. After playing warrior in spvp, mesmer felt like the easy mode turned on. Mesmer is also easy choice to do pve. Like you said, those illusions give amazing survivability. And with staff + signet of inspiration you can have constant boons on yourself.

I decided to have just one rating, beginner friendly, instead of talking about skill floor and skill ceiling. Let me explain:

Professions like warrior and thief have a low skill floor. It doesn’t take much skill to have passive healing from healing signet, charge at enemy mob using whirlwind attack and then use 100 blades. Same for thief instant stealth and heartseeker spam.

Mesmer and elementalist are both examples of professions, which have medium skill floor. Elementalist has more weapon skills than any other profession. Mesmer has some mechanisms, like shattering the illusions, which take some time to understand.

The warrior, unfortunately, lacks complex skill combinations (e.g. almost no combo fields). Warrior has a relatively low skill ceiling and I feel it is currently the underdog in spvp. Good thieves are rare in the game, but I would say thief has a higher skill ceiling. Not that many thieves have mastered landing backstab everytime perfectly and using steal perfectly timed with the cloak & dagger + steal + backstab combo. Very few thieves know how to use all different stolen skills effectively.

Both mesmer and elementalist have also high skill ceiling. A great elementalist player knows the timing of the boons, auras, combo fields and finishers. It takes quite a lot of effort to master all the different utility skills the mesmer has.

Engineer is a profession, which is difficult to begin with and I would argue it also has the highest skill ceiling. I find myself doing much more key and mouse presses when I play the engineer, compared to any other profession. Thus I keep my original rating, that engineer is the only profession, which is not beginner friendly at all.

I would say engineers and elementalist need an equal amount of key and mouse presses (kits compared to attunements) but the fact that elementalists feel a little stronger for pressing the right keys makes them a little easier to play.

Same input when it comes to key/mouse presses
→ a little more damage/survivability for elementalists
→ easier time for elementalists compared to engineers afterwards.

Blackhat.4016:

I would say engineers and elementalist need an equal amount of key and mouse presses (kits compared to attunements) but the fact that elementalists feel a little stronger for pressing the right keys makes them a little easier to play.

Same input when it comes to key/mouse presses
-> a little more damage/survivability for elementalists
-> easier time for elementalists compared to engineers afterwards.

I have a level 80 elementalist and engineer. Elementalist was my 1st character, but I enjoy playing engineer more due the challenge. It of course depends on the play style, but I would say engineer requires more key presses:
- grenade kit has no auto attack and every attack is ground targeted, thus every attack is a mouse button press + key press
- there is no passive speed boost like signet of air, but instead you need to stow a kit every 5 seconds to get swiftness with speedy kits traits
- great engineers (I am not claiming to be a great engineer) can do really and fast combos (engineer perhaps the largest amount of self-combos)

Thanks for you answer.

To be honest I did not think about the auto attack thing. If I play my elementalist I rarely use my auto attack since all the other skills are stronger and there are always other skills to use. Because this this a beginner guide you are absolutely right though, an auto attack is really important to start dealing damage.

Same issue like the auto attack thing. I never use the signet of air.^^ I always have perma swiftness since it is no problem for an ele to maintain it. But you are right again, this is a beginner guide which means signet of air makes sense.

I don’t know about the last argument though. Staff eles for example have a huge amount of combo fields (I think the most combo fields for a single weapon in the game) which you need to use in the right situation and D/D elementalists can be played super fast too (which also requires skill combos).

To sum it up:

You are right. Engineers most likely require more key presses.

Blackhat.4016:

Thanks for you answer.

To be honest I did not think about the auto attack thing. If I play my elementalist I rarely use my auto attack since all the other skills are stronger and there are always other skills to use. Because this this a beginner guide you are absolutely right though, an auto attack is really important to start dealing damage.

Same issue like the auto attack thing. I never use the signet of air.^^ I always have perma swiftness since it is no problem for an ele to maintain it. But you are right again, this is a beginner guide which means signet of air makes sense.

I don’t know about the last argument though. Staff eles for example have a huge amount of combo fields (I think the most combo fields for a single weapon in the game) which you need to use in the right situation and D/D elementalists can be played super fast too (which also requires skill combos).

To sum it up:

You are right. Engineers most likely require more key presses.

You are right. Elementalist requires 2nd highest amount of key presses. Elementalists also have a large selection of combo fields. But I absolutely suck playing Staff elementalist. I get trouble in melee range (I know staff is meant to be used from distance).

Everytime when I play my engineer and TeamSpeak is on using voice activation my mates complain that “you are killing the keyboard” and I need to reply “No, I am killing the enemy invaders in WvWvW” :-P

As an engineer myself I find it funny how you put ** at everything. The engineer can do everything OK but excels nothing. Imho that’s a good thing but very difficult to pull off well.

Good stuff in this guide, too. Appreciate the comments from the vets who have read this as well.

marnick.4305:

As an engineer myself I find it funny how you put ** at everything. The engineer can do everything OK but excels nothing. Imho that’s a good thing but very difficult to pull off well.

That is why I gave engineer 2 stars in everything else except beginner friendly. Engineers can do almost anything okay, but are rarely the best profession in any particular thing. I find that engineers are strong underwater (especially using grenade kit with grenadier grandmaster strait), crowd control and getting away from situations in a quirky way (e.g. slick shoes, elixir S, automated response grandmaster trait).

Sylvari Warrior and Asura engineer are my main characters. I quite rarely play my human elementalist, level 80, as dual daggers elementalists are a bit too easy at the moment. My Norn ranger will probably hit level 80 very soon (she is level 75 now), unless I go to play my other characters, which is highly probable, because rangers are also too easy to play. I enjoy challenge. You might then wonder why I play warrior, as warrior in considered an easy profession. I mostly use warrior in WvWvW and pvp. In a pvp setting warrior isn’t that easy, if you want good results.

I enjoy to read other people’s experiences in play different professions.

Very informative guide and subsequent chatter.

My apologies if this following question seems off-topic by being misplaced but it seems you are reasonably knowledgeable about the game and would like to get your input on it: My wife and I are new to the game entirely and are looking at the different possibilities of professions to duo together. What do you think are good ideas?

Sima.1237:

Very informative guide and subsequent chatter.

My apologies if this following question seems off-topic by being misplaced but it seems you are reasonably knowledgeable about the game and would like to get your input on it: My wife and I are new to the game entirely and are looking at the different possibilities of professions to duo together. What do you think are good ideas?

Any two characters can work together. In other words you can even select the same profession for both, but for I would recommend you to select different professions to get more variety and better overlap of weaknesses and strong points.

Warrior or guardian + elementalist or mesmer would make a great duo e.g.
warrior + elementalist
guardian + mesmer
warrior + mesmer
guardian + necromancer
thief + mesmer

Just select something, which would suit your style. Out of the races I would very much recommend Asura as it has the best personal story (especially if you select golem as your 1st invention). Humans are the most common choice, but their personal story (levels 1-30) is a bit unoriginal, the 2nd worst after Norn story. After levels 1-30, the personal story is not dependent on race and race doesn’t have that much effect in the game, except aesthetics and some minor (rarely used) racial skills. Select a race, which looks and sounds good to you.

Thank u. Hope 2 c u in-game soon

Wow, I’ve just come across this, and I really wish I had read it a few months back!! Very concise, complete, nicely done!!

Also, Sima, I particularly love the Sylvari storyline, and the Charr is a close second (contending with the Asura), but in the end, it’s really a matter of taste, I guess (I guess, because I haven’t really gotten to know all the racial skills of the Asura and Charr yet).

Important note missing from Engineer. If you are going to use the Grenade Kit you should turn on the “Fast-Cast Ground Targetting”. Your hands will thank you for it.

Learning how to play with that on is a good idea even if you don’t play an engineer with a grenade kit. Combat is a lot smoother with that enabled.

Khisanth.2948:

Important note missing from Engineer. If you are going to use the Grenade Kit you should turn on the “Fast-Cast Ground Targetting”. Your hands will thank you for it.

Learning how to play with that on is a good idea even if you don’t play an engineer with a grenade kit. Combat is a lot smoother with that enabled.

It may work wonders for some others, but I actually prefer to have it turned off, because I can then better see where my grenades will be landing, plus I often use the jump shot from rifle, super elixir from elixir gun (all ground targetable skills). Granted playing a grenadier engineer requires tons of key presses and some practice if you want to be able to run, dodge and spam the ’nades at same time.

Khisanth.2948:

Important note missing from Engineer. If you are going to use the Grenade Kit you should turn on the “Fast-Cast Ground Targetting”. Your hands will thank you for it.

Learning how to play with that on is a good idea even if you don’t play an engineer with a grenade kit. Combat is a lot smoother with that enabled.

I would disagree, I tried for a while, and it removes precision control over the grenades, or any aoe for that matter, that’s the give and take of fast casting. I like to see how exactly my grenades sill fall or if ny shot is bring clipped by something.

As an engineer main, I think I like your engi part OP. To say the least it can definitely be a complex class to learn and understand fully. Although, while we don’t have a skill to passive buff speed, I would say engineers are high mobility with the ability to perma swift (which is a higher movement speed than passive skills) as well as combat movement skills like Rifle Jump. And even perma vigor for increased dodge mobility. And skills such ad Elixir S for complete invul to reposition from a tight situation.

Elixir R is also a skill to mention possibly because of the ability to team/self rally in my opinion. While the utility itself isnt incredible, the tool belt skill is pretty wicked.

Alkron.1345:

Khisanth.2948:

Important note missing from Engineer. If you are going to use the Grenade Kit you should turn on the “Fast-Cast Ground Targetting”. Your hands will thank you for it.

Learning how to play with that on is a good idea even if you don’t play an engineer with a grenade kit. Combat is a lot smoother with that enabled.

I would disagree, I tried for a while, and it removes precision control over the grenades, or any aoe for that matter, that’s the give and take of fast casting. I like to see how exactly my grenades sill fall or if ny shot is bring clipped by something.

As an engineer main, I think I like your engi part OP. To say the least it can definitely be a complex class to learn and understand fully. Although, while we don’t have a skill to passive buff speed, I would say engineers are high mobility with the ability to perma swift (which is a higher movement speed than passive skills) as well as combat movement skills like Rifle Jump. And even perma vigor for increased dodge mobility. And skills such ad Elixir S for complete invul to reposition from a tight situation.

Elixir R is also a skill to mention possibly because of the ability to team/self rally in my opinion. While the utility itself isnt incredible, the tool belt skill is pretty wicked.

I guess it’ll be different for each person but I haven’t found any lost in precision. This includes skills like Meteor Shower and all the Necromancer marks with the Greater Marks trait.

On the other hand there are very few times when I don’t want to murder everything. I am obviously never going to attempt to pull enemies in a dungeon with AoEs or with grenades, that would be silly.

I will keep updating the profession selection guide if major changes are coming, but the recent (March 26th 2013) update didn’t affect the guide. I still recommend the same weapon sets and utility skills. I also keep the ratings as they are.