Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Just wondering what people thought would be the easier class to play between an Engineer or a Thief… for PvE, mapping, doing PS & LS, playing solo… for someone who has issue’s with dodging?

I do have and play a Ranger, Warrior & Guardian already… so no need to suggest them I’m looking to play another medium armor class… but due to limited character slots, I have to choose between either Thief or Engineer (ie only have 1 free slot, and can’t afford another slot atm).

I have no interest in WvW or s/tPvP… so meta builds etc for them are irrelevant to me.

I mentioned an issue with dodging – and that’s my biggest problem with GW2 – due to a combination of bad latency to the servers and medical reason’s… my ability to dodge attacks is very bad. I miss a lot of dodge’s when I try to dodge (ie I still get hit), so tend to just facetank or try and strafe around in circles when I can (or use my pet as a tank on my Ranger).

So I’m looking at Engineer & Thief… and read quite a few threads and such on them, but most seem focused on WvW or PvP stufgf… not your everyday casual PvE playing – ie mapping, doing DE, doing the PS, doing LS and SW events. Not sure which would be easier/better – from what I’ve read it’s likely Engineer rather than Thief… but thought I’d post and check/ask.

Thank you in advance for any help/advice/thoughts.

Thief is pretty darn squishy so if you have difficulty dodging it’s definitely going to be tough for you.

Engie is good, but to really take full advantage of the class you need to juggle a lot of skills at the same time which can be intensive (mentioning this in case whatever issues you have involve fine motor control/reaction speed – the main damage build for engineer are really hell on the hand/fingers as it involves a high number of actions/minute). That said, if you just want to run around and not worry about optimal builds, it’s pretty easy to build an engineer to be very tanky with excellent burst heal to tide you over tough parts.

With the update to Invigorating Precision, Theif survival is a little more viable. If you build healing signet and Invigorating Precision, you should be able to face tank most things in PvE as long as you’re dealing damage, especially if you take advantage of the plethora of blinds theif can throw. Though this is a more specific later game build.

I’m less experienced with engineer, but I know you can make it tanks and effective without having to worry about skill rotations too much, but you won’t be as effective as you can be if you don’t get all the skills down.

I’m concerned with the statement, “someone who has issues with dodging.”

You need to learn to Dodge. Period. This game will be a frustrating exercise in constant down state for you if you do not figure out how to properly dodge to avoid big damage hits.

jackaljag – My issue’s with dodging actually do have to do with fine motor control and reaction speed, well apart from the latency issue’s. I am generally ok, but I can’t rely on dodging to save me… too often I’ll attempt to dodge but still take the damage because either latency issue’s or hitting the dodge key too slowly. I had to re-bind the B key (default brings up the WvW stats page thing) because half the time I’d be hitting that key rather than V (or hitting both V & B ).

This is why Ranger, Guard & Warrior have been great to play.. as I either have something else tanking the hits for me (most of the time) or I can generally facetank. I run mace/shield on my guard… and the regen & shielding that provides is great for me. Side-strafing where I run in circles lets me avoid some attacks as well on both Warrior & Guard… so my issue’s with dodging isn’t such a big deal with them. Unfortunately I have had some major issue’s dealing with LS bosses… in fact just about every boss has caused me issues but have managed through perserverance (and luck! lol) to complete them.

I’m not fussed about having the most optimul meta build or such – as I said, not interested in WvW or PvP, and little interest in trying to do the big major world events. I just am looking for something that I can use to explore maps, do my personal story, do the living story and still be able to be a decent part of any zerging events in SilverWaste’s & such. I don’t mind doing the SW events when there are other people around, as it means less mobs going for me so less need for me to worry aboput misstiming dodge’s and such. However I do want to be able to contribute and not be a useless wet rag… lolz

BarnabeJonez – How does the Invigorating Precision thing work? Is this for a specific weapon set or any set is possible?

I know Engineer has a talent in one of it’s lines where you get hp regen whenever you have a kit equiped rather than standard weapon. Is the thief IP similiar? Like you get X hp back when you deal damage?

BrotherGrimm – I know how to dodge, my problem is timing dodges. Between latency and my own inability at times to properly hit the dodge key in time… I can’t rely on dodging to save me. I can never be sure of how well my ability to dodge will be at any one time, so can’t use builds that rely on dodging purely. I can facetank and circle-strafe fine on the characters I mainly play (ranger, Guard & Warrior)… and am looking for another medium armor class where I can do the same. I’ve completed my PS and all the LS playing this way… no interest in PvP or WvW… and not fussed if I can’t do dungeons or fractal’s because of non-meta builds and/or dodging issue’s. I will agree about the constant down state… in regards to the LS bosses, they were darned annoying.

Invigorating precision gives you 15% of your crit damage back as heals. With that, Signet of Malice and lifesteal food, it’s pretty darn hard to kill a thief when you’re pumping out good damage. 1 pistol whip is like a 15% heal or so on my zerk thief when I’m soloing Belka.

For Engineer, you have Elixer infused Bombs and Backpack REgenerator. Without any healing power Backpack is just over 100 health and Elixer infused bombs just shy of 150 iirc. So every second you can be getting 250 health back, grab some healing power and it goes up a bit, IIRC it’s about 150 and 200 with 600 HP. (you’ll get some HP simply going into the bomb trait I wasn’t counting that in the initial values).

Trying to find something you can handle is a great idea, but keep working on your timing with dodges, eventually you’ll get better at it and when you do it’s a night and day difference in your survival, Personally I don’t have that great of reaction times but I do my best to learn the patterns and tells of enemies the best I can so I can get a jump on them and anticipate. Either way,, Good Luck!

In my honest opinion – you got a ranger. Just stick to that.

Buf if you’re determined to make that choice, then engi. Thief requires reflexes and doging, also in silverwastes – thief sucks (asides the labirynth where it’s a blessing to have one). Silverwastes have a lot of fort defense play and holding a point and blasting things from afar, which is right up engi’s alley. You’ll also need a hefty dose of cripples, freezes and immobilizing, engi has those in decent amounts as well.

I would say both classes are the same survivability wise, they just do it differently. A thief in pve can literally Perma blind anything other than bosses. Yes even vets, elites and all the SW mobs. Engineer while having access to smoke field, it’s less constant and less on demand. They can control mobs with rifle and if you time those CCs right it has a similar effect to perma blind where the mobs just can’t do kitten to you. Also on engineer you got gear shield and 1500 range so there’s that.

Vert.5041:

I would say both classes are the same survivability wise, they just do it differently. A thief in pve can literally Perma blind anything other than bosses. Yes even vets, elites and all the SW mobs. Engineer while having access to smoke field, it’s less constant and less on demand. They can control mobs with rifle and if you time those CCs right it has a similar effect to perma blind where the mobs just can’t do kitten to you. Also on engineer you got gear shield and 1500 range so there’s that.

Trait Short Fuse. Rotate Smoke Bomb, Flash Grenade, Smoke Vent, and possibly Static Shot (pistol).

I’ll regularly use the first 3 for blind rotation, the pistol is kind of a 4th that sometimes takes the place of say Smoke Vent if I happen to be using Pistol/shield.

Just saying you can keep blinds rotating pretty well on Engi too, not as good as thief of course but it is a rotation worth learning.

Pick the class you’d enjoy the most, it’s always as simple as that when you’re facing the game solo.

In organized groups Engineer will almost always be behind on Thief (except for sPvP/WvW where they each have their own roles and do them very well.) They can blind more, stealth more and ‘fit’ better into teams (e.g. stacking ~20 vul on your own is great and all, but not if every other class adds ~5 vul aswell, capped is capped.) How-ever for solo none of this is a concern and you can build/equip both of them to your personal needs.

I personally would chose the Thief over the Engineer how-ever, if you struggle dodging and you are solo, you’re likely going to struggle landing Grenades on a target moving towards you aswell (opening with Freeze Grenade can help) which negates their amazing 1500 Range. When it comes down to face-tanking anything except champions, Black Powder from the Thief’s Pistol has yet to find an equal, though an Engineer can come relatively close. On top of that a Thief has the easiest access to stealth (Shadow Refuge or Smokescreen + Cluster Bombs is a lot easier than Smoke Bomb + multiple blasts from different utilities) in case you need it. Lastly in event-tagging Shortbow (either by auto-attacking or by spamming Clusterbombs in short range) is pretty kitten good, how-ever so are Grenades/Flamethrower.

Engineers also requires a lot of utility juggling for most of their builds, definitly their most efficient builds. It’s up to you if you really can be bothered with that, it’s not for everyone. That being said, I love Engineer just for that sole reason.