Guild Wars 2

Is it just me or is the engineer just useless, it has the lowest DPS of all classes, and it’s survive ability against more then 1 enemy is low, and his weapons is bad. Sure the rifle is good for kiting 1 mob when it’s 1Vs1, but it takes like 30sec to kill a mob then, when a warrior just need too use 2 or 3 skills to kill it. For the great-sword, press 5 and you charge your enemy, press 2 to do lots of damage, if the target is not dead press F1 and a big attack comes and often kill the target. So the Engineer need a melee weapon, A two handed hammer, and/or a one-handed mace!

But now you might say, silly you, the engineer have a melee weapon. Well let me tell you whats wrong with it. Engineer have his utility skills, when more then two enemies use the flame thrower and spam the 1 button, wait why spam the 1 button? Doesn’t it have the auto attack? No, no it doesn’t. I don’t know why but you need to spam the buttons on every weapon kit. And the melee weapon kit does less damage then the rifle, and it has no useful skills that make it up for it.

Arena-net made so that melee weapons do more damage because they know that in PvP and most in PvE people would use ranged weapons if they did the same damage, it’s harder to get a hit with a melee weapon and you are close to the enemy so it will hit and hurt you. But even if the engineer would get a melee weapon he still would use it, warrior can take three enemies at a time with somewhat ease, engineer will die, he can’t take that kind of damage. And now you say that Warrior are suppose to take damage, but the other classes can also take that kind of damage, the warlock have his minions to tank some damage and the elementalist have skills to avoid that problem in close combat.

And now I get to why the engineers kits are flawed. As I said you use the flamethrower with 2 or more mobs, and then you use the elixir gun when it’s less then 2 mobs, if you have support, or if you are attacking a ranged enemy. Because it do the most damage. If it is 1Vs1 you use your rifle, sure it does less damage but you have kitting skills, it takes longer, but you can avoid getting hit. And let me just say that you do exact the same damage with the flamethrower and elixir-gun, with or without and weapons, I would think that the stats would at least get over, but then again, if you have dual wield pistols you might get better stats then the rifle, I don’t know if it’s a bug or intended. And the “Dual” wield pistol is that you just use on pistol and not both, the the rifle always do more damage the the pistol do, unless you found a pistol that do more damage, but that chance is low because it’s one-handed and the rifle is two-handed.

So two of your three utility skills are for your weapons, that leave you with one space left, and that space is probably going to be a buff, or a mine to clear some distance from you and the enemy. Sure you can use a turret, but the turrets seems to attack random targets and will pull mobs whatever you like it or not, sure that is a big problem but the biggest is that the turrets get 1-2 hitted by bigger mobs or 3-5 hitted by lower mobs, so the life spawn is low, so the turrets are out of the question.

So why not give us the option to switch utility skills in combat, like every other class can switch there weapons in combat. We don’t have that ability, because our weapons are useless and we only use the utility skills to get our weapons. And the skills on our weapons kit are not good, the flamethrower you turn off the auto target option, why? Because if you target an enemy it’s a good chance that you will miss, because the upwards hit box doesn’t exist, so if the enemy is 1cm over you, you are going to miss, and the fact the sometimes my character just want to barbecue the ground and not the enemies doesn’t help eater. The animation on the flame is also bad, you see it goes far, but it only goes half that range.

And if you say that I should chose a other class to play, is it my fault that I chose a broken class? If so, then give us the option to change class, I’m lvl 54 and have explored 41% of the world map, I spend a lot of time and money to get this far. I don’t want to lose all that because of a broken class. I have done the numbers, I attack the same enemy with most of the classes, no gear, and with a weapon that shouldn’t do much of a different, and the engineer class is the worst in PvE, in PvP it can’t be that good eater, low damage and low HP, means you die fast and kill slow. This also means that if you want to be better, you put your trait points in first Power, second Alchemy and third in healing. Alchemy giver higher survivability then more HP does, because of it’s buff.

TL;DR
That is whats wrong with the engineer class, give us a two-handed hammer and a one-handed mace, buff the turrets HP, buff the damage or give use better skills, kiting skills is no god if the other guy can’t be kited. And fix that utility skill problem.

I would have supported you except I’ve met a few reasonable engis and one really good one who is probably number 5 on my list of top 5 players. Have you tried using the rifle as that guy was getting some pretty high damage out of it while still being reasonably hard to kill.

Not to be rude but Tl;DR, one thing I’ll point out though is I’ve had no trouble killing 3 monsters at once at as an engineer. In fact it’s probably been the easiest class to for me.

Check around some of the other threads that have engineer builds on this forum, should help a lot. Think I saw a few about stacking might with the grenade/bomb kit.

The fact doesn’t change that the utility skills are bad, we are the only class with no melee weapon, and do low DPS, Warlock, Elementalist and Warriors do higher damage.

And I didn’t say you couldn’t take 3 mobs at a time, I said that other classes are better at it. And the utility skills are bad.

I had a TL;DR at the end, didn’t say it, but I can add the TL;DR symbol then.

I think the problem is that we need to put so much more effort into the class just to get to the same level of viability other classes are at normally.
If you’re a good player you’ll be able to make the engineer work reasonably well – But if you were playing another class, say warrior, with that skill you’d be more than just “reasonably” good.

Just because you can make this class work decently with effort doesn’t mean that it’s actually balanced.

Edit: The class is also plagued with a good amount of bugs which doesn’t really help it.

Well yea, I said some things, the warrior need to do 5,2 and then F1 and target is dead, Engineer need to 1, wait for mob to be in range for 3, then net him with 2 press 3 when net is gone use 4, throw a mine in front of you wait for him to get blown back, use when he is close and then3 and target should be dead or low health. And the warrior can do this with lots of mobs while we only can do it with one.

We need a weapon that do more damage, aka a melee weapon.

- = TL:DR = -

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TL;DR is at the bottom of my text.

Also, this is most for the mods, to let them be aware that there is a problem, but then again of big chance is it that they are going to read thing, or even less fix the problems in the game.

I must Agree with you on a lot of your points, I myself find the fact that the weapon kits don’t automatically set skill 1 to auto cast and yes the Flamethrower does miss a lot of the time for no apparent reason but I do find the Engineer class to work perfectly fine.

The Turrets are not made for tanking, and you can make them do so if you trait for it. I find detonating your turrets to be a awesome way of dealing massive damage along with some hidden effects (combo’s) The Healing Turret can cause a burst AOE heal if timed right and the Flame Turret can create a AOE Invisibility. If you are wanting turrets to survive you need to place them correctly and use their functions correctly. The Thumper is extremely powerful and can take a lot of punishment while the Flame turret can blind an entire group for a pretty decent duration.

Ok a melee weapon for the Engineer would be awesome, I’ve often thought about it, but survivability is the issue like you mentioned. This is easily rectified though, simply by adding survivability to the melee weapon skills (e.g. Tool Kit no 4 skill) Some of you may rate that we do have the Tool Kit for Melee, but it’s just not viable, I’ve tried it and your damage output just cant cope, I’ll need to run some more tests but with the talents as they are there’s not much to support a melee build.

Another option for a some what un orthodox melee ranged fight would be the bomb kit, yes you button bash your keyboard into oblivion but it does work, and the AOE blind and burn destroys a small army extremely fast without you taking any damage. It does require some fiddling to get right but works.

WvW is a place where I feel the Engineer struggles the most, so any idea’s ? please give me a shout. I tried the Morter but it’s range is just not viable. I place it atop a high vantage point but it’s range can not target the ground below, bum’s me out yo!

Anyway Give me a shout, Loving the Engineer and trying all I can to find all the tricks of the trade.

Add me to your contacts Skreez.2306 or check out my guild on www.theimperium.enjin.com

Lets hope Arena new has a lot in store for the Engineer

See you online
Skreez

First off, you can make any skill into autoattack with Ctrl+right click. It’s an annoying bug that it doesn’t ‘remember’ the autoattack when you switch out of kits, but it’s there.

Second of all, watch 1 engineer hold 4 people off a point in PvP. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q2NWR8TM7XU

Stopped reading after terrible title

Here is a plan.
Start an new profession.

To stay on topic, none of my friends and I incluede have the problems you mention. You got melee weapon, through tool belts. You got tons of gadgets to turn the tide.
I hate to say it but it is either a L2P (learn to play) issue or it is just not the right prof for you.

Well that is just my 5 cents. Feel free to disagree:)

@DangerMonkey.3158
I know it was a spell error, It’s suppose to be “Things that is wrong with the Engeneer class.” and not Thins. I can’t change that so you have to live with it.

@Phoenix the One.4071
My point is that 2 of 3 slots is used for weapons, and the last one is best to use a buff, of panic button. If we could change “set” like everyother class can change weapons in combat, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, then you can have one set for one targeting, and one for AoE attacks.

And all that time/money I spent on my character is gone, just because I was unlucky and chose a broken class?

Traser.9286:

And all that time/money I spent on my character is gone, just because I was unlucky and chose a broken class?

Be happy you didn’t choose elementalist.

I’d assume balancing issues will be fixed, but that takes time for a company.

to be honest that takes time, so why dont we give it to anet, the game has not been out that long.

A thing I did traser is starting a prof, enter the msit, and see how it is at high lvl.
But I well want to be the, all so I change a lot.
Else You should post it as bug.. Or suggest Anet ansuggestiong or improvement forum, for this is players helping players:) and can’t help you with bugs.
But try to spec into tool kits, it grants you nearly unlimited swiftnes, andnhigh burst:) the wreck is good in melee but overseen:D

Or else try another prof, know you used some time in your engineer, but you can always fall back.. I jump between my thief and guardian, and other guildies do the same between 2-3 profession to gain some fresh gameplay from time to time. And all of them are impressed by the engineeres flexibility (looking for another word, but can’t find it;b). Like a elementalist just with big bombs and napalm!,:D

There will always be ppl not satified with their profession. I didn’t like elementalist and went thief.. But hey with such unique (maybe) profs there is nearly always a prof for you.. More and less permanent

Well it’s how the class works that I’m not happy with. All classes exept from Engineer have a melee weapon. It wouldn’t be hard to give us a 2h hammer/ 1h mace, and give them a skill so we can survive taking some hits or avoid them.

It’s the fact that we need to take up two slots just so we can attack. An other class can take on a melee weapon and go for close combat and give high DPS, sure it’s more risky but they can kill a mob fast, an engineer can only kite, so it takes way too long to get a mob down.

An engineer is a support class, they need a tank, sure they can do it on them self, but it takes way to long to kill them.

Traser.9286:

@DangerMonkey.3158
I know it was a spell error, It’s suppose to be “Things that is wrong with the Engeneer class.” and not Thins. I can’t change that so you have to live with it.

@Phoenix the One.4071
My point is that 2 of 3 slots is used for weapons, and the last one is best to use a buff, of panic button. If we could change “set” like everyother class can change weapons in combat, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, then you can have one set for one targeting, and one for AoE attacks.

And all that time/money I spent on my character is gone, just because I was unlucky and chose a broken class?

Mate, “Things that are wrong with the Engineer class” would be nice.

Traser.9286:

Well it’s how the class works that I’m not happy with. All classes exept from Engineer have a melee weapon. It wouldn’t be hard to give us a 2h hammer/ 1h mace, and give them a skill so we can survive taking some hits or avoid them.

It’s the fact that we need to take up two slots just so we can attack. An other class can take on a melee weapon and go for close combat and give high DPS, sure it’s more risky but they can kill a mob fast, an engineer can only kite, so it takes way too long to get a mob down.

An engineer is a support class, they need a tank, sure they can do it on them self, but it takes way to long to kill them.

Pick the wrench.
How about you actually tried a class instead of whining about it after playing 5 hours?
I’m an engineer and I’m fine with it.

@ DangerMonkey.3158
Yes i know… If I could change it I would, but I can’t. I can edit the text in the post, but so far the only need to editing I found is that I forgot the TL;DR note at the bottom.

I’m sure there is something in the post too, but English is not my native language.

@Amra.6028
The wrench does less damage then the rifle, maybe I wasn’t clear on that. But the melee “skill” we have is the lowest DPS on the class, the granades do more damage the the wrench.

And the playtime is 60+ hours, and the last week I been looking on other classes and testing most of the DPS pros and cons the classes have, of curse I need more playtime then a few hours on some of the classes to get everything, but I found that the engineer has the biggest problems of them I tested.

I tested Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, and Thief. My “friends” play Warlock and Elementalsit so I know on the high lvl on them.

Traser.9286:

@ DangerMonkey.3158
Yes i know… If I could change it I would, but I can’t. I can edit the text in the post, but so far the only need to editing I found is that I forgot the TL;DR note at the bottom.

I’m sure there is something in the post too, but English is not my native language.

@Amra.6028
The wrench does less damage then the rifle, maybe I wasn’t clear on that. But the melee “skill” we have is the lowest DPS on the class, the granades do more damage the the wrench.

And the playtime is 60+ hours, and the last week I been looking on other classes and testing most of the DPS pros and cons the classes have, of curse I need more playtime then a few hours on some of the classes to get everything, but I found that the engineer has the biggest problems of them I tested.

I tested Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, and Thief. My “friends” play Warlock and Elementalsit so I know on the high lvl on them.

Wrench kit isnt meant to be used as a heavy dps kit, its a utility kit just like the elixir gun kit. You use the wrench kit to repair turrets, or you switch to it so you can use its shield ability.

Also I dont think Anet intended for the engineer to be played as a pure melee class. Not of it’s slot skills help to increase your dodge. Instead you see that most of your skills and abilities root, slow and knockback enemies or they might give you a speed boost. Engineers are fine the way they are, you just have to find the class that fits your play style, not find a class you like and ask Anet to change it so that it fits your playstyle.

EDIT: also you aren’t fighting mobs alone, you can put down turrets to ‘distract’ enemies. You dont have to go into a fight and put down all your turrets, only to have no turrets for the next group. Since they have such long cooldowns just put 1 down at a time. Put a thumper turret down, then on the next group put your flame turret down and so on. I have had no problems so far with packs. I have flame wall, flame blast and a turret that will tank for a few seconds.

I got around pretty well, soloed things others claimed not soloable, had more problems with playing warrior or mesmer, let alone necro. Only the ranger was easier imo.

Skreez.2306:

The Turrets are not made for tanking, and you can make them do so if you trait for it.

I am tanking. And my turrets are doing the damage. If 2 or more mobs and 1 is attacking the turret then I use the skills of the rifle to get him away and the overload of the rocket turret to knock down. Only a bit of a problem if 2 or more mobs decide to attack the turret. But with the traits they still stay alive it if is not a champion lol. But champions you usually only do in groups. Veterans are usually easy to solo if not more than 2 smaller enemies are nearby and they are killed fast. Kill the fastest to kill stuff first = less enemies to deal with and easier to control. If it is only 1 he can’t do nothing unless he is immune against knockdown or knockback or what it is called(from the rifle 4 skill and overloading rocket turret and maybe the 2 skill of rifle which immobilizes a bit).

But turret getting attacked by enemy and engineer attacking somewhere else and doing something else than getting the enemy/ mob away from the turret -> then turret = useless.

Amra.6028:

I got around pretty well, soloed things others claimed not soloable, had more problems with playing warrior or mesmer, let alone necro. Only the ranger was easier imo.

Probably because the ranger has his movable turret – the pet? Necre minions that weak? Never tried one. I am trying a guardian now. And I already feel that I am taking more damage and more often. But then again it is because you have to meele and getting hit more. And you have a better armor and I think guardian really needs to rely on his melee defensive skills and the passive health regeneration while in combat(that one thingy on one of the F1-F4 keys that only seems to help a really small amount but surely will get better later, have not looked at the traits yet and still at very beginning of playing with that char).

Go grenades. Get the trait where you throw an extra grenade. Learn to kite with grenades. Get the trait where crits have a chance to grant vulnerability.

Your problems will be over.

(Thumper turrent is a pretty good tank if you want to stick to turrents)

fingis.2867:

Go grenades…
…Your problems will be over.

While this is true (not only for grenades but also bombs), i would like to actually have all options be viable (we’re talking PvE here).
Why can’t the other things we have be good too?
Why do i have to use either grenades or bombs?

Yeah you can kill things with your normal weapons but it’s arguably much slower and more tedious.
Then we have the Flamethrower for example.
The latest change helped a bit but it’s still got problems.
Let’s not even start with things like the toolkit.

(Answering to the OP)

Dewd,

I don’t even know where to start … Ok i’ll take your messages in the chrono order :
First of all, if you wanna play a warrior then play it : You don’t have to compare a classe with each other in this game as they all have unique features and gameplay. Please compare what is comparable, on the same range.

1) You said that you need a melee weapon to tank mobs ?
Ok bro, tanking is about avoiding dmg by any means, having a melee weapon won’t help on that, but hey you can have a shield instead that is working just Great.

2) You said that you have to spam 1 when using a kit
Assuming that is a well known bug and i agree it’s “terribadly” annoying, but not game breaking as you can “Control+RightClick” it to activate the auto-attack. Yes, if you wanna use the swithing possibilities between Weapon/kits its not optimal but still not game breaking as you dont switch weapons in fight to use the Skill 1 but generally it’s meant for the 4other skills. Just let them time to fix their game.

3) You said that you have to use 2 kits and 1 utility skills
Why using 2 kits ? i’m playing with Flamethrower and 2 utility skills depending on mobs that i have to fight :
Gadgets

• Personnal Battering Ram is a blast utility and even belt skill is awesome.
• Rocket boots is a great escape tool + curing some conditions. Belt tool is simply great when it comes to Burn foes in area.
• Utility goggles is increasing your dps by giving you 10% vulnerability + 20% crit strike chance

Elixirs

• Elix B is a blast ’nuff said.
• Elix U … nuff said as well.
• Other elixs are purely for survival utilities

I won’t talk about turrets as it’s really a specific gameplay, more static that i don’t like that much and actually i don’t really know that much about those.

And what about using only Rifle ? so much passive traits awesome with this weapon.
Oh, next time try to go for 2, 1, 1, wait for him to be on melee rnage and do 5, 3 and 4 with rifle against a mob … repeat and rinse just deadly : by the time you’ve finished this cycle (don’t like to call it like this but …) you net shot (skill 2) wil be available again.
So, yes we are a kitting class, not especially designed to play toe to toe.
Even if i’m totaly sure that flamethrower + toughness could be jsut a blast for tanking/dps-ing purpose

Much more to say, but i don’t wanna blame ya, i agree we all have to re-learn to play classes with this game. At first point, some classes seems to be easier to play than others, but the complexity of the engineer prof is just so tricky that i can’t imagine playing something else.

I agree with all the bugs related to mechanical issues of the class not for the rest of your post.

Friendly
My2c.

@cosmatman.9306
Sure we can kite good, as long as the enemy is not ranged, then it’s who can deal the most damage before someone dies. So the mobs that we can’t kite we will take lots of damage. Turrets I don’t like because they attack whatever they want to attack. You don’t have a taunt attack so the mobs attack random, and behave just bad.

My point is that the engineer is the only class who can deal much damage. In bigger event’s I don’t even get a medal because I do to low damage, and then I use 2 turrets, pistol/elixir-gun for the de-buffs, the lag also don’t help. tho I’m not sure it’s a bug, but it still annoying.

And if I decide to have turrets in my utility slot I need to switch utility every time I face a different mob attack type, like ranged, melee, pack. and then the “switch” button would be useful.

At the moment I have flamethrower/elixir-gun in first slot, buff in second, and then a kite skill in third, and all of those I need to change depending on the situation, so there is a lot of changing in the utilities.

Edit:
@Battlewill.5614
1. Well I said that the engineer need a tank to play good, I didn’t say I wanted the engineer to be a tank. I just want a weapon that can do high DPS like every other class have.

2. Bug, I got that know, but it would be an easy fix.

3. Well if I don’t want to change between Flamethrower and elixir-gun I have to, so the switch button would be a good feature here.

Also the engineer is a good kiting class, I said my rotation in the original post.
Rifle, First use 1 then when he get close use 2 and 3, when he get out use 4, throw a mine that blast him back in front of you, use 1 he get blast back, when he get in range for 3 use 2 and then 3 use 4 when he get out and keep redoing this.

When I plaid a warrior I did 5, then 2 and then F1 and target is dead. this is with a great-sword and it take like no time, when the engineer takes like 30sec to down a mob.

I politely disagree.
Addressing as many points as I can (I apologize, yours is a long post).

1. Toolbelt for the most part replaces util skills set as turrets and kits.
2. Can be built to be extremely flexible (a very good thing in pve especially dungeons.)
3. Rifle, pistol – shield. Both have very good weapon skill sets. Some control and some damage.
4. Turrets should not be thought of as a (place down and forget) item. Use them in combo fields. Use them situationally. Abuse the fact that supercharge is on cd even if the turret has been detonated.
5. Damage can be good, however like in every class you will have a tradeoff, however I agree, we as engies have to do more I think, to get the damage potential out. (put more skills on cd in a combined way)

To close I think that engies are just extremely fiddly. They have really good potential. I really think it comes down to a high skill cap.
No I am not saying “QQ noob, L2P” I am saying that don’t quit experimenting just yet. There is ALOT of ground to cover with an engie. A ton of choices, some of which can synergize amazingly.

Just one example, I run heal turret, flame turret, flamethrower kit, bomb kit, motar.
Heal turret applies a buff for 13 secs or so of regen, why keep it up always?
Instead I drop both then flame wall across them, detonate both turrets and use my shield combo finisher to give the whole party or nearby zerg instantly 9 stacks of might.

what do people have aggainst the toolkit?
i personaly use it quite often to beat the crap out of mobs.

• the base attack does descent damage (could do more compared to other melee classes)
• the nails are quite handy too
• crowbar hits high too and the confusion even adds more damage
• shield is pretty valueable and on low cooldown
• the magnet, ok …. thats kinda crap but at least it knocks people down

damage whise i would give teh baseattack a buff, but its usuable right now, especialy if u are 3kit engineer (elexir gun, flame, toolset).

but to be honest, using bombs is still more effecient cause their base attack is just way heigher and thats pretty much the only point where the toolkit fails.

The normal weapons Pistol/Rifle fulfill more of a utility role for the Engineer, compared to how the other classes use weapons. Yes, they can deal damage, but my experience has been mainly using them for the crowd control abilities, then switching over to the Weapon Kits. The Weapon Kits for Engineer fulfill the role normal weapons do for other classes, as in they output a lot of damage.

Ok I main an Engy am lvl 80 and I play a lot of WvW and a little SPvP and the engineer is one of the most useful classes. I have seen hardly any engineers actually play it right. If you are struggling to kill mobs you are doing it wrong, engineers are pretty much faster than anyone else at continuously farming.

Equipment wise you want power, vitality and toughness, you basically want to be able to take as many hits as possible because you will be getting in nice and close most of the time. Traits are 30 in explosives with two of your traits being +10% explosion damage and 25% range on grenades +extra grenade, 20 in inventions with the traits protection when hit critical and 10% combat speed (the most important one is the health skill reset at 25% hp), 20 in alchemy with traits of drink elixir S at 25% hp and regen when using a kit.

First of all turret skills are meh in PvE and SPvP and useless at best in WvW, they are a waste of a slot really.

First of all I use the Rifle, the main reason being the fact that it has a knock-down and immobilize, an engineer should not be relying on his rifle for any more then a couple of hits in a row anyway and should almost exclusively only be switching to use specific skills.

The first utility is the grenade kit, this is your main weapon. While the engineer might not be able to put out as much single hit damage as most others he can put out far more AOE than even the elementalist and his DPS over a period of time even with vitality and toughness as the focus is still great. Grenades are pretty much useful always, PvE you just aggro several creatures and kill them all at the same time and repeat, making the engineer very fast at farming (this is why you take vit and toughness). In PvP it take a little more effort and concentration to use since people move, this requires the switching to the rifle, immobilize them, switch to grenades and chill, use that 3 second to poison and bleed, switch back to rifle and use knockback, switch back to grenades and make them dodge before switching back to rifle to immobilize again. I wont bother going into WvW it will take too long.

Now with 1500 range on grenades and even with buffed survivability still not super tanky you may be tempted to sit back and throw…. this is not how to utilise grenades full potential though, you need to be point blank to make sure you hit and you want the enemy to hit you not your teammates because of the next 2 skills you will use… Elixir S and Slick Shoes.

You may remember the trait to use Elixir S at 25% hp, basically this elixir makes you tiny, you evade attacks and break stun, it lasts for 3 seconds. Slick shoes gives double movement for 5 seconds and gives you another knockdown. Basically you heal once before you reach 25%, then you keep fighting until you reach 25% and turn tiny, at which point you turn tail and run, your heal will reset due to the trait so you can use that again, once you become big again if no one is following good, if they are hit your double speed and prepare to hit your elixir S if they start attacking again. This gives you about 6-7 seconds where they can do almost 0 damage and you have plenty of time to get help, you also get a heal and with the regen from heal and using a kit with the trait you should be gaining around 250-300 HP a second, once you have escaped or received help just play it a bit more defensive for a minute and you are set to go again.

This setup makes it incredibly hard to die in PvE while still being able to kill creatures fast, in SPvP it makes you an incredible nuisance, if the enemy dont attack you are free to do big damage and cripple the enemy, if they do attack you can escape and they have wasted precious time. In WvW I constantly run into the middle of dozens of opposition players, cripple and poison several of them, knockdown some more with slick shoes and still escape ready to repeat 90 seconds later, it also makes it impossible for the enemy to block you from entering a besieged tower or keep.

Ok that got a bit long but anyway, I didnt really want to give away my build but it really frustrates me when I see engineers put down rifle or rocket turrets, especially in WvW. Engineers are rare, not many people play them and even fewer people play them well.

BTW the downside of my build is it takes practice to get right when fighting in small skirmishes or 1v1. Also if all else fails just go underwater and use grenades because they are super broken.

I’m not saying that Engineer is useless in every combat situation, but when I started to test all damage types before I post this I just looked at the damage that I could output, and it’s there where my problem is. The engineers damage is the lowest of all classes, we are not a tank nor are we a DPS, the healing turret dies to fast if you fight someone with a brain or a mob that randomly wants to attack it, so we are no healers, we are just for support. We have skills to keep the mobs at a distant, if there are more mobs or a ranged one we will take hits. We can’t do high DPS so we can’t take them down before we take lots of damage, we can’t use anything to re-direct that damage.

A other class can use its high DPS weapon to deal whit those problems but an engineer don’t have one so we just have to doge and keep fire while we take hits.

Or tell me, how do you deal with a ranged class that do more damage then you? The only thing I found to deal with it is to use high DPS skills to get it down before it kills me, but we don’t have one. Turrets can’t tank, and use them as bombs is not something that I would like to use, because there are better utility skills to have then that.

Edit:
@Reonhato.5914
I know very well of the grenade build, but that’s just it. Just auto attack whit 1 and then just rotate 2, 3, 4, 5, when every CD is off, but just having the grenade skill get boring after a while, and I don’t just want every engineer to only use the grenade skill just because the other weapons are kinda useless.

Yeah, you’re making the engineer work – Good on you! (No sarcasm here, please don’t take it as such).
The problem imo is that you need to put so much effort into it to make it work.
The things you achieve with all the switching, CCing etc. other classes can do with a few buttons.
Some people will without a doubt argue that this fiddlyness (I think i might be making up words here) is the flavor – the style of the Engineer. Personally i can’t agree with that.

DangerMonkey.3158:

Stopped reading after terrible title

It was a well-written post by someone whose first language probably isn’t English. Why dismiss an intelligent post just because a person doesn’t speak YOUR language perfectly?

Traser.9286:

snip snip

Sorry to say OP, but it sounds like you are playing it all wrong.

1- Yes we only have 3 “weapon choices”; dual pistols, pistol and shield, and rifle… but we also have all those kits which it sounds like you have not explored them all. If you want AOE, you have bombs, you have grenades, both of which are superior at DPS. I can regularly tackle multiple mobs at once with either kit, and a LITTLE bit of Kiting, to make sure they are not all stacked on top of me.

2- As an engineer I do not want to be melee. My best survivability comes from the ability to be versatile; to weave in and out of range, and get the most bang for my buck. If I have to go melee, I can either use the tool belt, or as you mentioned the flamethrower. Do not forget that flamethrower has the number 4 skill to create a flame wall in front of you (which you can put RIGHT in front of you), and the pushback on number 3, if you have too many people in your face (it is a cone pushback, not single person).

3- Make sure you keep your guns updated, otherwise, yes it will take 30 seconds to kill something. If your rifle or pistols are properly leveled, you will find life is a LOT easier for you. Also do not underestimate the turrets. They all have specials which can be used to burst damage, or knockdown, or immobilize/ cripple. Use them… make love to them… they are your best friends.

4- Auto Attack. The tool kits do not have auto attack set up by default, but guess what… you can ACTIVATE auto attack by simply going control + right click on the button you want to be your auto attack (usually 1). It works on almost every kit… I use it with grenades, elixir gun, flamethrower, even weapons I pick up like the dredge sonic rifle.

5- You want to be a 5 v 1 engineer, invest in some toughness, but more importantly go condition. If you have stacks of condition duration and damage, you will find life goes smoother. This is especially useful as a dual pistol engineer, since most of your weapon skills already put conditions on people. Not many classes can faceroll 1-5 and stack a bunch of conditions straight off the bat.

6- Never underestimate the shield… You have a built in knockback that is AOE, as well as what I call “the Captain America shield throw” on number 5 that goes in a straight line out then back for double damage. You would be surprised how handy that comes in. In my set up I always keep a healing statted shield and a strong condition statted pistol, two pistols with stacking abilities (one has a might stack, the other has a condition stack), and a healing statted rifle for when I need to get medival on their buttocks.

I hope you think about some of these ideas before writing the engineer off, because I am telling you, I have been an engineer since that first beta weekend, and I have never had so much fun as I do with this class. It is immensely versatile, you just have to LEARN how to use it well.

Traser.9286:

Or tell me, how do you deal with a ranged class that do more damage then you? The only thing I found to deal with it is to use high DPS skills to get it down before it kills me, but we don’t have one. Turrets can’t tank, and use them as bombs is not something that I would like to use, because there are better utility skills to have then that.

Edit:
@Reonhato.5914
I know very well of the grenade build, but that’s just it. Just auto attack whit 1 and then just rotate 2, 3, 4, 5, when every CD is off, but just having the grenade skill get boring after a while, and I don’t just want every engineer to only use the grenade skill just because the other weapons are kinda useless.

I’m assuming you are talking about ranged pvp classes, because so far i havent had any trouble with ranged in pve. If you are talking about pvp, you cannot expect any 1 profession to be able to beat all other professions. They have to balance things, thats why you have counter classes/professions. For example you might have no trouble with thieves, warriors, and necromancers but rangers and elementalists give you trouble because they can outrange you, or kite you or evade your attacks pretty easily. If there was a class in game that could easily beat all 8 classes in a 1 on 1 fight, then everyone would play that character.

You should look at all your traits and see which ones might be good to spec into if you are having trouble with ranged. You have traits that increase grenade range by 25%, rifle/pistol/harpoon/elixir gun by 20%. You can look at speed boosters or survival traits. Or you can just play to the engineers strengths as a support class.

I run an engineer almost exclusively using kits. Grenades, Elixir Gun, Flame thrower — although I’ve been swapping out the FT for turrets or gadgets to experiment.

Ahh… the grenade kit. Grenades right down the line: 5-4-3-2-1-F2. Especially if you happen across a DE or there are other players around. Get that poison out and watch the combos pile up.

Then the elixir gun? Cripple, bleed, poison, vulnerability, bonus dodge w/ acid pool. Then I lob in a remove conditions/regen for the melee troops.

The Flame thrower I use the least, honestly. If someone gets in too close, blind and blow-back. I do agree that it should auto-correct for differences in altitude. I don’t have to look up to hit with my rifle. Same with the flame thrower.

We all agree that auto-fire on the 1 skill really should be there. Ok, not for the grenades or bombs, but every “gun” should have it by default. Yes, we all know how to set it to auto-fire, but that’s a pain when you’re in a protracted battle and you’re cycling through kits.

Bottom line: specing for conditions and using those kits seems to work fine for me.

Run Amok.9205:

DangerMonkey.3158:

Stopped reading after terrible title

It was a well-written post by someone whose first language probably isn’t English. Why dismiss an intelligent post just because a person doesn’t speak YOUR language perfectly?

It’s my third language, but it was actually a typo, it was suppose to be “Things that are wrong with the Engineer.” and not “thins that is[…]” But it seems like a mod fixed that, and I’m very thankful for that. And thanks for thinking that my post was well written.

@Bel Geode.8129
I’m actually only using the kits and not the other weapons, the rifle I only use on melee when it’s 1Vs1 and then I don’t take any kind of damage. But it’s when I go against ranged people that it get difficult, we can’t deal with ranged people. We can kite melee, but ranged we have no protection against, except the shield but then the DPS is way to low and it take to long to kill anything.

I want a high DPS melee weapon to deal with this, melee weapons do more damage then ranged but you take more damage from the close combat. But because it’s a ranged unit you will take the exact amount of damage if you are ranged or melee, and that’s why I want a high DPS melee weapon to deal with them.

@cosmatman.9306
It’s mostly PvE, I haven’t played that much PvP, but in PvP it would be fine, because you are a support class and there are others around you you fir right in. Well you should, haven’t played enough PvP to find if it is true.

@dlechestnut.3954
Well that’s the thing why do we even have weapon if they are useless, sure the rifle is good at 1vs1 in melee, but I kind find other builds that is just a little worse, so we can survive without any weapons and only the kits. But I still want to have a high DPS melee to deal with ranged guys.

Being an engineer myself, I have a solution to your mob problem:

Step 1: Drop your missile turret

Step 2: Drop your rifle turret

Step 3: pull either single or mob towards you.

Step 4: Pull out your flamethrower, solution solved.

If that doesn’t work, either have:

-Wolf form
-Emergency care package

Ready to pull these out and you will be fine.

For you’re heal, since you are solo, the heal turret works, but I’ve started to realize taht the med kit F1 works and the med kit 5 speed boost works well.

I also suggest focusing traits on Explosives, Firearms, and Inventions. Get the firearm cooldown and range boosts at 10 and 15, the range increases your range for your flamethrower and your elixer gun (which is an amazing kit, do not underestimate it) I believe. Also get extra defense on your turrets and +5% defense when at full Stamina.

A good escape perk or dodge perk is the drop a mine when you roll dodge when you reach 10 explosive traits.

Gotta say I disagree.

1) You can set a skill to be your auto attack skill with ctrl + mouse 2 for the kits.

2) I am currently running a bomb/grenade focused spec that will WRECK players. Not only are my attacks 1500 range, but thy are AoE as well.

I find a perch and toss my nades, then when they start to come after me I lay a mine at my feet which knocks them back. By the time they recover and charge back in they arrive just in time for my bombs to go off in their face. After that I use the “Big ’Ol Bomb” skill for ANOTHER large knockback followed by more nades and when they come back in more bombs.

I am having a blast with that setup (pun intended)

3) My other spec before that was a rifle spec that was also pretty killer. I had an UNBUFFED crit chance of 57%. When I used the goggles utility skill I gained fury (Which boosted me up to 77% chance) and with the tool belt skill for it my target got an instant 10 stacks of vulnerability. After that drink elixir U for quickness and net shot them in place. Then I just go to town on them with my hip shot. As the buffs and stuff wind down I jump in close for a boosted blunderbuss attack.

Overall I am liking then enginer atm. Rifle gives me nice damage both in bursts and consistently. And bombs are just heck of a fun time. With all the knockbacks and AoE.

Being an engineer myself, I have a solution to your mob problem:

Step 1: Drop your missile turret

Step 2: Drop your rifle turret

Step 3: pull either single or mob towards you.

Step 4: Pull out your flamethrower, solution solved.

If that doesn’t work, either have:

-Wolf form
-Emergency care package

Ready to pull these out and you will be fine.

For you’re heal, since you are solo, the heal turret works, but I’ve started to realize taht the med kit F1 works and the med kit 5 speed boost works well.

I also suggest focusing traits on Explosives, Firearms, and Inventions. Get the firearm cooldown and range boosts at 10 and 15, the range increases your range for your flamethrower and your elixer gun (which is an amazing kit, do not underestimate it) I believe. Also get extra defense on your turrets and +5% defense when at full Stamina.

A good escape perk or dodge perk is the drop a mine when you roll dodge when you reach 10 explosive traits.