Guild Wars 2

So I have been thinking about making an engineer but have heard bad things about them…IE their damage sucks, they can be squishy etc etc. So does anyone have any advice for starting an engineer?

What style do you want to play? I have a turret support setup for PVE and I am by no means squishy, while my damage may not be as good as a person who is dps oriented I am perfectly capable of soloing most things in this spec.

There is a bomb spec out there for pvp that has good survivability and lots of AoE condition damage, I have played it myself and I find the damage pretty good especially on groups. I have been able to 2v1 in that spec in some cases and come out the winner(mostly because of bad players who didn’t know how to stay out of AoE).
Flamethrower can be very good as far as damage.

Most the people that complain about their damage are those that can’t find a good build.

I was thinking of using some sort of turret build….either full turret or turret support.

No one has any builds?

I plan on building power and vitality on my armor along with traits that focus on precision for my engineer so I can be durable and deal some form of damage with my flamethrower.

Seems to have worked for my playstyle so far.

Turret builds are support, speccing turrets nets you better healing. I personally spec explosives/inventions with 10 points in the bottom tree whose name avoids me for some reason…

This build gives me decent damage with a good amount of healing. For utility in solo play I use rifle turret, net turret, rocket turret. The net turret and rocket turret provide good control when fighting multiple enemies. You be always moving always kiting preferably in close circles to avoid getting more aggro. Don’t backpeddle, side strafe. Make sure to make use of the rocket turret overcharge.

Now for group play I use a little different setup on utilities, usually its “rifle turret”, Flame Turret, rocket turret as control is not needed as badly in group situations.

All of the above I may change dependent on the situation and sometimes I won’t use turrets at all aside from heal turret. In dungeons often I will have situations where I go rocket boot, and battering ram instead of turrets in those slots.

As for elites, most the time I’m running either elixir X, or supply crate. More often than not I only drop supply crate when I’m using turrets and only when the group isn’t doing too hot. I use elixir X in solo play because of the damage and knockbacks, I haven’t found supply crate to be that useful outside of group play. Elixir X is also useful in certain group play situations where you need to get some control over the enemy mob(s). I sometimes use power suit on certain bosses for the increased survivability and some decent damage.

Nice icky, that’s exactly what I was looking for….would you be able to post your build up so I can see where you put things?

here you go:
http://en.gw2codex.com/build/16931-turret-support

Some of those traits you could tweak a bit especially on a situation basis. For instance you could swap Adrenal implant for speedy gadgets when you are using rocket boots and battering ram.

Also I forgot to mention Power Suit is an Asuran elite.

Edit: I only use healing elixir underwater, healing turret everywhere else.

I myself do fairly OK in PvP, survivability isn’t a problem using alchemy and neither is dmg.

Traits:
Explosives: 5
Firearms: 20 – Sitting Duck, Rifle Mod
Inventions: 15 – Energized Armor
Alchemy: 30 – Fast-Acting Elixirs, Cleaning Formula 409, Automated Response
Tools: 0

Skills;
Healing – Elixir H
Elixir C
Rocket Boots
Elixir B
Elite – Supply Crate

Weapon;
Rifle with a Sigil of Superior Nullification

Gear;
Power, Vitality and Toughness

Works great for me at least

Icky I can’t see that, it says something about a private build.

Patches, thanks

BCDragon.5614:

Icky I can’t see that, it says something about a private build.

Patches, thanks

np, if you want you can switch Cleaning Formula 409 to Blood injection for more direct dmg, but there are a lot of conditions in PvP and there are a few other tweaks you can do, just try stuff out and see what fits your play-style

Also; a few of those skills are still buggy :/ Rocket boots doesn’t always work as they should but when they do they are a lifesaver as you can use them when you are knocked down etc.

Speaking to PVE specifically,

Engineer takes more work than facerolling everything as a Warrior, but can certainly deal damage. Even in dungeon runs careful placement of my turrets made them quite useful, the supply drops helped turn tides, and tumbling in and out of combat (with the trait that leaves mines behind when I dodge) while using blunderbuss contributed to damage well. It’s an active profession with a lot of thought needed to preparation for the fight, but in the end it works.

My build (although I’m not at 80 yet, so I may shuffle this up) focuses on being a “distributed tank” across many turrets, with basic power damage in the rifle for my directed damage source.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.8.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.81.95.82.86.102.0.0.0.228.234.0.246.0.0.258.265.267.276.0.0.0.0.0.20.10.30.10.0

As noted above, you’re going to want to do some swapping based on your situation. For instance, when so, I’ll usually replace Heal Turret with Elixr H and Flamethrower with Elixr B. That gives me more personal damage and healing compared to widespread damage and healing. (Flamethrower shines when you have teammates distracting enemies, so you can get up close and AOE the crap out of them… but solo or vs. strong single targets it’s not a great choice.) You can also swap out traits when solo for more appropriate ones.

At the lower levels, you will feel that you are not churning out as much damage as the other classes are but from my experience, it evens out when you reach 50+ or something.

I was thinking about abandoning my engineer once however I decided to continue since I already invested my time on it.

Now, I ain’t looking back because I’m having lots and lots of fun with my grenadier with elixirs build on WvW.

Going back to topic – only advice is to persevere. If you have any class-specific questions, you can send me a message.

Rome.7124:

At the lower levels, you will feel that you are not churning out as much damage as the other classes are but from my experience, it evens out when you reach 50+ or something.

I was thinking about abandoning my engineer once however I decided to continue since I already invested my time on it.

Now, I ain’t looking back because I’m having lots and lots of fun with my grenadier with elixirs build on WvW.

Going back to topic – only advice is to persevere. If you have any class-specific questions, you can send me a message.

Thanks again guys, now to just wait on Icky

I have a question, why have you specced into Forceful Explosives? From what I understand you don’t seem to use mines or bombs so what good is getting that?

BCDragon.5614:

Thanks again guys, now to just wait on Icky

I posted my build, scroll up and click link

Forceful Explosives was a “I dunno what else is worth taking here” pick. I leave mines behind when I dodge, so presumably it applies to them.

I suppose I could take the 5% damage boost when endurance isn’t full — I do a lot of dodging, but that didn’t seem worth bothering with since dodging=mines anyway, so I may as well catch more in my blasts. There’s also Incendiary Powder but this isn’t a crit focused build, so would it fire often enough to be worth it? etc.

Fortunately traits can be swapped out, so I can experiment until I find one that works best. Also, I do have Grenade Kit in my skill inventory — when time calls for AOE spamming explosives, that trait will be handy. Like I said, the key to good engineering is swapping things out as the situation calls for them.

Does that even apply to grenades? I thought it was mines and bombs only? why not just go for the 33% chance to burn? You did spec into precision after all.

ickytwerp.9086:

I have a question, why have you specced into Forceful Explosives? From what I understand you don’t seem to use mines or bombs so what good is getting that?

BCDragon.5614:

Thanks again guys, now to just wait on Icky

I posted my build, scroll up and click link

Yes you did but it says that I can’t can’t access it as its private

EDIT: This is what it keeps on telling me

warning.head

You are trying to access a private build, only the author can view this page.

BCDragon.5614:

ickytwerp.9086:

I have a question, why have you specced into Forceful Explosives? From what I understand you don’t seem to use mines or bombs so what good is getting that?

BCDragon.5614:

Thanks again guys, now to just wait on Icky

I posted my build, scroll up and click link

Yes you did but it says that I can’t can’t access it as its private

Apologies, was hoping it would just hide it from the build browser on the site fixed*

ickytwerp.9086:

BCDragon.5614:

ickytwerp.9086:

I have a question, why have you specced into Forceful Explosives? From what I understand you don’t seem to use mines or bombs so what good is getting that?

BCDragon.5614:

Thanks again guys, now to just wait on Icky

I posted my build, scroll up and click link

Yes you did but it says that I can’t can’t access it as its private

Apologies, was hoping it would just hide it from the build browser on the site fixed*

No worries….thanks again…I have it now.

I’m a level 72 Engineer, and I have been rolling with a Critical Grenade build for PvE.

Skills:
Med Kit/Healing Turret
Proximity mine
Bomb Kit
Grenade Kit

Traits:
30 Explosives: Bigger Bomb/Mine Radius, 10% more explosion dmg, Grenadier
22 Precision (to be 30 at 80): Knee Shot, 50% chance for vuln on crits
10 Invention: 5% of Toughness converted to Power

One of the perks in the explosion tree (at 25) is to apply vulnerability for each explosion for 5 seconds. Combined with Grenadier tossing out 3 grenades and a decent crit chance and the above precision perk, you can maintain a stack of 20+ vulnerability.

Starting out though, you just need to get through the first few levels when you have nothing but your pistol/rifle, to when you get your weapon kits (flamethrower)/turrets to be more effective.

I have an early lvl engineer that I am enjoying … for my part … the rifle rocks. That should get you through to a point where you can tailor your build. Shrapnel fire is a nice dmg at close range. I forget the name but the 4th skill has a knockback fire that is almost a free evade and jump shot , the fifth skill makes my old Quake rocketjumping heart squeal in glee. Leave dmg where you came from make dmg where you land. Tip – let em close in and do both to them :P awesome!!!!

thanks guys…will try those out as well

I can’t speak from experience, but I do know that the Engineers in our guild make dungeon runs awesome. The rocket turret and flamethrower seem to spread damage very nicely, and the support from the elixer gun and healing turret are huge assets.

The profession may take some getting used to, since it seems to play dramatically different from the other professions, but if the idea of Engineer appeals to you I’d say to go for it. Anyone who says they aren’t useful is deluded.

While I was leveling up to 80 I was working my way up to this build, and did use it for a while:

Explosives: 30 – Burning Powder, Explosive Powder, Grenadier
Firearms: 10 – Precise Sights
Inventions: 20 – Energized Armour, Power Shoes
Alchemy: 10 – Fast Acting Elixirs,

Skills:
Elixir H
Grenade Kit
Elixir B
Rocket Turret
Supply Drop

Weapon choice is up to you as you’ll mostly be using the grenade kit. Personally I stuck with rifle because jumpshot is useful for jumping puzzles. Grenade Kit gives decent damage (each grenade for me was hitting between 350-400ish iirc) along with a fair few conditions. Great for soloing but I was finding that when dungeon diving I was lacking in general utility so I’ve moved onto this build.

Explosives: 10 – Burning Powder
Firearms: 30 – Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut
Alchemy: 30 – Fast Acting Elixirs, Cleansing Formula, Deadly Mixture.

Skills:
Elixir H
Elixir Gun
Flamethrower
Elixir B
Supply Drop.

The flamethrower does a fair bit of damage, along with burning from both the primary attack and the 33% chance on crit, more so now with the tweaks to the Juggernaut trait. The Elixir gun get’s decent condition damage from 30 points in firearms along with offering support skills. Potions keep me free of conditions along with any party members that get hit from the toolbelt skill.

Overall the second build suits my playstyle better, even though throwing explosives is always fun.