Guild Wars 2

with my mesmer about to reach max lvl and my guildys only being on at nights, im thinking about lvling one of my alts next. my problem, I cant deside between my necro or my engineer both are only in the low teens right now and ive been told both are broken classes and to roll something else but when i started my mesmer people told me the same thing. these toons are manly going to be for pve.

im thinking an elixer/flamethrower engineer or a wells/condition staff necro? any ideas or input that i should know about?

Quizotic.2815:

im thinking an elixer/flamethrower engineer

Flamethrower is worthless at this point. Don’t roll an engi if you only want to be a pyro.

I disagree in combination with EG and P/P I do quite well with my primary weapon being the FT.

You need HGH, Runes that extend Boons help, and Power/Prec/Crit Damage gear to make full effectiveness of it though.

If by “quite well” you mean worse than basically any other option then sure.

well my plan was to use flamethrower to lvl than switch to medkit for endgame for group play,so if flamethrowers not good evan for lvling i dont realy mind using something else to dps i was just planning to use it cuz i was told elixers and regular p/p , p/s , and rifle arnt good for lvling either. so any other kit or skill that could make up for the lost dps while still being an elixer engineer that i could use?

Quizotic – My recommendation would be to go play a couple of matches in sPvP with your ideal build for each class, then level the one you have the most fun with.
My main is a necromancer, so my decision would be biased, but they are awesome!

Quizotic.2815:

well my plan was to use flamethrower to lvl than switch to medkit for endgame for group play,so if flamethrowers not good evan for lvling i dont realy mind using something else to dps i was just planning to use it cuz i was told elixers and regular p/p , p/s , and rifle arnt good for lvling either. so any other kit or skill that could make up for the lost dps while still being an elixer engineer that i could use?

Flamethrower for leveling is bad because the kit is even more worthless until you can get juggernaut at 60. Med kit is a perfectly fine choice for your healing slot (I use it more often than not) but I don’t know why you would think it has anything to do with using the flamethrower. You won’t be spending all your time sitting in med kit tossing heals to people.

Rifle/grenades/elixir gun is about as good as engi gets in pve right now. p/p elixir builds are also relatively effective (and really easy to play) but I find it super boring.

For Quizotic and others reading this later, I would suggest you read ANet’s ‘class vision’ post that came with the latest patch notes. Use that to help determine your choice.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/999247

In particular, read the sections on Necromancer, Engineer, and Elementalist (that last as comparison to another ‘versatile’ class). Then make your own decision as to what has the clearest vision, and visit that class’s forums (as well as your second and third choices) to see how well bugs etc are being worked on.

While I am very disappointed with what ANet wrote there, I’m not going to give a personal opinion about what is best for you. Only you can decide that – and in fact, the game is partially designed to run with multiple characters over time (if only to grab various achievements) so its worth your time to experiment. This is not Eve Online or WoW, where a paid subscription is hanging over your head (making time == money in so many ways).

Good Luck, and above all Have Fun. :-)

awesome-it was my understanding that all the weapons engineers had avaliable to them sucked for lvling and endgame and since i was planning elixers anyways i figured id just pick up a kit for a skill slot and use the elixer heal since it would have a shorter cooldown from traits anyways. tho to hear that p/p is viable realy makes me happy might just have to do that instead >.<

Awesome just seems Angry. Depends on how you plan to level your character. I have level 2 Engineers now to 80 and found doing a P/P works great for me, its not the fastest kills but I can kite forever.

Groups I love Flamethrower and EG, EG is great support, and FT especially with a Guardian giving out Might and a good 20+ stacks between Jugg and HGH its a fearsome weapon, yes others might be able to do more damage but putting out consistent damage to a large area is worth it for me.

Using a 0/30/0/30/10 Build, I can just change the traits based on how I want to play. More P/P oriented for solo play, and EG/FT for groups.

As someone who just hit level 80 on their engineer, and by having flamethrower on my utility bar for a majority of the time: don’t let Awesome talk you out of it. The damage, in conjunction with the proper stats, keeps up just fine, and the utilities it provides (a pushback and AoE blind) constantly come in handy. The lack of Juggernaut at low levels doesn’t make the flamethrower bad, either. It’s just that Juggernaut makes the kit that much better. The same way that Coated Bullets (pistols pierce), Grenadier (extra grenades thrown), and Rifled Turret Barrels (+15% turret damage) make their abilities a whole lot better; doesn’t mean you should avoid the weapons/skills prior to accessing those traits.

If you’re looking at the strict top end, munchkin stacking, min/max game, then maybe the Flamethrower falls behind. But few places in the game necessitate this extreme level of min/maxing, and leveling is by far one of the least demanding. If you like it, use it. Don’t let people tell you you’re wrong.

If you’re set on a pistol/pistol setup, and using this for PvE, have you considered Thief? It’s the only other class that allows it. I’ve not tried it myself, but is still on the table for character #3.

Since you’re looking to be set on Engi, I’ll open up with some personal experience. I run a Rifle setup myself, and pretty happy with it so far. I’m now trying to re-spec/re-trait him for WvW, probably on a semi-permanent basis for small (3-5 man) guild roams (which he’s doing well at).

But I’ve not had very good PvE experience with him; Orr and other zerg-type mobbing is a problem since the class lacks a reliable source of Stability, and the amount of Poison etc thrown about may force you to take certain traits sometimes. Block is very possible through a TankCat setup, but that’s a WW config and is still being explored for PvE use; That’s a Pistol/Shield setup btw, but P/P will probably work with some tweaks.

Also note that (currently) the class is stigmatized to the point that you may not be allowed in certain dungeon PUGs, in particular Fractals (regardless if the character is viable or not). This may be a deal-breaker for you, if you’re developing this character to help with making some extra Gold, Dungeon Tokens etc. I’m primarily a Social player (my first MMO type game being Myst Online), so I don’t care about that.

Again, I recommend you visit their subforum and see what’s working and what’s not. Also, take most of the comments (including my own!) with a grain of salt and try things anyway to see what fits for you. Engineer’s class difficulty/complexity is somewhere in the 11-12 range (on a scale to 10 ;-). But it’s still very fun once you have something working, so don’t be discouraged.

I have never been turned away from a group for my class, and if I ever was I would just create my own group, not to mention thats what guilds are for.

thank you all very much, grinding out the last lvl or two on my main and im starting my engineer tomorrow, im thinking a 10/30/0/30/0 p/p, elixer build. agian thank you all for your input

For flamethrower dps to equal simple rifle dps you need like 20+ stacks of might. If you want to roll around with that sort of handicap for a gain of an aoe blind and a pushback be my guest.