Guild Wars 2

So I have been away from the game for two and deciding to bring up a fresh toon. I have warrior, mezmer, and thief at 80 already. For small groups and roaming (sometimes in a duo) with some minor zergering, which would be better Elementalist or Engineer?

Ironbars.9123:

So I have been away from the game for two and deciding to bring up a fresh toon. I have warrior, mezmer, and thief at 80 already. For small groups and roaming (sometimes in a duo) with some minor zergering, which would be better Elementalist or Engineer?

Well, heres the thing, ele is overall more usefull at this time, but ….

The meta is changing. Engi is very strong in roaming, And that 1500 range in the new upcoming meta ….. Yea …. Its a biggie. Real biggie.

If you try both in SPVP you will not get an equal try because the 1500 engi range isnt as useful there, though it has its place, you can kill rangers trying to snipe, do a double blast water field on your team while they’re fighting etc.

Thanks I am only looking at it from a WvW aspect. I enjoy both, though have only had a day on Ele and used a scroll to level him to 20

Please don’t listen to engineer mains, Ele is much much better for WvW.

Solo roaming is dead if you are anywhere near the higher tiers so you will always be with people = ele will always be better (outside of personal preference).

Solo roaming is not dead. I find both classes enjoyable, currently elementalist has more that it can offer that is desired. However, the engineer is not a bad class, but it is less versatile in combat, and more versatile out of combat. (easier to switch roles)

I’d say an engineer is almost like a hybrid ele/ranger without the pet. Lots of planning goes into your builds, and you have to specialize and really think about how to round off your build. With the ele, you always have access to tons, but you won’t be able to stray from that 1-2 builds.

Tongku.5326:

Well, heres the thing, ele is overall more usefull at this time, but ….

The meta is changing. Engi is very strong in roaming, And that 1500 range in the new upcoming meta ….. Yea …. Its a biggie. Real biggie.

Yes, because at 1500 range a guardian can make a cup of coffee while waiting for the mortar projectiles to put up wall of reflect.

It was also the same range before the big changes for traited grenade kit, only now projectiles are easier to see and less prone to retaliation since they’ve moved 1500 range ability over to the mortar kit.

RlyOsim.2497:

Please don’t listen to engineer mains, Ele is much much better for WvW.

Solo roaming is dead if you are anywhere near the higher tiers so you will always be with people = ele will always be better (outside of personal preference).

I main engineer and I still agree with this observation (in t1), between the superior condition clearing and aoe non projectile nukes ele doesn’t have to sacrifice as much of their builds to be effective when circumstances change whereas you don’t have room at all for an engineer to swap out all of their kitten in order to be effective.

So if you’re into WvW/zerging a lot id recommend ele, if you’re more into roaming you cooouuuldd try engineer but know you’re fighting an uphill battle while changes fixes to skills are still yet to come through the pipeline.

I main an engi and I can do some clever things, desiege hard to reach ACs, blast a lot of water fields and even blob fight with a zerker flame thrower build but ill admit is mostly useless and just fluff dmg. that 1500 is only useful on stationary targets, dmg at that range is unnoticeable.

in contrast, eles are always wanted, they can do all those things engi can do but better as well as spike dmg alot harder with meteor shower and frost bow. if you want to roam, ele has better mobility to catch or escape.

engi is still my favorite class and wvw my preferred game mode, so those like me are in a bit of a predicament…

Most definitely Ele, unless you want everyone to yell at you to switch to another class every time you run with them. Most consider an Ele a benefit to your server and consider an engi a burden for the most part wishing the player on it was playing another class. Be sure to have a scepter as well as a staff so you can Dragon tooth down siege no one else can reach and people will <3 you long time.

The Current most Beneficial classes to play for your server are Guards ( Stabs), Warriors( banners), Eles( healer), Necros( DPS), and Mesmers(Portals/ stealth/ Condi clears) due to their ability to help one another and their skill sets. OF course , however, if you are on the wrong build to help others, it would be just as bad as playing a class that was not beneficial to others. Party composition is also important, as the current setup to build proper parties would not even allow for a ranger or an engi to join a party.

If you are really good, all will desire the engineer. But you must be aware of the fact that being an engineer means playing the game in unnecessary hard mode. Planning, build managing, fast reflexes, good gear, good combo memorization, reading the opponent and acting according to it. All is a must, not a choice, if you are an engineer.

Or you can be an engineer like me; pushing rocket jump all the time and yelling “weeeeeeeeeee”. It is also fun.

Go with Elementalist if all you care for is performance.
Whatever it is you want to be doing in WvW, odds are the Ele does it (significantly) better.

When i play Engi i do it because i feel like playing my Engi, not because its so great.

I say go with what you like best. I main an Engineer because I love the play style and the premise of the class. Its certainly not an easy class to play but it can be very useful in roaming or group fights

Here’s the thing, Elementalist is and most likely always will be useful and considered a staple for any serious WvW guild/group. Engineer atm is not, people are hoping that the new changes will make them more viable but in the end that’s all it it, their just hoping. Engineers are extremely fun but they just are not as important as an Elementalist, the Engineer lovers will probably try and make all sorts of wild claims about how they are better but it’s sadly not the reality.

If you want to Gamble and hope for the best with a chance of being let down, roll Engineer.

If you want to know that you will be useful and one of the most useful; classes in the game and will be for the foreseeable future, roll Elementalist.

Now if you just want to run small groups or solo, either choice is a good choice, I would actually say Engineer is more enjoyable in these areas.

Either class works anywhere, but ele is like the best class in gw2 IMO atm due to its sheer versatility, so I would suggest ele to you.

The choice is up to you though. Between the two I use engineer more for wvw in general although I use ele for what one would term “serious blobbing”. There is nothing more easier than staff eles when it comes to zerging. The main advantage of ele over engineer in these scenarios is that are capable of massive ground targeted dps while engineers are screwed over by reflects. In addition, the lightning rod trait his enemies with lightning everytime you disable someone with no cooldown, turning your static field and unsteady ground into really high damaging skills. Plus eles crap out boons and healing. The final killer is probaly the easy chills that eles can toss out.

On the other hand, Engineers can do decent healing but they don’t give out as many boons to your team. Also, they lost healing bombs sadly though at least they have 1200 range rifle by default now. It’s definitely a lot more effort.

Small scale, I think engineer is pretty easy though. Just condi and burn burn burn burn down anything that’s not a mesmer or a necro. Failing that, just abuse your 20s cooldown gear shield.

to further add to the subject of engi difficulties in wvw, theres a relationship our abilities have with distance to damage. the close we get to the target the dps we can deliver but getting close to an enemy zerg increases the danger and our defense is more limited when compared to ele.

in the 10v10 – 20v20 engi does ok but beyond those numbers we cant get close and survive or deal noticeable dmg from range.

compare with necro wells and marks which appear instantly and overlapping at the target. engi will still be waiting on mortar shell travel time, so dps is still comparable but no burst and alot will just miss.

compare with LB ranger, dps gets stronger the farther away they are from their target. for eles range rly isnt a factor. both ranger and ele can have stability when needed but you can learn to play with out stabos.

in the 5v5 type situations engi has an advantage when fighting thiefs (which youll be seeing alot of) that staff ele is weak against but youll be fighting builds with far greater mobility.

the place where engi shines in wvw is as a shock trooper. best example is disorganized smc fights where enemies surround you, running through your forces. theres no chance for your zerg to focus down targets while being over run.

engi will out live eles, rangers, necros while having better sustain dps and healing. the more chaotic the situation becomes the strong is the engineer. rangers hide and pew until theyre caught. eles use all their cantrips and just run out of gas. necros are just auto attacking in death shroud cause all their wells are on CD.

this is when the engi is still going strong, they have better focus dps than guardians or warriors and will continue downing targets until the end of the fight.