Guild Wars 2

So my first toon I decided to roll and play is my Engi. My thoughts so far are mostly positive with the game, and somewhat mixed with the class. I love the class concept, but I can’t help but feel that the class design has left it lacking. A Jack of All Trades, but a master of none, comes to mind with the Engi. I have yet to find a build that I can effectively learn the class on. 100 nades is nice, but incredibly difficult to play well, and almost every condition build I have found is group oriented, and while I play with my guild in tourney’s quite a bit, I want something that I can effectively solo on as well and improve my skills in the game.

As for the game, I think the PvE aspect of the game is wonderful, the tPvP aspect is awesome as well, but the WvW of the game to me is meh at best, hopefully much of this will be helped with the upcoming culling patch, and hopefully they will add incentives to actually go out and WvW, because right now, I have none.

My main frustrations atm come with what feels like some serious class balance issues. Mesmers and Thiefs come to mind specifically, but I was speaking to my guildies, and when watching the SOTG March video, my thoughts were put into words by the Mesmer Xeph, in that he feels Thiefs, and Mesmers are the main detractors in making new players leave PvP. That being said, I am only 3 1/2 weeks into the game, and I can already tell my reactions to Mesmers, and being able to follow the real one around are improving, and my win/loss ratio against Thiefs is improving as well. Hopefully my thoughts on the Engi class will improve before I hit ultimate rage mode and shelf the class all together. My guildy warned me that Engi was probably not the best class to learn the game on :P

The Eng class is probably not be the best intro to GW2, because: a) that they have the steepest/longest learning curve by far; and b) you will be less effective than other classes for most of that time.

However, starting with an Eng is the GW2 equivalent of starting on Hard mode. It’s more challenging/frustrating at first, but it forces you to master the game faster. End result, you learn better gameplay and better survival habits than those who start on easier classes (e.g. Eng players are often the best dodgers in the game, because they’ve had to be).

Right now I suck at dodging lol

galandor.1059:

My guildy warned me that Engi was probably not the best class to learn the game on :P

“It would be shocking to me if the most common profession in the game after we ship is not the warrior, just because people like to have a sword and a shield and hit things with it. It isn’t incredibly important to us that every profession is equally as popular, it’s more important to us that they all cover different players’ desires.” – Jon on an interview a long time ago

The classes cover a variety of play styles, Engineer just happens to cover people who like pain when they play; the self cc, the rng, the lower damage, the hobo fashion and so on~

Edit: I play this class for the fashion, but yeah this class is probably not a good starter class, beginners would get frustrated a lot.

Bah, I started this game on an Engineer and a Mesmer, if it’s what you want to play then play it—you’ll learn and improve as you play like with any other class, you just have a lot more utility to get a handle on. Play around in HotM some, maybe have practice fights with your guildies, talk to other Engineers (like you are here, hi). One build won’t teach you everything because there’s a lot of different things we can do, and a lot of different ways we can chain and combo our skills.

(Also, fighting Thieves and Mesmers really is just learning their mechanics so you know exactly how to counter them—they’re classes that have key unique abilities to them, but when you get past them they can be very vulnerable.

… And yes, you will find yourself getting very good at dodging.)

galandor.1059:

Right now I suck at dodging lol

The #1 tip for mastering the Eng: Learn to dodge!
The trick is to watch the enemy’s animation for their big attack(s) and then dodge out of the way before it hits. After a while you’ll develop the knack of spotting the dangerous animations and dodging clear of their effects – when you do it will make the biggest difference to the amount of damage you take.

Dodge is the major damage reduction mechanic in GW2, its superior to literally everything else – It can’t hurt you if it doesn’t hit you.

Penguin.5197:

galandor.1059:

My guildy warned me that Engi was probably not the best class to learn the game on :P

“It would be shocking to me if the most common profession in the game after we ship is not the warrior, just because people like to have a sword and a shield and hit things with it. It isn’t incredibly important to us that every profession is equally as popular, it’s more important to us that they all cover different players’ desires.” – Jon on an interview a long time ago

The classes cover a variety of play styles, Engineer just happens to cover people who like pain when they play; the self cc, the rng, the lower damage, the hobo fashion and so on~

Edit: I play this class for the fashion, but yeah this class is probably not a good starter class, beginners would get frustrated a lot.

Very well put Pinguin. We can all (other passionate profession players) agree that the engineer has the highest learning curve of all the professions. I would say second is the Ranger. From my experience there are only two types of Rangers, Really Powerful Rangers and bad Rangers. As apposed to classes like the Mesmer where even at the most rudimentary of skill level you can still be a threat. (Not saying that Mesmers don’t have their flaws in end game PvP) But once you find a winning Ranger build online and practice it enough you can be very strong in PvP. Where as the Engineer requires a large amount of practice for each Utility skill. Maximizing the use of each Cooldown is the only way to beat other professions in end game meta. (The same could be said for a lot of professions but I feel the Engineer has to have a completely different tactic versus each profession and their builds. Where as a Thief will use the same rotation on all professions effectively.)

Even after 1,000+ hours running an Eng, I am still amazed at the variety of play styles open to the profession. Things that I originally thought I could never, ever, possibly use (I’m looking at you Elixer Gun and Tool Kit) are now some of my favorites. The number of interesting and effective combinations of gear, traits, weapons and kits seems infinite.

I’ve rolled each profession, and played for a little while, but after I wake up from dozing off, I hop back on my Engi.

Zenguy.6421:

galandor.1059:

Right now I suck at dodging lol

The #1 tip for mastering the Eng: Learn to dodge!
The trick is to watch the enemy’s animation for their big attack(s) and then dodge out of the way before it hits. After a while you’ll develop the knack of spotting the dangerous animations and dodging clear of their effects – when you do it will make the biggest difference to the amount of damage you take.

Dodge is the major damage reduction mechanic in GW2, its superior to literally everything else – It can’t hurt you if it doesn’t hit you.

See I have no idea what the major animations look like lol

Nobody ever does at first—as long as you’re actually paying attention to what’s going on around you, it’s something you’ll just pick up over time. You’ll catch yourself doing just the right thing, you’ll put together the animation and the effect, if it’s something that’s really confusing you can ask people with more experience to explain, so don’t sweat it that you’re still getting the hang of some things.

I just hit 80 with my first character: an engineer. Since I’m new to the game, I’m not qualified to comment on anything except playing an engineer as a first character. I figured I would share my experience in the hope that it helps you along.

Unlike the posters above, I hardly ever dodge. In fact, I do the opposite. I run into the middle of every group. This is because I play my engineer (PvE, I haven’t PvP’ed yet) with the bomb kit. I highly recommend this style of play for the beginner.

Bombs hit for a ton of damage and the conditions associated with them (bleed, confusion, and blindness) are killers. Usually, I start with a blindness bomb. This is why I don’t dodge. Many — if not most — PvE mobs use their signature attack on their first attack. If you get the blindness down first, they miss. Throw up confusion next, then bleed. After that, the mobs start to melt. You do basically the same damage to each mob in range so you can tear huge crowds apart. I never had survivability issues really. If you get in a tight spot, drop the supply crate and the tide will turn quickly.

I don’t see much mention about the bomb kit on these boards and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is just that the bomb kit makes the engineer into a melee character, basically. Or there might be some significant drawbacks to bombs that I just don’t know about yet. Most people I spoke with recommended grenades but I found the targeting requirements to be a bit of a pain. I am unimpressed with the FT damage (although I love the animation) and almost always take more damage with the FT in hand than with the bomb kit.

Hope that perspective is helpful.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Enjoy!

Yep, bombs are great for PvE solo leveling and pretty good at PvP/WvW also. They’re not as effective at doing PvE in a group (i.e. dungeons) because your party will likely have burn up constantly anyway and the confusion won’t be enough to justify taking the entire kit. The autoattack hits great in power builds, though. In PvP situations it’s obviously difficult because from the start of the cast to the time the bomb actually explodes is almost two seconds, so it’s very difficult to make them work. But it is possible.

Pem.4129:

I just hit 80 with my first character: an engineer. Since I’m new to the game, I’m not qualified to comment on anything except playing an engineer as a first character. I figured I would share my experience in the hope that it helps you along.

Unlike the posters above, I hardly ever dodge. In fact, I do the opposite. I run into the middle of every group. This is because I play my engineer (PvE, I haven’t PvP’ed yet) with the bomb kit. I highly recommend this style of play for the beginner.

Bombs hit for a ton of damage and the conditions associated with them (bleed, confusion, and blindness) are killers. Usually, I start with a blindness bomb. This is why I don’t dodge. Many — if not most — PvE mobs use their signature attack on their first attack. If you get the blindness down first, they miss. Throw up confusion next, then bleed. After that, the mobs start to melt. You do basically the same damage to each mob in range so you can tear huge crowds apart. I never had survivability issues really. If you get in a tight spot, drop the supply crate and the tide will turn quickly.

I don’t see much mention about the bomb kit on these boards and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is just that the bomb kit makes the engineer into a melee character, basically. Or there might be some significant drawbacks to bombs that I just don’t know about yet. Most people I spoke with recommended grenades but I found the targeting requirements to be a bit of a pain. I am unimpressed with the FT damage (although I love the animation) and almost always take more damage with the FT in hand than with the bomb kit.

Hope that perspective is helpful.

Anyway, I hope that helps. Enjoy!

Thank you for your input. I don’t mean to be rude whatsoever, I do appreciate your thoughts, however I was more referring to the PVP aspect of the game. Running into the fray in PVP and simply dropping bombs will get you 2 shot most of the time, but alas, soon when you embark on your own adventures, you shall experience the fun of this class