Guild Wars 2

Ok….so where to start….I need help with this class. It seems no matter what I do I just can’t get things to go my way. Lemme give you a little backstory with me and the Engineer class so you can understand some of my frustration and sadness of failing miserably at playing this class….

So I got this game 3 days after launch. My first character was a warrior. I didn’t find the warrior very fun so I dropped that before I hit 20. When I went about making my second character I tried to see what class I think would fit my personality and desires the most. I found the Engineer to be exactly what I wanted! Turrets, potions and a freaking wrench you can smack people upside the head with? What more could I ask for!? I saw the class to have amazing utility and support especially when I decided to get into the WvW game. It was a blast to support my server placing down turrets a mortar and just blasting people to bits with it! Until….I got bored with that and I tried to do something I think I’d find more fun. Solo PvP. I tried and tried and tried to figure out some things to do and I failed miserably. So I ended up deleting that Engineer….she was 41 and at the time to me that was a lot of time and work just gone down the drain because I failed at using the class. I went on to make an ele. Pain in the kitten to lvl but she was 71 before I retired her (I haven’t deleted her). I stopped playing her because ele just didn’t fit me. While it can be fun it just wasn’t me.

I took a break from the game for a few months and recently I’v came back. Can you guess which class I had on my mind to play again? Engineer….I remember fondly the fun I had with it and the sadness of losing all the time in solo but this time I wanted to go at it even harder and give the class a second chance. I got my Engineer to 80 recently. (Shes my first 80!) Shes OK geared but everything on her fits her spec and I’m CONSTANTLY upgrading whenever I have the coin. (And this is part of the problem of why I’m desperate for help) I’v poured more money into her for her gear and talents than that of anything else. Hell I’v even put more effort into finding her the right spec than I would for another class in any other game. On top of money issues (Horribly influencing my gameplay) I am having such a kitten hard time trying to get a spec to work! I’v lost count of how many things I’v tried and TRUST me I’m not exaggerating at all…I’v tried things from SPvP builds, PvE/WvW Hybrid, own personal builds, rifle builds, pistol shield builds, elixir gun builds, tool kit builds, grenadier builds, bomb kits, roamer solo and group, support, bunker ect….basically pretty much whatever I could find around here I tried and of course promptly failed right after.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.1c.h17|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.7b.1g.7b.1n.7b.1g.7b.1n.7b.1g.7b|31k.0.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1c.67|u48b.0.0.k14.k69|2e.1|2c.2f.2j.2v.30|e

(My gear is a little under par but it sticks to the general premise)
This build is the most recent one I’m trying….and you guessed it I don’t think it works for me. I will admit I had an absolute AWESOME encounter last night! First off I was north a lil ways from SM and I encountered a ranger. Me and him began to duke it out and he began to retreat back to the tower NW of SM. I chased him but one of his servermates came out of the tower to help. So I pulled back a bit. A mesmer of my faction came up from behind so I instead turned a full on retreat into a complete pushback. I basically tanked the 2 of them while the mesmer dpsed and me tossing grenades everywhere and ccing! I downed the ranger and the other guy ran off. The mesmer chased him and killed him while I stomped the ranger. It was an amazing experience and I was all smiley and happy thinking this build is great! Problem is tho….these things don’t happen often enough. I mean like for every good thing I see this build or other builds do I see in turn 10 bad things. The majority of my encounters are either

A)I can hardly do damage to you but you can do some to me so I either die or retreat as best I can.

B)Thieves. I generally have no idea how to handle them even with all the reading I’v done. I have such a hard time freezing or crippling them because of stealth so I usually just get 3-5 shotted which of course makes me upset because I basically couldn’t do a kitten thing. I could only handle one thief in particular in last weeks WvW and me her are basically tied in skill I’d say.

C)Stunlocked and killed. This is sooooo fun…..

D)I try to 1v1 someone I’m winning or losing take your pick and his/her friends just randomly appear from no where and demolish me. Its as if he kitten them out.

And just and hour or two ago I was intercepted by a mesmer on my way back to SM. At first it looked like I could beat her. Course I lost she just destroyed me. Basically as if I had no toughness or armor yet she seemed to have lots of it? Cause I wasn’t doing too great of damage to her.

After that encounter and many others I’v hereby decided this build isn’t for me. So basically I’m at that same point as I was a few months ago on my old Engineer. Sad and upset that I can’t get things to work for me no matter how hard I try. May just end up deleting the class yet again but this time never touching it AGAIN. But deep down I really don’t wanna do that. I still think theres a chance. I still think there is a build out there that I could find or get help creating that would make me enjoy the hell out of Engineer. Now look….I have no expectation to win every battle as generally thats unrealistic and with a certain attitude childish. All that I’m looking for is an enjoyable experience. One where the ratio of good experiences and bad ones isn’t so heavily weighed on bad side. Thats all I want and I don’t think thats unreasonable to ask for.

So I’m putting my love/hate for this class in your hands forums. Help me out here please I desperately need it. I think that an ingame mentor would be the best thing for me. I don’t have one and watching top Engineers on youtube do their rotations just doesn’t do much for me. I’ll ask whatever questions you need to help me out. To start let me give my opinion on the kits.

Bomb Kit)Now…I’v seen some CRAZY healer builds with the bomb kit. And I’v also seen how this kit is PERFECT for kitting someone. I’v tried to do it of course but everytime I try to get a kite going it just don’t work. Majority of the time its not worth it in my eyes or I’m not able to use the kit as others seem better. I tried to make some builds work with this kit but the problem always comes back that I can’t get the kite going.

Tool Kit)This kit man….lots of great skills. 3,4,5 are my fav skills from this. 3 can put out some amazing damage if….it hits. In my experience this skill misses alot for me even tho I’m right up in the persons face. They don’t dodge or blind so I’m not sure whats causing it. Still tying this kit into a build would be easy for me as in general I enjoy it.

Flamethrower) Prob one of my fav kits. I mainly lvled with this. Some of the traits that you can get with this kit in my eyes makes it look somewhat competitive but I’m not sure. I tried FT and like the elixir gun (which I’ll get to) I’m always forced into a defensive stance which pretty much negates FT for me as I’m never able to bring it back out in the proper way where I could use it if that makes any sense? Hard to explain but I wouldn’t have a problem at all working with this kit.

Elixir Gun)At first when I came back I was going to try and make this kit my main thing. I based a build around doing condition damage and providing support. It didn’t work as I hardly ever get enough conditions on my enemies and like the FT I’m forced into a defensive stance. Still after playing some of the other builds out there I’d kinda like to stay away from this kit.

Grenade Kit)Like the bomb kit I’v seen some crazy grenade builds. Unfortunately for me I generally don’t like this kit much. Too much button mashing that hurts my finger and I can be inaccurate at times or really the cast and air time is what screws me over even when I take movement and aerodynamics into account. Honestly I’d like to not use the grenade kit. I generally don’t like it and I loathed using it while lvling so I didn’t and instead used FT.

Thats it for the kits now, on to the other stuff. I’ll basically talk about things I’v used. I didn’t use all the skills in my arsenal because builds I made or tried didn’t use them or I thought them to be for SPvP.

Elixir X)For PvP this skill is usually poop but it does have its moments. One time I turned into a tornado jumped down off a tower and sent attackers everywhere. Their siege was scattered and our forced mopped them up. The berserker thing or whatever is nice for 1v1 as it scares the living hell outa people. But since this thing is a 50/50 RNG its not worth the time nor effort really when you think about it.

Supply Crate)I don’t like this skill. Sure it does a stun but i mean….I hardly ever am able to use it. And since its the only thing to bother using in an Engineer your stuck with it. Engineers have crap elite skills IMO.

Elixir B ) I find this not worth using as you’d most likely have better use from another kit than this thing. I don’t notice much of a difference in my performance with it.

Elixir S) Comparable to a mages Ice Block in WoW all its good for is delaying the inevitable of your death. Majority of the time you’ll be crippled or froze before you use it so getting away is pointless.

Elixir C)Its too situational. Generally my healing turret can take care of most conditions and whenever I need a big condition rinse I’m usually screwed anyways.

Turrets)All of them suck. Too weak in damage and defense and have crap targeting even when its traited. Or I can have other things that do a better job such as rifle doing better with netting (Specially traited) combined with elixir gun 2 skill. Only one worth using is healing turret.

So there you have it thats my opinion on the skills I have used. If theres any other information needed please ask! I’v spent maybe 3 hours writing this, spellchecking it and in general trying to make it thoughtful. I hope I get the same in return. Thanks!

Also sorry for the big post. I’m trying to be genuine with this.

A few general ideas, remember the more kits you add into a build the more “complicated” the build is going to be and require better timing and skill management on your part to be successful. To start, I would try a dual pistol/hgh build. Elixir H as your heal, elixir b for the fury and other boons, elixir s for the breathing room, and your choice for the other elixir you want to use. This typical build will give you 8 potential condition cleanses (through cleansing formula 409), plenty of might stacking, and some decent deffensive options with having a blind and a aoe cripple. The best part about the build is the simplicity to play, there is no kit swapping needed and you can run something like a rabid set of armor which gives lots of toughness. For runes there are a couple of options, if you want to maximize your defensive/offensive potential you would want runes that increase boon duration, if you want to maximize offensive potential you would want condi duration (this is debatable but the hope is you can get your condi duration high enough that it is higher than the people who wear negative condition duration runes). http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V;4Z;0h0u53UFx0;9;49J9T-4;035-0;019A;1aJ;4TutbUqLQPtkicA;4VX-d0h1l2sZy49eWPV-7-6Rk06R;9;9;9;9;9;4V6s5i this is the build I use, it is probably not the most optimized build, but I really find that having the protection on crit does wonders against certain thieves in eating that opening burst, if you can’t dodge it or don’t see them coming. Alternatively if you are not concerned about the might stacks (which do increase damage potential a lot) you can run automated response or protection injection in it’s place. Hope this helps some, there are of course many different options available, it can be overwhelming at times. Best advice I can give is to just keep trying and practice practice practice.

Hmm I’ll give it a shot and reply how it goes. Thanks!

TxJBxT.9370:

Hmm I’ll give it a shot and reply how it goes. Thanks!

Also don’t get discouraged if you find yourself facing overwhelming odds, even a 1v2 can be extremely difficult for most players (especially if those players happen to be good). You alway see in these videos that get posted their successful fights, rarely do you see when they don’t win. The engineer class has a high skill floor and ceiling, meaning it takes a lot more effort to learn it just to be on a average level of another class, but it has enough room for self growth that you can be capable of doing some amazing things. If you solo alot, find areas where you can use the terrain to your advantage and pick your fights…nothing says if you don’t like the odds that you have to engage, much better to choose when and where you fight. Good luck and happy engineering!

My advice is pick the style of play you like with the utilities you like and try to make/find a build that is similar to that.

I like my engis to be condition, and a bit tanky/survivable . So my builds are not power or glass cannon. Also I don’t like the rifle or going pure elixir builds so I stay away from those.

Just play the way you like playing and have fun since it is by far the most fun class in this game

So far this build you gave me is working out really well. Its very enjoyable!

I use something a little more similar to Mask’s to good effect. It’s essentially the same, but with slightly different gear.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V;4Z;0h0u53UFx0;9;499JT-4;05;005-19A;1ao0;3TutbUqLQPxFiVA;4VX-d0h1l2sZy49eWPk4RW6TsW6T;9;9;9;9;9;4V6s5C