Guild Wars 2

Engineer, in its current state, is the only reason I play GW2.

I’ve deleted 3 other classes at 80 out of boredom.

I’ve played countless classes in countless MMOs over the last 15 years and this one is hands down the best designed in my opinion.

I’m praying the class gets only minor tweaks in support of build diversity.. if these forums had their way all classes would implement a “3 button burst damage” design paradigm and the game would be a mindless clone of every other mmo ever to exist.

This is from a tPvP and hot join only perspective, with a tiny bit of wvw thrown in occasionally. I’m consistently top 2 players on winning tourney teams after scaling the learning curve (took me 500 games or so to get it).

And yes, i use the flamethrower.. I would slot air blast alone with the 12s timer.

The real problem is classes with no learning curve skewing people’s personal skill assessment. I can 3-shot sheep with heartseeker or 100b so any class I don’t succeed with must be broken, amirite? I understand why these classes exist, for business reasons.

Its a near perfect balance of toughness, control and damage rarely seen in mmo pvp.

TLDR: Beautiful class.. leave it alone. pretty please.

I don’t know why someone would ask the devs to only give the engineer minor tweaks, considering that’s what we get every patch. I don’t think anyone really expects the devs to break out of the usual buff/nerf routine for the engineer.

That being said, you have to recognize that there is more to the game than tPvP. While we’re pretty alright right now when it comes to WvW, in dungeons we seem to lack a niche. We can compete with the 3 button mashing classes (which I agree are really boring) but we have to do a lot of micromanaging (like using med-kit/thrown-elixirs for might stacks) and that detracts from the fun of the profession.

Why would you delete your lvl 80’s? It’s not like you need space. And quickly deleting what I poured hours into doesn’t tend to alleviate my boredom. I mean I love my Engi too but…I’m not going to kill my other toons. I’m confused.

PS – yes, Engi is the best profession with a unique & fun play style. Kudos to Anet.

Balance matters not at all in gw2 pve due to its mindless level of difficulty. The class is useful.. the problem is with content. Play what you like.

I deleted the classes I don’t like because ill never touch them again. Same reason clothes I don’t wear hit the garbage rather than hanging in my closet.

I love my engineer too but that doesn’t change that several things about the class need work. At the top of my list I would say having crappier watered down versions of others classes skills tool belt skills that are worthless and sacrificing utility slots just to be able to swap weapon skills.

JohnDied.3476:

………………….. We can compete with the 3 button mashing classes (which I agree are really boring) but we have to do a lot of micromanaging (like using med-kit/thrown-elixirs for might stacks) and that detracts from the fun of the profession.

Button mashing is not fun. Micro management is not fun. You confuse me.

The micro IS why I love the class. In a ‘proper’ environment (competitive pvp) where things like control and movement (survivability) actually matter, mastering the micro is rewarding like nothing i’ll ever get out of a warrior ir thief.

@Punkins

Sadly I don’t think you can balance class over the skill needed to use it.

I mean, You can’t make Engineer or Elem superior because they have a higher skill caps then others. If they would do that, all the competitive players would roll those 2 classes.

I don’t mind being as efficient as a thief when I have to use 25 skills and he uses 4-5 skills.

I mean, I play engineer for this : It’s never boring. You always have something different to use.

But Some buff to our unused traits/skills would be great, like every class.

Not everyone has the time to spend countless hours, and spend 500 games to get to your level, some just want to enjoy the game.

This game has to appeal to a lot more than one person.

I agree completely, the Engineer on spvp is perfectly fine atm.

Punkins.2087:

Original thread stuff

This is not at all what I expected when I clicked on the thread, and I am pleasantly surprised!

I agree completely, and it’s nice to hear those thoughts echoed back by another Engineer-lover. Favorite class, no contest, and it’s all I play anymore. Not only do I agree with you, but I’ll go one step further and voice the opinion of someone that also plays Engi in dungeons/fractals and WvW: this class is great. I sincerely hope ANet doesn’t dumb the class down to appease the complainers.

To the folks saying, the game “has to appeal to a lot more than one person” and “not everyone has the time … some just want to enjoy the game” I offer this advice: play another class.

I don’t mean that in a snide way, either. You may love the concept of the Engineer, but if you don’t love the playstyle that doesn’t mean Engineer is bad or broken. (Just like my enjoyment of the class doesn’t mean it’s perfect.) It might just mean that the class isn’t right for you. I started GW2 absolutely certain that Warrior was my class. I tried countless builds and approaches but nothing was quite right. Finally, I accepted the class just wasn’t for me. I picked up Engineer (for the third time) and something clicked. It’s all I’ve played since.

Anyway, I’ve drastically cut back on the amount of reading/posting I do here because of all the whining. It’s hard to find any discussions of substance, or even any positive/fun threads. So, thanks for this, Punkins. And hey, if you feel like it, shoot me a PM. I’d love to hear your thoughts on FT in sPvP/tPvP, as I’ve never been able to work it into a build that feels effective… and I love talking shop.

I love the class as well, but I wouldn’t give a kitten if they changed it or not, reguardless they are going to follow the larger crowd of people. That’s life unfortunately I don’t normally join threads to diss people but there are a lot more things to consider. I enjoy the challenge of an engi, but changes will happen as they always do for the good and for the bad.

drrobotnic.9387:

Not everyone has the time to spend countless hours, and spend 500 games to get to your level, some just want to enjoy the game.

I’m a software engineer who works 60+ hours a week with a wife, house and a 2-year old kid to focus on.

Took me 7 months to ‘get it’ playing an hour a day, and I loved the class the whole way.

My Mesmer and Ele, on the other hand, took a few weeks to master, were easy to dominate with, and left me entertained me not at all.

Like everything else it’s all subjective. As you say, the game has to appeal to more than one person. I happen to be one of those people, and wanted ANET to know there is love for the class as-is. If they dumb it down, I’ll get bored and replace the hobby, no love lost on either end.

Im not asking to dumb it down, by no means I think each class should have to be mastered but on different levels. I play about 2 hours a day, same schedule and life as you without being a RL engineer, but I think a few things could be tweaked without dumbing the character down.

Fix the freakin turrets have those appeal to other players, if you don’t use em then it won’t affect you. I seriously doubt they will dumb it down to other profs, but change can be good. I agree on that aspect, but a tweak here and there makes sense.

This is not entirely on topic but wth I’ve tried engineer several times, always deleted it because I didn’t find it fun. I recently made another one and now it is a lot more fun than it used to be! This is because I got better. Engineer is a hard class to play but very fun

Now what I wanted to ask, could you give me an idea of your FT build? I like the wepaon but haven’t found a great build for spvp yet outside of 100nades/ I’d really like to use the FT in pvp though.

Punkins.2087:

Button mashing is not fun. Micro management is not fun. You confuse me.

So… What I meant is this:
Micro which involves button mashing is not fun.

Elementalists and mesmers have good micro which involve a lot of good timing, cooldowns, things that proc off of actions that aren’t mindless attacking (like on dodge, or atunement swapping).

Engineers have some bad micro which involves invisible cooldowns and spamming keys to keep buffs up (unlike elementalists which get buffs from using abilities they’d use anyway-sort of like speedy kits).

I’m not saying the engineer doesn’t have good micro and is kitten . What I’m saying is that the engineer (at the moment) is balanced around bad micro (mashing buttons for might stacks). The fact that our strongest builds depend on spamming keys to keep might stacks is very telling of the state of the class. Before HGH got buffed, you’d be hard pressed to convince someone to take a pistol build over explosives. Now p/p is an engineer staple in wvw.

EDIT: I’m not saying that the class needs to be dumbed down and made warrior-Mk2. I’m affirming that this class has a lot of mechanics that detract from the fun it brings (which it does in spades). I think that some of our more mindlessly spammy skills need to be situational and stronger hitting.

A lot of people are just spamming med-kit, or thrown elixirs to get up to 25 stacks of might and do good damage with flamethrower and pistols. Wouldn’t it be nicer if flamethrower did 15% more damage and Juggernaut was a more situational skill that instead of giving you might stacks it gave you 4 seconds of protection and retaliation (on a 10 sec cooldown)? Woudln’t it be nice if pistols did more damage but thrown elixirs no longer give might with HGH?

vinceftw.5086:

This is not entirely on topic but wth I’ve tried engineer several times, always deleted it because I didn’t find it fun. I recently made another one and now it is a lot more fun than it used to be! This is because I got better. Engineer is a hard class to play but very fun

Now what I wanted to ask, could you give me an idea of your FT build? I like the wepaon but haven’t found a great build for spvp yet outside of 100nades/ I’d really like to use the FT in pvp though.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of FT in pvp/WvW.

Especially roaming with FT is really hard.

The issue is, when you build and focus around FT, I feel more like Support DPS then anything else.

I’m pretty good to do crazy damage if I have no pressure. I can Net + Fire blast people for around 10k damage if I don’t detonate it.

But If I get pressured, It gets ugly. Especially Good warrior/guardian/Thief. Thief are really hard to hit with FT, and you are mostly better with just using rifle.

It’s my personal opinion, and that was with a glassy FT build. I’m sure there are better build around. But I think most player use FT only for the Air blast.

P.S : Sorry I went out of subject a bit!

vinceftw.5086:

This is not entirely on topic but wth I’ve tried engineer several times, always deleted it because I didn’t find it fun. I recently made another one and now it is a lot more fun than it used to be! This is because I got better. Engineer is a hard class to play but very fun

Now what I wanted to ask, could you give me an idea of your FT build? I like the wepaon but haven’t found a great build for spvp yet outside of 100nades/ I’d really like to use the FT in pvp though.

Apologies for lack of a proper link..

I use:
10 in explosives (burn on crit)
30 in firearms (pistol recharge / FT recharge / juggernaught)
30 in alchemy (elixer recharge / 409 / hgh)

Pistols (earth and purity sigils)
+ Might duration runes
Rabid amulet

FT, elixers B and C, supply crate.

Focal points of the build being making people burn clenses THEN applying big burns with incendiary ammo, blowtorch, etc, and learning to cause havoc with air blast.

Also had success with melandru runes with 409 swapped out for +FT damage.

Automated response can make a good engy almost unkillable.

Mind you, I’m not a minmax theorycrafter.. just someone who stuck with the builds I like and eventually figured out how they can work..

I’ve leveled ele, warrior, necro, ranger, guard, and engineer to 80

Of those classes the engineer is in the best shape, if you ask me. When people complain, I dunno what they’re smoking.

Turrets could be a little better. Tweeks is all. The #1 skill on elixir gun needs some love…. but that’s about it for my complaints.

…they said they are fixin’ kit refinement. As long as they don’t mess with my elixir gun healing field rotation. I’ll be a happy camper.

The resent boost to FT and Wrench were spot on.

I’m really happy with the class. Lots of viable builds. Love it!

I wouldnt mind that we have to push more buttons to get to use our abilities if only they weren’t weaker than another class spamming 1-3 buttons.

The only two things that id like to change are that our rocket boots work like jump shot, at least then wed have another chase ability and not a stun breaker that stuns… and, youll hate me, weapon swap, hey..id like another block mechanic and not be kitten with damage.

( i run rifle + static discharge)

I’m glad you like the Engineer class. I’m glad you love it just as it is. I’m glad you really enjoy it in tPvP – you’ve clearly put a lot of effort in with it there. That’s awesome.

There are also lots of people like me who either don’t PvP or do so only on a casual basis. (I don’t know the numbers, but I get the impression tPvP is the least represented area in GW2, WvW next, and PvE the most played.) For us PvE and WvW players, the Eng still needs a lot of work.

glad i dont see this pvp freeks in pve. Anet kitten fix the bloody mortar!!!

I think the sad truth is that Engineer is a high difficulty high reward class. It’s hard to become good but when you become good you’ve mastered so many different tactics so your foe won’t be able to adapt. Thieves can be at the top of their game simply by doing a backstab followed by a steal and some heartseekers.
As an Engineer I can tell you this very seldom kills me in a legit one on one – Ganks kills us all.
So, when people can’t reach that sweet spot where you don’t do awesome but great with engineer with as little effort as with the other classes, they think the class is bad.

anyone having pve problems on any profession needs to practice before preaching on the forums about what works and what does not work.

edit: this has nothing to do with being casual or being hardcore, just about being skilled. there is not one profession in this game that cannot complete the single player story line, irrespective of traits.

I am with punkins on this one. PLEASE do not change the class. fix some bugs, buff some skills, tweak some numbers, the rest is good.

if the functionality of any part of this class changed fundamentally, i would reroll.