Guild Wars 2

Game Modes

In PvP, there’s only one viable build. Everything else will either get you killed or is extremely situational.

In raids, most people prefer condi necros to condi engineers, because it’s harder to screw up condi necros. Engineers need perfect rotations to match a much simpler to play class, and we have little to show for it.

I can’t speak for WvW because I don’t play it, but I haven’t heard much good for engineers there either.

Fractals are the one endgame I’ve seen where engineers can do well… if the npcs sit still long enough. Otherwise, necros outdamage us, because we can’t achieve perfect rotations. We have slightly more utility, but not always enough to counter the DPS drop.

Weapons

We have 4 weapons to pick from: Rifle, Pistol, Shield, and Hammer.

Shield is a flat-out joke. Haven’t seen any decent engineer use it since launch.

Rifle is woefully underpowered and suffers from trying to do everything, and accomplish nothing. In PvP, you’re going to shoot yourself more often than hit the enemy. And its DPS in PvE is pretty weak compared to hammer.

Pistols are in an acceptable state in PvE for their condi power, but suffer the same issues as rifle in PvP — you end up shooting yourself because of the projectile hate.

Hammer is in an acceptable state for PvP. Maybe a little powerful on the defensive side of things. In PvE, it’s acceptable for questing, but generally not that useful in Fractals or Raids.

Kits

Let’s talk about kits. Kits are one of the “draws” of the class, because they offer weapon swapping with virtually no cooldown. The drawback is they are necessary in virtually every engineer build if you want optimal damage output. This means we have to devote at least one (if not more) utility skills to something that other classes get the tilde key (~) for. Many utility skills are non-viable purely because the power of the kits outweighs them.

Grenade kit and bomb kit are not viable in PvP whatsoever. Bombs are woefully underpowered for the amount of effort that goes into proper placement. Grenades suffer the rifle and pistol problem that all projectiles face. These same kits, however, are mission critical in PvE if you want good condi damage. Why is there such a disparity?

Elixir kit is great for hammer PvP builds, but otherwise not that useful.

Flamethrower is good for all condi builds. No changes need to be made to it, IMO.

Traits

If you look at the current meta PvP builds for engineer, almost all of them feature alchemy. Specifically, mid-mid-up. In PvE, every meta build has explosives, specifically down-mid-mid. All other traits are specific to whether you’re a condi pistol or power hammer.

As designers, you should be concerned when every build is doing the same thing. That means that either that particular setup is overpowered compared to everything else, or everything else is woefully underpowered compared to that setup. In my opinion, the latter issue is the problem. All other traits are meant to address a meta that no longer exists, a meta before HoT. A meta that is irrelevant.

Quick Summary

Engineer is in a bad way right now. People prefer other classes for most PvE endgame situations. In PvP, we have only one viable build.

For the amount of skill the class requires, we don’t see an equal or proportional return in damage output. This is frankly frustrating, because the class is otherwise great fun. Please do something ANet, before the class is relegated to complete obsolescence.

Yep GJ, this is good summary of state of engi, but anet not care. Go play another class they are too busy of making Living World, new expansion… So any try to show devs that they need look on engi ends increasing power dmg on fire bomb or land dmg on jump shot.

Yeah. Great post, but it takes literal years for them to make balance updates to address these things, and they never get to the roots of the problem: projectiles vs projectile hate and underpowered forgotten skills & traits.

“One viable build”

You have the sympathy of every Elementalist.

Zintrothen.1056:

“One viable build”

You have the sympathy of every Elementalist.

Eles atleast have, Staff, FA Staff, FGS Staff, FA dag/warhorn, Heal Auramancer dag/warhorn, Heal Auramancer Staff, Zealot Auramancer Dag/Warhorn.

Engies have… condi…maybe power bombs/grenades…Hammer in pvp…

eles have maybe 3 viable builds: tank, glass staff, maybe fresh air

engi is close to the same: p/p condi, power hammer, tank hammer, Horrid power rifle (needs some love). that is it.

I think ele and engi needs some love for viability and diversity ;.;

Every class is in the same spot (to a certain extent).

We’re playing a game with hundreds or thousands of skill and trait variations per class and we’re stuck with 2-3 builds being used per class since a lot of the skills and traits are severely underpowered.

Anet need to properly revamp a lot of stuff to make build crafting more enjoyable and get some much needed variation back into the game.

It’s a little ironic that they added a new traitline, skills and a weapon per class and we’ve ended up with less builds being played than before they were added.

psizone.8437:

Every class is in the same spot (to a certain extent).

We’re playing a game with hundreds or thousands of skill and trait variations per class and we’re stuck with 2-3 builds being used per class since a lot of the skills and traits are severely underpowered.

Anet need to properly revamp a lot of stuff to make build crafting more enjoyable and get some much needed variation back into the game.

It’s a little ironic that they added a new traitline, skills and a weapon per class and we’ve ended up with less builds being played than before they were added.

I agree, but engi is probably the most hamstrung at the moment. PvP is virtually restricted to one weapon, and PvE another. Variations are highly discouraged given the current meta. It’s ultimately boring.

Vagrant.7206:

Variations are highly discouraged given the current meta. It’s ultimately boring.

That’s how I feel, too.

But yeah, Engie probably has it worst.