Guild Wars 2

Hey there everyone. My name is Zumi and I main a Mesmer. I’ve been playing this game for a long time now, and aside from my Guardian that I leveled when the game first launched, I’ve spent 99.99% of my time playing nothing but my Mesmer.

With that said, I’ve had an itch for a long time to level an alt and mix things up a bit, and as of a few days ago, I FINALLY got around to it and I now have a level 80 Engineer! So, as someone who has been playing one class forever and never really played with an alt, here are my questions:

1. Holy cow this profession is confusing. I know the Mesmer like the back of my hand, but I feel like I’m trying to read a new language when I play this guy. Any advice on builds/activities to ease myself in so I can figure out what playstyle I like on the engineer?
2. What gear would you recommend for a new engi like myself? I bought a full rare set of Berserker and crafted a few exotics, but I’m thinking about making a set of Celestial, since Engi’s seem to benefit from every stat. Thoughts?
3. Bomb Kit – Everyone raves about this kit, but it seems so darn clunky to me. The long delay between skill use and it’s effect is annoying, and seems like it would make it useless in PvP/WvW (although I guess I could be convinced to use it in PvE).
4. Flamethrower – Now this seems like a fun kit. Is a juggernaut/flamethrower build viable in PvE?
5. For those of you with alts, what do you usually do once they hit 80? Just get them full exotic and then….do whatever you normally do on your main? It feels like a silly question, but I hit 80 on him the other day and thought to myself, “Sweet! Now what?”

Cele 6/0/0/4/4 battle/intelligence holebrak (rifle)
Rabid 6/0/0/6/2 doom/geomancy Balthazarp/s
Pvp builds^^
Zerk6/6/0/0/2 air/fire(battle)rifle pve

There are other builds but these are considered"meta"
I main engineer it has the highest skill ceiling in this game.
Fight hard bud<3

http://www.wolfineer.com all you ever needed to know

Zumi.6384:

Hey there everyone. My name is Zumi and I main a Mesmer. I’ve been playing this game for a long time now, and aside from my Guardian that I leveled when the game first launched, I’ve spent 99.99% of my time playing nothing but my Mesmer.

With that said, I’ve had an itch for a long time to level an alt and mix things up a bit, and as of a few days ago, I FINALLY got around to it and I now have a level 80 Engineer! So, as someone who has been playing one class forever and never really played with an alt, here are my questions:

1. Holy cow this profession is confusing. I know the Mesmer like the back of my hand, but I feel like I’m trying to read a new language when I play this guy. Any advice on builds/activities to ease myself in so I can figure out what playstyle I like on the engineer?
2. What gear would you recommend for a new engi like myself? I bought a full rare set of Berserker and crafted a few exotics, but I’m thinking about making a set of Celestial, since Engi’s seem to benefit from every stat. Thoughts?
3. Bomb Kit – Everyone raves about this kit, but it seems so darn clunky to me. The long delay between skill use and it’s effect is annoying, and seems like it would make it useless in PvP/WvW (although I guess I could be convinced to use it in PvE).
4. Flamethrower – Now this seems like a fun kit. Is a juggernaut/flamethrower build viable in PvE?
5. For those of you with alts, what do you usually do once they hit 80? Just get them full exotic and then….do whatever you normally do on your main? It feels like a silly question, but I hit 80 on him the other day and thought to myself, “Sweet! Now what?”

Actually playing it up to 80 instead of boosting it straight up may have helped you XD

I played it from 1-10, boosted to 20, then played it from 20 to about 65, but admittedly it was a lot of EotM

To everyone else, thanks for the advice! Been playing him more the last few days and liking it a lot.

Zumi.6384:

1. Holy cow this profession is confusing. I know the Mesmer like the back of my hand, but I feel like I’m trying to read a new language when I play this guy. Any advice on builds/activities to ease myself in so I can figure out what playstyle I like on the engineer?

Juggling kits and their cooldowns can be difficult at first. Maybe start with one kit and a couple different utilities, and build up to 3 kits. Rocket boots, utility googles, mines, and the elixirs come to mind as useful, but there’s a time and a place for just about everything the engineer has. I’d get to know all of them, because you never know when one of them might be exactly what you need for a particular encounter.

Zumi.6384:

2. What gear would you recommend for a new engi like myself? I bought a full rare set of Berserker and crafted a few exotics, but I’m thinking about making a set of Celestial, since Engi’s seem to benefit from every stat. Thoughts?

I recommend starting with and sticking with Berserker’s if that’s your goal at endgame. Of course you’re going to die a lot on a profession you’re not used to, but each death is a learning experience! Engineer lacks a decent amount of condi cleanse, but does have a lot of other defensive utilities. Get to know them all.

Celestial is awesome in WvW, so having a set of that isn’t a bad idea.

Zumi.6384:

3. Bomb Kit – Everyone raves about this kit, but it seems so darn clunky to me. The long delay between skill use and it’s effect is annoying, and seems like it would make it useless in PvP/WvW (although I guess I could be convinced to use it in PvE).

Bomb kit felt clunky to me at first too, but it’s one of the best kits we have, especially for PvE. It has a high damage autoattack for power builds, a fire and smoke field on low cooldown, a blast finisher, cc, and is useful for condi builds as well. It’s not bad in WvW in the slightest, but I usually favor grenade kit for that. Bomb kit is excellent for kiting, so maybe start with that to get used to it. I think it’s really just practice that makes it feel less clunky to use.

Zumi.6384:

4. Flamethrower – Now this seems like a fun kit. Is a juggernaut/flamethrower build viable in PvE?

Yes. That said, flamethrower is not your best bet for damage – it’s more of a utility kit. It has the longest lasting fire field an engineer has, and a blast finisher on a very low cooldown. The knockback and blind are useful as well. As a level 80, juggernaut flamethrower is fine for open world PvE and farming, but don’t expect it to be that effective at speedrunning dungeons. I don’t take the juggernaut trait very often (mostly just for farming or exploration) but I almost always have this kit on me in PvE. I prefer to take rifle mod (since I use rifle) over juggernaut when I’m going for max damage.

Zumi.6384:

5. For those of you with alts, what do you usually do once they hit 80? Just get them full exotic and then….do whatever you normally do on your main? It feels like a silly question, but I hit 80 on him the other day and thought to myself, “Sweet! Now what?”

I like WvW and PvP, so I tend to do a lot of that. I also like to play through the story, taking an arc I haven’t before if possible. Also world completion. I like the lore and how pretty the open world is, as well as reading dialogue I skipped previously and finding easter eggs. Dungeons are a lot of fun too. This just comes down to personal preference.

Thanks for the detailed reply Elegy!

I think my biggest issue was I was in the mindset of, “OK I got a character to 80, time to grind some stuff and gear him out!” which we all know doesn’t make sense in this game.

So instead, I’ve just been doing what I normally did on my main, but using my engineer more often. I’ve been running the “standard” grenadier build and having a lot of fun with it in PvE. It’ll take me a while to master everything, but I’m enjoying learning it for sure.

Now the problem is balancing the stuff I want to do on him with the things I want to do on my main. That’s a problem I don’t mind having haha

Thanks again guys.

This is my primary build http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpErtbxPLseNSbBNqwA6Iei2+5CEgjC-TxRBABUcBAuS53N7PUoOARV/BgHAgZKBBA-e

It will change depending on the situation of course. I might put in incindiary powder and rifle mod in open world, static discharge over speedy kits in a dungeon. maybe empowering adrenaline instead of shrapnel depending on the fight, but that is the base build I use.

Flamethrower is pretty fun. there isnt anything quite like an asura with permaswiftness (infused precision) running around in circles with a flamethrower in cursed shore. Not that its necessarily better than a guardian magic mower, but come on, its a flamethrower

Zumi.6384:

Thanks for the detailed reply Elegy!

I think my biggest issue was I was in the mindset of, “OK I got a character to 80, time to grind some stuff and gear him out!” which we all know doesn’t make sense in this game.

So instead, I’ve just been doing what I normally did on my main, but using my engineer more often. I’ve been running the “standard” grenadier build and having a lot of fun with it in PvE. It’ll take me a while to master everything, but I’m enjoying learning it for sure.

Now the problem is balancing the stuff I want to do on him with the things I want to do on my main. That’s a problem I don’t mind having haha

Thanks again guys.

^^ I use to main a guardian… engi took it’s place quite quickly Such a dynamic and demanding profession, really fun.