Guild Wars 2

Hi everybody, its my first time posting on these forums and its great to be in such a cohesive and friendly community.

Let me get straight to the point.

I’ve played GW2 for a little over a year now, and I have put a few hundred hours into the game. I already have a Warrior and Ranger all decked out in good equipment. A few months back, I decided to pick up one of the “hardest” but at the same time, most versatile class in the game. Engineer.

Leveling the my new toon was a piece of cake. As I wasn’t new to the game, I familiarized myself to the mechanics of the Engineer in time. I could pull off a few blast fields, some skill combos, and got to know the different kits.

I decided to go for a condition engineer. Something different from the stereotype. Hence I build my character along the lines of this build right here.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Condition_Grenadier

I practiced the different utility rotations, for condition, might stacking, invisibility etc on the DPS Golems . And I can say that I’ve gotten pretty good at that.

But here’s my problem

I started going into simple dungeons in PvE like CoF part 1, and even low level fractals. But I realize that I cannot even make it through the dungeon without getting downed 3 or 4 times or getting defeated. I’ve been reading the forums, and although they are helpful, they had nothing that I wasn’t doing already.

“Remember to kite while using nades”
“Remember to use your turret and heal skill simultaneously”

etc etc

Another thing, is that I suspect the condition build as shown above might not be as viable due to the lack of utility (any opinions?). It has no stability. Blinds do work, but mostly on trash mobs. And in 10 seconds upon engaging the boss, I’m already on my back.

Hope the advice given here not only helps to up my game, but also anyone else who wants to try this awesome class :P

Thanks

that build is paramount for our max-dps options, but also the single most complicated (and unrealistic) rotation in the game.
Remember that you need to dodge the biggest blows, unless you have a guardian doing godly work on the aegis uptime for the group.
none of the skill require absolute melee, even the blowtorch has max efficient as far away as 200, so back off a bit if the boss pressures you too hard.

Glasscannon builds like this are meant to be run in perfect group-comps, since they need the boss to die faster than they run out of dodges / healing, so sub-optimal for the chaos and long-stretched encounters of pug-runs.

no kiteing and such.
dodge + blind from bombs + blind from nades + blind from mortar + blind from flamethrower.

normal boss on dungeons wont be able to hit u.

Unshakable
Gains defiance when targeted by crowd-control skills. Blind is 10% as effective. Weakness and vulnerability last 50% less time.
— In-game description

No, you don’t blind bosses completely, the next attack has only a 10% chance to miss.

But as the last posters said, you are built for maximum dps, so you have to play perfect.

I suggest grabbing some utilities while you’re training, elixir S is a good option for instant stealth when thrown & invulnerability when you chug it. You can then use that time to analyze what went wrong and try to correct it.

Use combat camera when kiting, so you can strafe at full running speed

I think Arantheal makes a good point, that it can be a good build in a coordinated team setting. If you are just LFG’ing Dungeons, then you’re going to get mixed results. Some runs will be better than others.

My advice is to get yourself Toughness. Maybe switch to Dire Armor/Weapons and use Superior Runes of the Undead. This should help things a great deal in terms of surviablity.

Arantheal.7396:

that build is paramount for our max-dps options, but also the single most complicated (and unrealistic) rotation in the game.
Remember that you need to dodge the biggest blows, unless you have a guardian doing godly work on the aegis uptime for the group.
none of the skill require absolute melee, even the blowtorch has max efficient as far away as 200, so back off a bit if the boss pressures you too hard.

Glasscannon builds like this are meant to be run in perfect group-comps, since they need the boss to die faster than they run out of dodges / healing, so sub-optimal for the chaos and long-stretched encounters of pug-runs.

Whys it unrealistic?

Engineers are like wizards in dungeons and dragons. You prepare the right skill for the right situation,. you are called a pro engineer god.

YOu prepare the wrong skill that is useless, you are called a fail engineer or noob at your class.

I played fractals edge of the mists, world v world, spvp, and farm the world for stuff.

I know that for fractals, if my guild doesn’t bring a mesmer or thief i am forced to trade some of my damage kits for more utility.

I use berserker gear and flame thrower for single target and grenades for cleave and aoe. I use morter kit for fields with that lightning bolt tool kit spell to do a blast finisher.

That is my dps spec, i don’t do the meta wiki tedious rotation because most of those skills don’t do good damage but provide good conditions cc or fields. And i am after power physical damage and i look on grenade kit (those i do spam 1-5) the physical part of the grenade kits damage on 2-5 does more damage then 1 spamming auto attack.

Flame thrower does decent (not amazing) lined auto attack physical damage.

I am not a pro sorry.

But yes back on topic, an engineer is like a wizard. You have to prepare the right skills for the right environments and boss fights. You may need stealth gyro for sneaking in some dungeons, crowd control for boss breakers, or several blast finishers for a certain fight you use turrets.

The whole point of my post is this – as an engineer i go to my default zerker set up when i can but for the most part , i never stay in any 1 build for long. I am always preparing my skills before me and my guild goes into the next fractal or dungeon or boss fight. Playing in a guild gives you a lot of teamwork experience.

Yea engineer has some useful skills but it depends on the fight and the dungeon’s environment. If you prepare the right skill for the right encounter, you are called an engineer god.

SPvP i suck at so yea…

Any ways this is my opinion, hope you enjoyed the read.

The rotation isn’t that complicated once you realize that all you have to do is prioritize highest damage(burns mostly).

As for surviving you have so many blind sources.
Apparently adrenal implants(despite kinetic charge being better but hey metabattle lol).
You can probably replace geomancy with energy without losing too much damage.

Removing the breakbar is pretty much deepfreeze that pugs can achieve by randomly mashing buttons(worse than deep freeze though).
There are also things you can do like kite and self-blast your water fields(you get 3 fields and 4 blasts).

The difference between full sinister and full rabid gear is less than 10%. You give up the ability to do decent damage to structures, but your DPS on mobs doesn’t suffer much at all.

Be advised though: many mobs prioritize targets with high armor, so in many cases, you’ll end up getting pounded on more if you try to add rabid gear.