Any recommendations for a new Engineer?
sorry to burst your bubble, but for PVE engineer isn’t a very good choice.
However, if you really want to play engineer then go with the Bomb kit, until you can get grandmaster traits, then you get the grenade kit and trait it with the master grenadier grandmaster trait in the explosives line.
Try everything. When I rolled an engineer, I used P/P up to level 20 or so and got bored pretty quickly. I set him aside for a couple months, came back, and experimented with some rifle builds and have been hooked ever since. With that said, I have been finally tinkering with some pistol/shield builds after all this time and find those to be very fun and challenging.
People have different experiences, but I have a level 80 thief and guardian and neither one really grab my interest like the engineer. Many will probably disagree, and that’s fine, but my advice is to experiment with all of the weapon combos (rifle, P/P, P/S) as well as all of your utility skills, even if they seem meh or boring in the description.
For what it’s worth, I mostly PvE due to a hectic work schedule, but I dabble in WvW and sPvP as well. I find engi to be lots of fun and plenty capable.
Bomb kit build until 80. Build for power/condition; your main tactic will be to spam all your buttons, most likely #1 99% of the time and run around in circles until target is dead.
When you hit 80 you have a plethora of options.
-Flamethrower is a good power/precision weapon.
-Elixir Gun is good for support (don’t forget that toolbelt skill for EG is also a stunbreaker, which is a gamechanger)
-Toolkit is good for WvW and sPvP (through Magnet -> Pry bar -> Weapon swap -> Static Shot (from your pistol)). It’s also fairly effective in PvE where most monsters don’t try to shrug it off, which is good. Especially in WvW, people don’t expect you to be running Toolkit and will immediately panic when they get pulled to you, and will try to run away. If you start getting known for using Toolkit in WvW though, beware of that. I’ve been focused on for such.
- Bomb kit is good for WvW (running in zergs w/ Rocket Boots and Slick Shoes, then spamming bombs everywhere to lay some serious pressure down, then getting the hell out of there). I haven’t tried it much personally.
- Grenade kit is good for overall PvE dungeon stuff and WvW/sPvP.
(edited by Yobculture.5786)
OP, listen to Jcorna. His experience mirrors mine almost exactly (re the weapon progression). Engi in PvE is perfectly viable with almost ANY build or focus. Just try and keep your armor, weapons and buffs all headed in vaguely the same direction.
Have fun, explore, try different things.