Guild Wars 2

Was thinking of trying one out, But since they look like a class all about tricks and zone control, I don’t know if it’ll be a good class for a beginner to use. Well this is coming from someone who has only really used the warrior so far, and they seem pretty braindead easy.

Im not the most experienced person on my engi but I can give you my experience.

Against people that don’t know the engi in and out it can be pretty easy to get kills. Even using the triple kit build which is considered a “skillful” build. Against most opponents though youl never really use it skillfully. Follow a few patterns that experience tells you will work without much inovation.

Against people that know engi in and out though it gets interesting. In most classes cases fighting something who knows exactly what you can do can put you at a pretty big disadvantage.

But engineer just has so many different combinations and tricks it can use at different times without really being set in rails as far as fighting goes that they can get around that disadvantage fairly easily.

So for MOST players your gonna find that it isnt that much different. Thatl give you a chance to learn the class in and out yourself. And when you run into the really good players itl pay off as you find yourself doing combos/chains youv never used up to that point.

Thats just my experience with it in game however.

Most certainly I would not call engineer a “hard” class to use but on the other hand it also isn’t the “simple” one too. The “hard” part is that you have multitude skills and weapon sets that in the peak moment allow you to use 30 different skills while other classes focus on 2 weapons and 5 utility skills (3 utility, 1 heal and 1 Elite skill).

I would most definitely encourage you to play engineer because it is elegant solution to all of the game’s challenges but it is you who have to answer the question: “what kind of gameplay do I prefer?”. Engineer is “monkeying around your keyboard” with r/m-dps-tank’o’healer.

Engineer’s got a lot of variety to it, that makes it difficult to really say how difficult it is to use. Different skillsets will have very different floors and so forth.

The setting is also very important – PvE is generally pretty much “Remember to look at the screen. You win,” with a few tougher areas (such as dungeons and some of the newer zones), while PvP has a whole other set of things.
For example, a turret build is good for doing hotjoin sPvP, from what I hear, and is very easy to use in that setting. A full turret build in PvE will not often work very well, by comparison; the combat in most of the game is too mobile, and those situations where placing turrets isn’t more trouble than it’s worth generally just result in the turrets being obliterated.

Yes it’s hard. With all the kits and swapping it’s very easy to use the wrong skill. Also shield blocks both have follow up skill. One press too much and there goes your life saving block which could hold up for a sec or two more.

Also many skills are “set ups”. They got delays and instead of instant result you have to wait half a second or longer for the result to pop up. Prime examples being bomb kit or grenade kit used at distance. This forces you to predict situations and act before they happen. A far cry from warrior or rangers instant skills that are reactive by default.

Also with so many skills available there are many synergies that can be used in many situations. Problem is that knowing them is one thing. Learning to use them properly in the heat of battle is another.

So yeah, engi is definitely “hard to master” class.

In PvE, engi is the hardest class to play perfectly. We have far more complex rotations than other classes, and require a ton of util/weapon/trait swapping for maximum effect.

In PvP, engi is somewhat easy to play at lower levels, but hard to master, and can be used to high effect when played well. Learning what to combo with what when, what to interrupt, what to dodge, what to block, what to LoS, how to manage your cooldowns/CCs for maximum pressure, etc, takes a long time. You don’t get good fast. Expect over 2000 games before you even come close to mastery.

No idea about WvW, never really played it much.

Sins.4782:

In PvE, engi is the hardest class to play perfectly. We have far more complex rotations than other classes, and require a ton of util/weapon/trait swapping for maximum effect.

In PvP, engi is somewhat easy to play at lower levels, but hard to master, and can be used to high effect when played well. Learning what to combo with what when, what to interrupt, what to dodge, what to block, what to LoS, how to manage your cooldowns/CCs for maximum pressure, etc, takes a long time. You don’t get good fast. Expect over 2000 games before you even come close to mastery.

No idea about WvW, never really played it much.

^^

This.

You can play Turretengi in PVP and go easymode. You can be an inefficient FT auto spamming PVE engi, but in both cases you’re choosing to limit your potential.

To reach the full potential on an Engi you need to keep track of far more cooldowns than most professions, most of which you can’t see at all times, and their timers are all off such that it’s not an easy rotation. For example Ele’s D/F rotation in PVE is probably the second most intense rotation, but you simply swap fire everytime it’s up and either go to water for it’s blasts or earth for it’s blast and alternating the two. While it takes a bit to master it and still be ready to avoid attacks it’s something that’s pretty set (though you might use some utility stuff in the different attunements as extras).

Engi on the other hand doesn’t have a set rotation. YOu’ll do something like:
Grenade Barrage->Napalm>Flame Blast/Detonate>Swap ElixirGun>Acid Bomb/Cancel> Swap Rifle>Jump Shot>Blunderbuss>swap Nades>Freeze Grenade>Shrapnel Grenade>swap Flamethrower>Flame Blast/Detonate>Swap Nades>Nade1>Shrapnel when up>Swap FT>Flame Blast/Detonate>Swap Nades>Nade1 till Shrapnel is up and shrapnel>swap rifle and blunderbuss>Swap FT>Flame Blast/detonate>Swap EG> Acid bomb/cancel….

Basically you have Flame Blast on a 6s cooldown, Blunderbuss on a 10s cooldown, Acid Bomb is 15, Napalm is 30, Jump Shot is 20, Shrapnel is 5, Freeze Grenade is 20.

So every 3 shrapnel’s you can acid bomb, after every shrapnel +1s you can Flame Blast. Every 2 Shrapnel you can blunderbuss. Every 4 you can Jump shot/Freeze grenade. But, you are using different skills in between every shrapnel so your cooldowns aren’t necessarily starting right at the same time as your shrapnel, so it’s not exactly like that, you may have to wait for another couple seconds after the third shrapnel for your acid bomb to be ready for example.

But, that’s what makes it so fun, so rare to see good PVE Engi’s that it puts a smile on my face every time I do.

It depends how good you are at keeping track of cooldowns really, so you know what sort of things you can do when. What other’s have said is very true, there’s a difference between knowing a combo, using it in a fight against an enemy that’s trying to disrupt you, and for me, remembering that you can do it in the first place! Remembering to use fire, water and smoke fields efficiently in a fight is something I need to work on & I personally think that’s what separates a great engi from the rest.

I played thief for 2 years, played engi for around 300 hours, playing Rifle 3 kit with E-Gun, Toolkit and Bombs/Nades depending on setting (I mostly play PvP/WvW). Just for context.

Hiho!

Engineer is the hardest class to play in pve but it’s also the one wich is most fun. If you are on EU servers you can pm me ingame, I’m always happy to help anyone I can show you the basics and you can pm anytime if you got questions!

Greez!
- Ziggy

compared to a warrior? He’ll yes . 2-3 kits plus wep plus evades plus f1-f4 and your best heal requires you to cast/recast and blast for optimal use it can get pretty hectic. Not to mention medium armor is much less forgiving then heavy .

But with that said the fact that you feel the warrior is brain dead leads me to believe that you will enjoy the challenge. Play that engineer and practice practice practice mastering this class is hard but the pay off is insanely great

As always good luck and have fun .

I consider playing Engi to its best is the top of the skill curve in this game if you’re using multiple kits. We gain versatility at the cost of pushing more buttons for similar effects as other less versatile classes.

Bloodgruve.6038:

I consider playing Engi to its best is the top of the skill curve in this game if you’re using multiple kits. We gain versatility at the cost of pushing more buttons for similar effects as other less versatile classes.

Yeah, that’s kind of how I see it.

in my opinion, after more than 3k match in pvp , eng is not difficult. The only thing difficult is learn to drop nades.
When you manage nades and toolkit ( quite easy to use) for pvp you are ok.
Bombs and ft are a less effective choice for pve so you can play pvp without them. eg is quite strong but you can use it as 3rd kit, or use slick shoes or elixir S
The 2 powerfull pvp builds are really similar to user ( condi or celestial ) , all based on toolkit and nades + something else . The rotation of rifle is a little more complex than pistol pistol or pistol shield and , even with the same kits , it is really a different gameplay .
In wvw you can play with the same kits + rocket boost or a bomb based build. in any case, from what i have seen, when you are quite used to nades, toolkit and elixir Gun you can do quite all pve/wvw contents… high fractal included . Bombs can help for stealth but you can live without . All other eng options are far than optimal for me so you can learn it for fun but you can play also without knowing them. In my opinion the most diffuclt class to play is mesmer becouse it is really geometrical … at least in pvp .

Onething is do if u get used to engi, skill rotationing and manging ur skill will be much ezier when u play other classes maybe except ele. Engi is still more complecated than ele imo

No , i play eng end ele. Ele is stronger for something but it is a little harder becouse attunements have a cd … you can not swap immediatly from one kit to another. Another problem is that elementalist has a fixed range ( d/d melee, s/f medium , staff long range ) instead eng is really handy becouse you can range when people meele you and you can meele them when they range you …

Engineer yes. Complex and rewarding. PvP turret engine no. A box of rocks could win with that build.