Guild Wars 2

Hi all. I’ve been away from the game for almost a year now and thinking about returning to scratch that itch.

What roles engis are currently playing will determine if I play my main engi or reroll something else.

What are the major roles Engi’s are currently filling? I’m interested in sPvP, WvWvW, PvE, dungeons, you name it.

Heyhey

I can only talk about the PvE part with full expirience and there the engi is like the allrounder and best damage dealer together with ele.

The engineer is able to stealth a party like a thief, stack a huge amount of might and vulnerability for the party dps and supports the team with relfecion, projecile absorbtion, heal, condicleanse and basicly everything except stability uptime.

The damage output is mainly AoE and he is able to hit 5 targets with almost all of his skills. The damage numbers are also pretty high and he is on the top dps tiers. I’d say together with ele. He helps with his vulnerability to deal great passive damage against bosses (who lose vulnerability faster than normal mobs) so he’s great against bosses too and helps the thief (for example) to shine.

TL;DR: The engineer is top tier in dungeons, especially now that the FGS has been fixed. He’s better than a 2nd warrior or something, definitly. The only drawback is how hard the engineer is to play to be efficient. If you think you got swift fingers, like a high skillcap and a good challenge, the engineer is a good choice for you.

Greez Ziggy

Yea engi is fantastic for all situations. Sadly you will meet too much noobs who dont know it:-)

im still trying to figure a way to stack every single might stack within a single bombing sessions but so far I have to stand stationary just to do them all (not realy effective at might stacking). Oh well its just a little practice ill eventualy be able to stack my 25 might witheout efforts x.x

For some funny I reason I prefer running supportive turrets right now in spvp because I don’t have to run after people with bombs in hand to actualy do them damage XD

PvE (Dungeons/Fractals):
-2nd to none dps
-vuln. stacking
-stealth-skipping
= power based builds, mostly 6/6/0/x/x

WvW:
-romaing all stars with various builds
-useless in melee-trains
-mediocre in the backline
-sweet spot in havoc-teams/hunting-parties

spvp:
-Turrent bunker / Point defense (can be dull since its way too easy to handle compared to regular builds)
-Turret boon-supporter
-Berserker burst builds (whatever grinds your gears in the explosives line)
-Celestial roaming builds (rifle S/D)
-The notorious decap engi (cc-spammer)
-Condi-Nade aerial denial

Engi is far from useless in the melee train.

5 target bombs with decent damage OP.
Constant giant “Lake Superior ain’t got nothing on me” water fields OP.
Glue “Kitten That Entangle Poser” Bomb OP.
More blasts than day in Kandahar OP.
“Mined The Gap” boon stripping OP.

Just run Elixer B for stab and roll with a guard or two and its magical. Saffron bread, protection injection. Melandru runes, and stabilized armor with – condi food and leg mods make you one slick rick.

Edit: This is my frontline build. Still working on getting more knight trinkets but I wanted to show you what I’m working with: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpPrVXxLLseRicBNyrMmQeiEKyImkPFAA-TxCDABCqDQn9HiR9HtUSUlyBAuAAC8AA+SJIUKxI4ABInGCyAUsAA-e

Here is one of my backline builds. Good balance between condi and power which is perfect for nades, only made better by its might stacking abilities. Make those empowers count! You could even add enhanced performance and switch in elexirs for HGH might if your zerg doesn’t stack might well or you are pugging. The HGH version was actually given to me by Wolfineer himself so you know its quality
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpEr1XxvLseRSaBNq0AqXIyQulP3gA8UA-TRyCwAAeAAo0DgV53lTAwN1fKcgA0v/wYlgz1QQKAYWDA-e

I also run a full rabid set with bleeding and torment on crit sigils for maximum condi pressure. It uses my roaming armor which has Nightmare runes but other rune choices work

Exactly I dont play engi other way than in melee train:-)

Yes, I like my engi in the melee train as well, but admit it:
no self-sustaining stability leaves us as the rallybot when the numbers gets tense. we can have 1 or 2 stunbreakers max in a viable build, and elixier B does not even qualify for a slot then (BK/TK/Thumper f.e.), so we definitively kiss the ground when 20+ hammer F1’s fly in our direction.
Running melee with a havoc or roaming group is definitively awesome, but for 50v50 or bigger we are simply not “stable” enough^^

Arantheal.7396:

Yes, I like my engi in the melee train as well, but admit it:
no self-sustaining stability leaves us as the rallybot when the numbers gets tense. we can have 1 or 2 stunbreakers max in a viable build, and elixier B does not even qualify for a slot then (BK/TK/Thumper f.e.), so we definitively kiss the ground when 20+ hammer F1’s fly in our direction.
Running melee with a havoc or roaming group is definitively awesome, but for 50v50 or bigger we are simply not “stable” enough^^

Well stability is our only weakness in WvW a big one. But you are always in party just find one with at least one guard in and you will be fine:-)

Well, i have mostly PvE experience in the “role” part. I could give you the WvW/sPvP builds i use, but its harder for me to gauge my effectiveness there, also since i don’t have too much experience.

In PvE.. well, as mentioned above, the engi is one of the most versatile classes around. Don’t have a guardian in your party? Take an engi, they’ll cope. No thief in your party for stealth in AC? Ask your engi. Not enough Ele’s for DPS? Engi’s can do it. You can take any role within a matter of 5-20 seconds, depending on wether you want to retrait or not (if you’ve been absent since before April – traits are now freely reconfigurable).

Engi’s can compensate for the absence of a lack of many currently meta features. They won’t do it as brilliantly as some other classes, but they can cope. As stated above, nade engi’s with their vulnerability compete with ele’s for strongest DPS in the game. The current meta doesn’t really need it, but engi’s can pop out some nice healing too with their water fields – running healing turret in PvE is a really strong AoE heal.
They do lack stability though – only four seconds on “Toss elixir B”. While this is useful for small situations like running through the Sorrow’s Embrace golem pulls, it can’t really be relied on for long periods of time.

In short – engi’s currently make for great DPS and have some awesome support abilities, but their tanky sides are a bit lacking. Nevertheless, they’re currently very much a competitive class, and i really enjoy playing them :-).

Main features of note in PvE are:
-Grenade kit with Grenadier trait for high DPS and vuln stacks. Great at long range, too.
-Bomb kit for up close damage competing with Grenade kit and fire fields for might stacking (+ a blast finisher if you dont mind knocking enemies around).
-Throw elixir U gives reflect/projectile negation for corner stacking
-Throw elixir S, combined with smoke field on bomb kit, for a long stealth
-Throw elixir C now turns two conditions into boons on all allies hit, very useful against NPC’s that like to stack bleeds like Mai Trin
-Healing turret for high AoE heal and water fields. I usually use shield 4 to proc the f1 water field for even more heal.

On a final note – if you’re just coming back, read the September engi balance changes. There’s been quite a few buffs, most notably to flamethrower arguably even making it a viable choice for PvE scenarios.

Yea engineer is a cool class but don’t jump on the hype train “you can do everything!”. That’s like saying mesmers can also do everything but in the end they are veil/portal bots.
About PvE. You can stack around 9 might with current meta build, basically cap stealth if you bother to swap utilities and offhand shield, the vulnerability is pretty OP but it has a slower ramp up time than ranger’s so in very short fights the bearbow will outshine you, bringing projectile mitigation means wasting an utility slot..and your dps isn’t ele/thief level but it’s pretty decent. Also because a part of it is bleeds it has a bit of ramp up time too.
Remember that you only have 2 utility slots available because you need a dps kit and those slots usually are occupied by other kits. Casual carebears will tell you “kitten kitten remove condis with elixir c!” without understanding that you sacrifice a lot for that. Same for elixir u or elixir r or whatever.
In wvw zerg you have no stability so you are a rallybot and if you stay far with grenades retaliation will murder you.
In pvp you are decent but lack stunbreaks/stability and the condition removal is awful. If you see a condi necro just run away.

in pvp theyre a strong 1v1 spec and really good in teamfights for overall cleave dmg and cc’s. honeslty one of the top 3 professions to pick in spvp atm.

robertul.3679:

In pvp you are decent but lack stunbreaks/stability and the condition removal is awful. If you see a condi necro just run away.

I partially agree. I usually die only to CC chains (or well-done group focus… but that’s for any profession, any build).

If I see a necro, I fight them and usually win. Could have something to do with their skill level vs. mine, but I don’t think I’m all that great. I have enough condition removal with EG and turret to get by, and they rarely seem to handle my damage well. Don’t know what else to say. Everyone’s experience is different, and I don’t care about necros unless they’re group focusing on me (CC + coordinated burst → biggest weakness).

Zethyrius.8692:

robertul.3679:

In pvp you are decent but lack stunbreaks/stability and the condition removal is awful. If you see a condi necro just run away.

I partially agree. I usually die only to CC chains (or well-done group focus… but that’s for any profession, any build).

If I see a necro, I fight them and usually win. Could have something to do with their skill level vs. mine, but I don’t think I’m all that great. I have enough condition removal with EG and turret to get by, and they rarely seem to handle my damage well. Don’t know what else to say. Everyone’s experience is different, and I don’t care about necros unless they’re group focusing on me (CC + coordinated burst -> biggest weakness).

That’s 3 conditions removed and 1 stunbreak. Reaper’s protection, nightmare rune proc, staff 5, deathsroud 3 and I think I’m forgetting something. While you are feared they can just copy the conditions you applied to them back to you with staff 4 and dagger 4.
Yes you do stand a chance if you run celestial rifle because it has more sustain and is more reliant on direct damage. You can force a fear proc at start to transmute it into stability but it’s a hard matchup.

PvE (dungeons) wise:

What Good options except Grenades (I dislike the lobbing) and Bombs (I find the idea of planting bombs that only damage the baddies silly) are there?

1). In the past one could make a rifle discharge build work (kinda). Is that gone?

2). What about Power + Condi Mix? Say Elixir gun + P/P? Would that come close to grenade spamming?

3). What about FT for Single Target? What kind of numbers do you guys see?

robertul.3679:

Yea engineer is a cool class but don’t jump on the hype train “you can do everything!”. That’s like saying mesmers can also do everything but in the end they are veil/portal bots.
About PvE. You can stack around 9 might with current meta build, basically cap stealth if you bother to swap utilities and offhand shield, the vulnerability is pretty OP but it has a slower ramp up time than ranger’s so in very short fights the bearbow will outshine you, bringing projectile mitigation means wasting an utility slot..and your dps isn’t ele/thief level but it’s pretty decent. Also because a part of it is bleeds it has a bit of ramp up time too.
Remember that you only have 2 utility slots available because you need a dps kit and those slots usually are occupied by other kits. Casual carebears will tell you “kitten kitten remove condis with elixir c!” without understanding that you sacrifice a lot for that. Same for elixir u or elixir r or whatever.

First of all – with my elixir B, sigils, HGH and juggernaught, im pretty sure i’ve come close to stacking 25 stacks of might on myself all by my own when wielding my FT build, while still doing competitive damage.

I still think engi’s are very versatile and useable nearly anywhere. Yes, you sacrifice things for using specific elixirs, but im pretty sure i can always select two elixirs for every PvE situation that will give me just what i need. For Mae Trin, i’d swap to C and R, for Sorrows Embrace golems, i’d swap to B and U. Yes, you might not go 100% of the speed you possibly could with a better classed party. But its very much decent, and doable, so i still think you can catch for missing most classes in a party. With Cleansing Formula 409 on your main elixirs and toolbelt skills, you can clear quite alot of condi’s. Toolbelt also kinda makes up for the lack of the third utility slot – while a warrior can use one adrenaline empowered attack every now and then, i can deploy a water field + regen, convert two condi’s, cure one and add a stack of might on all my teammates in an area, place a projectile negate/reflect also adding a stack of might and curing a condi, and throw a significantly powerful grenade barrage.

rogerwilko.6895:

PvE (dungeons) wise:

What Good options except Grenades (I dislike the lobbing) and Bombs (I find the idea of planting bombs that only damage the baddies silly) are there?

1). In the past one could make a rifle discharge build work (kinda). Is that gone?

2). What about Power + Condi Mix? Say Elixir gun + P/P? Would that come close to grenade spamming?

3). What about FT for Single Target? What kind of numbers do you guys see?

I don’t believe you’ll ever come anywhere close to grenades with an elixir gun and pistols, i’m afraid. The elixir guns main point is constant weakness as long as you keep shooting it – pistols are mainly condi based, and generally condi’s are less efficient in PvE if the meta is anything to go by.

FT recently had a buff though, so i believe its very much viable. I can’t get on-game right now so i can’t give you an exact number, but im pretty sure its at least a competitive option, especially when you consider the might you can apply and the fact you can stack 10 stacks of might on yourself after letting Juggernaught ramp up.

Rifle discharge… i dunno – never tried it. Sounds interesting though :-). Although, to be very honest, i’ve never really seen an engi who doesn’t run at least one kit.

rogerwilko.6895:

PvE (dungeons) wise:

What Good options except Grenades (I dislike the lobbing) and Bombs (I find the idea of planting bombs that only damage the baddies silly) are there?

1). In the past one could make a rifle discharge build work (kinda). Is that gone?

2). What about Power + Condi Mix? Say Elixir gun + P/P? Would that come close to grenade spamming?

3). What about FT for Single Target? What kind of numbers do you guys see?

I did extensive DPS testing about 6 months ago and retested recently.

1. Rifle/SD is viable. Med Pack/TK/Rilfe Turret/PBR gives you good burst and sustained damage. Lower then ele/thief but still what I’d consider good.

2. Rampagers Grenades is the highest DPS I saw. P/P EG is quite a bit lower. Condi in PvE is generally sub par though as it is easily overwritten or pushed back. It’s good on grenades as it’s supplemented by good DD also. I’ll run rampagers with Grenades but otherwise stick to full power builds for anything else.

3. FT can be competitive but not if you camp it. To max Engi dps you need to cycle through all your kits/weaps and hit the higher damage abilities on cooldown. FT 2, Rifle 3 n 5, EG 4, TK 3, etc… Grenades and Bombs are the two kits that you can more or less camp, others you need to cycle to be competitive. Rifle/FT/EG/Rifle Turret with a 0/6/0/4/4 SD is pretty good if you can hit your Rifle 3n5 and EG4 in on cooldown. EG4 hits hard but TK3 and it’s toolbelt are just about as good with an SD build. If you don’t cycle to your hard hitting abilities you’re wasting a lot of potential. Hardest but funnest builds have me switching kits/weaps continuously during fights.

Blood~

Wow guys, thanks for all the great responses! I’m really look forward to trying some of these specs/strategies.