Guild Wars 2

I recently stated leveling up an engineer and I noticed that the Healing Turret has even more complexity to it than I had originally thought. What I mean by this is, you can leave it on the ground to give perma regen to nearby allies, you can drop it and pick it back up to put it on a lower cooldown and give you better personal healing, and that you can time Regenerating Mist with a blast finisher for a water field blast finisher AoE heal, or even taking a gain X ability when using a heal skill from runes and getting it’s bonus often.

But what I also noticed is that when your healing turret is on the group and it starts spinning it counts as a water field, which you can then combo with detonate turret for a blast finisher (easiest to do is right after you plant the turret and about half a second to a second later the white friendly AoE line pops up) AoE heal. Which gives this skill many different uses depending on the situation.

I was just curious and wondering if some other engineer skills had some hidden uses not immediately noticeable without some tinkering around.

I’ve got one.
All you need is healing turret, bomb kit, rifle turret and a net turret.
Set up all the turrets in 1 spot and then drop a big ol bomb followed immediately by a smoke bomb. As soon as smoke bomb goes off, detonate all your turrets.
If done correctly, this combo will provide 10 seconds of group stealth.
Add in more blast finishers such as #4 shield and supply drop and you can get up to 14 seconds.
It also has a low cooldown of about 35-40 seconds.

Sure there are plenty ! Sometimes they are not even hidden but simply not widely noticed. Here are a few.

• Rifle
  – 1 skill hits multiple targets by piercing through them (you’d be amazed at how long I spent using the rifle without realizing this)
  – 4 skill cures mobility conditions (freeze, cripple, immobilize)
  – 5 skill can be used to “cheat” at jumping puzzles (just don’t try to gain much altitude with it)
  – 5 skill can be used for AoE damage even when immobilized

• Medkit
  – switching to medkit counts as a healing skill use, triggers effects of various runes

• Flamethrower
  – 3 skill can be used to push back projectiles (like the pyro in TF2)
  – toolbelt skill lasts long and its cooldown starts ticking right after use, so use it as often as possible

• Elixir gun
  – 4 skill can be also be used to “cheat” at jumping puzzles (not as reliable as rifle though)
  – 5 removes one condition on people inside area of impact (also works with Kit Refinement" trait)

• Elixir R
  – toss can be used on self right before going down for a near guaranteed self-revive

Also, when using a toolbelt skill, it is generally better to stow kits before doing so, in order to get the weapon stat bonuses (example: grenade barrage hits harder if the weapon provides +power).

And of course, engineer gets early access to perma-swiftness & perma-vigor (at the cost of button mashing) through first tier traits Speedy Kits & Invigorating Speed.

Always use a blind on a downed opponent before you try to finish him. you would be amazing how often they blow their interupt while blinded, which the misses and you can stomp without a hic up.

This works especially well for guardians who seem to hold back everything to use their aoe knockback. Because their damage ability is channeled. Blind, then finish,

Terrahero.9358:

Always use a blind on a downed opponent before you try to finish him. you would be amazing how often they blow their interupt while blinded, which the misses and you can stomp without a hic up.

This works especially well for guardians who seem to hold back everything to use their aoe knockback. Because their damage ability is channeled. Blind, then finish,

To add to this, the flamethrower’s 5 skill is fantastic for doing so as equipping the flamethrower and activating the smoke vent blind can be done without during your stomping animation.

Turrets are really good at control as well, specifically Rocket and Net. If you drop a Rocket turret at close range and overcharge it instantly, you have a rather quick double knockdown that will rarely miss. Do the same with the net turret with proper timing and you can add a double stun to that, giving you a good 8 or so seconds of control with those skills alone.

If you like WvW, net turrets give you a decent counter to thieves in small battles as turret’s targeting isn’t affected by an opponent’s delayed rendering after coming out of stealth. If you see your net turret shoot at seemingly nothing, odds are you snagged a thief that is now immobilized wherever the net projectile disappeared, so startlaying on the aoe.

Elixir gun skill 5 super elixir is a light field . shooting at a mob and hitting them (in close proximity) removes condition, blast finisher (we have lots) gives 3 seconds area retaliation or leap finisher gives 5 seconds personal retaliation

One trick i like to pull is if i have quickening elixir on the bar i throw out the f3 skill just to shoot through it. One of them stacks up blindness which can be quite helpful, another one stacks confusion when you shoot through it. Also while the mini elixir can be helpful to defend your self(giving mini, invis, or stability), it can also be used aggressively. Use any of the three to guarantee finishing off a downed opponent.

Also many engineer skills can be used without taking up the skill slot cooldown. For example. You like healing turret but you also need swiftness. Put on your healing medkit, hit the 5 skill gaining swiftness now switch to healing turret. You should be able to use the healing turret because the skill is not on cool down. I almost never use medkit in battle but i always switch to it to get the swiftness off of it then switch off to the healing skill i want.

If you’re finishing a downed player in PVP, you can hit Elixir S during the finishing move, and it will not interrupt it. I’ll usually start my finish move, then hit Elixir S if I know the class can interrupt me, and I really need them dead right now (teammate needs to rally or something).

Also, while Elixir S is active, it removes your 1-5 skills, but you can switch to a kit during this time and get in some damage while you’re invulnerable.

I’ve found the supply drop elite to be a lot more useful when used early on in the fight. For a long time, I would use it only when I would need the extra heal and I was really missing out on the benefits of the other turrets throughout the fight. Now I try and use it earlier in a fight and when I would like to stun.

I’ll try and think of some others.

The cooldowns on the f1-f4 skills are not shared between underwater and land skills.

This is particularly useful if you are running an elixir build, you can use the toss elixir skills just before leaving water and have a few free boons on land while still having all cooldowns ready. also works with elixir gun’s F skill for free regeneration.

You can use stun breaks like elixir R, utility goggles, (rocket boots!) to break the knock down effect on overcharged shot or rocket boots if you time it right with a dodge roll right after. The effect is that you don’t get knocked down and remain in the same spot.

It takes practice but it works.

I sometimes do overcharged shot – rocket boots – elixir R + backward dodge roll to create extreme amounts of distance.

Another trick is if you are doing a long range jumpshot with either grenade kit or elixir gun with the kit refinement trait you can swap to the kit right before you land.

The timing is tricky. But if you do it right the grenades or the light field will spawn right as you land.

For EG this will give you a heal + retaliation, for grenade it adds another 2-3k onto rifles jumpshot damage.

The timing for EG is really touchy, but with grenade it it is easier.

It will significantly up the burst from jumpshot when it hits, and is especially nice in WvW.