Guild Wars 2

I have something like 14 level 80 characters because I like being out in the world and leveling gives me the motivation to do that, and I also like having the option to play whatever profession/race combo I’m in the mood to play. I have several 80s of some professions, and at least one 80 of all professions.

Except I have zero engineers.

Recently I’ve had a lot of trouble finding fun stuff to do in the game. And I’m thinking, for the hundredth time, of making the engineer alt that I’ll finally get to max level.

My question is whether there is an enjoyable playstyle for leveling an engineer. In past attempts, I was sick to death of the basic rifle and pistol skills by the time I was level 20. Grenades and flamethrower were fun for about a level but got old really fast, and after that it was really painful to log on and play the class, so I usually abandon it in the 30-40 range to free up a character slot.

Are they fun in sPvP? I know they can be good, but are they fun? What about WvW?
What has been your experience leveling engineers and what advice do you have for someone who is about to give it one last try? Any tips are much appreciated. Thanks!

They are very fun in spvp and pretty stronk atm.

In wvw they’re fun to solo roam on, good in smallgroups, but don’t bring a whole lot zerg play. Can still be entertaining to nadespam on zergs from 1500 range sometimes, though.

Engi has one big prolem for you. It starts be fun and powerful after you reach 80:-) Thats the reason why many ppl give it up on so low lvl.

Yeah, engi doesn’t really have a cruise-control leveling build imo. It’s only my second character and I’m already experiencing what you described. What worked for me:

• Get the kits as early as possible, plus Elixir B (the lavender one, iirc it was ‘B’ as in Buffs). I find the engineer can pass a lot of time (and exp) by just discovering how kits interact; e.g. trying to get as high might stacks as possible, trying to get the highest burst between the kits, etc
• Grenades plus WvW zergs: you are kittening useless – even moreso since you can’t spec for Grenadier trait for a very long time – but it’s a lot of fun, okayish exp, gooood loot.
• For spvp I find them harder to pick up then necro (i only have necro 80, guardian 30~ and now this engineer). Then again I’m trying to learn the classes by myself before I look up the cheese fotm no-skill setups, so ymmv. Plus you’re more experienced with the game so it might be easier to you. The fast-paced kit-switching is a lot of fun to me, because it keeps me on my toes. Memorizing which kit has which skill/condis on which button so i can use them as fast as possible without looking at the bars is what keeps me entertained atm.
• Healing Turret + Bomb 1/4 YaaaaaaaAAAaaaAAaaAaaaaaAaaaawn, but disgustingly effective in pve.
• I’ve had much success going for champions solo, so champion hunting might gain you another level or two.
• Have you tried making a new char and just going for all the traits? Maybe as a brute-force last attempt to keep your mind off the leveling process :P

Good luck!

Wat? Engineer was my first character in-game and it was fun to level oO
I still love her

Bawi.9541:

Yeah, engi doesn’t really have a cruise-control leveling build imo. It’s only my second character and I’m already experiencing what you described. What worked for me:

what
rocket boots, bomb kit, and speedy kits is as cruise control as it gets
its never fun levelling your 2nd toon…… thats the problem, not that its an engi

Alright guys, I made the leap, freed up a character slot and got my butt in gear leveling.

Rory Wrenchface, level 6 going on 80!

Thanks for the tips =)

Engineer is just different. I recommend the Bomb and Nade kits and pulling 4-5 mobs for convenience. Both Power (Rifle, or Pistol Shield) and Condition (Pistol/X) will do.
Quick Travel tips: get Speedy Kits soon as possible, Tools line VI.
Rifle #5 + Rocket Boots will be handy for travelling.
Rifle damage is best up close. Something like Net Shot → Jump Shot up close for both hits → Blunderbuss → Overcharged Shot (+Toolkit: Magnet → Prybar)

Turrets not worth it except Healing Turret while leveling – you want to move on fast. Use when you know you’ll be fighting Orrians – you want to keep the poisons off. Try comboing Rifle #5 or Big Ol’ Bomb into the Healing Turret field! (BOB before you cast heal, rifle straight after you cast heal and detonate turret) Healing Turret can be detonated to keep the water field and with 1.4k extra healing in an area at the expense of 5 seconds of cooldown. Stow it to use the turret quicker!
Medkit good for Fury and Swiftness.

If you like Conditions, Pistol/Pistol is fun, Blowtorch is strong! Shield offers some fun blast finishes, such as Smoke Bomb + Big Ol’ Bomb + Heal Turret Detonate + Shield #4 Detonate + Rocket Boots = Engi Stealth! Figure out the timing and it’ll be amazingly fun!

Engineer has a lot of skills you can use in combo.
Also, toolkit great for lowest CD block in game, a Prybar to hit people with, a Magnet to pull and get a free skill in, even a Box of Nails to help you kite enemies.

Great post, Ralk! Thanks!

insanemaniac.2456:

Bawi.9541:

Yeah, engi doesn’t really have a cruise-control leveling build imo. It’s only my second character and I’m already experiencing what you described. What worked for me:

what
rocket boots, bomb kit, and speedy kits is as cruise control as it gets
its never fun levelling your 2nd toon…… thats the problem, not that its an engi

You’re right, bad wording on my part.
Gamemechanic-wise bomb kit + speedy kits is enough to level to level 80 easily. I was thinking about fighting the urge to quit the game over how mindnumbingly boring it is to level your second character; which probably is the game’s fault, not the engi.

I had quite a few 80s I deleted… I think at least one of every class (so I can make alts for PvP).
I took a few months’ break from the game and now leveling is at least dimly interesting.

Try having music in the background and a set goal of a few levels a day I guess?
Also, multi-pulling and using all out zerker specs tend to make it less tedious. With trait changing you can adapt to a lot of situations…

Engi best with 6 0 0 2 2 if you do Grenade/Tool or Bomb/Rocket Boots and Rifle. That’s a build with some good traits.
Guardian great with meditations.
Necro is good with Power, dagger horn and staff. Mass pull into wells.
Mesmer… well… until clone on dodge, you have to kite with staff and GS. Safest that way.
Thief… S/P and Shortbow is fastest. Lots of AoE cleave.
Warrior… Anything goes really. Everything you do has a lot of damage. I recommend GS/LB and Warrior’s Sprint.
Ele… D/D mass pull.
Ranger actually great with Torch, Traps and condi.

Bawi.9541:

insanemaniac.2456:

Bawi.9541:

Yeah, engi doesn’t really have a cruise-control leveling build imo. It’s only my second character and I’m already experiencing what you described. What worked for me:

what
rocket boots, bomb kit, and speedy kits is as cruise control as it gets
its never fun levelling your 2nd toon…… thats the problem, not that its an engi

You’re right, bad wording on my part.
Gamemechanic-wise bomb kit + speedy kits is enough to level to level 80 easily. I was thinking about fighting the urge to quit the game over how mindnumbingly boring it is to level your second character; which probably is the game’s fault, not the engi.

welp ok we agree then

Facepunch.5710:

I have something like 14 level 80 characters because I like being out in the world and leveling gives me the motivation to do that, and I also like having the option to play whatever profession/race combo I’m in the mood to play. I have several 80s of some professions, and at least one 80 of all professions.

Except I have zero engineers.

Recently I’ve had a lot of trouble finding fun stuff to do in the game. And I’m thinking, for the hundredth time, of making the engineer alt that I’ll finally get to max level.

My question is whether there is an enjoyable playstyle for leveling an engineer. In past attempts, I was sick to death of the basic rifle and pistol skills by the time I was level 20. Grenades and flamethrower were fun for about a level but got old really fast, and after that it was really painful to log on and play the class, so I usually abandon it in the 30-40 range to free up a character slot.

Are they fun in sPvP? I know they can be good, but are they fun? What about WvW?
What has been your experience leveling engineers and what advice do you have for someone who is about to give it one last try? Any tips are much appreciated. Thanks!

This is my problem. I’ve leveled every class to 80, almost all of them twice, or so I thought. Then I checked, and yep no 80 engi. I had an engi in the mid 40s before but deleted him.

So far I’m back at 42, and I find myself dreading just clicking him. You might say “well then just don’t play him”, but I really want to like the profession. It’s similar to what I do in real life, and I just want to like it. I want it to be fun, and I keep thinking “o.k one more level and things will change”. Except they don’t.

I’m hoping someone will give me some tips. I tried out flamethrower, and that was fun for a few levels. The downside is that apparently there are tons of bugs with it. For example I was trying to kill some maggots, but even though they were right in front of me my guy aimed at the ground and wouldn’t deal any damage. I died trying to figure out how to hit them. Sometimes an enemy will be slightly elevated, like on a little hill. I will aim up to hit them, the animation plays, but no damage. Yeah I died that way, and it sucked. So I thought “o.k. let’s try out these grenades”. Except with no auto I’m spamming the 1 key, but it doesn’t lock on. I use my mouse for turning, and movement, so it’s hard to constantly adjust to aoe where I want my grenades and control my character. So I usually end up sitting still, and just throwing grenades. Against enemies that are moving though I get beat up pretty badly.

I might be doing it wrong, if anyone has any tips please give them to me. If it ends up with just go bomb kit and spam the same thing over and over that seems like Anet should fix something. There is no way that is what leveling is supposed to be like. I remember on my warrior one of the awesome things was just using all of the different weapons/combos. I could use a hammer/gs one day, the next day sw/shield, or lb axe/mace etc. With engi it seems like there aren’t as many different things I can try.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

I’m hoping someone will give me some tips. I tried out flamethrower, and that was fun for a few levels. The downside is that apparently there are tons of bugs with it. For example I was trying to kill some maggots, but even though they were right in front of me my guy aimed at the ground and wouldn’t deal any damage. I died trying to figure out how to hit them. Sometimes an enemy will be slightly elevated, like on a little hill. I will aim up to hit them, the animation plays, but no damage. Yeah I died that way, and it sucked. So I thought “o.k. let’s try out these grenades”. Except with no auto I’m spamming the 1 key, but it doesn’t lock on. I use my mouse for turning, and movement, so it’s hard to constantly adjust to aoe where I want my grenades and control my character. So I usually end up sitting still, and just throwing grenades. Against enemies that are moving though I get beat up pretty badly.

I might be doing it wrong, if anyone has any tips please give them to me. If it ends up with just go bomb kit and spam the same thing over and over that seems like Anet should fix something. There is no way that is what leveling is supposed to be like. I remember on my warrior one of the awesome things was just using all of the different weapons/combos. I could use a hammer/gs one day, the next day sw/shield, or lb axe/mace etc. With engi it seems like there aren’t as many different things I can try.

I tried to like the bomb kit, and it seems like it’s the most powerful of the kits, but I just couldn’t enjoy seeing my engineer constantly kowtowing all over the battlefield no matter how much bigger those numbers were. Grenades were fun for a while, too, but ended up wearing down my fingertips to bloody nubs. I really enjoy the flamethrower, even though it doesn’t have it in the damage department — there’s something satisfying about slow-roasting your enemies. I did find that the trick to flamethrowers is turning the camera to ensure that it’s facing with the enemy you’re cooking in the center of the screen. Flamethrower seems to require a lot of movement to line up enemies, which (to me) makes it feel a lot less mind-numbing than some other professions.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

I’m hoping someone will give me some tips. I tried out flamethrower, and that was fun for a few levels. The downside is that apparently there are tons of bugs with it. For example I was trying to kill some maggots, but even though they were right in front of me my guy aimed at the ground and wouldn’t deal any damage.

Try messing with the target options in the options menu (like promote target etc); I read that a few days ago here. I never had problems with it so dunno if it actually helps.
As for elevations, what works for me with FT#3 is press 3 and instantly jump afterwards, to make it fire while mid-air.
Not saying FT doesn’t have its ‘moments’

/edith: oh, and kit-switching to break the monotony helps. Try to get your best skills on cooldown, e.g. toolkit#3 hits like a mofo, damage feels oddly high.

Play triple kit engi. Elixir Gun, Bomb and Nades.
Nades is not boring. Nades take a lot of skill to land correctly in PvP. You have to take into account the slow travel speed and where the enemy is likely to be. People like Ostrich Eggs/K Pz can land the Nades nearly every time where they want on who they want.
Turn off all the auto camera facing. Run away from enemy and pan camera backwards with left mouse to kite effectively with Nades.

Bomb is great for Combo blast finishes. Turret heal, Shield off-hand, Big Ol Bomb and Elixir 4 can be used to mightstack yourself. Same for the Smoke bomb for Shadow Refuge-length stealth.

Toolkit hits really hard with Prybar but it’s more a PvP kit. However you might like the cripple.

Elixir Gun helps the Engi scale with healing gear and has a great weakness autoattack as well as cripple.

Flamethrower auto is actually not that great because it’s hard to aim while kiting, and you also want to land the last hit instead of whiffing it. You can also kill yourself to retal very fast. The main thing about FT is the toolbelt Ammo, #3 and #5. Long burning, Instant CC and Blind (can use for stomp). With the toolbelt #1 actually has a use in applying the burn buff very quickly. #2 hits quite kitten a low CD, and there’s a knack to landing it.

Engi is just… not about instant gratification. You have to practise to get to where other classes can be easily (Engi, Ele about the same) which is why people get turned off trying to play it well. However, it’s got a lot of tricks and options to make it one of the more fun classes to play.

Caspian.2814:

Wat? Engineer was my first character in-game and it was fun to level oO
I still love her

same here <3

Most important of all: Keep your gear updated. Nothing is worse than playing < 80 Engineer and having poor gear.

my cruise-control leveling engi build.

Go tanky, and get the “you heal when you use bombs” trait. then grab aggro, and spam away. Literally did that from the level I got the trait until I got 80. No ragrets.

thats a grandmaster and you now unlock it at 80

penatbater.4710:

my cruise-control leveling engi build.

Go tanky, and get the “you heal when you use bombs” trait. then grab aggro, and spam away. Literally did that from the level I got the trait until I got 80. No ragrets.

NO RUGRATS