Guild Wars 2

I really though the Engineer was the class for me after a huge debate between Guardian and it. But leveling has been a hard road. I am 55 now so I feel deep into it, but after so many dungeon runs with me constantly down and never feeling like I am doing anything for the team. This class is starting to make me hate giving up on Guardian.
I keep trying to switch kits to find something that works but the healing turret never keeps me up long enough.
Any thoughts, comments, or other will be much appreciated.

Well to start, let’s take a look at this build you are running.

You are level 55 and you are new to the game. Of course you gonna get down on a regular basis.

Like shaogin said what is your build? Do you pick up your healing turret? Do your overcharge it? Do you blast hit when in emergency? Healing turret need some knowledge to use as it’s best. You are probably better with the elixir for know, its easier to use.

Dodge is still the main source of defence you have in this game. You need to learn encounter and know what animation to look for to time your dodge.

Thaddeus.4891:

You are level 55 and you are new to the game. Of course you gonna get down on a regular basis.

Like shaogin said what is your build? Do you pick up your healing turret? Do your overcharge it? Do you blast hit when in emergency? Healing turret need some knowledge to use as it’s best. You are probably better with the elixir for know, its easier to use.

Dodge is still the main source of defence you have in this game. You need to learn encounter and know what animation to look for to time your dodge.

Rifle, Heal turret, bomb, elixir B, and hidden pistol were the most common ones but I tried Elixir gun, FT, and nades. I would normally pop the overcharge instantly and leave it, overcharging again as needed. Pick up unless destroyed by boss or enemies.

Well, I’m no master or expert, but I believe a lot of the strengths of engineers lies in our versatility. Sure, we can be great at doing any single job we do, but what we really shine at being is what the group needs most at the time.

No thiefs in your group? We can stack 15 seconds of stealth.

No guardian or ele? Here ya go, 15 stacks of might maintained.

Group having problems staying alive? Sure, here’s a fun and strong AOE heal on a 20 second cooldown. Upside? It also removes conditions on everyone within range. With the elixir gun you can get even better at it.

Dps being a bit low? It can’t hurt that while you can do all of the above you can also stack 25 vulnerability on most targets. Not to mention bleeds, poison, blinds, etc… And a lot of direct damage as well.

Getting there is a challenge, granted, especially in dungeons, as you don’t get shiny until you reach 80, but when you do, and when you realize that your strength is that you have no particular strength, all kinds of possibilities open up.

Engineer’s damage is almost entirely reliant on having access to the full trait tree. Get to level 80 and then you can check Dulfy for a basic dungeon guide for Engineers.

The gist of it is that Engineer’s best damage is locked into a grand master trait, and even with that trait there are a lot of traits that support it as well.

First thing, when using you Healing Turret, place it, overcharge it, then pick it right back up. You are losing alot of healing by leaving it out like that.

Flamethrower and Bomb kit are both great until you the GM trait Grenadier, at which point I’d recommend the Grenade Kit.

At your level, I’d recommend Rifle/Healing Turret/Bomb Kit/Flamethrower/Elixir S setup. I’m suprised you haven’t tried Elixir S yet, the tool belt skill will stealth you if you are being focused and the utility skill breaks stun and makes you invulnerable for a short time.

I guess what I’m trying to say is:

Hang in there, and reap the rewards when you get to 80 It can be really fun. I used to be bummed out by playing my engineer, because I felt I didn’t contribute at all when playing with others…

Then I learned how much engineers can contribute in a group they’re in, whether its pvp (Celestial ftw), wvw, or pve…

voxrar.2859:

I really though the Engineer was the class for me after a huge debate between Guardian and it. But leveling has been a hard road. I am 55 now so I feel deep into it, but after so many dungeon runs with me constantly down and never feeling like I am doing anything for the team. This class is starting to make me hate giving up on Guardian.
I keep trying to switch kits to find something that works but the healing turret never keeps me up long enough.
Any thoughts, comments, or other will be much appreciated.

What gear are you running? Are you using combo fields to your advantage?

Engi is a BEAST in dungeons. As others have said though, traits are very important.

I take bomb, grenade and elixir kit. Gives me a TONNE of utility to bring to the group. Its about constantly switching kits, using all your skills, and dodging, using blinds etc. Keep at it, it gets better and there is IMMENSE satisfaction that (for me) playing a guardian simply doesn’t give.

Engineer doesn’t have the big shinny numbers as much as many other classes (even zerk specs do quite a bit of condition damage) & until you get 80 & have everything unlocked you will not get a good idea of it’s full potential.

That being said it is one of the most versatile classes out there.

bastiondg.1058:

What gear are you running? Are you using combo fields to your advantage?

Engi is a BEAST in dungeons. As others have said though, traits are very important.

I take bomb, grenade and elixir kit. Gives me a TONNE of utility to bring to the group. Its about constantly switching kits, using all your skills, and dodging, using blinds etc. Keep at it, it gets better and there is IMMENSE satisfaction that (for me) playing a guardian simply doesn’t give.

As much power as I can get. Also abit of tough/vitality. Utility is nice but how does it stop me from being the first one down in every fight?

at 55 you dont even have master traits, keep levelling

Ha that’s what I thought at first " this class is way too hard for me, I think imma just switch" till I reach level 80 and actualy run dungeons, sure I broke a few of my fingers due to kit swapping but engi such a fun class to play. Im no great engineer but I know the basics/builds. Keep leveling, try EOTM if you are sick and tired of hearts, your free pass to level 80.

badboyzpwns.9807:

Ha that’s what I thought at first " this class is way too hard for me, I think imma just switch" till I reach level 80 and actualy run dungeons, sure I broke a few of my fingers due to kit swapping but engi such a fun class to play. Im no great engineer but I know the basics/builds. Keep leveling, try EOTM if you are sick and tired of hearts, your free pass to level 80.

Ok Ok. I will wait. I thought I could do dungeons but I guess I will just have to wait till 80 to do anything fun.

you can do dungeons, but you need to realize your limitations. you will be getting carried through them until you hit 80 and gear up. dont let that break you.

insanemaniac.2456:

you can do dungeons, but you need to realize your limitations. you will be getting carried through them until you hit 80 and gear up. dont let that break you.

Whats breaking me is that it wasn’t this tough on another class. Versatility is nice but the downside of that is being only moderate at everything. Nothing to be excellent at, this dungeon death roll just made me think. I am not really having fun anymore with the class, leather armor is not that great looking and its complex to do what they do.

the levelling experience in this game is really boring on repeated playthroughs. like, really, really, really boring.

voxrar.2859:

insanemaniac.2456:

you can do dungeons, but you need to realize your limitations. you will be getting carried through them until you hit 80 and gear up. dont let that break you.

Whats breaking me is that it wasn’t this tough on another class. Versatility is nice but the downside of that is being only moderate at everything. Nothing to be excellent at, this dungeon death roll just made me think. I am not really having fun anymore with the class, leather armor is not that great looking and its complex to do what they do.

Seems like you’re continually picking holes in it. If you don’t like it, just stop man. It’s ok. People have given you plenty of good points to work from here, and you keep picking holes. Drop it and try something else.

Ok OK OK. I tested just to make sure and either Heart of the Mist increases dps or traits make all the difference. I am not giving up but I will hang back from exploration mode for awhile.

You’re still leveling, keep at it. As others have stated Engi doesn’t really get the tools that make it shine till 80.

For now, focus on these few things, as they will prove invaluable later on.

First, Healing Turret.

There are 2 basic ways to use this heal that you should know. First is just getting the heal from it. Drop it, activate it, then pick it up, basically you’re just going to mash your heal button, then once you see the big white circle that shows it’s activated, pick up the turret. The strength of this is it’s a 15s recharge this way, moderate damage will be healed and you’ll have it again in 15s.

The second is blasting it. You’ll do the same thing but instead of picking up your turret you’ll activate your f1 skill which will detonate the turret for a “blast finisher” this will give you an addition like 2k healing, nice for larger damages, the downside is you have a 20s recharge if you destroy the turret. Additionally you can lob other blasts into this for additional healing. For example (assuming you’re not worried about the knockback effect of BoB) you can drop your big ol bomb, wait about a second, drop your turret activate and do all that, your bomb will explode inside your water field and give you an additional blast for another 2k heal. Doing this will not only provide a lot of healing for yourself but also a noticeable amount for your team. Additionally leaps will give personal healing in the field, so you can use your jump shot right after you detonate the turret to grab some healing for yourself as well.

It’s a bit to take in, but work on that, you’ll find it’s truly the most amazing heal in the game hands down.

Next, I’d work on your combo fields in general. Focusing on 2 main ones, fire field and smoke field.

As pointed out above with healing skills you can perform finishers in combo fields to activate additional effects. You’ll want to do this with fire fields for might. Might is a great addition to your damage. So for bomb kit you may do Big ol Bomb followed by a Fire Bomb, this will have the big ol bomb exploding in the field. Remember the delay on big ol bomb, this is why you will activate it first like I said in the healing rotation as well. You have other blast finishers on things like Flame Blast (FT) Acid Bomb (EG) Thumper Turret, Shield 4, and even Rocket Boots. Utilizing these properly will be a key skill to have. Likewise you can use your healing turret to blast more might, drop your fire bomb, and then perform the second healing turret rotation, but because your fire field was down first it’ll blast might instead of healing, careful though you don’t always want to ‘waste’ your heal option.

Next is Smoke Field, this is a key source of stealth. It’ll allow you to skip through stuff instead of having to fight your way through it. Same general principle, basic rotation to get you 6s of stealth will be drop your healing turret (don’t activate it) drop big ol bomb, drop your smoke bomb, then detonate your healing turret when the smoke bomb explodes. Additionally a leap also combos for stealth though personal only like the water field. So you can easily grab 9s without really changing your skills.

What I’d recommend though is just sit and practice this rotation a bit, just to help get that whole blasting thing in your head perfectly. Healing turret → THumper Turret → Big ol Bomb → Smoke Bomb and wait for it to explode → Activate THumper Turret → Detonate THumper Turret → use Rumble (thumper toolbelt skill) → Detonate Healing Turret, and in there your big ol bomb will have exploded. This will be 5 blasts in your smoke field giving you the max 15s of stealth.

I’d say these things are the basics of playing an Engi, once you have those down you have the skills and understanding to get more out of your combo fields and expand to other weapons and what not. Without mastering these skills you’ll find you have a bit of a hard time unleashing the full power of Engi. GL

Jerus.4350:

You’re still leveling, keep at it. As others have stated Engi doesn’t really get the tools that make it shine till 80.

For now, focus on these few things, as they will prove invaluable later on.

First, Healing Turret.

There are 2 basic ways to use this heal that you should know. First is just getting the heal from it. Drop it, activate it, then pick it up, basically you’re just going to mash your heal button, then once you see the big white circle that shows it’s activated, pick up the turret. The strength of this is it’s a 15s recharge this way, moderate damage will be healed and you’ll have it again in 15s.

The second is blasting it. You’ll do the same thing but instead of picking up your turret you’ll activate your f1 skill which will detonate the turret for a “blast finisher” this will give you an addition like 2k healing, nice for larger damages, the downside is you have a 20s recharge if you destroy the turret. Additionally you can lob other blasts into this for additional healing. For example (assuming you’re not worried about the knockback effect of BoB) you can drop your big ol bomb, wait about a second, drop your turret activate and do all that, your bomb will explode inside your water field and give you an additional blast for another 2k heal. Doing this will not only provide a lot of healing for yourself but also a noticeable amount for your team. Additionally leaps will give personal healing in the field, so you can use your jump shot right after you detonate the turret to grab some healing for yourself as well.

It’s a bit to take in, but work on that, you’ll find it’s truly the most amazing heal in the game hands down.

Next, I’d work on your combo fields in general. Focusing on 2 main ones, fire field and smoke field.

As pointed out above with healing skills you can perform finishers in combo fields to activate additional effects. You’ll want to do this with fire fields for might. Might is a great addition to your damage. So for bomb kit you may do Big ol Bomb followed by a Fire Bomb, this will have the big ol bomb exploding in the field. Remember the delay on big ol bomb, this is why you will activate it first like I said in the healing rotation as well. You have other blast finishers on things like Flame Blast (FT) Acid Bomb (EG) Thumper Turret, Shield 4, and even Rocket Boots. Utilizing these properly will be a key skill to have. Likewise you can use your healing turret to blast more might, drop your fire bomb, and then perform the second healing turret rotation, but because your fire field was down first it’ll blast might instead of healing, careful though you don’t always want to ‘waste’ your heal option.

Next is Smoke Field, this is a key source of stealth. It’ll allow you to skip through stuff instead of having to fight your way through it. Same general principle, basic rotation to get you 6s of stealth will be drop your healing turret (don’t activate it) drop big ol bomb, drop your smoke bomb, then detonate your healing turret when the smoke bomb explodes. Additionally a leap also combos for stealth though personal only like the water field. So you can easily grab 9s without really changing your skills.

What I’d recommend though is just sit and practice this rotation a bit, just to help get that whole blasting thing in your head perfectly. Healing turret -> THumper Turret -> Big ol Bomb -> Smoke Bomb and wait for it to explode -> Activate THumper Turret -> Detonate THumper Turret -> use Rumble (thumper toolbelt skill) -> Detonate Healing Turret, and in there your big ol bomb will have exploded. This will be 5 blasts in your smoke field giving you the max 15s of stealth.

I’d say these things are the basics of playing an Engi, once you have those down you have the skills and understanding to get more out of your combo fields and expand to other weapons and what not. Without mastering these skills you’ll find you have a bit of a hard time unleashing the full power of Engi. GL

This post is better than any engi guide ever, thank You good Sir!

I’ve been playing my engi for a long time now and I thought it was in my head at first but is anyone else getting mad aggro when playing engi in dungeon?
It’s easy to tell, every single target mob loves my butt.

yep, the aggro sucks. gotta deal with it.

Krag.6210:

I’ve been playing my engi for a long time now and I thought it was in my head at first but is anyone else getting mad aggro when playing engi in dungeon?
It’s easy to tell, every single target mob loves my butt.

Yup, second only to Ele in my experience. Though still fully inconsistent so not reliable enough to actually take advantage of that as a fact. In Fractals I’ve just started kiting the Ettin for harpy because he typically likes me more than the guard. I also usually get targetted by Lupi for his single target attacks.

I’ve experienced that too so many times…that’s why i usually run bombs togheter with nades in dungeons for the mass blind, otherwise I’d always been downed XD

Get to 80 before you do dungeons and get some proper gear and trait setup too.
I’m tired of people qqing about a class before they have any idea how to play it and aren’t even max level.

you picked the class with the most difficult rotations in pve. what others do with one button push you do with 3-4. l2p or drop the class.
#2015engineerelite

so this will help you a lot.

1. learn the fights. watch youtube guides on how its done. where to stack and when to dodge.
2. learn spatial awareness. that’s the ability to look at the entire scene while still attacking the boss (its like driving a car u learn to be aware of everything ahead of you while still driving)
3. DODGE DIP DUCK DIVE AND DODGE !!!!! if you believe you are about to take damage then dodge. pre-emptive dodging is also very handy and a lot of the time saves u from attacks u didn’t even think would happen

zaced only noob players tell others to L2P and then give zero advice on how to improve or even learn the class. players like you are just a waste of server space.

with time you will get to learn the class better.

I wrote this for another thread that’s doomed to the pages of no 1 cares

1. use fast cast ground target with marker (lets u see where u aim and still be fast cast)

2. imagine you are playing a third person shooter and imagine the middle of your screen has a target reticule

3. learn all the arcs for your skills inc the rifle skills.

4. get an mmo gaming mouse (I use a razer naga) it greatly improves your ability to play mmos and classes like the engineer (keybind heavy / ability heavy class)

5. go to the pvp lobby and use those golems to practice aiming then u can go to wvw and practice on moving targets in a zerg

once you learn to control the grenades and understand the movements of your targets (in pve and pvp / wvw).
you can then anticipate the movement and throw the grenades ahead or behind the target or to the sides etc. get used to the flight time and arc of grenades and u will be able to make the most of it.

helpful tip each grenade thrown is able to hit 5 targets each, example grenade #1 can tag up to 15 npcs / players if u get a decent spread. grenade barrage is up to 30 targets tagged if u get a good spread.

its just recently uploaded so its not fully processed yet = grainy picture to any 1 who watches just after its been linked. sorry : (

also on a side note. this video I posted is all about manual aiming all abilitys. learning this makes u a much better engineer in terms of ability aiming and predicting.

also if u select your target and have the option “stop auto attacking on target change” unchecked it will let u target your foe start to auto attack then u can left click empty space to “deselect the target”
but your rifle auto attack will carry on. even if u change to a kit and use grenade #1 spam and swap back to rifle it will automatically auto attack

but don’t forget that with skills 2 3 and 4 u need to learn how to manually aim.

the reason for not harving a target “targeted” is it causes havoc with grenade ground targeting.
I am sure you all had that big boss dude and u targeted him with tab target then suddenly your ground target went from directly under the boss to just over your skill bar
or your ability to throw at distance is no longer possible due to the target frame obscuring the view preventing u from hitting the target from behind with grenades

well that’s a work around that lets u have all skills working with no target frame messing it up. the real fun begins when u learn to hit moving targets

krixis.9538:

zaced only noob players tell others to L2P and then give zero advice on how to improve or even learn the class. players like you are just a waste of server space.

there are many sources that show ridiculously detailed how what is done. instead of retyping it in textform i simply refer to them with means of aggressive persuasion. that’s what l2p means and it’s a lot shorter than your wall of text and i bet the op would have rather watched a video he could have found in mere seconds on youtube instead.
there is also the possibility that the op hit a wall skillwise since the mechanics overburden him. in this case there’s nothing to be done which i implyingly mentioned.
there’s also the possibility that the op is unwilling to bother with learning autodidactively , which has a good chance of being true, since the op decided to open this thread instead of a quick recherche on the internet in which case the minor aggressive undertone would be even appropriate.
maybe maybe it’s legit and he simply doesn’t know how even. then someone else will take care of it.
maybe it’s something completely else.
in most cases l2p with all it’s implications (request to play better, request to use every source findable in order to improve, request to do it possibly by himself and come back with specific questions, request to be willing to analyze the own class and improve upon the collected data) in contrast with it’s absolute negation is appropriate and in place.
i haven’t read it all, too much filler for me. balance of probability.