Guild Wars 2

Does it not seem as though being an efficient engineer in PvP takes alot of extra effort in comparison to the other classes?

I am a player who’s played since launch and had a break. I picked the game back up before the reccent patch to the classes. Engineer is still by far my favorite, but it seems like its skills are not as well as a variety as one would hope.

I know I have a difficulty stating my point so let me try to explain it in another way if it helps. Engineers have MANY different options and builds to try, I know. I have tried so many. It just seems that, still our trait system is scattered in all the wrong places which makes alot of possible builds a pain to make. Also alot of the Slot skills seem to be obsolete.
I understand that the rocket boots have been revamped and i love it, but it still seems like it still doesn’t fit it a proper build. Wouldn’t it make sense that it breaks stuns, which is essential. Another example being Throw mine.. I have never seen this used or have i used it for anything that ended productive.

I understand that there are things that i may be missing or not understanding which is why i came here when I usually do not come to forums, because I want to be enlightened so please, by all means feel free to explain to me.

I want to be able to make a build that I like, and isnt a usual build. its asking for much im sure but i feel if i have a better understanding that i might be able to still do so.

The way you describe it it sounds like a good problem to have. I think of all the other professions I’ve played (4 other 80s, 3 others 20-40), each has maybe a few limited playstyles (maybe excepting Eles). I’ve been Engineer since BWE1 and I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with build variety. My usual starting point is either to find a build I see online and tweak it to my liking, or to find some kinda powerful trait synergies, and see what I can do with it.

First off the mine is unblockabke , its a 900 throw that removes a boon , and its a knock back on a low CD even untraited. You got to experiment with different utilities and think outside the box . Alot of our skills have some insane trickery to them when you become creative.

I see where you two are getting at. i suppose it will take some time.

I really love the fact you’re wanting to theorycraft your own build , thats what you call true Engineering. You should create one and get critiques on it if desired

BlinkTwice.7932:

Does it not seem as though being an efficient engineer in PvP takes alot of extra effort in comparison to the other classes?

general questions are generally not good..
1v1 vs a necro – condi vs condi necro should always win
1v1 vs a condi necro with soldiers ammy and automated response engi cant lose
1v1 vs a mesm without condi cleanse engi should easy win without any effort
^those are parts of pvp – seems like as always everything depends on circumstances and requires different types of “skill” (if u can call it that in an mmo) for different playstyles.

BlinkTwice.7932:

Engineer is still by far my favorite, but it seems like its skills are not as well as a variety as one would hope.

I know I have a difficulty stating my point so let me try to explain it in another way if it helps. Engineers have MANY different options and builds to try, I know. I have tried so many. It just seems that, still our trait system is scattered in all the wrong places which makes alot of possible builds a pain to make. Also alot of the Slot skills seem to be obsolete.
I understand that the rocket boots have been revamped and i love it, but it still seems like it still doesn’t fit it a proper build. Wouldn’t it make sense that it breaks stuns, which is essential. Another example being Throw mine.. I have never seen this used or have i used it for anything that ended productive.

I understand that there are things that i may be missing or not understanding which is why i came here when I usually do not come to forums, because I want to be enlightened so please, by all means feel free to explain to me.

The major problem with engi imo is that we have no weapon swap so we have to waste at least 1 utility slot. This is a massive thing.

In addition to that many of our skills (both weapon / kit and other) are plain bad. Look at the class mechanic skills for example! These are supposed to be our class mechanic but a few of them are clearly waaaay sub par (like both the healing turrets and the elixir h one – these are important ones youre always gonna have one of these – or personal battering ram – rng elxir S – throw elixir C and flame and rifle turret (which really only can be used for SD). Admittedly though they have been trying to improve the toolbelt skills at least but…

^compare those to the mesmer class mechanic! AoE Blast/Confu/Daze +Invul hm…seems legit

Compare skills like Putrid mark for necro which is a full huge aoe condi cleanse + condi flip on a 25(20) second cooldown which can only be predicted but not be dodged knowingly because all mark cast animations look the same with any of our skills.(edit: ohh i forgot its also unblockable and unblindable because it just swaps the blind now)

Or Staff (2) and (5) from mesmer (not even going to touch sword).

I dont feel like engineer has any ridicolously OP skills like that on any of his weapons / kits.

We still have stuff like Elixir R which is the absolute best rezz in the game at this point in time imo but again this costs precious utility slots.

Also half of our kits are pretty expensive traitwise so they can be used at all which forces even less diversity.

And also other classes are worse off i guess .. warrior is still unplayable (actually more unplayable since last patch) BM rangers got hit pretty hard last patch not sure what place is coming for ranger next and all the anti melee changes are sure not helping thief either although thief is nowhere near bad

EDIT: ohh yea and all the rng is bad as well. Does not promote skillful play but pure luck.

I must agree with with OP. I have played engineer for a long time(my favorite profession) as well as every other profession, exclusively in sPvP. And I have played practically every build, with tweaks and cookie cutter builds alike as I’m sure alot of us have. It is a fact that Engineers requires a much larger knowledge of Guild Wars 2 mechanics to be used correctly and demands a bit more effort to achieve the same results other professions have. I enjoy challenges so it is not necessarily a problem for me, I like working for my kills its just funny to me that I can hop onto a Necro or a Mesmer and relax when I feel like winning tourneys without any real daunting motor skill requirements. (This is a personal opinion) I am aware that each profession has advantages and disadvantages in different situations, but I digress I do agree with the OP. This latest patch did help some of the build diversity but not by much.. Just wish they’d make other forms of damage viable.. I’m tired of condition Meta it’s been the dominant low risk-high reward play style for far too long..

I agree with OP in sense that our traits lack synergy. I generally feel like I get 40-50 trait points into a build and don’t know what to do with the rest because nothing else will seem compliment what I already have, explosives is good example given how few traits in it don’ t involve exclusively a 3 utility skills. However I have made some successful builds, including one very entertaining and unexpectedly effective build revolving around toolkit, HgH, SD and acidic elixirs which was originally meant to be a joke build. Rocket boots is great for gap closer if someone tries to run. If you’re looking to make your own I suggest focusing on the utility skills first then going to traits. From what I’ve seen(and this is only my opinion/the way I think about it) a class is either defined by its utility and weapon skills and augmented by traits(warrior for example) or defined by traits and augmented by skills(Mesmer). I believe Engineer falls into the former, so when making an engineer build I generally start with the skillbar then select traits to buff what I have selected. Our utilities are great and usually pretty unique from other classes.

I agree with you all. I feel like the devs( if not already) should have a specific team to work on each individual class. I know they read the forums. Topics like this can help Them see exactly how we are struggling in sPvP in comparison to the other classes. Granted we are not asking for anything OP, more so what Engineer needs in my opinion is Consistency and synergy across the traits, and give the Kits some more Kick. because I agree. Things that engies need are Condition removers, Stun Breakers and other essentials that help you to survive in pvp, but we are using those slots up to make up for our weapon swapping not being there. Not to mention two completely useless Elites so Supply crate is basically a staple.

I feel as though a team for each profession wouldn’t work well due to the focus on one disregarding others. A team for each class would complicate balance as that requires the bigger picture, not each class individually. They cannot do everything immediately, and it would be kind of annoying if they interrupted play every day for minor bug fixes. I feel like engi traits do require some more cross trait line synergy but the recent update showed anet isn’t just sitting on their hands/having fun with living story. Felt as though bringing the two grandmaster traits for engi down to master improved build viability a lot as well as giving us boon removal by acidic elixirs so our only option for it is the mine. I believe we are fine on stun breakers, condi removal feels mostly fine, we cannot deal with a ton of conditions unless we spec a lot into alchemy tho. Would like to see some more traits which aren’t so exclusive to one trait line in respect to their viability, again explosives is a good example of that, alchemy is kinda heavy in that as well, I think the firearms trait line is really good in that respect though.

True hadent thought about it in that aspect when it comes to the teams that is. I respect anet for putting in the effort. I suppose it will just take some time and patience. I understand its not an easy job. As for usefulness with skills, I feel as though certain skills should be stun breakers over others. Rocket Boots>Analyze/Elixir U. Dont get me wrong Analyze is useful as a stun breaker, but with burst attacks usually following the Stun, wouldnt something that gives you spacing away from such moves be more useful?

EDIT: Also I noticed something, not sure if it is intentional or something but I have to Engies. One lvl 80 Human- Brooke Allana, one lvl 21 Asura – Tewlla. My base HP on Brooke is like 24k, no traits and basic starter pvp gear. Tewla has 14k and usually the same spec. Mind you this is w/o traits. Did I miss something in one of the updates?

What kind of build are you looking for?

Your opening statement is about it being more difficult to PVP successfully on Engi than others….and this is true, initially. Engineer has a higher skill floor and ceiling. It’s harder to learn initially and harder to master than most…but once done, your power in PVP should feel impressive – not the opposite. I play my Warrior more now lately bc its a new challenge to work on, succeeding with the Engineer in PVP at this point is pretty easy 95% of fights.

I use a 3 kit P/P condi build that I believe is different than normal bc I don’t really see anyone else running it, but you may not necessarily want a P/P, Heal turret, FT, TK, EG build. What style are you looking for? Which kits do you like to play with, if any? Rifle? P/P or P/S?

I think there’s a difference between building a character and playing a character.

I have an 80 war, ele, and engineer. The engineer is hard to build, but pretty easy to play with practice. The ele is easier to build, but is hard to play well (very rewarding if you do). The warrior is straight-forwarded to build, with a range of builds that are easy to difficult to play in practice. The first two are generally self-sufficient if you want them to be…warriors seem to thrive in groups.

-Jeff

edit: this is in WvW…not straight-up pvp

Velron.3729:

What kind of build are you looking for?

Your opening statement is about it being more difficult to PVP successfully on Engi than others….and this is true, initially. Engineer has a higher skill floor and ceiling. It’s harder to learn initially and harder to master than most…but once done, your power in PVP should feel impressive – not the opposite. I play my Warrior more now lately bc its a new challenge to work on, succeeding with the Engineer in PVP at this point is pretty easy 95% of fights.

I use a 3 kit P/P condi build that I believe is different than normal bc I don’t really see anyone else running it, but you may not necessarily want a P/P, Heal turret, FT, TK, EG build. What style are you looking for? Which kits do you like to play with, if any? Rifle? P/P or P/S?

Well I was looking all over the place. mostly a tanky point holder. So i usually spec into toughness/ explosives and use bombs. Though now im finding it much easier to run the Tool Kit/Slick shoes/Bomb kit with P/P Condition. Its not easy to run but speedy kits gets me where i need to be and out. What i WANT to do is incorporate Rocket boots instead of Slick shoes but im finding it trouble some as the cool down is long and i have to spec into Speedy Gadgets as well.

jaif.3518:

I think there’s a difference between building a character and playing a character.

I have an 80 war, ele, and engineer. The engineer is hard to build, but pretty easy to play with practice. The ele is easier to build, but is hard to play well (very rewarding if you do). The warrior is straight-forwarded to build, with a range of builds that are easy to difficult to play in practice. The first two are generally self-sufficient if you want them to be…warriors seem to thrive in groups.

-Jeff

I know exactly what you mean. I realized that another piece to my puzzle was not only making the build but figuring out the right way to play the build. What roles it will play when it comes to either being a a supporter, 1v1, or just works better in a group. That itself can be tricky.