Guild Wars 2

Engi can have very high survival. You just have to utilize your tools correctly. Infused Precision and Invigorating Speed will net you basically 100% vigor uptime for more dodges. Toolkit has your 3s block, yeah 3s block! Elixer S has a stealth as well as Invuln. Elixer U for projectile defense. Elixer R for again endurance recovery. THe way kits work let you activate your Energy sigil on demand for even more dodges. Shield5 for another 1.5s block. In short you have all the active defense you’ll ever need and more. Ohh did I mention you have potential for 4 different blinds you can rotate and render a lot of enemies completely nullified. Then of course you can get Elixer C for condi removal if you need.

Guard is a bit easier in that it has more toughness but it also has low HP so miss steps add up quick and you can ‘poof’ and be downed in a blink. But again you have a lot of blocks with Shelter(2s), Focus5 (3 blocks), Aegis, and then blinds and projectile defenses.

As an overall assessment though, yes you’re right, Engi takes a lot of work to get just right, guard is a bit easier, a lot of the time you can jump into a pile of enemies GS 5 them together slap down WoR and spin to win, maybe tossing a VoJ traited blind. Easy stuff. Engi you have to properly rotate your kits and pump out damage.

For range play Engi nades are solid, but on moving targets it’s really hard to land all the hits so it’s often better to just pop them with your rifle, you can alwasy net shot them for immob and drop some nades on them though (and between rifle and net turret you can have quite the immob up time).

If you like the idea of engi and the active play, go for it, you’re only gonna get better as you learn. Just gotta dive into it and start practicing.

Engi at low levels simply sux. You need to hold up because simply it becomes awesome at lvl 80:-)

Is this about PvE or PvP? If its about PvE there is not much to say:
Engi has more damage and can do everything but (!): The guard grants protection, aegis and stability wich the engi can’t. The guard also has a better projectile reflection and protection than the engi has.

Did he delete the OP… I hate when peopel do that

Jerus.4350:

Did he delete the OP… I hate when peopel do that

Sorry. I was getting frustrated and thought it would delete the post if I deleted the op.

Over all I deleted my Engineer and gave up on it due to the overly complex thinking and the lack luster results during gameplay. Also it doesn’t feel as ‘engineer’ as I thought.

Although I dislike the lack of range on guardian. Ultimately it isn’t a nightmare and the abilities are straight forward. Long cooldowns offset by powerful effects. No rotating to different hotbars to memorize 20 abilities.

Ok so recently I had an in-depth discussion on Guardian and learned that getting damage doesn’t effect healing and support abilites. That said, is there a build that can buff allies while still doing dps on Engineer.

Guardian can with Aegis, prot, vun, blind, etc. But can Engi do it with more offensive buffs? Or is Engi more about spreading conditions to enemies?

Yes, but it’s very finger intensive.

Ok, so for in combat might stacking, you may or may not wnat to use healing turret in it but i’ll include the rotation.

Drop Healing Turret → Swap Flame Thrower → Lay down Napalm → Detonate healing Turret → Flame Blast/detonate → Swap Elixir Gun → Acid bomb/cancel → Drop kit and Jump Shot → Blunderbuss → Swap Grenade Kit → Freeze Grenade → Shrapnel Grenade → Swap Flame Thrower → Flame Blast/detonate

This rotation will get you 4 blasts in your fire field for a total of 12 might, it’s not bad and it’s all doable while remaining in your highest DPS build and only a minor loss with some extra cast times compared to max dps rotation.

However, just so you know, Vulnerability IS an offensive buff, you buff your entire team by weakening the enemy. That’s what Engis are best for.

In general play on a boss (where vuln duration is halved) I’ll maintain ~10-15 stacks of vuln, and if I execute properly 6-9 stacks of might usually (I don’t always use the turret).

Again though, this is very intensive, and the way the cooldowns work the rotations aren’t very simple and they take adjustment to continue them for long periods. I play Engi a lot, and I’m still far from perfect on my damage maximization because I typically use a sub par rotation that’s a bit easier to handle than the fully optimized option.

Jerus.4350:

Yes, but it’s very finger intensive.

Ok, so for in combat might stacking, you may or may not wnat to use healing turret in it but i’ll include the rotation.

Drop Healing Turret -> Swap Flame Thrower -> Lay down Napalm -> Detonate healing Turret -> Flame Blast/detonate -> Swap Elixir Gun -> Acid bomb/cancel -> Drop kit and Jump Shot -> Blunderbuss -> Swap Grenade Kit -> Freeze Grenade -> Shrapnel Grenade -> Swap Flame Thrower -> Flame Blast/detonate

This rotation will get you 4 blasts in your fire field for a total of 12 might, it’s not bad and it’s all doable while remaining in your highest DPS build and only a minor loss with some extra cast times compared to max dps rotation.

However, just so you know, Vulnerability IS an offensive buff, you buff your entire team by weakening the enemy. That’s what Engis are best for.

In general play on a boss (where vuln duration is halved) I’ll maintain ~10-15 stacks of vuln, and if I execute properly 6-9 stacks of might usually (I don’t always use the turret).

Again though, this is very intensive, and the way the cooldowns work the rotations aren’t very simple and they take adjustment to continue them for long periods. I play Engi a lot, and I’m still far from perfect on my damage maximization because I typically use a sub par rotation that’s a bit easier to handle than the fully optimized option.

Wow. Very complex just to blast out that much. However if Engi’s main team buff is vuni and might. I think from the durability and self sustain of Guardian I just prefer that. (This is also a HUGE load off my mind saying that last sentence.) Thanks for all the info Jerus. Sorry about being such a jerk before.

haha it’s NP. And personally I love both, originally mained a guardian for a good 1500+ Hours, now I have gone Engi and love it just as much. All professions have their things. THe only one I never really liked was warrior personally, but that’s just a thing with me and that type of profession in all games, I know lots of people who love it.