Guild Wars 2

I hear all too often from players in pvp tell me my Engie is a button mash class and then think that they know the profession well enough to state it. Especially with the build that I run.
Bomb Heal/Rocket Boots/EG
10/0/30/20/10
The quick thinking it takes to survive a 4 v 1 with mesmers, thieves and warriors all out to stun and kill me is WAY more to think about than any other build IVE SEEN displayed out there. Timing combo finishers for heals, keeping regen up, and knowing when to escape is all too important to just call a button mashing. I can assure anyone that If you dont know this build or how to work it you will die in 3 or 4 v1 sometimes even 2 v 1.

Now my build, I use it to buy time for runners to come and assist me, If i cant get the kill on my own I just keep healing and survive. Its What the build does.. In a 5v5 tourny match I was holding a point when I saw a thief on his way. Pulled out my heal turret and I got ready. myteam was at about 480 so he just sat away from the point and just watched, I waved showing him I can see him…and he goes and calls engie a button mash or whatever. Im not used to being remotely good at any pvp until I played gw2 engie, so is this how people act when you’re better than them or have a good build. I refuse to call this build button mash build. what do you guys think? Have the saem been said to any of you?
I feel like if this was such an easy button mash class It wouldnt be so rarely played in tourny.

BTW any wishing to play with my Engie her name is Brooke Allana

If you button mash on the Engineer (arguably any class) you’re not going to be successful at anything other than laying on your back and damaging your keyboard.

I do however , feel as though this thread is uneccessary ..clearly the opposition was upset at your resilience so they proceeded to flame to show their displeasure.

BlinkTwice.7932:

I feel like if this was such an easy button mash class It wouldnt be so rarely played in tourny.

^ There you go.

P.S Pre-nerf D/D Eles? Former grandmasters of button-mashing.

The Engineer is the most complicated class in the game. If you’re button mashing, you aren’t go to be very successful.

Kasama.8941:

The Engineer is the most complicated class in the game. If you’re button mashing, you aren’t go to be very successful.

Not played Ele then? its Pretty much Engineer if kit swapping had a 15 second cool down, all the skills had insane cool downs, you have like 7,000 less health at level 80, less armor and less damage

I’ve mained Ele for a long time and now have mained Engie for longer than Ele. I give the complexity award to Engie over Ele. There’s just far more utility you need to know as Engineer than Elementalist and far more build diversity to keep in mind. Also, I seem to have to switch utilities (and even traits, sometimes) between fights far more often as Engineer than I ever did (or do) as Ele, which means knowing far more about the class is mandatory, as you need to know what you need ahead of the time you need it.

So no, Engineers are far from a button mashing class. They’re actually the furthest away from it and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t play this class as a main and only makes an Engineer for grenading in WvWvW and then claims they’ve mastered the class.

Wait, a thief called engineer a button mash profession?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

Yeah it seems the term “button mashing” has somehow lost its true meaning in the GW2 forums.

Button Mashing was a negative comment to players using classes that could press any button combinations all willy nilly like and still do fairly well at whatever it was they were doing. (pve, pvp, etc)

So at best the closest professions in GW2 too this would be thief and warrior imo. Granted just randomly pushing buttons is not the most effective for any profession, but there is literally a sPvP video of some guy playing a thief, not really traiting the character and just randomly pressing buttons, or spaming the #2 skill and killing folks in sPvP.

Doing this with an Engineer or Elementalist will get you killed everytime, no matter what. Those two professions require great thought and awareness to play even remotely well.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Kasama.8941:

The Engineer is the most complicated class in the game. If you’re button mashing, you aren’t go to be very successful.

Not played Ele then? its Pretty much Engineer if kit swapping had a 15 second cool down, all the skills had insane cool downs, you have like 7,000 less health at level 80, less armor and less damage

The Elementalist is easier to play, simply because each attunement has a role, whereas the Engineer has no real structure, not even from the tool belt. Complicated doesn’t necessarily equal “hard to play”, though. The Thief is a very simple profession, but still hard to play because it has very low health, and therefor relies a lot on movement, which takes some practice to get use to.

Depends on how you define “button mashing”.

When I play my Engineer, my fingers are all in constant motion between kit swapping rotations, tool belt skills, and weapon skill activations. So technically I’m constantly pressing something, thus technically I’m button mashing.

Alternatively when I play my Warrior, that’s not the case and my hands are often bored with what few key strokes are required in any given combo to be optimal.

Now if you define “button mashing” as just a mindless chaos of key strokes, then you’re not talking about anyone who successfully plays an Engineer. It’s literally impossible to do anything mindlessly and be even close to effective with the class.

Only Thieves can play 5 1 2 2 2 2 2 6, recover, and repeat all day long to succeed in fights and dare I say exceed their peers without any complex knowledge of what they’re doing.

In short if your looking to point a finger at a poorly designed infantile class that is mechanically forced into “button mashing” then your in the wrong sub-forums. Just follow the rivers of noob tears, the scent of talentless trolls, and the constant recitation of “Learn 2 Play”, the hymn of the thief forum zealot.

I don’t have a lot of hours on the engineer, but I do have a level 80 thief and necro. Those are classes where you can get away with button mashing, assuming you have a halfway competent spec.

From what I’ve seen of the engineer so far, it’s the farthest thing from a button mashing class, along with mesmers, IMO.

Thief takes the cake baby and eat it too , throws it up shows it around and proceeds to swallow the cake once more . Initiative? Mash away!

I agree with everyone else. The engineer has several layers of abilities thanks to kits and tool belt skills. Like the elem, but unlike the elem our skill sequence can constantly be changing.
An elem with a staff will always know they can press F2 then 5 for the healing rain, that will never change unless they swap weapon, All there skills become muscle memory.
But the engineer cant relay on muscle memory. If we have toolkit in slot 7 and get use to pressing 7 then 5 for the pull then switch toolkit to slot 8 and put bombs in slot 7 we plant a bomb when we want to pull.

Then theres the other utilities like gadgets and turrets, we dont have any passive skills like several other classes so we cant just put on a sigil and ignore our utilities. The closest we have are the turrets, but that still requires more attention than sigils

And the connected toolbelt skills that, much like the utilities, often serve a very particular purpose that have little to no effect when used at the wrong time.

So in the end we have a lot of buttons we need be mindful of and that need pressed in the right order and at the right time in quick succession. Rapid button pressing class, sure, but not a button masher.
I would list the button mashing classes as so:
Most→ Warrior, Thief, Guard, Necro, Ranger, Mesmer, Elem, Engi<-Least
If it was in a chart the warrior, thief, guard and necro would all be clumped close together, then mesmer would be farther from them, elem farther from mesmer, and engineer way over there. but thats my opinion of each class.

Thats good to hear from the rest of the community as I’ve only really taken my Engie to 80. Since launch its really the only class that I care about so I dont know other class traits, just skills. I constantly see Thieves Using heartseeker as if their life depended on it.

Well played Engineers are not button mashers. Concert pianists, maybe. But definitely not button mashers.

If that’s the best comment your opponent could come up with . . .

What exactly is a button mash class?

Button mashing often refers to a playstyle used by people in fighting games, whereby they just hit buttons repeatedly (usually attack buttons) without any semblance of planning or strategy with the hopes that they will hit their opponent enough times and eventually win.

I don’t really think the same concept applies to GW2 though, particularly since you can just set your #1 skill to auto-attack and thus only have to hit the button once. You can mash buttons, but it will generally not be productive in any form, especially if the ability is on cooldown or you start mashing useless keys.

If you mean to say that some people thing it’s a class that simply throws out every attack it has whenever it’s off cooldown, then those individuals holding that opinion would probably say that about any profession in the game.

If a thief starts talking about skill to you, you block him.

I think the perception came from observing the general handling of Bomb and Grenade kits. You need to apply a lot of skills with similar animations to put conditions on your enemies. However in a tight fight you don’t want to press the wrong skill and waste your immobilise, blind and poison.
With any spec carrying the Grenade kit you will try to apply in an order and finish with a few autos (Chill → Frag → Poison → Autos etc.) when opening a large team fight.
With the Bomb kit you will usually try to Fire Bomb → Concussion Bomb inside of Slick Shoes, Supply Crate, or after kiting someone into Glue Bomb/Stun with Static Shield. There really isn’t a lot of time to button mash at all if you want to apply the key conditions when there is an opening.

In general, you will liberally apply several bomb/nade skills and save interrupts and defensive cooldowns when someone goes ham on you. There are certainly more skills to press than most classes but definitely not in any random order. Button mashing doesn’t really get you anywhere unless your opponent shares similar ideals.

As a side note, I found the Water/Smoke blast combos amazing. You can spike heal very well, and perform stealth stomps and resses. Those require a bit of sequencing and combination to get off 4 blast finishers (e.g. Big Ol’ Bomb → Smoke Bomb → Healing Turret Detonate + Shield 4 Detonate + Rocket Boots) for healing/stealth/might. Adds a lot of depth to the class.

Ralkuth.1456:

I think the perception came from observing the general handling of Bomb and Grenade kits. You need to apply a lot of skills with similar animations to put conditions on your enemies. However in a tight fight you don’t want to press the wrong skill and waste your immobilise, blind and poison.
With any spec carrying the Grenade kit you will try to apply in an order and finish with a few autos (Chill -> Frag -> Poison -> Autos etc.) when opening a large team fight.
With the Bomb kit you will usually try to Fire Bomb -> Concussion Bomb inside of Slick Shoes, Supply Crate, or after kiting someone into Glue Bomb/Stun with Static Shield. There really isn’t a lot of time to button mash at all if you want to apply the key conditions when there is an opening.

In general, you will liberally apply several bomb/nade skills and save interrupts and defensive cooldowns when someone goes ham on you. There are certainly more skills to press than most classes but definitely not in any random order. Button mashing doesn’t really get you anywhere unless your opponent shares similar ideals.

As a side note, I found the Water/Smoke blast combos amazing. You can spike heal very well, and perform stealth stomps and resses. Those require a bit of sequencing and combination to get off 4 blast finishers (e.g. Big Ol’ Bomb -> Smoke Bomb -> Healing Turret Detonate + Shield 4 Detonate + Rocket Boots) for healing/stealth/might. Adds a lot of depth to the class.

Don’t water field and smoke field override each other?

The only way I can see Engineer a 1-mash class is if you’re running grenades, and the only reason is because we don’t have an auto attack. We aren’t button mashers, we’re pianists that follow a tempo and have so many abilities to our disposal.

My own build is bombs/slick shoes/EG. Not traited for bomb heal.

I can see why people say we are button mashers. I don’t agree with them, but I can see why they say it.

I have several tools in my box that require both skill and knowledge to use.

Sup Elix+magnetic shield for heal+retal+clearing circles
Glue bomb + Acid Bomb for root + ground dot
Static Shot + Conc Bomb for confusion stack
Fire Bomb + BOB for aoe might

And there are others, and obviously some mixing and matching on combos. It takes a good feel for cooldowns and timing, to execute them to best effect – so it’s not mashing.

However, I do have (a) less reliance on selecting the right target and (b) some flexibility with the order I use my combos. Some classes have to chain their skills in a the right order at the right time to get a decent effect.

It’s funny people’s perception of Engi though. A thief was moaning at me the other day for not dying, saying all I have to so is “sit in EG” to stay alive, and that engi is a faceroll class. He just didn’t get that we have a lot of skills to use and need to select the right ones for the right situation, constantly swapping kits and estimating cooldowns.

Imho nades feels like I am button mashing but I know I am not. 3 kits may seem like button mashing to who you are fighting but honestly I am pulling off more combos than an ele without running a set rotation. The cool thing about engineer is until you play it it really seems like a spam class. In truth you just have a lot of skills and if you are using them correctly you would not be able to just spam them in the first place.

Alkaholic.3875:

Don’t water field and smoke field override each other?

In general the first field laid down takes priority over any field laid down on top of it.

That’s why it sux that Super Elixir is a light field. That needs to be changed to water.

Alkaholic.3875:

Don’t water field and smoke field override each other?

The newest combo field takes priority unless this has been changed in one of the recent patches.

DesertRose.2031:

Alkaholic.3875:

Don’t water field and smoke field override each other?

The newest combo field takes priority unless this has been changed in one of the recent patches.

This is not correct. TheGuy had it right, it’s always first come first served with combo fields.

TheGuy.3568:

In general the first field laid down takes priority over any field laid down on top of it.

Adamantium.3682:

This is not correct. TheGuy had it right, it’s always first come first served with combo fields.

Interesting.
Just tested it in-game, nowadays it’s really “first come, first served”.

edit: Ah, my memory just played tricks with me; the oldest one has always taken priority.

This game is like a Fighting game.

If you button mash, you can do well. But if you button mash against pro players, they will kill you because they know the counter to button mashing.

runeblade.7514:

This game is like a Fighting game.

If you button mash, you can do well. But if you button mash against pro players, they will kill you because they know the counter to button mashing.

Knowing what button to push when is better than pressing all the buttons.

Alkaholic.3875:

Don’t water field and smoke field override each other?

When you access Healing Turret as a pure Blast Finisher, you can avoid activating Overcharge, as that will spawn the water field. As mentioned above the smoke field will usually take priority anyway, but usually I leave out Overcharge.
Proper max stealth sequence is Big Ol’ Bomb -> Smoke Bomb -> Healing Turret (no overload) -> Magnetic Shield + Healing Turret Detonate + Big Ol’ Bomb Explosion + Rocket Boots

Gah! Why do people keep suggesting certain fields take priority over others!? It does not happen, the oldest field is always used.

Adamantium.3682:

Gah! Why do people keep suggesting certain fields take priority over others!? It does not happen, the oldest field is always used.

In the context that Smoke Field from Smoke Bomb is applied first; sorry I was unclear. But thanks for the clarification.
The healing combo and the stealth combo are still best used away, in the peripherals of a team fight, in my opinion, due to the many existing fields on a point/in the centre of the fight. It’s very rare, but there could be times when you want to stealth res/deny stomp with Smoke Bomb + Magnetic Shield/Healing Turret Detonate and you apply another combo instead. Smoke Bomb + Rocket Boots can be done from afar and is a bit more reliable in this aspect.

I think you guys are confusing button mashing with face rolling

facerolling = bad
button mashing = like playing a kitten piano

idk about you but my gf can tell what class i’m playing based on how fast my hands arr moving

If you are running nades as your main damage you have no auto attack. If you likewise do not use fast cast ground attacks you have to double tap to throw your nades. So depending on how you define “button mashing,” with nades you are going to be hitting buttons very fast and furious and likely develop wrist pain. However, if you are mindlessly pressing buttons and just throwing grenades around frantically you are probably not going to hit much and only succeed in getting splattered across the countryside.

There is a lot of finesse to engi combat (with any build.) We are anything but a press one or two button and win class. The above analogy of playing a piano is very accurate. Play it wrong and it sounds like you are torturing some poor animal. Play it right and people will cheer.