Guild Wars 2

Offhand Pistol

The OH Pistol complements the MH Pistol’s moveset with even more conditions and a ranged slow. Great for aggressive play.

4. Blowtorch (15) – Unleash flames from your pistol to burn foes. Deal more damage the closer you are.

This ability is a must for most condition-focused engineer builds. Burning is the most damaging of the damage-dealing conditions, and in melee range Blowtorch can melt foes with the applied damage. Try not to waste this at its maximum range – you’ll have to wait 15 seconds for it to come up again, so make it count.

5. Glue Shot (30) – Coat the target area with a glue puddle that immobilizes foes on impact, then cripples foes that remain within.

This is a great ability to ensure a solid Blowtorch on an enemy, if you can land the immobilize on them. If not, Glue Shot can be used to run away (shoot it at your feet) or save allies who are trying to flee. It’s not the flashiest of moves, but it’s very good at what it does.

Shield

The Shield offers a huge amount of utility, control, and defense for only having 2 abilities. It is my favorite engineer weapon by far.

4. Magnetic Shield (30) – Create a magnetic field that reflects projectiles and can be released to push back foes.

This is a great move. It makes you immobile while channeling it, but reflects projectiles. I once killed a warrior with his own Kill Shot with this ability – it’s always useful. In addition, if you release Magnetic Shield early, there’s an additional effect.

——> 4a. Magnetic Inversion – Release the magnetic field to push back nearby foes.

This is a pushback and a blast finisher. Use this to push people off points and get melee enemies off of you. In addition, combo it with your fields to create cool effects! One of my favorite combos is Regenerating Mist (Toolbelt skill of Healing Turret) and following up immediately with Magnetic Shield and popping it instantly for Magnetic Inversion. The blast combo in the water field creates a burst of healing to myself and nearby allies! Or, do it in a smoke bomb to stealth yourself! Tons of great ways to use this ability.

5. Static Shield (40) – Electrify your shield, preparing to throw it at foes. If you are hit, the shield discharges, stunning your nearby attacker.

The text on this is a little vague. You will block attacks for the duration – however, if you are hit with a melee attack, the block will end and you will stun the attacker for 2 seconds instead. This means you can’t stun ranged characters, but you will block their attacks for the duration instead. This, too, combos into another ability.

——> Throw Shield – Throw your charged shield. Dazes foes it hits on the way out and back.

Pressing 5 again will throw your shield like a boomerang, which dazes on the way in and out. This is great against ranged characters – Pop your block for 2 seconds and then throw at the last second in order to get the best out of this skill. Positioning is crucial – make sure to position yourself so you get a hit on the way back! Daze will interrupt the stomp animation, so you can throw your shield to save an ally’s life.

Utilities

The Engineer’s selection of utility skills is very diverse, and Engineer utilities play a far more active role in gameplay than the utility skills of most other professions. An important thing to remember about Engineer utilities is that each utility provides you with (at least) 2 skills – the Utility Skill and its Toolbelt counterpart. Take, for example, Elixir H, a simple Engineer heal.

Elixir H (25) – Drink Elixir H to heal yourself and randomly gain protection, regeneration, or swiftness.

When you equip Elixir H, you also gain another ability on your F1 Profession Mechanic Bar – Toss Elixir H.

Toss Elixir H (30) – Toss Elixir H to randomly grant protection, regeneration, or swiftness to allies.

These abilities are equally important, so it’s paramount to remember both facets of the utilities you’re running. Sometimes, you’ll want to choose a utility solely for its toolbelt component! Due to this unique mechanic, I will be listing the toolbelt counterpart to utilities as a bullet point below the ability, in order to avoid confusion. Now on to the good stuff!

Healing Skills
Elixir H
Healing Turret
Med Kit

The Engineer has a selection of 3 different healing skills in sPvP. Luckily, they are all situationally useful and viable, depending on your build.

Elixir H (25) – Drink Elixir H to heal yourself and randomly gain protection, regeneration, or swiftness.

• Toss Elixir H (30) – Toss Elixir H to randomly grant protection, regeneration, or swiftness to allies.

Looks familiar, doesn’t it? Elixir H is a decent heal on a decent cooldown, with a random boon gain. The toolbelt ability provides you with an AoE boon to grant to allies – also random, like the utility counterpart. Elixir H is a bit of a wildcard, but it’s powerful in Elixir builds. The most simple and straightforward Engineer heal available.

Healing Turret (20) – Deploys a turret that heals you briefly, then regenerates you and your allies.
—-> Cleansing Burst (60) – Overcharge your healing turret, supplying a burst of healing that cures all conditions.

• Regenerating Mist (60) – Release a mist of healing liquid to regenerate nearby allies.
  —-> Detonate Healing Turret – Detonate your healing turret.

I know, I know. So many abilities! The healing turret is definitely the most complex of the Engineer heals, and in my opinion, the best. Here’s how it works:

By equipping the turret, you gain the toolbelt skill Regenerating Mist. Use it to apply regen to yourself and allies and create a water field that lasts ~1 second (combo this with Magnetic Inversion!).

Deploying your healing turret will heal you for a solid amount, and the turret will begin to grant regeneration to yourself and nearby allies. However, when you deploy your turret, your 6 and F1 abilities change into Cleansing Burst and Detonate Healing Turret, respectively. Yes – this means you cannot use Regenerating Mist while your Healing Turret is deployed.

If you choose to keep your healing turret out, it will gradually apply regeneration to your party, but will not go on cooldown until the timer runs out, it dies, you destroy it, or you pick it up.

Tip: Deploy the healing turret and immediately pick it up. This puts the healing turret on a 15 second cooldown – 5 to 10 seconds lower than any of the other Engineer heals, despite the fact that Healing Turret’s regeneration allows it to heal for far more than its counterparts. Healing Turret’s access to a water field, an AoE heal, a 100% condition cleanse, and a blast finisher all while maintaining a lower cooldown than its competition definitely makes it the most powerful heal in sPvP outside of very specialized builds.

Med Kit – Equip a kit that replaces your weapon with healing skills.

• Bandage Self (20) – Bandage your wounds and heal yourself.

The Med Kit is an unarmed kit and a healing skill all rolled into one, and is very useful for roaming, point defense, and even group support. Bandage Self is a solid, short-cooldown heal on the Engineer’s toolbelt that synergizes well with many engineer traits. Equipping the Med Kit replaces your weapon skills with the following:

1-3: Drop Bandages (12) – Drop a pack of bandages that provides a little healing.

This is a straightforward move. Drop bandages, they heal people who run over them. If you’re running in a straight line, you’ll consume them as soon as you drop them. Great for those narrow escapes!

4. Drop Antidote (15) – Drop a vial of antidote that cures conditions.

Antidote makes Med Kit a great choice to run against condition builds, due to its low cooldown. Use this when you really need a cleanse!

5. Drop Stimulant (20) – Drop a stimulant that grants fury and swiftness.

This skill is very versatile and useful in nearly any situation. Pop stimulant to roam around the map, grant fury to a crit-based ally, or give yourself fury before a tough fight!

Med Kit is, overall, a great skill that performs many different roles. Tip: Your bandages and vials don’t despawn when you switch out of the med kit, and there’s no way to place the med kit on cooldown (outside of a bug). Swap out your heal when you’re out of combat and give yourself a stimulant to roam faster! If it’s your job to hold down a point, pull out your medkit and drop some preemptive bandages and vials to prepare yourself for incoming enemies before switching back to your main heal. Remember – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Elixirs

Elixirs are a large subset of the Engineer’s utility skills. They all involve random effects, which has made them somewhat controversial in the competitive scene. However, I still find them to be very competitively viable, and my most powerful build currently runs 4 elixirs in my utility slots.

Elixir B (40) – Drink Elixir B to gain fury, might, retaliation, and swiftness.

• Toss Elixir B (20) – Toss Elixir B to grant fury, might, retaliation, and swiftness to allies.

Elixir B is for Boon. It just gives tons of em! It’s usable in boon duration builds for a quick offensive push. Despite the misleading tooltip, Toss Elixir B only grants ONE of the four boons listed, seemingly at random.

Elixir C (40) – Drink Elixir C, converting all conditions into random boons.

• Toss Elixir C (30) – Toss Elixir C, converting one condition to a random boon for allies.

Elixir C is for Conditions. Solid condition removal + boons! Once again, solid choice for boon builds or builds desperate for condition removal.

Elixir R (40) – Drink Elixir R to recover from stun and refill your endurance.

• Toss Elixir R (85) – Toss Elixir R, curing conditions and reviving allies.

Elixir R is for Revive. Elixir R is a very short cooldown stunbreaker that refills your endurance – good for running away or having some point-defense staying power. However, its main power comes from its toolbelt component – Toss Elixir R resurrects downed allies at a rate of roughly 20% of the downed bar per second, in a zone that persists for 5 seconds. In a hectic teamfight, a quick-toss Elixir R can rez and ally and ultimately win you the fight. Also, if you toss it beneath your feet right before you go down, you can rez yourself before they finish the stomp animation! A phenomenal skill that is useful in any build.

Elixir S (60) – Drink Elixir S to shrink yourself, recover from stun, and evade attacks.

• Toss Elixir S (60) – Toss Elixir S, , either making allies grow and granting them stability, or granting them stealth.

Elixir S is for Small, Stealth, Stable and Stomp. It does everything! It’s a short cooldown stunbreaker (like Elixir R) that allows you to become completely invulnerable for its duration. The thrown component either grants you and your allies Stealth or Stability randomly (although Stealth is far more common than Stability is). Tip: You can drink Elixir S mid-stomp (or revive) animation in order to secure the move. See that pesky warrior aiming that hammer at your head? Elixir S! Nothing he can do now – he’s a goner. Toss Elixir S is also phenomenal for securing stomps – stealth makes targeting impossible and stability makes interrupts impossible. I struggle to run builds without Elixir S (affectionately referred to as Elixir Stomp), due to its superb utility in securing kills and keeping yourself alive in big teamfights.

Elixir U (60) – Drink Elixir U, gaining quickness and a random utility skill from another profession.

• Toss Elixir U (60) – Toss Elixir U, creating a random spell at the target location.

Elixir U is for Ultimate (or, for you TF2 fans out there, Übercharge). It (combined with its toolbelt counterpart) is by far the most vaguely worded Engineer skill in the game. What Elixir U actually does is grant the Engineer Quickness – allowing you to perform all your actions twice as fast for the duration of the buff. Elixir U also claims (falsely) to grant you a random utility skill from another profession. What Elixir U actually does is grant you a random downside from another profession.

You see, Quickness utilities (Thief – Haste, Ranger – Quickening Zephyr, Warrior – Frenzy) all have downsides.

Haste – Lose all endurance and stop endurance from regenerating.
Quickening Zephyr – You cannot be healed for the duration.
Frenzy – You take 50% more damage for the duration.

Each time you use Elixir U, you gain Quickness, and one of these debuffs at random. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that you look to your boon bar and see which debuff you have. There’s no worse feeling than popping your Healing Turret before noticing that you have the Quickening Zephyr debuff and your cooldown was wasted for nothing.

Toss Elixir U is even more vaguely worded than its utility counterpart. Create a random spell? What? In fact, Toss Elixir U is relatively reliable and serves a very distinct role – it always deploys a defensive wall.

When you use Toss Elixir U, you deploy one of the following walls:

Smoke Screen – Smoke Field, blocks all projectiles
Wall of Reflection – Light Field, reflects all projectiles
Veil – Ethereal Field, stealths allies who pass over it.

Toss your Elixir U against ranged characters to help secure a point or to avoid getting shot in the back as you cowardly flee make your escape.

Tip: Quickness allows you to perform all actions twice as fast. This means you can super-stomp (or revive) people twice as fast! Use this in conjunction with Elixir S if you really, really want someone out of the fight for good (or really want your ally back in the fight).

Tip: Drinking Elixir R will refill your endurance, even when plagued by the Haste debuff. Use it for a quick dodge when the enemy least expects it!

Tip: Toss Elixir U always creates a combo field. Use your blast combos (Mines, Magnetic Inversion, Turret Detonations, etc.), your projectiles, or Jump Shot to combo through these fields for tons of crazy effects that your enemies won’t expect.

Weapon Kits

Weapon Kits are the most defining utilities within the Engineer’s arsenal. When combined with our toolbelt counterparts, Weapon Kits give us the ability to have more skills available than any other profession in the game! The format for this next section will be as follows:

Weapon: Synopsis

• Toolbelt Skill: Description
  Abilities 1-5: Description Opinions/tips.

Flamethrower: The Flamethrower is a great, versatile weapon that is useful in power, crit, condition damage and point defense builds. It has several fun tips and tricks, too!

• Incendiary Ammo: (60) Burn foes with your next three attacks.

Incendiary Ammo is great for any build out there, and especially great for condition builds. Tip: IA’s buff lasts 45 seconds, and it starts cooling down the second you apply it. Pop IA whenever you can! I’ve gone into fights with the buff, applied it, and then used it again 20 seconds later due to planning ahead. Be attentive!

1. Flame Jet – Spray fire in a cone pattern while on the move, burning enemies on the final attack.

Flame Jet hits multiple times on each attack, making it synergize great with crit and condition builds for Sharpshooter procs. If you’re looking for more condition damage, make sure you land the last hit. Otherwise, your flamethrower won’t burn anyone!
Tip: Flame Jet isn’t a projectile. Use it when you see enemies trying to reflect your projectiles or block your attacks. It also goes through a Guardian’s Sanctuary ability to burn those inside!

2. Flame Blast (6) – Fire a napalm ball that rolls through foes and explodes.

This ability compliments power and critdamage builds due to its massive up-front damage. It deals damage twice – upon passing through targets and on detonation. Use it correctly at maximum range to land both the impact and the detonation for a huge spike! Tip: As a slow-moving projectile, it is sometimes more beneficial to aim Flame Blast manually, similar to the Rifle’s Net Shot.

3. Air Blast (15) – Play Pyro in TF2 Push back foes and projectiles with a hot air blast.

Air Blast is a solid control move on a short cooldown that can also reflect projectiles. It’s very useful for interrupting stomps to save allies and push enemies off of points for your team. As far as reflecting projectiles, it’s a bit tricky. Elementalist Fireballs are one thing, but Crossfires from a Ranger are an entirely different beast. Nonetheless, Air Blast is what makes the Flamethrower so useful – such great control on such a short cooldown is hard to pass up.

4. Napalm (30) – Burn foes with a wall of napalm at the target location.

Pretty straightforward. Drop a wall of fire, it burns foes. Napalm is a solid choice to zone enemies out of points or make sure downed enemies don’t rally themselves. Don’t forget to utilize your cross-profession combos in that fire field!

5. Smoke Vent (20) – Vent smoke from your flamethrower, blinding nearby foes.

Smoke Vent is a solid defensive skill, providing an AoE, short-range blind on a short cooldown, which is another reason why the Flamethrower is such a solid point-defense utility. However, Smoke Vent also has a very fun tip attached to it.

Tip: You can use Smoke Vent without interrupting the stomp animation. In fact, you can equip the Flamethrower as well. Start stomping an enemy and switch to the Flamethrower. Watch their animations – the second you see the Warrior/Engineer pull his/her arm back to throw that tow line or hammer, the second you see that Guardian lift his arm in the air, hit Smoke Vent. The attack will be blinded, miss, and you’ll get the stomp uninterrupted. This works on Rangers, Engineers, Warriors, and Guardians. The timing takes practice, but it’s an invaluable asset and is definitely part of what makes the kit so desirable to me.

Elixir Gun: The Elixir Gun is a support/condition damage weapon that synergizes extremely well with the trait Kit Refinement.

• Healing Mist (40) – Vent a healing mist, granting regeneration to yourself and allies.

Healing Mist (don’t confuse it with Regenerating Mist!) is a powerful AoE regeneration on a short cooldown. It’s straightforward and useful – remember that you have extra heals in your arsenal!

1. Tranquilizer Dart – Fire a dart that bleeds and weakens foes.

This is actually a very solid auto-attack. If you’ve got some condition duration under your belt, you can apply weakness on a 100% uptime, which is absolutely huge if used on a high-burst target.

2. Elixir F (8) – Fire a bouncing glob of Elixir F that cripples foes and grants swiftness to you and allies.

This is, truly, a bouncing projectile – you’ll only get swiftness if you hit an enemy and have it ricochet back to you first. Don’t try to use this out of combat to move faster – you’re just wasting your cooldown!

3. Fumigate (12) – Spray a cone of elixir fumes, inflicting poison and vulnerability to foes and curing conditions on allies with every strike.

Solid AoE pressure – Poison negates enemy heals and vulnerability will make your allies hit harder. Sadly, Fumigate does not cure conditions off of yourself, so keep that in mind.

4. Acid Bomb (15) – Leap backward, spraying an acidic elixir on the ground that damages nearby foes.

This is much more useful for the leap than the AoE damage. You can leap between points if you aim correctly, like the Clocktower to the outer balcony, or the upper levels of the Keep on the Forest of Niflhel. Tip: Bind about-face on your keyboard. About-face + Acid Bomb is a solid getaway, which allows you to jump forward instead of directly backwards.

Super Elixir (20) – Launch an elixir orb, healing allies on impact and creating an area of continual healing.

This move it what makes the Elixir Gun viable. Solid AoE healing, great for holding points. The Tools trait Kit Refinement creates this ability when you swap to the Elixir Gun, allowing you to maintain a Super Elixir 100% of the time. It’s also a light field!

Bomb Kit: The Bomb Kit is a superb weapon for point defense (or assault) – however, it is lackluster in any situation that doesn’t require enemies to stay clumped together in one area. It is invaluable for point defense and I struggle to run a defender build without it.

• Big Ol’ Bomb (30) – The iconic ability of the Bomb Kit, BoB is just terrific for clearing people off of points and adding in that extra bit of control. Use it whenever you need those enemies to clear out!

1. Bomb – Set a timed charge that damages nearby foes.

Need I explain? Melee range bomb. Does some damage. You can “kite” by placing them at your feet while running to achieve a Singed-esque effect.

2. Fire Bomb (10) – Set a timed charge that burns nearby foes.

Condition damage and a persistent fire field for combos. Use this whenever you can to zone enemies off your point.

3. Concussion Bomb (18) – Set a timed charge that causes confusion to nearby foes.

More condition damage, not so much area denial. Use this whenever you can.

4. Smoke Bomb (25) – Set a timed charge that creates a cloud of smoke, blinding nearby foes.

Smoke Bomb and BoB are what make the Bomb Kit a phenomenal point defense weapon. A persistent smoke field as large as the point that constantly reapplies blinds? Yes please! Combo with the smoke field for stealth (Jump Shot, Magnetic Inversion, Mines) or additional blinds (any projectile finisher). Use this whenever enemies are crowded on you, and don’t BoB them out of it! Take advantage of the blinds until the zone fades.

5. Glue Bomb (25) – Set a timed charge that creates a puddle of glue, immobilizing and crippling nearby foes.

Decent control in teamfights to encourage clumping or land some nice Fire/Concussion Bombs. However, it is generally most useful as a tool to run away – place this at your feet and chuckle as the enemy team tries its hardest to chase you.

Tip: Bombs are extremely powerful when defending the Ruins on Raid on the Capricorn, due to the fact that the AoE zones are three-dimensional and you drop bombs twice as fast. Use this to your advantage to guard the point and get some friendly sharks!

Grenade Kit: The Grenade Kit is a solid tool for applying AoE pressure from a decent range. With the right traits, we can apply 25 stacks of vulnerability within a matter of seconds – faster than any other profession in the game. However, every ability on the Grenade Kit is ground-targeted, so make sure your aim holds true!

• Grenade Barrage (30) – Throw several grenades at once.

Grenade Barrage has potential for massive amounts of damage if you can manage to hit an enemy with every single grenade. The damage from Grenade Barrage is spread between all of its targets, so it will deal most damage if you can land all of them on a single enemy. Try immobilizing (Net Shot, Glue Shot), crippling (Elixir F, Glue Shot), chilling (Freeze Grenade), or stunning (Static Shield) your foe before your Barrage to ensure a solid hit.

1. Grenade – Throws a grenade that explodes.

Standard auto-attack for AoE pressure. In 1v1 situations, you’re probably better off switching to your Pistol or Rifle, as this deals mediocre damage at best.

2. Shrapnel Grenade (5) – Throws a grenade that explodes in a hail of shrapnel, causing bleeding.

If you’re specced into condamage, use this whenever you can. The bleed is potent.

3. Flash Grenade (10) – Throw a grenade that explodes in a blinding flash.

Standard AoE blind. As with all blinds, you can choose to use this on cooldown to negate enemy damage or try to save it for a critical disable or life-saving move (say, a downed-state interrupt). The travel time on the grenade will make timing difficult, though, so be wary.

This looks great so far, man. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more information.

Fantastic information and presentation. I was planning on doing something like this myself, just haven’t had the time (Or able to get away from the game enough).

Superb!

jungfreud.5167:

This looks great so far, man. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more information.

I appreciate the support, jungfreud. I appreciate the name, too! I happen to be a psychology major. Nice to see us refined types playing the best profession in GW2 ;D

I’m going to keep updating this, but I’m a bit concerned that I’m simply not going to have enough space soon. Hopefully they’ll let me move my posts up to the top of the thread so I don’t have these (supportive and lovely!) comments in the middle of my guide. I would have felt ridiculous if I reserved any more posts, but now I feel like I should have!

WhiteCrow.5310

Fantastic information and presentation. I was planning on doing something like this myself, just haven’t had the time (Or able to get away from the game enough).
Superb!

Thanks for the support, guys!

Awesome guide! Looking forward to the rest.

This is awesome, looking forward to read the rest of it.
Excellent job!

Here is a tip for Static Shield. The block still works will moving and you can shot while the block is active. So you can run and gun while blocking projectiles.

Wow, thank you Mr Tallman! I love the concept of the Engineer and plan to stick in there for the long haul. It’s great to have a resource like this so I don’t have to “trial and error” my way through it.

Can we report this for a sticky?

Sojourner.6938:

Wow, thank you Mr Tallman! I love the concept of the Engineer and plan to stick in there for the long haul. It’s great to have a resource like this so I don’t have to “trial and error” my way through it.

Can we report this for a sticky?

Agreed with the sticky, and thanks Tallman for the nice read and formatting! I’ll continue to trial and error myself… so far, loving the dual pistols/elixer/grenade build I’ve got going. Maybe one day Anet will fix the turrets for us?

Very nice guide. Sticky. Keep up the good work!

Agreed, very nice guide. Can’t wait to see the rest of it.

I really liked the tips – they let me benefit from what you’ve learned and quickly improve my effectiveness.

well done, reported for sticky!

Well done sir. I will be referencing this in one of my blogs when I get the time.

Thanks for pushing for the sticky, guys! I’ve basically run out of room up top, so I’m going to start posting continuations to the guide down here. If you guys could report posts that continue the guide and request they be moved up above the comments, that’d be awesome. That way, we can keep the guide flowing instead of having these conversational breaks.

Kingfisher.7213:

Agreed, very nice guide. Can’t wait to see the rest of it.

I really liked the tips – they let me benefit from what you’ve learned and quickly improve my effectiveness.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it so much! Engineer is a bit denser than most professions, so I’m hoping the tips in this guide will help both hardcore and casual players alike.

Bel Geode.8129

Well done sir. I will be referencing this in one of my blogs when I get the time.

Wow, that’s great to hear! Let me know when that blog post goes up, I’d love to see it.

Dreine.7651

Agreed with the sticky, and thanks Tallman for the nice read and formatting! I’ll continue to trial and error myself… so far, loving the dual pistols/elixer/grenade build I’ve got going. Maybe one day Anet will fix the turrets for us?

Thanks! I’m hoping to see turrets become a bit more viable as well. I’ve played with one engineer who uses them for the push back trait in explosions to constantly CC people off of points, but remain unconvinced that they are more viable than, say, Bomb Kit/Flamethrower/Elixir R for a defensively-focused build. I suppose we’ll see – the metagame is adapting at a very fast pace right now, so maybe we’ll see some turret engineer builds come into circulation. I know I’ll be trying to hammer out a viable one in my spare time.

Thanks again for all your support guys. I’m going to keep working on updating this whenever I can.

I feel I should mention that comboing with smoke bomb is very rewarding, my favourite combo being rocket boots and smoke bomb, its simply a very powerful combo that should be mentioned.

Rocket boots are of course, a blast finisher, and blast+smoke= stealth. So, the amazing thing is, that while you are flying backwards, you actually have stealth on you. Combine this with the about face command, and your enemies will have no clue where you ended up, as an escape tool its simply amazing.

Fantastic post. I hope you continue to work on it an eventually complete it! It certainly has taught me some great things about the Engineer! Makes me want to continue playing him.

It looks like I’m going to have to continue down here from now on. Please report these posts to be moved up to the top of the thread! I don’t want to annoy the mods too much, so I’m going to try to finish this soon so they aren’t still bothered by this guide weeks from now.

4. Freeze Grenade (20) – Throw a grenade that chills enemies with a frigid blast.

Standard AoE chill. Landing this ability in the middle of a teamfight can land your team some really solid hits, especially if your enemies have already wasted all of their endurance. Try following up Freeze Grenade with your Grenade Barrage for a really solid hit. If you want to get really fancy, save Freeze Grenade for after your enemy has used their heal or another critical cooldown – with the 66% increased cooldown time, it’ll be awhile before they get it back again.

5. Poison Grenade (25) – Throws a grenade that explodes in a poisonous cloud.

Solid AoE poison ability. Once again, try saving this for when you think your enemy is going to be healing soon, as poison will cut the heal’s effectiveness by 33%. Poison Grenade and Freeze Grenade are both very effective tools against Guardians, who need their heals and active cooldowns in order to stay alive. Tip: Poison Grenade causes a poison field. Use a blast finisher inside of it to apply AoE weakness, and further help your team!

Tool Kit: The Tool Kit is a melee-range kit which is rather strange. It can be used to heal your turrets, stack vulnerability, or be used for some extra control or defense. It doesn’t really have a set niche, but it still finds its way into some of my builds due to its toolbelt ability and the defense it offers.

• Throw Wrench (20) – Throw your wrench so that it returns to you, striking foes each way. Repair any turrets that the wrench hits.

This ability functions similar to Throw Shield in that it is a boomerang ability that fires out and returns to you. It also deals a significant amount of damage if you can land both the outgoing and returning hit, so positioning is important. I don’t suggest using this to heal your turrets – the damage is significant enough that you should really be using this on your enemies. Don’t underestimate this!

1. Smack – Smack your foe. Repair turrets.
—-> 1a. Whack – Whack your foe.
—-> 2a. Thwack – Thwack your foe.

Smack and Whack both apply vulnerability. Thwack has a bit of a windup time, but actually deals considerable damage! Regardless, I don’t suggest using the Tool Kit to actually melee people. Without the benefit from the stats or sigils of your main weapon, the damage and danger of being in melee range is just really not worth it. Smack heals turrets for a minor amount as well.

2. Box of Nails (10) – Scatter nails that bleed and cripple foes.

This is okay for some AoE pressure in teamfights. However, Box of Nails really shines when you’re trying to make an escape. Turn tail, equip your Tool Kit, and drop the nails behind you! Enemies will have a hard time chasing you through the crippling field.

3. Pry Bar (15) – Confuse your foe by smacking them with a pry bar.

A rather strange skill. Although confusion is obviously powerful with condamage builds, Pry Bar actually hits relatively hard on its own as well. If for some reason I ever find myself in melee range with the Tool Kit, this is the one ability I use before dodging back to safety.

4. Gear Shield (20) – Block attacks.

This ability, along with Throw Wrench, is what makes the Tool Kit viable in sPvP. I can’t count the amount of times Gear Shield has saved my life from a thief or warrior’s burst, or just when I need to run out of a teamfight to heal up. This is a great defensive ability.

5. Magnet (25) – Pull your target to you.

Magnet is a short-range pull. It has a relatively long windup, so I don’t find myself using it often. However, it is useful in teamfights to pull prime targets or interrupt revives/stomps, as well as pulling people off of points. What I use it for most is pulling people off of higher ground – off the balconies in Clocktower or the elevated areas in the Keep, for example.

Gadgets: Gadgets make up the most simple, straightforward and thematically silly utilities in the Engineer’s arsenal. They can generally fit into any build and are useful in a number of situations.

Rocket Boots (30) – Fly backward, damaging foes with your rocket exhaust. Cures immobilized, crippled, and chilled.

• Rocket Kick (20) – Use your rocket boots to do an explosive kick that burns foes.

Rocket Boots are a great escape tool if you carry another stunbreaker, and a good way to clear immobilize, cripple, and chill if you’re using pistols. They’re also a blast finisher, which can lead to some very amusing combos:

Lyuben.2613

Rocket boots are of course, a blast finisher, and blast+smoke= stealth. So, the amazing thing is, that while you are flying backwards, you actually have stealth on you. Combine this with the about face command, and your enemies will have no clue where you ended up, as an escape tool its simply amazing.

Always take advantage of your finishers!

Rocket Kick, however, is more powerful than its utility counterpart (in my humble opinion). It applies a solid amount of burning damage on a short cooldown, and is invaluable in any condition-damage build. If you ever see an Engineer trying to kick you, dodge out of the way! Rocket Kick hurts.

Slick Shoes (60) – Spray oil behind you, knocking down foes. If underwater, foes entering the field are blinded.

• Super Speed (45) – Run at double speed.

Slick Shoes is a great control skill that synergizes very well with the Bomb Kit for melee-range AoE damage. When combined with Super Speed, it makes for a very effective escape against melee-range enemies.

Throw Mine (18) – Throw out a remote-controlled land mine that damages, knocks back, and removes a boon from nearby foes.
—> Detonate – Detonate your mine to damage foes and remove a boon from them.

• Mine Field (45) – Plant five mines around yourself.
  —> Detonate Mine Field – Detonate your mines, damaging nearby foes.

Throw Mine and Mine Field were severely nerfed in the September 17th update, due to the fact that Mine Field’s mines are no longer blast finishers. This ability is subsequently very weak in sPvP play currently. In the vast majority of cases another skill does what Throw Mine does better – PBR has better control and damage, Bomb Kit/Turrets are better at point defense, etc. Throw Mine does have a niche in boon removal, though, so if you’re desperate for boon removal I suggest you give it a whirl.

Utility Goggles (40) – Break out of stun, gaining fury and immunity to blindness.

• Analyze (40) – Analyze a foe, applying vulnerability.

Utility Goggles is just a solid, all-around utility move for any damage-dealing build. Analyze applies 10 stacks of vulnerability instantly, and the fury from Utility Goggles will drastically increase your damage output and make it impossible to blind you (Take that, Smoke Bomb/Well of Darkness!). Goggles are also a stunbreaker, don’t forget. Outside of that, they’re relatively simple. Use the toolbelt and ability when you really, really want someone dead.

Personal Battering Ram (45) – Launch a target foe with a concealed ram head.

• Launch Personal Battering Ram (18) – Shoot out a ram’s head in front of you, crippling any struck foes.

Personal Battering Ram is fun move with tons of utility. It’s essentially Overcharged Shot on the Rifle without the self-knockback, and can set up some really great combos. Ex) PBR, Net Shot, Jump Shot (land on the enemy), Blunderbuss, Overcharged Shot. Huge amount of burst/CC, and there’s nothing the enemy can do about it. Another example: If your opponent is downed against a wall, a point-blank PBR straight into the stomp animation will ensure a clean stomp before they recover from the stationary launch animation.

Launch Personal Battering Ram is a solid ranged cripple on a low cooldown that is also a physical projectile finisher. Always use your finishers, folks! LPBR is a relatively slow projectile, so sometimes I aim it manually, similar to Net Shot on the rifle. Try to avoid using it on strafing enemies.

Turrets: Turrets provide Engineers with stationary tools that help them hold down or assault a certain area. You’ve already seen one of the turrets in our arsenal up above – Healing Turret. In this next section, we will cover the rest of the Engineer’s turret arsenal.

Every Turret has the following abilities:

Turret
—> Overcharge Ability

• Toolbelt Ability (Turret Not Deployed)
  —> Detonate Turret

For the sake of simplicity, in this next section, I will not be listing Detonate Turret for every ability. This will save my readers some time and me some space (which is rapidly becoming a precious commodity).

Flame Turret (40) – Deploy a turret that burns foes.
—> Smoke Screen (30) – Overcharge your flame turret, releasing a smoke screen that blinds nearby foes.

• Throw Napalm (60) – Throw a ball of napalm that explodes on impact, burning foes around target location.

The Flame Turret is a solid tool for point-defense, as it provides respectable damage in close range as well as a blinding field which is very similar to Smoke Bomb on the Bomb Kit. Throw Napalm is somewhat lackluster, although generally you don’t take a turret for its toolbelt component. Smoke Screen is a Smoke Combo Field, so shoot through it for additional blindness or use Magnetic Inversion for some stealth!

Net Turret (30) – Build a net turret that immobilizes nearby foes.
—> Electrified Net (30) – Overcharge your turret to fire an electrified net that immobilizes and stuns.

• Net Attack (60) – Fire a net from your belt to immobilize your foe.

The Net Turret is, in my opinion, somewhat lackluster as far as turrets go. In sPvP, turrets are used primarily for point defense, and Net Turret deals no damage and only offers the occasional immobilize. The overcharge ability delay is too long to warrant legitimately interrupting people with the stun from Electrified Net, so I struggle to place it within viable builds of mine. I get a Net Turret when Supply Crate drops, and that’s good enough for me.

Rifle Turret (20) – Build a rifle turret that shoots at foes.
—> Automatic Fire (30) – Overcharge your rifle turret to fire a burst of bleeding shots.

• Surprise Shot (10) – Fire a bullet out of your belt.

The Rifle Turret, while often overlooked, is actually the only turret I will occasionally use when I am not playing a point defense role. The cooldown on the turret itself is quite low (20s), but the cooldown on its toolbelt ability, Surprise Shot, is even lower. Use this with the Static Discharge trait to get some pretty consistent damage while roaming around, and actually drop the turret when you need a distraction/some extra damage while you back off from the fight to heal up.

Rocket Turret (60) – Build a turret that fires rockets.
—> Explosive Rockets (20) – Overcharge your turret to fire explosive rockets.

• Rocket (60) – Fire a rocket out of your belt that explodes on impact.

The Rocket Turret is the turret in the game with the longest range, and provides consistent damage and control. Explosive Rockets cause the turret’s rockets to both knockdown and burn, which is great on such a small cooldown. While I often opt for Flame/Thumper turret in point defense, Rocket Turret is never a bad choice in a turret build when you just need the extra damage.

Thumper Turret (60) – Build a high-health thumper turret that damages nearby foes.
—> Thump (30) – Overcharge your thumper turret to launch nearby foes.

• Shockwave (90) – Release a shockwave of inertial force to damage nearby foes.

Thumper Turret is my favorite turret in the game. It is extremely hard to kill, does decent AoE damage, and has the ability to knock people off-point pretty consistently. Place your Thumper Turret directly in the middle of the point and laugh when you Thump the entire enemy team off of it.

Often, in my turret build, I’ll place my Flame/Thumper turrets on the point of my choosing, and scout a bit farther out than I normally do as a point-defender. If I ever see the point being contested, I hit Thump – as far as I can tell, it has no range limitation. I’ve knocked enemies off of points from across the map before! In most cases, I’m close enough to knock them off and get back in time to stop the neutralization of the point.

Shockwave, while lackluster, is a blast finisher, so use that to your advantage.

Elite Skills

Elite Skills are generally intended to a profession’s gamechangers – their most powerful tools that they use in the most desperate of situations in order to come out on top. Sadly, in sPvP, the Engineer is somewhat starved for viable Elite skills, as one is significantly more powerful and reliable than its counterparts.

- reserving for future notes -

- reserving some more. I can always delete these later! -

Amazing tips so far, looking forward to what you have to say on some of my favorite skills (Net Turret and Personal Battering Ram).

Nice guide, really looking forward to reading more of your tips when it’s done. I also reported those last couple of posts to be brought to the top. Thanks and good luck finishing this!

Great guide, definitely makes me reconsider how I’ve been playing engineering.

Do you plan to go into trait point allocation in this guide? I’m still a bit confused on exactly where I should points for which kit. Like if I want to build around the flamethrower or grenade kit, do I want condition damage or power? Things like that?

Great guide, I’m looking forward to its completion.

Nice guide! I messed around with several classes never liking any of them. I tried engineer several times even in beta but didn’t really get the hang of it either. Wasn’t until I got into kits that this class started being an absolute blast in PvP. Engineers are definitely the hardest class to learn but the most rewarding.

A note, the pistol shot does not bleed in an AOE, only the actual thing hit by the bullet will bleed.

Tolore.6138

A note, the pistol shot does not bleed in an AOE, only the actual thing hit by the bullet will bleed.

Are you sure? Maybe the times I’ve playtested this I’ve always had the “pistol shots pierce” trait, but I’ve always thought it was a PBAoE. Then again, I haven’t actually tested this since BWE2 – I’ll give it a quick playtest tonight and adjust the guide accordingly. Thanks for the heads-up!

The pbaoe is just damage, at leas t it was in BWE3, and I saw some other people mention that it still was, I was actually going to test this tonight also.

Aye, as others have said, very well written Tallman. One other thing that may be worth adding to the Flamethrower section is that Air Blast will actually position your enemy right in the sweet spot for Flame Blast, which can make for some solid control and a burst of damage if timed well.

Amazing guide Tallman!! I knew that my engineer was powerful, but wow, he got a lot better once I started using those combofields effectively!

Keep it coming! I want to know what gems I missed in the trait trees!!!

There is a couple threads on the pistol aoe.

Basic explosive shot. bleeds primary target, explodes aoe with direct damage only.
The 5 point firearm trait, with chance to bleed on crit, is applied AOE with explosive shot. Same with vul on crit trait in firearms, if you take that.

With coated bullets piercing, these are continued. Shots pierce, explode aoe with every direct hit. Base bleed on every direct hit. Chance to bleed on explosion with 5 point trait.
Explosive trait, chance to burn, can and will be applied by explosive shots explosions. however, there is an internal cooldown, meaning only 1 burn will be applied, regardless of how many target/explosions there are.

There is a very annoying bug I am trying to work around right now which isn’t letting me quote or edit my own posts. However, here are some edits:

Mine Field is no longer a blast finisher, so the ability is very, very weak now. I struggle to find a situation that I would use it in, considering the damage output from the mines is poor at best.

As Casia said above, the AoE damage from explosive shot spreads, but does not bleed. It took me awhile to deduct this since all of my condition builds have such high crit that I was often applying bleeds anyway through Sharpshooter or Sigil of Earth.

When you deploy your Healing Turret, wait for it to spin, crackle, and dispense it’s healing field – then detonate it. That healing field is a hidden water combo field! Detonating it will give you more burst healing, but less healing over the course of a minute (if you continue to detonate instead of pick up and deploy on cooldown). If you need more group heals and you need them now, or you need a quick burst of healing to secure a kill, make sure you detonate for that water combo.

Once I figure out how to continue editing my posts here consistently I’ll work on finishing the guide – it’s frustrating not being able to edit my posts at will.

edit: Apparently the fix to this bug is posting something in the bottom of the thread, which allows me to edit things. Time to work some more!

Update: Edited the descriptions on Explosive Shot and Throw Mine. Will be adding the turrets/traits section in the next couple days. Post-Wednesday I will have much more free time and will probably be able to complete the guide within a week. Thank you all for your patience!

Super elixir also is a light field. Although it doesn’t say it.

Mines are uselessssss now…

I couldn’t agree more, bromi. It’s a big upset for my guildies and I, I loved using mines for combos with everyone.

One thing about the Engi, Racial skills also have a toolbelt application which in some cases can be quite useful unlike the normal racial skill.

For example the normal “Hidden Pistol” Charr skill is a weaker Rocket Boots version, smaller jump backwards (although with no small stun at the end as you land on your feet) with small damage. But its toolbelt skill is similar to the Thiefs Unload which even counts as rifle if you have one equipped so it can proc blindness when specced.

Will racial skills also be covered by this guide or will they be excluded as by design they are weaker than class skills?

Just…awesome. Thank you!

Please ArenaNet, this deserves a sticky and his posts moved to the top.

I probably learned 5 things i didnt know and am eager to try, and i thought i knew my engineer well and that i tried and understood all abilitys.

Heck i was wrong.

Edit: Really, the other word for “heck” gets censored?^^

Thanks a lot for your hard work!

A tip I wanted to share: if you are using Med Kit as your healing skill, your main source of healing will be coming from Bandage Self which is a toolbelt skill. If you combine it with the Inertial Converter trait, it will instantly recharge every time you go below 25% health.

bromi.7809:

Mines are uselessssss now…

They were ridiculously OP before. I would say useless is a knee jerk reaction and overstatement.

Throw mine still has a blast finisher. AoE knock back, and AoE boon removal. I hardly call that “useless”. Together you get 2 AoE damage attacks in this one utility

Great stuff. I’d love to see a breakdown of racial abilities for PvE and WvWvW.

OP, please include the tip about using toolbelts without a kit. Its a big deal.

Lovely information, but one thing that strikes me as odd, you mention that the standard grenade does ‘mediocre damage at best’. As a pretty heavy grenade user, I would dispute that, I find that it deals a fairly heavy amount of damage, (considering you can hit your target of course!) From my brief observations, each grenade does about the same damage as a single rifle shot hit. Two grenades with base traits, and three possible with the grenadier trait, the damage adds up fairly quickly! Not to mention, the firing rate is about the same for both.

Though to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure about once you start getting higher level rifles, since you sadly can’t upgrade your grenades, as I’m only ~75 at the moment. With fairly standard weaponry, standard grenades have a much high dps (assuming you’re accurate). If I’m wrong, or maybe just using rifle wrong, I would love information disputing otherwise! Anything to make me more effective.

I’ve been noticing actually Aralyae, that my hip shot does around about 400dmg, no crits or anything.

With my grenade attacks, doing around 250 each.

Grenade Barrage does huge damage though, 2000-3000

So I ran to the mists and did some testing. Using the pvp rifle, the basic hipshot does approximately ~550 damage each shot, with around 750 for crits. Each grenade does ~350 damage each grenade with about 500 per crit, so about the same overall, not to mention you’re more likely to crit with one of the grenades since it’s two at once. This was all done sans traits, I as a grenade specialist, take the grenadier trait though for the third grenade which easily multiplies my DPS by 1.5 presuming all the grenades hit. Pistols do less, obviously. I wouldn’t say they’re mediocre at best, I say they’re fantastic at best! Obviously this is presuming you’re a good throw though. I’m pretty good, a lot of people aren’t, so it’s really personal preference.

Sorry to sperg out so much, I usually don’t, but something about this game…