Guild Wars 2

OK, little back story. (feel free to skip it if you just don’t care) My first 80 was a guardian. I leveled with my brother who was on a warrior. I really enjoyed this class; it was powerful yet stout enough to take on packs. The damage felt good and I felt like I could take on things 2-3 levels higher than me no problem. After that I leveled a thief solo to 80. This was a big change over the guardian. A much more squishy class but still able to take on multiple enemies in their own way and if I pulled more than I could hand I had good escape ability.

Now, I am leveling an Engineer. From the get-go I noticed something about the class. I couldn’t really put my finger on it but I just felt…. Well weak. I did some public sPvP to kind of get a feel for what a lvl 80 engineer was like before I started one and I thought that it was an alright class. I knew that being more condition based that it wasn’t going to be a fast killer. And I also learned quick (at least with the builds I was using) running solo was not really an option.

So now I have pushed through and hit level 55. And honestly I am not feeling it. I still feel like I’m weak and that I am having trouble fighting things one on one at my level. I do more running on my engineer than I ever did on my thief or guardian. I have not really enjoyed this class from the start. But I pushed through because how a class feels normally gets better as you level and unlock more.. I don’t have a naga or similar mouse so running a grenade build has felt very uncomfortable and turret builds just don’t work very well. Their long cool downs mean I am fighting without them just as much as with them and in dungeons they are dead in seconds because they get targeted quickly.

So… I am asking for some advice on builds. I am looking for something that works pretty well in solo play (preferable something that I would feel comfortable pulling 2-3 guys at my level with) And if possible something that is useful for dungeons. I don’t mind paying to re-spec for dungeons if I have to though.

This is going to be a massive wall of text, but bear with me.
There are only like 3 or 4 viable builds I’ve seen for engineer as it is now.

1st and the most prominent being the grenade engineer, which only becomes available to you get the grenadier perk. It does lots of damage at pretty long range, but can’t really hit anything that moves.

2nd being bomb engineer, which I don’t know too much about. It’s basically a PvP built around gluing a bunch of guys in place and dropping all your bombs on them.
I hear there is a “tankish” build based around healing bombs as well, but I cannot see this being viable without lots of toughness and +healing gear, but at this point you won’t do any damage and you’re kinda useless if your team doesn’t have at least 2 melee guys.

3rd is what I use and that’s basically a glass cannon Tesla engineer build, which is entirely built around getting as much power, precision and +crit dmg gear as you can.
For this build the utility skills are pretty specific.
1. Rifle turret, 2. Toolkit, 3. Personal battering ram.
These 3 have short cooldowns which means you’ll shoot lightning from every orifice.
You’re pretty free to pick whatever you want with your traits as long as you pick static discharge, which allows you to fire chain lightning whenever you use a toolbelt skill.

I’m using 10/30/0/0/30 build, because I wanted that extra crit dmg, 50% faster endurance regen and that AoE cripple on the wrench throw along with having a better firearm and more crit chance.
As a weapon I use the rifle, because it simply does so much more dmg than pistols.

The way you use it that you just keep your toolbelt skills of cooldown as much as you can.
If you use healing turret as your healing skill, you can have up to 5 chain lightnings ready before every fight + the turret detonation. You have lot of burst and the amount of AoE you put out compensates the rifle’s shortcomings rather well.

4th one… Dunno really. There was a flamethrower build where you can stack over 14 stacks of might temporarily on yourself, but once I tried it, I found it to be pretty bad in comparison to the other 3.

I’d also like to point out some traits that do not work as intended or at all.
- Deployable turrets does not allow you to throw all turrets. It only works with healing turret and rocket turret and as such this trait is useless.
- 20% reduction on bomb and grenade cooldowns doesn’t work on grenades
- Extra damage from Explosions, Vulnerability on explosions and frankly anything that procs on explosions doesn’t work with pistol’s explosive shot, thus making pistol pretty weak choice of weapon.
- 20% Extra elixir duration doesn’t work on Elixir X
- The entire stat that’s supposed to reduce the cooldown of engineer toolbelt skills doesn’t work and fails to give any benefit.
- Elite supplies claim to grant mortar extra range, but this is a lie. It does nothing to it
- Scope traits claim to give you 10% increased crit chance while standing still, but this does not show in your stats, nor does it show up as a buff. That means that it’s questionable if it works or not.

There are also some others I think, but I can’t recall them as of now.
Another thing worth of note is that while a kit is equipped, you lose all stat benefits from your weapon. This means sigils are useless if you’re not using the tesla build.
It also means that the juggernaut trait, which grants you 200 toughness while flamethrower is equipped gives you infact less toughness than a shield with 90 toughness trait + it’s own stats.

Here’s my approach. I play PvE only, note.

It’s worked well for me — I can’t faceroll everything in sight like a greatsword warrior or a guardian, but I can hold my own and rarely need to flee. I dive into a fight with a veteran without thinking twice.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.8.0.0.0.16.0.0.0.81.95.82.86.102.0.0.0.230.0.0.246.249.0.258.265.267.276.0.0.0.0.0.10.20.30.10.0

Rolling with a rifle, currently with a Sigil of Blood (the one which grants a stack up to 25 of attack damage bonus on kill) and my gear is largely Power and Vitality.

Skills, I swap these out when grouped or when the situation calls for a change.

6: Elixr H (solo), Healing Turret (grouped). The turret helps everyone and your F1 skill is like having a quick burst of turret on the fly. The faster-charging elixr is better when I’m romping around on my own but sometimes I still use the turret.

7: Elixr B (solo), Flamethrower (grouped). FT with the on-crit procs I picked is not too shabby, and helps a lot when you’re being swarmed by enemies during a dynamic event, particularly if you have other players around as a distraction. The toolbelt skill lets you add burning to your attacks, which is nifty; I can proc burning but this is a sure bet.

8: Rifle Turret. Fast recharging and its overcharge ability does bleeds. Don’t think of it like a TF2 turret or a tank (even though I specced it for toughness and self repair) but as an additional DPS source. Once done, pick it up and move on, it’ll be ready in time for your next fight.

9: Rocket Turret or Tumper Turret. Long recharging but you should not need these every fight, and the toolkit rocket attack is nothing to sneeze at. Thumper’s better for swarms, rocket better for bosses or strong single folks you need to interrupt and knock down.

0: Supply Drop. This thing is GREAT; you plop it down in front of the boss, or use it to lock down a point. Walk over the medkits when you get hurt, and set up your rocket and rifle turrets on the edges of the point, and you’ll hold a location down easily.

Open your fights with a hip shot. Enemy gets close enough, Blunderbuss and quickly Jump Shot (if safe enough) and Overcharged Shot. That puts distance between you and interrupts their big-windup-melee hit. Then Net Shot to pin them down. Repeat as needed. Roll in and out of the fight to avoid being hit and leave bombs behind in your wake, spam Jump Shot when too many guys get too close, etc.

There’s not much in the way of condition removal here, so you may want Elixr S or something instead of the big turret or the little turret, but honestly getting stunned is not a huge deal when you’ve got lots of turrets and the protection-on-conditioned trait.

This is NOT an optimal build. For that you’ll wanna spam grenades. Grenades are boring and annoying to use, so I choose the impossible — I choose rifle/turrets and I make it work for me. Good luck.

I run a turret engineer just about exclusively. Haven’t tried PvP.

Trait layout (at 70; that’s when I’ll be able to pick up the last turret modification trait):
Explosives 20 (for Accelerant-Packed Turrets – they won’t just be a bit squishy, they’ll be explosively so.)
Firearms 0
Inventions 30 (Metal-Plated Turrets, Autotool Installation and Rifled Turret Barrels; might be a lame amount of healing and only increase their survivability by a few moments, but they can, in theory, hit harder (it doesn’t show in the tooltip, so I have no idea if it’s actually working))
Alchemy 0
Tools 10 (Deployable Turrets – when they get this fixed, I’ll be a happy little Engineer.)

I generally run with Healing Turret, Rocket Turret, and then I switch the other two slots between Rifle, Flame, Net and Thumper. Elite skill is, of course, Supply Crate. When Deployable Turrets is fixed, Rocket Turret won’t be such a fixture, either; it’s just that Healing and Rocket turrets are the only two Deployable Turrets works with. For weapons, I use either a pair of pistols or pistol and shield. Typically geared up for Toughness.

Most of the strategy of this build comes from making sure you’re aware of where your turrets are, how they’re doing and, of course, how they interact. For example, if you’ve got a Flame and a Thumper turret right next to each other at a choke point, overcharge the Flame to make a smokescreen and then Thump it out – you’ll blind enemies and stealth allies, all while sending foes flying.

My grenade/flamethrower Engineer Build.

Gear – Precision + Power

30/20/0/10/10
- Traits –
Incendiary Powder, Short Fuse, Grenadier
Precise Sights, Napalm Specialist
Invigorating Speed
Speedy Kits

Weapon – Rifle
Healing – Elixir H (Healing turret in Dungeons)
Skill 1 – Elixir B
Skill 2 – Flamethrower
Skill 3 – Grenade Kit
Elite – Mist fire Wolf, Golems or Supply Crate depending upon situation.

I tend to use the mist fire wolf when Soloing. I can solo just fine on my engineer, it’s not very hard. You just want to keep on kiting and keep your enemy off of with you with the #3 Flamethrower, #4 Rifle skill. Freeze grenades + Grenade toolkit (7 nades) is a good opener. Switch to rifle, Net Shot, trigger Incendiary Ammo, over charge shot them back. Switch to flamethrower, use #1 on it, when enemy is close, #3. You can keep on doing this till enemy is dead.

People underestimate grenades because you can toss them just behind you as well if an enemy is following you and more than likely they get hit by all three.

Since you are looking for a solo PvE leveling build, I will share my secret.

This is not quite the faceroll build you may find with Necros or Guardians, but it can and will let you take on 5+ mobs at a time and win, or take down Vets and even Champions with a bit of work.

The key to this build is more about rotation and less about gear and skills. I will only list the required kits to pull this off and recommended gear – you can mix and match the other skills at will.

Heal: I recommend Healing Kit, but it’s up to you.
Utility 1: Grenade Kit
Utility 2: Bomb Kit
Utility 3: Any, I personally use Rifle turret for the quick toolbelt attack.
Elite: Any, I recommend Supply Drop just because it’s so much better than everything else.

Gear and Stats: Stack as much power/precious/crit damage as you can – the best defense is a good offense when leveling.
Traits: Max explosives as much as you can, 10 for speedy kits, then the rest is up to you. You can put them into Firearms for more crit, or Alchemy for more survivability.

Pull method: Use grenades to pull as many mobs as you are comfortable with, position yourself so that all would reach you at around the same time. Use any kind of grenades you wish during the pull, but save #3. When mobs are about to enter melee range, start your rotation.

Rotation: Grenade #3, Bomb #3, Bomb #4, Bomb #2, Bomb #5, Big One, Spam Bomb #1.

Nothing should be alive after Big One goes off, but if they are, you have a few choices:

1) Run around in a small circle spamming Bomb #1 until everything dies.
2) Switch back to Grenades, use #4, and kite.
3) Use Grenade Barrage so everything dies.

This is a medium risk, high reward playstyle that will chew through mobs in no time at all.

This method can be used from level 20 onward, and is pretty unstoppable unless you are facing a ton of ranged mobs, in which case just take on 1-2 at a time with grenades + grenade barrage + rifle until you find more melee mobs to bomb.

Oddly, my main is an Engineer and I mostly solo-ed all the way through to 80. I found she can handle multiple mobs rather well. My alts are a thief and a guardian which I find not as versatile as an Engineer.

I was running a condition p/p build, with a flamethrower kit and 2 elixirs and/or turrets all the way to Orr which I then switch to pistol/shield. Solo-ing veterans and certain lower level event champions are very much doable.

When I hit 80, being bored with the pistol build, I switched over to rifle/grenade build and never looked back.

EDIT:
small tips btw:
1. supply crate is exceptional in handling overwhelming mobs and life saving.
2. On pistol/flamethrower build, you have 2 blinds (pistol and flamethower), and 1 pushback (flamethower).
3. deploying healing turret and quickly picking it up back reduces its cooldown to around 16 seconds(?).
4. on rifle/grenade build – perfect kiting combo. Net shot from rifle, and then turn to grenade’s chill (#4) and continue bombarding with your grenades till the mob reached you – switch back to rifle for pushback (#4) or continue to net (#2) while walking backwards.
5. Add in Net turret, you can have up to 5 immobilizer at a given time against a single enemy.
6. Elixirs.

I played a bit with all the kits while leveling up. I found bombs to be quite good at PvE. Just get some power/crit and run in circles with them, the melee mobs will follow you and wont be able to hit you, and the ranged mobs will sit there and let you blow them up.

For WvW, I quite like my grenade/rifle build. Keeps people off walls, keeps them off gates, and massacres the kindhearted people trying to rez their friends. And if I have to single target something I can always pull out my rifle and take them out.

Some good advice here guys thanks a lot. I see a lot of people recommend using more than one kit which I never really thought about. I guess I am so use to just having 2 weapon sets I never thought of using grenades at range bombs up close and swapping back to rifle/pistol for some more control. Some good build ideas as well I am eager to give them a shot. Thanks for the help.

That’s the engineer for you: a kit for every situation. Switching kits effectively in the middle of combat is the difference between struggling and being comfortably in control.

It’s just not a guardian where you can grab a hammer and treat everything like a nail. I play both classes and Engi takes more work and planning ahead of fights, but it’s heaps of fun.

I’m 67 now on mine and as far back as I can remember (whenever I had access to everything) I’ve been going Rifle with grenade kit, flamethrower and throw mine as my utilities. Healing kit as my heal with traits in firearms and alchemy, and 10 in tools for the permaswiftness. It basically makes me incredibly versatile as I have very strong single target dps and control with rifle, and AE options with both grenades and flamethrower. The mine gives additional control – I can juggle a single melee target permanently (it will never strike me).

I swap out the flamethrower and mine for Elixir S and Slick Shoes in WvW.

@OP, sorry but “running solo was not an option” is utter BS to say it simple.

I soloed every map. Every map i did i completed 100% of it including all Orr maps and did so rather easily.

Soloing is very very possible and quite easy at that too.

Killyox.3950:

@OP, sorry but “running solo was not an option” is utter BS to say it simple.

I soloed every map. Every map i did i completed 100% of it including all Orr maps and did so rather easily.

Soloing is very very possible and quite easy at that too.

Clearly you didn’t read my post. When I said running solo was not an option i was refering to sPvP. And I also said with the builds I was using.

Fixeon.5076:

Killyox.3950:

@OP, sorry but “running solo was not an option” is utter BS to say it simple.

I soloed every map. Every map i did i completed 100% of it including all Orr maps and did so rather easily.

Soloing is very very possible and quite easy at that too.

Clearly you didn’t read my post. When I said running solo was not an option i was refering to sPvP. And I also said with the builds I was using.

Runnng solo in sPvP is also an option. You just need proper build. Question is; why would you like to run solo if zerg yields a lot more points? That and also meeting enemy zerg doesn’t end well for your health

Pick up a good build and you can run around solo stomping people. I often win 1v2 1v3.

I use the default key mapping. I know I should really change it but I am just so lazy. In PVE I have been very successful with all my builds it did not matter whether I went all kits, pistols, pistol and shield or rifle. Sure some work better then other. The key to my success is controlling the battle. I use what ever crowd control I have and will run when needed. I often take on 2 – 4 at once although I prefer 1 on 1. In groups when I attack the boss/veteran mob, it will often ignore the thieves, warriors and guardians can come running at me. So i must be doing something to kitten it off I think it is called damage

All that said I have notice that if you build for X you will be vulnerable to Y. For example in my current build I have only 1 cleanser skill. so conditions can be tough for me to deal with over an extended battle. However I only die now if I do something stupid or get a bad spawn. you know when you are fighting 3 and another spawn happens.

My build is a Rifle/Gadget build with focus to precision/power. in PVE and WWW I have a 83% chance to crit on the move and a 93% chance when standing still. So I have no issue out there.

For the record I have never done sPVP

Nepocrates.3642:

…PVE I have been very successful with all my builds it did not matter whether I went all kits, pistols, pistol and shield or rifle…

This! I have been p/p conditions + exlirs with Coated Bullets, Quad-kitted and (current) power/prec/crit dmg Rifle/grenade/elixir build. All of them quite capable of holding their own against multiple mobs and Vets. You may lack the stopping power of a Guardian or Warrior but what you gain is versatility in spades.

One thing I think players coming from other MMOs are still having trouble with is that you cannot ignore defense stats no matter what class you play. You either need to trait into defense or dedicate some gear slots to it. For me, I usually go with 2 – 4 jewelry slots dedicated to defense depending on how heavily I am invested into defensive traits.

Wall of text incoming, 4 points TLDR the following post:

I felt the same way initially, with the class being squishier in solo play than it should be, but it turned out it was just how I played it and me not really liking the builds I was trying and therefore playing them poorly.

In the 30-60 stretch, with a FT/rifle condition build and cheapo gear from quests/drops and sub 1s TP purchases I was able to do well in dungeons and solo picking up multiple mobs (upwards of 4 or 5 when going through tunnels) and soloing veterans and a couple of champions.
The only real issue tends to be with 3 or more high dps ranged mobs, at which point my squishyness made it too close a call more often than not.

Because of doing story and crafting regularly I was usually doing renown and story a couple levels above mine, never below, and again had no issue.

One on one, if you’re not in a hurry, you can’t be touched.
Melee mobs you just snare and pepper with the rifle backpedalling if you have the space. Ranged mobs you use FT up to a couple at a time you just go close in and personal so that #3 and #5 will affect both.

It really isn’t that hard, you just got to get used to using your elixirs on CD and swap kits appropriately.

Melee 1v1: rifle #1, net as soon as it’s done casting, couple shots land, backpedal until they are a third of your range away, #3 (will hit when they are by you), #4, keep shooting, they will be dead before they reach you again. If they are veterans, have gap closers, or are three levels above, net again when it’s off CD (it will be at that point) and rinse and repeat.

Melee 1v2:Same as above, but move more keep them lined up, pepper the one not netted (rifle pierces), then #4 the one closing in, and you might need to dodge once or twice.
Switch to FT and #3 and/or #5 when they are both close and spray them.

Learn what your damage is and when the mobs will die, you can easily take a hit or two, so taking a couple hits as you finish them with FT is fine and better than kiting your way into another pack.

Buff yourself constantly as it’s off CD, don’t worry about saving it or maximising it, and make sure you switch between oil and condition removal before engaging depending on what mob you’re about to go against.

Melee 3v1: This is where oil and grenades are insanely good, but oil and FT is just fine too.
Kite them in circle and when they are clumped around you #5 with your FT then backpedal trailing oil, use that to get some distance, FT will damage all three at the same time.
Or if you feel like grenades you can kite at full speed (and not reduced backpedalling or messy strifing), oil them and leave trails of snares and aoe and with autotarget just spam grenades at your feet while circle kiting.

I’ve taken care of literally ALL the spiders on the second champion in TA this way with mediocre pugs that took ages to dps the boss, this means kiting and killing 4 to 12 mobs at a time.

Range 1v1: You can easily dps race any range up to three levels above with just one interrupt and one smoke.
If the area is crowded or they are high damage and have no melee range cc abilities: go close and personal with FT, learn to interrupt with #3 (don’t waste it for range), and as soon as you do follow it with a #2, then close the gap again and smoke their first big hitting ability you can’t interrupt.

Use your heal AS SOON as you’re down by the amount it heals, don’t wait ’til almost dead, it also gives you a boon.

range 1v2: if they are close, same as above, just move so you flame both at the same time, then move inbetween for the blinds, you will dps race both just fine up to a couple levels above.

range 1v3: this gets hairy, and you will have to kit swap and try to outrange one after netting it and cc/interrupt/push the rest.

If it’s a crowded area or you risk kiting into hard respawns, avoid engaging, or use your elite crate on one, stand in the circle, and try to damage two at a time and position yourself accordingly. Be ready to vacate the premises fast though, because your turrets will attack respawns or newcomers indiscriminately and get you mauled by packs in the dozens.

All in all I think the people struggling don’t realize four or five important rules:
1) Two or three mobs at a time make no difference damage wise witha rifle/FT/grenade setup. If your positioning is good you will damage all by the same amount at the same time, you only take more damage, which can be taken care of by well timed pushes and blinds and alternating cc between the targets as your shots deal damage to all.

2) Elixir ON CD. Buff early, buff as soon as they’re up, and heal soon. When solo world PvEing don’t save them for special occasions, high uptime beats coordinating them with a big shot by a long stretch. We have nothing usable quickly and solo that does so much more damage that they are worth syncing.

3) You CAN take on multiple mobs even without toughness or vitality if you position them well, your smoke will blind anything wacking on you even midcast without resetting your cast.

4) Knowing the mobs and switching one or two things (FT with grenades and shoes with condition removal) to have an appropriate skill for the encounter only takes a second, and will make a specific mob type tenfold easier or harder.

5) You have toolbelt skills, USE THEM.
F1 and F2 on CD will buff you too, they aren’t for group use only. Down by a sliver or hp? F1. F2 in your path while moving and not doing significant damage will get you a buff. Even if already buffed, use it, they stack.
Moving and using the FT? Use that F3 so you will apply burns as well.
Engineer doesn’t have 8k single shot damaging skills, but you can add up a lot of stuff while being mobile.

It will be a lot more fun and feel a lot more involved and technical once you get the hang of those, and right now, some annoying bugs aside, I feel it’s the profession I like playing the best when soloing areas, it’s got such a good flow and it’s 100% in your control, without having to wait for a 5th hit or preparing the ground for each fight, while constantly moving through the area.
Give it a fair shot, you might end up liking it.

All of the above going down firearms, then alchemy, then explosives, and only applies to PvE FT with secondary Grenades kit for clump kiting.