Guild Wars 2

Hey, I have recently started to level up an engineer and have some questions about the class. Here are a few things about me and what I want to get out of my engineer.

- I have a level 80 Warrior, Thief, Guardian, and Mesmer, and have spent ~1700 hours total.
- I am mostly looking for builds that excel in general PvE (Dungeons and Open World included) and Zerg v. Zerg (50+ players) WvW.

Questions are as follows:

Do engineers have “mandatory” trait investments like the Warrior (15 in Discipline) or Mesmer (5 in Illusions, 5 in Dueling)?

What are some commonly used Engineer builds, and what trait lines are most frequently used?

What are some important bugs I need to know about the class?

What utility skills should I prioritize spending points on? Which utility skills are considered the most versatile?

What are the roles of each of the Engineer’s kits?

My answer to you would be to try leveling up the engineer on your own and figure out what works for you. Once you hit 80, you would have probably found what kits work for you.
I’m sure there will be lots of people either telling you to go grenade kit or HGH elixir builds. Grenades spam dps and conditions like crazy and HGH elixir builds stack might like crazy. I think if you were focused purely on sPvP, then maybe a very focused build is worth considering. I honestly don’t use either and stick to my dual pistols and elixir gun and do just fine.

As for mandatory traits, I would suggest 10 points in Tools for Swift Kits. Allows for perma swiftness by constantly switching from weapons to any kit.

Do engineers have “mandatory” trait investments like the Warrior (15 in Discipline) or Mesmer (5 in Illusions, 5 in Dueling)? 10 in tools traitline for speedy kits. (Perma swiftness)
What are some commonly used Engineer builds, and what trait lines are most frequently used? *Its hard to say, I see engineers with different builds all the time. Though I can say people rarely invest more than 10 in tools since the rest of the traits are usually bad for that line. *

What are some important bugs I need to know about the class? Rifle skills are unreliable: Net shot will miss on any uneven ground, blunderbuss will go on cd without firing if your opponent moves even a bit to your side and jump shot has a landing delay.
What utility skills should I prioritize spending points on? Which utility skills are considered the most versatile? Umm to start maybe pick up elixir u and grenade kit for the t1 traits
What are the roles of each of the Engineer’s kits?
Grenades: Aoe condition
Med kit: Healing and support (Though mostly used on self)
Bomb kit: Kiting/ Anti melee
Flamethrower: ???
Elixir Gun: condition dmg wep/ support
Tool kit: A little of everything

Thanks guys. The 10 on tools is definitely very useful – I love being able to run/explore faster.

Speedy Kits is only “mandatory” if you use a kit otherwise it does nothing.

Here’s some notable and powerful traits from various lines, (aside from the obvious Speedy Kits). None of them a necessary in every build, like speedy kits tends to be, but most of our builds revolve around at least one of the following traits:

==Static Discharge (tools) fires an bouncing lightning bolt whenever you use a toolbelt skill, for best results use with Toolkit and Rifle Turret.

==HGH (Alchemy) gives you 2 stacks of might whenever you use an elixir, great in elixir heavy builds and paired with Grenades.

==Cleansing Formula 409 (Alchemy) causes elixirs to cure conditions

==Grenadier (Explosives) this is the trait that turns grenades into arguably our highest DPS option. Throw 3 grenades instead of 2.

==Juggernaut (Firearms) Makes flamethrower Tankier and causes it to generate might. Great when paired with Deadly Mixture (Alchemy)

==Coated Bullets (Firearms) Causes Pistol shots to pierce, gives P/P or P/S some much needed AOE capabilities.

There are no “mandatory” traits. It all depends on the build, but no trait is mandatory in every build. However, there are mandatory traits to go with certain skills. You’ll have to go 30 into Explosives for Grenades, at least 20 in Firearms for rifles, 30 in Alchemy for HGH, ect.

1) HGH Pistol
2) HGH Grenade
3) Static Burst
4) Mask’s WvW roaming
I can’t think of anything beyond those. The most frequently used tool line would be Alchemy because how much better elixirs are over Gadgets and Turrets,

Flamethrower misses, a lot. The Master Tools trait Scope, doesn’t work. Sometimes Flameblast on the Flamethrower just “Obstructed” for no reason. Oh, and you can’t “throw” things on top of WvW walls. Try tossing an Elixir on top of a Stonemist wall, it won’t register. Thus, Grenades will sometimes fail.

Cleansing Formula 409, Speedy Kits, Incendiary Powder. Usually seen in almost every build.

Damage:
Flamethrower
Grenade Kit

Control:
Bomb Kit
Tool Kit

Support:
Med Kit
Elixir Gun

Regarding Kits:

Bomb Kit is great in either Condition or Power builds, it gives access to burning (great for shield builds) and confusion, control effects from blinds and Cripples, and a very hard hitting autoattack.

Grenade Kit is great for full on damage, whether power or condition, and also boosts team damage through vulnerability. Its main weakness is that it is hard to use.

Toolkit is fantastic, especially in WvW. Auto attack is decent enough, 2 is useful for running away and hindering your opponent, 3 does MASSIVE damage, both in power and condition builds, 4 is a great anti-burst skill if you start getting focused, and 5 can pull people off of walls. Good stuff.

Elixir Gun might have a weak autoattack, but its still useful. 2 bounces and does pretty decent damage, 3 is weak but can clear up to 5 conditions from your entire team. 4 does incredible amounts of damage, so long as you can keep your opponent in one spot. 5 clears a condition and provides an AOE heal. Really shines in dungeons.

Flamethrower is… well its interesting. Its certainly the most fun kit, visually (who doesn’t like setting people on fire?). 2 is a very strong burst skill, 3 is a projectile reflect and a very very low cooldown push. 4 is a long duration fire field: good for stacking might, bad for everything else. 5 is a PBAOE blind. Some people find this kit useless, others swear by it.

I’d recommend trying out everything. Mess around with them as you level and in the mists, try different combinations and see how you can chain skills together.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.2|a.1g.h4.e.1g.h1b|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.71g.1g.71g.1p.71h.1g.71h.1g.b1g.1p.b1g|1n.64.1p.61.1n.64.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|u6ab.a3.0.u2ab.0|39.1|2b.2j.2g.2f.0|e

this is a great pve/wvw build that works extremely well for me. I dont use it for zerg v zerg though, i use it for small scale fights. Because with grenades you have to keep an eye out for retal or else itll really kick you back if u spam.

for traits you could swap out explosive powder trait for enhancing performance for the 3 stacks of might instead if u wanted to.

with boon duration you dont need 10 in toolkit trait line for perma swiftness. You can constantly swap ur healing elixir for medkit and use the stimulant for spd buffs and when ur about to go into combat just swap back, its around 17s per stimulant and elixir, so 34s total for both, stimulant has a CD of 20s. theres ur perma swiftness right there, also you can also use ur toss elixir b which has a 25% chance for another 17s swiftness.

Thanks guys, this is all really great stuff. I can’t wait to hit 80 on my engineer and see how all of these work at full strength.

I find the Rifled Barrels trait in Firearms to be pretty much indispensable for my P/P build in WvW. It allows me to shoot from a greater distance, which I find valuable when firing up at walls or down from walls. It may be psychological, but it works for me.

Soon.5240:

I find the Rifled Barrels trait in Firearms to be pretty much indispensable for my P/P build in WvW. It allows me to shoot from a greater distance, which I find valuable when firing up at walls or down from walls. It may be psychological, but it works for me.

Agreed. In WvW, the extra range is great for staying alive when using P/P. I also carry an elixir gun and it gets the same range as a rifle now so I can harass players with condition crit procs before they can close the distance.