Guild Wars 2

Engineers are amazing in DPS and support. However, something i noticed while playing is that we are the only class that seems to have a balanced defensive spells. The main classes that i feel are balanced in defensive skills are elementalist, engineer, and ranger. Whenever im fighting a enemy class that isn’t those three, they have all these insane defensive spells and knockbacks, even while they are down! Thiefs seem to have a large amount of skills that give them a great amount of escape, warriors block without a shield on (greatsword spell i believe) and can go invulnerable while still being able to inflict large amounts of DPS, guardians do the same blocking and invulnerable but they can heal quite a lot, mesmers have invsi and clones/phantasms, necros have the death shroud (which is pretty balanced, but still they can inflict a great amount of dps while in it).

Engineers do have some awesome defensive spells, but they are balanced. We have the shrink spell, but we can’t use our weapon skills and it doesn’t last that long. We have stun breakers, but they mostly give dps advantages or dodges. Our invsi is a random thing.

Now I may just suck, wouldn’t be surprised. If i am doing it wrong, can someone give me some pointers?

P.S – though slick shoes can be a great dps thing, since most of the time people either run, go invsi, or invulnerable to it i dont find it nearly as good as to what the other classes push out.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but engineers are one of the few classes that can maintain 100% vigor and swiftness through traits. That right there is plenty of survivablity for me

yeah, but that isn’t a viable thing. With the slowdown of combat and gap closers every class has, it is mostly only good if your running supplies in WvW or some other one that requires you to just run and not fight a lot.

I’ve gotta disagree. Engi’s have a ton of survivability. If you are running a damage build, you can run Elixir R for self rez/stun break or Elixir S for stunbreak/stomp confirm/rez assistance, both of which ALSO add a good deal of support. Additionally, Engineers are one of the best bunker professions in the game, making use of the shield, toolkit, and a host of CC from kits/gadgets. One example is the 4-Kit build shown below:

While they are good at bunkering and support they still don’t have the defensive capabilities of the classes i previously mentioned when rolling a DPS build.

@Deified.7520
I think that’s kind of the point. Engies, unlike other classes, are more traditional sort of hybrid. You can tailor your skills/equips/traits to be extremely proficient at one thing at a time. Other classes has a bit of everything rolled into each build, but all of their builds ultimately do the same. Guardians may spec for more DPS, but their ultimate purpose will still be defensive, etc. Engy, however, can tank, or be a ranged DPS, or be a CCer. Just not all things at the same time.

We survive through our extreme amount of hard and soft control. We have access to more than half of the Launch abilities in the game (7/12 total) and have THE shortest Launch cooldown in the game.

In a single build, I can have two launches, 1 immobolize, 1 knockback, 1 knockdown, 1 cripple. All on relatively short cooldowns.

So yeah, we “tank” differently than other professions and that’s something to get used to. Warriors have their armor/HP, Guardians have their defensive spells, Rangers have pets, Mesmers have clones, Necromancers have Death Shroud, Elementalist have Earth/Water Attunement, and Thieves have dodging. Everyone does it a bit differently and I personally enjoy how Engineer does it.

My only problem with engineer tanking..
High latency (playing from outside of the US) makes it kitten near impossible to do.

Whell i can only agree, trough i like to play Enginer as long range, Dmg, or Support. I dont dump all my traits only on dmg trough. But still get destroyed by some mesmers in like 3 sec somethimes.
I must also add, bunker builds are totally unfun, besides when you think how op you are, its boring and crappy looking and to wird to give a decent feeling.

Not to add, most ppl hate shields and some kits. I would personally not use anything beside granade kit.

Nekroseth.5186:

Not to add, most ppl hate shields and some kits.

Personally, I feel like you making a purely speculative assumption based on your own opinion here, with absolutely zero facts to base that on, but that is just me. Some people hate some kits, some people hate all kits. But to claim most people hate the shield as a whole, is definently a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

As well, you have to keep in mind, that just because you feel certain play styles or roles to play are dull, does not mean it is the general consensus.

“As well, you have to keep in mind, that just because you feel certain play styles or roles to play are dull, does not mean it is the general consensus.”

Yes i agree, but its not something 100%. Since your opinion can be the same as the curent or all times general concensus.
Besides, there are many players who have resons, to base there opinions. Like a history of RPG gaming or Fantasy video games. Or overall, fantasy literature.

The whole reson, Gw2 was not souch a big hit even if the game itself was totally amazing and feels next gen. And that is the fact, that classes are to new stream, and lack Classical aproach. Which would have been good. Since most rpg, or mmorpg players like the and wait classical classes. and even the classical ones lack since, you cant costumize your gameplay, for the reson : weapons have a fixed skillset, and you are forced to use what you can, instead of what you like. But lets skip the indepth anaylise if the class skill weapon concept.

I use the elixir gun and Asuran racial radiation field, and the big golem cooldown. I have no trouble surviving multiple accidental pulled mobs while dishing out damage.

I’d give you an idea of what I do, but it mostly consists of panicked button pressing.

Defied i understand where your coming from. I think the professions you mentioned make it more clear on how they are defencive. I’m not sure what mode of play your going after but keep in mind you have a lot of cc built into your weapons. Bouncing blind, knockback, net…several things that knockback pulse ae blind etc on several of our abilitys. We have access to two blocks (3 if they’re ranged as both shield abilitys will block all incoming damage from ranged another from toolkit). And just several ways to make the other person unhappy. We also get some pretty good traits to add defencive boons like protection when crit or protection when cc’d invis when cc’d etc etc.

So i guess what i’m saying is i think engineer you just have to dig a little deeper (and possibly have to do more) to get the same results but i beleive you can be very difficult to kill. Maybe later if you add me and i’m on we can spvp a bit and i could give you more pointers. Dont think your making a bad arguement, just think you might not have explored some things to their full potential as we have many many control abilitys and endurance regen abilitys.

Bouncing blind, knockback, net…several things that knockback pulse ae blind etc on several of our abilitys. We have access to two blocks (3 if they’re ranged as both shield abilitys will block all incoming damage from ranged another from toolkit). And just several ways to make the other person unhappy.

The thing is, you also have to keep in mind what other classes can do. Like you mention we have access to 2 blocks. Well, a Scepter/Sword Mesmer has access to 2 blocks as well. First one can double as a blind in a line (secondary skill), and creates a clone on a successful block. The second block also creates a clone, and as secondary has a line daze. And the cooldowns? 12 seconds and 15 seconds without any traits.

We have the ability to deflect projectiles, on 30 sec CD. Well, Mesmer’s Temporal Curtain can be traited to do the same thing. Except it doesn’t CC you as well – Engi has to stop and hold the shield up for reflect to work, while Temporal Curtain allows Mesmer to maintain damage. Further, Illusionary Warden (with the same trait as Temporal Curtain) will also reflect projectiles. These 2 abilities have 25 and 20 second cooldowns respectively. The secondary of Temporal Curtain is also an AoE pull/knockdown.

We have Net Shot, on 10 sec CD. Mesmer has Illusionary Leap→Swap on 12 sec CD. Only it also creates a clone, and Leap is a snare while Swap is a root, so it can translate into 4 seconds of hampered movement (2 seconds slow, 2 seconds root), to our Net Shot’s 2 seconds of root, though it has a bit of a range advantage.

And then realize that to get those kits, you give up utility slots. Slots in which a Mesmer can put things like Null Field (removes conditions/boons from people inside the cone for 10 seconds, effectively nullifying condition damage), or Feedback (reflects projectiles for 6 seconds, 40 sec CD) in an area. Coupled with Temporal Curtain and Illusionary Warden that’s three reflects, adding up to about 18 seconds of projectile reflect, with a single trait and a single utility slot. Etc., etc.

In other words, while Engis can do a lot of things to make people unhappy, other classes have plenty of means to make people unhappy as well. Arguably more unhappy.

P.S. This is not a Mesmer whine post, my first 80 was a Mesmer and second 80 was Engineer, so it’s just easier for me to compare and contrast those two since they’re very fresh in my mind.

P.P.S. For some reason the stupid forum won’t let me edit.

Someone else mentioned we have good regen/vigor uptime. But to continue the Mesmer comparison, they can be easily traited to give regen to everyone close to any phantasm. Further, getting regeneration also grants protection. And shatter grants vigor and retaliation if traited for it. Bottom line, you can have an obscene regen/protection/vigor/retaliation uptime. PLUS you can spread them all to all nearby allies with Signet of Inspiration, which is a pretty big game-changer in team combat. The only thing Mesmer is short on is swiftness.

Bottom line – I think I can safely say downing my Mesmer is a whole lot harder than downing my Engineer, considering the amount of stealth and misdirection I cap put forward.

Mesmer is also squishier by default. Less armor very low hp. But mesmer isnt the only arguement the op is making, hes talking about gaurdian/war/mesm/necro.

Also giving up a uility slot for some abilitys makes it sound like its hurting you somehow. Bomb kit (one utility slot) gives you access to a giant AE knockback nuke (combo finisher), pulsing 5 seconds of AE blind (smoke combo field), fire combo field, ae snare/root, etc… No cd to swap between this and your main weapon set mind you, so one utility slot just gave you access to ALL that on the fly.

And i’m sure your better at mesmer than engineer. I cant say the balance of each different class, but i have found no trouble staying alive with my engineer over another profession (minus gaurdian)

Engi has a very effective bunker build. It is not a class I would say is low on the defense.

That said, engi defense is very dependent on the target not having stability. If they do your defense becomes rather poor.

Eng defense definitely needs work feels soo weak in that regard compared to other classes. If they’d just put better traits in inventions line. You spec full defensive with any other class and you notice a big difference in survivability.