Guild Wars 2

I wont go into specific problems as to what skills are not working or what skills are bugged. There are plenty of threads about those problems.

I will however just go ahead and say that this class is in serious need of some love.

Im a bit of an altholic. I have not bought an extra character slot, but I do have all original character slots filled.

My main toon is a warrior (lvl 65). My alts are a Elementalist (lvl ~22), Guardian (lvl 2 but I got it to level ~25 in beta), Necromancer (lvl 22), and Engineer (lvl 34).

Out of all those, i enjoy all of them except for the Necromancer….they just dont really seem very Necromancery….though i suspect they also need some love.

My main problem with the Engineer is that they either dont do enough dmg….or they die too quickly. My current build is using rifle, grenades, and bombs. I have found using turrets useless as they die too quickly. http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#McMM9czmaoNMmaowMVVV0ao Once i get to lvl 80. I was planning something like this. http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#McMM9czmaoNMmaowMxGa0aVRqoVVo

I have put traits into Explosives, Firearms, Inventions, and Tools. I wanted to go for a balanced spec….which doesnt seem to be working at all. My Ele and Warrior are also running a balanced spec and isnt having survivalbility problems. My Warrior specially owns everything. My Ele puts out enough dmg to survive group encounters (sometimes i die, but usually i am in control over it through the skills given to me, and or strategy). My engi?? Its just sad. Groups of enemies?? 50/50 survival chance. If there are at least two ranged enemies….i might as well run away. One ranged boss (like a skill point challenge)? probably will need help from another class to beat it.

The only place where the my engi shines is if….enemies are not attacking me, but then, what class doesnt? Oh and i almost forgot about the extremely overpowered grenades in underwater combat….which i love but understandably will be put in line in future updates. So what does the engi do that another class cannot do better? nothing. OK, i lie, probably aoe dmg….until all of a sudden, all enemies decide they love me too much and own your butt in a couple of hits. Please keep in mind that my gear also reflects the kind of spec i want. Some of my rings, some of my accessories, and my boots have toughness and vitality on them, the rest being power/precision.

I have done a lot of research into different specs players are running. Mines do not seem too weird.

So either im playing this class terribly wrong….or this class is terribly broken. I would love some feedback as to how others are playing this class and their respective specs. I am not planning anytime soon to play a support spec. How do you think this class compares to other classes? My warrior for example does everything better than my engi, except for support heals and aoe.

At lower levels I’d think flamethrower is better, precisely because it’s better at handling groups defensively. Flame blast devastates ranged enemies (the trick is to hit the ranged with both the penetration and explosion), use that and a fire wall and you can focus on melee mobs (which if you lure them close to the ranged mobs lets you burn them all together). Air blast and smoke vent to give yourself enough time to burn them down.

At your level I was running firearms 10 (precise sights) inventions 10 (metal plating), using the capability of flamethrowers to rapidly stack crit effects to burn things down.

I wreck face in PVE. Ran some dungeons today and on more than one occassion was the only one left standing to avoid a boss reset.

Then I have been speccing and gearing for survivability instead of damge.

More damage is great and all, but you cant do any damage if your dead or running back in.

Engineers can do plenty of damage with the grenade kit. The problem is obviously that ground targetting is extremely clunky game play for anything that isn’t stand and DPS. As soon as you or your target moves, it becomes extremely difficult to play.

I dunno if it’s normal for all professions, but I’ve been able to solo skill challenge fights with multiple enemies that were 3 levels above my lil’ ol engineer, using only turrets (including the supply drop). And I have not even gotten to the point where I look at actual armor builds (still at a phase where I just put on whatever I find that gives me the highest armor rating). So I certainly don’t feel like I’m very underpowered in PvE.

I think they should reduce the Turret “auto taunt”. Mobs seem to swarm the turret as soon as you lay it, getting destroyed nearly instantly. It works well with the Thumper Turret though, which turns it into a neat emergency tank. But for other turrets, I think maybe reduce the aggro a bit. Just my 2c.

I’ve been having a lot of success with doing damage/support in dungeons. Just taking elixer gun for the AoE heals can help keep a group up a lot longer.

I didn’t have any real problems with my engineer at lower levels, but at about lvl 55 I noticed things were simply hitting me so hard I could only take a couple hits before Iwas downed and that my turrets were being one-shot by everything. as a direct response to this I specced for defense and starting using a pistol and a shield. My survivability only went up marginally and my damage fell to unreasonably low levels. So I specced into a more support role and gave up doing any real damage and went on to do even worse healing and buffing.

Final points: I love the engineer, they are a barrel of fun. They are overall much weaker than all the other classes, however.

I don’t really think that engineers have any problems with survival. You can’t take too many hits, but you’r not really supposed to take them either. You just need to kite, kite, kite, and then kite some more, just to be sure. I guess it’s a matter of preffered palystyle and some people might not like running all the time. I also didn’t noticed turrets being as useless as people claim. They tend to go down quite fast if focused by mobs, but overall they often stay up for the entire fight for me. Main problem with them is not how long they stay, but thae fact that they like to fire on random targets and invite more friends into the fight. Still, using 2 turrets, granade kit and either rifle or pistol + shield I dont have any problems dealing with 3-4 mobs at once and even 6-7 are doable, though that can be pretty close.

Other than that, looking at OPs builds i’d drop med kit and bomb kit. For med kit, when soloing you’ll get more benefit from other healing skills and in groups most of the time you’ll be better off with elixir gun anyway. Bombs are also sittuational, if you’r running around with granades (witch are good on thier own and broken good with final trait from explosives) you shouldn’t need them. Replace bombs with some extra utility, like rocket boots for more kiting.

Also as mentioned earlyer, give flamethrower a try. Personaly I don’t like it, but a lot of people do, and I admitt it can be really efective. Especially if you need to deal with groups of mobs at once.

galeigh.5721:

…my turrets were being one-shot by everything.

Turrets are currently in a bad place, they could use some love.

galeigh.5721:

as a direct response to this I specced for defense and starting using a pistol and a shield. My survivability only went up marginally…

That shouldn’t be the case. Maybe you aren’t timing your shield cooldowns properly and/or are still in pure glass cannon gear from when you were rifle or dual pistol.

galeigh.5721:

…and my damage fell to unreasonably low levels.

From personal experience, I find you can’t just depend on the pistol for your dps if you are going pistol/shield after the early levels and speccing into Inventions. By this point you should have unlocked a few kits, start using them. My rule of thumb is if I’m in pistol/shield, both poison dart volley and static shot are on cooldown, and I’m not in immediate need of one of the shield skills, then I should swap to another kit for dmg (recommend bombs, even tool kit’s wrench auto attack will do more than the pistol auto attack). This is assuming you can close the gap to do the dmg in the first place.

galeigh.5721:

So I specced into a more support role and gave up doing any real damage and went on to do even worse healing and buffing.

:( Chin up, bucko. Engineers can still do great dmg even if they spec purely into survivability (and this goes for several other classes too, if not all).

I think they should reduce the Turret “auto taunt”. Mobs seem to swarm the turret as soon as you lay it, getting destroyed nearly instantly. It works well with the Thumper Turret though, which turns it into a neat emergency tank. But for other turrets, I think maybe reduce the aggro a bit. Just my 2c.

I completely agree. Most of the time my turrets last all of 3 seconds before being destroyed. That and the absolutely infuriating bug where turrets attack invisible targets instead of the mobs has really turned me off to them.

I ended up abandoning turrets in favor of elixirs. They are far more utilitarian.

I feel very effective in PVE with my glass cannon build, grenades and healing turret.

galeigh.5721:

…my turrets were being one-shot by everything.

I call shenanigans. I am okay is posters feel turrets are under powered, but this is just a out right lie. I used turrets through this level, I have used them off and all through all level ranges. I have yet to find a level range in which everything one shots my turrets at all. Veterans do not “one shot” them at any level range.

Sure turrets need some work. But just because they are not for you, there is no reason to over exaggerate to a ridiculous level. If we want the devs to take needs of the class seriosly, posters need to start posting facts about the profession to get needed and accurate adjustments. Because over zealous knee jerk exaggerations like this simply makes it difficult for the dev team to take the request seriously, when it comes to the needs of the class.

To updade my topic:

I changed my spec into a flamethrower/survival spec. I found it in this forum i believe http://www.gw2build.com/builds/engineer-the-way-of-the-flamethrower-pve-engineer-pve-flamethrower-5716.html

Overall, im am much more effective than my old leveling spec. I might go grenadier once i get to 80….as i find low level grenade specs lacking too much….not to mention how horrible it is to usually aim with the grenades.

I still have come to the conclusion that this class needs work. Flamethrower misses a lot….and even more infuriating to me is the number 2 skill always missing, blocked, or just plain dissapearing into the ground without exploding.

Right now im doing quests in the 30-40 area (forget what its called) and while this spec is definitely better than what i was using….it still leaves a lot to be desired. Why? cuz my main is a Warrior. I just cant help but compare the two of them. The warrior is just so much better atm. I rolled through this place with my Warrior….with my Engi? Not so much. Every mob is a serious battle where i have to use all my skills to survive.

Maybe the Engi gets better as they level. Im definitely looking forward to a lot of the trait skills. Though i have a pretty big suspicion that Anet is not done balancing the classes. Hence why they have decided to open up the suggestion forums, classes, etc.

You are comparing a straight up damage class (a melee one no less) to a utility class and wondering why you don’t plow through things? Melee does more damage then ranged by design.

I leveled myself as a Firearms/Elixer spec condition damage engineer with pistol/shield and I never had any trouble at all. I could kite/block/reflect/blind on top of knowing when to evade, all the while whittling their health down steadily with poison/bleed/confusion. I felt extremely flexible in engaging any sort of opponent. When I finally got to Orr, I could solo most of the zone while other classes were complaining about being flattened (I even managed to solo a champion mob, though it took a while).

Engineer is just a tricky class to play. We will never do as much straight up damage as a warrior/elementalist/thief. But I think the class can holds its own in other areas just fine.

A somewhat boring way to run around pve is -30% turret damage taken and turret self repair, my thumper was outhealing veterans. Though maybe that stops working near the end, I didn’t run that build too long, the reset time each time I picked up my turret was just too annoying.

I completely disagree with the title. With my build I have no problem pulling groups of mobs with a veteran that have over 3-4 levels more than me. I use grenade and bomb kit with full explosions and inventions trait lines. I make a LOT of damage and can also heal myself and the others that are close using the bomb kit.

BTW I am level 74
My build: http://tinyurl.com/9m72nt9

leviathan.2148:

I completely disagree with the title. With my build I have no problem pulling groups of mobs with a veteran that have over 3-4 levels more than me. I use grenade and bomb kit with full explosions and inventions trait lines. I make a LOT of damage and can also heal myself and the others that are close using the bomb kit.

BTW I am level 74
My build: http://tinyurl.com/9m72nt9

Problem is that he’s still under level 40, and hence a far way from getting all the traits to help with survivability. At his level, a flamethrower would still let him survive better, frankly.

Psaakyrn.5794:

leviathan.2148:

I completely disagree with the title. With my build I have no problem pulling groups of mobs with a veteran that have over 3-4 levels more than me. I use grenade and bomb kit with full explosions and inventions trait lines. I make a LOT of damage and can also heal myself and the others that are close using the bomb kit.

BTW I am level 74
My build: http://tinyurl.com/9m72nt9

Problem is that he’s still under level 40, and hence a far way from getting all the traits to help with survivability. At his level, a flamethrower would still let him survive better, frankly.

True, but still I find grenades more suitable for survivability than flamethrower because you have a very long range and do not need to stay close. Sure it is harder to play with them because of the aoe targetting but when he learns to do it he can kite easily and produce a massive damage. And that is the goal of this thread isn’t it?

leviathan.2148:

Psaakyrn.5794:

leviathan.2148:

I completely disagree with the title. With my build I have no problem pulling groups of mobs with a veteran that have over 3-4 levels more than me. I use grenade and bomb kit with full explosions and inventions trait lines. I make a LOT of damage and can also heal myself and the others that are close using the bomb kit.

BTW I am level 74
My build: http://tinyurl.com/9m72nt9

Problem is that he’s still under level 40, and hence a far way from getting all the traits to help with survivability. At his level, a flamethrower would still let him survive better, frankly.

True, but still I find grenades more suitable for survivability than flamethrower because you have a very long range and do not need to stay close. Sure it is harder to play with them because of the aoe targetting but when he learns to do it he can kite easily and produce a massive damage. And that is the goal of this thread isn’t it?

Yup, when i went with the grenade spec i linked at the beginning…i was looking for a high dmg build where dmg is your survivability. Unfortunately, it is not so for lower level engineers. My dmg output was just completely sad with a low level grenade spec.

i play with rifle, i have full exotic berserkers gear, and my biggest problem is that i have more attack and power than some of my mates on for example elementalist, warrior ranger, pretty much any class, and they still do more dmg with auto attacks even tho i have more attack/power. and when you play with rifle, it has great skillset but autoattacks is kinda only dmg source, you dont have dmg booster in terms of aoe, or attack speed etc. i see people talking about granades etc, but i they do like 500 dmg ? thats pretty sucky compared to elementalists dmg for aoe lol

Most fanboys forget to mention that they are Grenadiers. There’s quite a few of us who don’t like the Grenade Kit and we all struggle. I for one wanted to wield a Gun when I rolled Engi, but it’s seems that was a mistake…

Baro.3549:

Most fanboys forget to mention that they are Grenadiers. There’s quite a few of us who don’t like the Grenade Kit and we all struggle. I for one wanted to wield a Gun when I rolled Engi, but it’s seems that was a mistake…

I’d honestly prefer things buffed to grenadier levels, rather than that getting beaten down.

Buff rifle damage, buff pistols, buff flamethrower, buff gadgets, buff turrets, buff elixir gun.

I haven’t had any problems at all, rifle/flamethrower with the option to go grenades for events (and underwater of course).

You can’t faceroll stuff like a warrior (or my guardian) of course, but I wasn’t expecting to be able to out of this class. It takes a bit more finesse.

coglin.1496:

galeigh.5721:

…my turrets were being one-shot by everything.

I call shenanigans. I am okay is posters feel turrets are under powered, but this is just a out right lie. I used turrets through this level, I have used them off and all through all level ranges. I have yet to find a level range in which everything one shots my turrets at all. Veterans do not “one shot” them at any level range.

Sure turrets need some work. But just because they are not for you, there is no reason to over exaggerate to a ridiculous level. If we want the devs to take needs of the class seriosly, posters need to start posting facts about the profession to get needed and accurate adjustments. Because over zealous knee jerk exaggerations like this simply makes it difficult for the dev team to take the request seriously, when it comes to the needs of the class.

While the statement IS an exaggeration, it’s not as much of one as you think. My turrets are one-shotted often while I am in dungeons by the stronger mobs. In PvP they might as well be since they die instantly from being focused.

The statement was there to simply imply that a turrets life-span is extremely short. Which it is.