Guild Wars 2

Hello all you professional Engineer players So I recently started an engineer and I’m having a blast with it. I love the diversity, the playstyle, and it really feels like you actually DO something, rather than just staying in one weapon and hitting all your skills. I also looked through some builds, set ups, gameplays, etc. So I’m asking you: What kind of playstyle would you recommend? I know I should and I want to figure out my own way of playing, but I would really appreciate some good input on what builds currently are really good in the different modes of the game, if condition does more damage than power, what is really fun to play, which skills are recommendable, and so on.
Thank you in advance

Hey
I main an engineer, and i love it. Theres really so much you can do as an engineer; often when a party misses a particular piece of utility, i can provide it. I play mostly PvE though, so most of my advice is PvE oriented.

My first advice is to disregard the numbers. If you look exclusively at the numbers, they’ll tell you to run grenades and potentially bomb kit. While this is fun for a while, the great thing about engis is their versatility. With so many options, its much more fun (at least to me) if you don’t limit yourself to wha does 100% the most damage. There are a lot of builds you can alterne between that still give reasonable damage while being more fun to play.
My skill bars are usually based around a single kit; at this point this is usually either ala flamethrower or grenades. I almost always have at least one kit on my bar since engi base weapons are pretty lackluster in damage and kits are what make engis fun a lot of the time.
My healing skill in PvE is always healing turret, except in extremely elixir oriented builds. Place, immediately overcharge, and explode when you see the water field generated. The turret and overcharge give nice heal, the water blast finisher adds some extra on top of hat, and the overcharge cures two conditions, too.
As mentioned above, my first skill is usually either the grenade or FT kit. FT just got a big buff imo, which im really liking. For FT, I pair it with a rifle. Rifle 3-4-5 and FT 2 give a nice burst of damage, and rifle 3 and FT 2 are on short cooldowns. Pretty fun to play, and doesn’t need ground targeting like grenades do. Keep the blast finisher on your FT in mind with the fire fields and your healturret-toolbelt water fields. Traits include Juggernaught and damage/cd boosting traits for rifle and FT.
Grenade kit I usually take with pistol-shield, because of the utility, CC and blast finisher on the shield, all of which nades lack, unlike FT. I spend most of my time on grenades here, switching back only when I need something from my shield or to quickly pop off a 2-3 to add poison and confusion (useful against bosses that like healing up). Grenadier puts me at 1500 range to throw my grenades, usually turning me into a form of mobile high-damage mortar.
Then, the two remaining skills. As I mentioned, engis are marvelous here. I very often swap these out in between combat. The standard kinda is Elixir B and Elixir U. Elixir B gives all kinds of fun boons, and stability when thrown. Elixir U gives quickness for Improved damage, stunbreak, and, for me the pivotal point of the skill, a projectile negate or potentially guardian reflect wall when thrown. I use this very, very often when a party lacks guardians but still want to rush a dungeon, notably SE p1 which I do very frequently.
But as I said, these are very, very swappable. If I need dodge, ill quickly replace one of them with elixir R. If I need stealth, bomb kit for the combo + elixir S will do it. Often I run a second kit here depending on my mood or situation. Really, engis are extremely versatile. AoE healing? I got that, and with elixir gun, lots of it, too. Poison? Got that. Reflects? Kinda, but yep. Stability, combo fields, condi cleanse, vuln stacks, high amounts of CC, high-accuracy ways to get enemies in a specific spot, we’ve got it all. Even a light to light up dark areas.
Hope I helped you a bit. If you want my specific traits and sigils, theyre a bit extensive and odd, but just ask.
Final tips – I love speedy kits (permaswiftness really) combined with invigorating speed (vigor whenever you get swiftness). Also, take on swap sigils. Everytime you wield/stow a kit, it counts as a swap.