Guild Wars 2

I posted here on the Engineer forum because I imagine other engineers must have been where I am now… giving up on the engineer to play a more powerful and useful profession, but they didn’t want to give up on the fun factor.
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I mostly play open-world content (“the whole world as end game”). I don’t grind dungeons, farm dailies, or anything like that.
Most of the time I fight alone, because there aren’t other people around.

I’ve tried most professions to about Lv 30, and like all of them to some degree… just not as fun as engineer :-)
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What other profession(s) do you think is lots of fun at 80+ yet more powerful than the engineer?
First and foremost, the profession has to have a fun play-style, but I’d still like to kill things reasonably fast! I’m tired of taking more than 30 seconds to kill a monster when I see some other profession come in and kill it in 3 – 5 seconds…

I think somewhere in the middle (15 seconds or so) would be reasonable. It doesn’t have to be the most powerful profession, but I don’t want it to take all day either!

What profession has a lots of variety of strong builds?
Engineer feels like a jack of all trades, master of none. I want to be a jack of all trades, master of all (or most of them).

I love to play a lot of different fun builds everyday, I get bored playing just the same old same old build.

Or if I were to stay with the engineer:
How can I make the engineer powerful but still fun?
Both grenades and elixir builds are very, very boring to me.

I love to make builds but everything seems so weak. The best I’ve made is a melee static discharge build and a build with pistol, flamethrower, to proc conditions on critical

Please keep in mind I don’t have lots of gold or time to grind powerful armor. I still wear some Lv 79 and green/rare armor, and my accessories and upgrades are junk.

Engineer skills and traits are so defensive, I can stay alive just fine even without any points in vitality and toughness, but kill stuff? Takes forever! I still remember fighting the vomiting drake in Bloodtide Coast for more than 10 minutes, barely getting it under 70% health, then some guy shows up and kills it in a couple seconds… :-/

How do you define “powerful”? Warrior has most PvE damage per button press. Are there other factors you’re looking for?

Also, what do you mean by “100nades”? Are you simply referring to a build that uses grenades a lot? The official “100nades” build doesn’t exist anymore, as it relied on the old kit refinement.

Just trying to get a feel for what you’re looking for. I’d guess guardian or mesmer would be close to what you’re going for.

Powerful:

With the engineer I find myself using all my skills (including supply crate and F1 to F4), waiting for them to recharge, then using them again and the enemy/enemies still hasn’t died. Grenades make it better, but I find it boring button mashing. And yes, about grenades, I guess I mean just using grenades a lot (while trying to use the skills efficiently and speccing your traits and gear).

I also created a melee static discharge build that was powerful, atleast enemies died much quicker even though I still had to use all the skills. But it no longer works and I haven’t been able to create something else that’s powerful.
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But other classes seem to come to a group of enemies and kill it in about 2 to 5 seconds, while for me it probably takes about 30 seconds. (Grenades are slightly faster but boring to me)

I think somewhere in the middle would be reasonable.
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Fun:

I like using skills in a smart way (situational/field/enemy awareness), but I expect my efforts to be rewarded. If I use my skills smartly, I expect the game to reward me with the enemy actually… dying quickly. But right now I feel the game actually punishes me for this by making the monster actually take longer to die.

Maybe it’s just on the engineer, I don’t know.
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I guess that “smart skill usage” is what I consider fun. .
That, and having a variety of of viable builds.
I expect to have to put some effort into it, but I think it’s reasonable to expect to be able to kill enemies reasonably quickly, I don’t have all day!
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Would appreciate comments on mesmer, guardian, and necromancer after lv 80, with these things in mind. Or other professions you think might be a better fit for me.

I’ll try leveling one of those professions to 80 (only leveled them to 30), just afraid of wasting my time. Every time I try to play those professions I just end up re-logging to my engineer for the fun factor. My engineer has been Lv 80 since September, but I even made a new engineer alt and enjoy it a lot more than the other alts :-)

I think if others tell me what they think would be another good profession for me, I might feel less discouraged / feel like I’m not wasting my time.

I would love to keep playing engineer, I just feel like it’s too weak despite all the effort I’ve put into it.

Well, again, if we’re talking about pure damage in solo PvE, warrior is the top, period. Nothing else is as fast that I’m aware of, emphasized by the fact that warriors have the highest base armor and health so they can go full zerker pretty easily. In other words, no matter which profession you compare to a warrior you’ve seen farming, the warrior is faster.

Guardian, mesmer, and necro can all be as fast as an engineer, but I don’t know that they’d be much faster. Honestly, your static discharge build is probably going to be one of the most powerful options available. What no longer works about it?

How are your gear stats and traits set up? As in most MMOs, gear/build is way more important than which class you’re playing. If you have a lot of power/precision/crit damage, sigil of fire, and good runes or ruby jewels in your armor, stuff should be melting no matter what you hit it with.

Hmm my Static Discharge build was something like this, minus all the fancy gear I can’t afford (and buffs).

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcMQJAqal0p6dH5SXF1bJxIFkW0hFA6RexLfFL4TB2C-jQyAIMEkWAJBgEhgk/KiGbJuIasaGMNKRUt3oIa1SBAxCA-e

I played it in melee, did ok in Orr solo (back in… September or October?)
Didn’t have any fancy armors, just blues and greens from story rewards. I did splurge on exotic pistols, though.
Now I have much better gear but the build feels weak. I don’t know why tbh. And I’ve been playing in lower level areas too, so I thought it would be stronger.

It doesn’t have to be the most powerful class:

“But [some] other classes seem to come to a group of enemies and kill it in about 2 to 5 seconds, while for me it probably takes about 30 seconds.
I think somewhere in the middle would be reasonable.

Doesn’t have to be the most powerful class, it’s important for me to have a balance between powerful and fun, I just don’t want to take all day trying to kill something. But that doesn’t mean I’m so impatient I expect to kill everything in 5 seconds. I think 15 seconds would be reasonable though.

Please note the maps are pretty much empty so I end up doing events alone.

Guardian, mesmer, and necro can all be as fast as an engineer, but I don’t know that they’d be much faster.

That’s sad… So if I don’t want to play thief (lack of versatility) or elementalist (keyboard piano like engineer), is warrior really my only alternative? :-(

If you have a lot of power/precision/crit damage, sigil of fire, and good runes or ruby jewels in your armor, stuff should be melting no matter what you hit it with.

That could be the problem, I don’t have enough money to buy all those fancy things, specially for each different build.

It’s just annoying… Today I logged on to have fun and try the Southsun Cove content, but instead here I am, 2-3 hours spent messing with traits and builds, and still haven’t played the game at all. It was the same for the past few days. Even though I have this week off, still didn’t get to try the content.
But now after all that, I feel exhausted, my eyes are burnt, and I’m dozing off, so I’m probably going to take a nap because I don’t have the energy to play the game anymore.

With farming gear, will it take me months before I can play? :-X
Is it like this for everyone else?

I’m going to try:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcMQFAUlspyanry2F17IRIFFG/gekX72XRK0vlB-jgxAYLASDQhrIasKJMVJRUt/oIa1BBkO-e
I made it yesterday and played it against profession npcs at the heart of the mists, but there I had the free gear. In PvE I won’t have good gear.

Maybe the problem really is gear. I can’t afford it. For the most part I’m wearing greens. Two coral rings, chrysocola earings, emerald amulet.

But any feedback on the build… advice is welcome ;-)

For me, fun beats powerful at all times. If I die thirty times in the span of an hour while having fun, I still see it as a better time investment than dying once in the span of an hour while not enjoying it.

lorazcyk.8927:

• what other profession do you think is amazingly fun (80+), yet more powerful than engineer

Personally, I’ve found weapon and build combinations for every profession save guardian that I’ve really enjoyed.

Engineer: A pyrotank build, most of the time. I find it really fun to build around the flamethrower, with constant regeneration (that stacks with other sources of regen), 6-7 constant stacks of might, wide conal AoE attack, and good control abilities (#3 & #5). Mostly for PvE, but also fun in WvW when you fire it at a gate. Fire isn’t a projectile, so it passes through, damaging any invader/defender on the other side. Been dabbling a bit with a grenade build too, but it’s a bit too much button spamming to be enjoyable in the long run.

Ranger: Been experimenting with a build centered around buffing others with spirits. Still not complete, but it seems pretty fun so far. Natch best for group play. Longbow with greatsword as a secondary is pretty kitten fun too.

Thief: Favorite build so far is one focused on pistol/dagger, using skill #5 to stealth and subsequently using #1 to fire a volley of bleeding shots, a couple of #2’s for vulnerability stacking while waiting for the stealth debuff to disappear, then rinse and repeat. Lots of fun in PvE and 1v1s.

Warrior: Going a tankish route for this one with mace and shield. PvE-focused, not sure if it would be any good at all in PvP. Perma weakness is amazing, though. Healing shouts. Veterans are a piece of cake even without dodging, and with a bit of patience I can deal with champions with just one friend helping. Really fun to be able to survive just about anything.

Necromancer: Still trying to decide with this one… staff’s a must-have for me because I love the trap-like AoE it brings, especially in tight corridors. No innuendo intended. But what I really love about the necro is switching to a more melee-based weapon once the target’s been led through the traps and just going all-out on it. I love both the dagger and axe for this… also trying to decide whether to go for a dagger offhand or a warhorn. All of them are massively fun.

Elementalist & Mesmer: I only find these fun with a friend, but when that opportunity presents itself, it’s amazing. Elementalist is staff without a doubt, while my friend keeps the target occupied I land AoE after AoE, while also providing support. Mesmer, I go for sword / pistol, doing the exact opposite – diverting the enemy’s attention while my friend dishes out the real damage. Staff for secondary, for chaos armor and combo field.

That should be all the professions, and how I play them to enjoy them. Hopefully it’ll give you some ideas and inspire you to experiment yourself.

At the moment I’m playing a 10/30/0/0/30 rampager static discharge engi and it’s quite versatile – essentially I can switch out any weapon and any kit except grenades without resetting traits, yet still be very effective. My only gripes are having to press heaps of buttons for burst and having my head explode with 2 stacks of confusion. Just seems relevant when you like switching everything

I’m starting to feel the same way as you about Mesmer, getting a bit too straight forward. A powerful build that has lots of tricks would be very nice.

As for necromancer, there are lots of interesting and powerful builds. Conditions with epidemic are very good, though in group PvE they suffer due to caps and everything dying too fast. Power builds hit very hard too. Some minions are not so hampered by AI issues and turn out to be good, even in condition builds they just need one trait for full damage as they ignore stats.

I think when the fight is easy, playing necro is pretty straight forward and being a super wizard of button pressing doesn’t change much – not always the case with engi. When the fight is hard, the bag of tricks is huge.

Those are my 3 80s, about all I can really say

@lorazcyk:
With respect to your opening post, no other profession has as many varied and powerful builds compared to the Mesmer. Yes, each build is relatively one-note, but that’s the nature of the Mesmer Class design for you. You can do every thing, but have to specialise in one particular thing at a time.

With respect to your issues with Engineer – having to go through a full rotation and still not killing a target – that’s probably because you’re used to playing Mesmer, which has a pretty low time to kill (TTK) at level 80, although it struggles at lower levels.
Engineer at level 80 in PVE still has a pretty high TTK unless you’re running Power Rifle with HGH or SD, or Rifle/Grenades.

Where Engineer excels is in sheer options it brings to the Table. Try Koroshi’s Condi Damage WvW build and you will see that every single range from Long range to Melee is covered. Sustain and Condition clear, also. The only place where it falls down is in PVE where Condition damage is capped.

PvP and WvW wise, though, you can achieve pretty low TTK with conditions and condi-burst, and in fact the HGH engineer is getting a lot of attention lately because it works as a fantastic bunker-buster in PVP. Power Engineers in PvP have little condition clear, and little sustain, without the focus-fire breaking ability of Stealth like Thieves. So you have a real dichotomy here – Condi damage for PVP and WVW, and Power for PVE.

You can try the opposite, but it is signiicantly more difficult.

PVE warrior. Definitely. They keep on buffing it too baffles the mind how they test over there.

I am experiencing the same problem have been since launch, they say nothings wrong but there’s something that happens to the base numbers once you get into a zone that’s 65+ on engineers that I think they’ve been ignoring because no one really plays one over there and enjoys it I think it’s more of a must-do like a chore for them so they don’t really catch things like those of us who enjoy the class do.

It’s weird it’s like the mobs get way more resistance to our hits or our kits/base damage for those levels is way under par for the enemies we’re fighting. Even with all exotics on and specced properly.

Condi is capped, and that’s a major factor. We also have a major boon problem, there’s only 1 ability really that gives us a boon and that’s after we’ve reached 75% of our hitpoints, meanwhile all other classes are blessed with having these boons just popup from doing their normal attacks. (thief steal for example gives fury, might, swiftness).

The problem is also there’s no burst damage option for this class because the traits don’t allow for it. Unlike the thief and ranger (the other two adventurer classes) Engineers don’t have traits that improve damage output initially, or when the enemy is at high hitpoints or when they are at 50% they suddenly get a damage bonus. None of that is in any of the traitlines on engineers and our DPS suffers for it. Even when using condi damage builds we don’t have traits like the ones that give 10% bonus when our enemies have ANY condition (we’re stuck with 5% for bleeds only) or 10% damage when something on us is at a high number (initiative is over 6, or while flanking).

The Thief Ranger have these abilities and thus have the capacity to have great dps output builds with or without burst but the engineer is lacking and it’s solely because they meant for it to be a soldier archtype with heavy armor instead of the adventurer type with leather.

It needs a complete overhaul and a matching done to the traitlines that both thieves and rangers share.

I’m not kidding go look up the trait lines of thieves and rangers in a calculator, in the same slots all the way down both their trait lines for DPS builds you will find traits whose functions are identical to each other. yet when you compare those to the engineer in the same slotted locations for DPS even tho the lines are in a different place, those basic bonuses are missing entirely.

Try an HgH power build. FT/EG, switching between HgH and 409 in your GM slot for incredible versatility, survivability and damage in both PvE, dungeons and WvW.

Can get some impressive damage with FT, a 25% flat boost is quite easy. 15% from trait, 10% from sigil and rune of your choosing.

I love flameblasting half the HP off of a fotm d/d ele and watching them as they struggle to deal with my silly poison burn and confuse uptime! I have the flexibility to survive as a frontline soldier in WvW and the capability to support incredibly well – fumigate is amazing. Cleanse five conditions on multiple allies, burn poison bleed and vuln any foes caught in it, every 9 and a half seconds.

So for professions… it’s seems like Mesmer and Warrior is what I should try?
Then maybe Necromancer?

What are you all bringing to Southsun Cove as engineer?
I’m playing there solo, not many people around. Getting my kitten kicked. Toss elixir U is a given. But no stability… elixir S is bugged… and all stun breaks are elixirs except rocket boots. I don’t want to play elixirs (boooring!). Rocket boots is not enough stun break.
What are you guys bringing?
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Can’t dodge vet karkas. Not sure if it’s ping… probably just me. I have the same issue all over the game. I even go practice in heart of the mists. The enemy skill animation doesn’t match when you get hurt. For example, if someone tried to punch you, you’d get out of the way when his fist is nearly hitting you. If you dodged earlier it would be too early and he’d likely punch you. But the animations in game is as if you’re supposed to dodge as soon as he raises his arm!
When a karka is jumping up to slam the ground, I try to dodge just before it his the ground. Atleast that’s what I would do in real life. To me it doesn’t make sense to dodge as soon as he jumped, when the’s still 1 or 2 seconds until he’s slamming the ground.
But no matter when I dodge it never seems to work.
Very confused.
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Mostly the karkas toss me around the ground as if I were a mop to wash the floors with.
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Unless there’s a light field I won’t get retaliation (must I bring even more elixirs? Boring!)
No guaranteed aegis on engineer.
Blind is only 10% effective. Interrupts won’t work because of Unshakable?
Would mine kit work to remove boons? (I’ll check when I play tomorrow)
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I try to dodge the drakes, again, I’m always too late or too early. I try to understand what’s going on, look at the skill effecst, etc, but… meh.
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MonMalthias.4763
With respect to your issues with Engineer – having to go through a full rotation and still not killing a target – that’s probably because you’re used to playing Mesmer, which has a pretty low time to kill (TTK) at level 80, although it struggles at lower levels.

Oh no, I’ve played engineer since launch except for trying out other professions for a few levels (20 – 30)
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About koroshi’s build, that seems pretty much what I generally use in PvE, except I bring elixir U or goggles, and I don’t like grenades (bores me to sleep on my desk, literally). So I change the grenade traits around. And adjust the build for PvE as needed.
I just don’t have all the expensive armor, runes, food buffs, etc.
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(I do like bringing grenades if it’s for utility… such as switch to grenades, use a skill or two, switch again)
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I also used to play the melee SD build I linked and a flamethrower crit conditions build.
I just don’t want to spend all day killing stuff (solo pve).
Elixirs and grenades/bombs are pretty boring to me. (Spammy playstyle is not for me).
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Jigain.8231
That should be all the professions, and how I play them to enjoy them. Hopefully it’ll give you some ideas and inspire you to experiment yourself.

I’ve experimented plenty (about Lv 30 most professions, but deleted to try different professions, check out armor combinations at the PvP armory, or test builds with the heart of the mists profession npcs)
I just want to know what profession is worth leveling to 80 for someone like me. It’s very important because I do casual events around the world, most of the time fighting alone.
I don’t want to be stuck with only a couple powerful builds since I like variety so much.
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tigirius.9014
I’m not kidding go look up the trait lines of thieves and rangers in a calculator, in the same slots all the way down both their trait lines for DPS builds you will find traits whose functions are identical to each other. yet when you compare those to the engineer in the same slotted locations for DPS even tho the lines are in a different place, those basic bonuses are missing entirely.

No kidding!, that, and engineer traits and skills are so defensive. It’s as if I’m expected to play a tank… except there’s no tanking in this game ;-) I mean, even without defensive traits the engineer is already defensive enough. What we really need is offensive stuff. I also feel traits are really out of place, for example rifle scales with power but you need to go to Firearms tree for the rifle traits. Doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s as if the traits were set in stone for you, instead of you picking them :-X Atleast that’s how I feel. “Pigeonholed”?

All the bugs on top of that, just makes me want to toss a baby quaggan on the ground and stomp it to death. ARRRRGH!

lorazcyk.8927:

Mostly the karkas toss me around the ground as if I were a mop to wash the floors with.

I think a lot of that has to do with server load, having noticed this myself and kept an eye on it I notice that there are situations where almost everyone in a group will successfully dodge a karka attack, or will all be dropped by it. It’s not you, it’s the machines.

That being said, the female (egg-laying) karka appear to have a double effect on their jump attack, so you need to double-dodge or dodge backwards to avoid the second wave.

Having equipped a Sigil of Nullification in my main-hand pistol, I find that encounters with veteran karka end with me killing myself with retribution much less frequently. Flamethrower auto-attack is an almost guaranteed proc of the sigil once it’s off cooldown, what with that and the ability to destroy a million eggs before they hatch and ruin everyone’s day I’m quite happy with my Engineer in Southsun. Oh and using the Shield #4 skill on Young Karka is really quite entertaining … I recommend doing it at least once, for the laugh.

I try to dodge the drakes, again, I’m always too late or too early. I try to understand what’s going on, look at the skill effecst, etc, but… meh.

Drakes are pretty simple for us, but do require some tactics. Always keep them as far away as you can; this used to be trivial but they’ve added a new mechanic that allows the drakes to pull you in. To counter the pull move either dodge it (I find this pretty difficult as I haven’t identified the tell for it yet) or dodge/hidden pistol/rocket boot/Elixir gun #4 out as soon as you’re pulled in. Elixir Gun has the added attraction of being able to clear your conditions (#5 and any projectile finisher).

Engineer is my profession of choice when running around SC or, indeed, anywhere in the world. Of all the professions it is the one most likely to be able to exploit a mob’s weakness … given a bit of research and preparation.

The biggest problem on Southsun for any engineer will be the Reef riders, bar none.

Even given all our reflects, any number of riders swarming you is more or less a garunteed death if you don’t keep them at range, and have others there to assist. And I’m not gonna even mention the boon stealing difficulties beyond this….

As for Karka, definitely server lag plays a huge role on being able to dodge the bull’s rush, the karka ‘stampedes’. For anything less than a champion however, a simple static shield toss will stop the entire horde in it’s tracks. Or a Supply crate drop… or a FT air blast. You get the idea.

Same is very true of the Reef drakes. CC the crap out of them, and stay at range. Try to avoid the confusion and pull.

As for the Vet larger karka, as binidj.5734 said, the ‘jumping’ ground slam attack definitely hits twice for some reason or another. Flame thrower auto, #2, EG#4, and a few nades/bombs are all ways to quickly nullify clusters of eggs as well.

I have seven 80s...

I started out as a necro.... it’s a long road of suckatude that very few follow for long. Conditions are your only real range damage option, and they can’t damage weapons racks/treb/arrow carts/flowers...

Engineer was my favorite class by far for a while... but then they killed Kit Refinement and Flamethrower damage, and I haven’t played my engineer for more than an hour since.

I’m still leveling my mesmer, but I’ve learned that until level 20 it’s torture. I hear that after 40 it gets much better.

Guardians... people talk about how great they are, and in pve they might be. You get lots of stuff in your bag of tricks. You are highly sought after by any group (as a tank or tank support) You get builds for melee dps (greatsword), tank, AOE farming, and although the scepter is hated in pvp, in pve it does have (dev confirmed) the highest damage ranged #1 attack in the game.

...yes, it’s even more than nades.

Rangers are an odd one. Spirits aren’t very good, even when they aren’t getting killed from random aoe. But as a melee class, a ranger with clerics gear, and a cat pet, is a thing of beauty. Tanking, damage, and just plain fun. It’s very similar to the "White Lion" class in Warhammer.

Thief. Don’t let those thief-forum, cry babies fool you, there is nothing wrong with the thief class. Fast paced action is the best way to describe ’em, and dagger/dagger or shortbow bleed builds can aoe farm with the best of them.

...and the best for last.

The warrior class is the one for you, lorazcyk. The best turrets in the game are warrior banners. My banner warrior with his, stack of peach pies, has around 500/second healing and still can do 8k 100blades.

...and of all the classes in the game, warriors my be the best for a condition build.

...and the best part about warriors. They are balanced and bug free.

Ezeriel.9574:

The warrior class is the one for you, lorazcyk. The best turrets in the game are warrior banners. My banner warrior with his, stack of peach pies, has around 500/second healing and still can do 8k 100blades.

…and of all the classes in the game, warriors my be the best for a condition build.

…and the best part about warriors. They are balanced and bug free.

The build I mentioned that I use can make use of it’s high crit rate to achieve about 300 hp per second from health leeching alone. Then there’s two sources of regeneration boon and super elixir field…

Flame blast crit with just 40% crit damage hits for 5.5k every 4.8 seconds, Flame jet around 6k. I’m not exactly min/maxing my damage either.

I mean we can throw numbers around all day, it’s honestly just a matter of finding a build that works for what you want it to do. Professions in this game are rich and varied, find what you like and works for you.

Apparently simply posting “Don’t understand the question. The engineer is both a fun & a powerful profession” is infraction worthy. So let me expand…

The Engineer profession is, in my opinion, the most fun & most powerful profession.

First and foremost, fun: we have grenades and bombs to blow stuff up. We have flamethrowers and elixir guns to burn & sizzle stuff. We have snazzy gadgets to be like James Bond (only with more defects). And we start with pimptastic goggles.

Secondly, powerful: grenades are long range, aoe, condition-giving, & high-damage. Booya! Bombs can heal, we have ready access to water fields & blast finishers, quick swapping for mad flexibility, crazy mobility from traits & skills, and elixirs to buff your allies. We are super powerful. We can bunker, dps, spike, condition, & support.

I don’t know any other profession that can do all the things we can. Some are stronger in 1 area, but completely lacking in another. Warriors are mad powerful in PvE…and die in PvP. Mesmers are great in both, but can’t bunker or party heal.

Alright, guess I’ll level a warrior and a mesmer. I constantly hear the warrior is boring so I was hesitant to level one. (Warrior’s the only profession I haven’t leveled up to 25-30 or so)
But if I feel so powerful that it becomes boring, I guess I can make myself weaker by removing armor pieces :-P (Hey, I did in Gw1!)

I don’t have a lot of time today (didn’t get to play at all), but I wanted to ask a couple questions.
I take it that mesmers have a bigger variety of powerful solo builds (pve) than the necromancer does?

Is guardian really the only profession with reliable access to aegis and protection?
I like using my skills in a smart way, I don’t like passive effects like regeneration. Engineer is full of passive effects, or random ones that you can’t rely on. Mesmer seems the same.
I checked here:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aegis
And was very disappointed. I keep wishing “maybe the page is incomplete” because I just can’t believe only guardian has access to these boons.

I thought “well, blind is pretty much the same thing”, but a lot of monsters are immune to blind or it only affects 10% of the time :-( I really want aegis and protection.

I think a lot of that has to do with server load, having noticed this myself and kept an eye on it I notice that there are situations where almost everyone in a group will successfully dodge a karka attack, or will all be dropped by it. It’s not you, it’s the machines.

Hmm, see, but I have problems with dodging everywhere in the world. I try to practice, find monsters with “obvious” tells, play with the pvp dodge roll trainer… the only way I can dodge is if I do it wrong on purpose or accidentally. If I try to dodge at the right time, it’s never right. :-X Even with the sonic periscopes… I spent hours and hours practicing. I can only dodge if I do it wrong on purpose or accidentally.

That being said, the female (egg-laying) karka appear to have a double effect on their jump attack, so you need to double-dodge or dodge backwards to avoid the second wave.

Yeah, she’s pretty much the only one I have trouble with (besides drakes). The young karka are ok.

Interrupts don’t work against her, do they? To me it makes more sense to be smart and interrupt their skills, leaving dodges for a last resort.
(Unless arenanet really wants their game to be “dodge dodge dodge, you dummy!”)

Having equipped a Sigil of Nullification in my main-hand pistol, I find that encounters with veteran karka end with me killing myself with retribution much less frequently. Flamethrower auto-attack is an almost guaranteed proc

I’ve been pondering that, but wasn’t sure if it would be worth spending the money! Definitely going to give it a try!

You know, I was so tired of using pistol, shield, condition damage, flamethrower, that I wanted to use power and rifle for a bit. So I got a bit stubborn and kept using it in southsun cove. But you’re right, pistol shield will be a lot better there! …
I don’t know what I was thinking! I was so upset that I only really had elixir U for a reflect… why did I forget shield 4 had reflect too? <scratches head> I use that setup all the time! (Maybe because it’s so rarely needed in general pve, that I ended up forgetting?! I ended up using it only for the blowback!!!)

I love to bring kits and swap as needed for utility, but how can you swap so fast that you can actually use acid bomb to get out of the way when the drake pulls you (so you don’t get confusion)?

I already have middle mouse button for “weapon swap” and use keys Z X C for skills 7 8 9 for easy reach.

Seras.5702
I don’t want to use grenades or bombs, as I’ve said.
Remember that when I’m in PvE I’m playing solo. There are no other players around to carry me through the content. I’m just tired of taking almost a minute to clear a mob when another profession does it in a couple seconds.
Doesn’t mean I have to have the most powerful profession, just one that’s a bit quicker than engineer since I play solo and don’t want to take all day doing a quest.

Try

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0picnpy2F17IxoHkuziG0D7qX/+pw8B-jwxAYrgQQCSyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1G8ioVLFQELAA-e

Trait 3 in Tools you could use Scope instead of Power Wrench , but i m still not sure that Trait works.
Loots of Burst , short Cds, good Range

i cant wait for my engineer to reach level 80, but currently im having way to much fun with a power/precision/crit shortbow ranger. maybe you could give that a try, hit 80 and farm cof for some gear, its well within anyone’s reach. dont spend to much money on expensive runes, just buy 6x ruby orb and put that on your armor, and buy sigil of rage for your shortbow, its just 4 silver.

one of the problems with the eng class: people expected playing like Jango Fett and instead you’re playing like Private Ramirez from COD:MW2
RAMIREZ! do this!
example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkuLj5uCgSk

The ones you see running by killing mobs in a few seconds aren’t playing a more powerful profession, they just have exotic level 80 gear with good traits, sigils and runes.

Your problem with your TTK is purely due to not having good or even decent gear. I am full condition Engi and if my TTK was anywhere close to 30s I would cry. You need to at very least get rares and that is at very very least. Exotics would be a massive leap. Greens and blues on any class and your TTK will not improve much.

Gizmoitus.7241:

Your problem with your TTK is purely due to not having good or even decent gear. I am full condition Engi and if my TTK was anywhere close to 30s I would cry. You need to at very least get rares and that is at very very least. Exotics would be a massive leap. Greens and blues on any class and your TTK will not improve much.

This, so much. Engineers may very well be one of the most gear-dependant professions given how low our base and scaling values are because we are supposed to chain together long combinations of skills to deal optimum DPS. Warriors on the other hand just need a few %damage traits and Fine or Masterwork gear to deal competitive damage.

If you are going Condition Damage, this gear dependancy is even more important, because if you’re playing without Condition Duration Runes, it becomes significantly more difficult to stack your DOTs up.

There is, however, a better way to get your TTK down whilst remaining relatively gear agnostic and that is through Vulnerability stacking. 1 stack of Vulnerability can increase a Foe’s damage taken by 1%; stacking up to 25% for a boost of extra 25% extra damage taken.
Consider the build below:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|u378.a2.0.a1.k62|0.0|2c.2e.2v.2r.0|e

Using Sitting Duck together with Rifle Net Shot, Jump Shot, Net Turret, Net Attack and Glue Bomb +/- Elixir Gun’s Fumigate, it is possible to put up to 25 stacks of Vulnerability on a target in a single combo; then maintain 10 stacks at a time using Rifle’s Net shot on cooldown and with the Net Turret’s turret attack.

Jump Shot and Blunderbuss of Rifle have very handsome base damage and power scaling even without Power-Centric gear. Jump Shot will land 3-6 stacks of Vulnerability on target to boot. I would recommend holding off on Blunderbuss until 15+ stacks of Vulnerability are on target.

Whilst Rifle skills are on cooldown, switch to Elixir Gun and drop and Acid Bomb on the immobilised target. Spam a kitswap to animation cancel your backwards leap. Acid Bomb is extremely strong and even more so if a target is immobilised on it. Then switch to Bomb Kit and drop the Fire Bomb and the auto attacks. Bomb kit’s auto attack has very solid base damage and very strong power scaling; and Fire Bomb has a strong power damage component that kicks in before Burning damage.

As for the other traits, Static Discharge is just there for extra DPS on initiation.

This build retains strong evasion through Speedy Kits and Invigorating Speed. Strong Condition cleanse through Healing Turret Overcharge and Super Elixir. Strong sustain by offering 2 Water Fields to Blast with Net Turret Detonate (Not recommended if you want your Vulnerability stacks, but in a pinch…), Healing Turret Detonate, Big Ol’ Bomb and Acid Bomb.

Unfortunately, it’s also a single target focused, melee range build. Fortunately, the build retains 30 points in Explosives if you wish to lob Grenades from 1500 range instead. Here the build is relatively safe, although you may wish to swap out Sitting Duck for Precise Sights and Net Turret for Utility Goggles.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.0.1c.0.1c.0.1c.0.1b.0.1c.0|1c.0.1c.0.1c.0.1c.0.1c.0.1c.0|u378.a2.0.a1.k26|0.0|2c.2e.2v.2r.0|e

Above is the same build with all Karma Vendor Armour and Trinkets. You will notice that the Effective Power is quite low, but that is before factoring in the +10-15% damage from Vulnerability. Effective Power also doesn’t matter too much when you’re using a combination of the highest Base Damage skills in the Engineer Profession. On the other hand, your Effective HP is quite large, and this high EHP will be what allows you to fight outnumbered with bad gear.

For levelling purposes, aim straight for Speedy Kits and Invigorating Speed. Pick up Sitting Duck next, then Forceful Explosives. At Master Level, pick up Explosive Powder, then Static Discharge. Get Short Fuse at Grandmaster Level.

With this sort of build you can take underlevelled Fine and Masterwork gear into Orr with a decent chance of survival, and with a respectable TTK. One would think that fighting outnumbered is a bad idea with this build, but it isn’t, not really. Glue Bomb, Concussion Bomb, Fire Bomb, then Bomb Kit auto-attacks lay waste to multiple mobs. If you’re taking too much damage, lay down a Healing Turret, overcharge, Blast it a few times. Make sure to leave Acid Bomb as your last blast Finisher so you can then also drop Super Elixir on yourself as well for some healing over time; and leap backward if it really is too hot.

The build also works with Pistol/Shield, however, whilst you gain a Blast Finisher and a very strong Blind/Confuse, you also lose 2 of the highest base damage skills the Engineer has with Jump Shot and Blunderbuss. Expect your TTK to increase because you’ll be missing 11 potential stacks of Vulnerability in your skill rotation.

@Gizmoitus.7241
I don’t think so. There was a build back before Christmas that I used and killed things pretty fast. It was a melee static discharge build. At the time I was wearing mostly blue armor, with one or two greens. Though I was Lv 80, most of my jewelry and some of my armor was lv 60 or 70.
I was fighting in Orr and it killed fast.

Then after I stopped playing and came back, I started getting better armor. Now I have rares and exotics. I bought exotic weapons, even speargun. I made sure to get atleast greens for jewelry, but have some rares and exotics too.
But the build kills slower now, after getting better armor? :-/
And other builds I make also kill very slow? Even though I have way better armor than before?

And it’s not just in lv 80 areas. Like I said, I play all over the world. When I’m downscalled, why would I still be so weak?

I don’t think Arenanet expected players to have full exotics by Gandaran Fields? Mount Maelstorm?

Well, when downscaled you’re capped in certain stats, and the cap may not be entirely linear. For example, my crit warrior is much more effective in level 80 areas than, say, level 1-15 areas. This is because in level 80 areas, he typically has a crit chance of ~60-70% (IIRC, have been experimenting with different builds lately so it’s been a while), whereas in a level 1-15 area, he might go so low as ~15%. As he’s rather reliant on high crit chance, he kills things slower in those areas, despite being gear-wise much more powerful.

Also, which level 80 area you’re in also changes things. The most obvious example is the difference between Cursed Shore and Southsun Cove. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ve found the Southsun mobs more than just a tinge tougher.

ANet increased the down scaling when running in lower level zones to make them more of a challenge for higher level characters. At the same time they increased the cap level of drosp to the level of the character, so now lower level zones take a L80 a bit longer to beat but the drops are better.

Ezeriel.9574:

…and the best part about warriors. They are balanced and bug free.

I’ll have to disagree with you on that. They might be elegant and fluid but they certainly are not balanced, any class that can solo dungeons is not balanced.