Guild Wars 2

Hi alol,

I love grenades in WvW, so I’m sticking with my 35 Engineer, despite how clunky it feels in PvE.

I can’t find a PvE solo playstyle I like. Grenade targeting is a PITA, and hard (not impossible, just hard) to drop accurately while mobile. Flamethrower seems clunky, too, with melee range and underwhelming DPS. Dual Pistols? Rifle? Both are ok, not great, just ok.

I’m open to and appreciative of any PvE suggestions. I feel too squishy in proportion to the DPS I do.

Thanks!

PS: I wish GW2 had a targeting keybind like TSW. In TSW, if you CTRL-# a ground target ability, the ability would go off at your selected target. It was SOOO nice for GTAOE abilities.

Flamethrower actually has good dps if you gear right. Remember, its not a run and gun spec. You get penalised for moving around with a flamethrower. You need a good amount of toughness to be able to stand there and light everything up, especially when coupled with your other skills and toolkits.

If you want to run around and do good damage, then perhaps try bomb spec. It takes a decent amount of skill to place bombs and kite them, but once you become apt, theres nothing quite like it. Especially when you put the Big bomb down in the middle of a pack of mobs to finish them off.

I started off with the rifle, but became bored fairly quickly. I switched to pistol/shield combo for PvE (and WvW) and I LOVE it! You can deal out decent damage with conditions and the shield offers decent survivability(Repel attacks, interrupt and push away foes).

Give it a try

grenade targeting is easy, just cast your first two grenades on the mob and then start leading them from there.

honestly the most effective for general PvE style till 60 is probably just bombs. I just run bombs and two elixers and just blow everything to tiny little bitz crazy quick. You will kill quicker with this at least until you can get the extra grenade trait.

Thanks for the suggestions. Perhaps I’ll give pistol/shield another go, and maybe toy more with bombs.

Here’s a tip: if you put the mouse in the center of the screen, and hold down the right mouse button for the mouselook, and press a grenade ability while still holding down the RMB, the aoe field will appear in the center of the screen where you last left your mouse, press the button for the skill again, and you’ll toss the grenade there. Give it a try.

I only use fast cast ground targeting when using grenade kit especially for pve. Helps so much.

It took me a while but I found a style which fits me. I love grenades for WVW. Bomb kit for Spvp.

I find myself questing or rounding mobs up and drop a thumper turret and flamethrower them down while standing still.

Then next pull i do the same but drop the healing turret. Then alternate back and forth. It gets rid of the squishy feeling and you can pump our pretty good damage with standing still with flames shooting out.

On dynamic events i still love my grenades and underwater adventures.

I run pistol/shield with a turret to act as a meatshield, with some gadgets or elixirs thrown in depending on the situation. I love the control that the shield gives me, given that most of my abilities on rifle or pistol need to be closer distance, I like having the blowback and the double interrupt whenever I need it.