Guild Wars 2

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

There are a few things that have stopped me from getting very far with an engie;
1. What build to run that’s not Dire/Perplexity Condition Build.
-Not a fan of condition based builds, while I can run them I think I will always hate them slightly due to my ranger roots.

Not trying to put you down here, but playing Engineer means you have to come to terms with the fact that conditions are undeniably factored into our skill set. That is not to say that you have to spec into them to be effective, but we are more condition heavy than a vast majority of the other professions. If anything, the fact that we have so many conditions only improves with Zerker builds as might stacking will concurrently increase their effectiveness.

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

2.Racial Toolbelt Skills
-even if I did get as far as a build I would still need help on Racial Toolbelt skills because, even though I most likely not use them I really like the design of some of the skills that they offer. ex Sylvari-Vinesheild Charr-Unload(Which has a decent parent skill) Asuran-Everything

Personally I prefer to go with Asura, as there are numerous positives to them. Among the races for Asura they do not have as noticeable clipping issues while using kits as you witness with Norn/Human/Charr. Aside from the aesthetic reason, Asura’s D-series Golem has amazing reflection potential, which I have provided for dungeons countless times. In my mind at least, this Golem is more than enough of a reason to give the race a slight edge over others, but with the upcoming update to turrets it may fall out of favor.

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

3.If I was to go with a non-human looking race (Asura/Charr) Armor will be a problem, mostly because sadly those two race lack in armor the most.

In the end you have to go with something that you are visually inclined to as well. Regardless of what I mentioned above for racial utility, you need to weigh out your compromises.

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

4.Hobo Sacks ;-;

Again, as mentioned above, Asura will provide the lease noticeable deficiencies from “hobo sacks”

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

5. Lack of weapons which you or I can’t change.

This has long been a subject of debate in these forums. I for one am of the opinion that it is indeed a necessary handicap to keep us in check over other professions. It has been officially stated that we were intended to have at least 1 kit on our bar at all times, which in the mind of the devs is tantamount to possessing 2 weapon sets. About the only thing you can do is to decide what works for you and what does not; keep in mind things should get more exciting with this update.

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

I’ve heard of things like SD Rifle Builds and SD ’Nades which sound tempting but have not found a place to start.

If you desire a build that is purely damage focused and burst based, then SD is the way to go. Although for dungeons you would want to invest in a bomb build instead. You will just have to play around and see what works for you really. The variants for Engineer build archetypes are more numerous than those of the other professions. Our traits offer far more personalization than everyone else.

Typical SD may resemble this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlUUptrlcxmKseNSM6Bp7soB9wu51viKkfA-zgBBYfAUBAZmFRjt4qIas6aYKXER1AA-e

My Bombs:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlUUpyq9ZxkLseRSMqQnBVo+iUkf9/5hcbbaB-zgBBYfAUBAZmFRjt4qIas6aYKXER1AA-e

What game mode are we talking about here? As the role and setup of an Engineer can vary greatly between pve, pvp and wvw.

When doing solo pve and world bosses I use this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlsTptr1UxELseNiM6BpNhZGIF6lf9Rx89gA-zgBBYfAkIAJqFRjt4qIas6aYKXER1AA-e

It uses only Rifle (grenades there only for the tooltip to spike 10k dmg) so minimal hobo-sacks. If I want to max my damage then I do have to rotate Med Kit every 10sec to maintain 12 stacks of might and drop stimulant every 20sec but it is relatively simple compared to most Engineer builds.

I know most people say rifle alone sucks, but with 3400+ attack, 110%+ crit dmg and 80%+ crit chance (due to fury and trait bonuses) I am hitting for ~3k dmg per hip shot and 10k+ aoe dmg per jump shot, and that’s without the Might or using any food. ~5k dps only on auto-attack is nice, and is even better on world bosses which I can double hit (such kittenterer, Golem Mk2, Tequatl) due to rifle’s piecing shots.

Regarding racial toolbelt skills, I am a Norn and our’s suck. Outside of the elites they pretty much only give a short regen with long cast time and cooldown so not worth using (and I have tried). Armour looks good on us though cause we’re so big, so it’s easier to appreciate the detail.

Hellspawn Austin.6819:

Anything else you guys want to share would be super helpful

Learn how to utilize your combo fields effectively. Engineer more than other professions requires you to not only understand the effects of combo fields, but their situational application as well. If the party is not in danger of being wiped, throw down a fire field and stack might out the wazoo. If you see ppl are struggling, then you might want to explode your water fields instead to get things out of a dangerous position. We have tons of debuffs to utilize, control your enemies with the abundant access to blind, immob/cripple, freeze, poison/weakness and vulnerability. Experiment with our strengths and learn to change your strategy at the drop of a hat so that you can manipulate the battlefield in the party’s favor.

oh, wvw… try this or the exotic version. sd builds lack survivability.