Guild Wars 2

So after not being able to get into the engineer class awhile ago I’ve decided to give it another chance and created an engie a few days ago. I’m lvl 22 now and I’ve read many guides and builds but most them are for PvP and WvsW and those that do focus on PvE don’t really tell me how to kill stuff effectively. I keep dying a lot because I have no idea whether I’m supposed to throw grenades at them to pull mobs first, run up and whack them with a wrench or what and have no real strategy. Could someone give me some tips on how to kill mobs effectively and what skills are best for PvE? I’m going for a power build btw.

Thanks.

The question should be how do you want to play. Most pve content can be completed in the method that you choose to do it. Skills that make pve really easy are flamethrower kit, bomb kit, elixir B….

I feel that power rifle/bombs is our best PvE leveling spec. The problem with grenades is that they don’t hit very hard until you reach level 60, and they lack the utility to make up for it. Bomb 1 hits very hard in a power spec, 2 and 3 are good even in power specs, and 4 will allow you to facetank multiple trash mobs like a guardian. 5 is useful every once in a while.

I would also recommend putting your first ten points in the “tools” traitline. Use speedy kits for permanent swiftness, and then change it to static discharge when you fight. If you take a couple of the utilities with short cooldowns on their toolbelt skills (rifle turret, toolkit, rocket boots, etc) you’ll be able to spit out a static discharge every few seconds.

General strategy—I would consider engineer a melee profession when it comes to PvE. We have some ranged attacks but in general, just let them come to you and blow them up.

If you’re going for a power build, you should be using the rifle in conjunction with grenades or bombs. At Lower levels try using rifle turret to draw a lot of aggro and grenade them from affar (start with freeze then poison grenades), while they’re slow go and CC them with rifle. When mobs close in on you (like after you’ve aggroed absolutely everything with grenades) switch to bomb kit for the smoke/stun bombs and spam #1.

A few tips for leveling an engi.

Be patient, because killing things will take some time.
Our weapons are taxed on two fronts, because we are “versatile” and have kits (so at least take one kit), and because they are balanced around our grandmasters not being overpowered (so when you can, take a stat up to 30). So don’t be too reckless with what you take on, because you will be strafing for a while.

Try out every kit
The engineer class has a lot of variety when it comes to kit choices. Some of our kits are great while others are downright buggy as all hell. Every once in a while try out a new kit and see if it suits you, you might discover that a kit you hadn’t considered was exactly what you wanted for a build.

It is a medium armor class, so strafe and dodge.
While leveling the engineer is just as squishy as a thief, so don’t go around thinking that medium armor will save you if you aggro that champ wanting to facetank him. While playing light armor classes this always comes to mind, I’ve actually found them oddly tanker than the engineer due to their unique mechanics (mesmer clones, ele’s healing).

That’s all I can come up with. Good luck with the engineer

ReuxBuild
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUl0p6ZH5yuF1LJxoHfuziGUh8KSh+t8nCyF;TkAA1CqosxYjwGrNObk2MiA

u will not die and mix them up with berserk jewls if u feel the dmg is too low , in pve if ur dying just hit exilir gun it will create a healing ring and then hit No. 5 on it and it will make a second one, after that use No 3 on tool kit and and pop ur regen, then just stand ther and heal up

and for dmg use 3 on rifle follow with No. 5 , then use #3 on tool kit use ur bombs and repeat the cooldowns are low on those skills and the dmg is low but not that low if u spec full glass and use them ull be making a kitten ton of dmg but ull die faster
good thing is that u have a 15s heal and lots of regen so ir u are a full glass and go int he rotations from dmg to def and back ull be ok and will be putting out very nice dmg

I use knight’s gear mainly when soloing in PVE. I use a full Kit Build. 0/30/0/20/20. Flamethrower/Elixir gun/Tool Kit. The thing about my build is that I -always- have a Cooldown ready to use. I trait mainly for recast reduction, so Hair Trigger, Fireforged Trigger, and Power Wrench are all 100% mandatory.

With the build I have, I am very resourceful. I have long range with the Rifle, Mid range with the Flamethrower, a bit of support healing with Elixir Gun, and Melee with the Tool Kit. The main draw of this build is you will always have a hardhitting move up, so you aren’t just auto-attacking most of the time. Flameblast, Napalm, Pry Bar, Acid Bomb, Throw Wrench, Blunderbuss, and Jump Shot are moves to be used once up. Use Super Elixir, Overcharged Shot, Box of Nails, Elixir F, Air Blast, Smoke Vent, Net Shot, and Gear Shield are your defensive cooldowns.

Only drawback I see is the lack of a stunbreaker. Which is somewhat important once you get higher levels. However, I use Kit Refinement to activate Super Elixir once I’m stunned. Also make use of Kit Refinement when ressing people, as you can still bleed and burn enemies.

@Reuxvnoir, Aristio:
Did anyone of you actually read the OP??? he asks for a leveling build and is lvl22. Posting terrible lvl80 Builds is no help at all.

@OP: Power/Rifle is the way to go. A Single Mob, even veterans shouldnt be able to reach you due a lot of controlling with your rifle and bomb kit. Its all about positioning, Auto with rifle pierces, thunderbluss&Jumpshot is AE.

blutstein.2468:

@Reuxvnoir, Aristio:
Did anyone of you actually read the OP??? he asks for a leveling build and is lvl22. Posting terrible lvl80 Builds is no help at all.

@OP: Power/Rifle is the way to go. A Single Mob, even veterans shouldnt be able to reach you due a lot of controlling with your rifle and bomb kit. Its all about positioning, Auto with rifle pierces, thunderbluss&Jumpshot is AE.

I’ve been using my build since level ~30. Worked fine for me and continues to works fine. Flamethrower/Tool Kit/Elixir Gun/Rifle was what I was telling him to use. The Utilities I mentioned are where to put points as he gets them.

blutstein.2468:

@Reuxvnoir, Aristio:
Did anyone of you actually read the OP??? he asks for a leveling build and is lvl22. Posting terrible lvl80 Builds is no help at all.

@OP: Power/Rifle is the way to go. A Single Mob, even veterans shouldnt be able to reach you due a lot of controlling with your rifle and bomb kit. Its all about positioning, Auto with rifle pierces, thunderbluss&Jumpshot is AE.

@blutstein: Yeah, level 80 builds are great and all, but when you’re level 22 you don’t have the gear or the trait points to really replicate them. So posting them is a bit counterproductive, although it can give a goal to move towards later in the game.

@OP: blutstein’s build is something you could probably work with just fine, I see a lot of Engineers that run builds similar to that. If you don’t like the rifle though, or just want to try something a little different, then I would recommend a Pistol/Pistol build using Elixirs, which is how I leveled.

Basically, toss 10 points into Firearms, which will net you +100 Precision, +100 Condition Damage, and the minor trait that gives you a 30% chance to cause Bleeding for 3 seconds on critical hits. Then I would recommend taking VI – Hair Trigger as your major trait, as this will decrease your Pistol/Rifle/Harpoon cooldowns by 20%. Lower cooldowns is a great way to quickly increase your capabilities in the early game, as it means that your skills are now up 20% faster, thus letting you do more damage and toss out more conditions (Poison, Confusion, Blind, Burning, Immobilize and Cripple, if you’re using P/P…and that’s not including the Bleeding caused by your 1 skill).

Then throw the rest of your points for now into Alchemy to get Hidden Flask (Drink an Elixir B at 75% health, giving you a ton of helpful boons) and II – Fast Acting Elixirs (Elixir skills recharge 20% faster). It’ll take you till level 30 to get that, but in the meantime it will add some Vitality and Boon Duration, and eventually allow you to apply a lot more boons that last for a lot longer.

The reason I like this build is the play style. You can get four Elixirs in your toolbar this way (I use B, U and C, with Elixir H as my heal), which allows for a lot of buffs. Your Pistol skills work best when changing you distance to your opponent. Your 1 and 3 work great from range, whereas your 2 and 4 work great up close. 2 because you want to make sure all your shots hit, and 4 because you get a bigger Burning duration out of it. Your 5 skill can either be dropped at close range while you retreat back to medium range, or at medium range to keep an enemy from closing to melee. Honestly though, it seems like a bit of a weak skill to me, so I forget to use it most of the time. Circle strafing + dodges does a pretty good job of keeping you out of enemy reach.

With the Elixirs you can pop B as soon as the fight starts (Grants Fury, Might, Retaliation and Swiftness), H as needed for either the heal or the random boon, U for the Quickness buff (works great when you’re about to drop your 2 skill, since the whole things unloads VERY fast, giving your enemy less time to mess up your shots) and C to cleanse conditions as needed. You could also use S as a stunbreaker or escape skill in place of U, but until you get Condition 409 C is a bit of must have.

So basically, if you want to be a bit more active and in the enemies face while throwing around conditions and boons like candy, this build works quite well.

In terms of leveling, I did it with dual Pistols, Bombs, and Grenades. Even at level ~20 it’s a whole lot of fun. The Blinds on every one of those sets keeps you alive against even the hardiest of opponents. Go down Firearms for damage, Tools for Speedy Kits (if you want it), Explosions for pure damage, or down Alchemy for a little more health and the ability to use elixirs better.

Pull 4 to 5 enemies (or many more!), Smoke Bomb, Fire Bomb, Concussive Bomb, Shrapnel Grenades, Freeze Grenades, Static Shot, Blowtorch, Shrapnel Grenades, and then move onto whatever you want because it’s likely everything has been dead for awhile. People really underestimate condis for leveling up. It often doesn’t even matter if the zone outlevels significantly, because condis still do the same damage and you still take nearly nothing due to the AoE blind output.

I pretty much leveled from 1 to 80 with Pistols, Bomb Kit and Flamethrower kit. I’d rotate the other skill slot with whatever I was in the mood for. What I would do when approaching an enemy is switch to flamthrower kit, and hit them #2 (Flame Blast) at it’s max range. This shot alone would take 25% to 40%(if I was using Elixir B as third utility) of their health away right off the bat. To get the most mileage out of it you have to use it at max range. Then switch to pistols. And hit them with Incendiary Ammo > Poison Dart Volley as they are running to you to smash your face. Wait till they are in your face and hit them with Static Shot. If they have a sliver life left, blowtorch to finish them off. If they have more life then switch to bomb kit. Static shot blinds them along with the confusion so they take damage while wiffing at you. Drop a smoke bomb and then Fire Bomb. Really it should be dead at that point or sooner if it’s not a Vet.

If you’re fighting multiple mobs, try to herd them up if you can. There’s basically two types of mobs. Ranged and melee. If you’re fighting a mix of both, run AT the ranged mob. The melee should chase you. When they are both at your feet, hit them with static shot, switch to bomb kit and wreck them.

If you time things right, you can often fight 3 or 4 mobs without taking much damage at all. Take advantage of the blinds with Pistols from Static Shot and the Smoke Bomb from the Bomb kit, and Smoke Vent from Flamethrower kit. And if you got a grenade kit for your 3rd slot skill, it has one too. Stagger your blinds between attacks and you can be in the thick of it for a short time. If I knew it was going to take a couple of rotations to kill a group, I’d use Big Ole Bomb to give me breathing room as it knocks them all down and allows me to reset/heal/finish off.

I loved the Pistols + Flamthrower + Bomb Kit combo. Still do. As you get higher in levels a static discharge build with the pistols does really well too.

Don’t rely too much on other peoples’ build advice, but try different things and see what you like. Engineer is about versatility, so don’t lock yourself down too much. So many people are like “Power rifle! Bombs! Yeah!” but I’m doing better personally with a condition pistols build.

Try everything. Until you’re level 60, ignore all the people saying grenades are weak without the grandmaster traits. I’ve found them very useful, and the toolbelt skill is some lovely damage.

But 10 points in Tools really is the best way to start, IMHO. Switch between Speedy Kits and Static Discharge depending on your needs at the time.

I recommend getting both Healing Turret and Health Kit, and try grenades and bombs and flamethrower and toolkit and everything else that you can along the way. Leveling in other races’ lowest level areas is an easier way of picking up some more skill points and branching out.

What I’m using right now:

dual pistols, condition + precision

10 Tools (Static Discharge for combat, Speedy Kits for travel)
10 Firearms (Hair Trigger)
5-10 Alchemy so far (but I may rethink that when I hit 40 to invest more in Tools or Firearms)

Health: Healing Turret for serious combat. Health Kits for less serious, for underwater, or for travel. Health Kit + Speedy Kits = very easy perma-swiftness.

Rifle Turret: only used for its toolbelt skill with Static Discharge. The turret itself is lackluster but the toolbelt skill makes it worth a slot.

Bombs or Grenades: I usually have one of these kits equipped. I use pistols more than either of these, but the toolbelt skills for both kits are excellent.

Thumper turret: a survivability tool. A crowd of enemies can beat on this longer than you will survive them beating on you. It’s also a fantastic way to pack a crowd of enemies together closely to plant a Big Ol’ Bomb among them.

Supply Drop: I’ve read this is almost the only elite skill choice. I do plan to try others when I have the points to spare, but I will confirm it is fantastic. Drops a flame turret, net turret, healing turret, and a bunch of bandages. Keeps you alive and enemies busy. I don’t think I have ever died while I had this in play.

I have tried all the kits and all the little tricks. The best setup by far is this:
Rifle is your primary weapon learn it love it. Pistol sucks for pve and leveling. It’s a great weapon in pvp however.
Nade kit is your secondary the other kits are just bad in pve learn to kite with nades as they will be your primary weapon of choice in dungeons & events where being in melee range is a very stupid idea.
Elixir H, B, C, and supply crate is your utility (because sadly all the other ultimate’s are crap).
Go explosives for Incendiary Powder, Explosive Powder and finally Grenadier.
Go Alchemy for Fast-Acting Elixirs, Potent Elixirs and finally HGH.
Go Tools for Speedy Kits.
I recommend you take Incendiary Powder then Speedy kits and work your way up the trees as you level.

Buy Strong Gear till you can buy Berserker’s Gear around level 50. Don’t stress your about your hp you will have enough and Elixir c will take care of dots stacking against you.

All that talk about engi being versatile is rubbish there are a couple of optimal setups for pve and this is one of them.

I pretty well did the exact same thing; I’m on engineer #3 and it’s finally started to take hold on me. I’m currently 35ish.

I use dual pistols, with healing turret, grenades, elixir S, and alternate between elixir gun & flamethrower for my utilities.

For traits, I first went Firearms IV, then Tools IV, and I’m now going up Alchemy.

I’ve found that when I pull with #2, hit #3 as the mob is closing in, and #4 lights them up. Most mobs die after an auto attack or two. I have the grenades for the string of adds you’ll often get. Elixir gun helps out a lot for extra healing with the toolbelt skill and #5.

One general piece of advice from my experience: I found it best to simplify the class to begin with, and I tried to accomplish that by limiting kits. Learn your weapons first, and I mean spend a good bit of time killing things with just your weapons, no kit switching. Then put a kit in and play with it for a while. I found I got overwhelmed in a sense the first few times I tried Engi because I’d have 4 kits and my weapons, and I never really learned what I could do with each ability. When I slowed down and devoted a little more time to learning the skills and what I could do with them, my survivability and dps increased dramatically.

Early as you can go bombs.
I think they are unbeatable in solo pve. You run around in circles dropping bombs while the mobs chase after you and get hit. You run in circles because the mob will reset/leash.
Traiting for this is simple, speedy kits (tools VI), and forceful explosives (explosives III).
Speedy kits to get around, Forceful explosives to increase radius of your bombs.
I would recommend going down the explosive trait line and getting the extra damage from explosions (VII iirc) and eventually grenadier (XI can’t beat that burst!).
With bombs it doesn’t matter if you go pistol/shield, pistol/pistol, or rifle each has their advantages and disadvantages but rifle scales well with Power which is what you get with the explosives trait line.
It is simple, effective and I love blowing things up!

blutstein.2468:

@Reuxvnoir, Aristio:
Did anyone of you actually read the OP??? he asks for a leveling build and is lvl22. Posting terrible lvl80 Builds is no help at all.

@OP: Power/Rifle is the way to go. A Single Mob, even veterans shouldnt be able to reach you due a lot of controlling with your rifle and bomb kit. Its all about positioning, Auto with rifle pierces, thunderbluss&Jumpshot is AE.

yes i did read i and hes not looking for a lvl 22 build hes asking for help on the rotations of things and kitten he supposed to be using we all share our play style and thats it, thats how we play in lvl 80 thats how ive been playing since i got my first trait point , traits are just extra .playstyle is what hes asking for

I tried using bombs but I always have to be in melee range or near melee range to hit enemies because they explode so quickly after being dropped that they blow up before the enemy can walk into them from further away and so I get hit a lot. Is there any remedy for this?

thomson.6405:

Pistol sucks for pve and leveling

thomson.6405:

the other kits are just bad in pve

thomson.6405:

All that talk about engi being versatile is rubbish

This is exactly the sort of advice I would ignore:

— I’m doing great leveling with pistols.
— I mostly use bombs, not grenades. I use elixir gun more than grenades now, in fact.
— I switch kits according to what I’m going to face. All the talk about engi NOT being versatile is rubbish.

Juicymarmalade.3187:

I tried using bombs but I always have to be in melee range or near melee range to hit enemies because they explode so quickly after being dropped that they blow up before the enemy can walk into them from further away and so I get hit a lot. Is there any remedy for this?

Open up with a ranged weapon first, and switch to bombs when they’re near. Or take advantage of distractions (thumper turrets! other players!) and run in and bomb like mad.

Also, you might have noticed you can run faster fowards than backwards; you can kite melee enemies in circles with your enemies behind you. That works better if you trait explosives for wider radius.

Personally I think it’s a little crazy to use bombs primarily when soloing. But there’s usually a place for them on my bar.

I have been playing an engie frequently, and I absolutely love it, I can pull 4 or 5 mobs and destroy them all very efficiently.

I use double pistols and flame, turret, healing turret, and rifle….Those you should be able to use at ur level.

Im leveling in a place 3 levels higher right now and have no problem. Make sure you spec correctly to ensure you can take a whoopin every now and then, your turrets will do a little bit of tanking themselves. Hope you find this helpful and good luck.

Juicymarmalade.3187:

I tried using bombs but I always have to be in melee range or near melee range to hit enemies because they explode so quickly after being dropped that they blow up before the enemy can walk into them from further away and so I get hit a lot. Is there any remedy for this?

Forceful explosives increases bomb radii. It’s an adept trait from the explosives line so you should be able to take it at level 20 if you want to.

With forceful explosives you should be able to aggro mobs and run around in circles dropping the bombs to damage them. Mind you, bomb-kit also includes wonderful damage mitigators like smoke bomb and concussion bomb so if you’re careful you can still stay in melee range with their help.

As an addendum to my previous post: I’m around level 55 or so now and just switched to power/precision rifle in place of condition pistols, and I no longer bother with static discharge. I’m happy with the change.

It’s not too much of a stretch to say that, at some level ranges, some builds work better than others. Doesn’t mean there aren’t multiple builds that can work across a wide range of levels, but still — you’re an engineer, never stop experimenting and optimizing.

Right now I am running mostly healing turret, grenades or bombs, rocket turret, elixir U, supply crate.

10/15/0/10/10 Incendiary Powder, Hair Trigger, Invigorating Speed, Speedy Kits.

Juicymarmalade.3187:

I tried using bombs but I always have to be in melee range or near melee range to hit enemies because they explode so quickly after being dropped that they blow up before the enemy can walk into them from further away and so I get hit a lot. Is there any remedy for this?

Make more use of blinds and work on timing. Blinds will make the enemies miss when they attack you. If you are using pistols, Static Shot(Pistol Attack #3) has a blind component built in. Smoke Vent(Flamthrower Attack #5) has a blind. Smoke Bomb (Bomb Kit Attack #4) has a blind. Flash Grenade(Grenade Kit Attack #3) has a blind.

Time your attacks better. So if you’re using pistol, shoot the enemy while they are running at you, right before they get to you hit them with pistol attack #3 (static shot). This will make their attack miss you(and their attack also causes the confusion from Static Shot to do damage) and give you time to switch to bomb kit. Once it bomb kit you can do this little combo: Fire Bomb > Smoke Bomb > Concussion Bomb.

Most NPC enemies don’t actually attack that fast. Couple that with working in blinds and you’ve got several seconds do work without taking hits.

PvE survival against anything that lacks Defiant as an Engineer doens’t take too much to get good at. Constantly apply the blinds and move around the enemies in circles. Drop Chill and Glue on them and just circle them until they all die.

This of course assumes Bomb/Nade/Pistols, but again after trying nearly everything for the first 50 or so levels I stuck with that long ago and it was a breeze. Orr is still a breeze and the only things you have to worry about taking much if any damage at all from are Champions that have Defiant.

JohnDied.3476:

Forceful explosives increases bomb radii. It’s an adept trait from the explosives line so you should be able to take it at level 20 if you want to.

I read that this trait is bugged, and actually makes explosive radius smaller, has it been fixed?

It increases the bomb radius for all bomb skills except the traited dodge roll bomb. In that case, it’s bugged because it seems to reduce that explosion to near zero radius.

Ayestes.1273:

It increases the bomb radius for all bomb skills except the traited dodge roll bomb. In that case, it’s bugged because it seems to reduce that explosion to near zero radius.

It has the same effect on the bomb dropped from kit refinement, but yes—besides those two, it works fine and is incredibly useful.

My advise, Juicymarmalade, would be pretty much the same for all professions, especially ranged professions like the Engi.

Stay mobile, dodge big attacks, stay out of range of melee attackers. If you are built for high criticals (berserker gear) it is even more important that you dodge and you will need to use your control skills as much as possible.

If you are set up with high power I would recommend using Rifle, as it has good control and decent enough damage. I would spec for grenades, which it sounds like you are heading that way anyway, as they are good at controlling and hitting multiple mobs hard.

My build consists of Rifle skills, Med Kit, a utility that varies*, Gren Kit, Flamethrower and Offensive Golem (I’m an Asura ). Here’s a link to my current build.

*One of my utilities changes often, depending on the situation. Often I will run with either Utility Goggles or Elixir Gun, but will sometimes use a turret or two if I need to hold a position.

Here is how most of my encounters go:

Grenades
If I start with grenades, which is usually when in a group, I will throw them in this order: Freeze, Poison, Flash, Shrapnel, then spam the standard gren until Flash and Shrapnel are recharged.

All the while I am throwing grens I am constantly moving and dodging as necessary. I will sometimes move close and dodge away, leaving a bomb at their feet. In group fights grens really shine and due to the range you can generally stay out of harms ways for most of the fight. But positioning is key here.

Rifle
If I am engaging a single mob I will, 9 times out of 10, open with rifle. I often open with Jump Shot, unless I will agro too many other mobs, then follow that up with Blunderbuss, Overcharged Shot then Net Shot. I then spam skill one until other skills recharge. If the mob gets too close before my net or overcharged shots are recharged I switch to flamethrower and hit them with Air Blast/Smoke Vent. Sometimes I will dodge away first and Air Blast them back onto my bomb.

If I draw more mobs I often swap to flamethrower/gren kit. I will also change out my utility skill 1 for Battering Ram, which gives me a third knockback. With Overcharged Shot, Air Blast and Battering Ram I can usually keep a mob away from me for a long time, certainly long enough to defeat them anyway. I am often swapping kits and using blind, knockback, chill and anything else my kits and skills can do to keep my enemies under control. And don’t forget your tool belt skills as well.

Kit swapping and controlling multiple enemies takes a bit of practice, but can be very satisfying when you do it right. I often practice my knockback build against Svanir in the heart of the mists, because if he gets too close to you it seriously hurts. It’s a very good and cost free way to practice against a tough opponent. It is PvP but you can generally make a build that is similar to your PvE build.

Anyway, I hope that helps you in some way and good luck finding a good build to suit your playstyle.

I’ve leveled my Engineer with a Rampeger mindset using Double Pistols and Grenades. When you’re not set to do significant damage or just not level 80, Grenades are always a good choice, good damage, decent condition for a great duration. Going pure damage with a Rifle can also pay off if you’re in the ‘pick and kill’ style because you have plenty of controls to molest your ennemies with.

Power bombs has been working great for my leveling, get power/toughness and just facetank with some smokebomb and dodging thrown in. The damage is intense and the survivability is great. I was doing gernades/pistols but I found it took too much coordination for every fight, kiting+skillshots+slows+worrying about heals was just bogging down my gameplay I love the build for dungeons/major events when I want a challenge but 3 same level enemies should not take so much effort to take out. Bombs is run in drop 2,4,3,1,1,1 5 if you gotta get out and you just watch the health drop.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Ayestes.1273:

It increases the bomb radius for all bomb skills except the traited dodge roll bomb. In that case, it’s bugged because it seems to reduce that explosion to near zero radius.

It has the same effect on the bomb dropped from kit refinement, but yes—besides those two, it works fine and is incredibly useful.

Ah, nice; does it also apply to the explosions from Grenades, or just the Bombs kit and Big Ole Bomb?

Kozai.8269:

NevirSayDie.6235:

Ayestes.1273:

It increases the bomb radius for all bomb skills except the traited dodge roll bomb. In that case, it’s bugged because it seems to reduce that explosion to near zero radius.

It has the same effect on the bomb dropped from kit refinement, but yes—besides those two, it works fine and is incredibly useful.

Ah, nice; does it also apply to the explosions from Grenades, or just the Bombs kit and Big Ole Bomb?

Bombs only, unfortunately. There’s no way to increase the size of grenade explosions.

thomson.6405:

I have tried all the kits and all the little tricks. The best setup by far is this:
Rifle is your primary weapon learn it love it. Pistol sucks for pve and leveling. It’s a great weapon in pvp however.
Nade kit is your secondary the other kits are just bad in pve learn to kite with nades as they will be your primary weapon of choice in dungeons & events where being in melee range is a very stupid idea.
Elixir H, B, C, and supply crate is your utility (because sadly all the other ultimate’s are crap).
Go explosives for Incendiary Powder, Explosive Powder and finally Grenadier.
Go Alchemy for Fast-Acting Elixirs, Potent Elixirs and finally HGH.
Go Tools for Speedy Kits.
I recommend you take Incendiary Powder then Speedy kits and work your way up the trees as you level.

Buy Strong Gear till you can buy Berserker’s Gear around level 50. Don’t stress your about your hp you will have enough and Elixir c will take care of dots stacking against you.

All that talk about engi being versatile is rubbish there are a couple of optimal setups for pve and this is one of them.

Rifle is hard to love, but the p/p condition damage is the best for leveling actually, because the burns and conditions work for higher levels i have leveled this way since the beginning and can take on events with 5-6 mobs with ease, I tried the rifle and it’s perfect 1v1 on pve but takes too long to level.

Learn to circle-strafe while tossing grenades, dropping bombs and medkits. Get Speedy Kits as your priority, learn how to keep perma-swiftness up.

Grenade and dodge everything that attacks from range. Kite everything that doesn’t while blowing them up with bombs. Drop medkits when they’re off cooldown to give yourself a steady supply of emergency health.

To be honest, you can trait and gear almost however you like, as long as you get Speedy Kits. I also recommend Invigorating Speed, which gives you perma-vigor as well. As long as you learn how to move while attacking and dodge big hits/cc, there’s nothing much that can stop you.