Guild Wars 2

Greetings! I’m in the process of narrowing down what profession I want to use as my main character, due to time constraints I only realistically have time to make progress on one character. I keep hearing that engineers are in a great place PvP wise, which is great, but I’m more interested in PvE. How’s the damage compared to a ranger/guardian/thief at level 80? What can an engineer contribute to a dungeon group? Do you find that, when soloing level 80 content, mobs die at a relatively fast pace?

My engineer is currently level 27 and his damage is lackluster at best. I’m running a grenade build, and to be fair, I don’t have all the necessary traits unlocked yet. That being said, my guard can just blast things away with his greatsword. Similarly, my S/D ranger can do some serious damage as well.

I really do enjoy the engineer class, but I also want to be able to feel like I’m contributing at level 80. Any information all you expert engineers can provide would be much appreciated!

Grenades take Traits to be good. You can try a Static Defense build which is pretty DPS bursty.

I couldn’t do grenades due to the amount of clicking needed. Bombs really shined for some early levels for me.

From what I have seen, Engineer is a class of finesse and control and less about facerolling. I, personally, chose to embrace it by going whole hog into a condition build. Things don’t die quickly, but I can keep my distance and sanity while my conditions erode away somebody.

If you want to maximize your normal damage potential, I recommend using a rifle, the flamethrower, bombs, and stack power stat gear. You should be close to getting Juggernaut in the marksman line soon (master trait). That will let you stack up 5 might and give you 200 toughness with the FT out. BoB will help with keeping pressure off (and doing decent damage). Fire rounds will be good to use with the rifle. Grenades really do require 30 points in explosives to shine. Grenadier is just that good.

Granted, I am still newish at this myself, but that was my experience trying to level up. Once I hit 80, I switched gears for a cond heavy build.

The engineer is more trait-dependent than most classes, so they feel especially weak at low levels. I really noticed this on mine.

For the Grenade Kit specifically, note that the Grenadier grandmaster trait in the explosives line gives a 25% range increase and a 50% damage increase (ie: throwing 3 at a time instead of 2) to grenades. The difference between having that and not is just night and day. Until you can get that trait at level 60, the Grenade Kit will be rather lackluster.

For stuff that’s more effective at low levels, you might want to check out the Tools or Firearms trait lines instead, as they have more stuff that packs a punch at the Adept and Master level and will probably help you more now. The Tool Kit is a really good weapon for general play and can compliment pistol or rifle skills nicely.

Thank you all for the replies! I will change some traits around and play with a few new builds and see what happens. You all have given me the hope I needed. I guess I’ll just keep on going with the engineer and see what happens!

Flamegineer with Turret support is very survivable if you burn CDs each fight. I run with Healing, Gun and Rocket Turrets, and Supply Drop. I only blow Supply Drop on Vet Fights. I love my AOE.

I’m a casual player with a lvl 80 asura engi. I’ve got a bunch of low level alts that are other professions. I’ve had the most fun with my engi. This class has so much versatility in solo or group mode.

I tried various builds while leveling. Started with turrets. Loved setting up “kill zones” using them. Ultimately settled on a grenade build through 80. I spent much of that time feeling powerful and survivable.

Now I’m getting to the very fun part – experimenting with other builds. Particularly looking for good PUG dungeon running builds (casual player, have no time to deal with guilds). I’m looking at an Elixir Gun build because PUGs usually have plenty of people happy to DPS away but few focused on CC and heals. Elixir Gun lets me play a great support role.

The biggest challenge I find with messing with different kit builds is traits and gear. A given trait spec + gear can make or break a kit build. E.g. the difference between no traits, no gear and the grenade kit and optimized gear/traits is 3 or more times the DPS. But it’s not just DPS – if you’re a heal, condition or CC kit user then the “team multiplier” also goes up dramatically with spec. So if you’re not specced correctly you won’t really “feel” what the kit is truly capable of – particularly against tough opponents.

Part of me would love to see a “testing dungeon” where we could set up a lvl 80 char with max PvE gear and play it against a std. dungeon boss. But the rest of me actually enjoys not really knowing what is optimal and having to experiment and learn.

Good luck with your engi adventure – if you approach it as a “discovery journey” you won’t be disappointed. There are a lot of “viable” play styles.

My biggest problem is I can’t really find something that works for me but grenades. Flamethrower comes close but both builds are with 409.
Static discharge is even better now but I’m affraid it has lower sustain and less defence.

If you already didn’t try out builds in the mist to get a feeling for certain builds.

Good luck.

My Engineer feels VERY fun after the 25/06 patch.
Pistol/Shield with Flamethrower, Elixir Gun and Rocket Boots (and of course Supply Drop)
I now work mostly in Flamethrower for trash & mobs and pistol/shield + Elixir for world bosses.
Also, Rocket Boots is only slightly shorter than FT #1… So I give ’em a rocket kick to the face every now and then between FT #1 blasts.

TONS of fun!!
and very survivable with Pistol’s Static Shot (#3), Shield’s #4 & #5, Rocket Boots jump, Air Blast (FT#3), Smoke Vent (FT#5), Elixir #4….

Stice.5204:

The engineer is more trait-dependent than most classes, so they feel especially weak at low levels. I really noticed this on mine.

For the Grenade Kit specifically, note that the Grenadier grandmaster trait in the explosives line gives a 25% range increase and a 50% damage increase (ie: throwing 3 at a time instead of 2) to grenades. The difference between having that and not is just night and day. Until you can get that trait at level 60, the Grenade Kit will be rather lackluster.

For stuff that’s more effective at low levels, you might want to check out the Tools or Firearms trait lines instead, as they have more stuff that packs a punch at the Adept and Master level and will probably help you more now. The Tool Kit is a really good weapon for general play and can compliment pistol or rifle skills nicely.

Well i would disagree with toolkit being good. If they are in close use bombs, in my opinion they are way more effective, take multiple targets and condition and effect them. You can take on crazy amounts of mobs with skill using a bomb kit. I personally avoid toolkit most of the time save the shield and prybar, engineers just aren’t made for toe to toe melee in my opinion.

Hey, I main an engineer and am always irritated at the state of endgame PvE. “High-end” dungeon parties are always 4 heavies and one mesmer— they are just mathematically superior. For a while I thought that this meant engineer sucked totally; in fact, I’ve been talked down in a couple of PUGs (yes, just for bringing an engineer in).

Don’t let these things discourage you. Engineers are great fun (as you know), and actually work well if they are played properly (you just can’t beat the mathematically superior parties). They’re quite complex.

Like what other people said above, engineers are heavily trait reliant. Making your own flavor of engi (and one that works well) is a headache to many, if not most. There are plenty of things to consider— combo fields and finishers, utility and control, synergy with others, efficient stat/rune combinations, and so on. It’s not just min-maxing for a particular weapon set.

Since you wanted to know how engineers do in PvE, I’ll give you a couple of example builds.

Grenade and Flamethrower are roughly on par as the most efficient/fast (and popular) dps builds. The two kits offer different kinds of utility and combo fields. Choose one you prefer (or use both; people certainly do that), but remember to trait accordingly. Grenade gets a ton of bleed and vuln, while the Flamethrower just burns— you’ll have to rely on other kits for other conditions.

Lastly, some advice: if you’re planning to make your own flavor of engi, pick one aspect of gameplay (control, support, DPS, etc.) and stick to it. Do a bit of math, too— make sure your build isn’t too spread out. You definitely need to be dealing decent damage no matter what (this is PvE), so don’t forget that.
Alternatively, you can just pick a weapon or kit and center your build around that, if you like that particular kit that much.

Good luck!

At level 27 you obviously don’t have a number of the really strong traits unlocked yet. You’ll need to be 60 for grenades to really shine, and shine they do. You’ll need to be 40 for FT to really shine, but shine it does.

At 27 I’d try out Static Discharge/Rifle. Grab the SD trait in Tools and take some low-CD toolbelt items. My recommendation is Rifle Turret, ToolKit, & either PBR or Goggles. I like the Goggles better, but PBR’s CD is much lower so your choice. The idea is to spam your toolbelt skills in quick succession, triggering SD. Stack power/prec and you’ll deal some nice spike damage. Finish em off with Rifle.

That’s something to try until you unlock more traits. At 40, try FT/EG together. Good damage/support/survivability. At 60 try grenades. Good damage and conditions.

You’ll find that, once you unlock traits and skills, you’re extremely versatile and playing Engi is dynamic and rewarding. gl

I have little experience with level capped Engi prior to the last patch but I’m really enjoying a mostly glass cannon Rifle/SD build now. Survivability isn’t too bad and damage feels comparable if not better than my other DPS built classes, sustained and burst. There are a ton of builds that allow you to contribute in different ways. I am quite happy with the class.

At lower levels I ran Rifle and Static Discharge with Bombs, Toolkit, Rifle Turret or Rocket Boots. Static Discharge will give you that extra kick you need, choose skills with low toolbelt cooldowns. You can switch Static Discharge for Speedy Kits if you need to travel some distance. At 30 I’d run 0/10/0/0/10 and take Hair Trigger for rifle and SD/SK. At 40 Flamethrower starts getting some good traits. 60 opens up Grenades and most other stuff.

Condition is good but I’d suggest power/crit/vitality for leveling, but I’m just generally not a condition fan. I have a full Rabid set and a mostly full Zerker set, I like condition/grenades for WvW and Zerker for PvP and PvE.

GL
Blood~

*seems most of this has been said already

Engineers are primarily a PvP class.

• CC is a major Eng strength.
  CC is next to useless against most PvE bosses.
• Conditions are a major strength of Engs.
  Conditions are often redundant in dungeons and PvE group events.
  Condition builds typically take longer than power builds to kill PvE mobs.

In PvE, Engs:

1. Are great fun.
2. Need to be in a Power/Explosives (Bomb or Grenade kit) build to be comparable to other classes. (These may be the least interesting Eng builds.)
3. With other builds are more interesting to play but take much longer to complete combats.

If you have a good WvW condition build, you will STEAMROLL PvE content. I enjoy playing condition engineer way more than my guardian or mesmer in PvE.

kazi.6438:

If you have a good WvW condition build, you will STEAMROLL PvE content. I enjoy playing condition engineer way more than my guardian or mesmer in PvE.

Anything steamrolls PVE. WvW builds emphasize defense and offense where PvE only cares about offense. If WvW also had one-shotting skills that we either dodged or died it too would just focus on offense.

IMHO as a relatively new engineer fully geared but still new engineer is one of those classes that feels fine in PvE including dungeons. The thing I noticed is that for all the utility 3 kits brings to a party the DPS can be lack luster. Like an engineer long ago told me,“I feel like I end up just sitting in grenades and spamming because its just too good in PvE.” Now this was before the 30% damage reduction but I found myself doing the same and just playing HgH for PvE. The vulnerability adds up and the dps is far from lack luster and the range just makes lots of content a breeze. I am not experienced enough an engineer to say that this is the best dps there is. However, from what I have seen in a party an engineer can most definitely pull its a weight.

It should be noted in most dungeons 4 heavy plus a mesmer wont really make much difference outside of one noticeable speed run. PvE content in general is not hard enough to need specific classes. Even in that case places like AC like to have eles for ice bow. Speed runs of Path 2 in CoF some times exclude classes that cant leap or make the jumps. Rarely is the content so hard that you need a tank. In many of those cases the players who beg for a heavy were being carried in the first place. I think its the dumbest thing that so many months in these stereotypes persist.

Best thing I can tell you is play well do not go down too much and no one will care what you do.

Engies are fun but as i see it , there’s nothing we can do that some other class can’t do better.

With that being said: You might encounter people that don’t want you in their dungeon groups.
I’d recommend you put those people on your ignore list asap and move on – they are the kind of people that will leave on the very first wipe and call everyone noobs.

Keelin.5781:

Engies are fun but as i see it , there’s nothing we can do that some other class can’t do better.

But there’s no class that can do everything we can do better. Sure, warriors will out dps us in dungeons. But they can’t match us in PvP. Guardians can out-boon us. But they can’t touch our condition dealing.

Keelin.5781:

With that being said: You might encounter people that don’t want you in their dungeon groups.
I’d recommend you put those people on your ignore list asap and move on – they are the kind of people that will leave on the very first wipe and call everyone noobs.

I’ve yet to encounter anyone who doesn’t want me in a dungeon group. But you’r right. If you find em, ignore em. They’re the ignorant ones.

You really won’t bring the DPS a warrior would bring to a dungeon, but an Engie makes a really good support character for a dungeon team.

You can bring a respectable amount of DPS, while bringing a lot of valuable support tools to the team. Engie is not the most sought after class for dungeons, but you can be very successful and very useful on any dungeon team.

But as someone mentioned, it seems there isn’t something we do that someone else can’t do better. We are just able to do a lot of things well. Just not one thing extremely well.