Guild Wars 2

High DPS classes for PVE have always been my favorite.

Currently, I’ve leveled a Revenant up to 67 and a Warrior to 53; Revenant and I didn’t “click” as I expected, and I’m getting along just fine with Guardian. However, I’m still looking for a fun, High DPS class for Dungeons, Fractals and open world content.

Engineer looks like a fun class to play, but before investing time on leveling one up, I’d like to hear your opinion on how this guy deals damage and how much “hard” it is to play, since I couldn’t really handle how “piano-ey” was the Elementalist, and I’ve yet to try the Thief.

well, the engineer is even more ‘piano-ey’ than the ele, and has, when built and played right, one of the highes dps.

Yeah, definitely “piano-ey” given the tool kits available. I’ve fumbled more than once in a boss fight. Medium armor, so it’s not as squishy as ele, but still pretty squishy(as opposed to say, Ranger), and the bomb kit plops the bomb right at your feet.

I have to say, I get a strange sense of satisfaction in running the grenade kit and dropping them everywhere. Kind of reminds me of Mass Effect 3 where I’d run around in multiplayer spamming cluster grenade and multi-frag grenade. Pity there isn’t a physics effect in this game that makes enemies ragdoll into the sky when they die.

I get the feeling this is one class you’d want for a dungeon run when someone else can go first and take the hits for you.

The engineer has currently the single highest DPS build (sinister nades), with the single longest & most complex rotation in the game…

It is arguable if the dps output is even worth the effort for most players, and even acquiring the high-end gear for this spec is literally a story of its own, since you have to complete all living story achievements for the chapters 5-8 of season 2.

Outside of the meta-game, engineer is generally a very complex class to play since we often utilize kits (utilities that have no cast time & replace our weaponskills with 5 different skills), in fact many builds are pure kit builds, resulting in up to 40 skills, that come with a literally wall of text of possible combos, since we can swap between these kits & our weapon virtually without any cooldown.
Of course there are viable & fun builds outside of kit-play as well, and with the arrival of scrapper we got a hard-hitting melee option, decently fitted for sustain, mobility & control.

We use medium armor, have no weaponswap (therefore we use kits), and our class-mechanic is our toolbelt, which gives us one extra skill for each healing, utility & elite skill we equip, so even if we don’t equip a single kit, we have at least 15 skills.
These are the weaponset engineer has access to:
rifle (2 handed) (power & control)
pistol / shield (condi & sustain (sometimes even used in defensive/supportive power builds))
pistol / pistol (condi & controll)
with the addition of scrapper:
hammer (2 handed) (power & sustain (if played well, also control))

and since kits are a weird from of class-related weaponswap, here a list & short description of kits:
- Flamethrower ( short range / defense, control & might-stacking. Less but existent use in condi-builds)
- Elixir-Gun (all ranges / mobility & support / comes with a valuable stunbreaker)
- Toolkit (all ranges / awesome control & defense)
- Grenade-Kit (medium range / condi & power dps. Comes with reasonable control)
- Bombkit (short range / condi & power dps with good control)
- Medkit (short range / takes the healing skill slot / bad healing, good condi-clear, good buffs)
- Mortar kit (all ranges (less accurate on long range)/ takes the elite-skill slot /support, dps & control / only elite in the game without any cooldown)

Additional utilities that we use are:
- Elixirs (very powerful self-buffs that can have various effects / their toolbelts generally allow for limited group-support with weaker versions of themselves)
- Gadgets (offensive or defensive combat-effects, like stunbreakers, cc’s or short-time mobility-enhancements)
- Turrets (originally designed as stationary aerial denial via dps spam (and local buff-dispensers), but long ago nerfed into the ground, turning them into drop’n’pop utilities, used for their blast-finishers or for really short uptimes, as long as their overcharges go, only)

Further, the scrapper uses these utilities:
- Gyros (mobile mini robots that mainly come with powerful defensive buffs, but also can perform offensive tasks. Currently they have huge issues with sticking to our characters, making playing them annoying, but if used with a brain, they allow for very high sustain. They can be destroyed, but unlike turrets, they all have very low cd’s)

Agreed with Arantheal, but I would make a small correction on gearing.

Since HoT came out, we got access to Viper’s stats, which have been found to be better than Sinister stats. The bright side of this is that while you will still need to do all the Living Story stuff for the Sinister trinkets (except there’s still no sinister back piece, you’ll go with Rampagers/Rabid/Celestial here), you’ll now want Viper’s stats for armor. This means you won’t need to farm Silverwastes for the Sinister recipes.

The down side is that you will have to spend a bit of time in Auric Basin since the currency from the rewards in this zone is used to buy the Viper’s inscription/insignia. However, personally, I find doing new HoT content more fun than (shudder) Silverwastes farming…

“However, personally, I find doing new HoT content more fun than (shudder) Silverwastes farming…”

But…but…them kitten mobs just hit sooo hard and I now really HATE shrooms!!! nasty lil kittens!

if ele was too piano-ey for you you should let engineer be. it’s like ele on steroids. imagine you don’t have cooldowns on attunements and go back and forth all the time to cast specific skills in specific rotations in specific situations. in between you squeeze in toolbelt skills and whatever is needed for support/control. it goes as far as canceling certain cast animations at the exact right moment (eg #4 f.e.).
once you get used to it it’s not more or less difficult than any other class but well … you have to get used to it first.
if you do your rotations flawlessly you’ll have the highest dps in the game. make one mistake and it drops significantly.
it’s by far the most fun class to play but also the most carpal tunnel syndrome inducing.

To boil it all the above, Eles live and die by their rotations. Engineers easily flow in and out of rotations, and can easily change what their rotations are doing to react to the situation. The key to Engineers is understanding build and combo synergy, and represents this meta-ideal of Guildwars 2 better then any other class (save the Guardian).

Every Engie build is represented as 3 postures and/or rotations. Their offensive posture is what they normally do for combat, and can actually be 3-4 different mini-rotations to adapt to what your fighting. Their Defense posture is how you execute recovery or group support, doing anything from condi cleansing, healing, or boon stacking. Lastly the “Panic Button”, which either a single skill, or series of skills used to get you out of a jam.

As an Example, a simple (if sub-optimal) PvE farming build is the Juggernaught. Firearms, Alchemy and Tools for traits.

Firearms: Uses High Caliber, Marksmen, and Juggernaught.
Alchemy: Protection Injection, Backpack regen, and HGH
Tools: Reactive lenses, Streamlined kits, Adrenal Implant

Juggernaut generates might and upkeeps a single stack of stability at all times. You run with this outside of combat so the stacks are ready when you enter combat. The other 2 passively boost offensive capability, and have no overhead to taking advantage of.

HGH and the Alchemy line serves 3 purposes. HGH grants long lasting might (and combo’d with Might runes its down right ridiculous), and cuts the cool down of all Elixirs. The 3 minor traits are your Condi protection. The Tincture minor combined with HGH makes your elixir tool belt skills grant might and clean 1 condi PLUS the normal effects of the skills when thrown. Tincture also extends your boon uptime, for better upkeep. This makes up the bulk of your defensive skills, and can be adapted to both support yourself and allies around you.

Tools is where you get sustain capability from. The 2nd minor reduces the CD on your thrown elixirs even further, bringing B and H (your work horses) down to 16s each, and the stronger U and S to around 32s. Reactive Lenses is a free auto stun-break, protecting you from anything that bleeds past your Jug Stab (giving you time to dodge out). Stream line kits = 100% swiftness uptime. Adrenal implant combined with the first minor (grants vigor) allows you to dodge as much as you need.

Gear choice is any power/prec focused prefix, and zerks is more then doable in Tyria. Rifle is the obvious choice; which I’ll get into more later. I run Elixirs H, B and U for the Wall skill. Elite is your choice, but Supply drop has a strong stun on impact and health packs for those dicey fights; while mortar gives you another elixir healing and 1500 range attacks those things you don’t want to get close to.

The rotations are simple. Run with FL out to build might. When entering combat, you have 3 choices…. might stack with Elixirs, open with FL 4 and 2 for burn + might + burst opening combo, or swap to Rifle* for opening knock back. Note that even with no condi damage, Burning is strong additive damage in pretty much every situation you can imagine. Fun fact, Stability will negate the self knock back of Rifle 4, giving you a free opening CC…. also works to clear movement CCs for no penalty. Anyway, FL AA is weak in DPS, but its the second best tagging skill in the game (#1 being Nade 1). When you need burst damage, you quickly swap to rifle, unload 3, 4 then 5, in that order. For high sustain, you do the above, then back to FL, hit 5 to blind, dodge back, FL 4, Fl3 if theres a break bar, then FL 2 and detonate after its pieced through. At the end of the rotation you can use elixirs to restack might, and continue DPSing with rifle AA for higher damage, or FL to resume building jug stacks while the other skills finish cooling down.

Defensive posturing is also pretty simple. Save your H main for healing. Use thrown elixirs or a shot of B to clean any soft CCs or heavy dmg stacks that put you in danger. Use thrown elixirs to help support allies, B for stab, and H for general condi cleaning or minor defense boost. If you feel like gambling, throwing B can also give some swiftness while traveling (and at 16s CD, its ready in no time). Elixir U thrown gives you a wall thats both useful in world boss fights, and makes good, long lasting cover for random situations. U’s main is also extra stun break, while I use the quickness to mine/log faster while roaming, or with FL 1 for giggles.

Obviously this isn’t even close to meta performance, but it has very low execution difficulty and is extremely flexible for Tyria PvE content. Prior to HOT, I used to take a Grenadier version of this (with Rocket boots) into WvW zerg fights, because of its extremely high mobility and range, making it a great mid and back line build. I can use the range to play pressure, while the tinctures were a cheap condi cleanse and boon boost for the backliners. And if I ever got immobilized, or just wanted to get across a small ravine? Rocket Boots!!!!!!!!