Guild Wars 2

New player, recently hit 80 on my main a necro, mostly play pvp.

Decided to make an alt mainly for completing the pvp dailies that require a win on another prof…but for the life of me I can’t stay alive long enough to contribute anything more than 60-80 points in a match, I’m constantly getting annihilated, especially by warriors (just can’t get away). I think 90% of the problem is skill, I am new after all but was wondering if any experienced players could give me some pointers, such as the simplest specs to at least start learning a viable role in spvp. How and when to switch kits etc in various situations. Any help is much appreciated.

I’m in the same boat as you, i’m basically a potato. Played a launch but barely did pvp and naturally things are much different now. I spent a lot of time reading these forums, and posting and the other engies out there have been instrumental in my learning. I won’t give too many specifics because i don’t want to give you the wrong information. However, i will say it does get better. I’m sure it’s common sense but i’ll say it anyway. You just gotta play. Find a decent build or a build that looks fun to you, and just play it. Make sure you know all your keybinds by heart, we have so many kits and so many buttons to press but that’s what makes this class amazing. Also, learn to use your heal properly (ie if you’re using turret make sure to hit the button twice).

As far as switching kits, at least to me, that came with just time spent playing. If a ranger is up on a ledge, i think to myself, ‘how can i kill him? Oh, just switch to wrench and pull him!’ Add in a prybar and you certainly ruin his day.

One of the biggest mistakes i’ve made is spamming my rifle #1. I was thinking, hey i’m far out and doing decent damage i’ll just continue spamming it, completely ignoring all other skills, but i can say that things go a million times smoother when you actually use your high damage abilities and then get outta dodge.

If warriors seem to be your biggest problem, I’d guess you’re running a full glass stat set with no vitality or toughness? Because I wouldn’t recommend that unless you know what you’re doing. Honestly, warriors tend to be one of the easier match-ups for most engie builds, It’s the mesmers or condi necros you usually have to watch out for.

You might want to start with a soldier amulet build, the meta is currently leaning soldier with rifle anyways (As a replacement for the old cele rifle builds) and then the defensive stats make it a bit more newbie friendly while you’re learning the class. Melandru or Hoelbrak rune is good because it reduces incoming condition duration which is your major weakness otherwise. Since you’ll have nearly zero crit this way, you’ll likely want to make one of your sigils intelligence, especially with anything that triggers “on-crit” on your build.

Alchemy is one of the best trait lines for PvP with HGH so long as you keep at least one elixir and/or the E-gun.

While you’re figuring things out, rotating between a full set of kits may be way too much micro to deal with, so you might just want to pick the one you really like (maybe two if you’re feeling adventurous) make a build around it, and learn it’s ins and outs before trying builds that are dependent on constant swapping between more than 2 kits.

Which kit seems to be your favorite so far?

That’s awesome, thanks for your help it makes a lot of sense, half of my problem was being overwhelmed by all the kits. I like the grenades a lot, but the damage seems a bit lacklustre at the moment, probably my build though, and I also like pistols as weapons, and conditions as a whole over direct damage.

I think almost every Engineer, unless trying a new build, will pack either Elixir S or Toolkit (generally depending on if they took Alchemy or not), which give plenty of options to disengage/tank a Warrior for a bit, until their stances/Rampage run out. If you took Elixir X as your Elite, its F-skill turns everyone in the radius into a Moa for three seconds, even if they were in a Transformation – useful for Rampage War/Engis, Lich/Plague Necros, the oddball Tornado Ele/Engi.

Generally, Engineer is ‘balanced’ into using at least one offensive kit: Grenade Kit, Flamethrower and Bomb Kit; many builds run another ‘support’ kit: Tool Kit, Elixir Gun, Elite Mortar Kit. Depending on which role you want to fulfill or what traits you choose, you’ll pick one kit or another (or take the traits based on the kits you like).

Here you will find many builds for any mode, you might want to start with the ones running a defensive amulet while you get a grasp of the class’ mechanics.

A basic thing to know is that some toolbelt skills are as valuable as the support ability, if not more. I reckon the Flamethrower Burn build has Incendiary Ammunition (Flamethrower’s toolbelt) as one of the cornerstones; likewise, Grenade Barrage packs quite a punch (~9k on non-buffed light armor) and it is too a toolbelt skill. Learning how and when to use the toolbelt abilities effectively is a major part of Engineering too.

As for when to use skills/switch kits, it generally boils down to reacting to the battle. See an enemy getting knocked down? Throw a Grenade Barrage at him and go to town with Shrapnel, Poison and Ice grenades. Enemy overwhelming the point? Drop your Smoke Bomb and Big’ol Bomb in the middle. The biggest thing about kits is that they have virtually no swap cooldown; you just switched to Bomb Kit to deal some pain and suddenly you get immobilized? Feel free to instantly swap to ToolKit to soak up all the damage coming your way.

There’s plenty of good engie condi set-ups, it’s just that the problem is most of the PvP condi gear isn’t all that good for survival. Toughness without any vitality just doesn’t work out too well because of how bursty everyone is. Engineer’s low condi cleansing ability makes it very hard to play without vitality, because you’ll die to burn and bleed within a few seconds without the extra health pool.

Grenades shine the best with high crit and on-crit traits and sigils. They work in pretty much any DPS stat set up, be it power, condi or hybrid, but they do work best in the glassier set-ups which is why they’re so amazing in PvE. Any of the optimal grenade builds are going to lean pretty glassy and bursty.

Cele engie isn’t as good as it used to be, but if you want to stick with grenades while you’re learning, a cele amulet may work best for you to keep some hybrid damage up with a little survivability, but the lower damage likely won’t win you many 1v1s. Carrion is an option if you round it out with enough crit rate increases, so you’d definitely be looking at Firearms and explosives as your specializations.

For more specific tips on survival in general:
Elixer S is your get out of jail free card, if you’re immobilized/stunned and getting burst to death it will let you walk right out of it. But any condis on you will keep ticking so if you use this with 10 burn stacks on you it may get yourself killed since you can’t cleanse yourself while shrunk.

The toolkit(the wrench kit) has a 3 second block on 16-20 seconds. People often take the kit just for this block, but magnet is handy and prybar hits like a truck. The AA is slow and mediocre (FYI, ALL engie AAs are mediocre at best) but if you are taking a soldier or other high power build it does hit for okay damage and is one of your better attacks against objects that can’t be hit with crit or condi.

If you are taking a glassier or bursty build, slick shoes can be very handy. Warriors and guards will hate you for it because you can run a ring around them with with it which will eat right through their stability stacks and knock them down anyways. Which you can use to forcibly land burst damage or use the opportunity to run away. Plus the toolbelt has a decent cooldown for a stunbreak and gives superspeed, so it’s handy for escaping.

I would approach the new to engi experience initially by trying to make your opponents come to you. Don’t worry about capping points at first, simply pester them and make them come to you. They basically re-create Zeno’s paradox .

Play with keeping distance and being annoying. Use CC on warriors like shotgun to the face, shoot them a bit, when the run up again use the net, shoot them a bit while walking backwards slowly, when the run up again, have a nice chill field waiting for them from mortar, then when they get closer use acid bomb to leap away, then when they get close a gain,use jump shot to land behind them. (by now a good blunderbus and they should be dead).

Practice these distance keeping skills and have a squishy build that instantly communicates to you when you got too kitteny. In time you’ll find warriors some of your more enjoyable victims. But first step is to practice distance control.

Check the “kitless engineer” build – it is very beginner-friendly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Euww0hfb8&feature=youtu.be

unfortunately while playing it you won’t obviously learn the power and versatility of kits