Guild Wars 2

I seriously am at a loss when it comes to engineers. Currently my engi is 61, and I’ve tried 2 builds so far. pistol/shield elixir build, and Juggernaut build. I’ve enjoyed using elixirs, but when I saw the trait of Juggernaut I thought it HAD to be a massive powerhouse. So I’m currently using it, and it hasn’t disappointed yet.

Now, I get on the forums and I see everyone posting about how FT is the worst kit there is, and how bombs/grenades are really the only way to go to get a powerhouse build. I don’t like using the grenade kit because of the constant ground targeting, bombs don’t really appeal to me, I don’t want to make a support build with the elixir gun as I already have another support toon, and honestly I really like the thought of mowing enemies down with the FT. Some of you guys aren’t wrong, with how Flame Blast (skill 2 on FT) sometimes doesn’t work, the auto-attack for FT sometimes misses, and how the rest of the skills don’t really do much damage.

Are grenades/bombs honestly the only powerhouse build engi’s have? Because if that’s the case, I’m just going to stop leveling my engi and keep it there until another balance patch comes out and try again. I really love the FT, but seeing as how a lot of people keep saying FT is garbage, I’m having second thoughts of using it.

I don’t mind using the elixir build I use to run, but I run dungeons quite a lot and pistols barely do anything to things like burrows or those gargoyle heads that spit fire at you.

EDIT: I should mention, I only do PvE and dungeons. I don’t care for PvP or WvW

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

Well there are currently a lot of issues with weapon kits, personally when I use the FT even with the FT Jugga trait and 6 mights stacked I lose 200 power over my pistols.
Not to mention the other stats on both the weapons including sigils.

They really d need to fix it so weapon kits for the engineer use actual equipped weapon stats, else you might as well go through the whole game using FT kit and never actually equip a weapon.

Don’t worry about it. Keep doing what’s fun, and keep in mind that most of the complainers here just latch onto the latest thing to whine about and don’t let go. If they fixed flamethrower, they’d start in on the next thing.

Also, note that all the class forums have these sorts of threads. All of them. Everyone thinks that their class is broken.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

I absolutely agree. I’ve settled on a rifle/flamethrower/elixir build after trying about 4 other builds and can easily say its my favorite one. Flame Jet will never miss so long as you keep your camera centered on the target. While it’s true that the skill will fail if used immediately after air blast, there’s other ways to set it up once you learn the proper spacing (the rifle’s net shot or overcharged shot, net turret, PBR, rocket turret overcharge, you get the idea).

The flamethrower itself doesn’t have the raw damage to take full advantage of the might gained from juggernaut, but a power build with rifle/grenades can, as can condition build pistols/bombs.

So your weapons don’t affect kits? Well kitten #8230;

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

There’s more to it than that. In the game’s current state, Engineers are practically shoehorned into playing Grenades. It’s far and beyond the absolute highest damage, and it also grants everybody in your party a lot of extra damage. There’s nothing that can top that in the least.

AlietteFaye.7316:

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

There’s more to it than that. In the game’s current state, Engineers are practically shoehorned into playing Grenades. It’s far and beyond the absolute highest damage, and it also grants everybody in your party a lot of extra damage. There’s nothing that can top that in the least.

And you are under the mistaken notion that all there is to this game is who does the most damage. There is a lot more to pvp, than who hits the hardest.

ZeroArmada.9426:

I really like the thought of mowing enemies down with the FT.

That’s your answer right there.

Most people don’t want to adapt to new things and others just believe everything they read. When someone tries to use Pistols and Elixirs or something that isn’t a Grenade build and they see their DPS isn’t as great as it was before, they just dish the whole idea. And then comes the cattle and start complaining that omg build X is so bad and Y is so good and you should only run build Y.

Damage isn’t everything. Utility and support are also very important in the game, as they are in mostly all other mmo’s. What I notice is that since GW2 doesn’t have fixed roles for classes, people seem to forget the value of Support builds.

I myself have a Pistol/Elixir build focused on Elixir Gun for supporting groups in dungeons with the Kit Refinement trait that allows me to drop 2 healing fields at the same time. It’s fun, durable and I’ve already saved many party members and made fights much more smoothly with the build. The Engineer is a very versatile class and it can things very well provided the player dedicates himself to use all the resources avaible at the correct time.

If you want to focus on DPS, I must say that the most viable option is indeed Grenades. However, if you don’t like them and loves the Flamethrower, then by all means go for it. The game is made in a way that pretty much every build is viable (provided you don’t try anything stupid on purpose). If you really like the FT, it means you’ll most likely play it for longer, meaning that you’ll learn how to use it effectively, together with all the options FT builds provide. This means you’ll be more efficient this way than you’d be if you used a ‘nades build. And, if I may say so, more efficient then most of the forum users that just come here to cry over how they can’t play other builds and how grenades are oh so much better.

ZeroArmada.9426:

I seriously am at a loss when it comes to engineers. Currently my engi is 61, and I’ve tried 2 builds so far. pistol/shield elixir build, and Juggernaut build. I’ve enjoyed using elixirs, but when I saw the trait of Juggernaut I thought it HAD to be a massive powerhouse. So I’m currently using it, and it hasn’t disappointed yet.

Now, I get on the forums and I see everyone posting about how FT is the worst kit there is, and how bombs/grenades are really the only way to go to get a powerhouse build. I don’t like using the grenade kit because of the constant ground targeting, bombs don’t really appeal to me, I don’t want to make a support build with the elixir gun as I already have another support toon, and honestly I really like the thought of mowing enemies down with the FT. Some of you guys aren’t wrong, with how Flame Blast (skill 2 on FT) sometimes doesn’t work, the auto-attack for FT sometimes misses, and how the rest of the skills don’t really do much damage.

Are grenades/bombs honestly the only powerhouse build engi’s have? Because if that’s the case, I’m just going to stop leveling my engi and keep it there until another balance patch comes out and try again. I really love the FT, but seeing as how a lot of people keep saying FT is garbage, I’m having second thoughts of using it.

I don’t mind using the elixir build I use to run, but I run dungeons quite a lot and pistols barely do anything to things like burrows or those gargoyle heads that spit fire at you.

You can win without using grenades/bombs, it just takes a lot longer.

So in answer to your question, if you want to be a powerhouse (or the closest engineer can come to being one) then yes you basically need to use grenades and/or bombs.

If being a powerhouse is what you want though you are better of rolling anotherclass, engineer is mediocre at everything except CC.

Flamethrower is a hard sell for certain situations but it’s perfectly viable for most of them. Certainly grenades will be more damaging if you can hit with them, and nothing harries quite like explosive spam in WvW or bomb spam in s/tPvP point-defense. But that being said in all of PvE and any small-scale close-range PvP flamethrower will do fine. Just make sure you take the 20 points in Alchemy to get the +15% damage to flamethrower trait in addition to Juggernaut in Firearms.

Flamethrowers are viable. If you switch to a grenadier, you will deal 50% more damage but at the same time die about 50% faster. I sugest you play how you want. Or if you are unsure go ahead and Respec to try out different builds until you find the one that suits you best. The ones who are saying grenade is the only way to play also say engineers are weak and useless. No matter where you go, people will complain.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

AlietteFaye.7316:

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

There’s more to it than that. In the game’s current state, Engineers are practically shoehorned into playing Grenades. It’s far and beyond the absolute highest damage, and it also grants everybody in your party a lot of extra damage. There’s nothing that can top that in the least.

And you are under the mistaken notion that all there is to this game is who does the most damage. There is a lot more to pvp, than who hits the hardest.

I’m not mistaken whatsoever. This thread concerns PvE, as it explicitly states in the OP.

Leveled without grenades to 70 just fine and quite fast for packs I used bombs or FT. 70-80 I used grenades and well they’re kitten good but I dont enjoy using them really. Double tapping constantly 1-5 and f4 is really really annoying but numbers on screen especially events with masses of adds is hilarious.

Best part of the grenades outside obvious 1500 range is huge aoe vulnerability stacks. Other builds should have better stacking chance than 50% per crit from precision tree.

I used all turrets to lvl from 1 to 80 and then some. Switched to a support build for dungeons, played bunker in spvp. Did WvW and farming with grenades. For those who think you are forced into a specific build are wrong. Unless your picking random gear with random traits, you will be fine. Just study the traits and gear and try not to waste money on switching constantly.

I usually run with rifle, Egun and grenades mostly. I do love tossing grenades down tunnels full of bad guys, lol. I’ll usually switch to grenades if I’m fighting in closed in areas.

Though lately I’ve been switching grenades for tools to mess around with prybar. That changes the way I approach a fight…but the engineer is nothing if not adaptable.

Never really used turrets. Outside of supply crate.

Best profession in the game…though its not for everyone, it seems.

What you should do is put down the engineer for awhile and play another class you have not tried. Not only will this make you a better GW2 player, but it will help keep the game fresh.

It looks like the next patch is focusing on rebalancing, and we’ve seen red posts in most forums noting scaling coefficients, balance concerns, trait positions being off (swapping some stuff around), and rounding errors borking some traits. So buy some time to see what they do to the class over the Wintersday patch.

The idea that you have to play ONE character to 80 before branching out is a strange meme. There’s so much low-level content to see.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

There are aalot of bad players who believe that if they don’t win with it, is worthless. Keep at it. Flamethrower has its place.

Actually that’s not the problem, thanks.

The complaints you are hearing on these forums aren’t due to bad players don’t let these people fool you. What’s really happening is that they’ve nerfed for too long in pve the explosives, and the FT/EG/Blowtorch pistol ability has serious miss problems that they have yet to even give us an ETA on. Right now I would not be surprised if you asked some engineers in map chat that say they absolutely refuse to login to that profession until they make the appropriate corrections to these glaring problems.

And no that’s not drama. It’s been two months since we’ve had a single dev post in the engineers forums. People in my guild have stopped playing the game entirely because their mains were engineers and it seems like eles and warriors are the only professions that they care about on this title….so they are disappointed and rightly so.