Guild Wars 2

I finished leveling my engineer and its got to be my favorite class out of all 8. However i feel like i’m forced to spec into grenades to offer any good DPS or support for my group. (going to make this my fractal guy). I want to use my rifle and only that or at least use a different kit for a few seconds. But to have any benefit to my group i feel like i must always have my grenade kit on. Is there any other viable builds to look into or any advice to give me? ( i heard turrets are just awful).

nope, sadly ANET has no idea how to bring up other specs / utilities.

^^^ Don’t listen to naysayers who have nothing productive to add ^^^

You’re better off going Elixirs if you only want to be in another kit “for a couple seconds”. An HGH build focusing on power sounds like it will be good for you, and it offers great group support with all the buffs you’re throwing out. Grenades are more of a main kit, they’re not worth traiting into if you’re only using them for 1 grenade skill or something which is what it sounds like you want to do.

If you still want to use a kit you just want it to be a nice compliment to your rifle you may want to look into Tool Kit, can’t say enough about it. Worth going into just for Pry Bar and using Throw Wrench from tool belt when it is up. Also comes with utility of AOE slow, block, and pull for any situation you find yourself in. Synergizes great with power in PvE because all its skills hit hard. Condition damage does wonders for that confusion as well, but in PvE it won’t tick as much as it would in PvP.

If you are not dead set on using a kit, either an HGH build sounds like it would be good for you like I mentioned above, or a Static Discharge based build. This is a good damage build. Take anything that has a very low cooldown targetted tool belt skill like Rifle Turret, PBR, Rocket Boots, Tool Kit. Goggles work great for this as well even though they’re on a bit longer CD, gives a good vulnerable debuff and stun break.

Don’t discount turrets completely. Rocket + Rifle can do some decent damage in PvE, though while you’re moving through trash you don’t always have them up, good for bosses though. At least with Rifle Turret you will always have something because of how low the tool belt cooldown is, Rocket is a bit more of a problem but still a good turret. Net is great for PvP, not so much PvE I don’t think. Thumper too long cooldown. Flame is also pretty good now, but you have a power build so I assume the burning wouldn’t be doing a lot of damage.

On the subject of elixirs, is it just me or does Elixir U never actually give you quickness but it has no problem going on its cool down when you use it? I have to be completely still not doing anything to actually get its buff.

And thanks ill definitively look into that Adamantium!

Elixir U does have some wonky problems right now. Sometimes it will go on cooldown and not give quickness. I have no idea why or how to reproduce it. Still a fantastic elixir for PvE now that it breaks stuns. Projectile stopper, two good fields to shoot through, quickness, stun break? Yes please! On top of all that in an HGH build it gives might and can potentially remove a condition.

If you are having problems with abilities being successful, make sure you aren’t jumping. That can trigger a lot of the potential problems.

If you think you need Grenades in PvE, you may be right. You however better not be using exclusively Grenades and should be swapping with damage cooldowns with multiple kits and your weapon choice. Even a Power Flamethrower build as an example should be swapping into Grenade Kit for Shrapnel/Freeze as damage cooldowns.

You will probably be constantly disappointed if you try to use only main hand weapons. I haven’t done a whole lot of fractals but from what I’ve done it doesn’t seem to be a good idea to go melee-only. That would mean you should probably keep using grenades.

I kit swap alot.

Blunderbuss>jumpshot>flamethrower (and get your fire shield for speccing it)>flame blast+detonate>napalm wall>back to blunderbuss…

So you play it like melee for upclose damage and you still get alot of utility from elixergun heals, rifle range, aoe, and another turret of your choice.

NevirSayDie.6235:

You will probably be constantly disappointed if you try to use only main hand weapons.

Completely disagree. You do not need kits to be an effective Engineer.

NevirSayDie.6235:

I haven’t done a whole lot of fractals but from what I’ve done it doesn’t seem to be a good idea to go melee-only. That would mean you should probably keep using grenades.

Completely agree. You spend a lot of time (in higher level fractals especially) keeping your distance. If you have enough survivability you can get in there for a Blunderbuss + Jump Shot, or a rotation through the Wrench skills, but not for a prolonged duration against many fractal bosses.

Yea, there is really something lacking in the longer range department of the engineer kit. We seem to have much more to go on in the melee range (two kits, a turret, mines). Now if the mine was knockdown rather than knockback, and the toolbelt being thrown with a tighter cluster, we would have something of an alternative non-kit to grenades right there that we could mix in with other ranged attacks without having to kit swap constantly.

Never mind that outside of SPVP the spike is the big meta winner right now, and so constant kit swapping (or the equivalent weapon/attunement swapping) to spike the most damage and conditions you can is a virtual requirement. I sometimes want to call it the alpha strike (mechwarrior) mentality. Unload everything you got at the enemy from the word go, and hope you blow him up before you blow yourself up.

I think bombs are really good if your gear allows you to get close.

nades just offer a lot of utility at a safe distanc with large aoe.

Your also getting 30% longer vulnerability, chill, poison (etc etc) on your grenades and stuff just for going up that trait line. And those conditions help a LOT especially as a lot of things can be immune/near immune to hard cc like your knockbacks etc.

But i’m sure theres other things you can pull off, just the explosives and alchemy trees are really good…and thus grenade/bomb and elixers are all really good.

NevirSayDie.6235:

You will probably be constantly disappointed if you try to use only main hand weapons.

I thought it was generally accepted that Pistol + Pistol (or Shield) is a viable option with nothing but elixirs for HGH or Cleansing Formula.

Has something changed in that regard?

I use P/P HGH except when stuff gets close to me I switch for bomb kit because I flee grenades like the plague, hate it so much. Bombs hit strong, can keep you alive with lots of conditions (specially the blind field).

Every class feels forced into using xy for good dmg amount. Get used to it – engi and dps means grenades. Nothing special compared to other classes.

Phineas Poe.3018:

NevirSayDie.6235:

You will probably be constantly disappointed if you try to use only main hand weapons.

I thought it was generally accepted that Pistol + Pistol (or Shield) is a viable option with nothing but elixirs for HGH or Cleansing Formula.

Has something changed in that regard?

I dont think so, pretty sure its still really good. I know i use it a lot. Especially since nades are going to give me carpal tunnel. That reason alone i would use double pistol with HGH. Should bring enough to the table to handle even high level fractals i’d imagine.

Daxxter.8920:

I use P/P HGH except when stuff gets close to me I switch for bomb kit because I flee grenades like the plague, hate it so much. Bombs hit strong, can keep you alive with lots of conditions (specially the blind field).

Im with ya there buddy. Bombs hit really hard, especially when the target(s) doesnt move much. I dont like doing any dungeon without it on my utility bar.

Adamantium.3682:

Elixir U does have some wonky problems right now. Sometimes it will go on cooldown and not give quickness. I have no idea why or how to reproduce it. Still a fantastic elixir for PvE now that it breaks stuns. Projectile stopper, two good fields to shoot through, quickness, stun break? Yes please! On top of all that in an HGH build it gives might and can potentially remove a condition.

I think it’s related to jumping or moving. I believe if you are in the air when toss elixir U hits the ground, nothing pops up but it goes on cooldown. The drink version seems a little more random, I’m not sure if that’s entirely related to jumping.

It’s a similar problem with elixir X where it doesn’t take effect if you’re in the air when you drink it.

I think its really more a problem with pve design than the class.. everything is too simple.

Use Pistols, cond dmg build, elixer B, rocket turret, contextual choice of 3rd utility skill. I’ve traited for pistols and elixers, though you’ll note my bar is low on elixers. The end result is a surprisingly survivable build that can cut through a lot of enemies. You can destroy all 4 sonic emitters in the Rox mission and survive to kill all the enemy spawns.

Kids don’t know ’bout my Static Discharge.