I feel like I'm hitting with a wet noodle.
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I also felt powerless at some point when leveling up, untill I started using Flamethrower.
As already mentioned FT is weak at 80 compared to an exotic weapon but usually stronger then guns you will have on lower levels, so probably worth a try.
But be aware that the damage-numbers you see on FT #1 are adding up which each tick (and not showing the damage per tick, same as pistol #2 and also on grenade-barrage).
And I always feel a little bad when I see Casia stating theoretical damage-numbers for grenades as it´s not enough for the target to be within the green circle to be really hit by all grenades, the target should stand in the middle.
I found leveling up (which I’m still doing, just hit 60 so I can try out Grenadier) to be a good time to test a variety of the Engineer skills. I’ve made sure to spend some time with rifle, and with P/S (P/P didn’t work so well for me, I need something with more defense to survive). I swap various other utilities in and out. I’ve even gotten some offensive and defensive jewelry to change between, so I can try to see how that affects my kill speed and survivability.
My hope is that that way, by the time I hit 80 and buying final armor and equipment is expensive, in gold, karma and/or WvW time, I’ll have a good idea of what matches my playstyle the best. Having a friend playing a Warrior with you is great for that, as you can experiment under more controlled circumstances and take the time to watch what is going on with both you and your foe(s).
Engi has weird DPS fluctuations as you are leveling. Flamethrower is actually very good dps at lower levels, but it scales very poorly and starts to be bad around like 50-60. Grenades are always good, but become DRAMATICALLY better at 60+. Elixer gun starts out pitiful, but actually becomes decent DPS by 80 because many of its abilities scale fairly well.
But no, you’re never going to compete with a warrior 3 levels higher than you until you get to level 60+ and get 3 grenades. But that’s just life. Part of it (probably at least 20%) is your level difference. The rest is just the fact that warriors get extremely high damage abilities on their baseline weapons while engis rely on talents to boost dps.
Lately I started watching and comparing my damage output to other classes and I’m really disappointed about engineer. Having 1700-1800 power/1780 precision/700 condition dmg/10% crit dmg and dealing like 30-40% of warriors’ damage… About AoE, I can never kill any trash faster than in 4-5 seconds, while other classes can kill such stuff in like 1-2 seconds (without glasscannon builds), not talking about their bigger AoE spells (not that just frontal arc)… I don’t want to use grenades, I’m not enjoying their mechanics, everyone is using them, also I hate whole explosives trait line. If there is melee/mid-range frontal AoE (like flamethrower/elixir gun) then it needs to be stronger than ranged circles of grenades, just because of the risk we’re taking by going melee. This class needs some serious balancing changes. Everything about damage scaling, not boosting the base damage of weapons and kits
How scaling looks like for 1 stack of might at lv 80:
- Flamethrower #1 is getting 10 raw DPS and 4.5 burn DPS
- Pistol #1 is getting 4 raw DPS and 1.5 bleeding DPS (if the tooltip about cast time is correct)
- Grenades #1 is getting 24 raw DPS (untraited)
Something is really wrong here
i feel like the difference between “I can’t do DPS!!!” and “DPS is really easy” is aiming the grenades. for instance i feel the engi stands in AoE DPS with just about anyone, but i use fast target ground casting and can dodge, toss grenades, dodge, toss grenades, switch to bomb kit, drop bombs, switch back… no sweat, because my utilities and autoattack are remapped to be a button away from my movement keys. i just keep the cursor on the target like i would in an FPS, almost. it’s why i love the engineer, it has a kinetic-ism and control ability that my other classes (guardian and mesmer) haven’t offered nearly as much.
i seriously think the reason grenades tend to be just naturally harder hitting is that they have some of the least friendly mechanics for a fast paced playstyle. i can cycle through ALL my grenades just as quickly as i can autoattack five times, then throw on the prof skill to boot every thirty seconds. that’s bleed, poison, chill, plus full damage of autoattack at same speed, basically. then you can glue bomb/shot them while chill ends. you can trait for crit swift and vigor and bomb on rolls to dodge through a cripple mass of mobs for ridiculous damage. it’s stupid.
I feel while the utilities and gadgets are fun, they hit like a wet noodle.
I play a Turret-Build, with Pistol/Shield too (lvl 61 atm). I think the “wet noodle” feeling results from comparison with glasscannon builds. While they allow much burst damage, and are great for a group of normal mobs not moving and/or close together, those players often have problems with certain veterans and champions or nearly instant respawn or many enemies doing ranged dmg, because everything that’s still alive after the burst or joins the battle later, is dangerous because of cooldowns and hardly any defense skills.
I tried a grenade build, but I hate the button smashing and love the Pistol/Shield Turret Build instead, so I switched back. I prefer to do lesser damage but survive most encounters, especially longlasting fights due to nearly instant respawn. Or soloing events because there are no other players.
In general I’d say, it depends on the build: if you want to survive most situations, you have to accept lesser dmg done and longer lasting fights. If you want to do more damage, you have to accept, that you will die a lot more often and need help in much more situations.
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