Guild Wars 2

I can just about function in a zerg, by running around placing bombs as zerg meets zerg but its so disconnected from fighting anything. Can’t use flamethrower as other peoples retaliation does more damage to me than i can to them. I don’t have a reliable source of stability, i get thrown around like a dirty condom.
I can provide a little bit of support, nothing compared to other classes and just don’t get any badges.

Being an engineer sucks hard in WvW. What am I doing wrong? …. im sure ill get “use grenades!” but tghat seems to be the answer to every question on the engineer, i dislike using them.

Anet, please but some imagination into the engineer. feels like such a second thought.

SD build with zerker works pretty well if youre runnng with a zerg, the high burst dmg and the bouncing lighting gets massive DPS on zerg vs zerg.

Use gearshield to block, speedy kits give you perma swiftness and vigor with traits, pull targets with magnet, use toss elixir U for the wall of reflection (Massive dmg if pleaced correctly).

Nades for attacking and defending walls, use bombs for combo fields, there are so many uses for engi in WvW i can’t really name them all.

We are kinda weak in 1v1 situations tho.

Good builds do get posted here every so often. look up Tankcat build. The creator included a good video of how to play it.

Dustfinger.9510:

Good builds do get posted here every so often. look up Tankcat build. The creator included a good video of how to play it.

This does not work anymore. Both Confusion and Retaliation reduced to 50 percent, so you would be completely useless. You have to bring at least a little damage to be able to put opponents on edge. Otherwise they can just 100 percent focus on damaging you, which is not good for survivability.

@OP, I honestly think we are an incredible class in WvW. Do you have any idea how effective grenades are? And don’t you dare bring in “oh retaliation kills oh god”. Retaliation does literally nothing anymore. If you actually are concerned about retaliation, then you only dream about WvW.

That sucks. I wanted to play it when I leveld my engi :/

Dustfinger.9510:

That sucks. I wanted to play it when I leveld my engi :/

Yeah, it was fun. However, don’t feel too bad, we have some sturdy but powerful bomb builds that give a very similar feeling. Tell you what, ain’t nothin better than leading your group into an enemy zerg, dropping the Big ’ol Bomb, using elixir s to escape (after its planted), then watching your enemies take a flying lesson. Bags galor.

Dustfinger.9510:

Good builds do get posted here every so often. look up Tankcat build. The creator included a good video of how to play it.

Tankcat is more of 1v1 build, its good for taking a lot of damage but suffers from people just running away from you, you can’t lock anyone down… at least thats what i found.

Welswift.9813:

Dustfinger.9510:

Good builds do get posted here every so often. look up Tankcat build. The creator included a good video of how to play it.

This does not work anymore. Both Confusion and Retaliation reduced to 50 percent, so you would be completely useless. You have to bring at least a little damage to be able to put opponents on edge. Otherwise they can just 100 percent focus on damaging you, which is not good for survivability.

@OP, I honestly think we are an incredible class in WvW. Do you have any idea how effective grenades are? And don’t you dare bring in “oh retaliation kills oh god”. Retaliation does literally nothing anymore. If you actually are concerned about retaliation, then you only dream about WvW.

Well, with flamethrower, hitting 5 people with ret u kitten x 360~ every second (360×10 = 3600 × 5 = 18000 for 2~ seconds blast of flame. Not sure how thats hardly anything! My point is I feel a lot less effective, or bring less to WvW than any other class. Grenades are great, but they disconnect (read: boring) you from the battle so much … the way i use them anyway.

get out of the zerg and go roam in a 1-10 man group.

engi does bad in a zerg. we do great in small numbers.

Yeah except when you are in the top 3 tiers of servers in WvW, its ALL zerg.

then transfer. or roll another class.

digitalfodder.5086:

Yeah except when you are in the top 3 tiers of servers in WvW, its ALL zerg.

I agree but disagree. Yeah there are a lot more zergs, but on Blackgate (#1 woot woot), we have strike teams that go put pressure on supply points or misdirect an enemy by flipping flags far away from our main armies.

So no, its not all zergs, and we can still have an awesome small-group role.

And also, if you read my post, I was talking grenades. Why on earth would you be using FT in WvW?

We are still awesome in zergs.

Okay, so about grenades being borring or disconnecting you from the battle:

Yes they put some space between you and the zerg, but this is often a good thing. You will only benefit from moving closer in range anyways (less projectile distance), so you don’t HAVE to be disconnected. The way you should use grenades should involve hitting the most packed areas, then when you see a downed enemy start pounding them until you have a sparkling bag at your feet.

This is a lot of fun, especially once you see the damage you do with 25 stacks of might from HGH.

Grenades or go home.
Turrets are at an all time low point, with the hitbox and traits being broken.
FT still has crappy range and horrible retaliation and poor utility.
Bunkers took a beating last patch.
Bombs are only useful for those who record 6 hrs of them being useless to edit together the 6 mins they made a difference.
Rifle its boring and clunky and brings nothing much on top.
Elixir gun is just kitten

Everyone runs elixirs from lack of options, but instead of fixing any broken stuff devtards started targeting elixirs for nerfs now.

Use Pistols with Coated Bullets to tag lots of enemies.
Keep moving on the outskirts of the Zerg battle and focus downed enemies and enemies standing still skill spamming.
This is where you can do very well since you can use a variety of tools to finish ppl off, you can tag them with conditions (poison works great on downed), you can use Elixir S and Throw Elixir S (if the RNG don’t fook u), Blinds, Static Shield (if you have a shield), smoke field etc.
Even the FT if you focus on downed enemies you can usually counter them being healed.

If you want to be effective AND get tons and tons of bags you will have a hard time. If bags is all you want just grab Grenades and strafe around spamming until you get focused and have to run or confusion and retal cause u to heal.
Even still it is always better to focus on downed enemies during Zerg battles and Grenades also do that job nicely.

If you are looking for something that we can contribute to shape the way the zerg battle is played out, like for example Guardians Wall Block or Mesmer Portals or Necro Marks, then yeah…….no.
Unless you manage to Hero and get lucky with Tornado from Elixir X there isn’t much that Engineers can do better or unique from other professions when it comes to large fights. The same seems to hold true for dungeons.

Use grenades. Actually if u don’t like grenades … try to get used to grenades or roll another class. Grenades are the strongest way to play engineer and will ever be the strongest way (not my words, this was said by Anet in the last state of the game.)

Depends on who you are zerging with and the goal of the zerg. Taking a keep/garrison, you are awesome. Open field combat zerg busting, not so much.

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Tien.3865:

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Do you run condition based grenades or power? I find that conditions in general are not so powerful in WvW if you are running with anything more than 15 people.

timidobserver.7925:

Tien.3865:

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Do you run condition based grenades or power? I find that conditions in general are not so powerful in WvW if you are running with anything more than 15 people.

Why no condition dmg with anything more than 15 people? Sure if u fight 15 vs 1, this poor guy will get any conditionstack – but your conditions tick first if u have more condition dmg than others.
In Zerg vs Zerg don’t see alot ppl with full stacks of conditions, and if I see them, they are instandly dead. There is not more waste through max condition stacks as overkill on direct dmg. And there is definitly no good reason to not play condition dmg in wvw.

Forestnator.6298:

timidobserver.7925:

Tien.3865:

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Do you run condition based grenades or power? I find that conditions in general are not so powerful in WvW if you are running with anything more than 15 people.

Why no condition dmg with anything more than 15 people? Sure if u fight 15 vs 1, this poor guy will get any conditionstack – but your conditions tick first if u have more condition dmg than others.
In Zerg vs Zerg don’t see alot ppl with full stacks of conditions, and if I see them, they are instandly dead. There is not more waste through max condition stacks as overkill on direct dmg. And there is definitly no good reason to not play condition dmg in wvw.

He meant because of all the aoe cleansing, which has truth to it. I still think it’s effective, though.

Forestnator.6298:

timidobserver.7925:

Tien.3865:

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Do you run condition based grenades or power? I find that conditions in general are not so powerful in WvW if you are running with anything more than 15 people.

Why no condition dmg with anything more than 15 people? Sure if u fight 15 vs 1, this poor guy will get any conditionstack – but your conditions tick first if u have more condition dmg than others.
In Zerg vs Zerg don’t see alot ppl with full stacks of conditions, and if I see them, they are instandly dead. There is not more waste through max condition stacks as overkill on direct dmg. And there is definitly no good reason to not play condition dmg in wvw.

Yeh what the guy above said. If it is pug zerg vs pug zerg, then yeh maybe. However, if it is an organized zerg then conditions should be getting cleansed fairly regularly.

Though, I didn’t mean for you to get defensive. I am asking because I am genuinely curious if you guys find condition nades or power nades to be most effective in a zerg. I’ve gotten the desire to get my engi off the shelf, so I’ve been trying to figure out if I want to go for conditions or power on my nades.

Honestly, it’s a matter of preference when it comes to WVW. I have played both condi nades and currently, i am power/crit nades. It does have a small advantage over groups with condi cleansing, but I don’t really notice a significant bigger boost in killing/bag farming power.

But, nothing seems better than catching 3-4 people rezzing mid-battle only to put that to an end very, very quickly

Engis can be extreamly useful in wvw. In zergs when ever you all stack up to stack might, engis can contribute a kitten ton of blast finishers. We also have access to many knock backs, which is amazing when you are definding hills. Jump into the zerg, drop B.O.B and run out and boom, loot everywhere.

In small groups, I run a healing tankish build so when ever we get into a fight, I’m in the middle of the enemies getting all the focus fire while the rest of my group pew pew safely. of course I’m not as tanky as a guard, but i do a kitten ton more damage then them and its a lot more fun to bunker with an engi tan a guard,

You know, honestly, Engineer Grenades are definitely the best for WvW. WvW at the moment is heavily focused on zerging. So what do you do against zergs? AoE them. Grenades are your best ranged AoE spamming option if you don’t want to use siege equipment. Otherwise, you’re stuck with siege equipment.

i still use tank cat, even after the patch. the damage has taken a big hit but in general the survivability is almost as good as it ever has been. (it still has its glaringly obvious lack of stability, but whatever…)

to answer your question, i like to use my survivability to my advantage in a zerg scenario; i usually stand up near the front of the blob and when we meet an enemy, what i do is drop supply crate right on the enemy zerg, run straight in and shield #4. (this sometimes will give you area healing if you get the timing right near the elite’s heal turret) i then drop caltrops and just go to town with the wrench auto/prybar and pistol #3.

with that combo alone, you have aoe stunned, knocked back, crippled and confused numerous enemies, not to mention aoe healed a few of your allies in the initial clashing of forces. you can then use magnet to pick off individuals at will from then on.

if you start getting hard cc’d, elixir s out to the periphery and just start pistol auto attacking while you heal up.

elixir b’s retaliation is quite delicious to use as well. just hit that before you jump in to the fight.

I do mostly WvWvW and my main is engineer.

I agree with the other posters that grenade kit is the way to go. Rifle is not totally useless. The net shot, combined with increased condition duration (e.g. 30 trait points to explosive trait line) + Lyssa runes, you can snare targets for a nicely long time. Overcharged shot is ownage. I have scored so many kills with it, it is hands down probably the best engi rifle skill, despite it also knocks you down.

Elixir gun is actually pretty good in WvWvW. I call it bunker guardian ownage gun. Yes, you don’t need to use much anything else and the guardian will be slowly eaten alive by it. Auto attack together with + 50% condition duration build makes sure that the target will have permanent weakness on him = lots of glancing blows on those running with PVT armor or cleric set. Super elixir provides light field for combo effects e.g. area retaliation (use EG #4 for trigger it yourself and then jump shot for another self-retaliation). It also does pretty nice large area heal, around 3k. Furnigate removes conditions from your team mates.

You should also consider tool kit. Magnetic pull to pull down enemies from the walls or from their zerg in the middle of your own one. Gear shield is one of the rare blocking skills, which allows you to use other skills while using it.

Overall engineer is not among the top or most overpowered WvWvW professions, maybe in the weaker list, but not totally bad. It is pretty versatile. It can do okay as a solo roamer, okay in zerg situation and okay as support.

Using engineer as a commander is pretty kitten hectic, due so much micromanagement.

I’m also running bombs in WvW as it’s the only kit able to do decent damage when the skill lag kicks in when SFR, Deso, and Viz zergs meet. My inventory gets full quite quickly but that’s maybe because there are huge blobs to kill in this tier.

We don’t have awesome skills like veil, line of warding, portals, static field, or even a raliable stability that commanders can call for, but we do bring some utility to the battlefield. You can place water, fire, and light fields when the commander asks for it and are able to blast it several times. You can also quickly blast lightning fields while on the move with your shield. The only time I heard commanders call for engineers however was to dps cannons on fort walls with grenades

Anet said that we bring CC to the battle field but the good ones are single target and others are just a small knockback or a bit of cripple. We really need some good heavy aoe stun, daze, or immobalize skills in our class.

I agree with the OP, that even in WvW, engineers are bad.

This class is in such a sad state, I am amazed to see that anyone still plays it. Grenades should rule WvW, but if you spec for grenades you are possibly the biggest freekill in the game.

It wasn’t always this bad. Before, if you came under fire, you could pop elixirgun for the KR cleanse/heal and run for it. Now, who cares?…

It is so bad as a grenade engineer, that as soon as you realize how much you suck, you just throw your hands up and log off.

You have no good escapes, no good condition removals, no anything, that is going to give you the tools, needed to live long enough, in order to fight back against a melee class running circles around you, that you can’t hit with a fricken grenade.

There are all these little clever things that sound good on paper, but in practice don’t work for squat, or can’t be put on your toolbar, because there’s no room.

And it’s not like you can just swap to rifle or pistols… the engineer class, more than any other, specs for one weapon, at the expense of everything else.

On my ranger, the trait that lets arrows pierce drives me nuts, because it does nothing when I switch to my greatsword. If I use my longbow, and want the extra range, that’s two wasted traits… so annoying.

But on my engineer. I have bleeding/burning explosions, 10% more damage with explosions, extra range with grenades, faster run speed with kits, and elixir S for when I get ambushed because I can’t see anything behind me while using the stupid grenades…

…and I swap to rifle/pistol/flamethrower/elixirgun/toolkit? and do what? I have nothing that applies any of those weapons, and 3 out of 5 of my traits are worthless, maybe 4.

And even now, it feels like everything is broken. My personal favorite is the trait Rifled Barrels, which is just supposed to increase range, but it also “Tranquilizer Dart: Reduces Bleed Duration by 25% but increases the Weakness Duration by 200%.” and “Elixir F: Increases Swiftness and Cripple Durations by 166%. "

…it just never ends.

timidobserver.7925:

Tien.3865:

Grenades are great for defending towers against small to medium-sized zergs, especially if you’re built for condition damage. Toss them into the zerg and watch the numbers fly. When someone is downed, spam grenades on him and you will likely finish him off (and down/kill any teammates who are trying to revive him).

Do you run condition based grenades or power? I find that conditions in general are not so powerful in WvW if you are running with anything more than 15 people.

I run a mix of Rabid/Rampager’s. I agree, conditions aren’t too useful against an organized zerg, but engineers can reapply a variety of conditions pretty easily (and the direct damage isn’t too shabby either). Plus, opponents will often back off when they see the constant red circles from grenades. But my main goal is usually to finish off downed people and prevent others from reviving them, and I find that condition-based grenades are really good at that. To each his own, I guess.

Ezeriel.9574:

And it’s not like you can just swap to rifle or pistols… the engineer class, more than any other, specs for one weapon, at the expense of everything else.

---

And even now, it feels like everything is broken. My personal favorite is the trait Rifled Barrels, which is just supposed to increase range, but it also “Tranquilizer Dart: Reduces Bleed Duration by 25% but increases the Weakness Duration by 200%.” and “Elixir F: Increases Swiftness and Cripple Durations by 166%. "

I think that elixir gun bug has actually been fixed, but the wiki still has old information.

But you hit the heal of the nail with the comment about engineer being limited by the weapon of choice. Arenanet says engineer should be very versatile, but playing all professions I can tell that elementalist is the king of versatility and has much less bugs than the engineer. Elementalist can still get great boons by swapping the elements and using elemental attunement trait. It doesn’t suffer from any internal cooldown like the engineer’s new (and useless) Kit Refinement trait has. I would argue that the boons are much better than what KR offers.

If engineer wants to be e.g. effective with certain kit or weapon, he/she is forced to spec heavily into it. E.g. compare how much stronger/weaker the grenade kit is with or without the grenadier grandmaster trait. I would argue that without spending 30 points in the explosives trait tree, the grenade kit doesn’t even have half of the power with 0 investment in that trait tree. 1/3 less grenades, lower range, and more importantly not able to stack vulnerability so easily (without extra traits or skills) nor cause burning or extra bleed.

Thus instead of being very versatile, engineer is forced to become more or less a one trick pony. Engineer doesn’t have any more trait points than the other professions and the traits are not exactly versatile, in fact many of them are incredibly weak e.g. Adrenal Implant or Autodefense Bomb Dispenser.

Then we have the bad joke: Turrets
They have less health than a sickly kitten and hit box as wide as a barn door. They auto-destruct, don’t move, all turret related traits are weak and actually don’t even work, turrets have no AI whatsoever, making ranger pets appear like Einsteins compared to them.

I urge Anet developers try out WvWvW in a really big zerg fight or real siege situation in a top tier with lots of superior arrow carts. Record your video and show us how “useful” turrets are.

Ezeriel.9574:

I agree with the OP, that even in WvW, engineers are bad.

This class is in such a sad state, I am amazed to see that anyone still plays it. Grenades should rule WvW, but if you spec for grenades you are possibly the biggest freekill in the game.

It wasn’t always this bad. Before, if you came under fire, you could pop elixirgun for the KR cleanse/heal and run for it. Now, who cares?…

It is so bad as a grenade engineer, that as soon as you realize how much you suck, you just throw your hands up and log off.

You have no good escapes, no good condition removals, no anything, that is going to give you the tools, needed to live long enough, in order to fight back against a melee class running circles around you, that you can’t hit with a fricken grenade.

There are all these little clever things that sound good on paper, but in practice don’t work for squat, or can’t be put on your toolbar, because there’s no room.

And it’s not like you can just swap to rifle or pistols… the engineer class, more than any other, specs for one weapon, at the expense of everything else.

On my ranger, the trait that lets arrows pierce drives me nuts, because it does nothing when I switch to my greatsword. If I use my longbow, and want the extra range, that’s two wasted traits… so annoying.

But on my engineer. I have bleeding/burning explosions, 10% more damage with explosions, extra range with grenades, faster run speed with kits, and elixir S for when I get ambushed because I can’t see anything behind me while using the stupid grenades…

…and I swap to rifle/pistol/flamethrower/elixirgun/toolkit? and do what? I have nothing that applies any of those weapons, and 3 out of 5 of my traits are worthless, maybe 4.

And even now, it feels like everything is broken. My personal favorite is the trait Rifled Barrels, which is just supposed to increase range, but it also “Tranquilizer Dart: Reduces Bleed Duration by 25% but increases the Weakness Duration by 200%.” and “Elixir F: Increases Swiftness and Cripple Durations by 166%. "

…it just never ends.

although i dont want to, i have to agree with you. this class is at a very bad state at the moment. people just dont understand that the somewhat positive things this class has to offer are almost always outdone by other classes. i honestly think that anet only cares how engi performs in spvp. dont think theyre even aware of how much theyve hindered engi in pve and wvw through their nerfs.

I actually felt I was in a good place in WvW until the last patch. I ran Rifle/Grenades with Power/Toughness gear, and felt competitive against most classes. Not uber-powerful, but if I played well I was in with a chance.

Then as always with Engineers, they had to nerf something to the ground.

Now without being able to heal under Elixir S, my survivability is non existent. The aggressive playstyle I used to enjoy is now suicidal, and all I can do is stand at the back of zergs and throw grenades.

I’ve lived with all the previous nerfs, and just tried to play better, but after this latest decimation of the Engineer I really have to force myself to log in, because I just don’t have fun playing anymore.

If you want to be useful in large group combat, just spec/gear appropriately.

Want to be on the frontline? Get your armor around 3k and your hp over 25k. Bring a healing turret and pistol/shield for waterfield and blasts. Bring bombs for multiple fields or flamethrower for fire and frequent knockbacks. Go with a might stacking build or your damage won’t be competitive with other frontliners.

Want to be on the backlines? Get on some zerker gear and bring your nade kit. Go either HGH or crit dmg stacking.

Want to do something else in a large group? Well let me know if you figure that one out : ( I am trying to work out a better support build but my super elixir messes with waterfields and I don’t feel very useful without using that.

Mif.3471:

I actually felt I was in a good place in WvW until the last patch. I ran Rifle/Grenades with Power/Toughness gear, and felt competitive against most classes. Not uber-powerful, but if I played well I was in with a chance.

Then as always with Engineers, they had to nerf something to the ground.

Now without being able to heal under Elixir S, my survivability is non existent. The aggressive playstyle I used to enjoy is now suicidal, and all I can do is stand at the back of zergs and throw grenades.

I’ve lived with all the previous nerfs, and just tried to play better, but after this latest decimation of the Engineer I really have to force myself to log in, because I just don’t have fun playing anymore.

This is it.
I have to force myself to log in since patch, atm i just do the daily and logout trying to find any game to get a breake from gw2.

I also got a D/D Ele and the funny thing is, i barely recognized the nerf for them while the ele board is full of tears. On the other hand the engi is ridicoulus overnerfed this time. I Could easaly beat them before but with the huge nerf to confusion its pretty hard now.

Kontrolle.3514:

Mif.3471:

I actually felt I was in a good place in WvW until the last patch. I ran Rifle/Grenades with Power/Toughness gear, and felt competitive against most classes. Not uber-powerful, but if I played well I was in with a chance.

Then as always with Engineers, they had to nerf something to the ground.

Now without being able to heal under Elixir S, my survivability is non existent. The aggressive playstyle I used to enjoy is now suicidal, and all I can do is stand at the back of zergs and throw grenades.

I’ve lived with all the previous nerfs, and just tried to play better, but after this latest decimation of the Engineer I really have to force myself to log in, because I just don’t have fun playing anymore.

This is it.
I have to force myself to log in since patch, atm i just do the daily and logout trying to find any game to get a breake from gw2.

I also got a D/D Ele and the funny thing is, i barely recognized the nerf for them while the ele board is full of tears. On the other hand the engi is ridicoulus overnerfed this time. I Could easaly beat them before but with the huge nerf to confusion its pretty hard now.

Elementalist was nerfed in very minor way. Ride the Lightning got 40 s cooldown if you don’t hit a target. But elementalist signets and glyphs actually got useful buffs, enough buffs to make me consider a aura-signet-mancer build.

Engineer was, once again, hit the hardest by this patch. The only “buff”, the healing turret changes were utterly useless considering WvWvW. Elixir S changes, nerfs to cloaking device and low health response trait significantly dropped the survivability of engineer. Self-regulating defenses trait was pretty much destroyed with the changes to Elixir S. It is now a suicide, not useful at all. Elementalists can at least swap the attunement with mist form.

I have never seen any developers “fix” any popular MMORPGs profession as badly as Anet has handled the engineer profession. Nerfing and nerfing with every single patch. Breaking down traits and skills, and not even fixing them after they have been reported countless of times. And then buffing some totally useless stuff. It really feels Anet doesn’t want engineer to be best in anything.

I really want to hear the developer’s logic for this: Why to nerf engineer to the ground in WvWvW and pve? Have not noticed how freaking popular guardians, warriors and thieves are in WvWvW setting? Yet those professions “needed” to be buffed. I can imagine that next “balance” update will once again buff those already overpopular professions and nerf something crucial from engineer. Developers: Start playing your own game and stop “fixing” the engineer and stop “balancing” pve and WvWvW based on one boring game mode “conquest” (I am talking about tpvp, it is really bad game format for “balancing” the game).

Oh well, time to play my other 7 professions…

Ayna

I main an engineer and WvW has never been an issue for me. It’s jsut about finding the right build. I have a great HGH grenade build that does exceptionally well in WvW.

If you’re not running HgH or SD, you’re gonna have a bad time I’m afraid.

So, name one other class where u don’t have a bad time not running 1-3 different builds?!

Less QQ, more GG – all issues engi has: other classes have this too.

Forestnator.6298:

So, name one other class where u don’t have a bad time not running 1-3 different builds?!

Less QQ, more GG – all issues engi has: other classes have this too.

I hope that wasn’t aimed at me, it wasn’t meant as QQ, just as advice :p

Engies aren’t useless in WvW.

From an outside perspective (I mostly PvP with a necro), engies seem excellent in TPvP. I’ve faced very good teams in tournaments that used one or two engineers. However, I hardly see any in PvE, random arenas or WvW. Anet said they finally split balancing between PvE, WvW, SPvP but apparently they still cling on to the stupid notion that an MMO with a single competitive game mode may some day become an Esport (and all the cash that comes with it) and are focusing on balancing the least popular game mode at the expense of >90% of their customers who don’t give a crap about tournaments.

Clip.6845:

If you’re not running HgH or SD, you’re gonna have a bad time I’m afraid.

There are three options for the engineer in WvW that can contribute to the team imho. SD build for roaming/scouting, HgH build for tossing elixirs, Bomb support build for (blasting) fields. These are three different playstyles but each can get you plenty of bags.

WvW is a zergfest. Nothing breaks up/pushes back a zerg at a choke point better than a crazed engi with a pension for explosives. Elixer B → smoke vent → napalm → BoB FTW. Send blinded, burning bodies flying through the air. If you have a like-minded engi to follow right behind with another one, it usually takes the fight out of the zerg and sends them running (while burning of course). :-)

Note this tactic is also brilliant when capping a tower. Since defenders like gathering in the Lord’s room, it makes the pile of loot bags quite deep. Watching burning bodies fly out of the tower to their death (or into your onrushing zerg) never gets old….is that wrong? ;-)

I play in tier 1 NA and I’ve been having a whole lot of fun lately playing a p/p condition (rabid gear) or flamethrower power (soldier gear) build. Survivability is comparable to my necro and guardian when using elixirs and 409. Both of these builds will let you tag lots of enemies and deal decent damage. Furthermore, intelligent use of glue shot and supply crate can be devastating in choke points. (And personally, I’ve never had a problem with getting hit by too much retaliation. Are you fighting zergs of all guardians?)

I’ll add a few nice ones to the mix:
Supply runner (speedy kits makes it easy)
You can flame throw through keep doors (good for offence or defence)
Grenade kit can target the tops of keep walls (takes practice)
Supply crate can be placed on top of buildings (way too much fun to watch a group on top of a building scatter)
Magnet can pull people of walls (sometimes)
elixir gun used to proc the retaliation aura (not so effective now)
I’ve soloed a supply camp by pulling guards slowly and netting one down when they turn to run back… It’s slow and I still die (the last time I did it I died to conditions after killing the last guard… Was funny to watch it turn over while I was back at starting point)
Underwater with grenades is awesome (I literally made two thieves run away crying)
Cliff, net overcharged shot…(or shield skill)
thumper turret on the jumping puzzle….(again not as much fun with 5min turret life)

Against a Zerg? Yes we are better than moot loot… I’ve had my comp freeze up while the server tries to decide which skills killed me first (seriously let me dodge roll at least once anet!)
I haven’t tried in a while but our #2 downed skill (normally it is #2…) used to pull people off towers too

If you want to stay in a Zerg you are going to need speedy kits and maybe a flamethrower for group fire fields. But you will be targeted first (we are sweet sweet treasure). Elixir gun and healing turret can help you get a group through a tough area, but I find my offence and personal survivability sorely kitten that way.

If anyone has a way to outrun/get away from a Zerg I’d love to know… Even with speedy kits if I’m caught outside alone it becomes a feeding frenzy to bag me first ..(even gear shields fails me, and I’m guessing elixir s is now horrible for Zerg avoidance which was the only thing I found that let me open any space)

Thorson.9218:

WvW is a zergfest. Nothing breaks up/pushes back a zerg at a choke point better than a crazed engi with a pension for explosives. Elixer B -> smoke vent -> napalm -> BoB FTW. Send blinded, burning bodies flying through the air. If you have a like-minded engi to follow right behind with another one, it usually takes the fight out of the zerg and sends them running (while burning of course). :-)

Note this tactic is also brilliant when capping a tower. Since defenders like gathering in the Lord’s room, it makes the pile of loot bags quite deep. Watching burning bodies fly out of the tower to their death (or into your onrushing zerg) never gets old….is that wrong? ;-)

Crazy engy is going to die a horrible death due to lack of stability. The lack of stability is what makes me wary of any bomb build in a zerg. With the utility slot nerf to elixir S, using bombs in WvW is even less appealing.

And what the hell is wrong with turrets?! I barely place a turret aaaaaand it’s gone. Even the lamest aoe attacks hit them. If a Necro places an aoe on your supply drop, they ell vaporize. They should only take direct damage!

And what the hell is with the Mortar Elite skill? It’s not even suited for April fools day. The range and damage makes the most laughable elite of all classes.

I’ve started GW2 with an engineer, mostly because I played one in Warhammer and did enjoy playing sniper/grenadier hybrid. What also lured me into this class was the hype promising that ANet had learned on Mythic’s errors and figured out how to create a valid engie class.

Quickly have I realised that:
a. turrets are only useful for lvling 1-20ish
b. where the frag is the loyal pet addon? Two games suffering from turrets attacking on whim and choosing the most silly kitten targets is too much
c. DPS and HP on turrets is on about the same hopeless level as in WAR, the only difference being that in WAR I could teleport them to me and detonate them to use them as portable RC bombs

and the most important
d. no matter the game devs seem to think that stationary class with low burst and dps that’s easily cleansable stand a chance in pvp and opvp without a support from the group.

That being said, my engie is waiting for a better days. Was supposed to be my main, now it’s just a reminder of a character in another game.

timidobserver.7925:

Crazy engy is going to die a horrible death due to lack of stability. The lack of stability is what makes me wary of any bomb build in a zerg. With the utility slot nerf to elixir S, using bombs in WvW is even less appealing.

Indeed. But I guess different tiers, EU and NA, have different meta. Here in EU tier #1 the melee train used to be meta. Thus a lot of hammer warriors and also guardians. You needed to time your dive into enemy zerg very well in order to come out alive (go in at wrong moment and you get hammered into mushy squish). But I was using grenade kit for that. I still dive into enemy zergs, even as a commander. I find it a bit safer, because the meta uses a bit less knockdown + stability now. More PuGs, less organized tightly packed teams. But there is a lot thieves (also in zergs). You can even have double thief team looking for weak victims in middle of a zerg fights. Elixir S nerf hit so bad I had to scrap that skill. Elixir S is pretty much a recipe of getting downed in WvWvW, because you cannot heal or stow any kits during that 3 s. I wish some engineer trait or utility (e.g. a gadget) would give stability as stability is so sorely needed also for many dungeons and pve play as well. Engineer condition removal is solely dependent on elixirs and cleaning formula 409. Medkit drop antidote is not that efficient condition removal as you need to walk over it and WvWvW fights tend to have tons of immobilize (e.g. warriors use leg specialist trait).

Overall the recent patch reduced engineer survivability in WvWvW and the confusion nerf hit some builds really badly.