Guild Wars 2

I’ve started an asura engineer and I am in love with how the class plays so far (level 28), but I’m getting kinda worried about where I’m heading in the long run.

On my other characters I run zerker builds and usually enjoy that most, occasionally doing conditions on my necro. When I go to the Mists to preview being level 80 on my engi though, I can’t seem to find or build anything that does damage comparable to my alts (Necro, Mesmer, Guardian, Ele).

I’m not concerned with doing the top min/maxed damage, some support and survivability are good too.

I also really really like pistol/shield.

Are there any builds that use p/s and any other utilities/toolkits (I like them all) that do good damage at 80?

Or just any reassurance that it gets better? lol

Grenades and Bombs seem to be the highest damage output for Engineers.

Bombs scale the best with power out of any Engi weapon. But they aren’t really the bursty berserker stuff i think youre looking for. P/ S is good if you go condi, but our only power weapon is rifle. If youre looking for a zerker burst one shot build, look at a static discharge build. Search on YouTube for “gw2 engineer burst”

If youre having trouble leveling,

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Updated-Engineer-Leveling-Guide/first#post2970327

I doubt you’ll get to the damage level of an appropriately geared Ele but with Bomb Kit you should get close to the damage of a Guardian, surpass the Mesmer in terms of AoE DPS, single target DPS depends on how many phantasms the Mesmer can keep up. My knowledge of Necro is limited but afaik the Engineer surpasses him in terms of direct damage but loses to him in terms of condition damage.

I usually run Grenade Kit, Bomb Kit, Elixir Gun and Healing Turret, and while the damage isn’t top-notch compared to most other professions the survivability is insane; very few enemies without Unshakable are actually able to touch me, and many champions can be soloed.

Regarding dungeons:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Dungeon-usefulness-list/first#post3114211

Yeah static discharge builds burst like hell. So dont worry about that at least

DesertRose.2031:

My knowledge of Necro is limited but afaik the Engineer surpasses him in terms of direct damage but loses to him in terms of condition damage.

I don’t play a necro much myself, but from what I’ve seen, engineers are slightly inferior on single-target condition damage and better than them on AoE condition damage. What necros have that make them the undisputed master of conditions is that they can manipulate them. Necros can turn boons into conditions, remove all personal conditions, send personal conditions to an enemy, and transmit conditions from one enemy to others.

This is based on what I’ve seen of my play compared to that of others, not on hard math or anything like that.

While I can’t speak to PvP, in PvE and WvW, Engineers are absolutely viable builds.

But at the heart of it all, you need to ENJOY what you’re playing. Engi’s offer a steep learning curve but have what I believe to be the most dynamic and just plain funny game play available in the game. Rams, belt buckles that shoot, acid bombs, nails, pry bars, wrenches, magnets, jump shots, etc., etc. etc.

This is why you should play Engi (or not). Don’t worry so much about how powerful you are compared to others.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqic3zyuF17IyoCdWoHSohpWiekfYmlB-ToAA1CtIASBkDIDQSgsANEZCC
try this build in pvp
for pve u can get easy soldier set (or sentinel set wih exuberance rune)

Thanks for all the responses! I looked up some static discharge stuff on youtube with the rifle and it looked fun, definitely put any worries I had to rest.

To clarify more on what exactly I’m looking for, I don’t really care that much about burst as much as I do just doing good damage and seeing it sustained.

To example: My guardian probably has the best dps/survivability fit for me when playing a 0/0/30/30/10 AH build. The damage isn’t back to back 8k crits or anything crazy, it just does good enough damage along with being extremely survivable.

Feeling like I am contributing as much as possible to a dungeon group is probably the #1 part of a class being fun for me, so when people say “play what’s fun,” that is what I am wanting to do for fun.

So in the end I want to find a good mix of being able to come out of nearly everything alive while still seeing good damage numbers to know I’m helping kill things rather than just running around healing myself.

So you basically want a dungeon build? Full berserker is the most optimal, but run whatever gear you need to stay alive. A grenade build would be something like 30/x/x/x/x. But what if reccomend to start out is a full berserker set with a build like 0 20 30 20 with bomb kit, taking backpack regen and elixir infused bombs, since youll mostly just stay in bomb kit. This will allow you decent dmg and decent survivability. The most desirable thing for engis in dungeons is 25 in explosives, since with grenadier its an easy 25 vuln stacks that your whole party benefits from. But if youre not using grenadier its only like 10-15stacks.