Guild Wars 2

I’m done, I have defended the engineer for far to long but yesterday was the nail in the coffin. I am very tired of putting up with the bad design choices Anet have made with this class, why does my rifle make me fall on my butt, why does poison volley miss half the shots, why does my FT start missing when I starts running a round a mob…

I’m tired of destroying my hand with grenades, I have to aim and predict the fall so much with that kit that if feels like I’m playing battlefield. Love if how elexir U goes on a cooldown without giving quickness…. I can go on forever but since I am on my brake at work I will stop about here.

Oh yeah, my last 2 cents, why would I spend all year getting the predator when I spend more than half my game time in a kit and never see it?

By the way, before you all start ramming my face trough a wall, I never said that the engineer wasn’t viable or bad or what ever, I am just talking about some designs with this class that killed it for me.

Daxxter.8920:

Oh yeah, my last 2 cents, why would I spend all year getting the predator when I spend more than half my game time in a kit and never see it?

Well that’s simple! Because if you wear it as an engie with a grenade kit they become pulse grenades! Oh wait they removed that.

Poison volley misses half its shots because that’s the design choice ANet made on all volley shots. Take a look at Ranger’s poison volley on short-bow or the bleed spread on axe. You see the spread all at once but if you are farther than melee range some are going to miss. It’s designed to to be used at close range to get full effect.

Now if you want to ask why a shortbow or axe gets all its volley off at once such that it’s possible to actually hit with all stacks if you are close enough instead of like Engi where someone will dodge halfway through the volley… well then you are on to something.

I see the ranger’s poison volley more as an intended aoe where the engineer feels more like I’m to kitten to aim. You know that when you fire the ranger’s volley you will get a cone effect, the engineer seems more like a random let me hit a bit here a bit there oh sorry I missed half the targets….. And for the close range, no just no, something that can hit that far isn’t supposed to be designed for close range.

Daxxter.8920:

And for the close range, no just no, something that can hit that far isn’t supposed to be designed for close range.

You forget that engineers have a bit of a strong point in mid-range. Blunderbuss, overcharged, blowtorch, and poison volley all fall into that category. Just because rifle can hit from as far as 1,200 doesn’t mean it isn’t supposed to be designed for close range, half of our skills are close-mid range. Yes, you can shoot poison dart volley at max range as if you think it will do more damage than your 1 at that range, yes you can use blowtorch at max range and expect to do damage, but the truth is that’s not how you play engineer and that’s not how the skills work.

Blunderbuss = 400 (mid range)

Poison dart volley = 900…

I am sort y but if you call 900 range a mid/close skill, I call that bad design.

Daxxter.8920:

Blunderbuss = 400 (mid range)

Poison dart volley = 900…

I am sort y but if you call 900 range a mid/close skill, I call that bad design.

But at 900 range pretty much none of the 5 darts are going to find their target.

Daxxter.8920:

I am sort y but if you call 900 range a mid/close skill, I call that bad design.

If you want to hit one target, stand close.

If you want to hit multiple targets, stand far away.

Phineas Poe.3018:

If you want to hit one target, stand close.

If you want to hit multiple targets, except the one you were aiming at, stand far away.

Fixed that

I noticed that the dart volley has a conical pattern but the shots are biased toward the outer edges. The middle of the cone, where your main target usually is, often doesn’t get any coverage.

Daxxter.8920:

I’m done, I have defended the engineer for far to long but yesterday was the nail in the coffin. I am very tired of putting up with the bad design choices Anet have made with this class, why does my rifle make me fall on my butt, why does poison volley miss half the shots, why does my FT start missing when I starts running a round a mob…

I’m tired of destroying my hand with grenades, I have to aim and predict the fall so much with that kit that if feels like I’m playing battlefield. Love if how elexir U goes on a cooldown without giving quickness…. I can go on forever but since I am on my brake at work I will stop about here.

Oh yeah, my last 2 cents, why would I spend all year getting the predator when I spend more than half my game time in a kit and never see it?

By the way, before you all start ramming my face trough a wall, I never said that the engineer wasn’t viable or bad or what ever, I am just talking about some designs with this class that killed it for me.

Uh, what happened yesterday?

Good bye – play one of those other easy classes. See u soon dying against my engineer.

Its all subjective. Many of the quirks that some hate about the engy are the very reason i love the class.

Just play what you enjoy.

timidobserver.7925:

Daxxter.8920:

I’m done, I have defended the engineer for far to long but yesterday was the nail in the coffin. I am very tired of putting up with the bad design choices Anet have made with this class, why does my rifle make me fall on my butt, why does poison volley miss half the shots, why does my FT start missing when I starts running a round a mob…

I’m tired of destroying my hand with grenades, I have to aim and predict the fall so much with that kit that if feels like I’m playing battlefield. Love if how elexir U goes on a cooldown without giving quickness…. I can go on forever but since I am on my brake at work I will stop about here.

Oh yeah, my last 2 cents, why would I spend all year getting the predator when I spend more than half my game time in a kit and never see it?

By the way, before you all start ramming my face trough a wall, I never said that the engineer wasn’t viable or bad or what ever, I am just talking about some designs with this class that killed it for me.

Uh, what happened yesterday?

Nothing much except that I got tired of this class being so tedious compared to anything else on my roster.

Forestnator, you sir have done the total contrary of what I said in the last phrase of the original post.

By the way, I stated the whole design of the engineer and this topic has been going on about poison dart volley….

dinominator.9862:

Phineas Poe.3018:

If you want to hit one target, stand close.

If you want to hit multiple targets, except the one you were aiming at, stand far away.

Fixed that

I noticed that the dart volley has a conical pattern but the shots are biased toward the outer edges. The middle of the cone, where your main target usually is, often doesn’t get any coverage.

Which is why I said if you care about hitting multiple targets, stand farther away.

This isn’t a bug. It’s how the skill is designed, and works efficiently in WvW with Coated Bullets when spraying into a zerg.

Daxxter.8920:

By the way, I stated the whole design of the engineer and this topic has been going on about poison dart volley….

Because it’s one of the common complaints people have about the Engineer Pistol, precisely because people use it wrong.

Many of the issues that plague our class are not design choices but the inability of players to understand how the Engineer is intended to be played. Perhaps that lack of transparency is a bit of ArenaNet’s fault, but I figured out just fine how to create a build around the Flamethrower while everyone else was saying it wasn’t worth using.

Yesterday someone seriously told me that the Engineer has no good bunker builds and isn’t designed to be specialized around front-line zerg play in WvW. My mouth was to the floor.

The Engineer suffers from a massive perspective problem. This is why people like Forestnator would rather tell you off than bother to explain. It’s gotten to the point where every day we are having the same conversation.

Not really because as I recall, I said “what killed it for me” thus not saying the class is aweful or broken or what ever you want.

I really enjoyed this class for the past 400h I droped on it, there is no learn to play issue because I know what that skill is supposed to do but, I just feel it’s flawed. It could be good for zerg balls In wvv but this game doesn’t revolve around only that. Like I said, I had my share of smiles with this class but it’s just fading away more and more. I love steampunk themed characters and this class was pure genius but, it has crashes at some point and became everything except that

If you want to hit a single target from far away with the Poison Volley…

Strafe while shooting…

Works for me. Every time.

I know that trick, and it’s not logic to me that you have to do that for the skill to work better, kind of like the FT when you aren’t in a correct angle and start missing all you FJ hits.

Daxxter.8920:

It could be good for zerg balls In wvv but this game doesn’t revolve around only that.

It’s good in PvE too. You just have to stand near your target.

The class is designed to move between melee and ranged as a mid-fielder. If you don’t like how Poison Dart Volley works re-roll to another class. But for what the Engineer is designed to do, it utilizes two playstyles on one slot—for when you need to spread conditions across a group and when you simply want to perma Poison one target.

This is the embedded versatility of the Engineer. Our skills do different things from different ranges and can be used in different ways. Our Magnetic Shield can be used as a projectile block or it can be overcharged and used as an AoE knockback.

The Guardian and Warrior shield skills do not work like this.

I’ll be honest, I never even had the faintest of ideas that Poison Volley had accuracy issues until I read the forums. Only time I ever thought I missed with it was via user error associated with distance. I’m still not convinced it has accuracy issues above and beyond what is expected in this game, and I’ve been using it almost continually since release. All projectiles have troubles being perfectly accurate at long range in this game, Poison Volley never struck me as any different.

In any case, I am kind of tired of the attention this skill is getting in this topic where I didn’t write it to complain on a single skill. I am leaving my engineer on the side for now, will probably get back to it when Anet starts to care about it.

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Know that feel.
I always tend to get angry at flaws like the elixier U bug or skills going on CD and/or not activating and cramps in my hand due to grenade spamming ect…
Then I see how the classes which-shall-not-be-named do everything much easier.
Seriously, input should be somewhat equal to output.
If I push 3 buttons in 2 second it should have a certain impact. At least more impact than 1 button every 8 seconds (And yes you can get me raging about that one. No mercy to THE-class-who-shall-not-be-named!)
Then I rage-log to my guardian or mesmer.
And THEN after approximately 30minutes I´m bored to my skull or almost asleep so I log on to my engineer again O_O
I must be a masochist or something but the strange design of the engineer (not the bugs like elixier U and missthrower OR serious design flaws) is what keeps me playing.

And you mention bugs and design flaws in one breath so it´s kind of hard to make a rational conversation without going offtopic or too much into certain topics like poison volley :/ I´m not even sure if MY post is about the topic you intended to talk about o.o

Design flaws: self-cc, nades to a certain degree (because hand is ouchie after using them too much)
Bugs: Missthrower, Elixir U

And yep… In my opinion legendaries are wasted on engineers… didnt want them anyways! ;( sniff cry

Cero.5132:

Know that feel.
I always tend to get angry at flaws like the elixier U bug or skills going on CD and/or not activating and cramps in my hand due to grenade spamming ect…
Then I see how the classes which-shall-not-be-named do everything much easier.
Seriously, input should be somewhat equal to output.
If I push 3 buttons in 2 second it should have a certain impact. At least more impact than 1 button every 8 seconds (And yes you can get me raging about that one. No mercy to THE-class-who-shall-not-be-named!)
Then I rage-log to my guardian or mesmer.
And THEN after approximately 30minutes I´m bored to my skull or almost asleep so I log on to my engineer again O_O
I must be a masochist or something but the strange design of the engineer (not the bugs like elixier U and missthrower OR serious design flaws) is what keeps me playing.

And you mention bugs and design flaws in one breath so it´s kind of hard to make a rational conversation without going offtopic or too much into certain topics like poison volley :/ I´m not even sure if MY post is about the topic you intended to talk about o.o

Design flaws: self-cc, nades to a certain degree (because hand is ouchie after using them too much)
Bugs: Missthrower, Elixir U

And yep… In my opinion legendaries are wasted on engineers… didnt want them anyways! ;( sniff cry

Finally someone who understands my point… I’ts not normal I can play my guardian in orr while reading a book and building a card castle and then when I go out with my engi it’s continually close call situations.

I don’t get why there is always a hoard of engineers on the forums waiting to jump on every player who has some complaint about the class. Sure there have been over dramatic posts, but I find myself in a similar position as OP with my engineer and have stopped playing the class entirely since the KR nerf.

I rarely post on the forums, but I did express my dissatisfaction with the upcoming 100Nades nerf only to receive bunch of responses that amounted to “learn to play”, “there are other better builds”; some very helpful advice.

Overall, the class is certainly playable (look at Amadeus’s, Mask’s, and others videos/builds), but there are more effective classes out there in my opinion, and it is the constant redesigning of builds/playstyle that is necessary as Anet removes key elements of the class that was just too much for me.
Anyway, don’t want this post to be too gloomy so I will end by saying that I still hope to return to my engineer at some point.

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I will say as someone who has complained a lot that I absolutely love my static discharge build. My only complaint is magnet pull and net shot missing or not working so often. Even so between my pull, ram head and overcharged shot I can keep single opponents on there kitten for a decent amount of time while doing some decent damage using SD, blunderbuss, and jump shot. I have control, damage and mobility thanks to prema swiftness and vigor so overall I would say im pretty happy.

I do agree we have a lot of problems and more issues than any other class almost none of which seems to be getting addressed but just don’t think I could quit. Maybe i just like playing underdog. Originally I mainly wanted to play a mesmer but there were just so many of them.

Looks like my predictions were correct. So glad I didn’t waste my time hoping.

Punkins.2087:

Its all subjective. Many of the quirks that some hate about the engy are the very reason i love the class.

Just play what you enjoy.

Please, don’t fool yourself eventually something will click and you’ll realize like the rest of us that these tawdry quirks are really poor design decisions. At this point there’s so many tawdry quirks they could open up a tawdry quirk shoppe.

tigirius.9014:

Please, don’t fool yourself eventually something will click and

you’ll realize like the rest of us

that these tawdry quirks are really poor design decisions. At this point there’s so many tawdry quirks they could open up a tawdry quirk shoppe.

please do not speak for “the rest of us” because I (part of “us,” the community) completely disagree with you.

nakoda.4213:

tigirius.9014:

Please, don’t fool yourself eventually something will click and

you’ll realize like the rest of us

that these tawdry quirks are really poor design decisions. At this point there’s so many tawdry quirks they could open up a tawdry quirk shoppe.

please do not speak for “the rest of us” because I (part of “us,” the community) completely disagree with you.

That’s okay you’ll eventually realize it too.

It’s true that the Eng is harder work than any other class for comparable levels of performance.

Grenades are considered our best kit (yes, I know some say the Tool Kit, but that’s really just a 1v1 PvP/WvW kit) and the most common comment about the Grenade Kit is that it requires so many key presses extended use causes hand pain. If that’s not bad design, what is?

We also seem to be restricted to minor variations on two builds: Grenadier and the Pistol/Elixir/Condition build. A few top players are able to get other builds to work, but they’re so rare they can’t be counted as representative of the class. Other Eng builds are a lot of fun to play, but they just don’t perform as well.

Result: Outside the top players we really only have two viable builds (with minor variations), one of which causes the user physical pain.

@Daaxter
I’d suggest taking a break from your Eng, rather than writing it off completely. The class is still a lot of fun to play and you never know, one day ANet might even get this class balanced for more than just the top players.

Wuffles.5319:

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I don’t understand. Pls explain.

Forestnator.6298:

Wuffles.5319:

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I don’t understand. Pls explain.

I could be playing a different game, but isn’t anet currently trying to killing every build except HGH? you know.. trying to get us to play 1 build

Forestnator.6298:

Wuffles.5319:

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I don’t understand. Pls explain.

I could be playing a different game, but isn’t anet currently trying to killing every build except HGH? you know.. trying to get us to play 1 build, isnt that why KR died lol

google.3709:

Forestnator.6298:

Wuffles.5319:

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I don’t understand. Pls explain.

I could be playing a different game, but isn’t anet currently trying to killing every build except HGH? you know.. trying to get us to play 1 build, isnt that why KR died lol

^i second that – no build except condition nades is viable atm.
And condition nades gets worse the bigger the node/area on which you`re fighting is.

nades are for close combat only

Nades on range hitting only blind people.

tigirius.9014:

Looks like my predictions were correct. So glad I didn’t waste my time hoping.

Punkins.2087:

Its all subjective. Many of the quirks that some hate about the engy are the very reason i love the class.

Just play what you enjoy.

Please, don’t fool yourself eventually something will click and you’ll realize like the rest of us that these tawdry quirks are really poor design decisions. At this point there’s so many tawdry quirks they could open up a tawdry quirk shoppe.

believe me, ive played (and deleted) 4 other classes extensively at 80.

Im something like 400 tourney matches into my Engy and loving it still. i think you’ve got it backwards..

Bacon.4918:

I don’t get why there is always a hoard of engineers on the forums waiting to jump on every player who has some complaint about the class. Sure there have been over dramatic posts, but I find myself in a similar position as OP with my engineer and have stopped playing the class entirely since the KR nerf.

I rarely post on the forums, but I did express my dissatisfaction with the upcoming 100Nades nerf only to receive bunch of responses that amounted to “learn to play”, “there are other better builds”; some very helpful advice.

Overall, the class is certainly playable (look at Amadeus’s, Mask’s, and others videos/builds), but there are more effective classes out there in my opinion, and it is the constant redesigning of builds/playstyle that is necessary as Anet removes key elements of the class that was just too much for me.
Anyway, don’t want this post to be too gloomy so I will end by saying that I still hope to return to my engineer at some point.

Because what this general population is really asking for is that the class be DUMBED DOWN to mirror the simplicity of the other classes.

If you’re more rewarded by playing classes that require less input, fine. No judgement.. no problem.

for some of us, engy scratches an itch no other class can.. simplify it and the game no longer has any draw.

does that help?

Zenguy.6421:

It’s true that the Eng is harder work than any other class for comparable levels of performance.

[snip]

You know, I went to the Thief forums, since I was leveling a thief (my engineer is already 80), and someone posted something almost identical to what you said there.

To be honest, I have a hell of a lot more fun and easier time with engineer than with thief. I don’t know how people compare levels of performance. One is obviously your dps, but that’s… so… petty (and I don’t mean to insult anyone who tries to solely maximize their dps)

I have fun when playing engineer, even if my build isn’t that optimal. I’ve been using FT build around Juggernaut, and maybe it’s not as high dps as granades, but it is still quite fun to play.

I may try out granades soon, since I left them at lvl 40, it seems like it might be fun as well.

Took me 539 hours over 2months to realize something and thats this… To me the engineer is a sampler class, it can do everything and the majority of the time its fun. Then you enter a pvp environment and realize how kitten compared to other classes you can be that are specializing in the same field as you. It also takes a lot more button presses for a lower result than other classes need to. Well thats the way i feel, tis a shame.

Lvling a necro now, dont tell my engy. Funny fact is that most of the people i play with had an engy as their first class.

google.3709:

Forestnator.6298:

Wuffles.5319:

Forestnator.6298:

Anet cares alot about engineer. And this class is much more flexible then others. Try out other classes and u will see u’ll be stucked in one build again – much more then with engineer where u have dozends of viable builds.

Living under a rock?

I don’t understand. Pls explain.

I could be playing a different game, but isn’t anet currently trying to killing every build except HGH? you know.. trying to get us to play 1 build

Or maybe u are just got stucked into one build. Engineer has great diversity – I switch my builds alot and so far I have about 5 Builds I can play in any part of the game.

And any time I switch to another class I always feel like I have no options.

Anet loves engineers so much it’s the only class they make a point of nerfing every single patch.

Although other classes can do a single task better, I find that most classes can’t do as many tasks as the engineer can.

Need a healer? Engineer with healing turret + elixir gun gives perma regen and frequent AoE heals, and elixir R is a slightly delayed AoE res.

Need AoE stealth? Engineer’s have smoke fields and a ton of blast finishers, letting them stealth a whole group for longer than shadow refuge.

Need condition cleaning? Engineer’s get cleaning either with the elixir traits, elixir C + R, the healing turret, or the elixir gun.

Need a tank or need to reflect projectiles? Engineer’s get elixir U for reflection or destruction, Magnetic Shield and Kit Refinement for reflection, Gear Shield and Static Shield block things, Elixir S straight up avoids things, and they also have plenty of AoE blinds in the pistol, grenade kit, bomb kit, and flame turret.

Need a ton of control? Engineer again, who can stack immobilize incredibly well with the net turret, as well as knockdown with the rocket turret, pull with the tool kit, knock back with the bomb kit and mine kit and rifle and nearly every turret with the right traits, stun and daze and knockback with the shield, chill for long duration with grenades, and stun with the supply crate, as well as anything I have forgotten to mention.

Need a lot of AoE damage? Well, the engineer is your man again, since coated bullets can hit up to 25 times with the pistol’s auto attack, grenades hit 15 times, the bomb kit hits 5 times but for high direct damage, the rifle pierces and also has high damage from jump shot and blunderbuss, the flamethrower procs conditions and stacks might like there’s no tomorrow, and the rocket + flame + thumper turrets all attack in an AoE.

Need conditions? Engineer is your man again, being the only class that has access to all 4 damaging conditions (confusion, poison, bleed, burn) as well as good vulnerability stacking and consistent weakness stacking with the elixir gun.

Need boons? The engineer again gives permanent regen to any party he’s on with the healing turret, gives might to the group with the right traits, and also randomly gives stability, stealth, fury, swiftness, protection, vigor, and retaliation to the group they travel with.

And all this, healing and blocking and reflecting and tanking and buffing and cleansing and controlling, is all done so easily on one class. Arguably the engineer is the best at one thing: control. Whenever I am playing my engineer, I never have any worries about group composition lacking a certain role or utility because as an engineer, I have that role or utility already. There is seldom a problem that cannot be solved with the large bag of gimmicks that an engineer possesses. IMHO if engineers had high single target damage, then there wouldn’t be much of a reason to play a class other than an engineer.

My best piece of advice to all aspiring engineers out there is to use your head, and change utilities and equipment according to what is needed. Any engineer that cookie-cutter’s themselves is severely limiting their strength.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

My best piece of advice to all aspiring engineers out there is to use your head, and change utilities and equipment according to what is needed. Any engineer that cookie-cutter’s themselves is severely limiting their strength.

^ +more than nine thousand.

Its all well and good not using the same abilities all the time but kits are only really good if you have the traits to support/buff them. So yeah, you’re not pigeon holing yourself but you are at the same time gimping your abilities. Unless its toolkit…toolkit is good with w/e.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

My best piece of advice to all aspiring engineers out there is to use your head, and change utilities and equipment according to what is needed. Any engineer that cookie-cutter’s themselves is severely limiting their strength.

If you are in a tournament match, you can’t swap utilities. So I hope being limited to 3 utilities is not limiting, because if it is… engi PvPers are screwed.

redslion.9675:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

My best piece of advice to all aspiring engineers out there is to use your head, and change utilities and equipment according to what is needed. Any engineer that cookie-cutter’s themselves is severely limiting their strength.

If you are in a tournament match, you can’t swap utilities. So I hope being limited to 3 utilities is not limiting, because if it is… engi PvPers are screwed.

That’s not true, HGH builds are godly in tPVP & also, lately I’ve noticed a lot more Turret point holders! if anything, PvP is where the engineers shine the most

Daxxter.8920:

Finally someone who understands my point… I’ts not normal I can play my guardian in orr while reading a book and building a card castle and then when I go out with my engi it’s continually close call situations.

I have a level 80 Guardian. I love playing it. It’s certainly a much easier class to play, but that simplicity is a double-edged sword. Like I illustrated with the Engineer and his shield, the versatility of the Guardian is almost nonexistent. Just look at the way Magnetic Shield compares to Shield of Absorption. They both block projectiles and are an AoE knockback, but with the Engineer I can control which effect I get. I can control when I get the projectile block and when I get the AoE knockback; Shield of Absorption is far more limiting, and doesn’t allow me that type of control. It’s not flexible. It just does it for me.

And if people want that “just do it for me” kind of thing, that’s perfectly fine. As I said, I love my Guardian. But I love the Engineer shield more—especially with Static Shield. I can use it as a mobile projectile block as I run back to a keep, and then additionally use it as a melee stun. And then I can throw it and use it for another stun that dazes every single person it hits.

The Engineer has a higher skill ceiling for certain, but if you believe that it doesn’t reward creativity and maximizing that efficiency, you are simply not playing the class right. Orr, even after the buff to camp events, where they’ll spawn more Champs and Vets, should still be a walk in the park for any class.

The Engineer has a lot of flexibility in how it is played. It’s up to the player to take advantage of that. That you call Poison Dart Volley “bad design” really displays how disconnected you are with how the class is intended to be played.

Enjoy your card castle.

Sororita.3465:

Its all well and good not using the same abilities all the time but kits are only really good if you have the traits to support/buff them. So yeah, you’re not pigeon holing yourself but you are at the same time gimping your abilities. Unless its toolkit…toolkit is good with w/e.

Actually, this is very easy to do. With 10/30/0/30/0 I can use pretty much anything.

10 points in Explosives gives you Incendiary Powder when you need more burning application and Forceful Explosives when you’re using the Bomb Kit.

30 points in Firearms gives you the flexibility to properly use the Flamethrower, Pistol, and Rifle all in one tree.

30 points in Alchemy allows me to additionally beef up the Flamethrower, specialize in more defensive traits in WvW, and can additionally go elixir-spec when dual wielding pistols.

You don’t need Reinforced Shield or Power Wrench in PvE, so any time I slot those in I’m just as good with the Shield and Tool Kit. I usually go P/P in PvE anyway, especially since I have 5 different pistols in my inventory at any given time.

Their sigils: Strength, Force, Bloodlust, Earth, and Corruption. This gives me the flexibility to properly wield whatever I need in a given situation. If I’m condition spec, I’ll use Earth with Corruption.. If using the Flamethrower, I’ll use Strength with Bloodlust. If In WvW, I’ll use Strength with Corruption—or wield my Shield, which also has Corruption on it.

I additionally have two Rifles: a Mystic Rifle skin that I use for real and a Charrzooka skin I use for fun.

I carry with me two sets of armor: my Berserker set and my Rabid set. I also carry Rabid jewelry and Berserker jewelry. I additionally have a Knight/Soldier set with Emerald jewelry that’s sat in my bank for several months. I’ve been thinking about breaking it down and making a Cleric set instead, but we’ll see.

With a 10/30/0/30/0 setup, you’re pretty much level with using any build except Elixir-Infused Bombs or Grenade spam. And IMO, I’d rather use dual pistols with elixirs if I want to spread conditions. 30 Firearms gives me higher Condition Damage anyway, and allows me to spend 30 points into Alchemy and build more defensively than a Rampager-geared Grenadier will be. 30 points in Explosives is far more rigid, and isn’t even necessary for the Bomb Kit. Hell, the Bomb Kit still hits like a truck with zero points in Explosives. I just take Forceful Explosives for the larger combo fields.

google.3709:

redslion.9675:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

My best piece of advice to all aspiring engineers out there is to use your head, and change utilities and equipment according to what is needed. Any engineer that cookie-cutter’s themselves is severely limiting their strength.

If you are in a tournament match, you can’t swap utilities. So I hope being limited to 3 utilities is not limiting, because if it is… engi PvPers are screwed.

That’s not true, HGH builds are godly in tPVP & also, lately I’ve noticed a lot more Turret point holders! if anything, PvP is where the engineers shine the most

I know, I know, it was a joke.XD

But actually…

Maybe it’s just me, but seems like on forums and in game most people use/talk about HGH condition/nades only. Maybe it was supposed to happen, but it seems to me that our profession is getting less and less original.

Even if I am messy and always make mistakes pressing buttons (making me a terrible engineer) I kept sticking to the profession thanks to the freedom of builds I could make. It seemed to me every engineer was different. For the first time in a MMO, I felt unique. And I solved my problem with messiness by playing a bunker. I have never seen any other engineer playing a bunker like I did. Better, maybe, but never the same. But I suffered from the loss of kit refinement, too.

Now about pvp I keep hearing about HGH, and seems like any other possibility is nothing. A joke. Maybe turrets (but I’m yet to see them working against a ranger or a mesmer, and/or in something different than a 1v1 environment), but even them are rarely talked about.

I hope this isn’t true. I hope it’s just me who hates HGH (I can’t use grenades, and I don’t like squishy builds), but I hope engineer didn’t meet the worst of fates: becoming a few-ways class.

But I’ll keep playing the engineer. I’ll keep trying different builds. I’ll keep losing, if necessary.