Guild Wars 2

I have a character in each class leveled to 80. My engineer was the last to get there. I put off doing so, because of the unique way that the tool belt works, meant I had to reformat my key bindings and then relearn how to play all of my other classes with those changes. Plus, the engineer is definitely the hardest class to play skillfully and effectively. I had at least three engis that were deleted previously before I decided to have at least one of every class.

I have seen some extremely effective engis out there, and I just wanted to post that it is you all that give me hope. I am horrible at the class. I mean that. Absolutely horrible. Probably due to the fact that I was so tired of leveling at that point that I crafted and wvw’ed my engi to 80 for speed leveling. That, coupled with the fact that I have each of the other classes to play, have severely limited my abilities to be an effective engi.

My biggest hope is that they beef up gadgets and main hand weapons some more (I absolutely suck with kits), since I find them the most enjoyable to play with.

Thanks to all who have dedicated themselves to this class and the excellent suggestions you have posted. Hopefully, one day, Anet will see the need to reexamine some of the nerfs imposed that are now obsolete due to the buffs that other classes have received. You guys rock!

(Edit) MonMalthias has posted some outstanding ideas in this thread regarding main hand weapon changes, as well as a little bit of discussion on improving gadgets. Don’t mind all of the calls for chainsaws and whips as those are probably more suited for a separate new-weapons-thread.

I know how you feel, I played a engineer first and i really struggled badly…so i tried my hand at other classes and enjoyed trying to learn to play them all to a reasonable standard…but even after that i went back to engineer…still found it really hard compared to the others…even though i invested way more time in it.

Engineer has some things that aren’t quite as easy as other classes like healing with the healing turret is completely different to any other heal in the game.

Engineer is made how classes should be made. If you want to be a good engi player, you’ve got to know a lot about combat mechanics and a lot about your skills (since there a lot of them). My first char was necro, I spent about 1k hours on him and still I like playing engi more, because of options I can have.

Oh, and I’ve got mesmer on 80 lvl too, but I only use it for dungeons. It’s too squishy for me for pvp or wvw.

Thanks! Playing my engi made me better at all my other characters. Being so challenging and dynamic, gave me a better understanding of combat mechanics, and gave me insight into the strengths and weaknesses of other professions. It’s a rewarding feeling laughing at the nay-sayers and continuing on with the most fun class out there. Cheers!

Yeah, I rolled a Guard and literally couldn’t believe how much easier ALL content is with it.

That being said, it is made me a MUCH better player.

For me I had speed leveled an engineer to 76, played it, and eventually deleted it. Come back a few months later after playing everything heavily except necro and guardian and level an engineer again. 2nd youngest toon has 10% of my play time, my commander tag, and, more ascended than any other toon I currently have. Imho it is a class that grows on you, but mostly it looks like a good investment. Due to the fact there are so many builds it feels a good bit better investing in this toon than another.

I used to main a mesmer for very long time, but I just grew tired of it. And different builds didn’t have enough diversity to keep me intrested. Dunno was it the profession itself, or the fact that I knew my build and skills very well, but most fights felt really easy. I sometimes didn’t even bother attacking some lone guys in WvW.

So I started experimenting different builds on my condi engie, and I’ve had a blast in GW ever since. As a (mostly) solo roamer I especially like the new rocket boots. I used em a lot before the buff, but now I can’t even imagine taking them off my action bar.

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1c2c9GW2_Anniv_Infographic.jpg

Looking at this breakdown of player choice race & profession, makes me more happy to love and stick to my charr engineer. Power to the underdogs

Heh, I have several friends who keep trying to persuade me to start other professions (currently only one other than Engineer is Guardian, because I wanted to try “the other end” of the difficulty curve). Mainly when I tell them the gyrations I need to go through to activate various things they can do with one button press. I keep playing the Engineer because (1) I like the concept, and (2) I’m not nearly as good as I’d like with it yet, and if I split my relatively short play time per week across another alt, I’ll continue to not improve. Then again, in the last MMO we were in together, each of them had over 100 alts, sigh. . .

Hebee.8460:

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1c2c9GW2_Anniv_Infographic.jpg

Looking at this breakdown of player choice race & profession, makes me more happy to love and stick to my charr engineer. Power to the underdogs

I think that has to be old, there are waaaay more Mesmer’s than Elementalists.

Conan.8046:

Hebee.8460:

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1c2c9GW2_Anniv_Infographic.jpg

Looking at this breakdown of player choice race & profession, makes me more happy to love and stick to my charr engineer. Power to the underdogs

I think that has to be old, there are waaaay more Mesmer’s than Elementalists.

Old? nope. Incorrect? Highly probable. Most likely they looked at all the toons that currently exist. I doubt they accounted for toons not 80 yet (due to spvp). So likely those stats do not represent what players are actually playing. I have 4 of those classes fully leveled and geared but I have only been playing engineer lately.

I had a college professor in public policy mostly dealt with data analysis. He once said he wondered about those adds for those technical schools that said. “Within 6 months of graduation how 90% (or something like that) of our students had jobs in the fields they studied for.” His question was simple. How many of those students (given the jobs were technical) actually went their for a training course on new equipment or to get recertified for a job they already had? The way you interpret the data tells you a bunch about it.

Best stat they could have provided is total hours per class ie how many hours each class has among the total play time. They have the data (/age tells us that). It would likely be the best indication of what players have been are playing (since the start of the game) cross class. If they broke it down by month it would let you know what players are playing right now.

I only wish I hadn’t leveled an Engi first. No other class has been able to hold my interest for 80 levels.

Good luck mastering the engineer! It has been by far for me the profession with the most depth and variety of build choices. It’s a dizzying dream for theorycrafters.

Yes, it has been hit hard with nerfs, but is still viable and fun. When you succeed with an engineer, you feel as though YOU succeeded, not your gear or your traits.

Engineer is the only profession that continually holds my interest no matter the setting. I have alts of every other profession except thief and, while they each have their appeal, I always come back to my Engi and blast the crap outa stuff.

I find that when I play any other profession, I compare them to Engi. This profession can’t dodge like Engi (necro). This profession has better single-target ranged dmg (ranger). This profession has different mobility (mesmer). This profession has a cool X mechanic (necro). I want this profession’s rifle (warrior). This profession has boring utilities (ranger). This profession is just boring (guardian). This profession can’t load up conditions as well as Engi (all but necro).

I’m trying to main my engineer but as I only pop on to play wvwvw for an hour or so, I’m finding it difficult to stay motivated and then keep switching through my characters to see what I feel is best for roaming wvw.

I do have fun on my engi but I keep wondering whether I’d be much better suited playing a Mesmer or a Thief who is actually surprisingly good at ranged fighting.

Netphreak.5906:

I’m trying to main my engineer but as I only pop on to play wvwvw for an hour or so, I’m finding it difficult to stay motivated and then keep switching through my characters to see what I feel is best for roaming wvw.

I do have fun on my engi but I keep wondering whether I’d be much better suited playing a Mesmer or a Thief who is actually surprisingly good at ranged fighting.

I have both. I mained a thief for a long time. Honest truth is current thief meta in WvW is easy mode and its the same with mesmer. This isn’t so much an insult or a complaint as it simply is the truth. When it corms to the application of roaming thief, mesmer, and warrior top the charts.

Now honest truth is mesmer is OK in a ranged fight with a GS thief is mostly a non factor. SB is used for kiting not killing. In a scrimmage nades engineer will be more useful than either. Clones are highly telegraphed and have to run in for the shatter in a ranged fight.

here are benefits and losses to each and every class/build. That being said the potential on engineer is higher than thief or mesmer in most builds. In the long run no matter what is said play what you enjoy whether that be mesmer, thief, engineer, or whatever.

the kudos are appreciated. because every time i lose to a thief after almost dropping him/her i get frustrated. i’m getting really tired of having to try so much harder than every other class to deal sustained damage.

To be honest I rolled an Engi in beta and absolutely hated it. It felt slow, unwieldy, and extremely inefficient. I main lined elementalist for the remaining Betas whilst dabbling with the other classes to see which one I might like to call my main, completely excluding Engineer from the line up.

For some odd reason, when launch rolled in, I decided to give Engineer a second chance right out of the gates. I almost immediately learned that my issues with the class were actually just issues with my understanding of it. They weren’t slow, unwieldy, or inefficient, my build style was. It taught me early that I had a lot to learn if I wanted to be any good. Engineer is a true to it’s core “play as you want” class. The Engineer is the class for the thinkers and the experimental…or just the lunatics who are exactly the right amount of crazy to pull it off.

If you can be a solid Engineer, you have the skill to be solid at anything else. But once you are a solid Engineer, you wont care to be anything else.

I’m really glad I rolled an Engineer first. I swapped the 1 key with the 3 key and never looked back. =P