Guild Wars 2

Okay, so I just started playing again after a very long break.
And I don’t know if it is because I am just slow but, i tried a few different builds on different classes over the weekend and I just threw my hands up in frustration after not being able to either,
a) grasp the mechanics of my skills / fighting in PvP
b) or I do not fully understanding the stats/skill builds
c) just plan suck (I PvP a lot in other MMOs and normally fair well). I was not at the
bottom of the points/kill lists in my matches but I would say I was bottom middle.
Please constructive feed back only, I really enjoy the game and find that I must be missing something.
I tried several professions and several different fan sites recommended build for classes but found that I had trouble being effective with a lot of them but, saw other players in the Arenas using those builds and having a lot of success.
I am wondering if my runes/traits/gear upgrades are what I am lacking. I am not looking for a faceroll kill everyone build just some help in understanding some of the character features.
I am also going to focus on one profession right now and that would be Engineer. I have read several posts about them being broken and several more about them functioning fine. Honestly so far I have found them fun to play with lots of options so it works for me.
First, I was thinking of going dual pistols(unless there is a better reason I shouldn’t in PvP or WvW).
What are my best traits and skills? I was maxing out two of my trait lines that had to deal with crits/dmg and pwr. with putting the rest of my points in the traits that gave vitality. I tried a couple flavors that neither seem to work or that I couldn’t seem to make it work.
I had a difficult time trying to decide what the best upgrades would be for my weapons and gear. I know most people would say this is preference and I would agree but, there has to be some common sense things that maybe I am missing that a veteran player would notice right away. Like no if you use dual pistols these are the best runes for your weapons etc.
I tried stacking Power and tried stacking condition dmg. Both were OK but I would run into an issue with certain classes swapping the conditions back on me and had a little bit of a time trying to figure out the best secondary skill point skills to use together.
Anything anyone can help enlighten me on would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Schmitty

First—don’t pay any attention to where your name ends up at the end of a match. I can’t emphasize enough how little that matters in this game.

Second—engineer is a pretty difficult profession. Give it time.

Third—pistol/pistol is fine. You will almost certainly want either bombs or grenades to go along with it. Grenades are generally more dps, bombs make you more tanky and allow for more defensive traits. Of course there are other ways to play but if you’re just looking for something basic, grenades or bombs is a good starting place. If you are using pistols, your choice of PvP amulet should be rabid, or maybe shaman’s if you are using bomb kit and have a lot of healing skills.

Fourth—don’t worry too much about which stats your traits give: that’s not nearly as important as the traits themselves. If you like using grenades, put 30 in explosives and take grenadier, Incendiary powder, and whichever other trait looks good to you. If you like using bombs, take forceful explosives. If you spend most of your time using pistols, put at least 10 points in firearms to reduce your cooldowns.

Awesome, feedback thanks a ton this is the kind of stuff I am looking for!
Thanks again.

Ok, so looking at a lot of different information is there a good “combination of kits” to use?
For 0 key I normally always take supply drop
but, for keys 6-9 I am always at a bit of a loss. Which heal tends to work best for this “build” type.

Most of our best builds use two weapon kits, although it is possible to take three (but difficult) and using grenades as an only kit plus might stacking also works well. Some good combinations are:
Bomb kit/elixir gun (can be very hard to bring down)
Flamethrower/elixir gun (this one is tough to get to work, though)
Grenade kit/HGH (30 point trait in elixirs)
Grenade kit/toolkit (especially in a static discharge glass cannon build)

Heals:
—use elixir H only if you have HGH and cleansing formula 409 as traits (i.e. grenade/HGH build). Otherwise, the other two heals are always better.
—use healing turret if you need more condition removal and like supporting your team.
—use med kit if you want the maximum possible individual healing, or if you need fury to proc incendiary powder or get more power dps.