Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks! Dancing monkery here, #5286th engi in NA and worlds Last rank 80! With a 100% Win ratio against Vee Wee in Combat !!!

Nope, no cookie cutter build needed.

What is needed, is a little scope and some concept of reference from you.

What type of play style do you like? Do you dodge properly? What do you feel the other players are doing that make you an easy kill? Do you have additional ways to avoid condition damage such as cleansing, or do you have additional manners of negating direct damage?

To offer you any assistance, first we need to have some concept of the possible causes of the problem, and not just the end result of the problem.

dancingmonkey.4902:

Howdy folks! Dancing monkery here, #5286th engi in NA and worlds Last rank 80! With a 100% Win ratio against Vee Wee in Combat !!!

Nope, no cookie cutter build needed.

What is needed, is a little scope and some concept of reference from you.

What type of play style do you like? Do you dodge properly? What do you feel the other players are doing that make you an easy kill? Do you have additional ways to avoid condition damage such as cleansing, or do you have additional manners of negating direct damage?

To offer you any assistance, first we need to have some concept of the possible causes of the problem, and not just the end result of the problem.

Well I’m a WvWer, so my play style varies from zerging to attempted roaming. I have to admit I dodge pretty randomly/panicky. I tend not to notice what the enemy is even doing, and I have really poor awareness of the abilities of the other class, and I dont pay attention much to their buffs or such. Usually just see their rank and begin panicking.

I don’t feel as an engi that I have that many condi removals even though I bring as many heals with me as possible (healing turret + e-gun) I resort to using the active ability of the turret to clear conditions.

Despite what I said before, I do feel like I’m doing the right things, but it just doesn’t feel effective enough. My heavy build felt like paper, and my condi build felt like a peashooter. I know I have some issues to clear up with my knowledge of the game, but I’m also unsure how much my exotics only gear is holding me back.

Btw right now I’m trying out prec/tough/condi gear.

@dancingmonkey: Made me laugh… my frand!

Iluth.6875:

Well I’m a WvWer, so my play style varies from zerging to attempted roaming. I have to admit I dodge pretty randomly/panicky. I tend not to notice what the enemy is even doing, and I have really poor awareness of the abilities of the other class, and I dont pay attention much to their buffs or such. Usually just see their rank and begin panicking.

First of all, you need to gain control of your emotions and reflexes. This is not going to happen overnight or successfully. The only way you will do better in this respect is to hot join in pvp and train yourself by fighting anyone and everyone. Eventually you start to see trends/patterns that are indicative of each profession.

Iluth.6875:

I don’t feel as an engi that I have that many condi removals even though I bring as many heals with me as possible (healing turret + e-gun) I resort to using the active ability of the turret to clear conditions.

The hard truth here is that we don’t, aside from 409 (which most ppl hate) and Elixir C is effectively useless as a utility. The best option here is to simply avoid conditions at all costs, whether through dodging/blocks/stealth.

Iluth.6875:

Despite what I said before, I do feel like I’m doing the right things, but it just doesn’t feel effective enough. My heavy build felt like paper, and my condi build felt like a peashooter. I know I have some issues to clear up with my knowledge of the game, but I’m also unsure how much my exotics only gear is holding me back. Btw right now I’m trying out prec/tough/condi gear.

Personally, I don’t think gear is the factor here, but rather as you said your knowledge of the game. I have found Engineer to be most optimal with either Berserk or Rabid (prec/tough/cond), and have fallen out of love with Celestial after this update. Trying to be real with you here, Engineer is a fast paced profession that requires you to know every one of its mechanics; there is a good chance that it may not be right for you if you can’t cross that bridge.

Mnemesis.8257:

@dancingmonkey: Made me laugh… my frand!

Iluth.6875:

Well I’m a WvWer, so my play style varies from zerging to attempted roaming. I have to admit I dodge pretty randomly/panicky. I tend not to notice what the enemy is even doing, and I have really poor awareness of the abilities of the other class, and I dont pay attention much to their buffs or such. Usually just see their rank and begin panicking.

First of all, you need to gain control of your emotions and reflexes. This is not going to happen overnight or successfully. The only way you will do better in this respect is to hot join in pvp and train yourself by fighting anyone and everyone. Eventually you start to see trends/patterns that are indicative of each profession.

Iluth.6875:

I don’t feel as an engi that I have that many condi removals even though I bring as many heals with me as possible (healing turret + e-gun) I resort to using the active ability of the turret to clear conditions.

The hard truth here is that we don’t, aside from 409 (which most ppl hate) and Elixir C is effectively useless as a utility. The best option here is to simply avoid conditions at all costs, whether through dodging/blocks/stealth.

Iluth.6875:

Despite what I said before, I do feel like I’m doing the right things, but it just doesn’t feel effective enough. My heavy build felt like paper, and my condi build felt like a peashooter. I know I have some issues to clear up with my knowledge of the game, but I’m also unsure how much my exotics only gear is holding me back. Btw right now I’m trying out prec/tough/condi gear.

Personally, I don’t think gear is the factor here, but rather as you said your knowledge of the game. I have found Engineer to be most optimal with either Berserk or Rabid (prec/tough/cond), and have fallen out of love with Celestial after this update. Trying to be real with you here, Engineer is a fast paced profession that requires you to know every one of its mechanics; there is a good chance that it may not be right for you if you can’t cross that bridge.

I have a good understanding of my own class, and usually go with x3 kits purely for the amount of utility it brings me. But from my own experience in other games, I feel the best experience a player can get is actually playing as other classes as to properly learn their strengths and weaknesses. This is something I’ve neglected in Gw2 because I just don’t have the patience I had for that dedication I had while playing wow.

Another issue is that I’ve just zerged the entire time up until this point. I’ve done very little pvp, and did really well in that game mode (as a thief) I just got bored of how easy it is to play a thief which is why I rerolled engi.

As power scales a lot faster than condi power, due to having 3 stats, it benefits more from the stat advantage of ascended gear.

Conditions really only have 2 stats, (damage and duration) and thus exotic to ascended isn’t too dramatic if even noticeable, though obviously the extra toughness is always better.

I’ve only played an engineer for less than 60 hours so I don’t have much to really give in the words of wisdom. Although, I built this character exclusively to wvw, and have picked a number of fights to get trampled enough to learn a few things. =p I also like the fact that many of their attacks do not have a target, so I can blow up that stupid thief’s house.

I’m not sure if you’ve done this already, but turn on fast ground targeting in options. This makes grenades much easier to use. There are also some basic questions, such as what food you’re running. Buying some cheap Koi cake/tuning crystals can make a huge difference too.

My observation of this class is that it must rely on prevention. In other words, mostly when I die under even odds, it’s due to poor positioning or lack of awareness. Maybe I was pistoling out of range so they missed and switched to grenades while in melee, while forgetting which bomb skill does which. Maybe I was chasing after them trying to lay bombs. When I win/they run, it’s usually because I was able to mitigate their offensives, while the conditions slowly killed them off.

It can only get stability via tossing elixir B and condi clears are somewhat dubious— healing turret is of course very familiar, and then elixir gun 5 which can be tough to get off in time when you’re alone. You could do the 409/elixir build but then that’s not a very fun build and you would need to take up your slots with elixirs, which is a pretty big opportunity cost.

Engineers have very powerful control over fields— and the ability to blast them on their own too. Knowing what makes a smoke field, a water field, and a poison field is critical.

Try taking the following traits:
Explosives: Bomb explosion radius, Incendiary Powder (very powerful trait)
Alchemy: Invigorating Speed (because more dodges is superior), Protection Injection
Tools: Speedy Kits (duh)

I found protection injection to be a pretty valuable case as stuns are everywhere. Personally, I ran with melandru runes, so getting bonked on the head is more of a minor annoyance than CC hell and death.

And yes! Playing another class does help a lot. You’ll learn the signs of when a certain profession is out of gas, so to speak. My main is a guardian, so I’m pretty adept at killing enemy guardians on my engineer or other characters, as well as some familiarity dealing with necromancers and rangers. I know what a guardian saves up for their moments of trouble, and getting them to waste it is a priority. It also means I know I can chase them down with impunity after it. If I didn’t play a guardian, I might have just backed off and given them time to recover. At the same time, I’ve never played a mesmer so I’m not exactly what kills me sometimes. =p

As a side note, poison is frequently a game changer, because it reduces healing. So, don’t just spam it on people. (Unless of course, it’s a warrior)

ArchonWing.9480:

As power scales a lot faster than condi power, due to having 3 stats, it benefits more from the stat advantage of ascended gear.

Conditions really only have 2 stats, (damage and duration) and thus exotic to ascended isn’t too dramatic if even noticeable, though obviously the extra toughness is always better.

Incorrect. The game has many many sigils that proc on critical. Incendiary powder, sharp shooter, precise sights, and bunker down are all traits that apply condition on critical. Optimizing critical chance optimizes the up time on each and every one of these traits. Similarly, every profession has this level of critical chance traits. Dismissing precision will cost your damage output extremely in a condition build..

ArchonWing.9480:

Thanks for this post, lots to chew over here, and I recognized a lot of truth in it as well.

The stat info you gave is especially interesting and puzzling for me. I’ve tried both rabid and rampager, and was planning to go with rabid when I make my ascended gear. But what you said about rampager scaling better gave me pause for thought. The problem with rampager though is that I’d feel naked running with so little toughness. (I’m currently 6/6/0/02, experiment-fail roaming build)

Though having said that, the engis I’ve met drop my health so quickly that I’m wondering if toughness won’t be an issue.

Another question I have is a general question about survivability vs glass cannons. In wvw do you think it’s generally better to be a defensive minded spec/class vs an all out damage class? It seems to me the only class which can really get away with traiting 6/6 anything is a thief. But I’ve seen so many face melters from all classes while roaming, I can’t help wonder how many actually do spec as glass cannons.

Iluth.6875:

Though having said that, the engis I’ve met drop my health so quickly that I’m wondering if toughness won’t be an issue.

Toughness is only applicable to damage received, so it makes sense that other engineers (a condition heavy class) is able to pierce through this defense even if they are not wearing condition gear; the only defense here being cleanses, which we naturally lack for balance.

Iluth.6875:

Another question I have is a general question about survivability vs glass cannons. In wvw do you think it’s generally better to be a defensive minded spec/class vs an all out damage class? It seems to me the only class which can really get away with traiting 6/6 anything is a thief. But I’ve seen so many face melters from all classes while roaming, I can’t help wonder how many actually do spec as glass cannons.

I think this is entirely dependent upon both players. If you are lacking the knowledge allowing you to respond appropriately to various combat situations, then I don’t think it really matters what someone is using; they need only exploit your uncertainties and mistakes. In general, I see damage performing more successfully than anything else; obvious exception being Condimancer, who merely has to outlive you.

Try to add Toughness to your build, in both the Trait line and Armor. Focus on survivability for now, and don’t worry to much about “winning” encounters yet. If you can confidently enter into an engagement knowing that you won’t immediately die, it will give you the time to learn how to cycle thru your various kits, weapons, heals and manage cool downs, etc. Engi’s more than any other profession takes practice, practice and practice.

Mnemises is exactly right. You need to remain cool-headed – and by adding Toughness (and other survivor based traits) this will give you the time to think rather than just react. You won’t be dishing out 5k damage, but it will allow you time to learn the profession.

Also, balance your damage between Power and Condition – don’t neglect one for the other. Both are valuable to the Engi, probably more than any other profession. We are middle-of-the-roaders.

dancingmonkey.4902:

ArchonWing.9480:

As power scales a lot faster than condi power, due to having 3 stats, it benefits more from the stat advantage of ascended gear.

Conditions really only have 2 stats, (damage and duration) and thus exotic to ascended isn’t too dramatic if even noticeable, though obviously the extra toughness is always better.

Incorrect. The game has many many sigils that proc on critical. Incendiary powder, sharp shooter, precise sights, and bunker down are all traits that apply condition on critical. Optimizing critical chance optimizes the up time on each and every one of these traits. Similarly, every profession has this level of critical chance traits. Dismissing precision will cost your damage output extremely in a condition build..

That’s actually true that precision is needed.

Yes, precision is needed, it’s why I use full rabid for condition builds across multiple classes, but it’s not like you need ascended gear for that, nor is it specific only to condition builds; take precise sights. for example would be even stronger on a power build. Also, most proc effects have a cooldown, such as incendiary powder, has a pretty long one— thus you don’t need that much crit to use it effectively, so there’s a limit to how much precision affects them. Also, factor in that most of engineer attack skills tend to hit rapidly.

Though Sharpshooter actually does not and thus would benefit for more crit.

Obviously more is better and ascended is the end goal for now, but I think spending gold on exotic condition gear for wvw gives the most bang for its buck.

Iluth.6875:

ArchonWing.9480:

Thanks for this post, lots to chew over here, and I recognized a lot of truth in it as well.

The stat info you gave is especially interesting and puzzling for me. I’ve tried both rabid and rampager, and was planning to go with rabid when I make my ascended gear. But what you said about rampager scaling better gave me pause for thought. The problem with rampager though is that I’d feel naked running with so little toughness. (I’m currently 6/6/0/02, experiment-fail roaming build)

Though having said that, the engis I’ve met drop my health so quickly that I’m wondering if toughness won’t be an issue.

Another question I have is a general question about survivability vs glass cannons. In wvw do you think it’s generally better to be a defensive minded spec/class vs an all out damage class? It seems to me the only class which can really get away with traiting 6/6 anything is a thief. But I’ve seen so many face melters from all classes while roaming, I can’t help wonder how many actually do spec as glass cannons.

I personally prefer rabid myself, since it allows for more error. Of course, survivability varies by traits too.

I want to try celestial (all stats) some day, but I think the exotic is like timegated or some crap, and it’s a pain to make ascended too.

dancingmonkey.4902:

Howdy folks! Dancing monkery here, #5286th engi in NA and worlds Last rank 80! With a 100% Win ratio against Vee Wee in Combat !!!

LOL I didn’t think you would keep that…

I win 90% of my 1v1’s against any profession… I can beat one in a 2v1 too and I can do it every 25 seconds.
I use rifle, zerker, grenade kit, slick boots and rocket boots with the supply drop.

tactic is CC with rifle, immobilize with rifle, jump shot with rifle + slick boots for the extra CC, toolbelt skills for more dmg and then rifle 3 since y’r up close. Then use rocket boots and immobilize and auto attack from a safe distance…. Either he dies or he’s somehow able to dodge it all…. I use sigil of nullification to get rid of the pesky stability.

Okay so I took some of the advice here: “Maybe you aren’t cut out to be an engi”

Levelled up my mesmer, made it as GS zerker, my own basic shatter build and I’m wrecking face with it. I press buttons and people die, lots of them.

Really sad about this since my engi has been my main since the start, but I just feel like a useless baddie when playing it.

I’ve tried all the builds and gear sets you can think of, and aside from rangers, all other classes consider me a free kill. Is that fair? What needs to be done with engis so they aren’t so basically terrible?

I know there are great engis out there who make the class look overpowered even, but lets be truthful here, if those guys were playing warrior they would be far more dangerous and overpowered looking.

I’m posting this after directly comparing the mesmer and engi. I tried out the rabid condi build and I cant see how people make this work at all. The only people it actually works on are those don’t or cant purge, and those people aren’t a problem to begin with so why bother with a condi build. Met a bunker warrior who didn’t even drop below 95% before killing me, and I was basically hitting him the whole time, kiting, crippling etc.

As far as I can see, for a build to be viable it has to compete against all other builds. There should be no free kills, rock paper scissor BS. Otherwise we might as well just stand there and let people kill us when we figure out that their build makes a win impossible.

Iluth.6875:

Okay so I took some of the advice here: “Maybe you aren’t cut out to be an engi”

Levelled up my mesmer, made it as GS zerker, my own basic shatter build and I’m wrecking face with it. I press buttons and people die, lots of them.

Really sad about this since my engi has been my main since the start, but I just feel like a useless baddie when playing it.

I’ve tried all the builds and gear sets you can think of, and aside from rangers, all other classes consider me a free kill. Is that fair? What needs to be done with engis so they aren’t so basically terrible?

I know there are great engis out there who make the class look overpowered even, but lets be truthful here, if those guys were playing warrior they would be far more dangerous and overpowered looking.

I’m posting this after directly comparing the mesmer and engi. I tried out the rabid condi build and I cant see how people make this work at all. The only people it actually works on are those don’t or cant purge, and those people aren’t a problem to begin with so why bother with a condi build. Met a bunker warrior who didn’t even drop below 95% before killing me, and I was basically hitting him the whole time, kiting, crippling etc.

As far as I can see, for a build to be viable it has to compete against all other builds. There should be no free kills, rock paper scissor BS. Otherwise we might as well just stand there and let people kill us when we figure out that their build makes a win impossible.

Mesmer is OP, I agree. Before the ele was buffed and not nerfed last April patch(first time that has ever happened) I hit it on well with the engi and the mesmer. I don’t like mesmer because its op. I like engi because you get rewarded for playing well.
I run a zerker rifle-nade engi. A complete glass cannon and its basically a constant CC with boon removal and lots and lots of damage. I have yet to find anything that can survive the full brunt of my attack, even tanky classes like elementalists and engineers and basically anything drops dead.
But now that the elementalist has been buffed again I’ve been messing around with a D/F build. Its all-around quite decent as in I can win 1v2’s now thanks to the massive amount of aoe-burn. But I can’t beat people in 1 second anymore as I did with the engineer. I guess in the damage aspect the engineer is as good as the thief but with sustainability and attrition warfare its passable but not to extreme lvls.

But yea seeing as you said you need to be good to play the engineer I presume that you don’t consider yourself to be good. Can’t blame the profession for that now can we?

I dunno OP, any advice you get is good advice if you’re willing to agree with it. If you simply want to win, well I think you answered your own questions with rolling mesmer, warrior, thief, etc. And if you want to hear that engineer class isn’t for you, you’re more than free to agree with it. But if you want to be an engineer, be one. It’s actually smart to roll and play other classes to know their weaknesses and have a greater ‘rsenal for yourself and your team to win with, but play what you want! Sure we got nerfed to heck before, but we got buffed in some superficial ways that, were you new to the class, you’d be exploiting like a lot of people are.

People consider perplexity runes a free win in WvW. Up until recently decap engi was being rolled by people that just wanted to win. So sure, if you want to just get wins, go for them any way you know how, but if you want to enjoy this class then go ahead and play your way, but level up your game. I’ll never tell you this class isn’t for you, but if you want to believe that then go ahead. I work hard for each win. I’m not necessarily okay with the paper-rock-scissors arrangement we have between classes, but I’ll definitely beat the sleeves off of someone that’s used to that if they aren’t prepared.

Anyway I feel like posts like this are made out of a great deal of frustration that you feel right before you level up. So I’m glad our community was willing to answer you, but my answer is always going to be “If you love engineer profession, keep on playing it.”

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

But yea seeing as you said you need to be good to play the engineer I presume that you don’t consider yourself to be good. Can’t blame the profession for that now can we?

I don’t consider myself good. Although I know from experience of other games that I can be good even when using an underpowered class. I’m just going to have to keep working with this until it works.

As for blaming the class, if a few people can make it work, but most find it underpowered, yes I feel that’s a situation where the class can be blamed. Rangers are a better example of class inequity

johnsonade.9547:

I dunno OP, any advice you get is good advice if you’re willing to agree with it. If you simply want to win, well I think you answered your own questions with rolling mesmer, warrior, thief, etc. And if you want to hear that engineer class isn’t for you, you’re more than free to agree with it. But if you want to be an engineer, be one. It’s actually smart to roll and play other classes to know their weaknesses and have a greater ‘rsenal for yourself and your team to win with, but play what you want! Sure we got nerfed to heck before, but we got buffed in some superficial ways that, were you new to the class, you’d be exploiting like a lot of people are.

People consider perplexity runes a free win in WvW. Up until recently decap engi was being rolled by people that just wanted to win. So sure, if you want to just get wins, go for them any way you know how, but if you want to enjoy this class then go ahead and play your way, but level up your game. I’ll never tell you this class isn’t for you, but if you want to believe that then go ahead. I work hard for each win. I’m not necessarily okay with the paper-rock-scissors arrangement we have between classes, but I’ll definitely beat the sleeves off of someone that’s used to that if they aren’t prepared.

Anyway I feel like posts like this are made out of a great deal of frustration that you feel right before you level up. So I’m glad our community was willing to answer you, but my answer is always going to be “If you love engineer profession, keep on playing it.”

Yup I’m not interested in just winning, that’s why my thief is covered in dust and being used for extra storage.

Thing is that when I pick up a class from fresh, I can get a feel for it and know where it’s strengths and weaknesses lay. So it’s like oh okay this class is good at this, therefore I need x runes, y gear, and z sigils. But for engi, it’s like a whole other thing to make it work. Like a bad idea that didn’t get implemented properly. It’s like they wanted to make a support class, in a game which doesn’t really support support classes in the type of scenarios I’m thinking. (small skirmishes with roamers)

I’m sticking at the engi out of pure stubborness. Though I’m unwilling to drop the gold on perplexity since it’ll likely be nerfed. And also I believe that condi builds aren’t the greatest strength of an engi, since it’s inherently a longer fight than if you were geared zerker and built for bursting. And a longer fight means more chances of picking up conditions, and conditions are bad for us because of the few purges available.

Still no clear idea on what build to use. People are saying chill is good, so I’m considering a bursty build with cc and seeing how that goes. But I’m honestly getting tired of throwing money and marks into this toon to experiment with something that any class can do better.

Iluth.6875:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

But yea seeing as you said you need to be good to play the engineer I presume that you don’t consider yourself to be good. Can’t blame the profession for that now can we?

I don’t consider myself good. Although I know from experience of other games that I can be good even when using an underpowered class. I’m just going to have to keep working with this until it works.

As for blaming the class, if a few people can make it work, but most find it underpowered, yes I feel that’s a situation where the class can be blamed. Rangers are a better example of class inequity

johnsonade.9547:

I dunno OP, any advice you get is good advice if you’re willing to agree with it. If you simply want to win, well I think you answered your own questions with rolling mesmer, warrior, thief, etc. And if you want to hear that engineer class isn’t for you, you’re more than free to agree with it. But if you want to be an engineer, be one. It’s actually smart to roll and play other classes to know their weaknesses and have a greater ‘rsenal for yourself and your team to win with, but play what you want! Sure we got nerfed to heck before, but we got buffed in some superficial ways that, were you new to the class, you’d be exploiting like a lot of people are.

People consider perplexity runes a free win in WvW. Up until recently decap engi was being rolled by people that just wanted to win. So sure, if you want to just get wins, go for them any way you know how, but if you want to enjoy this class then go ahead and play your way, but level up your game. I’ll never tell you this class isn’t for you, but if you want to believe that then go ahead. I work hard for each win. I’m not necessarily okay with the paper-rock-scissors arrangement we have between classes, but I’ll definitely beat the sleeves off of someone that’s used to that if they aren’t prepared.

Anyway I feel like posts like this are made out of a great deal of frustration that you feel right before you level up. So I’m glad our community was willing to answer you, but my answer is always going to be “If you love engineer profession, keep on playing it.”

Yup I’m not interested in just winning, that’s why my thief is covered in dust and being used for extra storage.

Thing is that when I pick up a class from fresh, I can get a feel for it and know where it’s strengths and weaknesses lay. So it’s like oh okay this class is good at this, therefore I need x runes, y gear, and z sigils. But for engi, it’s like a whole other thing to make it work. Like a bad idea that didn’t get implemented properly. It’s like they wanted to make a support class, in a game which doesn’t really support support classes in the type of scenarios I’m thinking. (small skirmishes with roamers)

I’m sticking at the engi out of pure stubborness. Though I’m unwilling to drop the gold on perplexity since it’ll likely be nerfed. And also I believe that condi builds aren’t the greatest strength of an engi, since it’s inherently a longer fight than if you were geared zerker and built for bursting. And a longer fight means more chances of picking up conditions, and conditions are bad for us because of the few purges available.

Still no clear idea on what build to use. People are saying chill is good, so I’m considering a bursty build with cc and seeing how that goes. But I’m honestly getting tired of throwing money and marks into this toon to experiment with something that any class can do better.

Condition build with Nightmare runes is fine.
Engineer can apply practically every condition, and often. They also have excellent survivability. Just keep practicing

On further thought, I was wondering what was considered a “good” crit chance rate? I currently have 40% and main procs are incendiary powder and sharpshooter.

The current situation is that the fights I now engage in are very one-sided, either I just shoot them to death and they can’t do anything because of all the conditions, or I die and don’t know what happened. I haven’t been able to defeat any mesmers though. I get dazed and all those clones explode. That leaves me half dead, and I sort of give up, lol. I understand the real one actually has buffs, though this is hard to aim grenades or bombs at. On other classes I can at least tab cycle to find the real one and fire away. Although, I have to admit, outside of using a meditation guardians, I might as well alt-f4 the moment I see mesmers since that’s how bad I am. Maybe I could roll a mesmer to examine how they work, but I would have to purchase a new character slot.

On the other hand, the main thing that makes me smile is that thieves seem very afraid of this class. :p They really just backstab you, realize it’s not going anywhere and just run off to do their evil thief things. It also is a lot easier to fight in a 1vX situation. Although I come close to winning, I never do, though that is just a L2P issue. I main a guardian, so my tendency when dying is to bang the keyboard for a desirable result. Clearly, that approach needs adjustment.

In the end I have like 70 hours on this class and can easily see that I have a lot to work on. I wouldn’t give up on it, given that I can already be a threat.

ArchonWing.9480:

Mesmer problems

From my experience against and as playing a mesmer, don’t attack until you’re sure what you’re attacking or you’ll just end up crippled or worse. Once you find the mesmer, you can drop a target on them for easier identification. Also sticky targetting will help you stay on the mesmer instead of switching onto the clones, although I prefer not to use it.

I used to have real problems with mesmers because of it, but really they can’t force you to drop target on them that much. Stealth and then acting like a clone is the best they can do. The real problem with mesmers is catching them when they decide the fight isn’t going their way.

I’m going to start treating runners as a won fight from now on. Every warr, thief and mes that runs away is going down as a win for me.

Zach.3264:

Condition build with Nightmare runes is fine.
Engineer can apply practically every condition, and often. They also have excellent survivability. Just keep practicing

I’ll try those runes and keep practicing. Thanks for the encouragement.

Iluth.6875:

ArchonWing.9480:

Mesmer problems

From my experience against and as playing a mesmer, don’t attack until you’re sure what you’re attacking or you’ll just end up crippled or worse. Once you find the mesmer, you can drop a target on them for easier identification. Also sticky targetting will help you stay on the mesmer instead of switching onto the clones, although I prefer not to use it.

I used to have real problems with mesmers because of it, but really they can’t force you to drop target on them that much. Stealth and then acting like a clone is the best they can do. The real problem with mesmers is catching them when they decide the fight isn’t going their way.

I’m going to start treating runners as a won fight from now on. Every warr, thief and mes that runs away is going down as a win for me.

Zach.3264:

Condition build with Nightmare runes is fine.
Engineer can apply practically every condition, and often. They also have excellent survivability. Just keep practicing

I’ll try those runes and keep practicing. Thanks for the encouragement.

The thing that really helped me was changing my attitude of what a victory was (like you said above Iluth.) If I make a thief run away and defend my point, I’ve managed to accrue points while wasting the thief’s time. (sometimes just as many as a kill would’e gotten) I’ve had fights that lasted on far point for 3 or 4 minutes before their or my help showed up. So far I’ve managed to make all classes except ranger run away. I even had a fight with a guardian that made him run back into his keep. We can even keep decap opponents from dying on point with the right kits and gadgets.

Don’t get me wrong. I used to get destroyed constantly, but those kinds of losses don’t happen as often. What helped me develop was soloing as many champs and bosses as possible. Eventually you read telegraphed moves so well that you can save your dodges and you don’t need a shield as badly. You just naturally start positioning effectively. The only ones I’m losing to a lot lately are engineers haha. Good luck OP, I know you’ll come up with some good things you can do with this profession!

@Iluth
“I’m sticking at the engi out of pure stubborness.”

+1