Guild Wars 2

Reading all this has made me seriously nervous about committing more time to the class. I want to be viable in WvW and dungeons, and I’m not sure if by the time I hit 80 Engineers will be in a decent state.

Should I bail, or stick it out? And if I should keep at it, any tips to help me move forward and actually have fun?

As long as you don’t go grenadier in dungeons you’ll be fine. If you do, you’ll draw way more aggro than a medium class is meant to take… unless you kill everything before it kills you?

Engineers are fun as hell.
Keep playing, try all the different builds to find the ones you like.
It will be worth it.

PPL mostly complain because the Engineer is one of the hardest professions to be an elitist at because of the high skill cap and generally lower dps. But the profession is far from broken or bad.

Really the Engineer is probally the most unique and entertaining class in the game which is why ppl are overly upset at all the bugs. When you have something awesome you want it to be as awesome as it can be.

I re rolled as a ranger with exactly these same feelings. After completing everything and getting all my exotics the class felt dead to me. I just didn’t want to play him anymore. I’m now doing it all again as an engineer and I’m loving it and I know I will at 80 and beyond.

If I had been a warrior/guardian… well that’s a different story all together! xD

My first 80 was a guardian and he’s still my only 80 because I played the crap out of him. I still play him but I’ve been leveling an engineer and I’m totally in love with it! My guardian may be more of a tank and do more damage but at level 40 I’m already having no problems getting kills. It just involves more thought, which is a nice change.

The reaction to engineers is the typical reaction I’ve always seen for utility classes like this. Lots of people make them because they have the “omg look at all the cool stuff they can do” initial reaction. Then later on after they’ve played it for a while they have the follow-up “omg all the stuff I can do is gimp compared to the other classes” reaction. Then lots of kitten and moaning about how they can’t do damage, heal, or tank like the classes that specialize in those things.

Then there are the people who like the versatility and aren’t worried about being the primary option for something. The engineer won’t excel at anything except versatility and button pushing, but you can do plenty of things well enough. If you’re a good player, you figure out how to make it work.

Asher.1078:

The reaction to engineers is the typical reaction I’ve always seen for utility classes like this. Lots of people make them because they have the “omg look at all the cool stuff they can do” initial reaction. Then later on after they’ve played it for a while they have the follow-up “omg all the stuff I can do is gimp compared to the other classes” reaction. Then lots of kitten and moaning about how they can’t do damage, heal, or tank like the classes that specialize in those things.

Then there are the people who like the versatility and aren’t worried about being the primary option for something. The engineer won’t excel at anything except versatility and button pushing, but you can do plenty of things well enough. If you’re a good player, you figure out how to make it work.

I appreciate the idea of versatility, but isn’t that most valuable when you can swap between two roles on the fly? Is that viable for Engineers? Because being able to do anything at an average level isn’t that beneficial if you still have to specialize to perform that role.

Classic.9174:

I appreciate the idea of versatility, but isn’t that most valuable when you can swap between two roles on the fly? Is that viable for Engineers? Because being able to do anything at an average level isn’t that beneficial if you still have to specialize to perform that role.

You mean similar to how you can swap to elixir gun and fill a buffer/debuffer and secondary healer role? swap to grenade kit and be full AoE damage?

coglin.1496:

Classic.9174:

I appreciate the idea of versatility, but isn’t that most valuable when you can swap between two roles on the fly? Is that viable for Engineers? Because being able to do anything at an average level isn’t that beneficial if you still have to specialize to perform that role.

You similar to how you can swap to elixir gun and fill a buffer/debuffer and secondary healer role? swap to grenade kit and be full AoE damage?

I feel like my tone isn’t coming across right. I’m not trying to be sarcastic, I’m truly asking whether or not that’s viable. I’m really still getting the hang of the Engineer, and I like it enough that I want it to be great.

Some advice: Using the v-word in a non-ironic way causes people who’ve actually played the class to not take you seriously.

Also, some people believe that “omg all the stuff I can do is gimp compared to the other classes” reads like an actual problem. I hope folks forgive our aspiration to mere competence.

If you want actual versatility, you swap in an alt that’s actually good at the job you want to do. You will NOT find versatility by slapping on a different kit on this class.

Engi is currently in the same situation as the WoW druid after the first few patches. 4 different forms… and you had to gear and trait as ONE to get LESS ability than a specialized class. When you swapped forms, your utility in the new role was a bad joke.

I’m given to understand that’s changed. Now you can be good at 2 of the roles, and gimp in the other 2. Something like that at a minimum needs to happen for engineer. Celebrating fake, false and weak “versatility” won’t get us there.

Define viable in this case? Everyone throws viable around the forums like this and it is a horrible term to use in cases like this because whats is considered “viable” from person to person varies greatly.

Yes, I think building for more then one purpose or focus is extremely.

You’re right. Some people define fail as viable because they haven’t tried other classes or their egos are too wrapped up in their class to examine it objectively.

That doesn’t mean that “viable” is some fantasy invented specifically to make engineer look bad.

I made the mistake of leveling mine to 80 even after reading all the stuff here.

It is my 4th 80 toon. I figured all the doom and gloom here was just fluff and half truths.

Found out, it was not. I am sorry I wasted so much time on the engineer.

Vs my other toons, he is light years behind in ability and what he brings to the group.

Play engineer if you find it fun. When the endgame comes around… remember what you read on the forums and wait patiently, like the rest of us, for some bugfixes.

We all level alts after some time, but once you get used to the engineer’s playstyle its hard to find another favorite.

JohnDied.3476:

As long as you don’t go grenadier in dungeons you’ll be fine. If you do, you’ll draw way more aggro than a medium class is meant to take… unless you kill everything before it kills you?

Grenadier in dungeons is good but only if your realize what an aggro magnet you are and adapt to the situation. Grenadiers make excellent pullers, especially once you’ve traited max explosives + grenadier for the extra nade range. Generally the pull strategy involves tossing nades and then immediately (while the nades are in mid-air) running back behind cover while your allies range and clash with the enemies that are coming after you. By the time the pulled targets get to the melee fighters in your party they will stop chasing you to engage your other party members and already be halfways dead, at which point you can aoe the whole lot of them. That’s the grenadier side of it, and just to prove that grenadier is a viable dungeon build.

There are a lot of other viable dungeon builds, including flamethrower (+ crit based) builds, heal-bomb builds and toolkit builds. As well as modifications of those builds that allow you to do condition-removal+support (Cleansing formula 409, plus at least 2 elixirs equipped), additional DPS, single-target crowd-control, etc (rifle is good for single-target CC, but you can augment it further through skills)

Be advised though, if you’re running explorables as a grenadier while undergeared (equipped with lesser gear than rare and exotic) you WILL be squishy and need to be constantly on your toes to whose aggro you have. There are a few defensive tactics you can use such as simply running away and dropping nades at your feet to damage the pursuer, equipping bombkit + big ol bomb to delay an enemy zerg, and traiting self-regulating defenses to save your skin from being bursted to death by a mob.

Engies are fun to run with in dungeons once you learn to adapt your skills to the situation and manage aggro properly. Engies can become quite formidable and can easily solo world PvE (including Orr) once you’ve learned how to avoid damage without using up your dodges.