Guild Wars 2

Recently, I been playing with all my characters, one for each profession, and for most I have an idea of what I want to do with them, or at least am interested in their possibilities. But after playing with my Engineer a bit, I just can’t find anything I like about the profession.

I think I know why this is though. My main character is an Elementalist, which seems to be in a similar boat to the engineer. Both don’t have weapon swaps and instead rely on profession mechanics for additional skills. Both also are very versatile in what they can do (I thought Eles were the Jack of all Trades until I looked around this forum XD). So I guess I can’t help but compare my Engineer to my Ele, which is probably a bad thing to do but I can’t help it.
To me, it seems that Engineers need to trait more into a specific role rather than just having a bunch available off the bat. The problem is none of the ones I see look like something I’d like to play. Turrets are interesting, but it seems like it would be a pain to constantly move then around for most things (like pve exploration). Kits seem interesting, but so far I have not found any kit I really prefer over pistols. I did consider Elixirs and trying something more supportive. And not sure if much can be done with gadgets alone.

With that being said, how do you think I should try an engineer? I don’t expect it to be played like an Elementalist, but I am just not seeing the builds I could use to differentiate it from my Ele. And just to note, the advice I am looking for is for casual PVE; I doubt I will be using my Engineer for WvW or Dungeons or such.
So if you have any insights into how Engineers function or suggestions for builds, let me know.

casual pve? all zerk gear, rifle for long range, ft for tagging, bombs for damage. drop ft for a stunbreaker if you need one. not suggesting grenades cuz theyre tryhard mode and you can just faceplant on mobs w/ rocket boots and bomb them (hence 20 explo + speedy gadgets).

pistols dont really do good damage in pve, and jump shot gets you places.
if you find you have problems surviving, swap out some gear for knight gear.

this will definitely play similar to an ele, but you have higher mobility and different buttons to press. and more versatile.

Pistols do really bad damage. Unfortunately the devs actually feel they have to do bad damage to compensate for our 1s weapon swap on kits. It really appears from the dev statements on the subject, that they want you to use at least one kit. I do not like their philosophy on this matter, but it is an unfortunate philosophy they have.

Personally I am a big fan of the bomb kit, have been since release. I never really could band wagon on the grenades like so many others. As well, although they destroyed my favorite trait (kit refinement), once they made the EG tool belt skill a stun breaker, it became a staple of almost every build I use. I am just addicted to having a stun breaker with an AoE heal, acid bomb for the damage and ability to leap out of a sticky spot, as well as the heal/cleanse of super elixir.

As you mention casual PvE, I suggest bombs or grenade, or both.

coglin.1867:

Pistols do really bad damage. Unfortunately the devs actually feel they have to do bad damage to compensate for our 1s weapon swap on kits. It really appears from the dev statements on the subject, that they want you to use at least one kit. I do not like their philosophy on this matter, but it is an unfortunate philosophy they have.

You know… if the devs really wanted it that way…

Why didn’t they make our class skill a kit instead of a tool belt?

WEXXES.2378:

coglin.1867:

Pistols do really bad damage. Unfortunately the devs actually feel they have to do bad damage to compensate for our 1s weapon swap on kits. It really appears from the dev statements on the subject, that they want you to use at least one kit. I do not like their philosophy on this matter, but it is an unfortunate philosophy they have.

You know… if the devs really wanted it that way…

Why didn’t they make our class skill a kit instead of a tool belt?

sigh… not this comment again…

Just spam nades/bombs at your feet and stuff dies

The engineer is a utility class that specializes. They generally have a lot of different things that help the team and cover a multitude of aspects, not just super focused like the ele with AoE, Burst, Healing and Defense (Fire, Air, Water, Earth). Instead, you have tools! Took tool kit? Now you have high damage, defense, and CC! Take Flamthrower? Now you have high damage, CC and conditions!

The trick to maximizing damage on the engineer doesn’t come from any one kit. It comes from swapping between multiple kits to pick out the high damage skills and quickly move on to the next. Could you keep it simple and simply spam grenades or bombs? Sure, but you deal less damage over time that way. My build in PvE is this:

Rifle – Rocket Turret – Grenade Kit – Elixir Gun

Every single one of these kits have high damage in them.

1. Rifle – Blunderbus (4k), Jump Shot (3k then 7k)
2. Rocket Turret – 2k from Rocket Turret, 8k+ from Rocket toolbelt ability.
3. Grenade kit – 3-4k from Shrapnel Grenade, 3-4 from Freeze Grenade, 8k+ from Grenade Barrage
4. Elixir Gun – 2k ticks from Acid bomb (5 times = 10k damage AoE).

When I’m in PvE, I’m constantly rotating between all of these skills. If you look at all the kits, they ALL have damage in them. All besides med kit.

1. Tool Kit – Pry bar hits for 6k
2. Bomb Kit – Auto attack hits for 4k, Big Ol Bomb hits like a freight train.
3. Flame Thrower – Flame Blast hits for 8k+ if you can do it right.

What’s great about kits is that, yes they bring you high damage skills, but they also bring you utility. Bomb kit has a blind field and cripple field! It also has a fire field for might stacking. Flamethrower has the best knockback in the game and AoE blind. Elixir Gun has a great heal and some of the best condition removal I can think of.

I’d also drop pistols. Rifle has a lot more utility and a lot more power damage. Jump shot at close range is crazy strong (2.5k damage total on tooltip with vulnerability!). The auto attack also pierces on Rifle.

In general, conditions are weaker than power damage in PvE. In PvE, you can stack vulnerability and might to really blow out your damage and the damage happens faster. Dead people can’t kill you. Dead people rally you. What a lot of groups do is they stack in corners and burst everything down with power damage and just rally off the creatures that die in the stack. Even if you are in a group that DOESN’T do this, you still are better off because the enemies will die faster. The only time this isn’t as good is in long battles where the toughness you gain from being condi actually helps. Conditions are also a LOT easier to put on an enemy so battles that require a lot of attention are better with condis. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case in PvE. It also accounts for why Condis in PvP are so common.

Pistols are for condition builds. Rifles are for power builds.

No… In PvE you can go for a rifle for some personal burst. But choosing the pistol gives you an insta blind, a combo finisher and a double line stun.

I personally think that the little burst you do with the rifle isn’t worth 3 stacks might for the team unless you got anyway 25 stacks permamight, wich you almost never will have. Just use grenades n bombs and deal a bit less personal damage but be more useful for the team.

Engi is all about combo finishers, might stacking, aoe, vulnerability burst stack with grenades 2, 3, 4 and toolbelt and spam the bomb skills except 3. And never use any slot 1 skill on a weapon.

Xyonon.3987:

But choosing the pistol gives you an insta blind, a combo finisher and a double line stun.

Pistol / Shield

Casual PvE? Bombs and grenades all the way. The third utility slot is completely up to you, but I’d recommend elixir gun. Acid bomb/blast finisher, stun break/regeneration and an aoe cleanse/heal field all in 1.
Lastly you’re definitely going to want to sink at least 10 points into tools for speedy kits for a permanent 33% increased movement speed.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I think I got a much better understanding of how to play the Engineer now, which ironically seems more like the Elementalist than I expected XD Pretty much, I learned the following:
-Try the Rifle, pistols not that great. (Originally, I found the Rifle to be lacking and since the Pistols were nearly same range I went for them. But now with kits to fill in for the rifle’s lacking features, it will probably work better for me).
-Focus on blowing things up, with Bombs or Grenades. (I think I’ll try Bombs over Grenades to start, but I’ll have to experiment with the different kits again to see which I prefer).
-Swap between Kits like a madman to get the most of the skills. (After using attunements and conjures, I think I should be good with this one).
-And try to trigger as many combos as possible. (Will probably take me a bit to learn them all, but once again, think I know how it goes well enough.)

Well, I guess I have a bunch of kits to test and find the right balance for my tastes. But at least I have a better idea of how to spread the traits and what to focus on with my build.

Well pistols are pretty good, its just that you should avoid its auto attack as much as possible

Yah, I’m not really good at avoiding auto attacks XD
Anyway, I did some WvW with my engineer earlier. It is still lower level so I didn’t have all the traits, or skills, but I had enough to get a good feel for the build. The kit swiftness is amazing; especially for WvW. And I loved the Elixir Gun, defiantly keeping that. I didn’t really use the Flamethrower much, so I will need to revisit that. I didn’t have Rocket Boots unlocked, but I would like to still try them.
However, I did find the Bomb kit a bit underwhelming, at least as far as the 1 skill goes. It didn’t seem to be too impressive with damage nor the radius of the attack, and I guess I prefer things that work at range. The Grenade kit worked much better for me. I’m almost tempted to go for 30 in explosives for Grenadier and replace Bomb kit with Grenade; but I’d need to drop to 20 Firearms or 10 Tools for it.

So I am thinking Rifle with Full Berserker (maybe some Knights) and on swap/crit sigils (probably battle and fire/air/earth). For skills, Healing Turret, Elixir Gun, Grenade Kit, Undecided*, and Supply Crate (*thinking Flamethrower, Bomb Kit, Rocket Turret, or Rocket boots). Then traits something like 30 Explosives (II/VII/XI), 20 Firearms (IV/V), and 20 Tools (VI/IX); or drop to 10 Tools to gain 30 Firearms (and XI). That sound like a decent build?

Engineers can be a lot of fun but sometimes it is hard to see why.

First, consider all the fields and finishers you can bring. There is nothing more fun than being able to stealth a small team, might stack with the best, and create water fields you self blast and cause mass area retaliation with that e-gun. A few good Yishis videos or Wolfineer ones will show you some really fun things.

Engies are a one man field and finisher machine.

As for range, I love grenades ONCE you decide to not require 2 clicks to throw them (it is in options). E-Gun is great fun too.

A traditional condition build might be grenades, e-gun, bomb kit then pistol and shield.

Shield takes some getting used to but it is great fun to reflect all projectiles for 4 seconds and bouncing a blind and confusion is wonderful with the pistol. You really shouldn’t be in rifle unless you are a power build.

The other quite enjoyable build is very much based on the rifle for range and then bomb kit’s ability to heal (elixir infused bombs). It is one of the best group healing specs out there with HT, E-Gun, bombs, the F2 abilities becoming very high regen and then all your passive healing and damage reduction skills. Damage comes from just dropping bombs all over the place when running with melee or big hard rifle shots.

Wait on turrets. They are getting some really interesting changes on the 15th.

Once you get the hang of the class, you will find it quite enjoyable.

Just one quick hint considering grenades: unless traited with Grenadeer (Explosives XI Grand Master trait) they lack in damage (especially #1) and should be considered a utility kit (freeze, blind, poison field).

WEXXES.2378:

You know… if the devs really wanted it that way…

Why didn’t they make our class skill a kit instead of a tool belt?

Why don’t you ask the devs that? Do other people here have to answer for them? The devs posted it, not coglin.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247

Engineer

The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn’t have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes +at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.*