Guild Wars 2

Leveling an engineer, what build/utilities would be serve me whilst trying to destroy pve and hit 80 as quick as possible?

bombs/grenades/flamethrower i found are excellent for leveling as they all bring good aoe damage. rocket boots and 10 points into tools are great for moving from heart to heart. elixir s is great for escaping/surviving.

I found that nades didn’t get very strong until you were able to put 30 points into the power tree for the extra 50% damage.

Personally I went with static discharge for the lower levels then swapped to bombs/nades later on.

I totally agree with getting speedy kits + rocket boots asap lol.

static discharge and speedy kits?

You can change trait depends of situation, first 10 point in Tools, then 10 in Explosions for bomb’s radius

Aberrant.6749:

I found that nades didn’t get very strong until you were able to put 30 points into the power tree for the extra 50% damage.

The grenade auto-attack (#1) is not very good but the other grenade abilities (#2-#5) are very good for applying conditions and dealing some damage before returning to your primary source of damage (rifle/bomb kit/etc). The grenade kit is also good for it’s F# ability Grenade Barrage. Grenade Kit is, in my opinion, the best skill from the first tier Engineer skills.

A good way to use Grenade Kit when you are starting out is to open with it from range, use #2 through #5, swap to Rifle or Bomb Kit and toss in a Grenade Barrage to finish off whatever you’re fighting.

It is probably not a good idea to equip Grenade Kit and use #1 since the damage is lower than your other options and auto-attack does not work with the Grenade Kit leading to a lot of tedious button mashing.

Mars.6319:

Aberrant.6749:

I found that nades didn’t get very strong until you were able to put 30 points into the power tree for the extra 50% damage.

The grenade auto-attack (#1) is not very good[…]

really? 3 grenades dealing vulnerability – possibly more, with shrapnel, or even sharpshooter and precise sights, or maybe even incendiary powder? i mean sure, use the cooldowns (one might argue against always needing to use all of them, though), but that autoattack is pretty nasty, isn’t [space inserted because the forum machine thinks i’m writing about the female chest region] it? and it’s long-distance aoe!

EDIT

Simple answer:

Bombs till 40
Flamethrower till 60
Grenades till 80

This will let you try out the major damage kits as you progress and gain access to the traits that really make them worthwhile.