Guild Wars 2

Hello, people of the Engineer persuasion!

As someone that’s new to the game, and, by association, new to playing an Engineer, I thought I’d come to you guys for a bit of help. Having attempted to play a Thief first, (as archer/stealthy characters are typically my favorite sort in any given game), I switched to Engineer after about 20 levels or so, as I was dying a lot and not having a whole lot of fun.

The change was good. I’ve been enjoying my Engineer immensely thus far, though I do feel a bit lost; hence why I’m coming to you guys. As fun as the profession is to play, I feel like I’m sort of… floundering? I’m constantly switching between different playstyles without really being able to settle on one, so I figured I’d describe my impressions to you all and see if you could lend me a hand.

As someone that’s only played one MMO extensively (and that one had a fairly clunky combat system), this whole fast-paced, fluid system is a bit overwhelming; I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon enough, but I feel like that’s at the heart of my problem. Most notably when I attempted to play the Grenade Kit, and worth mentioning as far as a Flamethrower/Elixir Gun combination was concerned, I find myself focused too much either on which skills I’m using or remaining mobile — never both.

Would it be in my best interest to go for something less kit oriented? Pistols and Pots, perhaps? That’s what I thought, and I gave it a try… only to feel as though, while I could balance combat and mobility much better, it felt as though I was taking ages to kill anything.

Maybe Engineers just aren’t for me. I don’t want to say that, as I quite enjoy the class, but I almost feel like the things that I want to accomplish are a bit too much to ask?

1) Being able to perform moderately well across the board, in WvW, PvE, Dungeons, etc; I don’t care about micromanaging things, I just want to be able to do well enough.

2) Being able to do some decent damage. I get that conditions are great, and they do well enough insofar as killing things in PvE is concerned (as I’m only at level 38 at the moment and don’t particularly relish the thought of getting stomped in WvW just yet), but having to rely on status effects to whittle away at an enemy irks me a bit.

3) Having fun. I’ve heard wonderful things about the Grenadier, but every skill having to be manually targeted just didn’t work too well with my hands/playstyle?

I don’t know, I just… the Engineer, after the Thief, was the only profession that immediately grabbed my interest, and I’m not the sort to give up on something just because I don’t understand it. So, if any of you could gather an idea of how I play from this rambling mess and could offer some advice, whether in the form of a playstyle recommendation, videos, or even a build, if that’s not too much to ask, that’d be wonderful.

I just want to love the Engineer. And I’d rather seek assistance before deciding to throw in the towel and try something else out.

try a static discharge build with a rifle. my favorite by far, tryed many builds… give it a try, its a pretty straight forward burst&control-playstyle.

Nascentish.2375:

1) Being able to perform moderately well across the board, in WvW, PvE, Dungeons, etc; I don’t care about micromanaging things, I just want to be able to do well enough.

2) Being able to do some decent damage. I get that conditions are great, and they do well enough insofar as killing things in PvE is concerned (as I’m only at level 38 at the moment and don’t particularly relish the thought of getting stomped in WvW just yet), but having to rely on status effects to whittle away at an enemy irks me a bit.

3) Having fun. I’ve heard wonderful things about the Grenadier, but every skill having to be manually targeted just didn’t work too well with my hands/playstyle?

I’ve got a lot of time under my belt on engineer, and will gladly address your concerns, as well as how to level less.. begrudgingly:

1) For PvE situations, I highly advise a sort of ‘Kitmaster’ setup – you focus on berserker stats, juggle the cooldowns between your rifle, tool kit, elixir gun, and grenade kit. 30/10/0/0/30, etc. Of course you won’t worry about this for a while, and if you have more questions, mail me in game – I’d be glad to share our best sustained DPS build with more depth.

2) See 1). I suppose I left out the part where the build drops double heal fields, has a 3 second block on a 16 second cooldown, provides 7.5 second chills and 2.5 second roots on deliciously low cooldowns, and.. well it’s overall just a great group support setup and damage. A player only labels themselves as “Support” if they’re too lazy to figure out how their class can do solid damage. All it takes to become “Support” is just slapping on a pair of helpful utility skills. Is a good DPS warrior running For Great Justice and Banner of Discipline support? No, but they are a better player because of it.

3) If you don’t like manual targeting, then I suppose all I can suggest is using the smart cast option – you’ll still have to target, but it will minimize how often you’re having to mash 1. And that kitmaster build I was mentioning? You’ll be juggling kits – so less time focusing on hammering down 1, more time pushing things like Elixir Gun → Acid Bomb → Weapon Swap (cancels the jump) → Grenade Barrage → Jump Shot → Blunderbuss → etcetera. Only time I advise spamming grenades is when someone time warps, at those points having 25 vulnerability is kind of a big deal. Flamethrower is pretty fun, but it’s also veeeery bad damage-wise. I’d sooner advise bomb kit with 10 points into explosives for larger radii for the sake of levelling.

4) – My own thing, levelling more easily. I’ll admit up to level 40 burning things works pretty well – blowtorch is kind of a “Kill the mob please” button until then. From 40 to 60 things start to slow down a bit for the engineer, but you can maintain some momentum – first off, as another poster has said, static discharge / rifle isn’t so bad for levelling at that point. Rifle turret, tool kit, and one with a good toolbelt like Rocket Boots are a good option (yes the skill itself is bluh, but that’s not the point of static discharge!). That, or just going power bombs – it’s not bad, and it actually clears mobs out fairly quick. It’s also just a bit boring, but if you end up having to kite around melee mobs 2-3 levels higher? It works well enough. Once you hit 60, grenadier trait and you’re golden. Yes, I saw you didn’t enjoy using grenades. With 50% more damage on them though, they might feel a tad more rewarding to use.

A new Engi! Let’s start with a brief, but growing, list of important facts:

1) Engi class is best class.
1a) Asura engi is best engi.
2) Yak flag is best flag.
3) If gods didn’t want us to blow everything up, everything wouldn’t be so explodeable.

Now, that out of the way, I have to chime in on the “Go Static Discharge” suggestion. Built properly, it is good (direct) damage, pretty straightforward, and it will ease you into kit-swapping in a way that many other builds won’t.

What follows is some detailed advice. Grain of salt not included.

10 in Tools with Static Discharge (II). You can always swap Speedy Kits (VI) in when you’re traveling just for convenience. Then I’d suggest 10 in Firearms with Hair Trigger (VI). The reduced cooldown is great; more control from Net and Overcharged shots, more damage from Blunderbuss and Jump Shot. After that, I’d start dumping points in Explosives, mostly for the Power boost, but Empowering Adrenaline (IV) or Incendiary Powder (V) are nice little damage boosts. This will take you up to 40, when you get you open up Master traits.

Run with Med Kit, Tool Kit, Rifle Turret, and Personal Battering Ram. For your Elite skill, take either Crate or the racial elite of your choice. The corresponding toolbelt skills are on short cooldowns. Use Drop Stimulant before a fight, burn those toolbelt attacks followed by Jump Shot, Blunderbuss, and Prybar… you’ll get the job done. (Almost) anything that’s not dead after that you can control with Net, Overcharged Shot, and PBR.

Know when to swap to Toolkit for the shield—that shield will save your life more times than you can count. Caltrops can give you a little breathing room if the enemy numbers get out of control. You can also drop the turret, overcharge it, then blow it up and still use the toolbelt skill.

Gear for Power/Precision, and later for Power/Precision/Crit Damage. You’re going to put the “glass” in glass cannon—a skritt fart could knock you down—but if you use your control abilities, gear shield, heal, and Med Kit smart you’ll be a lot tougher than the build otherwise suggests.

Keep your gear up to date, of course. Carry two rifles: one with Bloodlust, one with a damage sigil. I suggest Air.

Edit: I should mention that this is a blueprint. Don’t hesitate to swap utilities based on a situation; I’ve pulled out Net Turret many times when I found myself fighting a melee-based Champion because that extra control really came in handy. In condition heavy places, swap in Elixir C. You’ll lose a bit of damage from the toolbelt skill, but that’s the price you pay.

Once you hit 40, you can either drop 20 in Tools or Precision first—it doesn’t matter too much which order you do, as you’ll just go into the other tree after that. Again, once you’ve maxed Tools and Precision go ahead and drop the extra points into Power. Rifle Mod (IX) in Firearms, Speedy Kits (VI) or Power Wrench (VIII) in Tools.

Repeat at 60, though the traits are buyer’s choice. At this point, you’ll probably be comfortable enough with your character to tweak things to your own satisfaction, or perhaps even comfortable enough to switch out of a Static Discharge and swap to a different build entirely.

Greetings!

Since I’m very bored at work, I’m taking this time to write a short introduction as well. The very first thing you need to understand about your engineer is this: You need to use all your skills to be able to effectively play and survive. This means weapon skills 1-5, the heal (6), utilities 7-9, elite, and toolbelt skills F1-F4 in particular.

What you are asking is if it is in your interest to go for a less kit-oriented build, while the problem seems to be that you’re uncomfortable with the constant ground targeting. There really is no build that completely frees you from it; it’s just one of those things you have to master as an engineer. Many of those toolbelt effects being random just exaggerates the issue, since you need to be in a constant state of focus to benefit from whatever happened since that Elixir S hit the ground.
You can find an option called “Fast-Cast Ground Targeting” from the Options menu, that removes the necessary mouse click after activating a ground targeted skill. (Free tip: Manually clicking on a toolbelt ground targeted skill automagically targets your own feet)

Furthermore, Conditions are your friends because they allow you to run the slightly more esoteric builds like P/P (Pistol/Pistol, to clarify) that allow you to ball up a bunch of mobs into a glue patch and afflict them with stacks of Bleed and Burning, with occasional Poison. The great versatility comes from the kits transforming the way you play depending on how you want to play. For example, you can aim your grenades to do more direct damage, with the same applying to bomb kit for instance. The reverse is also true: You can stack Precision and pick the Firearms traitline alongside Explosives and pick Burning on crit, Bleed on crit and Vulnerability on crit.

The result of this is that you don’t necessarily need to hit with every grenade, although doing so will reward you, whereas a more direct damage oriented grenadier gets a slap on the wrist for missing a barrage. I personally prefer running condition oriented because it allows me to relax more when I do tedious stuff, even if it takes longer to kill things.

Back on topic: You will not be able to play Engineer in a way that makes you feel like you can tackle everything, unless you master ground targeting and mobility simultaneously, alongside kits and generating and finishing combo fields.

I’m going on a limb here and say that you sound a little like myself: You don’t want to go for the hectic ASFADKFDJKFF PRESS BUTONS FASTUR OR DIAF! – playstyle that many fall victim to. The Engineer profession is definitely worth it but you need to let it grow on you. Do not compare playstyles to other professions, focus on mastering one thing at a time. The Engineer feels timid especially when leveling, and only becomes potent when the player knows his entire toolset, and has a clear plan of engagement. If you follow through with the learning curve, no two fights are necessarily the same, and you feel as though you can survive anything. Against my own rule, compare this against a Warrior, which is very much “Do or die”.

It would be very wise to learn how to autorun and turn on the option I presented earlier. Being able to run forward while swiveling your camera allows for great mobility and awareness. I also recommend rebinding all your keys in such a way that your fingers find what you need faster. I have WSAD for movement with A and D rebound for strafes (turning with mouse). Dodge is bound to mouse #5 and jump to mouse #4. Keys 1-5 are for weapon skills, Z, X, C are for utilities, Q is for heal, E is for elite, V is for autorun, and R, F, G, T are for toolbelt. I stress that the default keybinds make it downright impossible to play proficiently, unless your fingers have the dexterity of the tentacles of Cthulhu.

Thank you.

blutstein.2468:

try a static discharge build with a rifle. my favorite by far, tryed many builds… give it a try, its a pretty straight forward burst&control-playstyle.

I was a bit iffy on this idea at first, considering that I don’t play squishies well, considering my relatively slow reaction times when I’m focused on other things in-game. But after watching a video or two… that damage is absurd. I might just have to give this a shot.

Kamahl.3621:

-snip-

I might give this setup a try once I get a bit higher in level. I feel like, now that I’m actually giving it some thought, my main problem with the Grenade Kit thus far has been the fact that the damage it does hasn’t warranted the amount of effort it takes to manually aim everything. Maybe Grenadier will change that. More at eleven.

Maullus.1273:

-snip-

Well I can agree with the fact that the Engi class is great, I can’t say much on the topic of Asura Engis. I’m a scrub and went human.

Thanks for the kind of intro to the class, though; it’s nice to have an idea of what I should focus on while levelling, as opposed to the end of the line information generally available through complete builds.

On the topic of Med Kit, and this is more a general inquiry as opposed to one directed solely at you, is it as good as people say it is? I’ve unlocked it, but I find that it’s far easier to use Elixir H – the whole drop bandages/pick up bandages thing seems a bit awkward to me, and even with the Toolbelt heal, it doesn’t seem to be doing much, where keeping me from getting eaten alive is concerned? I’m probably missing something here, I’ve just had a hard time using it effectively.

Oakwind.6187:

-snip-

Hmm, the idea of re-binding keys sounds like it might help. Indeed, a large part of the problem with targetting for me is that I have to pull some next-level Exorcist nonsense and twist my hand around to reach all the number keys. I don’t have a gaming mouse, but I can certainly try and pull some of the skills a bit closer to the WASD keys and see if that helps.

And you’re right about the not wanting to spam buttons thing – I can game at an okay speed, but between aforementioned hand-twisting and relatively slow reaction times when I’m not devoting all of my attention to the game, a bit of wiggle room is always appreciated.

Thanks for the help, everyone. I’m going to be giving the Static Discharge build a shot, as per your suggestions, with a potential switch to Grenadier down the line if the trait/revamped keybinds help with targetting as much as I feel they might. I’ll get back to you all on that.

Definitely move the utility skill keybindings. Shift+key or Ctrl+key are you best friends. Don’t forget Q, E or R for keys that are easy to push and near the movement keys.

Nascentish.2375:

On the topic of Med Kit, and this is more a general inquiry as opposed to one directed solely at you, is it as good as people say it is? I’ve unlocked it, but I find that it’s far easier to use Elixir H – the whole drop bandages/pick up bandages thing seems a bit awkward to me, and even with the Toolbelt heal, it doesn’t seem to be doing much, where keeping me from getting eaten alive is concerned? I’m probably missing something here, I’ve just had a hard time using it effectively.

Generally, you’ll see engineers use one of two skills in PvE – either healing turret, or med kit. If you have 30 in tools, there’s really no reason to use healing turret over med kit – the 15 second cooldown on your primary heal and additional 3k+ healing from your bandages are typically enough to recover from most PvE hits. That, and Drop Stimulant is one of the prime reasons you take Medkit – it’s one of the only healing skills that comes to mind with a method of improving your damage output. Healing Turret can also heal for a slightly less personal amount, but if you can time it, you can detonate it for a Water field + Blast finisher combo yourself, without any setup, every time! Usually results in about a ~7.3k heal total when you count the regeneration boon it applies, and ~2.3k-ish of that was AoE. It’s less selfish, but it doesn’t heal as much personally – and no stimulant! But the overcharge can work instantly if you double tap your heal skill. Between those two, it’s down to personal preference – although I find it really hard to say no to medkit with 30 in tools.

And a major bit of advice, as another poster said – rebind your utilities. I have my heal, 3 utilities, and elite bound to L. shift, L. alt, Z, C, and capslock (I wish I had another free button dear god anything but this) respectively. It’s not a big deal while levelling unless you’re extensively using a given kit, but when you hit 80, it’ll make things a lot easier since you won’t have to reach your digits across the keyboard.

Kamahl.3621:

Nascentish.2375:

On the topic of Med Kit, and this is more a general inquiry as opposed to one directed solely at you, is it as good as people say it is? I’ve unlocked it, but I find that it’s far easier to use Elixir H – the whole drop bandages/pick up bandages thing seems a bit awkward to me, and even with the Toolbelt heal, it doesn’t seem to be doing much, where keeping me from getting eaten alive is concerned? I’m probably missing something here, I’ve just had a hard time using it effectively.

Generally, you’ll see engineers use one of two skills in PvE – either healing turret, or med kit. If you have 30 in tools, there’s really no reason to use healing turret over med kit – the 15 second cooldown on your primary heal and additional 3k+ healing from your bandages are typically enough to recover from most PvE hits. That, and Drop Stimulant is one of the prime reasons you take Medkit – it’s one of the only healing skills that comes to mind with a method of improving your damage output. Healing Turret can also heal for a slightly less personal amount, but if you can time it, you can detonate it for a Water field + Blast finisher combo yourself, without any setup, every time! Usually results in about a ~7.3k heal total when you count the regeneration boon it applies, and ~2.3k-ish of that was AoE. It’s less selfish, but it doesn’t heal as much personally – and no stimulant! But the overcharge can work instantly if you double tap your heal skill. Between those two, it’s down to personal preference – although I find it really hard to say no to medkit with 30 in tools.

And a major bit of advice, as another poster said – rebind your utilities. I have my heal, 3 utilities, and elite bound to L. shift, L. alt, Z, C, and capslock (I wish I had another free button dear god anything but this) respectively. It’s not a big deal while levelling unless you’re extensively using a given kit, but when you hit 80, it’ll make things a lot easier since you won’t have to reach your digits across the keyboard.

Yikes – capslock?

No rebinds necessary here. I’m using this: