Guild Wars 2

Do you think well ever get more ranged kits?

In my opinion the only ranged kit is grenade kit, now thats fine for people who enjoy it but in WvW, it seems only close range is where you can do the most damage. If you try sticking to 1200-1500 range most of your nades will miss.

The other ranged options we have are HGH pistol but once again, most of your damage is best applied up close and then rifle…same deal. At the moment im running a static discharge rifle build but with the damage tax on our #1 ability it sucks to go toe to toe with other ranged, once again you have to go close combat and duke it out. Especially rangers, they have that 300 extra range on us and even if were both fully geared in exotics, theyll be doing around 300-600 more damage every non crit shot.

Now this would be fine if we were lets say a warrior, running around in heavy armor, having a larger base hp pool but were not. Were squishy, I hate it , i have 2.8k toughness and 20.2k hp, attacks tear me up like a warm knife through butter, even if i am constantly dodging on recharge and blocking when i can.

Whats even sadder is that warriors have better ranged options than us…I just dont understand it. Why as a weaker class both in survivability and damage are our skills all close ranged?

It would be nice to have a direct damage ranged kit, either a mini-gun kit or a sniper kit, make it a sniper kit that hurls rocks 50% of the time and shoots a beam of water the other 50%, i wouldnt really care at this point. Were not a close ranged class, we dont have the survivability like other classes to stay in the front lines all the time but thats the only place we can really do damage…

FYI: If you were wondering, got beat by a ranger because he was staying at 1500 range and critting me for 2k every hit, got annoyed that a warrior had insane burst at ranged and ive fought so many mesmers today it makes me sick. Mesmers..ugh…3-4 clones, confusion stacking, reflecting and stealth all at the same time. Not to mention when i do start damaging them directly all my damage is healed as soon as it is placed.

I need a hug, atleast my toon is sexy…./cry.

Alright, first, what would you like to use?
Remember, kits are always optional, and static discharge has pretty good range.

Now, your first thing to consider is control. If you can out maneuver your enemy, you determine the range of the fight. We engies can do this in many ways, from knockdowns to immobilize. The most entertaining way (in 1v1s) is to run a variant on the static discharge build. http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0mrwMMmrwMM0xG0GMosoRcM

Here, you quickly stack vulnerability through goggles/net shot/net turret and turret toolbelt, then burn the enemy down before they can recover. If done right, you should be able to land whatever you want on them repeatedly, while minimizing the damage you take from any melee types or rangers that rely on long range to burn you down. If you find you can’t get close enough to a ranger, disengage and run ikitteng-zag away until he gets closer to you. Warriors, save 1 dodge for volley and 1 dodge for kill shot.

For gear, berzerker’s works great, mix in a bit of toughness if you want. Also, rifle turret can be swapped out for whatever you need situationally, so don’t get stuck on it too much.

Hopefully this helps a bit, good luck out there!

Yeah, back to the drawing board lol, i guess im trying to find that one mystical build that is perfect but sadly thats impossible, always need 10 more trait points >.>.

I do get annoyed how easy some other classes are, i nearly have every stat combination possible at the exotic gear level and no matter what build/specialization i try it seems other classes can do it easier and better. For instance, if i go healing bombs/ kit refinement elixer gun ( hover around +1500 healing) i can do pretty well for myself but compared to when i get on my lvl 8 guardian, yes i said lvl 8, its so much easier. I can apply so many boons, which have much longer durations and i have more heals.

I think at some level i dislike the fundamentals of the class or even the game itself, this is only due to the fact that choices are so limited, whether it is the ranged options that i stated, the few abilities on our bars we can use or traits. Not to mention class imbalances as a whole. O well atleast you can play this game without costing any additional charge lol.

<insert image of TF2 Engineer hanging on to a tree branch>
Hang in there engy!

I do like the look of your build but i wouldnt be able to ever play without perma swiftness, the 25% movement speed in combat would make up for it but going from objective to objective id just be left behind. When ever i go healing, the group will slow up and give me pity time to catch up lol. That and near perma vigor aswell, we just cant face tank things like other classes.

Sororita.3465:

I do like the look of your build but i wouldnt be able to ever play without perma swiftness, the 25% movement speed in combat would make up for it but going from objective to objective id just be left behind. When ever i go healing, the group will slow up and give me pity time to catch up lol. That and near perma vigor aswell, we just cant face tank things like other classes.

I think I forgot the runes… Runes of air give swiftness on about 93% uptime without boon duration. As for vigor, you can move those 20 in inventions where ever, but the amount of cc usually make up for fewer dodges. Shines the best in 1v1 and 2v2, just don’t expect to face tank a zerg. :P

Sororita.3465:

I do get annoyed how easy some other classes are, i nearly have every stat combination possible at the exotic gear level and no matter what build/specialization i try it seems other classes can do it easier and better.

I get that feeling but think of it this way: Is there another class that do all of those things better by themselves? I mean, sure Guardian can boon stack better, and Warrior can straight-dps better, and Necro can condition stack better (debateable), and Mesmer can confuse better (both the debuff & just in general), and Ranger can shoot-n-scoot better…but that’s what they do best, that’s their forte.

The fact that Engi can do it all is what shines. That we can build for power, or condition, or group buff, or mobility, etc makes us a versatile & fun class. Sure, Warrior can out dps us, but can he stack conditions at all or be as mobile? No. Our strength is our ability to fit any niche. We might not have the biggest weapon, but we sure as hell have more.

Pistol / Shield is pretty solid full-range, especially if you trait for longer pistol range. All of Pistol mainhand’s skills are long-ranged (not Ranger longbow range, but nothing besides Ranger Longbow is) and Shield gives you a handy block and projectile reflect.

Elixir Gun isn’t too bad either, even though only a couple of the abilities are actually long-range. 1 keeps perma-Weakness on an opponent to help you survive a bit better and 2 helps you close the gap by crippling.

Engineer isnt really designed for long-range combat, not even Grenade Kit which is woefully unreliable against anything that isnt stationairy. Unless you are standing next to your target, which defeats the purpose of range.

Weapons arent really designed for ranged either. Pistol MH is no exception. Dart Volley is very inaccurate, its not uncommon to miss 3 out of 5 shots at 900range and even sometimes 4 out of 5.
Essentially losing between 60 and 80% of the abilities damage as a penalty for using it over range. So that leaves just static and your spam-attack to reliably hit upto 900range. And both arent very damaging and will not win you a range-fight with anything.

Dont expect anything to turn for the better anytime soon either, we’ve just been dubbed as a mid-range skirmisher. Which is fancy talk for not being able to do proper ranged, or stand toe-to-toe in melee.
But any ranged that comes next to us, or any melee that stays a bit away from us is gona get it! :P