Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I’m thinking of starting a new character and really like the aesthetic of the Engineer, especially an Engineer running around with a Rifle and reducing whichever unfortunate gets in his way down to moa food. I’ve browsed these forums a little and noticed that a lot of threads focus on grenade orientated Engineer’s or ones using pistols.

My question is, are rifles viable for Engineer’s to use at later levels?
Or would I be kittening myself?

I like the idea of tossing grenades like an utter lunatic as well, so I guess I could roll one and go with that but I’ve had a quick play around on an Engineer before (really quick, I got it to level 5 or something) and I thought that Rifles rocked. Of course, they might be utterly terrible at later levels, I don’t know.

Thanks.

My question is, what do you think “viable” means?

What have you read that would lead you to believe it would not be viable?

All the grenade threads are generally glass cannon builds. All of our main weapons sets are very solid.

Grenades are good for large amounts of damage but the have very little survivability and they will break your 1 key.
The rifle is extremely heavy on movement and control, making it excellent for extended fights, especially if you bring along Elixir Gun for Super Elixir and Healing Mist.
Also Overcharged Shot is the most amusing ability in the game. It’s hilarious using it for the killing blow.

coglin.1496:

My question is, what do you think “viable” means?

What have you read that would lead you to believe it would not be viable?

All the grenade threads are generally glass cannon builds. All of our main weapons sets are very solid.

It’s nothing that’s been said, but rather what’s not been said. I’ve seen plenty of threads on grenades and pistols but little – on the recent threads – to do with rifles. From that it’s easy to assume that rifles must not be popular and, thus, not as good. So I created this thread to see what some actual Engineer players had to say on the subject.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Grenades are good for large amounts of damage but the have very little survivability and they will break your 1 key.
The rifle is extremely heavy on movement and control, making it excellent for extended fights, especially if you bring along Elixir Gun for Super Elixir and Healing Mist.
Also Overcharged Shot is the most amusing ability in the game. It’s hilarious using it for the killing blow.

Thanks for the info!

Pistol seems to be more popular for PvP, especially tournaments, because both shield skills are great against other players. For PvE, it’s hard to get any better than rifle + grenades.

Freohr.7905:

It’s nothing that’s been said, but rather what’s not been said. I’ve seen plenty of threads on grenades and pistols but little – on the recent threads – to do with rifles. From that it’s easy to assume that rifles must not be popular and, thus, not as good. So I created this thread to see what some actual Engineer players had to say on the subject.

Huh….Interesting, glad I asked. Out in the PvE and WvW I almost always see 98% rifles. Most of the topics here appear to me to favor rifles greatly. Maybe it is just me, but from what I have seen and read, rifles are more popular to P/P or P/S , 3 to 1.

Rifles are completely viable at endgame with the right build and setup for general play, standard pvp/pve, and WvW. Dungeons require certain things at times and tournament pvp it’s all about your role, so it will change based on that or revolve around your team mates setup.

Rifles are for spiking power, and are an excellent weapon to use while PvE’ing or in WvW setting (I have little experience with it in sPvP so someone else can comment there). While they lack the explosions and poison/confusion conditions of pistols, they give higher straight damage numbers in general and automatically pierce without have to trait for it (as you do with pistol). Additionally rifles are probably the best weapon for an engineer attempting to solo a melee vet/champ mob in PvE, as they give you both a 2 second immobilize (#2) and a decent knockdown (#4).

The caveat of rifles is that they are strangely enough a melee/ranged hybrid weapon, as their biggest damage comes from the #3 and #5 skills which do their best in melee range. This makes them quirky, as while they can perform fine at range pew-pewing for rifle crits, they do their best work if you’re able to jump up next to a mob with #5 and then #3, and then maybe #4 after if you think you’re at risk. This is a little counter to the pistol that doesn’t really give a flip about distance so long as it can hit.

This being said, I really like the rifle and find it fun even if the idea of melee encounters makes for tense moments with my damage-specced engi. But that’s part of the charm, though, isn’t it? Additionally they certainly work better if you’re speccing for crit damage in a grenade or bomb build anyway.