Guild Wars 2

I had a pretty easy time making it up to Sapphire as an engineer purely by just outskilling opponents. I’m still hovering around a 54% win rate since entering Sapphire, but I feel like the deck is increasingly stacking against me the further I progress—not in terms of skill, but by balance. Since reaching Sapphire I’ve seen a lot more bunker-centric comps with a ton of mesmers in particular that I hadn’t really dealt much with in Emerald.

Marauder scrapper doesn’t seem to do enough damage to faze these guys, and Celestial scrapper is no where near as tanky. Any time I ever get close to dropping these guys they either double healing well or a revenant just quickness resses them before I can stomp them.

Since watching the Pro Leagues yesterday we’re only going to see more players opt for revenant and mesmer as the season progresses: two professions which seem to outclass us in terms of damage and CC respectively while being able to hold points longer with more invuln frames.

As someone currently Sapphire 4, halfway to 5, I am very concerned—as a primary solo queue player—about our future and how engineer is going to fare in Ruby and beyond.

I usually play what I think counters the meta and on very few instances does that include Engies.
In this meta, the only thing I see influencing a match apart from the current famous Engie build is a decaper engie with the ability to throw out unblockable CC.
There’s going to be a severe reduction in Necros the higher you go as well so you don’t have to worry about crazy condi pressure that much ‘cos even though Revs are crazy condi applicants, they still don’t apply as much as Necros in a single burst. So with the right timing, you could recap a bunker mesmer or Revenant whilst keeping yourself alive.

Dirame.8521:

I usually play what I think counters the meta and on very few instances does that include Engies.
In this meta, the only thing I see influencing a match apart from the current famous Engie build is a decaper engie with the ability to throw out unblockable CC.
There’s going to be a severe reduction in Necros the higher you go as well so you don’t have to worry about crazy condi pressure that much ‘cos even though Revs are crazy condi applicants, they still don’t apply as much as Necros in a single burst. So with the right timing, you could recap a bunker mesmer or Revenant whilst keeping yourself alive.

so…. unblockable as in blast gyro?

nearlight.3064:

Dirame.8521:

I usually play what I think counters the meta and on very few instances does that include Engies.
In this meta, the only thing I see influencing a match apart from the current famous Engie build is a decaper engie with the ability to throw out unblockable CC.
There’s going to be a severe reduction in Necros the higher you go as well so you don’t have to worry about crazy condi pressure that much ‘cos even though Revs are crazy condi applicants, they still don’t apply as much as Necros in a single burst. So with the right timing, you could recap a bunker mesmer or Revenant whilst keeping yourself alive.

so…. unblockable as in blast gyro?

It’s only the tag that’s unblockable, the blast gyro itself is incredibly avoidable, blocks too.

Chaith.8256:

nearlight.3064:

Dirame.8521:

I usually play what I think counters the meta and on very few instances does that include Engies.
In this meta, the only thing I see influencing a match apart from the current famous Engie build is a decaper engie with the ability to throw out unblockable CC.
There’s going to be a severe reduction in Necros the higher you go as well so you don’t have to worry about crazy condi pressure that much ‘cos even though Revs are crazy condi applicants, they still don’t apply as much as Necros in a single burst. So with the right timing, you could recap a bunker mesmer or Revenant whilst keeping yourself alive.

so…. unblockable as in blast gyro?

It’s only the tag that’s unblockable, the blast gyro itself is incredibly avoidable, blocks too.

That’s lame. I randomly messed around with it last night and it felt hit or miss.

The tempest warhorn air skill cyclone is also supposed to be unblockable but doesn’t actually work.

I hate that all the creative ways to kill revs and chronobunkers don’t work.

Whelp, I played 3 games today to get to Sapphire 5. It felt like every single one of them had at least one mesmer bunker on each side, and there was one match where I’m pretty sure every single person was in Celestial. Literally no one died the whole match.

Ended up winning that one, and I got to Sapphire 5, but I just don’t really find this meta very fun to play. I don’t consider myself a professional player in the slightest, but I have been playing this game a very long time and I did think that I was at least good enough to crack Diamond by the end of the season. As it stands though, I’m not sure I’ll have it in me to get through Ruby.

nearlight.3064:

I hate that all the creative ways to kill revs and chronobunkers don’t work.

Slick Shoes seems to be the only realistic counter to rev quickness resses. But that’s a 45 second CD skill versus on-command quickness, so…

Honestly, I’m beginning to wonder if taking the FT or rifle is that objectionable an idea. If I can’t kill mesmers, I might as well at least try and force a decap with Air Blast or Overcharged Shot.

Something’s gotta give. I know everyone knows that mesmers and revenants are way overtuned, but is there something I’m not considering that might make things better for me?

This meta only allows for things that can beat Mesmers, Eles and Revs. That or you settle for just being able to dispatch 2 of the 3 annoyances. Therefore, Marauder engie is still your best bet for an all purpose counter.

I’m in Ruby now, and it’s about what I expected. Every team has at least two bunkers now—usually double ele, mesmer, or a mix of the two.

I’ve accepted that, as far as solo queuing is concerned, the only way to be successful is to fight fire with fire. I can 1v1 most players I come across with this build, and can even hold a decap for a pretty long time 1v2 so long as it’s not like two reapers or two revenants.

It feels really gross and it’s kinda boring to play, but I guess whatever works, right?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhqrY7WwzLQ7FLTGF9cX37d42lMhl4zUABAA-TJBGABA8AAQf/hDuAAMVGAA

Phineas Poe.3018:

I’m in Ruby now, and it’s about what I expected. Every team has at least two bunkers now—usually double ele, mesmer, or a mix of the two.

I’ve accepted that, as far as solo queuing is concerned, the only way to be successful is to fight fire with fire. I can 1v1 most players I come across with this build, and can even hold a decap for a pretty long time 1v2 so long as it’s not like two reapers or two revenants.

It feels really gross and it’s kinda boring to play, but I guess whatever works, right?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhqrY7WwzLQ7FLTGF9cX37d42lMhl4zUABAA-TJBGABA8AAQf/hDuAAMVGAA

Sad but that meta build is literally the only thing I can play right now that feels relevant in the meta.

Anything else I have tried has too many weaknesses. Condi P/P loses to Diamond Skin Eles and Condi Revs who are everywhere. Marauder Rifle doesnt have the defense/heal you need compared to Mara Hammer.

Really wish there was more play to good builds for Engi right now.

Honestly, I think it’s best to just avoid PvP until this meta passes.

There’s been a power creep with high power bunkers that’s just gone too far for too long.

I don’t think that engi is in a particularly bad spot right now compared to some classes, but your best bet is to either indulge in the cheesy super meta builds or just wait for something to bring back a more balanced field.

Skipping out on a balance patch before the league start was a terrible start.

But look on the bright side: People are still manipulating the league system for gain so much right now that it’s not like it means anything if you have a low rank.
(recent example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3w7ptt/first_eu_player_reached_legend_doing_the_mmr/)

Dahkeus.8243:

Honestly, I think it’s best to just avoid PvP until this meta passes.

There’s been a power creep with high power bunkers that’s just gone too far for too long.

I don’t think that engi is in a particularly bad spot right now compared to some classes, but your best bet is to either indulge in the cheesy super meta builds or just wait for something to bring back a more balanced field.

Skipping out on a balance patch before the league start was a terrible start.

But look on the bright side: People are still manipulating the league system for gain so much right now that it’s not like it means anything if you have a low rank.
(recent example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3w7ptt/first_eu_player_reached_legend_doing_the_mmr/)

Yes this first season has definitely been a bit of a let down, but I’m sure they’ll resolve these issues for the second season (e.g., resetting everyone’s MMR and just letting divisions sort people out). I kinda went into this knowing there were going to be problems. The league system is a major revision to PvP, and it wasn’t going to be perfect out of the gate.

I still want to try and get as high as I can get, and there’s no point in playing unranked when there’s progress to be made in ranked.

If I finish the season in ruby that’s not a big deal to me. My concern is just trying to find a build that works for the given meta—regardless of how cheesy it is.

Inventions Marauder Scrapper is a good build under team queue situations, and I agree with you that embracing the cheese and bunkering down is the best way to play as a solo queuer. It’s how I got myself to Ruby, and it’s how I’ll probably get myself beyond it if I can tolerate the game play.

Reached Ruby 3 yesterday.

Celestial Scrapper still seems to be the way to go in solo queue, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to progress just based on the state of the game’s balance. Something tells me solo queuing to diamond as a scrapper will be pretty tough and require some luck.

Don’t run a meme build.

If you found it on Metabattle, good players have been slaughtering the build for weeks.

Build to kill what you find on metabattle.

Celestial Scrapper is a hell of a lot tankier than Marauder, I’m not sure how you came to conclude the opposite.

All the metabattle engineer builds were designed to kill the PvE burst builds we saw at HoT release. None of those builds are going to give you an easy ride in the current “meta”.

Every Scrapper I’ve come across running a meme build has been a free kill.

Brew Pinch.5731:

Don’t run a meme build.

If you found it on Metabattle, good players have been slaughtering the build for weeks.

Build to kill what you find on metabattle.

Celestial Scrapper is a hell of a lot tankier than Marauder, I’m not sure how you came to conclude the opposite.

All the metabattle engineer builds were designed to kill the PvE burst builds we saw at HoT release. None of those builds are going to give you an easy ride in the current “meta”.

Every Scrapper I’ve come across running a meme build has been a free kill.

Don’t cut yourself with that edge, bro.

Of the few engineers I’ve actually managed to see beyond emerald, nearly all of them are running scrapper hammer. I haven’t lost many 1v1s this season—and only a few to engineers—and the ones I have were running identical builds to mine. Any engineer running rifle or pistol/pistol in PvP’s current state is just not going to be successful or a threat to anyone/anything that actually plays revenant, mesmer, engineer, or elementalist well.

I didn’t pull my build off of Metabattle. I made my build myself, and tweaked it a bit after hearing about some things through the grape vine and watching a few ESL/Pro League matches. I don’t think a Metabattle article even existed when I settled on what I’m currently running; really, the decision to run Marauder/Celestial Scrapper is fairly obvious, and with the streamlined build decisions by forcing you all-or-none into three trees with as many grandmaster traits to work with, adding to the fact that the meta is all about counterplay—as someone that has a pretty long history of revising and maintaining engineer meta and “non-meta” builds on the PvE side of things—putting together good builds these days is like banging two rocks together by comparison to the older systems.

As for “Celestial Scrapper is a hell of a lot tankier than Marauder, I’m not sure how you came to conclude the opposite,” I was referring that Celestial Scrapper is no where near as tanky as bunker chronomancers.

Engineers are in the very precarious position of not dealing as much damage as revenants and guardians but not being anywhere near as tanky as a well-played tempest or chronomancer. It makes it a relatively difficult class to solo queue with because you’re at that disadvantage.