Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing engineer since beta. I’ve seen all the ups and downs of the class. This last patch has honestly been the worst for engineers that I can recall. Our trait lines have been gutted, our new traits were nerfed before they were even released, and we didn’t receive many of the promised baseline traits outlined in the livestreams.

Celestial engineer is mediocre at best now and really doesn’t have a place anymore in my opinion. Condition engineer can stack some good burns and is decent, but it really isn’t a solid build considering burn guard can do it better with stronger team utility and a necromancer completely counters you worse than ever.

The final option is to use an all in berserker build. I have seen many people complaining about the grenades piercing targets. However, this is the only shining light we have left. After the 33% damage nerf to grenades, the multiple nerfs to the durations of conditions applied by them, the range reduction, and the removal of the poison field I feel like this throwback to 100nades is the best thing we have. If this is changed I really don’t see what place the engineer will have in this game.

It is early I admit and I may be wrong or missing something, but this is how I feel currently after the testing I have done since the patch.

For the record I think static discharge is a useless build as half of the toolbelt skills don’t even work with the trait in case anyone was going to suggest that as a viable alternative.

Bacon.4918:

I’ve been playing engineer since beta. I’ve seen all the ups and downs of the class. This last patch has honestly been the worst for engineers that I can recall. Our trait lines have been gutted, our new traits were nerfed before they were even released, and we didn’t receive many of the promised baseline traits outlined in the livestreams.

Celestial engineer is mediocre at best now and really doesn’t have a place anymore in my opinion. Condition engineer can stack some good burns and is decent, but it really isn’t a solid build considering burn guard can do it better with stronger team utility and a necromancer completely counters you worse than ever.

The final option is to use an all in berserker build. I have seen many people complaining about the grenades piercing targets. However, this is the only shining light we have left. After the 33% damage nerf to grenades, the multiple nerfs to the durations of conditions applied by them, the range reduction, and the removal of the poison field I feel like this throwback to 100nades is the best thing we have. If this is changed I really don’t see what place the engineer will have in this game.

It is early I admit and I may be wrong or missing something, but this is how I feel currently after the testing I have done since the patch.

For the record I think static discharge is a useless build as half of the toolbelt skills don’t even work with the trait in case anyone was going to suggest that as a viable alternative.

Feel free to quit Engi and find something “better” to play, and then you’d realize how strong Engi always have been. Engi, along with ranger, are 2 of my mains across all 8 professions that I have (I do have numerous experience on all of them), and I always find Engi the strongest among all of them in my PVP game-play.

I agree with op

theres so many instagib builds running around right now, grenadier is the only thing keeping us on the lvl in pvp.

Toxsa.2701:

Feel free to quit Engi and find something “better” to play, and then you’d realize how strong Engi always have been. Engi, along with ranger, are 2 of my mains across all 8 professions that I have (I do have numerous experience on all of them), and I always find Engi the strongest among all of them in my PVP game-play.

/facepalm

‘I always find…’ L2 patch.

Pretty crap f you hate grenades too.

Lucky i have everything else to play, cos eng is pretty lame (this week) outside grenades.

I’ve been playing engineer as my main for more than 2 years now and have pretty much every race aside from sylvari (which will happen soon =D) as an engi. Since the mortar nerf I just don’t see a viable playstyle for us atm (talking about wvw). This breaks my heart but the mesmer mimic skill is amazing and my mesmer looks identical to my engi main so that will be the option for me until they do something about our elite kit damage

OneHitWonder.5741:

I’ve been playing engineer as my main for more than 2 years now and have pretty much every race aside from sylvari (which will happen soon =D) as an engi. Since the mortar nerf I just don’t see a viable playstyle for us atm (talking about wvw). This breaks my heart but the mesmer mimic skill is amazing and my mesmer looks identical to my engi main so that will be the option for me until they do something about our elite kit damage

Just wait for explosive powder to actually affect it. That will be an actual 10% on top again – and should make everyone nice and happy once more. It’s still really strong combined with glass cannon and extra damage to targets with vuln.

OneHitWonder.5741:

I’ve been playing engineer as my main for more than 2 years now and have pretty much every race aside from sylvari (which will happen soon =D) as an engi. Since the mortar nerf I just don’t see a viable playstyle for us atm (talking about wvw). This breaks my heart but the mesmer mimic skill is amazing and my mesmer looks identical to my engi main so that will be the option for me until they do something about our elite kit damage

Have you tried mortar in WvW since the nerf? It doesn’t do as much damage, but it’s still eminently spammable and is extremely useful in zerg fights, much more so than old nades.

I feel like engie has been gutted. A lot of our old fun build options are gone since we now have to full invest in only three trees.

The only saving grace was the long range mortar elite was a lot of fun until it was nerfed severely.

Unless something changes drastically i’ll probably be done with the class and likely the game.

Yes engi has been gutted.
Many classes have been also hit pretty hard but they found solutions in the new traits.

The new engi traits focus kitten sustain but none of them really offers any dps. Engi was designed as a dps class so yea they suck.

The only way to currently play engi in pvp is either by abusing burning or grenade barrage both of which are boring. With the loss of viable swiftness and vigor in builds our survivability has gone to kitten.

The trait changes have all but ruined hybrid builds and build diversity since we’re forced into selecting at least 2-4 traits that don’t synergize at all with whatever play style we’re aiming for.

Full zerker builds don’t have the health pool or condition cleanse to survive against current burn stacking so the only viable option left for zerk is to abuse grenade barrage to out dps survivability.

Condition builds are about the only thing that haven’t been completely crippled for our class but we’re still left with the same generic gameplay, abusing burning stacking just to keep up with other classes who do the same. (i reach 6k burning ticks in a single rotation)

This is for engineers in pvp, i cant comment for wvw or pve since i don’t play enough of it. I might also note that i play mesmer, theif, necro and guardian and none of these 4 classes have even come close to being crippled utility trait like engineer has.

I wished they would’ve at least changed Engi’s on-ground recovery skills. They’re terrible compared to the other classes.

Too many class breaking bugs (both good and bad) with engineer. Anet needs to get their kitten together. This is 5th grader level of quality.

Op I agree with you, I said same thing after playing the patch for couple hours. Other classes just doing things better then engi now. Necros also hard counter engi much than pre-patch.

The problem with celestial engineer is that it needs 4 traitlines to be as effective as it was before, and moving incendiary powder to firearms makes that impossible.

If you don’t take both explosives/firearms your damage will be abysmal. If you don’t take a combination of inventions, tools, or alchemy that gives you enough access to to vigor/endur regen, condi cleanse, healing/regen/other boons, your sustain will suck. You can use an energy sigil to counterract needing to go into tools, but still its not the same.

You have to choose between damage, and personal/group sustain/utility, and you really can’t have it all on one build like you could before.

I have mained engineer since launch, and I have had my shares of ups and downs with engineer since then, but in all honesty this is the worst patch to date imo. People are crying we are overpowered simply because you have engi’s running around with zerker ammy and coming out of stealth and one shotting people. They do not seem to realize that this is a bug and once it gets fixed zerker is going to be SOOOO bad. As it stands against good teams you get a kill off then you die.

With that being said the biggest issue is how you are forced to take both firearms and explosives to do what we just used to do with one line, I mean that is a HUGE nerf. I have tried so many different builds, and right now celestial grenadier is kind of strong, but that is only due to the large burst you get from barrage once its fixed celestial will be in a bad place in my opinion.

Condi engineers suffer from the issue that you are forced into either tools or inventions for some type of movement speed, which is really a must in competitive game play. Tools gives very little to condition engineers so inventions is the better choice, also to get max condi damage you are forced into both explosives for either bombs or grenades and firearms for incendiary ammo. Leaving you really with only one defensive line. Also I will point out that our condi removal outside of alchemy is still really bad, you can take egun for an extra, but we still are nowhere near what other classes have the ability to remove, which in this new burn meta is a death sentence.

On an ending note I hope someone smarter than me comes up with a viable build other than this stupid grenade barrage, I’ve tried so many different things, and nothing seems as strong as double kit condi, or the standard celestial rifle did before the patch. I feel engineer is just a weaker version of other classes now.

I can’t even begin to make a fair assessment until the 50+ bugs are reined in .

I for one, cannot agree with the majority of the compliant here.

I think the engie has changes, and for the better. In my opinion, the complainers here, have provlems with adapting and comprehending the adjustments needed.

Sure, there are things I am not happy with. Such as baseline stuff stated to be comming for pistols, that never happened, but over all, the entire update was a big plus. What I really enjoy, is when I do things that the whinners claim can’t be done.

Changes are generaly great on paper but some stuff what should be really cool in theory is actualy pretty useless. Like Medkit killed by ground targeting, Steamlined kits procing out of combat, Thermobaric detonation dont work out of combat. Lots of stuff need tweaks, fixes and minor changes but in general we are good.

You make these “claims” of doing this and that… post up what your using and how its working, otherwise your claims are unsubstantiated. The only decent builds I can come up with still use nades, and once that bug is fixed it’s going to be downhill from there. I speak strictly from an spvp standpoint, as I don’t play wvw, but engineer feels much weaker to me barring the grenade barrage bug than it did pre-patch.

Also please explain how this patch was a big plus? What did it give us that we didn’t already have? Our vigor was nerfed, grenade range was nerfed, and mortar was implemented, sure it was good the first day or two then they nerfed it, and now it is a crappier version of what grenades were pre-patch. I don’t know what these good changes you are referring to are, but perhaps you could point out and clarify a few of them, instead of just making the statement that we are all just complainers.

Also explain what you do that all the whiners claim cannot be done?

A video of your amazing build, footage of your awesome gameplay, an explanation of some of these amazing changes, any or all of these will be acceptable, but to come here and simply state that we are all wrong, and you are right?

Give me a break dude…. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Bacon.4918:

Celestial engineer is mediocre at best now and really doesn’t have a place anymore in my opinion.

I’ve spent this week PvPing with a variety of different builds and have had moderate success going both Rabid and Marauder, but Celestial has always been my preferred playstyle and I find that Explosives/Inventions/Tools or Explosives/Inventions/Alchemy suits Celestial perfectly.

Until they go and add Zealot stats to PvP, Celestial will always have a role.

So, you are running a celestial build without firearms? No incendiary ammo? No +20% crit up close with rifle attacks? Or if your running pistol increased pistol skill duration/uptime & condi damage? Instead you take tools for a celestial build.. why? Inventions is a must, but I am not a fan of tools. Alchemy is decent, but having to constantly spam elixirs for might stacking is quite annoying as well.

I have spent over 2400 hours on my engi. WvWvW is my main game mode, but I also do spvp and pve.

Engi has never been in the WvWvW meta and now I feel it is hovering close to trash category.

900 range nerf to grenade kit was huge for WvWvW, just like I predicted. Now engineer has only one weapon which can attack over 1000+ range, the mortar kit, which is slow as molasses. Rifled barrels was supposed to be baseline for elixir gun and rifle, but it seems it didn’t make this patch. 900 range grenades are very risky in the current perma quickness pirate ship meta. Ranged enemy players will kill the poor engineer already from 1200-1500, when it tries to close in to use his grenades. Also the loss of the poison field from grenade kit and the loss of radius of some grenade skills, like frost grenade. Grenade kit has probably been the most nerfed skill in the game (it was already nerfed in 2012, then again and again).

Bomb kit lost the bomb heals, which was vital for some “dive into enemy zerg” like builds.

GM traited mortar kit is good, but mortar #1 was instantly nerfed after the patch, making it more support and less dmg.

Medkit was butchered in the patch. Almost everybody agrees that ground targeting really sucks and the some medkit skills, like medkit #4, have really weird delays, making them more or less impossible to use on demand in the heat of the battle.

Analysis from WvWvW point of view:

In roaming thief and mesmer are so much superior.

At long (1200- range) ranger reigns supreme. So if you want to play a long range sniper, really no reason to select engineer.

Guardian, elementalist and warrior are far better at support than engineer ever was. Ele has the best burst, dps and sustain if specced correctly. Warrior has best CC (hammer), best mobility (GS, Sw+Wh combo). Any other profession is better choice for zerging than the engineer, meaning that in very large scale fights, engi is the worst option to play. GWEN meta + venom share thiefs still work. And now there is at least two PU mesmers preparing to shatter burst from stealth any poor player who is not inside his zerg.

I feel that celestial rifle engineer is weaker now in spvp, maybe still viable in top pvp or not. Celestial engi doesn’t fare that well in the current burst meta. Rifle with soldier armor might work. My prediction that most engineers in WvWvW roaming and unranked spvp will go P/P or P/S condition based builds now, unless burning gets nerfed.

I am not saying I am going to stop playing GW2, but I honestly haven’t had any fun after the patch, playing any profession. In other words I am going to spend less time gaming this and give some other games a try. I heard several prominent players will put this game into pause mode until HoT hits. I am not interested in HoT, so the only thing which will fix this game is better balance. The developers completely ignored good arguments I posted to these forums.

zaragoz.6351:

Instead you take tools for a celestial build.. why?

Kinetic Battery. It’s pretty nice being able to double blast a water field to heal myself up and then double blast a poison field to negate burst. It’s also pretty nice being able to throw two Grenade Barrages, especially with how strong it is. It’s literally a new 100nades build, but without Alchemy you’re too squishy to go Berserker/Marauder.

It’s a skillshot, and you really have to re-orient your rotations around having Grenade Barrage ready, but I win most of my 1v1s with that spec—more than I do any other that I’ve tried.

It just feels like everyone’s pretty negative around here about our changes when our loss of vigor came with a lot of gains elsewhere if you spec for it.

Phineas Poe.3018:

zaragoz.6351:

Instead you take tools for a celestial build.. why?

Kinetic Battery. It’s pretty nice being able to double blast a water field to heal myself up and then double blast a poison field to negate burst. It’s also pretty nice being able to throw two Grenade Barrages, especially with how strong it is. It’s literally a new 100nades build, but without Alchemy you’re too squishy to go Berserker/Marauder.

It’s a skillshot, and you really have to re-orient your rotations around having Grenade Barrage ready, but I win most of my 1v1s with that spec—more than I do any other that I’ve tried.

It just feels like everyone’s pretty negative around here about our changes when our loss of vigor came with a lot of gains elsewhere if you spec for it.

You just said you crutch on Grenade Barrage to win, WHICH IS CURRENTLY BUGGED TO DO LITERALLY DOUBLE DAMAGE.

The OP is exactly right about this patch for Engineers, we got very few real buffs and many of our traits have zero synergy with each other outside of their respective traitlines. Look at Necro to see the amount of synergy BETWEEN traitlines they got. The only “good” builds on Engi right now are the bugged and broken Grenade Barrage build and the Burn stacking build. Both of these builds are going to get nerfed 100%, ANet already said they know condi dmg (burning) is too strong and the other build is just a bug.

I was really excited for this patch and some of the ravamps but now I am sad. Mortar kit is cool but clunky, Med kit is still useless because Healing Turret is still a thing, Juggernaut GM trait is kittening useless. About the only cool changes to our skills is EGun getting classified as Elixers and Elixer U getting buffed. To bad Elixers as a build still suck because of their cast times, the only way Elixer builds will EVER EVER be good is if they are instant cast.

displacedTitan.6897:

You just said you crutch on Grenade Barrage to win, WHICH IS CURRENTLY BUGGED TO DO LITERALLY DOUBLE DAMAGE.

If we want to get specific, I actually spend more time using the Alchemy variant since it provides much better team support, which is probably where engineers are going to end up in this meta.

I also spent a couple hours messing around with Teldo’s build he posted today, winning the vast majority of the matches I played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Dz2TUfCu0

Doesn’t overly rely on burning, nor does it use the Grenade Kit.