Guild Wars 2

Hey there,since I saw a lot of whiners on this forums complaining about Dps,but I can tell u Engi is great support class!I saw this one guy that was with me in dungeon and he healed and supported the kitten out of us.So since engi has a lot of Support/control abilites,can someone recommend me a support build?(Dungeon,PvE based)Tnx!

Amen. I run a support build and I’ve never looked back. Carrying a whole team with guardian-rivalling sustain and utility is oh so satisfying. Just the other day I was farming Karka and partied up with a few randoms who were actually impressed by my build enough to stop and compliment me for running it.

And I haven’t even optimised it yet.

@OP

This game was built on the premise of the elimination of the holy trinity. It failed.

It is not whining to point out the flaws inherent to the engineer profession.

As for a build… I recommend that you go to the sticky portion of the engineer forum and/or use the search function, rather than insulting people on the forum from whom you are seeking help.

Lifelike.5862:

Amen. I run a support build and I’ve never looked back. Carrying a whole team with guardian-rivalling sustain and utility is oh so satisfying. Just the other day I was farming Karka and partied up with a few randoms who were actually impressed by my build enough to stop and compliment me for running it.

And I haven’t even optimised it yet.

can you share your traits / armor and things

i wanna test this godmode as you describe

Lifelike.5862:

Amen. I run a support build and I’ve never looked back. Carrying a whole team with guardian-rivalling sustain and utility is oh so satisfying. Just the other day I was farming Karka and partied up with a few randoms who were actually impressed by my build enough to stop and compliment me for running it.

And I haven’t even optimised it yet.

U never played guardian. Name this “great support” skills pls. Elixiers? Random, single, weak buff? Elixier gun? Low pulse heal – every DPS warrior does more healing… Heal Turrent? Regeneration scales bad with healing power —> overwriten to much by other classes. Healpacks? Are u srlsy running around with medipacks to heal other players? Cmon get serious.

Agree with Forestnator, best support class? I’ll have some of what your smoking please.

Excuse me? When did I say ‘best support class’? I didn’t. That spot goes to guardians or healer Ele. And yes, I own a guardian. The only class I haven’t played and don’t have a fair understanding of so far is Ranger. Do try to actually post intelligently instead of making base, wild assumptions in an attempt to appear condescending. It’s droll.

@Kuruptz — Well it’s hardly a godmode, but it is extremily effective. your group burst heal is not as strong as an elementalist’s, since you are relying on super elixer, regen, and healing turret to do most of your team healing. However, your dps is higher than a heal specced Ele and you’ve got more in the way of damage migitation through blinds. Here’s my build currently.

10/0/30/30/0.

Explosives: III
Inventions: V, VII, XI
Alchemy: II, IX, X
Weapons: Pistol and Shield. The pistol you take can either be Apothecary’s, Carrion, or even a pure damage pistol such as a rampagers. You won’t really be using this for stats, because this build is heavily reliant on kits, which don’t carry your weapon’s stats. Still, I recommend getting something with high condition damage so that you can strategically switch out in order to maximise the power of your condition ticks.

I have a superior sigil of Hydromancy (aoe freeze) in the pistol. This activates every time you swap to a kit, which is great for helping you migitate melee damage and escape from pursuing enemies. It also allows you to do some interesting combos with the elixer gun, which I’ll go into later. The sigil you put in the shield is up to you, so long as it’s not an ‘active’ sigil. I use sigil of life for leveling purposes, but you could have anything you want in here, really.

For the armor, I am currently experimenting with a mixture of clerics, apothecary’s, and knights. Apothecary’s seems to make my dps a little more solid, but I think going with full clerics and knights jewellery might be more beneficial in the long run. I’ll have to test it once I have all the parts.

Runes are 3 runes of the Monk and 3 runes of Altruism. The runes of Altruism allow me to gain 3 might every time I use a healing skill (or swap to med kit) and the runes of monk help keep boons up.

For utilities, I take healing turret/med kit, elixer gun, elixer B(this can be replaced with your favorite elixer. probably safer to go with a defensive one), bomb kit and supply crate.

Bomb kit is your bread and butter in this build. Every time you drop a bomb, you’ll heal for near 300 HP, plus another 170 or so from kit regeneration, another 200ish from regular regen, and 300ish from super elixer if you have it up (rough numbers). That is a lot of DoT healing, and the best part is that a majority of it goes over to your teammates. With cleric’s, your bombs will be doing close to 1000 damage on pve mobs per pop, plus condition damge from fire bomb and concussion bomb, along with any retalliation you might have from elixer B or combo fields.

The aim of this build is to keep constant dot healing on your teammates while supplying helpfull boons like Might, and the best part is that you can do all of this while DPSing. Alternate between bomb kit and elixer gun, keeping super elixer fields up as much as possible, and using your toolkit regen to keep the party refreshed. whether you use healing turret or medkit is up to you. Medkit helps keep you alive and provides more utility, but healing turret provides an extra blast finisher and can combo into it’s own water field for a quick aoe heal to your whole party (your only true burst heal other than super elixer). You will be using elixer gun and toss elixer B to cure conditions on teammates and yourself as necessary. Smoke bomb is extremily important, as it can migitate damage from a whole group of enemies at once. Keep it off cooldown for emergency situations and don’t be tempted to waste it on managable mobs.

When Fire Bomb is up, it’s time to give your whole party might. The correct combo sequence is: Big Ol’ Bomb>> Healing Turret >> Fire Bomb >> Drop kit (switch to pistol/shield) >> Magnetic Inversion >> explode healing turret.

This should drop 3 blast finishers on your fire Aoe, stacking 9 might without runes of Altruism and 12 with runes of Altruism. Using med kit with runes of Altruism is easier on the timing and will give a solid 9 stacks of might, but the upkeep is easier due to medkit being a kit with no cooldown.

cont…

You can also use your blast finishers on your other combo fields. Healing turret creates a water field when deployed, and you can self-explode it for a quick AoE heal. You can get off multiple heals if you’re fast, because the duration of the field is very small. Blasting on a light field from Super Elixer does aoe retalliation, and blasting on a smoke field from Smoke Bomb aoe stealths. Remember to communicate with your team and tell them to gather round when you’re preparing to do a combo. Timing and spacing is important, but it’s easy once you’ve had some practice.

Switching between pistol shield and your kits is mandatory. In P/S you have the ability to stun at range, reflect projectiles, and confuse/blind opponents with static shot, which can be a lifesaver. The brunt of your DPS comes from bombs and elixer gun though.

Elixer gun has an interesting DPS combo that goes as such: In bomb kit >> Glue bomb >> switch to elixer gun (freeze opponent) >> Acid Bomb >> switch to pistol/shield. This pins melee opponents in place and forces them to take the majority of Acid bomb’s damage, which is quite a lot. Thanks to chill and cripple, they will have a hard time moving out of it’s radius. This is a great way to punish enemies who get up in your face. You have to do the switch quickly though. If you do it right, the bomb should go off right as you jump back.

It might seem like this build is easy to kite, but reflecting projectiles with the shield and stunning/blinding at range is key to discouraging ranged opponents. This build is passive, meaning that you have very few ways to pin/chase opponents in order to finish them off in PVP. However, if they don’t get in your face you’re free to run away and heal up, so it creates an interesting situation where the opponent has to be agressive. If you must approach, there’s a few ways to do it. turning the camera around and using acid bomb to jump at someone can work, as can hitting them with the elixer gun’s ranged cripple and then dropping a glue bomb at their feet.

When it comes to resurrecting a fallen comrade, drop smoke bomb right on top of them, then BoB and start to res. You’ll go invisible and the explosion will clear opponents trying to pack in on you, and the blinds will prevent aoe damage from close-range targets.

This is a really fun build that requires a lot of activity. I definately recommend you give it a try.

So… you’re saying that guardian is a better support, than engi, but still tell us to go support on engi?

Where is the logic?

The fact u need 2 big walls of text to explain how to heal – and at all it’s still no better heal then shout-warri, elementarist or guardian – shows the hole engineer problem: 30 key piano piece to kill an enemie. Sad but true story.

I’m playing a support build too and I enjoy it a lot for the moment. I’m not saying it’s the best build out there, it just fits my playstyle better. I’m playing only PVE btw.

I run a 30/0/30/0/10 with med kit/bomb kit/elixir gun/elixir S/supply crate and pistol/shield. I generally take larger bomb radius, reduced cd on bombs and 10% more damage for explosions. If I’m doing a boss that’d better be done at range, I can swap the bomb kit for grenade and grab grenadier and bleed on explosions.

In invention, I take protection when critical hit, % toughness converted to power and healing bomb. There are other nice traits like the shield cd one.
In tool, I grab kit refinement.

Gear is knight with Dwayna runes. Pistol with sigil of blood and shield with hydromancy.

With med kit, you can give regen to your group with the runes every 10s.
Toolbelt skill from elixir gun gives regen too. Super elixir x 2 with kit refinement and nice regen with supply crate too. And of course the bomb healing for melee mates.
Bombs gives you some control too with the #5 and #4 and a fire field to combo for might stacks.
Elixir S is nice when you’re in trouble or if you want to rez someone in the middle of a pack. Elixir R can be good too but the cd is quite long on the rez so I prefer elixir S (matter of taste). And I just love to use elixir S with my tiny asura, seems like I’m vanishing completly.
Toolbelt skill from elixir S can help rez too if you’re lucky enough to get the stealth effect.

Pistol/shield is nice for the aoe blind, blast finisher/knockback, the reflect and the block/stun.

I don’t do tons of damages with this build but it’s decent and the vulnerabilty I put on the targets improve the damage of the whole group. Maybe I’ll switch to a more dps-focused build one day but I enjoy this build for the moment.

Isslair.4908:

So… you’re saying that guardian is a better support, than engi, but still tell us to go support on engi?

Where is the logic?

That’s like saying Warrior is better DPS than a thief, so why bother playing a thief?

Engineer and guardian can both support well but different flavors, relying more on distributing boons and pumping out big heals in burst. Engineer is more of a sustained healing that migitates damage through blind and confusion and deals consistant aoe damage while healing. Guardians will still be better support in most situations because that’s just the way they’ve been built. No two classes can ever be equally good at doing one thing. As long as there are differences in skillset, one skillset will be better than the other. I’ve been in dungeon groups where the guardian supported better than me, but did less DPS. I’ve been in groups where I supported better, but did less DPS than the guardian.

Thanks for the guide, Lifelike. I’ve been trying to figure out good combinations. That ought to help a ton.

I think Forestnator has a good point though. However I still find the play style to be a lot of fun.

So you sort of have to weigh the fun factor on one hand and the disappointment at the idea that you’re not nearly as effective as other classes for the amount of work it takes on the other hand.

Guardian with same effort geared is always better support and better dps.

Forestnator.6298:

The fact u need 2 big walls of text to explain how to heal – and at all it’s still no better heal then shout-warri, elementarist or guardian – shows the hole engineer problem: 30 key piano piece to kill an enemie. Sad but true story.

If you actually payed attention, I did not write 2 big walls of text about how to heal. I wrote 2 big walls of text about how to play my build, which includes healing, DPSing, Combos, Support, Traits, Techniques, Movement, spacing, as well as differences in build between using healing turret and medkit, etc.

I could simply have summed that up by saying "just stand around near your party and spam 1, 2, 3 when it’s up, 4 in emergency situations, and switch to elixer gun now and again to use super elixer. Whueee. Don’t forget to do a might combo now and again.

Also, a class being technical does not necessarily mean there is a problem. If anything, it’s the other classes that are overly simplistic compared to Engineers and Elementalists. A skilled player really shouldn’t care about execution. Just look at competitive fighting games. Versatile characters are always the hardest to play, and yet high level players accept this fact and man up and learn those combos, staggers and frame traps if they feel that said character brings something interesting to the table.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the engineer’s execution. Not every class in this game needs to be as easy to play as the thief or warrior.

Kalizaar.4729:

Thanks for the guide, Lifelike. I’ve been trying to figure out good combinations. That ought to help a ton.

I think Forestnator has a good point though. However I still find the play style to be a lot of fun.

So you sort of have to weigh the fun factor on one hand and the disappointment at the idea that you’re not nearly as effective as other classes for the amount of work it takes on the other hand.

Well you can think what you want. I’m part of the largest guild on my server and everyone loves my build and always wants me along on dungeon runs and WvW, even if there’s guardians who could take up that spot. Maybe I’m not as effective a healer at a meta level, but I’m pulling my weight as an engineer and it’s certainly doable.

The ‘amount of work it takes’ should not be a factor for any serious player.

Dont tell that me, I did tenthousends of kills in wvw and I am sure about 6-7k were with engineer. But it is still fact that u have to outplay your enemie to win. And it is also fact, that support on engineer sucks. Running around with bombs for healing dealing maximum dmg of 1k… Other classes have same healing but are not useless doing this like engineer is.

Ofc I like my engineer, but I also play other classes. Full geared. And they are stronger (excluding ranger maybe) – in every perspective. True and sad fact. I don’t want to bad-mouth the engineer – u told u play dungons – that’s fine. PvE doesn’t need balancing like competive PvP needs.

Hmm, why do you play engineer then? I’m pretty sure there is always a class that can dps (sustain and burst) or support or do both at the same time better than engineer anyway.
I have an AH hammer guardian and the support is great along with decent damages. Why do I play a support engineer too? Because I enjoy it and it’s effective enough for the content I’m playing.
Playing a game isn’t always about min/maxing everything, it’s also to have fun. shrug

Lifelike.5862:

Kalizaar.4729:

Thanks for the guide, Lifelike. I’ve been trying to figure out good combinations. That ought to help a ton.

I think Forestnator has a good point though. However I still find the play style to be a lot of fun.

So you sort of have to weigh the fun factor on one hand and the disappointment at the idea that you’re not nearly as effective as other classes for the amount of work it takes on the other hand.

Well you can think what you want. I’m part of the largest guild on my server and everyone loves my build and always wants me along on dungeon runs and WvW, even if there’s guardians who could take up that spot. Maybe I’m not as effective a healer at a meta level, but I’m pulling my weight as an engineer and it’s certainly doable.

The ‘amount of work it takes’ should not be a factor for any serious player.

Well that’s good to hear. Puts a little hope into any engineers unsure of their future.

Sabyne.6329:

Hmm, why do you play engineer then? I’m pretty sure there is always a class that can dps (sustain and burst) or support or do both at the same time better than engineer anyway.
I have an AH hammer guardian and the support is great along with decent damages. Why do I play a support engineer too? Because I enjoy it and it’s effective enough for the content I’m playing.
Playing a game isn’t always about min/maxing everything, it’s also to have fun. shrug

I play engineer for the same reason: fun. Engineer is the best troll-class ever created in an mmo. I love running around to hoax my enemies. But serious, support is great on engineer? I don’t belief it from the point of theorcrafting. But maybe I should give it a chance.

Forestnator.6298:

Dont tell that me, I did tenthousends of kills in wvw and I am sure about 6-7k were with engineer. But it is still fact that u have to outplay your enemie to win. And it is also fact, that support on engineer sucks. Running around with bombs for healing dealing maximum dmg of 1k… Other classes have same healing but are not useless doing this like engineer is.

Ofc I like my engineer, but I also play other classes. Full geared. And they are stronger (excluding ranger maybe) – in every perspective. True and sad fact. I don’t want to bad-mouth the engineer – u told u play dungons – that’s fine. PvE doesn’t need balancing like competive PvP needs.

Winning in any competitive situation should ALWAYS be about outplaying your opponent, regardless of how easy your class is. Yes, you have to outplay your opponent, that much is a given. Winning is all about utilizing all the tools given to you as efficiently as possible and at the right places in the right time.

If I must make a reference to another game, the Berzerker class in Tera is one of the most simplistic classes mechanically, but one of the most difficult to master and win with in competitive pvp. They are all about knowing your opponent, what they can do, and how to exploit their movement, but in exchange they punish openings better than pretty much any other class.

Engineers in this game are like that, only much more technical. They have a myriad of tools they can use, each with a specific purpose in mind. There are no cover-alls, you know your opponent, and you use the right tool for the job at the right time. The same principle applies to every other class in the game. Warriors have simpler, less speciallised toolsets, but they still have to outplay their opponents. A hammer/axe/mace build with a warrior requires careful timing of combos to get maximum effectiveness out of your crowd control, and even then you’re pinning down a single opponent and paying close attention as you wait for them to pop the inevitable stun breaker so you can checkmate them. Elementalists are Engineers on crack, and yet people still complain about them being hard and weak when they literally have a tool for every situation built into their kit (unless they’re playing with a staff).

I really don’t understand this argument of having to do more work than other classes to succeed. Options are options, and engineers have a lot of them.

We have a myriad of tools we can use? No, we must use them. We don’t have options, we are forced to do this. Engineer is a completly reaction class. But that’s not the problem. The problem is, our class doesn not forgive us any mistake, while other classes can do tons of mistakes and are still able to win.

Lifelike.5862:

That’s like saying Warrior is better DPS than a thief, so why bother playing a thief?

It really depends on what you want to do.

Thief has a very distinct role in PvP with his stealth and mobility.

But honestly, how many thieves have you seen in dungeons? If you want to DPS you go warrior. That’s how GW2 works currently.

Lifelike.5862:

No two classes can ever be equally good at doing one thing.

That’s a really faulty logic.

GW2 was advertised as a game withou trinity, where every class can do everything as good as any other. It’s clearly not the case.

And anyways. Engineers don’t have any “thing” where they are THE best class. There is always some other profession that can make same things much easier\better.

If that’s not an issue with our clas, I don’t know what is.

Oh, and guardians can do several things simultaneosly – dpsing, healing, tanking, buffing. While engi has to gimp all his other activities to achieve something similar in one aspect.

I don’t really agree with that. We have more tools, so when we mess up, we actually have multiple ways to get out of a bad situation as opposed to other classes who have one or two speciallised escape mechanics. If my first combo starter fails, I have plenty of other combos and rotations I can go into just by swapping out to a different toolkit. Didn’t land my BoB? I’ll drop a smoke bomb and acid bomb away to fight from range. Didn’t work? I can still drop a glue bomb and try to run while they’re crippled. Did I just get crippled? I can drink elixer B to cure my conditions, OR I can switch to elixer gun and pop super elixer. OR I can throw elixer B at myself, OR I can equip medkit and use drop antidote. OR I can turn around and try to stun my opponent with Throw Shield and then equip elixer gun and Acid bomb away. And I’m not even using Slick Shoes, which would be ideal for this situation if I did run them. Or if I was using rocket boots, I could put down a smoke field and then invisi-blast myself to safety.

And that’s just with one build set for one situation. Compare that to a warrior, who when being chased, has a few options either in greatsword, or warhorn for swiftness, and maybe Endure Pain.

Glass cannon builds might not forgive any mistake, but the same can be said about Elementalists. I’d go as far as to say they have it worse. They have one or two strong escape skills and perma-swiftness. (which we engineers can also obtain very easily, I might add). I guess they also do have a teleport which is a cantrip that they probably blew while teleporting in to land that churning earth, and static shield, but still their main method of escape relies on their speed and Ride the Lightning.

if you mess up as an ele you kind of don’t have much of a buffer either. wasting churning earth or earthquake or even fire grab (oh boy) can really put a damper on any D/D ele’s plans.

Isslair.4908:

Lifelike.5862:

That’s like saying Warrior is better DPS than a thief, so why bother playing a thief?

It really depends on what you want to do.

Thief has a very distinct role in PvP with his stealth and mobility.

But honestly, how many thieves have you seen in dungeons? If you want to DPS you go warrior. That’s how GW2 works currently.

Lifelike.5862:

No two classes can ever be equally good at doing one thing.

That’s a really faulty logic.

GW2 was advertised as a game withou trinity, where every class can do everything as good as any other. It’s clearly not the case.

And anyways. Engineers don’t have any “thing” where they are THE best class. There is always some other profession that can make same things much easier\better.

If that’s not an issue with our clas, I don’t know what is.

Oh, and guardians can do several things simultaneosly – dpsing, healing, tanking, buffing. While engi has to gimp all his other activities to achieve something similar in one aspect.

It’s not faulty logic, it’s fact. Ryu and Ken, two very similar characters, are rarely in the same tier in every street fighter game that’s ever existed. Anet can try to preach their silly ’we’ve abolished the trinity!" game design philosophies as much as they want, but quite frankly you cannot have every class being TRULY equal at any given role. You can certainly attempt to provide different flavors. Guardians CAN DPS…effectively if they want to. But they aren’t the kings of DPS like warriors are. Elementalists CAN go glass cannon nuke, but they’re not as effective as thieves in that regard.

There’s can, and there’s can’t. Mystics in Tera cannot really DPS. Priests in Ragnarok Online cannot really DPS comparatively to any other class. In GW2, your DPS guardian might be pretty scary and actually do his job really well, but he won’t beat a warrior in terms of sheer numbers. And even if the numbers were the same, one of those classes would still be more efficient at landing blows, and have advantages over the other.

Guardians are the best supporters in the game, but other classes can hold a candle to them. No matter how much Anet tries to pitch their unrealistic design philosophy (a casual-trap since day 1) you just aren’t realistically going to get a class that does a job ‘the same’ as any other class, unless they were all just skins of each other.

Still, I do think you have a point about engineers not having a ‘defined’ role. I feel it’s intentional though. They aren’t meant to have a defined role. They are the putty class, which you’re supposed to mould to fit however you want to play them. That was the original idea. Of course, players are always going to try and find the niche for them. And that’s why this whole idea is flawed. People actually want guidelines, even if they might think they don’t.

Isslair.4908:

So… you’re saying that guardian is a better support, than engi, but still tell us to go support on engi?

Where is the logic?

If you’re looking to something with your engineer that nobody else in the game can do, you might as well just shelve the engi right now. I think the point is to demonstrate that you can do good support as an engineer, maybe not BETTER than a guardian, but good enough to be useful.

Yes, that’s what the engi is: good enough to be useful.

Istarien.3147:

I think the point is to demonstrate that you can do good support as an engineer, maybe not BETTER than a guardian, but good enough to be useful.

I don’t want to be better. I want to be equal.
In a system where classes don’t have pre-defined roles, they should be equal. Or some professions will be just shoved to the back and forgotten.
There’s nothing good about our current situation and arguing with that is kinda naive. (unless you’re some kind of MMO-hipster that only plays “non-mainsteam” classes)

Lifelike.5862:

It’s not faulty logic, it’s fact.

Oh, I know that’s a fact. I’m playing GW2 too.

The thing is, I don’t think this is a good thing. Nor will I ever accept this.

And I’ll never understand people like you who think there’s nothing wrong with a system where some professions are better than others.

If we had a trinity-like balance, where every party would need a tanky class and a support one, your points might’ve been correct. But in GW2 supports are not needed. In fact taking a support means having less DPS, in exchange for some shady amount of healing which is not needed by any decent dodger/kiter anyways.

The ideal balance of professions in GW2 is when every one can do similar things in equal measure, be it DPSing or supporting or what-not. And the only difference would be playstyle, not predetermined disparity in numbers.

Maybe when Egun’s Superelixir pulses were healing for double what it should have, Engineer would have given any other support build class a run for it’s money.

It’s sad really, that a bug actually makes the class decent at a role finally, and they take so long to fix it, that many grow accustomed to it. Only to have it stripped away.

Forestnator.6298:

Yes, that’s what the engi is: good enough to be useful.

This ^

So long as there are differences in playstyle between classes, none of them will ever truly be equal. It’s a bit naive to think otherwise. There will always be at least one special snowflake that’s more perfect than all the others. What would even be the point in having multiple classes then?

Dodging and kiting in this game isn’t as practical as you think it is. This is not Tera, where classes have a true dodge. GW2 dodge is a status effect and skills tend to home in on their target. You can’t weave and dodge skills uing movement alone, and your evasion move is bound to a stamina guage. Besides, the whole point of builds like this is to build in a way that removes the NEED to kite at all, and reduce the danger when you do get hit like you inevitably will.

I wrote up nearly a full guide on how to play my build. Surely there’s got to be something in those two walls of text that a guardian will not be doing the exact same way. I’ve already said that this build is more about sustained DoT healing whereas guardian is about burst healing. I spend less time using actual healing skills and more time attacking than a support guardian would, since they only get a few forms of regen (traditional regen, mostly, and aoe healing fields, just like me. Problem is, in order to put out those fields they have to take a certain weapon. Everything else is burst heals).

Bunker engineer’s hard crowd control is also better. Guardians have much less in the way of combo field options, and don’t have as many blast finishers. Most of their hard crowd control is is single target (I found this an issue while using my guardian, very few knockdown skills). Guardians also cannot apply poison to discourage opponents from healing while they support. And they certainly can’t stealth the team. Our blinds/confusion are also better. Static shot in combination with smoke bomb/concussion bomb I would take over leap of faith anyday, which means you’re using a greatsword, which means you’re using a less support oriented weapon with very little healing skills built in. If they take sword/greatsword for the blinds, they’re waiting 9 seconds between weapon switch while we can change weapons to kits in the blink of an eye as many times as we want.

Engineers are better than other classes at doing more things, save for elementalist, who does more things -differently-.

And yes, elixer gun’s ‘fix’ was kind of a bummer.

You’re wrong again making sweeping generalisations. I main a stealth-initiative regen thief and a D/D ele next to my engineer and am equally passionate about both classes. I’m very familiar with mobility classes.

The great thing about bunker builds is that they CAN still dodge. They CAN still evade, but they won’t get royally screwed when they’re hit, and they WILL get hit. This game is not designed to allow you to migitate all damage that comes at you, no matter how good you are. There will be gaps in your evasion, always.

When I say the build does not need to dodge, that doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t. But This build allows me to spend more time healing my team and contributing instead of jumping all over the place trying to keep myself alive.

I will agree that a lack of reliable stability is a problem, though. But I don’t see how speccing into alchemy is ‘prohibitive’, especially since you’ll be wanting to spec into it anyway if you’re building bunker.

AngryBuu.2479:

Hey there,since I saw a lot of whiners on this forums complaining about Dps,but I can tell u Engi is great support class!I saw this one guy that was with me in dungeon and he healed and supported the kitten out of us.So since engi has a lot of Support/control abilites,can someone recommend me a support build?(Dungeon,PvE based)Tnx!

Very true good sir. They are the closest class to a “healing” class in the game (eles got nothing on Engie’s bombs), but unfortunately I find it makes solo leveling difficult.

If I ever get around to actually seriously leveling my engineer I’ll be using this build:

http://guildwars2grandmaster.com/builds/engineer-bombs-heals-control/

Yeah I know it’s more-or-less a cookie-cutter build, but I’ve taken a very close look at the trait lines, and it probably works really well when you’ve got full Cleric’s/Sapphire.

Lifelike.5862:

Carrying a whole team with guardian-rivalling sustain and utility is oh so satisfying.

i dont care if ppl think the class is OP or UP or whatever , dont go and say you didnt make such a claim though , with that line right there you just did comapre it saying it rivaled a gaurdian when in your post after someone called you out you say you didnt. and onto the topic , i generally run with elixir gun on my hotbar for some heals , use the human healing skill Prayer to Dwayna or whatever its called , and generally switch out the other 2 utility skills as needed , in regards to elite i switch it out between support drop and mortar. the class is fun , maybe not necesarily as strong as other classes for one reason or another , but its fun even as support.

I feel what we lack in support that is really useful in dungeon especially fractals is ability to absorb or reflect projectiles. That makes some dungeons significantly easier. My guardian can do it really well (absorb bubble on rez, spirit shield, wall of reflection, sanctuary, #5 on shield) and I know my engi is limited in this area. For the rest, I’m really satisfied and enjoying supporting with engineer.

Elixir U is your friend there…

Only on a 60 second cooldown!
Works 2 times out of 3!

Daigle.8497:

Elixir U is your friend there…

Only on a 60 second cooldown!
Works 2 times out of 3!

I didn’t say we couldn’t reflect projectiles, I said we were lacking in this area. A 60s cd spell that only have 2/3 chance of producing the effect you want (or 1/3 if you want stealth) is not what I would call reliable.
Wall of reflection got the same cd, spirit shield too, #5 shield skill is 45 s cd, smoke screen is 30s cd, feedback 40s and those are sure effects. That’s what I call lacking sorry. xD
Happily we have shield#4 but then it doesn’t necessarily help your team mates if they are too spread.

Healer-bomber support class is very limited in what it can do. The best use of it is to provide mutual support to tanking classes — it will absolutely be wasted in battles where you need to have a lot of mobility.

My current build is an AoE grenadier class with a significant investment in group support that consists of
Traits
30 in explosives (Forceful Explosives/Short Fuse/Grenadier)
20 in elixirs (Self Regulating Defenses/Cleaning Formula 409)

Kits
Elixir H
Elixir Gun (for Super Elixir and it’s regen toolkit ability)
Grenade Kit (so you can actually do some damage)
Elixir U (for adding some aoe buffs to teammates)

Stats:
Power: You will want a lot
Precision: Good to have, it helps with crits which add to your damage capability
Condition Damage: Skip this stat, condition damage is underpowered.
Vitality: Good to have. Try to get it on all of your accessories if you can, in case you need to run fractals which penalizes you for having vitality at higher levels. You will want as much of this stat on your accessories as possible.
Toughness: Good to have.
Healing: You will want at least 150 of this stat. It helps but don’t sacrifice too much other stats for healing since it’s generally underpowered. If you can get healing via runes then you may consider doing so.
Critical Damage up: Skip this stat

Healing Skill Rotation
Elixir H (Your main self-heal. Removes a condition from you)
Super Elixir (Your main support heal. Drop this on your tanks.)
Healing Mist (Run into the middle of your group and pop this to give em regen)
Thrown Elixir H (give a small aoe buff to your teammates, remove a condition from them)
Thrown Elixir U (give a small aoe buff to your teammates, remove a condition from them)

Tactics:
Pull mobs with long range nades. Go hide behind a corner while your tanks clash with them then return and drop nades on them.
Stay at the back and nade. Drop elixirs on your teammates when they are bunched up. Drop super elixir on tanks.
As soon as your teammates start approach 50% HP drop all the support heals you can on them.
If your teammates are afflicted with multiple conditions, switch to elixir gun and use the fumigate ability to remove conditions en-masse.

1. Engineer can be anything: burst, support, sustained, bunker…
The thing is: we can NOT be the best at any of these!

The best engineer bunker is outdone by other bunkers, the best engineer burst is outdone by other burst. We are not the best support, and we aren’t even the ‘Kings of versatility’ as the devs put it for ele’s…
So even if we use a totally non-versatile build, we still can’t achieve the results of other professions.

The dev’s decided we have to pay a dps price because we can be many things… but they forgot that we can’t be everything at once.

2. Being ‘versatile’ means we can be several roles IN THE SAME BUILD!
Well, if you do that you will find that your dps is rather low just because you can’t trait for all your versatile aspects at once.

Our so called versatile builds simply are not strong enough. Certainly not to warrant any ‘penalty’.

We are nerfed by design if we build versatile.
There is no need whatsoever to nerf our dps even more, there simply is NO versatile engineer build that can potentially have too much damage.

3. So we lose either way: build for one specific task and you can’t compete against the other specified builds.
Build for versatility and you are too weak in any field to be competetive.

Engineers are not broken, and I still have fun with mine.
But they sure have issues and need some significant improvements.

Forestnator.6298:

Guardian with same effort geared is always better support and better dps.

Then go play a guardian, crybaby.

@OP good write up. I’m glad you mentioned combo fields, because most of the riff raff here seem to overlook them. And I’ll agree, support Engineer in dungeons is pretty fun.

Go and tank Lupicus with your “healing bombs”, also say all your team to gather in one spot, so you’ll heal them all while boss is teleporting on top of you.

The amount of people who never been in a real GW2 dungeon is too kitten high.

it seems like a few people on here prefer to go the easy route(like say think WoW hunter) rather then learning to play a class. While engineers aren’t per say simple to some(walls of text vs 2 sentences(look at comments above)- they are sure fun as hell to play! No one ever said they are the best support class, that’s your assumption and your missing the point entirely. IMO if you already have other toons in the standard 3 roles you should most def roll an Engi and experiment with a support build. If you hate based off assumptions and post comments it really shows your noob level. besides these threads are 10 months old, traits have been balanced, polished and nerfed since then…

AngryBuu.2479:

Hey there,since I saw a lot of whiners on this forums complaining about Dps,but I can tell u Engi is great support class!I saw this one guy that was with me in dungeon and he healed and supported the kitten out of us.So since engi has a lot of Support/control abilites,can someone recommend me a support build?(Dungeon,PvE based)Tnx!

I’m not going to read all of the posts here, arguing about best heal class vs guardian does it better vs rerollL2Pnub.

Simply put, Engi is a great support class. It can blast water or fire fields constantly for heals or might. It can toss elixirs for heal, condition cleanse, stability, and projectile reflect. It can group condition cleanse with elixirs, healing turret, med kit, and elixir gun…take your pick. It has fantastic mobility, able to be where you need to be at a moment’s notice. With a single kit (EG) it can aoe cleanse, lay down a healing field, grant swiftness, grant aoe regen, and blast a field.

Remember this thread was made even before healing turret buff. And all those other buffs. It makes no sence to refer on this old posts.

atm i running this on my engy
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcIQJAqelspSX3zyuF17ISoHSohpWie8YU2k9pwbB-jACBocBEdBhoGkEJIZPFRjtmpIasqZER1KbYA-e
for dungeon/fractal and some WvWvW