Guild Wars 2

Right, just a quick run down of some of our strongest skills, and what makes them so good. While there is definitely an amount of personal bias in a post like this, I would invite you to share your own opinions. Racial skills are not considered in this list.

1. Supply Crate- Unquestionably our strongest skill. It’s the only one considered viable of our 3 elites in the majority of situations, and functions as support, damage, and cc all at once.
2. Elixir S- I would consider this our second strongest skill. Despite the rng on it, it gives us near certain stomps in pvp, quick access to stealth, and easy escape and survival in all game modes.
3. Elixir B- The first two were coincidence, I don’t consider B as our third strongest skill. However, with its access to 4-6 boons, a traited cleanse, and an easy component of untraited perma-swiftness, it’s still one of the best buttons we have.
4. Tool Kit- One of our best survival kits, it also doubles as an offensive asset when used correctly. Not much else to say.
5. Grenade Kit- Our highest damage kit, it functions well with condition or power builds.
6. Rifle Turret- It’s only really here for its toolbelt right now, but that toolbelt lets you do 2-3k damage with one button if built correctly. It’s our strongest offensive turret (due to damage, overcharge uptime, and cooldown), though you’re better off never putting it on the ground.
7. Net Turret- Our strongest cc ability, due to it functioning as an immobilize and stun when overcharged, along with an immobilize tool belt. If you need to keep someone away from you without having to run a few miles, net turret is your best friend.
8. Jump Shot- The most powerful move in… Jumping puzzles. It’s one of very few abilities that doesn’t require pathing to use (try completing a jumping puzzle using only infiltrator’s arrow), and can cross any gap without question. It also does good damage going up and coming down.
9. Elixir Gun- Our strongest support kit, it gives your allies swiftness, heals them, removes conditions, and reduces damage they take indirectly by applying weakness, though it’s not as useful in pvp scenarios due to its short duration.

If you have any more to add, go ahead. If you want to dispute something I’ve said, do so in a polite manner, I’ll try to respond in kind. Have a nice day!

Agree with 1-5, completely disagree with 6-8.

OP is talking about spvp i believe. Elixir kit, bomb kit, net shot, med kit, healing turret, elixir R and thumper turret also deserves mention

Bomb kit isn’t up there because of its risk/reward style. Med kit with in tools is possibly our strongest heal, but it’s hard to say which is the strongest, since H also gives boons and removes more conditions, while HT can be used offensively. Basically, those three are too close to call.
Elixir gun… Hmm, strongest support? Right, adding that.
Elixir R fills the same role kitten but not as well and with longer cooldowns (you can revive while tiny/stealthed, 2 dodges and a stunbreak versus 3 seconds of invuln and a stunbreak)
Thumper turret is short ranged and effected by stability, however, if this upcoming patch make it better at cc than the net turret, it’ll replace it.

@waka
Say why you disagree please. Are you saying we have more cc’s in one button than net turret somewhere? Do we have a better jumping puzzle skill? And is rifle turret not our most viable offensive turret?

I’m open to discussion here, just give some reason as to why you disagree.

Creld.8702:

Bomb kit isn’t up there because of its risk/reward style. Med kit with in tools is possibly our strongest heal, but it’s hard to say which is the strongest, since H also gives boons and removes more conditions, while HT can be used offensively. Basically, those three are too close to call.
Elixir gun… Hmm, strongest support? Right, adding that.
Elixir R fills the same role kitten but not as well and with longer cooldowns (you can revive while tiny/stealthed, 2 dodges and a stunbreak versus 3 seconds of invuln and a stunbreak)
Thumper turret is short ranged and effected by stability, however, if this upcoming patch make it better at cc than the net turret, it’ll replace it.

@waka
Say why you disagree please. Are you saying we have more cc’s in one button than net turret somewhere? Do we have a better jumping puzzle skill? And is rifle turret not our most viable offensive turret?

I’m open to discussion here, just give some reason as to why you disagree.

Taking rifle turret just for it’s utility belt slot is a complete waste (I’m assuming you mean for a static discharge build)

Net turret isn’t bad, it’s just REALLY ureliable. The turret is single target, reacts strangely, doesn’t know what to target and also too high of a CD for it to be worth taking imo.

And jump shot if you just mean in JQ’s alone sure I agree with you.

Bomb kit is great for solo farming, allowing you to fight up to 8 monsters at a time.

Elixir R is more suited for (co-operative) PvE compared to Elixir S.

Med kit is best used when you are running away and constantly dropping fury+swift before combat.

Healing turret is used to cure conditions detonated/packed immediately to reduce cooldown i believe

@waka
Aye, I did mean for static discharge, the turret itself is still the highest dps turret simply because it’s up the most. Rocket turret can beat it if it doesn’t get destroyed, which it often does regardless of placement.

Net turret has a 24-30 second cooldown, 30 seconds on its overcharge which gives 2 immobilizes and 2 stuns in 10 seconds, and it is actually a bit smarter than most people assume in spvp (it will track your last auto-attacked target). Combined with the toolbelt skill, you get 3 immobilizes and 2 stuns in as little as 5 seconds (depending on if you get the first shot overcharged).

And yes, jump shot’s greatest use for me is jumping puzzles, followed by goomba stomping shadow refuge.

@Orion
Healing turret benefits from the 25% CD reduction when picked up, making it the shortest cooldown with 15 seconds. However, its cleansing effect can be delayed by up to eight seconds, whereas H traited and med kit are more reliable. It also only applies regeneration, whereas H can apply regen, protection, swiftness, or vigor, and med kit gives more direct healing (from 1-3) and swiftness/fury. Overall, all three heal skills are very balanced against each other.

Elixir R is certainly better suited for PvE, sorry, I tend to think primarily in terms of PvP (I tend to be somewhat anti-social in game, meaning I don’t pve a lot).

As for farming with bomb kit, what kind of build (condition or power?) would you use for that, and would it allow you to face-tank a level 80 veteran, or multiple level 80 veterans? I’ve never used it for this style, so I’m rather curious.

Well, I love Surprise Shot and agree that it deserves its spot on this list.

Cooldown is every ten seconds, or faster traited. It has no casting time, so it can be cast during other attacks. (Let that sink in, because anything that operates off the global cooldown has the potential to be great.) You can cast it in any direction and while stunned or feared or dazed. It can easily do over 3k from just the Surprise Shot and a single Static Discharge pulse, never mind that SD can jump to 2 other targets. Plus all those hits translate to more opportunities to proc whatever you have that procs (Fire Sigil, Sharpshooter, Shrapnel, Incendiary Powder, Precise Sights). I think it’s OP in PvE for increased sustained dps, but it’s clearly even better in PvP where it provides all-important burst.

Plus, if you insist on pressing the Rifle Turret button, you can get a combo blast from it.

@Creld you underrate Elixir R a bit, in 1vs1 it’s quite awesome, you know you can use it to get a self rally before people can stomp you right? and it removes conditions (Unless they use quickness), also it’s a 45 sec stunbreaker that refill your endrurance, and it’s quite good when roaming around 2vsX, because you can save your friend in some dire situations

Also, Medkit and Healing Turret > Elixir H unless Elixir H is traited for, that’s an important thing to rember! Also healing Turret is probaly one of the best healing skills in the game for a group support perspective, so it only gets better the more friends you bring (up to 5 ofc.)

If you don’t want Bomb kit on the list, consider adding Big Ol’ Bomb, that’s a great skill, Blash Finisher, huge AoE and blow back!

Stastic shot deserve a spot aswell, one of the best skills in my opinon, that only get’s better if you are vs 2 enemies, the double blind nad 4 confusion stack you can make then is awesome, on a short cooldown, it’s a great skill

Also, Prybar deserve a spot for itself just because it’s that good ! But beside that I agree with the ones you have added on the list btw!

Lets just agree that all 3 healing have their uses then. Elixir H is more of a solo skill for me.

“As for farming with bomb kit, what kind of build (condition or power?) would you use for that, and would it allow you to face-tank a level 80 veteran, or multiple level 80 veterans? I’ve never used it for this style, so I’m rather curious.”

I use(D) a simple 30,10,0,10,0 bomb elixir build. no multiple lvl 80 vets, either 1 vet + 4 or up to 8 lvl80 risen mob. This is what i do…

-Smoke bomb is basically a 4 sec invul.
-Elixir B + Fire bomb + confusion bomb wipes out most mobs before they can do anything within the 5th to 7th sec max. (except higher hp foes like etin)
- Failing that, ie against 2 to 3 vets, run in circles and spam bombs. Engage only when you can smoke, kite when it runs out.
- glue & big O’ are good for escaping in pve or pvp

@Creld. You didnt mention a single gadget T.T

Slick Shoes.

Those shoes are nasty in duel or WvW roaming.

5 second of perma stun?

Stun a whole team?

Free escape toolbelt?

Love it.

One of the best roaming utility.

Kardiamond.6952:

Slick Shoes.

Those shoes are nasty in duel or WvW roaming.

5 second of perma stun?

Stun a whole team?

Free escape toolbelt?

Love it.

One of the best roaming utility.

Somebody got to it before I did. This guy knows what’s up.

Yeah, always been a fan of slick shoes.

I have to sacrifice Elixir S for it, but the number of time it saved my kitten when outnumbered or pressured during a fight.

And it’s a thief killer.

Those poor thief.

P.S : Even better when your toolbelt reset at 25% hp. 2 super speed in a row is hard to catch up, when you drop glue bombs and glue shot!

I’ve always been a supporter of slick shoes, a highly underrated engineer skill.

Prybar.

123456

I would put shield skill on one of the top 3. Granted its not utility which most of you are talking about here, but it is still an eng skill. The main reason is that it is actually 4 skills in 2 buttons. You have a reflect, a knockback, a daze and a stun. So much utility for 2 skills

I would put bomb kit next somewhere in the top 3 because when traited, it’s a beast for pve. Although your damage would probably be not as high as grenades, and in some instances its better to be ranged than melee, I love it simply because it lets a medium-armor class be really tanky.

Both shield skills are amazingly good indeed

I agree with the list and it coincides well with the 4 utility skills I chose for my Profession Selection Guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Profession-Selection-Guide/first

I have tried slick shoes in WvWvW. That just didn’t work for me, maybe because of the enormous skill lag we often have in euro tier #1 (it can take 30 seconds before any skill activates and often you just hit buttons and nothing happens when huge zergs are in the same map zone). More often I ended up wasting my slick shoes and not getting it activated when I needed it.

Shield is our greatest off-hand defensive weapon, but that’s partially because it’s our only off-hand defensive weapon. Jump shot only gets a spot because there is literally only one other ability in the game that can do something similar (warrior’s hammer burst) in a jumping puzzle.

Bombs are good in non-dungeon pve, but they’re very dangerous to use, which means they aren’t as strong compared to grenades.

Prybar is a function of toolkit, which is listed.

Slick shoes are good, but they’re weakened by a long cool down and an often superfluous tool belt, as we almost always have another speed buff from something. Also, going by the duration listed in the wiki, it’s a 2 second knockdown with a 1 second duration. Since knockdown doesn’t stack duration (which would be waaay too strong if it did for engies), max knockdown is 3 seconds in an aoe, which, while good, is still on a 48-60 second cooldown. As a survival button, I would say elixir s is stronger, simply because it negates all damage for three seconds, rather than being able to still be hit via ranged with stunbreaks or melee with teleports/shadowsteps.

Still, it’s a good ability, just like the majority of engineer’s skills, it’s just more balanced compared to our other survival options. Elixir R is still the greatest contender with S for best survival button though, S only beats it due to full damage reduction.

For the other gadgets, they aren’t as strong as other utilities. Goggles are probably our strongest, but B gives better access to fury along with other buffs and the blind immunity doesn’t always seem to want to work for me. PBR is still subject to stability, unlike immobilize from net turret. Rocket boots are a bit odd, they break cc by ccing you. Throw mine is decent, but, again, as cc it is subject to stability and as damage it is somewhat low.

This doesn’t mean any of our utilities are bad, we just have some very, very strong ones. Still, keep posting your reasons, I am always open to changing my mind.

Some of that stuff requires to be heavily traited for to be decent. I wouldnt in a million years take Elixir B in my build that has 0 into alchemy.
While bomb kit is a freaking killer if you aim for Condition builds. Potentially made much better along with Toolkit (Magnet) and Swiftness.

Med Kit has saved my hide plenty of times, 3k extra healing on the three bandages have been just what i needed. Not to mention it comes with a condition removal aswell as swiftness+fury.

Jump Shot also deserves to be much higher when you learn how to “use” its bug that essentially charges you forward or to a target. It increases the range on the ability upto around 1100-1200 and it doesnt have the delay at the end anymore. Great to close gaps, even better to open gaps. Its basicly like Ride the Lightning, altough with a slightly shorther range, ~100 less, but with iirc a lower cd and it jumps gaps.
And i think RTL is every (d/d) ele’s favorite ability because of how awesome it is for gapopening and gapclosing, and we got that aswell right there in Jump Shot.

Toolkit is absolutely golden. I’d rate it nr1 for the simple fact it comes with a hardhitting, combofield proccing, toolbelt. An aoe cripple, which is awesome. A hardhitting 5stacks of confusion applying hit, which is awesome. Magnet, which is awesome. And Gearshield which is awesome and i believe also the longest Block ingame, atleast while moving.
If Toolkit wasnt counted as a whole, i’d have 3 abilities seperately populating a spot in my top10, probably even top 5. Thats how good this thing is.

Elixir S i wouldt rate so top. Its a good ability, but the whole “guarenteed” stomp. Well, only against downed enemies that cant move. And if there is an immediate chance of an enemies teammate intervening.
But if there isnt someone from your enemies team directly there to interupt you, a a simple Blind manages just as well.

Creld.8702:

Slick shoes are good, but they’re weakened by a long cool down and an often superfluous tool belt, as we almost always have another speed buff from something. Also, going by the duration listed in the wiki, it’s a 2 second knockdown with a 1 second duration. Since knockdown doesn’t stack duration (which would be waaay too strong if it did for engies), max knockdown is 3 seconds in an aoe, which, while good, is still on a 48-60 second cooldown. As a survival button, I would say elixir s is stronger, simply because it negates all damage for three seconds, rather than being able to still be hit via ranged with stunbreaks or melee with teleports/shadowsteps.

You should try it live, it doesn’t work as you think.

I don’t know the real duration of slick shoes, but it’s not 1 second. The 1 second is for each “spot” of oil on the ground.

When I use it, I can stun people twice for the duration. Meaning the skill duraiton is at least 3-4 second.

Activate it, pass over the guy, stun for 2 seconds, get up, instant stun back down for 2 second.

So yes, you can “chain” stun someone for 5 second (the timer they need to get up). It’s really really strong. Especially if you have 2-3 melee on you, you can chain stunt them all.

48/60 second is long, but you only need it once a fight. I rarely find myself swearing after the cooldown.

As for the toolbelt ability, I think you also need to try it. We don’t have any other source of speed like this. It’s not swiftness.

Out of combat, sure, you’ll go at the same speed as other swiftness buffed player. But in combat it’s different.

In combat, you’ll go at max speed for the duration. You will double the speed of someone with swiftness. Try it, I don’t know the exact number, but nobodies can outrun me when I’m on super speed without using leaps/RTL. A well known hacker in my old match up tried to speed hack from me, hell too bad I had my slick shoe and could follow him for the 5 second needed to finish the kill.

Elixir S is good, and most of the time better in duel. But in group fight, I have a special need for Slick Shoe.

I need it for my deadly confusion combo, and I need it to escape when it’s too hot.

If I get zerged/focus on, with Elixir S I will survive 3 more sec. Can be useful. With super speed, I will escape, heal and come back. Sure it doesn’t always work, but 80% of the time it works. While with Elixir S, I will die after the duration.

Give it a try

Deniara Devious.3948:

I agree with the list and it coincides well with the 4 utility skills I chose for my Profession Selection Guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Profession-Selection-Guide/first

I have tried slick shoes in WvWvW. That just didn’t work for me, maybe because of the enormous skill lag we often have in euro tier #1 (it can take 30 seconds before any skill activates and often you just hit buttons and nothing happens when huge zergs are in the same map zone). More often I ended up wasting my slick shoes and not getting it activated when I needed it.

Well with 30 second delay I would hate to use any skill in that situation.

I don’t follow the zerg, so I rarely have the “skill delay” issue.

Terrahero.9358:

Jump Shot also deserves to be much higher when you learn how to “use” its bug that essentially charges you forward or to a target..

They aren’t meant to be in any particular order, the first two I thought of just happened to be the skills I considered the strongest.

As for S, it’s a surefire stomp on 6/8 classes on its main button, and gives very good survivability, especially when combined with swiftness or blocks. There’s a reason most hundred ’naders run grenade kit, tool kit, and S.

As I’ve said, the three healing skills are about equal, they all have areas they shine in/individual uses that make them great.

Elixir B gives 75% swiftness uptime when combined with med kit untraited, making it invaluable for roaming maps at low level. It also can stack up perma swiftness with 30 points in alchemy and the trait, making it a good alternative for speedy kits. In addition, it gives 3-5 more buffs, including our only non-combo retaliation, up to 3 stacks of might (105 power/condition damage), and fury that can be stacked in the same manner of swiftness. Obviously, it’s best when traited, but even untraited it is our strongest buff button, hence why it is on the list.