Guild Wars 2

Hello,

Well to start out I guess I will give a bit of back round and some starting point information. Engineer was my first pick for a main, but due to them not making any sense to me in the way in which there mechanics work and lack of information on them I rolled a guardian. I still am very interested in engineer class and am eager to learn how they work. Lastly as of right now my question all come from a PvE stand point, my engineer is at the moment level 23.

My question has two parts. # One is, what stats and traits go with what weapon. #2, are kits or elixirs suppose to go with any particular weapon, or does it not matter at all. For example can elixirs, kits, and turrets go with any weapon.

I have been very confused by which stats and traits go with what. I have seen some people saying Power / Explosives goes with Rifle, and Precision / Firearms goes with Pistol. Then I have seen some say Rifle takes precision and condition ect. I can’t find anything solid. I don’t know what to stack with Rifle because there is so much discrepancy between post. Some say condition, some say power, some say precision ect. I could use just a little bit of help determining what stats / traits go with what weapon.

I normally play what ever weapon I find that has the highest damage, but I think I like rifle better. Is a Rifle’s damage considered and explosion? I once read a post that said rifle damage was.

Also one last question, I see people out there saying there having and EZ time on there engineer, but every single one of them has been using the bomb kit. I really don’t care for bomb kits. Bomb kits are so gimmicky, you run around in a circle and throw down bombs. That to me is the most sad use of skill and most boring. Is there other builds that are just as effective but don’t use bombs?

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to help on this. Just seems to me there is hardly any information out there, and worse you can’t hardly trust what people say. Reminds me of what Wow looked like before Elitist Jerks.

Thanks again.

I just got to lv80 with Charr engineer a few days back and now just started to experiment new combinations/ optimize my own build. Pistols and elixir gun scale very well with condition damage, not so much with power. Rifle, bomb and grenade kit go well with power.

My build is currently pistol/pistols + grenade kit , healing turret (medkit > turret if you are fast enough) , elixir R (good for revving teammates without getting close), grenade kit, elixir B (for speed).
I think for PvE, getting the grenade kit with traits 300 power, 300 precision and 10% crit dmg is the way to go for dps. You can literally stack over 15 vulnerability (sustained) by yourself from 1500 range which is very nice for killing bosses, saves alot of time. Bomb kit is very hard to pull off cause you have to be so close but I think with the proper traits, your bomb heals others which is good for supporting melee characters. With the maximum stack for conditions at 25, you can trust that your team will be able to sustain 25 stacks of bleeding anyways so might as well go for the vulnerability build.

TurtleMuncher.9750:

My build is currently pistol/grenade , healing turret (medkit > turret if you are fast enough) , elixir R (good for revving teammates without getting close), grenade kit, elixir B (for speed).

Pistol/grenade? Sorry, not trying to nitpick, but since you gave such good info about your own build, I was curious if you’re doing Pistol/Shield or Pistol/Pistol.

Unless I’m being completely oblivious to an equippable grenade.

There is a grenade kit, and then there is a bomb kit. I use pistol/pistols but im looking to get an end game rifle . So my end game should be a rifle and a grenade kit, followed by all gear that gives power,prec and %crit damage. Squishy as hell but the AoE you deal is insane.

Yes, I know there’s a grenade kit. I was asking about your equipped offhand weapon accompanying your main hand pistol.

Engineer main; notorious multi-alter, so I’m not at the cap just yet. Nevertheless, you’ve only 3 weapons on land, and I’ve yet to find a use for a shield on any class. So now you’re down to two. Actually, you’re down to one. The Warrior has nifty attacks with a rifle; on the Engineer it’s… meh… Pistol / pistol is your only set worth considering (unless, of course, you play the Engineer differently to me, in which case you’ll tell me I’m talking complete nonsense… ).

Bomb kit. Bomb kit, bomb kit, bomb kit! How can you not be using the bomb kit? It’s utterly brilliant. If you are, you’ll be traiting Explosives, of course; Firearms is also good. Alchemy & Tools are more geared toward group play, as are elixirs. Since the game is still largely solo for me, I’m still only experimenting with these.

Turrets are good in solo play, but not in group play so far. Bosses in dungeons tend to one shot them, which makes them a wasted slot. Increasingly, I’ll switch to the bomb kit, whatever I’m doing (kite whilst dropping mines). For dungeons, it’s bomb kit, Elixir B & Flamethrower (occasionally Rifle Turret, as it’s a relatively short cd). I like the rocket turret, but it’s too long between uses if it gets killed. The net turret is useful if you know you’ll need CC. I’ve not found any real use for the thumper, and not even tried flame (I’ve got the flamethrower, why would I want two? ).

My guildmate swears by the Elixir Gun. I’ve not tried it out yet, so I can’t comment. Nevertheless, whilst all classes in GW2 are versatile, I can’t help feeling that the Engineer is the Jack-of-all-trades. I can’t wait to play more with all the possibilities!

@Raedwulf: You went into a Dungeon without a stun break? That sounds . . . dangerous.

In any case, I use different weapons for different for different situations. Rifle is my mainstay weapon, but in dungeons I prefer to bring Pistol/Shield for its strong control elements. The shield in particular is one of my favorite parts of the class; having a ranged attack reflect and knockback on one ability, and a block/stun or group double daze on another? That’s some REALLY strong control, and four different uses from only two abilities. It’s fantastic. If pistols didn’t scale so poorly with power I’d probably use it more often. Pistol/Pistol I mostly stay away from. Having not built crit or condition damage, it isn’t worthwhile.

For kits, Bomb is my absolute favorite. It does massive AoE damage when paired with power increases, creates Fire(which with blasts does some nice Might stacks) and Smoke fields for support and control. Smoke in particular is hugely useful in dungeons, as I can shut down entire enemy groups for several seconds with that. Even at ranged, sometimes it’s useful to swap to Bombs to make a fire of smoke field and then go back to my ranged weapon to capitalize on it. I haven’t tried them with the bomb heal on them yet, but I fully intend to once I can. That’ll just increase their use.

Grenades are good, especially for the chill on their #4. I don’t like using them as a primary weapon though. I find aiming them kind of a pain, and don’t enjoy it, so if I equip them I mainly use them for the poison fields and quick chills. The blind grenade is of course also useful though. Blinds always are, especially when they’re AoE.

Med Kit is my go-to heal skill, both for the 10s swiftness/fury every 20s, extra heals an quick-recharge heal toolbelt skill. Even the condition removal is great, allowing my to shrug off poison before I pop my heal if necessary. Nothing else even compares unless I run a specific elixir or turret build.

Elixir Gun I occasionally use for it’s #4 acid puddle – which stacks beautifully with power – and the light field/regen toolbelt. The swiftness/cripple #2 is good too, as is weakness on its autoattack when I want to run support. It’s #3 is pretty useless without bulding condition damage though.

Flamethrower seems build more for a crit damage build, with the way it “streams” its attack. It’s toolbelt, blind and AoE knockback are great though. As it’s it’s #2 with Power, if you can hit right with it. Its #4 flame wall is also excellent for giving might to allies with Blasts and stacking burning.

For utilities, I tend to stay away from turrets, although when I do use them the Net, Flame and Rocket turrets seem the best. The latter takes the cake there with it’s high damage output, but I do really like the flame turret’s blindness overcharge. Elixirs can be good, but mostly only if you spec for it. I prefer getting B and S for free from traits my traits when I hit 75% and 25% health respectively. Elixirs R and C and be good for support though. I alternate them in dungeons from time to time, depending on what we’re going against. Elixir C in particular is great if you get slammed with 8+ conditions by the necromancers in there, while R gives both “free” revives and a stun break.

Those are not my skills of choice, however. When using Bomb Kit, I tend to use the Slick shoes for an easy knockdown while circling with bombs, not to mention the awesome speed boost on its toolbelt. Jet boots also make for good accompaniment; they give you both a stun break and a Blast finisher to get might/stealth from your fields. For a more offensive/control option, the mine works very well as a blast finisher too, as does your Crate elite.

Other utilities end up being more situational for me. I haven’t tried the tool kit, hence its absence above, but from what I hear it’s a great defensive tool. The Personal Battering ram also came in use during – for instance – the Lovers fight in Ascalonian Catacombs. Goggles are one of the best stun breaks available given its amazing toolbelt skill. They all have different uses, and you can combine them into a lot of interesting builds.

It’s tough to figure out what traits go with what, but the general rule of thumb us…

Power: Rifle. It has a bleed effect, yes, but primarily it’s direct damage based. Also this will help your grenade and bomb kit quite a bit. Also key for flamethrower, although the flamethrower has some burn condition damage and can benefit from precision as well.

Precision: Dual pistols. They pour on the condition damage and AOE.

Toughness: If you’re insane like me and want to go heavy on turrets, this is the traitline for you. 30% denser, self-repairing, auto-big-booming turrets. I haven’t had any serious problems yet with this design in PVE, and it’s really helped on “hold this position and kill things” events, but I am only level 40 and I do swap out healturret/flamethrower for elixrh/elixrb when soloing.

The key with engineers is that they are very versatile, so before you pour all your traits into any one line, consider what you’ll be weak in as a result. Being a generalist is both a tough and an easier road than a pure DPS or pure support class has.

Weapon Kits far outstrip the normal Rifle/Pistols in terms of DPS, so it is generally better (from my experience) to consider one of those as your “main” weapon, and use Rifle/Pistols for Kiting/Condition damage on the side. Flamethrower, Grenades, and Bomb kits are your damage dealers.

I am currently a level 77 Sylvari Engineer, and I mainly use Grenades as my primary damage dealer. Using these (and being traited properly), I do at least 2x the damage my Pistol/Rifles do, to a group of monsters. I also like the Bomb Kit for the condition AoEs (Smoke Bomb in particular) and the Big Ol Bomb.

Regarding your question as for what goes with what (from my own experience):
Condition Damage goes with Flamethrowers/Pistols/Elixer Gun
Power goes with Grenades/Bombs (and Rifles, but you use them more for kiting; for the record Rifles only use power, with the exception of the small Bleed damage tacked onto Skill 3)
Elixer Gun is good support for any build
Turrets are okay if you properly trait for them (basically the Inventions trait line)
Underwater, Grenades are incredible

Healing Turrets should be picked up/detonated immediately after use, since the self-heal only occurs when it is placed. It does not (from what I can tell) heal others with a big chunk of health; it only heals others through Regeneration.

Zeta – thanks for that post. Much food for thought. Nice to see we agree about the bomb kit at least! Yes, I went in without a stun break. Stuns only last for 1-3s; They’re a nuisance, but not fatal usually, especially not in groups. Slows, I find, are far more lethal. The Flamethrower is good for its AoE. So far, I tend to trait for Power / Vit / Toughness. Crit’s don’t seem to me to do a great deal of extra damage, so I don’t see boosting that as particularly useful. Hitting several enemies at once, on the other hand… Oh no, hang on, that’s what the bomb kit is for…

I play dual pistols & flamethrower, firearms & alchemy to fit the flamethrower, does pretty well against multiple enemies without much hassle, can take a lot of damage.
Only doors and such suck as I do mostly condition damage.

My current build
Now some explanations on traits:
*Firearms line improves both crits and condition dmg – very nice for basic pistol skills, elixir gun and rocket boots toolbelt skill. Also crits are causing vulnerability, it works the best with Fumigate, it’s possible to make up to 8 stacks in 2 sec. Sometimes I’m switching to flamethrower in solo pve, then I can stack the most vulnerability
*Inventions line gives me some healing power (always nice with so many healing abilities) and toughness which is (along with healing) converted into power – raw dmg without investing in power directly
*Alchemy scales well with elixir skills, especially when I’m supporting a bit by tossing elixirs and using elixir gun (that’s almost half of my skills). It also gives me ability to chase or escape from enemies (swiftness trait)

About skills:
*Elixir H gives the best self sustain and ability to keep moving in combat without any limitations like healing turret cast and healing aura range. Also I can toss this elixir improving defenses of allies
*Rocket Boots are the best escape mechanic for engineer, kinda trololo skill. Toolbelt skill is very nice for close-gapping, deals pretty high dmg and improves dmg of Blowtorch (combo: 3->F2->4 or F2->3->4)
*Elixir B is the most useful for its swiftness, makes traveling more bereable. Also good skill to initiate solo fights against veterans. Tossing this elixir on group of allies can greatly speedup events
*Elixir gun is the best supportive weapon. Has better range than pistols (good for WvW) and applies the same conditions. 2 abilities removing conditions (+light combo field) and spammable AoE swiftness. Bonus escape skill, similar to Rocket Boots, works like bonus dodge (nobody catches Skyman!). Toolbelt skills is very nice when there’s no guardian around, provides decent sustain to everyone around
*Supply Crate is for my lack of Healing Turret and all other turrets, provides very good utility, but in pretty small area. Even if turrets are pretty squishy, still much better choice than golems or mortar

That build doesn’t include items, however I’m aiming for Rampager’s items and some accesories with toughness/healing power

I was running crit-thrower on my lvl 80 for insane cone farming(elixir B + flamethrower kit and 30 in the tree for the Juggernaut trait – the trait that grants vulnerability on crit made me a machine). But they recently nerfed the stability out of Juggernaut in favor of might stacks. Not the worst, but my survivability went way down and when you need to be up close to spam cone dmg, you cant be getting CC’d.

So I repec’d turrets, and found them to be great for farming while AFK in cursed shore. But little else since the cool downs are too long and the refire rate is pitiful.

I settled on Dual Pistols and a full Alchemy build – 30 Firearms for the pistol range, cooldown, and pierce upgrades and 30 alchemy for the recharge, duration increase, and extra might. I put the extra 10 into power for flat dmg and 33% chance to burn on crit. Basically you run with all elixirs equipped such that you can keep boons on you at all times and really, really, increase your pistol damage. Elixir B is amazing, 4 boons for 13s including Fury for crit chance, on a 32s CD. after 13s you can use the toolbelt version and toss it at yourself for 13 more sec of sweet goodness. You healing elixir works the same way and now gives you might as well. I use the quickness elixir for insane dmg while all buffed up and the toolbelt of that with put down a random combo field for you to shoot thru (even more dmg or effects). Lastly is either the shrink elixir for 3s invulnerability or the conversion elixir for those tough poison/cripple mobs. Nothing like seeing 3 negative effects become 3 positive boons! So good for PVP.

So yeah, thats how im rolling out. Your pierce pistols plus buffs and crit chance make you a monster DPS machine with lots mobility (you’ll always have swiftness on thanks to Elixir B and the healing one)

For dps’ing there are 2 main mindsets and stat setups.

You have pistol spec’s utilizing + condition damage. These spec’s can utilize most of the kits, such as grenade, elixir gun, bomb, and flamethrower. I know a few specs that try to use tool but it doesn’t workout to well. Additionally turrets such as flame, rifle, and rocket work really well in condition damage builds.

The other dps builds utilize power and crit damage with the rifle. They center around kits such as the grenade kit, bomb kit, and tool kit. Some try to work the flamethrower in as a power weapon but it’s very limited and hard to use. Power builds also tend to use gadgets like PBR, and mines, as well as rocket turret, and rifle turret for their tool belt abilities.

It’s important to keep in mind that a lot of kits, and elixirs double in both specs. In power you use elixirs for the power from might and you use grenade for it’s toolbelt ability and #1 and #3 abilites. Where with condition you use elixirs for + condition damage from might and the condition attacks of #2-5.

The trait lines double up as well explosives, firearms, and alchemy are used heavily in both spec’s. Alchemy supports elixirs and offers our only real survivability through stats and traits, as well as condition removal, protection on CC, and might on elixir use with the passive + boon duration. Explosives gives the power needed in power builds along with traits that give vulnerability and raw + damage to certain attacks, for condition damage specs it gives condition duration and condition on crit traits to make even power abilities like bomb and grenade #1 have the chance to give conditions.

Firearms provides crit and + damage to power specs, and + condition damage and things like + 20% burn duration to condition specs.

The odd traits line are tools which is almost a must for power builds but to fit into condition builds, and inventions which seems to not really fit in with power or condition builds, although there are a few tanky turret condition builds.

Power builds are typically stuck needing to go into explosives, tools, and firearms to maximize crit, power, and crit damage to deal worthwhile damage. This doesn’t leave much flexibility to go into alchemy, and has lead to a lot of split builds such as 25, 10, 0, 10 25 or 20, 20, 0, 20, 10 or 30, 20, 0, 0, 20. Power builds also tend to use 1-2 kits, which restricts space on the utility bar for condition removal and cc break skills, they also tend to use more melee spec’s with rifle, grenade, and bomb kit. This makes condition builds a lot more durable.

I’ve been 80 for a while and I’ve been playing with different builds. From what I’ve played with, I would say for pure dps in pve, grenades are the best.

My current spec for traits is 30/10/0/20/10 with these major traits:
Incendiary power: Burning is great for a little extra dps, and since you can already reliably stacking bleed and since I’m running at about 50% crit, I would rather have a 33% to apply burns rather than a 6% per charge to apply bleed.
Short Fuse: no explanation
Granadier: Again no explenation needed, if you do not take this trait and are using grenades please go shoot yourself
Precise Sights: Makes it easy to stack 25 stacks of vul meaning 25% more damage on longer fights aka boss fights or dungeon mobs
Fast-Acting Elixers: Reduce CD on elixers
Blood Injection or Backpack Regenerator: First offers more condition damage, other offers little more survivability
Static Discharge: Great trait, hits for about 2k-ish and can chain to 3 other mobs for me

Utilities:
Med Kit: Utility heal means it can activate static discharge also this kit provides a speed boost, and 3 med kits if you want to place them, and some condition removal
Tool Kit: The utility belt skill is amazing, 20 second cd and hits for a decent amount, also hits the mob twice. The kit itself provides nice skill such as a cripple, 2 second invul and a pull.
Elixer U: Quickness pop it to need a fast burn
Grenade Kit: Obviously
Supply Kit: 2 second stun on mobs, nice support turrets along with med kits. Mobs also love turrets and usually go for them right away.

I started out using a rifle and did like the CC – however disliked that there were not as many conditions. So I switched to doublepistol. Now I did miss the CC (with the exception of gluehot). Up to that point I never actually used the shield, but played AC Storymode with shield jsut to try it out and actually found it extremly helpfull. Multistunn + block + reflect projectiles + pushawa/knock down enemies is extremly powerfull.
So since Im using pistol/shield I decided to go for conditiondmg. This works nicely with using the bombkit (+slickshoes in PvP).
In the other two slots I usually equip a rocketturent and Elixir B for additional dmg and a speedbost.
If I encounter a boss or any mob I do not wish to fight at close range I swap the bombkit for the elixirgun, witch also profits from equipment focusing on conditiondamage.
I use the elixier heal (mainly because it grants a chance for speed) and the supplycrate (stunn + heal are helpfull for using the bombkit) on land and ElixirX under water (the whirlwind is just insanely powerfull.
In WvWvW I swap bombs for granades and the supplycrate for the motar.

Concerning trades: I filled explosives and Invention and put the remaining 10 point into firearms. Relevant trades are: larger bomb radius, reduced bomb cooldown, +10dmg from explosions, cause vulnerability on crit, become invisible when imobalized, larger supply crate/longer elixirX and (pve only) bombs heal allies.

Concernign stats: I went for Conditiondamage, Precision and thoughness, giving me a great damage output and enough protection in order not to die even when moving close to my enemies.

This build works great and – to me so far – makes the engeneere pretty much the easiest to play class (i have played mesmer and nerco for a relevant time, and tested most of the others so that is not an absolute statement).

Valkaneer.7834:

Hello,
Also one last question, I see people out there saying there having and EZ time on there engineer, but every single one of them has been using the bomb kit. I really don’t care for bomb kits. Bomb kits are so gimmicky, you run around in a circle and throw down bombs. That to me is the most sad use of skill and most boring. Is there other builds that are just as effective but don’t use bombs?

Part of your biggest problem in my opinion is the fact that you developed several wrong ideas about the profession, right from the start. I believe the general consensus is that bombs (and grenades, since they are similar only ranged) are quite good for damage and function very well.

Valkaneer.7834:

Also one last question, I see people out there saying there having and EZ time on there engineer, but every single one of them has been using the bomb kit. I really don’t care for bomb kits. Bomb kits are so gimmicky, you run around in a circle and throw down bombs. That to me is the most sad use of skill and most boring. Is there other builds that are just as effective but don’t use bombs?

I’ve been having a pretty easy time focusing on turrets. I use pistol/shield with healing turret, rifle turret, rocket turret, net turret, and supply crate. For large groups/small areas, I’ll switch rifle and/or net for thumper and/or flame turrets.

I’m just waiting on them to fix the deployable turrets trait.