Guild Wars 2

I know next to nothing about Engineers. It’s the only class I have never considered but now I am because it seems like every class I want to play is weak (Ranger, Necro, Guardian). I like to DPS and I already have an 80 Warrior but I want to do well in PvP and PvE not one or the other.

So can you guys tell me the strengths and weaknesses of Engineer and what they excel at that other professions can’t do as well?

Most classes seem to be able to spec into whatever role they prefer. That being said, Engineer does have a few things that it is very good at. I don’t have personal experience with all of them, but I have read a bunch of stuff on the interwebz.

Engineers can trait into tankiness. One of his Traits gives him bonus Toughness while using a Flamethrower. It’s a Grandmaster Skill, which means that you’ve already put 30 points into that tree, meaning that you’ve got +300 Precision and +30 Condition Damage. Spec your items with Precision, Power, and Toughness, and the only thing seperating you from <a href="http://www.operatorchan.org/k/src/134890023413.jpg">this</a> is that you don’t have wheels.

They can also trait into Conditioning. Dual Pistols allows you to inflict almost every condition there is. Spec for Condition Duration and Damage, and you’re the Necromancer’s best friend (since his abilities turn conditions into damage).

I personally stack DPS with the Rifle. I build Power, Precision, Critical Damage, and build into Firearms, Explosives, and Alchemy.

The thing to remember is that Engineers are incredibly versatile. If I’m running solo, I equip Prayer to Lyssa (a Human skill) for it’s Condition/Boon ability, Elixir Gun to Condition my foe and additional self-healing, Rocket Turret for CC, and Supply Drop for emergencies. When I’m in WvW, I swap the Elixir Gun for the Flamethrower to do crazy AoE, and Supply Drop with Elixir X for Beast Mode. If I’m defending a Tower or Keep, I go with Rifle, Flame, Healing, and Rocket Turret, with Supply Drop to harass.

I’m sure you’ll love the Engineer. He’s really fun and very versatile. You can Support, Tank, DPS, Condition, or any other combination, and still be awesome.

My favorite thing about being an Engineer is his amazing ability to “Get out of Dodge”. By equipping a Rifle, and using the Elixir Gun, Rocket Boots, and Prayer to Lyssa, and traiting for increased rang, I can be 2,500+ meters away in seconds. I can even lock down my enemy with the Net before leaving, just to be safe. This is by far my favorite way to survive WvW when I’m alone.

I think that an engineer using several kits, has access to more tricks than any other profession.

Not that all those tricks are as effective as some of the fewer things others can do… but I still think that’s the key: we seem to be the most divers profession in the game.

Noctis.2738:

every class I want to play is weak (Ranger, Necro, Guardian)

Wait…what?!

I main an Engineer at 80, and although I have 0 problems, my Hammer-Guardian alt can just obliterate everything it touches in half the time and with half the risks as the Engineer…and I’ve yet to see anyone have ANY issues with a Ranger besides them being boring to play (or so I hear). If you think those professions are “weak”, you’ll be in for a real treat for the first 35 levels as an Engineer, especially if you can’t kite, or ground-target your Grenade throws properly.

Im really not trying to be rude here, but Im seeing the “FotM” train coming through our station pretty soon.

Not saying that’s what he means, but it seems to, that a lot of folks finding the challenge level consistent due to the game design, confuse that as a lack of strenth progression in their character.

Everyone I have talked to agrees there’s nothing a Ranger can do that another class cannot do better.

This might be the first time I’ve seen someone unironically say that guardians are weak (GS nerf forum blowup aside).

Awesome.6120:

This might be the first time I’ve seen someone unironically say that guardians are weak (GS nerf forum blowup aside).

Exactly my thoughts too…

I had to read that 3 times.

If you put 5 points into Virtues, and 15 into Radiance to get Renewed Justice (probably the best trait in the GAME), which gives 5 stacks of Might, a Burn, and a Blind every time you kill a enemy…that right there allows you to pretty much crush anything right off the bat. Add in Empowering Might, and thats game baby.

I meant weak by Warrior standards. A Warrior can put up numbers the Guardian can only dream of from what I have seen.

If your standards are putting up warrior numbers then run (don’t walk) away from engi.

Why leave engineer?

A glass cannon engineer can do as much damage as a glass cannon warrior, only the engineer can sustain it with grenades.

You think so? Warriors always seem to put out way more damage than me but I haven’t run grenades in awhile.

Coming from an engineer with over 400 hours, you will be sorely dissapointed if you are wanting high dps.

The thing that engineers excel at is crowd control we have the most CC in the game and pretty much every weapon, kit, gadget, and or turret has built in CC. Elixir skills being the exception.

Most kits actually have 2 CC abilities.

We get tons of AoE KBs. FT, Thumper turret, Big ’ol bomb, mortar, elixir X, shield #4, trait-ed turrets, mines

As well as 2 ST KBs overcharged shot + PBR

We get tons of cripple / chill AoE skills. Grenade 4, bomb 5, pistol 5, toolkit 2, mortar 2/4.

We get them in the ST variety as well, pbr, throw wrench with trait, net shot with trait, any attack with explosives trait, net turret tool belt with rifle trait, tool kit 1 with trait.

We get plenty of aoe and ST immobilize’s glue shot / bomb, net shot, net turret, net turret tool belt, supply crate

We have a few AoE / ST KD’s / Stuns slick shoes, rocket turret, shield 5, supply crate.

We get plenty of blinds / blind fields. Bomb 4, grenade 3, pistol 3, rifle with trait, FT 5, explosives trait, elixir U tool belt, flame turret activate.

We have so much CC it is a bit silly when you swap to another profession and take a look.

So what I’ve found the engineers niche to be is providing control. I have enough of it I can keep people / mobs / bosses locked down and out of the way.

Which really helps when your trying to land gtaoe grenades!

Net turret saves lives! and grenade barrage cool downs!

Engineers are a sort of jack-of-all trades class that may not excell in any one area like another class might, but using kits you can adapt to almost any sort of playstyle and tactics that may be needed at any time.

Just try not to dwell on the small selection of equipable weapons which for Engi is Pistols(Main and Off), Rifle, Shield and Harpoon Gun as well as the lack of weapon swapping available during combat as this is replaced by the fact you can equip weapon kits such as a flame thrower or grenades.

Also I find you want to keep an eye on the F1-F4 abilities each kit gives you.

The jack of all trades, master of none impression is a complete myth. The reality is that engineer has the least viable builds of any profession in any game mode. In PvE you have grenades, and that is literally it. There isn’t any other build that comes anywhere close to the strength of a grenade build in PvE. In PvP the class excels at point defense and sucks at pretty much everything else. You aren’t tanky. You have no stability. You do no damage. But what you can do is provide a magical mix of tankiness, self healing, and CC that makes engineer a beast in point defense.

Don’t believe the “Jack of all trades” crap. It is completely wrong. The engineer in its current iteration is a specialist profession.

I played engineer about 200 hours now, and I really still don’t know?
They are a jack-of-all class, but what are they aswell?
Not a clue!

Carpet bombing with grenades. no one else can lay down the constant aoe damage engineers can.

That’s about it.

In terms of WvW, this is my 2 cents (TL;DR at the end of this post):
The thing about the versatility from the engineer is also, that you almost never have the utilities you need in a certain situations equipped. Granted, we have everything (most of it kind of random in its effect to be honest), but we have to decide to put certain stuff in our button bar and leave certain stuff out.

There have been numerous situations in which I thought “If only I had ability/kit/tool/whatever X set-up before I went into this fight plus a completely different spec”.
We can counter a lot, but only if we anticipated what (class/spec) will be coming towards you (impossibru).

This basically means we have to respec according to whom we’re running with.
Is it your regular zerg, a group of 5, or roaming alone? All lead to different specs and button bar configurations.

You’re running with the regular zerg (and the according spec) and have to run supplies on your own and meet an enemy player (1v1), I’m usually dead, no matter the class (except hes a bad player and/or upscaled to 80).

You’re running a tanky spec roaming alone with all sorts of escape mechanics and then meet up with a small group you suddenly realise you can’t kill stuff. Porting back to warcamp, respeccing and organizing button bar changing gear…. then you go back to your group and on your way being jumped by one enemy player and you’re dead again, wishing you didn’t respec.

If you have the right spec and button bar configuration for the right situation everything is fine though. Of course lower damage compared to other dps classes… but its fun to play the engineer and you feel like you can contribute or at least stand your ground and don’t be a burden on your group.

The most fun I had with the engineer up to today is with:

- pushing people that hide inside keeps/towers off cliffs with shield or rifle
- being super tanky (but doing neglectable damage) and outliving/following dps classes (especially when you feel, they just burned all their amazing cooldowns and don’t know what to do anymore). Most of the time they decide to get away and I just follow them and slow/weaken all the time for minutes and keep them from achieving their goal. This is 1v1 or 2v1 of course.
- seeing splash damage you put out into a huge blob (very situational though) in a pistol spec.
- elixier gunning fumigate through gates (probably getting fixed sometime), and dropping an acid bomb
- throwing grenades off of walls as a keep defender in condition specc and see many condition numbers pop up (this is a pain though, because of clipping line of sight on walls and survivability)
- making great escapes by using elixir guns acid bomb while being invisible/stealthed. Those great escapes usually only last a small amount of time due to the amazing mobility many other professions have
- using LoS, like running around rocks/stairs/walls, running up them and jumping down on the other side in a half condition damage half tanky build to annoy enemy players, while doing damage (this is something other classes can do as well, I figure).

Most of the time I feel too squishy or too weak on the dps side though and hope I never meet other players in 1v1 without LoS blocking objects I can run around, because I’d definitely be in the wrong spec when I meet them and/or have the wrong utilities/kits/tools on my button bar.

Don’t get me wrong…. I do not have an alt and play exclusively on my engi and have loads of hours /played, nor do I consider me to be a bad player (but maybe I am, who knows). Also I dont want to qq. After hundreds of hours played, I got the impression the engineer is kind of random in every respect, though.

All the videos you find about how awesome an engineer against 1 or 2 enemies is, and how much damage you can put out, usually show upscaled and/or bad enemy players and luck on the engineers side.

Since I do not know how playing other classes in WvW feels, I can’t tell if its different at their end. Maybe its the same (situational/random feeling) for them…

I heard +healing would be scaling very good with engineers skills and bought all neccessary gear and specced accordingly, but I didn’t feel I could contribute enough, because I couldn’t really see the result, except some healing numbers from Super Elixir from my Elixir Gun ability. Maybe we should see the healing effect from the waterfield/blast combo in numbers as well.

The ability to defend a point in sPvP in the according spec is almost silly though.

TL;RD: We engineers have loads of abilities, yes, but its all very situational and you most likely have the wrong spec/button bar config/gear for any given situation. This assessment on my end is biased towards WvW.

Casia.4281:

Carpet bombing with grenades. no one else can lay down the constant aoe damage engineers can.

Yeah, hard to aim and hit people with and easy to avoid (in a WvW setting that is)

Engineer has tools for every single situation you can encounter. The key is to have experience to select the right skill for the right situation, and to execute offensive and defensive skill combos based on what skills you currently have equipped.

People whine about grenade being the only viable build for PvE, without acknowledging that grenade builds far outstrips many optimal builds other classes have as well. A rifle or P/P build, while inferior to grenades, is about equal with optimal builds from certain other classes.

Engineer is easy to learn, hard to master. Most people have no concept of zoning, leading, or predicting where enemies will be when using grenades in WvW at max range. At max range, grenades are use for zoning – discouraging enemies from staying at a specific location, and encouraging them to move into areas you want them to be. For example, a typical application of zoning in a siege situation is to lay down grenades to force enemies either outside of attack range, or into attack range of 1200 range AoEs. You do you this by aiming grenades at around the 1300-1400 range. They will either have to retreat beyond 1500 range, or get into 1200 range…or they can tank the damage. With close to 3,000 DPS from grenades on a geared lvl 80, nobody can tank for long.

Aside from zoning, grenades are used for massive short range AoE in a zerg vs zerg (very much like a shortbow rogue and cluster bombs). You pick a flank, start from, say, 1800 range, put up swiftness, and move forward while tossing nades at exactly the same area. This will queue your nades while they are in midair so 3-4 volleys at the same location at the same time, and you can apply grenade barrage as well. Needless to say, anyone in that target area is going to have a very bad day.

In a 1 vs 1, grenades can provide a lot of unavoidable damage at short to mid range. Lead the target by about 0.5 seconds short range, and 1 second mid range. Grenades have large enough a radius that you WILL hit them unless they dodge, and if they are dodging then they aren’t doing damage to you…and they can’t keep it up forever.

Grenades are especially useful in a 1 vs 2, or if you are trying to kill downed enemies while other enemies are still active. Again, 3000 DPS is nothing to sneeze at, and this is before all the conditions that can be applied.

Mix grenades up with rifle or p/s skills and you can take on 1 vs 2 easier than anybody except a Mesmer or Thief…and you kill faster than a Mesmer, and is hardier than a thief. A good Engineer can be very dangerous whether solo, in a small group, or part of a zerg.

TL;DR Engineers have a high skill ceiling. Grenades aren’t just for spamming at max range in WvWvW. Once you learn the synergies among various skills you’d be able to excel at a number of roles.

Flamethrower is also a viable option. I played a grenade build from lvl 15 to 80, but it just got boring to me. I now use a 10/30/0/30/0 build that does almost as much damage, but gives me more survivability. With juggernaut and elixer b, I usually sit around 8 or 9 stacks of might. I do around 2k per autoattack not counting the bleed procs and fire. It’s awesome for tagging mobs in Orr as well.

AOE and knockbacks. We have more of those two types of skills than almost every other class combined.

The biggest weakness of the class is no reliable access to stability. If only toolbelt elixer S always gave you stability…sigh.

Complaining and getting monsters to chase them around the room.
They also excel at crowd control and support.
There’s also a few burst builds out there if that’s your thing.

i don’t know about the engineer class.

Coming from a PvE point a view, turrets are decent for support and absorbing hits, grenades deal good damage, and pistol offers lots of conditions. Also engineers do good buffs and abilities with their aoe tool kit elixier spells.

From a Pvp stand point, well….. you can spec into being a tankish character who guards a point area. Their damage is not that great in PvP, and turrets are rarely used, but that’s about all that goes for them.

If you are doing a premade, get with a necromancer and use dual pistols for conditioning damage. If you are in a group of 5 players, go elixer gun and spec for elixers so you can buff your whole team.

Also their ultimates are pretty nifty. They can supply drop stun a group of players, and provide healing.

The rocket cannon thing is not so great, but it gives a person a range attack in WvW

So yea, that’s what i think of the engineer. It could use some PvP buffs that’s about it.

Zandur.5012:

The jack of all trades, master of none impression is a complete myth. The reality is that engineer has the least viable builds of any profession in any game mode.

Now see you had me there till you got to the part will you shoot out a complete myth as if it were true.

The jack of trades thing is a myth. Every class in this game is a jack of all trades.

The viability of builds comment is absolutely incorrect. From what I have seen, it is more an issue with limited skill and mentality. By that I mean many people have difficulty thinking outside of the box when it comes to builds and how to play them. As far as I am concerned, the engineer as a whole is an “outside the box” profession, but that’s just my opinion.

I find the engineer excels at being kitten fun to play I love the way the kits completely change the gameplay of the engineer (more so than any weapon set on other classes imho).
Seriously though, the thing an engineer currently excels at is sustained long-range AoE direct damage (aka grenade spam). Not very elegant, but undeniably effective (low-risk, high-damage).

Oh and also of note, engineer can totally “cheat” at jumping puzzles with Jump Shot.

I think one really big thing that needs to be looked at for engineers is the nature of their range.

P/P: melee. even with 900 or 1000 range, pistol 2’s real range is 300, pistol 4’s range is 300, pistol 5 is like 400.
Rifle: melee. Same deal even with 1000 and 1100, net needs to be within 500 to actually hit. blunderbuss is melee. overcharged is melee. leap is melee.

I don’t understand why both pistols and rifle have 90% of their abilities to be effectively melee skills.

Flamethrower. melee.
Bombs. melee.
Turrets. meleeish… 4are melee(net, thumper, heal, flame) effectiveness of rifle and rocket at range drops off dramatically. much like grenades. they can. but every easy to avoid.
Wrench. melee.
Grenade. yeah. ranged!! but need to be melee to actually land over 50% of the time as well.
Mines, gadgets. almost all are melee as well.

Agro i would say, feels like i allways get chased no mater if its PVE or PVP

@Coglin

Just to clarify, I think engineer has the least number of viable PvP builds, which is different than saying the class is underpowered. But you and I always end up in this same spot, with me urging you to stick to the issues being discussed instead of blaming the players for perceived problems of the class. If my claim is incorrect, I’m sure a smart guy like you can prove it empirically instead of resorting to “your just bad / uncreative.”

Zandur.5012:

@Coglin

Just to clarify, I think engineer has the least number of viable PvP builds, which is different than saying the class is underpowered. But you and I always end up in this same spot, with me urging you to stick to the issues being discussed instead of blaming the players for perceived problems of the class. If my claim is incorrect, I’m sure a smart guy like you can prove it empirically instead of resorting to “your just bad / uncreative.”

I agree with this dude on the ‘least number of viable pvp builds’ thing. Grenadier and Static discharge/Rifle spam builds are the only two that can do competitive damage with other classes, and Bunker Bombs is pretty much the best point holding build you can have in sPvP. There’s so many skills that just aren’t up to snuff for pvp (Tool kit, Flamethrower, turrets) we just can’t incorporate them into our build lineup and be decent with it. If they tweaked skills around and improved our skill selection (scale turret damage, fix half of our traits so they work on what they’re meant to) then we’ll definitely have the MOST viable pvp builds.

versatility and the only profession who can get away with stacking healing power in an offensive build

between rifle 5 and perma swiftness… jump puzzles are my kitten

Engineers excel at combos. I know that might not actually be directly related to a role, but it really is noticeable when in group play against large numbers of enemies.

Cribbage.2056:

Engineers excel at combos. I know that might not actually be directly related to a role, but it really is noticeable when in group play against large numbers of enemies.

This I agree with. We have a decent number of accessible Blast Finishers.

It’s lovely for PvE. I have a Mesmer I work with and between the 2 of us, we can coordinate putting up AoE Chaos Armor.

I use it for SPvP too when I’m playing with people who like putting down fields (Guardians, Elementalists)

TurtleMuncher.9750:

Coming from an engineer with over 400 hours, you will be sorely dissapointed if you are wanting high dps.

Seriously? The one thing we lack is high burst aoe. Barrage isn’t bad for that, but it’s only 1 skill. Try building 30/20/0/0/20 (player choice, explosive powder, grenadier, rifled barrels, rifle mod, speedy kits, static discharge) with Superior Runes of the Wurm in Berserker gear + Berserker jewels + Sigil of Superior Air on your rifle. Utilities are Rifle Turret (just use the Toolbelt skill), Grenade Kit, and Tool Kit (again, mainly for the Toolbelt skill). Use your toolbelts on CD while holding your rifle and tell me that isn’t satisfactory burst dps.