Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone!

Returning player here. Been getting into my classes slowly and enjoying my new specs like Chrono, Daredevil, and Dragonhunter. Having fun with them!

But returned to my Engi and just did not have fun, tried scrapper and was underwhelmed. I am someone who likes to specialize a class for a role, but I am stuggling to find a good fit for my Engi. Looked at some builds, but did not see anything that appealed to me. Holosmith looks really cool though, and might save the class for me.

He used to be my main WvW character, but dunno, just not finding him fun anymore.

I see from some of the posts that the Engi got some nerfs over the years I have not played. Howver apart from viability I also look for fun in a character, and what I enjoy about GW2 is that each profession has unique mechanics.

So wondering what people have fun playig as an Engi, how does his toolbelt or kits make playing the Engi worthwhile for you?

I think the lack of replies speaks volumes. My engi used to be my main too…

But not to be just a downer, I’ve found that a burning condi base engi (not scrapper) still works well in WvW with pistol/pistol.

Pre-HoT: Many viable ways to play, lots of options to adjust playstyle during a fight, well rounded balanced builds possible, lots of combos and setups, decent reward for skillful play but punishing when making mistakes.

Post-HoT: individualism, stubbornness, not wanting to master another class, a bit of self-hate I guess.

I was a druid main back in WoW, and it was because I was able to do everything I wanted in one character. It was the jack of all trades, and that’s how I feel Engi is.

Although not all builds are optimized or even viable, there’s still the ability to play whatever role you want across the many kits, and I like having the option to play differently from day to day on the same character.

Engi has been my main for a long time. Originally I got into the class because it has a lot of diverse skills that all felt different from each other whereas other classes all fit a theme.

Nowadays I still love engi and its still my main but I mostly just like the skills and play style. There are some good builds I have that are effective and it actually makes me a bit happy when I’m running in WvW groups and people admire how engi can fill multiple roles at the same time (say power scrapper but running Elixir Gun for group cleanse) since a lot of WvW players look down upon medium armored classes.

I do hope they revisit more skills and traits the same way they did explosives. Firearms needs a look as well as some inventions traits. I’d like to see inventions have a more defined group support role. Also rifle and mortar kit rework would be nice.

Before HoT arrived I played Engineer because of the variety of ways you can play Engineer. It was also a Profession that focus on being the Gun Class/Job for GW2 and I really love Gun Class/Jobs during that time.

Now with Elite Specs that can provide new weapons and gameplay styles, it is really more of sticking with it in hopes of a future Elite Spec that catch my interests. Engineer has potential to create some interesting Elite Specs if the developers are not afraid to go a extra mile with design.

In HoT, they played things safe with Scrapper by having not changed much from Core Engineer.

PoF Elite Spec, the Holosmith, is more to move into that extra mile range by changing up Engineer’s gameplay style.

Engineer theme also provide some unique opportunity to take up different weapons and gameplay styles as well such as a Technomancer Elite Spec as the Staff weapon spec mastering Technology that allows the Engineer to manipulate Magive to provide support/Utility to allies and offensive attacks or a more Creator Elite Spec that use Mace to craft defensive modification that apply to allies and the Engineers.

There was a time I could hastily scrape up whatever skills and traits when some synergy came in mind and made it work. Both for PvE and PvP. To be honest it’s the solidification of meta builds that ruined it for me as there’s no reason for many people not to run or request the most effective dps builds in PvE. And you’ll get yelled at if you’re not a hammer mender scrapper in PvP.

What makes Engineer fun for me. Well I like sci-fi over fantasy so the Engineer naturally was the class for me.

But why do I like the class?
Well it’s really just the way I play it. Let me break it down. In WvW I run a base Engineer with berserker gear. I use rifle, healing turret, elixers, rocket turret and mortar kit. I know a lot of people are gonna be like “what the heck kind of build is that? it’s useless.” but I have so much fun using it and it took me 4 years of experimenting with just about everything else to come to the build I now use.

Not sure what else to say.

clearly you don’t like support role, that’s why you dont like scrapper, nor jack of all trade that can do everything
all you like is cheese insta damage, according to the classes you like now

I play it for the flexibility and the freedom to do what I want. The engineer is not seen as a powerful ally in most game-modes. We have the repuation to be hard to master, difficult to play with an unrewarding effort/result ratio. That usually scares off the idiots and wannabes you come across the ranks of e.g. daredevils, heralds, berserkers or tempests. It is not a class you pick and are pro for walking in circles and smashing a few buttons in order.

If you stick to the class for a longer time, you learn a lot about game-mechanics in total. Combos, synergy between traits & skills and how to survive lethal blows. We have a huge, nearly endless variety of gadgets and toys which we can utilize for each situation.

But that flexibility comes with a price, dps. Nearly every class/elite out there, except for durid, easily outdamages us. Our condition-damage is good, sometimes seen nearly equal to that of necromancers – depends on who you ask. In PvP we are feared for our survivability and speed.

I still enjoy it as in my first week and I still find new stuff. I play my own builds and it is fun. Some of us obey the meta, worship it as the only true god and WP as their devine prophet. Whatever they like. To each his own. Imho the class offers enough variety for us all.

CC and blasting fields with Rifle+Flamethrower is still the most fun playstyle for me in the game. Its viability on serious content, of course, is minimal.

The scrapper was actually decent at launch, but admittedly Anet dropped the bomb on that class about 3 months after the release of HoT. Today that elite is quite lumbering than it use to be, and I have to say I haven’t bothered with the hammer since. Sadly, I feel holosmith is going to suffer the same fate 3 months from now, but we’ll see if Anet listened to our beta feedback and properly balanced the class for launch.

Despite that, the rest of the engineer is enjoyable. It’s not a profession for everyone and at the end of the day you just have to pick something that synergizes with your play style. For me, I prefer a jack of all trades profession that can do it all with good results. Other professions excel in one area and are poor in another, the engineer is quite balanced across the board.

purely from a raid perspective:

1) terrific dps if you know how to play condi. Clocking in at 34K, condi engi is a top tier dps alongside condi dps warrs, condi daredevils, and tempests.
2) high value in raid squads cuz of pinpoint distribution. No squad will say no to a competent condi engi.
3) fast paced ‘piano’ play style. I hated this when i first started learning how to play condi engi, but now I just can’t play any other class because they feel boring to play in comparison.
4) high survivability. Adrenal implant trait along with a decent health pool makes it extremely easy to survive raid encounters on an engi.

Healing bombs. Oh wait…