Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone, I’ve seen a few of these posts in other Forums, and wanted to start one here!

I’ve been playing Mesmer for quite a while, but decided to shelf it for now. Now I’m trying to pick a new class. Hopefully you all won’t mind discussing how engi is currently doing, along with what you feel are its strengths and weaknesses.

Just some ideas, talk about whatever you feel like:
s/tPvP – easiest/hardest opponents
WvW – Roaming, Havoc, Zerg
PvE – Dungeons/Fractals
Skill Floor/Ceiling for the class
Is Engi the least played class, or are they all hiding from me?

Thanks everyone!

It’s weird. Whenever I join an Arah or Fractal pug, people always ask if I have another class. Engineer has been my main since launch, and I’ve slowly been working on gearing up a Guardian as well.

I mostly PvE, and lots of people just don’t understand what the class can do. They usually assume no utility and low DPS. I’ve got a full zerker ascended set on my Engi, enjoy playing the keyboard like a piano, and am pretty content.

PvP is another story. People like engis there.

high skill floor and ceiling
i have never been asked to switch classes in a fractal, but i havent really done many over 30 primarily because i care more about wvw and therefore have wvw infusions instead of AR (but i have 4 or 5 back pieces and capped fractal bags on each of my 8 alts and a stack of 80 pristines i havent used since before they changed them to drop from 1-9)
no one has ever complained about my class in dungeons, but again it might have something to do w/ having the predator and looking totally hawt/kitten or having 12k ap
i do everything in wvw, i can even solo keeps (ive only done it once cuz ppl always come but i didnt need luck to kill the lord). i have won 1v3s, 2v5s, 5v10s, and i do fine in zergs (as a back line dps). some mesmers and p/d thieves and eviscerate give me trouble. you can make most other classes run.

engi is really fun and will ruin you for other classes

My daily routine as an engineer in my home bl:

-First look around to recap any camps. Its pretty easy on an engineer, just aggro them all, turn on a corner and watch them all pile on you. Proceed to bomb them away. Bombs do pretty good damage even with low attack.

-Protect any upgraded camp being threatened by nike warriors with turrets. If more than two people show up, focus on surviving until help arrives. Engineers are pretty hard to kill if you dont have a specialized condition user.

- Run to any tower being attacked. Switch to flamethrower for rams, nades for catas close to wall. Be a hero.

-Recap upgraded camp that just got zerged.

- Join own zerg and nade the enemy zerg.

-Repeat.

So yeah, you’ll find everything you need for an engineer just a trait and utility slot switch away for wvw.

Myself a main of the engineer, this though took me awhile to decide on this. I always thought I wanted what other players brought to a party. The Engi though does bring a lot of everything.

We are not a mainstream profession in PVE that’s down to lack of understanding of what a good engineer player can do. Now I am not the best Engineer player but after the amount of hours I have put in to it I wont be changing.

I also have a guardian but he feels a bit like a lump of junk just does nothing.

Engineers are good across the game.
Dungeons/Fractals can hold 25 stacks of Vun on a boss with Grenades.
Stacks might, Stealth has main blast finishers and combo fields.

We are also the second highest DPS profession in the game.
Running the 6/6/xxx meta rifle grenade build. I think the math was around 14k including bleeds etc (do not quote me on this but I know I have seen this posted)

PvP
many roles can be filled by the Engineer.
Point holder
Decap
Roamer
Power

We have many skills, many tools in our hands that each kit gives you a different way to play.

Enjoy it

PVE: a lot of people don’t know what your good for, bad pugs want war or guard or ele only, high AP, link your ascended berserkers and legendary, will get you past that though.
Wvw roaming: good, great actually, even pick team.
Wvw Zerg fight: hard but can be done with the right build, gear, and experience
Wvw guilds: not many like you, lack of knowledge about the class, and the never ending talk about how other classes can do better….
Gvg: not really used, sad bcuz they have potential for pick team, but most are stuck in the old ways, namely GWEN.
Pvp: oh yeh feels good to be here.

Engi @ beta & release here, just persevere, played gw1 since 05, from my experience Anet nerfs and boosts all classes. A patch will come and make Engineers likable in all parts of the game, just wait, till then master the class. It’s a hard class to play good, but like others said if you main an engi other classes can’t compare on the play style.

Fulltime engi here.
I have a couple of alts on 80, but I can’t play any of them for a long time until I feel like dumbed down. I love the piano-play the engi offers, since every boss-encounter, random duell in pvp/wvw or zergfight feels unique and challenging.

Yes, it takes time and dedication to master the engi, but what you get rewarded with is fast-paced combat, an allrounder that feels superior in every situation, and one of the single highest dps-capacities in the game, only outperformed by the fgs exploit.

Pros:
-Extremely fast paced combat
-Max dps
-Many fields and finishers to be combined in various ways
-No weaponswap cd (kits)
-Many ways of condi-burst your enemy
-High base-HP and various, stackable, passive regeneration mechanics
-Easy access to perma-vigor for almost all builds.
-Many aoe-based attacks, so multi-target combat feels indifferent to bursting single foes.

Cons:
-Extremely fast paced combat ( :P )
-Lack of stability
-Subpar condi-clean in comparrison to other classes (even tho you don’t really feel it with all the dodges / heals we have)
-No secondary weaponset, therefore subpar in terms of signet-combinations.
- !So far! only one viable elite (supply-crate)

As engi you hardly get any general problems in pvp, except terror-necros that exploit our biggest weakspot. Apart from this soft-counter even mediocre builds that lack in efficiency can destroy meta-builds of other classes if played by a skilled engi. The class is very forgiving in terms of build-constructing, but requires even higher APM from its player in return. Many builds are viable here, ranging all over the spectrum from power to condi or inbetween.

In wvw you get the best results with power-based builds in zerg-fighting or for hit’n’run roaming, but for becoming almost unkillable in 1v3’s or 2v5 your best shot is running celestial or pure condi-spammer. Only kiting mesmers can give us a soft-counter here since even thieves exhaust themselves on all the survivability we have and are forced to back off or get killed. Boon-corrupting necros are another nuisance, but none we can’t deal with if undisturbed. If such a necro has friends, better run.

Which brings us to the last point: mobility.
The engi has easy access to perma-swiftness via kit-swapping, while rifle-jump, rocketboots and elixir Gun even increase our mobility in combat drastically. Kiting is easy for us and since we sit on a comfortable 1.2k-1.5k range we easily can tag, charge and kill any prey we want to. With bombkit and elixir S we even can stealth us easily on a rather short cd, so even sneak-attacks or escapes are within our capabilities.

For PvP, life is good for an engineer. Unless you’re playing on the very highest level teams, people are generally happy to have you. (And if you are playing at the highest level, you’re probably already good enough to make it work, but you should be wary of your counters). Both our condi and hybrid specs can be very strong if played well, but we are generally weak to condis ourselves, losing to other condi specs that have better condi management.

In PvE, we are often undervalued, but this is partly because most people do not understand what an engineer can (and should) bring. We can stealth for up to 17 seconds, provide excellent vulnerability on enemies, provide 9-15 might stacks regularly, heal and remove conditions from allies easily, and still have above average dps. If you play in organized groups, you can be very useful and successful on engi, but in PUGs you may find yourself unappreciated, or straight out not welcome in some parties.

I can’t comment on WvW as I don’t play it often, but I do believe we still have a decent share in the roaming role.

Life is good in all aspects of the game, I’m extremely valuable to pugs and my static group in both pvp and pve. People often add me because of my Engineer, it isn’t often you see Engineers that push the class to it’s limits and dedicate their efforts to learning to play it optimally.

Life is great in PvE and PvP, and with the future updates it’s only getting better.

In PvP: Go eat some snacks and watch the game. Easy mode.
In WvW: Sentry a tower or get a roaming spec. You are useless to a zerg
In PvE: No one will want you.

In other words, not sure the point of a engi main. Use another class as your main and use engi for PvP where it is currently OP.

>In WvW: Sentry a tower or get a roaming spec. You are useless to a zerg
We had this discussion multiple times now.
Scroll down in the forum, look for these threads and educate yourself about the class

>In PvE: No one will want you.
Correction, no noobs will want you. The Engineer has the highest dps in dungeons, only topped by the fgs exploit. Even our BK auto has as high dps as 100b, and after counting in all the other bursts we have access to on a short cd + all the condis we apply simultaneously, we easily excel eles.
It just takes a skilled player to play the piano correctly.

Hello frands! Vee Wee here, #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Engis are thuper! They are great at all aspects of the game! Just watch out for Necromancers! And I wish we had a blink! Like some kind of portal turret that works like Necromancer Flesh Worm! That would be neatskis!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Eleivo.2761:

Just some ideas, talk about whatever you feel like:
s/tPvP – easiest/hardest opponents

Thanks everyone!

Easierst to hardest for s/tPvP

Thief/Warrior/Ranger/Mesmer/Guardian/Ele/Engi/……………./Necro

regarding wvw, engie is the least played class according to the poll at gw2wvw.net

personally, I like playing my engie solo or in groups up to 3 guys especially because it hardcounters the most popular roaming class/builds like thieves, warriors or pu mesms.

in groups of 3-5 I rarely play my engie anymore since I’m usually needed in something else. puting it in another way, you don’t really need an engie for a 5 man group while being successfull without guardian, warrior, ele or necro is near impossible. I do have an engie build for a 5 man group that works well but I can only play it if everything else is in place within the group.

this is even truer for larger scales, you’ll rarely see a guild group running any engies at all.

I don’t think this is an issue with how the engie plays or is balanced, it’s more of a problem with how some classes work when acess to 25 might, protection, stability and fury becomes nearly trivial.

PvE:
Engineer has no crucial abilities like reflects, Stability, Aegis etc., so it’s basically a “just DPS profession”. For such a profession there are only 2-3 spots left in a dungeon group, and one of these spots will always be filled with a Warrior and its banners and EA.
The Engineer is actually a superb pick for one of these last slots as it’s not only able to deal a considerable amount of damage but also provides a lot of less crucial support, like e.g. Blind, Stealth, condition remove, and Might. However they are few actually good Engineer players, and thus even fewer non-Engineer players know that an Engineer can actually be good.
Especially those dreaded Flamethrower Engineers have given the Engineer a bad reputation, just like those bearbows have given Rangers.

Eleivo.2761:

Hi everyone, I’ve seen a few of these posts in other Forums, and wanted to start one here!

I’ve been playing Mesmer for quite a while, but decided to shelf it for now. Now I’m trying to pick a new class. Hopefully you all won’t mind discussing how engi is currently doing, along with what you feel are its strengths and weaknesses.

Just some ideas, talk about whatever you feel like:
s/tPvP – easiest/hardest opponents
WvW – Roaming, Havoc, Zerg
PvE – Dungeons/Fractals
Skill Floor/Ceiling for the class
Is Engi the least played class, or are they all hiding from me?

Thanks everyone!

Engineer has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game. but any bomb build can win you a match or you can run through a dungeon with a simple bomb-kit build and do just fine.
Engineer are just not really a much used profession in general pve content.
Engineer in pvp is invaluable.

Haven’t done much wvw with my engineer yet. I’m mainly a pvp player.

Let me put it this way, I’ve received more praise and recognition for my performance as a warrior (which hit 80 a month ago) than I have playing an engineer since launch.

Basically, engineer is an incredibly undervalued class and not many people know what they’re capable of.

I play engineer as main since i play guild wars and i hardly wasnt welcomed.. cept by the usual “only guard, war ele or gtfo” guys.. but i honestly couldnt give less of a kitten about these type guys. I in fact find it funny to see groups like these struggle in pve situations (especially fractals) cause for example the ele cant be bothered to heal the group and eventually dies somewhere in a corner before he was able to heal himself.. ya know attunement switching takes more time then to deploy and nuke a healing turret, the war rushes ahead to show off and hobbles then towards the ele to get healed cause he took too much abuse before he waits a second for the healing turret of the engi thats pretty much ducktaped to the enemie cause of the low range on bombs and the guard cares more about his own defence then the group and ranges with his scepter or whatever. I mean i cant force myself on ppl like this but i got my chuckle if i gotta then solo a boss cause the group ignores the toolbox on legs that the engi is. Perfect for support… but nah no need to take advance of the engi, lets just ignore the combo fields and even move out of the fire field before i use blast finishers to stack might or the smoke field to stack stealth. Though what i noticed that mesmers, thiefes and rangers like to flock arround me (or atleast stay in the range of my healing turret and e-cannon) in said pve related situations cause they seem to get that i actually try to support them. Well the group i run with atm is composed of wars, guards and eles and they learned to love having me arround cause of the many things i can pull out of my skillset. In fact first time i played with them they actually couldnt belive that they never needed to heal themselfes at boss stacking and constantly asked where the extra might and vun stacks came from. Complete mind blow happened after i dropped an elixir r on them cause they where all downed at stacking and as i casually walked up the electric stairs at the asura fractal without taking any evasive movements (gear shield and elixir-s ftw) while they struggled to go up or as i popped a reflection wall with elixir-u. Im for sure not the best engi but still.. its fun to see ppl getting mind blown on what the class can do if you take some time to plan out and tinker arround with the skills.

I could offer some assistance in the sPvP department if I knew what aspects of the Engineer Profession you had the most fun with/enjoy the most.

I have been playing the Engineer since just after release. I played a Mesmer in GW1 since release there, and if you recall Mesmers were not the most loved class until near the end of the game when they became “likable”, the Engineer in the PvE is much the same way. That being said, I would not trade my Engineer for any other class in the game. I have tried to play other classes, have a Mesmer at level 80 and working on a Guardian but neither even come close to what the Engineer brings as play-style. You’re versatile in just about every-way you can imagine.

Again, just to reiterate what everyone has mentioned the Engineer will ruin other classes once you play it for long enough. Be prepared to join our ranks.

My main wasn’t always an Engineer. When I first started playing I played as an Elementalist. Got to 80 and got full ascended trinkets (ascended armor and weapons didn’t exist back then.) I had tried all the other classes before but my Ele was my favorite, then one day my guild and I were having a PvP dueling-fest and as a joke I created an engineer and used him.

I had never put in more than maybe 10 minutes on the engi, the only builds i knew they had were grenades or turrets so i just used a pistol and some random gadgets. I STOMPED face. Over 300 hours of practice on my Elementalist but my ele didn’t even come close. Not that the ele class is bad, I just has better “chemistry” with the Engineer.

As I was playing I had no idea what I was doing, all the skills were alien to me, but the class just “clicked” to me. Ever since that day I’ve mained as that same Engineer, practicing and perfecting my class. Now I am nearly unstopable in any 1v1 duel as well as breezing through fractals no matter who my allies are.

Engineer is the class for me, any time people claim we are useless or not credit to team I chuckle and offer to educate them.

DesertRose.2031:

PvE:
Engineer has no crucial abilities like reflects, Stability, Aegis etc., so it’s basically a “just DPS profession”. For such a profession there are only 2-3 spots left in a dungeon group, and one of these spots will always be filled with a Warrior and its banners and EA.
The Engineer is actually a superb pick for one of these last slots as it’s not only able to deal a considerable amount of damage but also provides a lot of less crucial support, like e.g. Blind, Stealth, condition remove, and Might. However they are few actually good Engineer players, and thus even fewer non-Engineer players know that an Engineer can actually be good.
Especially those dreaded Flamethrower Engineers have given the Engineer a bad reputation, just like those bearbows have given Rangers.

I’m not sure if you know but Engineers DO have stability and reflect walls. Toolbelt skills of both Elixir R and Elixir U do those things. Also if you are speced into Elixirs they will give Might AND cleanse conditions. That sounds pretty awesome to me. AoE Might+Condicleanse as well as vital effects.

There is a wall of text here….but all you need to know is engineer is an amazing class and a TON of fun. IF you can work it correctly! Takes a lot of skill to be good at all aspects of this game with an engi but honestly I cant play any other class now without being bored off my kitten .

Thanks for all the feedback guys! It seems like the general consensus is:

WvW – Great in small groups/roaming, so-so in big ones
PvE – Performs well, but high learning curve and under-appreciated
PvP – Great, just avoid the Necros

By no means stop! I’d love to hear more!

I had one question: How similar are kit engis and d/d eles? They look kinda similar in play style, but I would love some people that play both to comment!

Zaviel.1245:

DesertRose.2031:

PvE:
Engineer has no crucial abilities like reflects, Stability, Aegis etc., so it’s basically a “just DPS profession”. For such a profession there are only 2-3 spots left in a dungeon group, and one of these spots will always be filled with a Warrior and its banners and EA.
The Engineer is actually a superb pick for one of these last slots as it’s not only able to deal a considerable amount of damage but also provides a lot of less crucial support, like e.g. Blind, Stealth, condition remove, and Might. However they are few actually good Engineer players, and thus even fewer non-Engineer players know that an Engineer can actually be good.
Especially those dreaded Flamethrower Engineers have given the Engineer a bad reputation, just like those bearbows have given Rangers.

I’m not sure if you know but Engineers DO have stability and reflect walls. Toolbelt skills of both Elixir R and Elixir U do those things. Also if you are speced into Elixirs they will give Might AND cleanse conditions. That sounds pretty awesome to me. AoE Might+Condicleanse as well as vital effects.

No it sounds horrible as it is.
Elixirs suck period, might? really? there are thousand ways to maintain might much more comfortable without using a grandmaster trait and wasting your utilities just to buff up a bit. Throwing elixirs is just horrible 1/2 sec cast time + traveltime
on your stability skill makes it probably the most useless in this game and it has ofc no stunbreaker. Elixir R is a joke too a pretty sad one actually. Jes the tooblelt skill may rezz youself but thats a feature you probably wouldnt need in the first place whit a decent kit or skill in that slot.

Alchemy has also the best traits the engineer has access too like protection injection.
Which is imo even better then all elixir traits thrown together.

with elixir-gun + bombkit alone you get AoE Might+Condicleatnse + tons of other possibilities and actual damage, mobility and cc that you need so urgently. I played engineer since beta, 4-kit mostly. The lack of decent stability/stunbreakers and the uber hard nerfs, im talking about expensive, build-trashing events, and jes its plural, ruined it for me.

Eleivo.2761:

Thanks for all the feedback guys! It seems like the general consensus is:

WvW – Great in small groups/roaming, so-so in big ones
PvE – Performs well, but high learning curve and under-appreciated
PvP – Great, just avoid the Necros

By no means stop! I’d love to hear more!

I had one question: How similar are kit engis and d/d eles? They look kinda similar in play style, but I would love some people that play both to comment!

I admit i jumped right the first fotm bandwagon which was the D/D Ele and played it alot. Ele has this big big big advantage of those cantrips, it feels more like driving a car with a safetybelt and airbag, you just rotate through your elements it gets repetitive but everything feeled smooth and well thought.

Engi is way more reactiv to a degree where you end up kiting for your live in an outnumbered situation healing, blocking, curing, crippling, blinding, launching , healing …… and so on and you end up in fullstress piano without dealing any damage.

It’s pretty awesome, I can play however I want.
Do I feel like going condi and watching people’s life tick away slowly while they’re helpless to stop it (except Eles lol)? Then I play Engi.
Do I just want to blow people up with insane spike? Engi.
Zerker speed run group? Engi.
Do I want to farm gold somewhere, needing the high AOE damage? Engi.
Roam in WvW, with the obligatory perma swiftness and good 1v1 build? Engi.
Ridiculous niche builds like perma Tool Kit, turrets (not so niche anymore), etc? Engi of course!
Do I just want to be a faceroll tank, healing my noob group through dungeons they don’t know how to do? Well no, but if I did I’d choose Engi!

In addition to those, the playstyle is complex and difficult to master. I enjoy playing a profession where after 2100 hours I’m still learning new things.

Part of the reason why I always come back to my Engi no matter how much I enjoy other alts is for those reasons. Anything I want to do in this game can be accomplished on Engi, and not just in a “jack of all trades, master of none” way. Engi can be top tier at any of those things I mentioned. 99% of the time when I am logging in without any idea as to what I want to do in game, I choose Engi by default because no matter what I decide on I’ll be able to do it, and do it well.

Zaviel.1245:

I’m not sure if you know but Engineers DO have stability and reflect walls. Toolbelt skills of both Elixir R and Elixir U do those things. Also if you are speced into Elixirs they will give Might AND cleanse conditions. That sounds pretty awesome to me. AoE Might+Condicleanse as well as vital effects.

You’re right, technically Engineers have access to Stability and reflects/absorbs, and at certain points of a dungeon it can be very convenient to have an Engineer with Elixir U and/or Elixir B in your group. However in practice you don’t take an Engineer with you for those elixirs.
Engineer’s Stability and reflects/absorbs lack the instantaneous cast time of the Mesmer’s ones and the high duration/recharge ratio of the Guardian’s ones. E.g. to provide the same duration of protection against projectiles as a single Guardian with Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger can achieve you need 3-4 Engineers with Elixir U.

Adamantium.3682:

snip

Do I just want to be a faceroll tank, healing my noob group through dungeons they don’t know how to do? Well no, but if I did I’d choose Engi!

snip

I’ve had do this so many times in dungeon and fractal groups while trying to organize the dpsers, switching from ’nades/bombs to elixergun and healing/tank specs in order to get through a boss.

Adamantium.3682:

In addition to those, the playstyle is complex and difficult to master. I enjoy playing a profession where after 2100 hours I’m still learning new things.

3100h here, and i still can’t say that i know all the tricks, but pretty easy to analize opposite engi build helps alot.

About overall engi as main….I didn’t played much mmos beofre GW2, and it was the first game in my entire life that i actually “bought”. Mostly because i saw some utube videos and loved engi class from first sight.

The class is pretty balanced to all aspects of the game if u master it, lil exception is wvw large-scale fights, where u’re not bad but not balanced to current meta for sure.

Cheers for all you guys, who keep playing engis <3

(and ifu gonna run perplexity in wvw i gonna hunt you down and smash your head into your monitor)

WvW- Engineers have more roles in more situations than anyone and have very strong situational builds. For example, you can quickly trait fortified turrets when you have a lot of siege on a wall without really changing much. Quick to change it back.

In large situations, you are great if a power build with grenades OR with heal bombs. Conditions are poor, but that is true of all classes/builds. . . potentially if you hit the blob versus the backline/tail or pick.

PvE. You can do it and it isn’t super hard, just others don’t know. It is about having the right kind of build (versus the one that a lot of PvE casuals enjoy and built an engineer around).

PvP It is solid enough that you can be very effective but requires you to have the player skill (e.g. time invested in the class) to make it work. Known weakness to condition necros.

As others already pointed out, life is great as an engineer, so i spent about 95% of my playtime on my engi. It´s quite brilliant in any GW2 mode.

Theres just one downside you should consider if you want to make engi your main:
It requires a lot of keyboard smashing, due to the fact that theres hardly any strong build without grenade kit. If yore planning to build most effective, youre absolutly tied to grenade kit, no matter what gamemode youre playing.
Personally im fine with this because i love the grenadekit, its just fractals 40+ where it kinda annoyes me, because of enemies superhigh healthpools resulting in pretty long fights. In PvP/WvW fights are very situational, so you wont spam nades all day anyway. In casual PvE like dungeons and stuff, fights are very short so youre most likely just doing your damage rotation 1 time till they´re dead. But in high level fractals, youre kinda forced into spamming thousands of nades each run, so maybe this is a downside for you to consider about.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

theres hardly any strong build without grenade kit.

no.

Hvaran.6327:

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

theres hardly any strong build without grenade kit.

no.

+1

Well, so maybe link up some build that doesnt profit by taking nades?

any build without Grenader trait
SD-builds, turret builds, EG/FT builds, healing bombs build

yes nades are good in either power or condi builds, but they are not “must-have”.
also they realy suck at far distance, unless target is afk

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Well, so maybe link up some build that doesnt profit by taking nades?

I run TK/BK/EG while roaming. TK is better than nades by far in 1v1 or 1v2 scenarios, IMO.

As for OP…

s/tPvP – Easiest is probably Thief or Guardian. Hardest is Necro by far, and then a well-played Ele or Warrior built for stunlocks.

WvW – Roaming and havoc is mainly what I use Engi for. Very exceptional at it, although we get focused more than other classes in a havoc group. Probably because people know we’d wreck them if they left us alone. But we have enough survivability and mobility to block/dodge/kite while our group kills the opponent, so it’s not too bad.

PvE – Wouldn’t know. I haven’t touched PvE since the first Halloween event.

I think the class has a very high skill ceiling, probably higher than Ele even. At least D/D Eles have high survivability even if they suck. You may not be able to kill anyone, but just spam Water, Air, and Earth attunements and you can get out of pretty much any situation. I’ve survived a 4v1 as an Ele long enough for my team to get there and kill the assaulters, and I had no idea what I was doing. A bad Engi can’t kill or get away from anyone.

Dimes.6024:

any build without Grenader trait
SD-builds, turret builds, EG/FT builds, healing bombs build

yes nades are good in either power or condi builds, but they are not “must-have”.
also they realy suck at far distance, unless target is afk

Ah come on, i asked for strong builds. Turreteer is a joke and would probably be more viable with nades + 2 turrets. SD-Builds and EG/FT are pretty much out of competition to any build with bombs or nades. And healing bombs… well, ive never seen anyone seriously playing this is any game mode. 0o

I stay with it. When it comes to straight effectiveness(which means min. 2 kits with at least nades or bombs), theres no way around grenade kit. Maybe you can convince me that bombs work better in some types of PvE, but any build you named in here runs completly out of competition.

Bomb kit / tool kit / x is very viable in s/tpvp. The AoE damage and conditions you can put out on a small point is huge, and the Big ol’ Bomb → Glue Bomb combo is lovely for decapping against those without an excess of stability. Smoke Bomb will ensure a stomp on most professions, and can be used for stealth plays if you’re willing to use your blast finishers. Bomb engis are some of the best out there at holding side nodes.

Mister Fluffkin.7358

u can stay with whatever u want to. If u can’t play without 5 monitors adn grenades it’s your problem.
Just another noob engi.
And if we gonna discuss some “links” to builds it will take forever, cause most of them are individual we are not talking about blob guardian or ele.

Acting like a boss that knows everything and asking people to do proove for him, how the f?
Learn to play the class and learn it’s mechanics.

Oh and about thread, one of the problems beeing main engi, is noob engis arround with perplex and other sh.

My build. I use no kits to make room for more Elixirs. Great in both PvP and PvE. Great in zergs as well with the great scaling from Modified Ammunition.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlcTp6qFYx+KseNieBFqYC6AkgpK6VUjZA-TJBBwAVeAAAuAA12fAcZAA

Hvaran.6327:

Mister Fluffkin.7358

u can stay with whatever u want to. If u can’t play without 5 monitors adn grenades it’s your problem.
Just another noob engi.
And if we gonna discuss some “links” to builds it will take forever, cause most of them are individual we are not talking about blob guardian or ele.

Acting like a boss that knows everything and asking people to do proove for him, how the f?
Learn to play the class and learn it’s mechanics.

Oh and about thread, one of the problems beeing main engi, is noob engis arround with perplex and other sh.

What the hell are you talking about? If anyone in here is acting arrogant, its you dude!

OP asked for experiences of engis, i told him a possible downside i feel in some of GW2 game modes. I love to try out new builds and i do a lot, since engi is like my only char. And i personally came to the conclusion, that outside of open world pve and dungeons, nades are a must have in my point of view(always in case you want to build for most efficiency).
HGH Build above is a great example. I ran it quite some time with a quite similar setup, and it did ok. A week later, i switched elixier c for grenade kit and it immideatly did 3 times better. And i honestly cant hardly see any build that wouldnt improve by adding nades.

Its not that i appreciate to be “forced” to play nades, i would LOVE to see more alternatives. But this is the experience i made, if yours is another, ok(even tho i dont believe you because of all the experiences i made). No reason to call me noob, Sir Hvaran the uncultivated!

Fluffkin…..hold on there buddy, replying to hvarans post won’t solve anythign your both in the wrong here.

Anyway, Idk how extensive some of you are in playing engi, but i personally played engi since beta, played PVE with 19k AP, champ genius in tpvp, wvw zerging and roaming rank800+, I have wasted hundreds of gold working on every possible legit good build…3.5k hrs on engi alone…..and I must say grenades alone does not make engi good, sure it’s great but not all the time.

Static discharge is still good for sniping people, it’s still a legit build, don’t need grenades for it. I have tried bomb heals and honestly if you played with every trait in the class and min max with armor and weapons, you can use bomb heals for wvw with the melee/hammer train, great tagging, and if correctly traited, and right food, can withstand the hardcc that the the other Zerg gives you, often I’ve survived and stood beside the cmdr and healed him to full between water blasts and bombheals.

Eg/ft builds are still doable as well…personally I’d keep it in PVE though but with the right traits and armor/runes, it does well in PVE not the best but good alternative if you get bored with bombs and nades.

When I roam most times I don’t use grenades because no dumb roamer will stand there and take it, it’s very hard to hit from range for roaming or dueling, usually I’d go bomb kit,tool kit,rocket boots or elixir gun…..as it is harder for the enemy to read your movements, and easier to hit the enemy as well, personally grenades are good for Zerg just don’t die of retal or soloing camps, but outside that I prefer not to use them.

You are not forced to play nades, you just have to play around more with builds and you’ll find out there is more to engineer than grenades, also please do not dis other builds unless you have personally used them extensively in every facet of the game. Play how you want, your opinion is yours, but don’t impose it on others, just enjoy the game.

J envy.5270

When I roam most times I don’t use grenades because no dumb roamer will stand there and take it, it’s very hard to hit from range for roaming or dueling, usually I’d go bomb kit,tool kit,rocket boots or elixir gun…..as it is harder for the enemy to read your movements, and easier to hit the enemy as well, personally grenades are good for Zerg just don’t die of retal or soloing camps, but outside that I prefer not to use them.

Yeah elixir gun for range and bombs for kitting close enemies because you usually throw your nades behind your feet anyway in a 1v1.

J envy.5270:

Fluffkin…..hold on there buddy, replying to hvarans post won’t solve anythign your both in the wrong here.

Anyway, Idk how extensive some of you are in playing engi, but i personally played engi since beta, played PVE with 19k AP, champ genius in tpvp, wvw zerging and roaming rank800+, I have wasted hundreds of gold working on every possible legit good build…3.5k hrs on engi alone…..and I must say grenades alone does not make engi good, sure it’s great but not all the time.

Static discharge is still good for sniping people, it’s still a legit build, don’t need grenades for it. I have tried bomb heals and honestly if you played with every trait in the class and min max with armor and weapons, you can use bomb heals for wvw with the melee/hammer train, great tagging, and if correctly traited, and right food, can withstand the hardcc that the the other Zerg gives you, often I’ve survived and stood beside the cmdr and healed him to full between water blasts and bombheals.

Eg/ft builds are still doable as well…personally I’d keep it in PVE though but with the right traits and armor/runes, it does well in PVE not the best but good alternative if you get bored with bombs and nades.

When I roam most times I don’t use grenades because no dumb roamer will stand there and take it, it’s very hard to hit from range for roaming or dueling, usually I’d go bomb kit,tool kit,rocket boots or elixir gun…..as it is harder for the enemy to read your movements, and easier to hit the enemy as well, personally grenades are good for Zerg just don’t die of retal or soloing camps, but outside that I prefer not to use them.

You are not forced to play nades, you just have to play around more with builds and you’ll find out there is more to engineer than grenades, also please do not dis other builds unless you have personally used them extensively in every facet of the game. Play how you want, your opinion is yours, but don’t impose it on others, just enjoy the game.

Well, looks like we played quite similar playtime, even tho im much more into spvp. But about testing builds and stuff, i did exactly same to you, so im quite sure my results cant be that unreliable.

Of course there are other playable options like SD and stuff and im not denying they can work. But any bomb or grenade build is able to do the same DoT(while less burst) by providing much more utility. Builds without bomb kit and nade kit are simply lacking damage, are build for full damage without much/any utility, or are straight condibunkers, which are usefull in some special cases but not overall. I wish this woulndt be the case, but its my experience. Plus nades are just better in general compared to bombs due to range, but i admit this is an arguably point. :P

BTW, atm im roaming with some SD-Grendadier with a nice mix of carrion/rampager which works like a charme, so you see im not that type of guy that sticks to the usual metabuilds or trys to claim them for the only truth.

And in general, this thread is about engis opinons about the pros and cons of our class. My one is theres hardly any competition without nades, point. Some people like them, others not. I do like them but they annoy me at high level fractals and stuff. Point.
Well, thats it for me. I admit my first posts were a bit stupidly written, but i seriously dont get it why im getting attacked in here? Its just my opinion the OP asked for, so calm down please…

Healing bombs and 2 water fields as well as an AoE stability are a perfect trifecta for spearheading a zerg, Anyone suggesting that engineers are less then great in a zerg simply speaks from a lack of experience or knowledge.

Grenades are great for keep defense as well as for assaulting a keep and pounding on defenders and siege on a wall. Not to mention pulling defenders off of walls with magnet.

Engineers are spectacular as roamers and can easily solo camps.

Engineers are one of WvWs best kept secrets, and the right build changes for each role you take on makes them an ideal profession for WvW as a whole.

Yeah I agree to everything Coglin said, sad part is half the time I have to explain myself and my build to people who don’t know anything engineer, lack of knowledge is always the root of it.

To Fluffkin, not attacking you per say just got put off a lil bit when u said something about no strong build that don’t use grenades. I just wanted to clear others that it’s not true, or fact, but rather just your opinion, ddnt mean to attack you the way hvaran did.

I play engineer since beta and i like how i can switch things up at a whim. I used the grenades for a very long time, then i got bored so i switched to flamethrower. After i got bored of that, i switched to some random melee tool kit build – although it sucked, it was fun whacking stuff with your wrench. Later, i tried out static discharge, and really enjoyed playing engi like a “normal” ranged class, without having to spam 1-5 like with grenades oder getting in real close to drop some bombs.

Since then, i stick to SD, but lately i feel kind of not satisfied with SD, so i hope someone could answer me this question: is SD still “viable” for PvE? I feel like i am dealing enough damage in dungeons and fractals, but somehow, I am not perfectly satisfied with “just enough”.

tl;dr: I really enjoy playing engineer for the variability that it offers when soloing content, but the general assumption that engineer is “weak” in group content when not running “the ONE build” kind of takes the fun out of trying different things.

Also played engineer since beta and to this day forth still invest everything in it i can reach in the game. I have a couple alts lvl 80, atm only managed to enjoy gaurdian a bit because of the cheesy full condi cleanse heal spam and buff builds they have to offer.

I still enjoy the engineer very much this day forth because of our wide variety of options playing our class. We can do stealth, tanky, DPS, buff/heal, Condies, turrets and what not. Like a lot of ppl said already, there are always skills ready to activate, and tbh i rarely use skill 1 on my class XD. We are master skill spammers only equal to the elementalist. Although we miss our condi cleaning AND our “stand your ground” capabilities, our medium armor somewhat makes us able to take a hit. If you know how to play the engineer well, its one of the funniest classes to play i think. You can defeat a lot of good players. Against the strongest meta’s of any other class played very skilled players you will find the engineer about the weakest class. Simply because we have two major weaknes. Bad condi removal and very bad stability. Any skilled player against us knows how to use these weaknesses and easely overcome you.

Luckely PvP is full of ppl that dont even know what a turret is so you wont have to worry much.

What’s life like for an engineer main?

kittening awesome.

Try it for yourself and see whatcha think. Just stick with it for a bit. There’s lots of buttons to learn.