Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone!

In this thread I’m going to try something different. No suggestions, no saying why a person is wrong. Simply find skills and traits that you never use then say you never use them.

Ill start it out.

Personal Battling Ram- I never use this because there isn’t much utility in teamfights, Its funny/fun in 1v1. When I’m in a team fight, once I use it that is it. No utility and it is also single target. It’s toolbelt skill isn’t that good either.

Mines- This one seems really weird. It is a gadget, yet it has some traits in the explosive line. The problem is that this doesn’t have much synergy to the explosive things, hence why I never use it. It also doesn’t offer a whole lot of utility. It does explode, but I usually have to manual detonate it. It doesn’t do an insane amount of damage, and can easily be countered. The other choices for CC are much better. It’s toolbelt skill is eh too.

Turrets- They die very quickly in teamfights, susceptible to AoE, some have a small range, long Cooldowns, and somewhat useless toolbelt skills. In PvE/WvW those turrets are going to be destroyed/on CD a lot. This means I will be relying on my toolbelt skills. The toolbelt skills simply don’t offer enough utility compared to my other choices to warrant using them. They are some that are very specilized too (thumper, net, flame, etc).

Explosives:

Empowering Adrenaline- The other traits at my choice are just too good to waste this slot for a small damage increase.

Exploit Weakness- The required HP the target needs and the cooldown on it cause this not to be worth the slot compared to my other choices.

Inventions:

Energized Armor- The small power increase doesn’t convince me enough to waste a slot on it compared to what else I can get.

Power Shoes- The speed increase doesn’t warrant traiting for this. If I want speed, i always go for speedkits + vigor in alchemy. It is a lot more viable.

Elite Supplies- The elites just aren’t that good to warrant getting this trait. Supply Drop is already good without it while the other elites each have their own problems.

Alchemy:

Blood Injection- Again, the small increase doesn’t make me want to waste a trait slot on it. The other traits just outclass it.

Tools:

Scope- The damage increase isn’t very high to warrant wasting a trait slot on this. Plus with the insane amount of gap closers, stability, and things of that nature keeping someone beyond 600 is hard to do.

Packaged Stimulants- Medkits are great for single target healing. Throwing them is a bit useless since they’re pretty hard to spot in the middle of a match and the increase in healing doesn’t warrant getting this treat.

Leg Mods- My condi removal is already great so that I don’t need this trait. I usually run healing turret.

Armor Mods- the inner cooldown is just too high to convince me to get it. The speed that burst is pumped out by other classes, wasting the trait on points this isn’t very viable

Adrenal Implant- This just isn’t a great grandmaster trait. It doesn’t stack and it is much more to get the speedykits + invigorating speed.

Elites:

Elixir X- With the randomness, lack of utility for in teamfights while in the transformation, and the cooldown causes this skill to not be as viable compared to Supply Crate

Mortar- A very specalized turret. IF a target closes the gap this becomes useless. It’s damage is very high, the range isn’t that big, and its HP is low causing it to be destroyed rather easily. In a game where you’re constantly mobile it just isn’t that viable compared to what we have.

Ok engineer forum, what do you guys not use and why?

Honestly…TL;DR most of it, especially since it seemed to be PvP oriented. Was this aPvP post? If not, I’ll revisit it. I’m not a big PvPer.

Scope- The damage increase isn’t very high to warrant wasting a trait slot on this. Plus with the insane amount of gap closers, stability, and things of that nature keeping someone beyond 600 is hard to do.

This one I use a lot in PvE/WvW just because grenades can be used at a range greater than 600 a lot there.

Elixir X- With the randomness, lack of utility for in teamfights while in the transformation, and the cooldown causes this skill to not be as viable compared to Supply Crate

This in conjunction with Big Ol’ Bomb can be a lot of fun. Also Tornado and juggernaut can be really effective if you don’t stay in the full duration. Timing is everything with this elite.

Elite Supplies- The elites just aren’t that good to warrant getting this trait. Supply Drop is already good without it while the other elites each have their own problems.

The real reason to use this is the fact that it gives a ton more bandages for supply crate, making it a good bunker trait. I think the buffs to Elixir X and Mortar need to be improved.

Mines- This one seems really weird. It is a gadget, yet it has some traits in the explosive line. The problem is that this doesn’t have much synergy to the explosive things, hence why I never use it. It also doesn’t offer a whole lot of utility. It does explode, but I usually have to manual detonate it. It doesn’t do an insane amount of damage, and can easily be countered. The other choices for CC are much better. It’s toolbelt skill is eh too.

It really is a weird one. It doesn’t work like a mine at all. However, it’s the engineers only good choice for boon removal. I take it on bunkers sometimes so I can actually push guardians off.

Turrets- They die very quickly in teamfights, susceptible to AoE, some have a small range, long Cooldowns, and somewhat useless toolbelt skills. In PvE/WvW those turrets are going to be destroyed/on CD a lot. This means I will be relying on my toolbelt skills. The toolbelt skills simply don’t offer enough utility compared to my other choices to warrant using them. They are some that are very specilized too (thumper, net, flame, etc).

Net Turret is mah baby, and rocket is great as well. However, you’ll never use these effectively in the mid battle of PvP. Only side points if you use deployable turrets to put them in odd places. WvW, you can throw them up on walls to destroy siege which is nice. PvE…lol no.

I think your really limiting the scope to PvP, and particularyly to some specific builds.

a lot of the turrets work well in SD builds, but are horrible in HGH or FT/EG builds.

rocket in particular can be really nice, as can net, and rifle, given the right situation, and usage.

for WvW and guild fights I’ve started to use thumper with the deployable turret / accelerant pack turrets a lot. I can toss it into a gate way or a door way, onto a wall, or into a tightly packed enemy group and do a quick overcharge for 2 AoE knockbacks, it is also handy for triggering necro marks at the start of a fight, or for interuppting reviving / stomps.

also if you combine elite supplies with packaged stimulants the supply crate bandages get the heal increase, which is really nice.

what I tend to do with medkit is if I see a fight incoming, I drop bandages ahead of time so i do not need to swap kits to use them.

i love the utility kill throw mine. knockback, boon strip, damage, blast finisher, what more could you ask for in a utility skill? This is the king of utility! The only problem i have with mines is the toolbelt skill. the toolbelt skill doesn’t match the utility of throw mine and instead is used as some cheap burst or as easily dodged traps. kind of a fail with scatter mines

I love the mine. Two great places I use it are in Spirit Watch—it’s so useful when running the orb as a knockback I can control (as in throw where I want for best effect)—and now in Skyhammer. I can’t even count how many times someone has come to assault a point and were immediately knocked down a hole by a mine hiding behind a pillar at B. It’s really fun. Short cooldown is nice, but I do agree that the toolbelt skill is a bit meh.

Utility Goggles and Elixir U; In PvP, Compared to Elixir S and the other Stun breakers, I feel this leaves me too squishy and open for punishment even after I activate it as a stun break. In PvE, they probably would work great.

Elixir C; Doesn’t fit into any build I’ve ever created. There’s always something more useful or something that could help deal with things a lot better. It also doesn’t help that Elixir R removes condis over time on the tool belt skill. In PvE/WvW, I probably still wouldn’t use it.

Turrets;
I would use Turrets more often if they would just focus fire. All they need is that ability to focus the target you’re focusing and it will be golden. I currently use Turrets’ whose effects are mostly AoE like the Rocket Turret, Flame Turret, and Thumper Turret. Turret Engis would be the new Phantasm Mesmers and Minion Necros if they finally got focus firing.

Auto Defence Bomb Dispenser(Explosives Trait);
There’s just no specc I have that goes 30 in Explosives and there are very few Engi builds in general that go 30 in explosives that would use this trait.

Acidic Elixirs (Explo Trait);
Doesn’t provide anything remotely unique or build altering/Boosting. It just needs to be replaced with something better.

Empowering Adrenaline (Explo Trait)
Maybe in PvE this would be a trait worth picking but in PvP, I just don’t feel taking this trait above anything else would be a good idea.

Armor Mods (Tools Trait)
Not a build defining trait in any way shape or form. There are no builds that I would use this in whether it be PvE or PvP. I would love to see it replaced by something else.
My suggestion for a replacement trait would be Choking Gas; Your smoke fields also poison enemies who stand in them. Possibly moving Auto Defence Bomb Dispenser down to tools and Choking Gas up to Explosives to keep with the theme of Tools and Explosives. Moving ADBD might actually get it more use seeing as sometimes people go 30 in tools for Static Discharge builds and having that defensive trait can really help that build’s survivability. It would probably also see more use in my Evasioneer build as well, which would be nice to see.