Guild Wars 2

I use grenades as my primary form of damage dealing, in fact so much so that I never have my rifle toggled over. I can’t remember the last time I actually shot someone with my gun.

Yesterday for no apparent reason I crafted my exotic rifle, equipped it and was happy with the stat gain then realized that it’s all fake. The moment I switch to grenade kit my stats will go back to the numbers they were before the rifle existed.

Now I feel like i wasted time and money crafting that rifle, but also realize I would do just as well without ANY weapon equipped at all. That’s dumb, engineer, in my opinion, should not have kits dictate their numbers especially since we have no control over what those numbers are. The numbers on the kits should equal the numbers on the weapons.

I won’t even go into the sigil frustration.

Why don’t you use Net Shot before you use Grenade Barrage?

Aristio.2784:

Why don’t you use Net Shot before you use Grenade Barrage?

That’s not exactly the point here. Besides why would I? I’ve used grenades so long that targeting even moving mobs is easy.

I’m not sure what you’re complaining about then. It has been said time and time over that ArenaNet is working on Sigils/Stats for our kits.

I meant targeting players in WvW by the way.

Well i have to say that the sheer amount of players using grenade kits for damage is rather disturbing. Personally i would love to play more of an engineer and a bit less of a demoman/pyro.

Sadly, the ‘shotgun’, tool kit, mortar and turrets are all some of the weakest skills an engineer can focus on.

Well. One reason could be so that grenade barrage has the option to trigger rifle related traits, sigils and benefit from a higher base damage and stats.

I play elixirman/Pyro, and I love the synergy between them and my pistols.

Sure, you don’t get sigil effects and stat bonus from your weapon, but you still have the skills associated with them if you choose to switch between them and your beloved grenades.

Some people prefer to stay in a kit for a long time. They find an affinity in them, and learn their characteristics and advantages/disadvantages to a T. I don’t mind that at all.

I, myself, hate the travel time and easy-to-avoid effects that grenades have. I respect their range (1500 is amazing, especially for assaults!), and I respect that once they hit they can do a LOT of damage. I just can’t play with them very well, and know that I’m better with my Elixir gun/FT.

because rifle allows you to easily jump to this pesky vista,
and pistol confusion for three targets is a good opener

I actually rarely touch grenades on my engineer. I usually pull and kite with my rifle and mop them up with my flamethrower, but I love switching up my build as the situation requires (Elixer gun for support, turrets, etc). I would like to keep the weapon stats when I switch to flamethrower though, but they seem to be working on that.

wait what? u dont get pistol or rifle stats when u use grenade kit?!

Well i have to say that the sheer amount of players using grenade kits for damage is rather disturbing.

Based on ANet’s performance so far, it won’t take long until they notice and nerf them into the ground. Then we can go back to regular weapons… Sadly this is the only outcome I’m seeing to current weapons vs grenades situation. Rather than bring other stuff up to snuff, they’ll just nerf whatever players managed to get to work well.

I wish rifles could be a pure build. I’m constantly switching out to flamethrower/burning because rifles alone are horribly low dps. I wish I rolled a different class/profession. But I’m almost 60 and my play time is limited. So, maybe Anet can make us more viable and more buffed with the other classes.

I hate watching enemy life bars go down in little bits and then another class comes along and 3 shots two enemies at once.

Rifle engineer is joke to compare rifle warrior. Most engineer traits dont give info u need.

Well for one if you use grenade barrage while your riffle is out, you deal lot more damage. It is also very good for WvW and PvP, with the knockback and net shot. For PvE, I agree, grenades all the way for best drops (AoE tag) and damage.

It’s pretty clear rifle isn’t intended to be a viable build for DPS. It is just too heavy on the utility.

But if you’re not switching it to occasionally for that utility you are doing it wrong. Having a ranged root, a leap and a knockback (even one that CCs you too) and not using them regularly, especially with a grenade build, is somewhat suicidal.

Using rifle with low-cooldown toolbelt abilities for static discharge seems like a pretty viable dps option. Having rifle turret, personal battering ram, and tool kit as your utilities gives you toolbelt abilities on a 10, 20, and 25 second cooldown that you can cycle as regular attacks with the tasty static discharge proc. These all benefit from your rifle stats as well.

You may not do as much AoE dps, but the single target damage and burst are pretty nice.

Personally I use Rifle with ‘nade kit for pvp and pve.
The main reason for this is that I find it hugely effective in PvP, and so just build the same for PvE in everything but dungeons (muscle memory in PvP is far more important for me).
On the rifle, the number 4 skill is probably one of the best skills in the game in pvp (short cd, breaks CC, acts as escape, great setup skill too, huge number of functions in
the right hands), combine with 2 skill it makes barrage virtually unavoidable.
I’m regularly bursting over 10k despite using Dolyak pvp armour, the way the rifle affects the damage from toolbelt makes this possible.

Basically, 4>2>vulnerability from toolbelt+discharge(goggles)>fury from goggles>barrage+discharge>ranged slow rams head+discharge>3/5 skill depending.

This hits HARD, like REALLY hard.

In the last two days alone I’ve had 5 tells from strangers in s and tPvP complementing my burst to survivability ratio. I’m not going to reveal my exact build details, because, well it took me since beta to work it out and get it perfect.
It’s a build I’ve never seen anyone else use against me, and maybe that’s why it works so well, knowledge is power!

Anyway rambling, basically it’s not rifle OR nades for me, rather rifle AND nades.

Engineers are simply awesome, personally I think the strongest pvp class in the game

Actually, there’s a VERY good reason to equip a weapon.

It saves inventory space.

Weapons are obsolete to engineers… The only reason i equip it is for #2 and #4/#5, basically, CC abilities… hence im using my starter rifle… sigh… Well at least i don’t have to spend so much gold and farm tokens like mad for weapons…

Has it actually been said that ANET is planning on fixing this? I get the impression that because it’s on our bug lists everyone assumes that it will be, but I’ve seen no opinion from them on it.

Grenade barrage benefits greatly from the stats on your equipped rifle. That’s why you want to equip one.

MassRelay.9327:

Grenade barrage benefits greatly from the stats on your equipped rifle. That’s why you want to equip one.

Good point there. Whatever I’m using, the toolbelt skills are often some of the most powerful at our disposal.

Right now I’m using Pistol/Shield and Tool Kit/Turrets. It gives me a lot of control conditions to mitigate incoming damage, and moderate dps both ranged and close-up. I can get their attention with the pistol, and if it’s a melee enemy, by the time they close the gap I’ve switched to the wrench and show them what’s up. If they’re still standing I drop some turrets and start dodging, or use the shield knockback.

Point is, there are a lot of ways to play this class, and I find that trying a kit or weapon I may not have been crazy about at first is a fun way to discover new possibilities.

Even tho the rifle isn’t as damaging as grenades, its a superior weapon for engaging any sort of 1v1 fight. kits need better synergy with the weapons, currently the kits overpower the weapons if you want any kind of damage.

Stacking sigils are still great for kits.

Build 25 stacks of Bloodlust in WvW with your weapon, get +250 power for Grenades or what not.

Stacking sigils only really seem useful in PVE to me. In WvWvW I can’t be bothered to farm 25 wolves after every death and I can’t afford to be switching back to weapon just before someone dies every time to try to get the bonus.

Stacking sigils only really seem useful in PVE to me. In WvWvW I can’t be bothered to farm 25 wolves after every death and I can’t afford to be switching back to weapon just before someone dies every time to try to get the bonus.

Ha ha, the wolves are key (especially because they multiply).

I’m okay stacking sigils because I make it my challenge not to die in WvW. As Grenadier I usually sit in the back and play it safe.