Guild Wars 2

If you go to any profession forum you will notice that about 50%-60% (in case of necro 80%-90%) of posts will say “we are broken, we keep loosing to [insert another class here] and we used to be better, because 2 patches ago we could one shot Tequatl, fix us Arena!”
Except here. I’ve created new engie, came here to get few tips and instead of typical QQ I’ve found actually quite a lot of positive information – “yes, engineer is not most powerful class but we are certainly good”.
How can you guys stay so positive? Is it something in the elixirs?

Mainly because it’s god kitten fun. It’s annoying to hear people whine about it being bad when it’s simply not. It just promotes the attitude that has held down engi’s for a long time, that they’re terrible and should b e kicked from groups and what not. So I think most of the main Engi’s here want to educate people about what they’re actually capable of, promote them because they are good if not great, maybe not meta, but still an excellent addition. I wish more people understood them.

I’ll get a lot of hate for saying this but it’s because engi is reserved for good players only. When you’re a good player, you see strengths and weaknesses. Engi has far more strengths than weaknesses. While right now we took a recent hit in pvp, I have no doubt we will be back with a vengeance. I’m a necro ele mes main, and I didn’t hop into engi until about a year and a half ago or less and it’s become my fav class. I can’t call it my main because I dwarf it in hours on my others, but engi is amazing

You should’ve been here the first couple weeks after the patch.

It wasn’t positive at all. The sky was falling.

Now that the dust has settled I think a lot realize now that we’re just fine. Celestial isn’t really an option for us anymore in PvP, but Marauder and Soldier are both very good at what they do and we got a substantial buff in PvE getting access to the full Tools tree.

We have little to be upset over since Chaith just won the WTS with his engineer and Brazil posted the updated dungeon build with engineers outdamaging thieves and elementalists.

I’m not sure where we stand in WvW, but I haven’t taken WvW seriously in nearly a couple years now.

Phineas Poe.3018:

We have little to be upset over since Chaith just won the WTS with his engineer and Brazil posted the updated dungeon build with engineers outdamaging thieves and elementalists.

Could you link it pretty please?

its simply people who play engineers are much happier then the rest of the community

We don’t have an elite-spec in the beta at the moment, so not many are focusing on the engineer.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I’m not sure where we stand in WvW, but I haven’t taken WvW seriously in nearly a couple years now.

wvw is generally suffering from an overabundance of damage at the roaming scale atm. ive been having success duoing with a friend as a dps-bunker pair when fighting greatly outnumbered (5-10) against noob enemies, which says to me that im doing something ok and that engi is viable, but im highly dependent on my friends heals because i have very little opportunity to do anything when i take focus running this and i mean it feels ok as a build and it does what i want (fairly strong disengage, heavy aoe, very mobile, high power to threaten siege) but i dont feel like its on the same level as engi was before 6/23 because of rampage spam and unmanageable shatters and higher backstab damage. my pre-6/23 typical setup and 1600ish toughness because i ran knight armor with melandru instead of zerky zerk (which i only havent fine tuned yet because of the unsavory cost of str runes), but post 6/23 the knight set just feels terrible. i feel like i do 1/2 the damage and take nearly as much.

as for zerging, well this build actually feels great in a zerg and i can still do unique ish things as a back line and i have great support with water and some blasts and high damage. but the loss of cloaking device has made frontlining untenable. youre an engi and people like to focus engis because they have weak cleansing and cant do anything while theyre invulns are active and the loss of a free target drop trait shattered the playstyles viability. imo. a lot of people will say “oh engi front line is bad now cuz no healy bombs” but i really dont believe it was ever healy bombs that made it possible for engi to front line. slick shoes is still an entirely ridiculous trick to play on a zerg, but there is just no way to get it off viably now.

as for condi, zerging as condi suffers from the same problems as always, front lining as condi is even worse because condi builds are delicate as it is and proper front line utilities are power oriented or nondamaging… but roaming feels about as good as power. ive been toying around with something similar to the previous link, in full glass, and it feels pretty similar. i run out of dps things to do with it fairly quickly, but i also can snipe the kitten out of someone and have quite a bit of stalling utility and extreme cleave pressure on downed. this could be easily switched to rabid or rabid/dire mix for better survivability — which id strongly recommend — and im only using sinister out of lazyness and because the gear set has 75 ar since its intended for pve. (even tho engi is my main, truly only 1 of my 4 engis is my main and the others get neglected in comparison lol) but dont get me wrong, condi is really fun for roaming. if i were to adapt a condi build for zerging, it would have to include nades cuz a lot of the damage with only ft is single target or small, long duration, and immobile, none of which are good qualities for zerging.

im certain sd builds are still a thing cuz when i end up fighting engis the vast majority of playstyles fall under p/p condi, ft with juggernaut (idk why), sd, or mortar spam from afar. so people must enjoy it. but i dont like sd builds because they seem like a worse thief – they have the single target damage but not the mobility or stealths.

on another note, i havent tried soloing a keep lord since 6/23. no opportunity / no motivation to ask my friend(s) to stand down for a min. i could before. i dont think i can still. maybe ill try to figure that out over the next couple days. i shouldve last week when my matchup was lame.

tldr: im not really set in stone yet overall, i want more bugfixes before i make really strong judgments. engi is plagued by bugs. but cloaking device was a terrible loss. so zerging is meh. engi roaming builds are still good/fine/fun/<insert good adjective here>.

Because engie is in a solid place. Condi is broken in wvw, top theoretical DPS in PvE, and is on the best PvP team in the world.

What’s there to even complain about?

The reason why the engineer forum is so positive is because the engineer is the second best class in the game. While not as potent as the elementalist, it is far more diverse. This leads to a situation that is completely unique as far as professions go: Whatever the problem is or whatever the situation demands, the engineer has the tools for the job.

The other class forums are so embittered because they’re impotent. Most classes (even the elementalist) are lacking some kind of crucial tool, and when a situation arises where that tool is necessary they get pounded. Necromancer has little to no group utility and poorly scaling personal survival, rangers are stuck with pets and have minimal group buffs and support, thieves are wholly reliant on stealth and delayed skill evades to survive, mesmers DPS is unreliable and generally low sustained with mostly niche support utilities, Guardians have low DPS with bad ranged options and no escapes, Ele’s have no boon hate and are really frail. I don’t know what warriors have. This is a most generalized version, but you get the jist: there’s a bunch of things that these classes don’t do, and it comes back to bite them in the butt. It is understandable why they’re sore.

But the engineer doesn’t have that problem. Given time to think and a little problem solving, there is no issue an Engineer can’t overcome. Engi’s a chill because of this.

There is qq if you look for it. Imho (truly just an opinion) the engi player base that visits the forums are full of long time engineer players. good meta bad meta they are still likely to play engineer. So they have lots of information to give. If you look at some of the above post you’ll see hints of qq but not full blown,“this class sucks” level complaints. Why? Because engineer is a diverse class with lots of tools. For the most part we have no true one trick pony builds left. So even if you nerf one thing there are others to compensate.

On a side note I have been roaming just fine solo in WvW since the update.

I will toss in one more. We run some of the most complex hardest to actually land builds in the game. I think some people take a bit of pride in that.

Mirmil.5074:

If you go to any profession forum you will notice that about 50%-60% (in case of necro 80%-90%) of posts will say “we are broken, we keep loosing to [insert another class here] and we used to be better, because 2 patches ago we could one shot Tequatl, fix us Arena!”
Except here. I’ve created new engie, came here to get few tips and instead of typical QQ I’ve found actually quite a lot of positive information – “yes, engineer is not most powerful class but we are certainly good”.
How can you guys stay so positive? Is it something in the elixirs?

QQer from the Necro forum here…

I have to say that necros currently are in a great place, considering the last major patch buffed us all around. Most of the QQ over there, presently, is about The Reaper and its terrible greatsword skills.

Really…just…just terrible.

Okay, gearheads, as you were. Carry on.

… as positive as I am about Engi, I love my necro but I’m quite negative in that regard. The update did a lot of great things for them, but in PVE they’re still greatly lacking unfortunately, fun to play, certainly has some power to it, but has some big holes that need filling.

Because the majority of forum posters are either:

• PvE players and Necro has been on the bottom of the PvE rankings since forever!
• Rookie PvP players who have no concept of positioning, which is arguably more important on a Necromancer than any other class!
• Whiners who will whine regardless of how the class is!

Going into the Necro 4umz was a chilling experience for me! :-D

As for why the Engi 4umz are such a frandly place, it’s because we are frandly people! Also the class is cool!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Wait since when can engi out dps ele

Azure.8670:

Wait since when can engi out dps ele

with this build here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UeNcqdSJI8 ) , in fights lasting longer than 14ish seconds (time might be shorter/longer, don’t remember) the condi engi can pull ridiculous DPS with a good rotation

I see posts get quickly shut down when they whine here.

The class is so diverse when one guy says “we suck, we cant condition clear” another comes in and says “spec like this and you can”
This is 100% correct but the issue rises when you want to play a certain way and you no longer can. Which propagates those whines.
For me personally once i got over no longer using bombs/TK/confusion and blasts the game play that has evolved from burn/hgh has been super fun.

My pricey celestial/perplex ascended got junked which i probably deserve as it was super cheesy but i did enjoy that reactive gameplay.

Still the class has options that others dont. Instead of looking to Anet to fix an issue (except hobosacks heh) people look at their specs.

I can’t understand what everyone else is saying, but you were right. The elixirs are good. I drink maybe 3-4 a day, and my world is sometimes large, sometimes I feel the wind in my hair, but I’m always tripping on something. If you are going to play engineer and stay positive, just take some time to sip some elixirs and watch the world turn. (Oh wait that’s you spinning as a tornado) Man I’m tripping right now…

On a less positive note, I’ve heard that many engineers have developed quite the addiction to elixirs. I see them drink multiple elixrs in the span of a few minutes, they even lose their minds so much, they start tossing their elixirs all over the place like they don’t care about the cost anymore. If you encounter those engineers, you should keep your space. The addiction can be transmitted by watching those elixir hounds beating down on other players. Often people get tempted to try just a sip of some elixir, but they get hooked. Just take it easy, and consume elixirs with moderation.

If on the other hand you already find yourself intoxicated and looking for more, pm me, and I can send you a real nice all elixir all the time build. You won’t go 10 seconds without some elixir in your blood.

I think that’s a good summary of Engineer’s state of mind.

Because we choose to play Engineer since we like the gameplay and enjoy the profession. Compared to other Professions where players only choose them because it is the new “cool” profession or the “better” profession.

People should play the profession they like more because the only way, in my opinion, people would start improving themselves on the profession more than others is if they enjoy playing it and not because someone else told them to.

Realistics engineers left faster than every other classes since all our cool toys got broken so bad. Only the greatest dreamers and stubborns stays and looks positive at first, but deep in their hearth they are mainly desperates and frustated.

NineLives.8725:

Realistics engineers left faster than every other classes since all our cool toys got broken so bad. Only the greatest dreamers and stubborns stays and looks positive at first, but deep in their hearth they are mainly desperates and frustated.

Doesn’t describe me at all. If you know how to use them the tools we have are more than adequate.

NineLives.8725:

Realistics engineers left faster than every other classes since all our cool toys got broken so bad. Only the greatest dreamers and stubborns stays and looks positive at first, but deep in their hearth they are mainly desperates and frustated.

?? I don’t see that at all. Engineer improved in PvE from a unwanted profession to one of the top dps of the game. In PvP we had a drawback with the last big patch, but we seem to get around that and get back some good build. The profession is in a good place overall.

Engineer was my first profession back when the game launched, but I stopped playing it rather quickly. Now, it’s the profession that I play the most.

Ah, I spoke as a 100% pvp engineer.
Btw, we now know how there is still some happy guys here : pve is ok !

Mirmil.5074:

How can you guys stay so positive? Is it something in the elixirs?

Quite literally it is. HGH is one of the best engie traits after the build changes and elixir builds are really good so if you’re constantly chugging elixirs it lessens the pain caused by some of our current issues.

We still have some problems and even bugs with some traits, and some things like bombs and medkit are in serious need of some buffing, but there’s still enough viable stuff to work with.

I think a lot of people who are down on engies are mostly the min-maxing type with a “Anything that isn’t 100% optimized for maximum DPS is completely worthless” type of attitude. The fact that I still see so many “Zerk heavy/thief/ele only” PUGs in the group finder is pretty much a testament to that. I was kind of tempted to counter that and start making “Sinister Guard/Engie only new burning meta get your zerk kitten outta here” groups just because, but even as a joke I didn’t feel right playing the elitism game. (though it still sounds kind of fun to try such a group and watch things literally melt to 60 stacks of burning, even though burning got dialed back down a notch since then)

Anyway, Engie doesn’t have the best outright DPS against trash mobs, but have some of the best sustained DPS in longer fights, with much better survivability than an ele, so they’re often amazing to have in boss fights. Engies still fit well in just about any group composition, and even with the people that might look “down” upon the class, we don’t get it nearly as bad as rangers and necros do.

NineLives.8725:

Ah, I spoke as a 100% pvp engineer.
Btw, we now know how there is still some happy guys here : pve is ok !

Yeah. Pvp is problematic. We don’t quite have the burst OR the tankiness against most matchups. I used to be able to bunker 3v1 in cele gear, and I just can’t get anywhere near my old tankyness now. Thieves are actually a threat now which takes some getting used to.

I just can’t find a pvp build I really like now. I settled on HGH Juggernaut, but I still don’t like it as much as my old builds for PvP. My PvE builds were pretty much buffed down the line though since my main kits there are grenades and E-gun.

NineLives.8725:

Ah, I spoke as a 100% pvp engineer.
Btw, we now know how there is still some happy guys here : pve is ok !

Ok. But still. In PvE we were a beast for so long. It’s just recently that we had a rough road and it’s not that dramatic. I think the condition situation was just harder to adapt to for engineer and the situation is stabilizing these days.

NineLives.8725:

Ah, I spoke as a 100% pvp engineer.
Btw, we now know how there is still some happy guys here : pve is ok !

Hey, PvE’s somewhat important. Gives you a reason to drag your character around rather than being stuck in a lobby playing matches. Besides, we’ve been hit in PvP, that’s for sure, but not as a hard as one believes, Engi’s a threatening opponent to everyone except D/D Ele, but well, D/D Ele laughs at pretty much everything right now if he knows what he’s doing. Engies doesn’t fare as well in WvW roaming due a kittened version of the overall power creep most of classes gained, resulting in an inability to sustain damage pressure through toughness like they used to and therefore resulting in invincibility, blocks, stealth, dodge or bust.

I am positive overall. Although I mourn my ascended celestial set.

In my opinion guys you are too negative. In pve people don’t want engi becouse they don’t know it. If you can play it right engi is quite strong in any context , even high level fractal. In fact people does not want engi usually for cof p1 but in fractal 50 you have not many problem to find a party.
In wvw engineer has never shine for zerging but for small scale fight is quite strong, as condi as celestial . Try wolfineer builds for example
In pvp it is viable too. The last wts was won by abjured and they have 1 engi (really strong ok , but if engi would be too week probably he also would have change ) . Don’t take it as a tragedy

Blows my mind that Chaith just won the WTS on Saturday and people are still saying engineer is struggling in PvP. We’re weaker than we were pre-patch, but we still slot well into most group compositions.

We just aren’t the solo queue carry we used to be.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Blows my mind that Chaith just won the WTS on Saturday and people are still saying engineer is struggling in PvP. We’re weaker than we were pre-patch, but we still slot well into most group compositions.

We just aren’t the solo queue carry we used to be.

Well I think that most of it was adaptation. With limited condition removal the improvement of condition hit us hard. But I think that most of it was in our mind. I’m one of the guys that freak out with the drop of engineer after the patch to be honest. But I restarted to play it after a couple of weeks and it’s not too bad really. We are actually still pretty decent.

Thaddeus.4891:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Blows my mind that Chaith just won the WTS on Saturday and people are still saying engineer is struggling in PvP. We’re weaker than we were pre-patch, but we still slot well into most group compositions.

We just aren’t the solo queue carry we used to be.

Well I think that most of it was adaptation. With limited condition removal the improvement of condition hit us hard. But I think that most of it was in our mind. I’m one of the guys that freak out with the drop of engineer after the patch to be honest. But I restarted to play it after a couple of weeks and it’s not too bad really. We are actually still pretty decent.

This is really a solo queue-only issue, though. In organized team fights you’ll have elementalists, guardians, or soon enough revenants to support you. There’s plenty of counters to condition builds, which is why most teams don’t really run them. Last night I was in a match where everyone on the opposing team was running a condi build. I was getting lit up on my engineer, swapped to my guardian, and didn’t die another time the rest of the match. We ended up losing anyway because condi builds are the new turret builds (where people just don’t know how to adapt), but condition builds have several pretty heavy rocks against their scissors.

Engineers will never be balanced around 1v1s because our team fighting support is tier one and only got better in this patch with the Mortar Kit, Elixir X, and even Inversion Enzyme (though no real need for that just yet).

I’m not going to argue that people should stop solo queuing on their engineers, but with the way PvP is headed with guild teams and leagues, I don’t think it’s ArenaNet’s concern. I always felt that if you want to have a consistently high win rate in solo queue, you have to be a multi-classer. I have no qualms swapping to my guardian or necromancer if their team is condition or elementalist heavy.

I just started leveling my first engineer. I…kittening…love it!
I have never felt so engaged in combat. Maybe ele. But this is more fun. Turrets, flames, explosions all part of a beautifully destructive ballet=)
I dont care if eng is not the the meta for groups it makes me smile.

Phineas Poe.3018:

This is really a solo queue-only issue, though. In organized team fights you’ll have elementalists, guardians, or soon enough revenants to support you. There’s plenty of counters to condition builds, which is why most teams don’t really run them.

True. I’m the most efficient when I’m backing up Eles and Guardian on points. They bunk, we support each other, I can take their place for a moment when they need it, and Engineer is great addition for stomp/rez.

I like engineer because of the abilities engineer has. LIke we have a couple of stuns, some healing, buffs, turrets, kits, and a cool style.

I like to think of us as a "short range mage, who deals close range – melee damage and heals a little and has better defense than other professions, but also has decent damage and control.

I know this “META” thing favors raw damage and no other builds or styles of play. So engineer doesn’t feel very popular or seem very flashy. I picked engineer knowing i wasn’t going to be the best damage dealer or best supporting char or tank (gaurdian)

BUT man we have some interesting abilities. And the trait lines are very cool. I think alchemy is the best “tanky / buffing” line and fire arms is where the damage is at.

Tools has useful utility and well i think inventions can be used for something defensive or team oriented.

I am a noob player, but maybe my fresh mind has hope and love for engineer profession. But i love this profession. I have fun playing a profession i enjoy, than playing a profession to win.

I get fun out of flavor, looks, uniqueness, cool interesting abilities and being very different.

I don’t get fun out of playing something i don’t like but play it because i am winning – the winning is supposed to be the satisfaction you get. But most people get burned out, or they win all the time and are still “restless” and THEN they are in trouble because now they are not having fun playing a meta profession even after winning.

Sorry for my philosophy rant, but yea, i love engineer for aesthetic flavor more than anything else.

Anthony.1579:

I know this “META” thing favors raw damage and no other builds or styles of play.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Abjured ran three Celestials (2x ele + necro) and a Soldier engineer in the WTS.

I actually think, even despite the WTS, the meta hasn’t really been defined yet, and I don’t see a point in trying to define one until after Heart of Thorns comes out. Judgments about our position will become clearer when our specialization becomes revealed, but this is an interim period and I wouldn’t get overly attached to it.

hot isnt gonna be out for a few months so i dont see the point in not allowing a meta to develop cuz in game time thats ages :P

hell in game time, a week is ages

Anthony.1579:

I know this “META” thing favors raw damage and no other builds or styles of play. So engineer doesn’t feel very popular or seem very flashy. I picked engineer knowing i wasn’t going to be the best damage dealer or best supporting char or tank (gaurdian)

Don’t mix up PvE, PvP and WvW Meta. Raw damage is for PvE meta. For PvP and WvW it’s a mix. Beserker isn’t meta at all in PvP.

Right now the ’’meta’’ is 1 clerics, 1 Soldiers, 2 Marauders and 2 Celestial. And honestly, these day, which profession is meta or not evolve a lot and will probably won’t be stable until after the expansion.

The core of the matter is the fotm engis left and no1 misses them. The positive players are still here and can see the and enjoy the strengths of the class.

The players that hop about looking to be stronger than other players by just choosing the right class or faction(other games) tend to be whiny little toerags

This class used to be considered “advanced” then it became “Meta” which is thrown about so much, it seems most people think it means “easy”. Now the class is neither easy or meta and so they are all moving on to easy classes. Its great not being associated with that type of toerag

Its making me happy at least :P