Guild Wars 2

I’ve spent some time playing ele and mesmer.

I like mesmer because its a funky class.

I like D/D ele because it’s the most unique playstyle i’ve seen in a while, but D/D is the ONLY build that ele has that’s this funky.

I started playing eng and am intrigued by the toolkit i’m seeing so far.

I’d love to see some feedback from some vets on the niches this profession has – and the builds most commonly used to fill those niches.

please no downer-posting. I know people consider eng “screwed” and “weak”, but I’ve always been an expert at making very tasty margaritas from lemons in other games, and enjoy that challenge.

What I can suggest is to try different kits out and see which ones you like. We have the tank cat build you can look up if you wan’t to really annoy people in WvW, there is the flamethrower might stacking build if you’re looking for something tanky, explosives builds give a lot of maneuverability, and we have some pistol condition builds.

One thing I find funny on my server is that I never see two engineers with the same build, although that might be because I hardly see engineers around

The way you describe yourself I’ll take a guess and say that you probably don’t want to stick to a role like glass-cannon/support/bunker. Look at the traitlines, see that there are synergies between flamethrower and elixirgun, between bomb kit and grenade kit, rifle and elixirs. It also helps to know what aspect of Gw2 you plan to use the engineer on the most, as this would change the kind of load-outs you use as well.

“The way you describe yourself I’ll take a guess and say that you probably don’t want to stick to a role like glass-cannon/support/bunker.”

Very true.
On my mesmer I went for something unorthodox: boot-strip and ranged-shutdown build. (all 10/30/5/20/5) – was amazing for group play and still did respectable damage.

I like “renaissance” or “JOATMON” builds that are highly flexible or accomplish their intended roles through unconventional means.

Hey, first off welcome to the wonderful land of Engineer! I would consider myself a vet since I have over 500 hours and 1k PvP matches on engi alone. The thing we do best is honestly everything. When the devs said “Engineers are the jack of all trades”, they really weren’t kidding. Many people argue that engis can do everything, but not nearly as good as other classes. In some ways, yes they are right, because it takes more effort on our part to do the same result as another class. HOWEVER, what we have is extreme versatility from our kits. Unfortunatly our turrets and gadgets are unviable for most instances, but the kits are where we shine! Ranging from the tanky tool kit, to the massive damage of the grenade kit, we can do anything! Keep in mind, engineers have a much higher skill FLOOR than any other class. But in comparison, a good engineer is absolutely deadly! (for instance my buddy, Five Gauge, is scary as balls with his 100nade build. Just shows that a good engi is a major threat in pvp). So yeah, just keep with it and have fun! Good luck on engineer and may the slick shoes be with you.

~Vöz

Here are the main builds people use. I will put these in order of my person thoughts of how effective they are:

Super Super Elixir(Support): Take the trait Kit Refinement and the kit Elixir Gun. This will allow you to drop a Super Elixir at your feet every 20 seconds when you switch to Elixir Gun. The Elixir Gun skill also has this skill. Thus, you can either maintain it forever OR stack two on each other. Because it’s not regeneration, it stacks. It also removes conditions. Statted correctly (High healing power), you can heal your team for a good 20k over 10 seconds and remove tons of conditions.

100nades(Glass Cannon): Take Grenade Kit with the trait Kit Refinement and Static Discharge. If you stand on a foe, hit F3 (grenade barrage) with your finger and click on grenade kit, you will throw about 20 grenades at your feet, along with the damage coming in from static discharge. Mix this with Analyze (Utility Goggles’ tool kit skill) for even more damage. Because of the trait Grenadier, you will cause vulnerability with each grenade. This means you can instantly stack 25 vulnerability on someone. The tricky part is you need to be right up next to the guy to get the damage in.

Pistol Pierce(AoE Condition Pressure): Take the trait that causes pistol shots to pierce. Get as much condition damage and power as you can. Also take the trait HGH. Take ALL elixirs, besides your elite. The heal skill one is optional as well as it’s generally suppar due to it’s randomness. The effect of this build is very high AoE condition damage. I find it better with dual pistols, but keep a shield around to allow for more defense in PvE.

Juggernaut(AoE Condition Pressure/Bunker): Mix the trait Juggernaut with the trait HGH. Put a bunch of stuff that makes your flamethrower stronger and invest in condition damage and power. Take some elixirs. Good for tagging and great constant AoE with some nice control.

Some people discriminate against Engineers. I prefer to tell them “Don’t hate cuz I’m awesome.” or “It’s CoF.” If someone is stupid enough to discriminate an entire class, you don’t want them on your team anyways.

Walorx.5129:

Hey, first off welcome to the wonderful land of Engineer! I would consider myself a vet since I have over 500 hours and 1k PvP matches on engi alone. The thing we do best is honestly everything. When the devs said “Engineers are the jack of all trades”, they really weren’t kidding. Many people argue that engis can do everything, but not nearly as good as other classes. In some ways, yes they are right, because it takes more effort on our part to do the same result as another class. HOWEVER, what we have is extreme versatility from our kits. Unfortunatly our turrets and gadgets are unviable for most instances, but the kits are where we shine! Ranging from the tanky tool kit, to the massive damage of the grenade kit, we can do anything! Keep in mind, engineers have a much higher skill FLOOR than any other class. But in comparison, a good engineer is absolutely deadly! (for instance my buddy, Five Gauge, is scary as balls with his 100nade build. Just shows that a good engi is a major threat in pvp). So yeah, just keep with it and have fun! Good luck on engineer and may the slick shoes be with you.

~Vöz

I’m seeing it so far.

I have my 1 utility slot atm, slotted grenade kit, and am able to keep very high uptime on either blind or snare on foes.

Thus far my barriers to personal story advancement have been the capacity to hit foes (lvl 6 finally dies vs ranged lvl 10 vet).

I’m looking forward to this one.

Would love to see some p/p builds, as, given the state of pistol with thief, this is probably the most viable toon to equip with 2 whispers pistols.

for a p/p + elixir build you an take a look at mine over here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/The-Spree-WvW-pistols-and-pots-movie/first#post1235768

thoughts on stats for each of the builds above?

pistols looks like prec/tough/condition damage, or pow/tough/cd (which i don’t think exists in the game?)

Don’t use elixers for a condition build. Ever.

Stick with grenade kit, tool kit, and elixer r.

I swap my build constantly; the one thing I always keep constant is I pretty much always use a rifle, just because the control it has is so good. Lately I’m using a static discharge build for PvP, it’s a lot of fun but it takes some getting used to with pressing all of the function keys. I also use the toolkit, mostly for magnet and gear shield, and it is infinitely fun to pull players off of walls or into a zerg in WvW, you can almost see the panic in their faces when you do this! For my other skills I use rifle turret (for the short cooldown toolbelt skill) and ram head, for the same reason and the additional knockback it provides.

For dungeons and stuff I usually use either grenades, flamethrower, or bombs, depending on my mood. They all get the job done in different ways and to varying degrees of effectiveness, but sticking to just one makes it boring lol. Grenades are probably best just due to the range, but I like using the flamethrower the most…it’s just also the kit I die the most using

I’ve seen a lot of classes released that are unfinished in the last 15 years of MMO playing. I’ve played a lot of underdog classes. usually it’s no big deal, they get fixed eventually.

GW2 Engineer is the first underdog class I’ve ever seen consistently and regularly go backwards post release. Many of the few working things Engineer used to have are now removed and almost all the major broken things are still ignored.

It’s really a case of 1 step forward 3 steps backward for the last half year. Additionally dev statements indicate they think they’re doing a great job with engineer, and the community as a whole is just wrong about engineer. So be warned: don’t expect your engineer to get fixed anytime soon.

Walorx.5129:

Don’t use elixers for a condition build. Ever.

Stick with grenade kit, tool kit, and elixer r.

oO why?

I Use 20 points on toughness, 20 condition damage, 30 vitality (elixirs ftw)

With Pistol Shield + Pistol with the trait with 90 tough when using a shield and the trait for protection u become extremely hard to kill. My set and jewels are full PrecTough+Condition Damage. It works pretty good to me. Only downside is that i had to replace the trait to burn and with this my bleeds dont last long as they should but you just have to shoot and shoot to bleed anyway :P

Maskaganda.2043:

Walorx.5129:

Don’t use elixers for a condition build. Ever.

Stick with grenade kit, tool kit, and elixer r.

oO why?

Because its much more effective. Especially if you go for a setup like 30/10/0/10/20 and get kit refinement. Because the toolkit alone with the KR prod and #2 skill will stack about 10 stacks of bleed on a node from the caltrops. Add the attacks from p/p and nades and you got one hell of a condition storm. Infact, I even use those exact traits and utilities in my build in tPvP. Elixers such as B and S are effective, but they proc with passives from just 10 points in Alchemy. And besides, it’s more fun to use kits then spamming elixers all the time :P

If you’re looking to level one up, then it’s really just a matter of experimenting. For my leveling I went with a pistols, flamethrower, bomb, and elixir b setup and I was a wrecking ball of destruction. And you’ve got great defensive tools too: Two blinds, two snares, and two knockbacks.

The thing to understand about an engineer is it’s designed to switch in and out of kits on the fly a lot. Its the reason I love this class. I can’t go back to other classes now that have cooldowns on their weapon swaps. So make sure you can bind all your skills so that it’s effortless.

It’s a classes that begs for you to experiment with it. For example. Some might think Flame Thrower kit is used for closer range stuff. And for the most part it is. But the #2 attack is deal to use at it’s max range. So that’s the attack I open up with when I’m questing and such. It takes 25% of their health off in one hit and I’m already switched into pistols before it even lands.

For those quests where you’re taking out centaur/bandit turrets or trebs? Hit the bad guy with range while you run right the siege… switch to the flamethrower and drop Napalm right next to the siege, switch to the bomb kit and start dropping bombs right at the siege. Badguys coming after you are standing in the Napalm and getting hit with your bombs. You’ll take out the bad guys and the siege easily. With the bomb kit you’ve got blindness and confuse… you’ll eventually learn how long you can “hang” in the middle of a group before it gets dicey. Figure it out and work in the big ole bomb into that rotation. So that roughly around the time you start taking hits… BOOM! They go a flying and you can finish off whatever is even left(often times nothing unless there is a Vet in there). Or just drop a glue bomb, dodge out and switch to range damage.

One might think this is “too much work” but when you’ve got your binds working then it’s just seamless and smooth and it just feels awesome when it all comes together!