Guild Wars 2

my engi is still pathetically low level… im planning a build that involves bombs, nades or toolkit (or all three… if i can go without a stunbreaker/easy cleanse), but im having trouble deciding which weapons i want to go with… i kind of want rifle for the KB and immob… but shield has some pretty nice utility as well (not so into pistols though)
since im planning on staying in kits 99% of the time… is p/s simply better because of the two sigils (on crit+stacking or force; as opposed with rifle, where id simply go for an oncrit)? or am i missing something?

There both good choices.

Rifle gives you some nice control.

Of course so does pistol in another way…. at low levels it might not seem so great… but Pistol 3 is an aoe blind on a pretty short cool down.

Even the poison is underrated… ya it misses a few hits… still a great way to put a pretty long poison up in pvp.

If your pvping I would say pistol shield myself… lots of control. A stun… a projectile reflect + knock back.

Still there are times the rifle can do the same stuff…

Mostly you will be swapping around kits blowing cool downs… but I always like having that insta blind ready to go if I need it on pistol… it has no cast time which is awsome. If I have no block and need a second of breathing room its an insta fire.

I had both sets, wishing engineers could weapon swap. As I leveled, I realized how much I liked them both but also how different they are. So I ended up rolling a new engineer. Now I have two engineers that play very different from each other. As Husanak said, they are both good. Keep a set of each in your inventory and see which one you like the best before desciding.

Husanak.3769:

There both good choices.

Rifle gives you some nice control.

Of course so does pistol in another way…. at low levels it might not seem so great… but Pistol 3 is an aoe blind on a pretty short cool down.

Even the poison is underrated… ya it misses a few hits… still a great way to put a pretty long poison up in pvp.

If your pvping I would say pistol shield myself… lots of control. A stun… a projectile reflect + knock back.

Still there are times the rifle can do the same stuff…

Mostly you will be swapping around kits blowing cool downs… but I always like having that insta blind ready to go if I need it on pistol… it has no cast time which is awsome. If I have no block and need a second of breathing room its an insta fire.

sorry; i shouldve included that this is for a pve build, i love poison in pvp just because half the players dont seem to understand that it cuts into their heal

but; if a player were to stick in kits all the time (i doubt i would… the utility would draw me out occasionally)… wouldnt one handed weapons be better because you can slot two sigils (and according to the wiki the rifles higher base damage isnt taken into account because kits have their own stats)

On my rifle engineer, I use two kits but I also kit swap for powerful attacks. Blunderbuss>jumpshot>flamethrower kit swap aoe specced into>detonate flameblast>napalm>back to blunderbuss.

it’s for openworld leveling and provides a lot of utility with all the controle and the turret and elixergun heals.

I’ve never been able to really enjoy the rifle. Its net shot is awesome for control but the self-knockback i find to be terrible and the leap is very situational.

I’ve always favored the pistol for the low cooldown bouncing blind. And it stacks bleeds so it works better for a condition heavy build.

Shield has long cooldowns (which is why I run P/P) but if you’re going to be spending most of your time in kits then I think it’s worth it. You’ll really only bounce out of the kits for things like the shield knockback or pistol blind. So don’t take the straight damage the pistol and shield do into account.

One other thing: toolkit & bombs are melee range kits, so rifle’s control skills would be worthless (net shot, knockback). Pistol’s blind and shield’s blocks would be useful here. For grenade kit though, rifle control will be great, as it’s designed to keep foes at range.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

sorry; i shouldve included that this is for a pve build, i love poison in pvp just because half the players dont seem to understand that it cuts into their heal

but; if a player were to stick in kits all the time (i doubt i would… the utility would draw me out occasionally)… wouldnt one handed weapons be better because you can slot two sigils (and according to the wiki the rifles higher base damage isnt taken into account because kits have their own stats)

Ya for pve honestly I mostly just go pistol pistol… but the shield can still be nice.

The dual sigiles is great of pve ya you can run a blood lust or corruption and still have room for a on crit sigil. (for pve I find it effective… its not to hard to have good crit chance on almost any engi build so I find for pve they are the way to go)

We don’t have lots of weapon choices on the engi but they are all usable. I keep a few exoitics of each around when I feel like changing it up.

One tip you can start to channel skills out of your kits and then swap out of the kit and be ready to go….

So you can combo things like Tool kit 5 magnet pull with rifle 5 jump shotfor some burst.
You can also start your cast on something like tool kit 2 nails… as your moving around and getting something else ready to go…. ect ect.

If you do want to use bomb kit its nice to be able to drop some bombs… start the cast on your magnet pull and then jumpshot right away… it can make some big pops… but in pve I mostly find the mob fest is easiest to pound on with dual pistols for the blow torch bleed and aoe sticky glue… the pistol pistol 3 4 5 AOEs are very effective vs multi mobs.

If you are planning to do “farming” type pve… honestly the firearms ultimate pistol skill… coated bullets is underrated a lot… piercing sucks on most wepaons… but on pistol each hit does a little mini aoe explosion… so when they start piercing its hillarious… you do massive dmg to grouped enemies.

This reply is only thinking and taking into account the WvWvW environment for these weapons (not PvE or PvP)!

Rifle’s:

Good Points:

> Rifle’s are best for keep defending!
> Rifle’s are best when being in a battle where it has this effect by which no one can seem to get to the enemy side and really do hits! (For example a stalemate). A pistol will have trouble in this situation as it is mainly close combat, and in these kind of battles you can’t get close up to the enemy team!
> Rifle’s make it easy to deal heavy hits in one go and they allow jump forwards effects which can be handy if you are chasing someone
> Rifle’s are pretty good for keep attacking!

Bad Points:

> Rifle’s are very unhandy and clumsy in close quarters (despite it having a close range attack)!
> Rifle’s can sometimes be not as good for one on one’s as they aren’t very mobile (while the pistols are)
> A rifle is two handed.

Pistols:

Good Points:

> Pistols are very mobile so can be good in keep attacking as we’ll as one on one’s!
> A pistol (not two) allows you to equip a shield this could stabilise your defence?
> Pistols can b handy on chase if you have the 5 ability ready! It could slow down the enemy?

Bad Points:

> Unhandy for keep defending (not enough range).
> Doesn’t really cause a lot of damage.
> The 5th ability is a bit of a waste for a 5th good ability, I expected it to be more powerful and handy.

I myself have a pistol on my main hand and a shield on my off-hand for extra defence!
As you can see though I have more good and less bad points for the two-handed rifle, so in the end…….
…
…
…
…
THE RIFLE I FIND THE BEST as well as… THE PISTOL AND SHIELD!
Sadly though this post is only applying for rifle and pistols so yeah my answer is as I said before, a two handed rifle! (Though really the pistol and the rifle (I think myself) are beaten by my setup… Pistol (no plural) and shield!

Thank you for reading!

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