Guild Wars 2

All the classes I’ve played thus far have had an “ah ha!” moment when things just started to make sense. For most of them this has been around lvl 15, but my engie is hovering around 25 and I’ve yet to figure out how to make everything click into place to form a nice, flowing playstyle.

So my question is, what made your engineer click? Was it a new way to use packs, did you swap out for turrets? Are elixers the key? Does it just take enough levels to unlock higher traits to make things come together?

Mine clicked when I started trying out proc-on-crit traits plus a crit-focused build… then yanked out my flamethrower.

It was very much an Aha! moment. Instead of juicing for pure power, looking for reliable and consistent direct damage, I was focusing on critting as much as possible so my sigils and traits kicked in, slathering the enemy in conditions. That got me started experimenting with pistols and other builds and now I’m doing decently.

That was a late game click, though; my early game click was getting self-repairing turrets, since I was trying and failing to make a turret-friendly build. Once I got those they started seriously contributing to my DPS and survival.

I went to the Heart of the Mists, got all my traits to synergize, and since then there’s only about 10 seconds of down time where I’m not without swiftness, fury, retaliation, and might

Probably the first time I destroyed a big group with bombs and barely got touched. Then again the first time I popped B and U while spamming grenades underwater.

My ‘Aha’ moment was simply when I started using the Flamethrower.

I didn’t plan to use it at first, intending to go Pistol + Turrets at first. But then I tried it, and was completely enthralled by it.

Me likey fire

Twoflower.3176:

Mine clicked when I started trying out proc-on-crit traits plus a crit-focused build… then yanked out my flamethrower.

It was very much an Aha! moment. Instead of juicing for pure power, looking for reliable and consistent direct damage, I was focusing on critting as much as possible so my sigils and traits kicked in, slathering the enemy in conditions.

Sorry to burst your bubble but… Flamethrowers don’t trigger weapon sigils.

:/

When I “planted” my first “mushroom patch” of Turrets. Level 15 or there abouts if I recall. P/P with Turrets is how I prefer to run my Engineer.

When all classes to 30. I then when to the same areas on each class in succession, trying to find which characters felt more enjoyable for me in the same situations. I felt like to get the same thing I got out of other classes I had to use builds that I didn’t like over all.

I also felt like when I used other builds specific to certain roles, that as a general rule, I got more out of my engineer builds.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Sorry to burst your bubble but… Flamethrowers don’t trigger weapon sigils.

I know. But it does trigger any proc-on-crit traits you have. And when I’m down to a single target or I need to work from a distance, I use my rifle — which tacks yet another proc-on-crit with its sigil. I meant that as two separate things.

The flamethrower is nice because it’s a STREAM of hits, each tiny, but each with its own crit chance. That means it’s more likely to pour on the conditions than the rifle is. Very nice.

For me it was pretty early on, I took a rifle out and played with it but wasn’t sure if I liked it enough to main it. I wanted to switch to dual pistols but I only had one pistol so I equipped a shield off-hand just to see if I liked it. At the time I only had the basic Elixir H heal skill and the Rifle Turret. I dropped my turret and farmed out my skills for pistol and shield and when I had them all I realized that I could drop the turret, let it aggro, knock the enemy back with shield 4, shoot them, stun them with shield 5, and kite until they died. That was FUN! It was my playstyle with Engi, it was everything I wanted out of the class: versatility, on-the-fly decision making, and interesting skill mechanics. I’ve since dropped the Rifle Turret, picked up the Healing Turret, and slotted Elixir Gun and Rocket Boots. I’m a Condition Damage hybrid build that looks for versatility, mobility, and tankiness so that I can kite and play my style more effectively. But it all ties back to kiting around a rifle turret with the shield as my only crowd control. Hope you find that moment where the Engineer just clicks for you!

Engineer was my first character and I went off to play Thief and Mesmer for about a month because I felt like Engineer was weak, too complicated, and none of the skills had any synergy. I feel the Engineer really clicked with me after I gained more knowledge of the game mechanics in general.

When I came back to my level 33 Engineer after a month hiatus, I noticed my gear was an absolute mess so I focused my gear on just Power and Precision stats and this made a world of difference. Not only did I start wrecking PvE with Rifle, Flamethrower, Bombs, and Grenades but I realized my initial reaction to Engineers having messy skill synergy was completely off the mark. I now see that this class is truly the jack of all trades profession of GW2 and can fill nearly any role. I don’t want to play any other profession besides Engineer nowadays.

I don’t remember the exact level it all clicked for me but I wanna say the class felt very fluid to me around lvl 20 or so. I knew from then on based it was the class for me because it felt so diverse.

In terms of, wow this is playing so much better now, lvl 60 when I could have the traits I wanted. Traits really do make a world of difference.

I’ll say the 20 mark is also when I realized that this was the class that fit me best. I often get bored of playing one style that I was a super altaholic in other games because I felt like I was stuck to doing one thing, just taking advantage of the motions and builds. Now when I feel bored or I just change my kits and adjust traits and its like an entire new class. I cannot touch any other class now because of how much engineer just suits me in comparison.

80, leading a strike team in WVW after finishing my exotics. >_>

Though right now I’m kind of depressed with the mix-n-match nature of the class, it just feels like there’s three or four viable combinations total.

For me, the class really didn’t completely click until 25th. Then things really started to fall into place at 30th.

I guess my issues fell into a few categories. One of my key issues is that my Condition based Pistol build just plays so much differently than my other characters. My two Warriors and my Thief were melee builds. Yet my Engineer turned out to be this weird hybrid between melee and ranged, which constantly switched back and forth.

Another issue that I had was with cool down timers. Since Engineers don’t have a formal Weapon Switch mechanic, it took some time for me to get comfortable using a Kit weapon set. Then once you accept that you’ll need a Kit, you have to figure out which Kit fits your need and playstyle.

At 20th, my 10 pts in Firearms let me reduce my Pistol recast timers. That made a noticeable difference. Then 25th let me throw on a Blue set of crafted Pistols / Armor / Jewelry that granted +Precision / +Condition. Gaining that 2nd damage stat on my gear made a world of difference. The final piece of the puzzle was hitting 30th, which let me have 10 pts in Tools for the Quickness trait. Whenever I equiped my Grenade Kit, I’d have 5 seconds of Quickness to hurl a mountain of different grenades at my feet to deal with the swarm of mobs who were trying to melee me. My net dps output with my Grenades got a noticeable increase in the spike dps department, which was all that I was using them for in the first place.

Also it really helped to get access to the 30th level Elite skill. Even though I wasn’t traited to use it the most efficiently, I fell in love with the Supply Crate skill. As a panic button, it’s been a life saver. It gave me extra healing, extra dps, and more potential targets for enemy mobs to attacks. There was less need to kite when mobs were swinging away on a Rifle or Flamethrower turret and ignoring me for a few seconds.

My Eng had lots of moments all the way up through level 80 and even a few after. Here is a summary

When I first got my flamethrower I said “Ah I get it kits are the answer” But they weren’t.

Then I discovered bombaneering and said " Oh yeah!! this is where it is at" but found it lacking.

Then it happened. I discovered that I can exploit field like no other. I can set my own up and use them I can use other. Then I found the joy of crit speccing then I learn how grenades work for me and discovered that pistol and shield let my tank 8+ mobs with one or 2 being elite….. well you get the picture.

The eng is a class that is not as straight forward as many would like it. it can be tough to maximize certain skills with actual skills (I suck at running while using grenades).

This board has been great giving me ideas on how to run with this class. Now I am a pistol shield/turret/gadget_neer and having a blast in PVP and WWW

Mine clicked for me when I picked up my first Flamethrower at a tender level of 9, since then it’s been non-stop hilarity involving fire, fire, and more fire.

In all seriousness, for me, my Engineer really began to shine around Lv30 when I was able to rock Fast Acting Elixirs and Precise Sights. Constantly getting crits on enemies and stacking Bleeding/Vulnerability was a huge change for me as opposed to before’s spray and pray style of play with my full power gear. And once I was able to find out that I got Might Stacks for practically free by using some foods and some basic field combos (Napalm+Supply Crate=Area Might), I’ve become obsessed with stacking Might, which in turn, helped me melt enemies even faster.

Seriously, my old main character, the Guardian is currently collecting dust as I run around spraying fiery love to the local wildlife in whatever region I may happen to be in.

I’m 80 and I still don’t think it’s completely clicked lol.

I leveled doing heart farms circle strafing mobs with double pistol.

I tried a flamethrower build which had nice damage but I wasn’t adding much in dungeons.

Now I’m trying a heal/bomb bunker build that seems strong, but I don’t really care for it. (Although I can solo Veteran Mobs + Adds without it taking 20 min now).

I think i really want a pistol shield build. If this guy above can tank 8 mobs that way I assume he’s got similar survivability to my bomb build but that he can still do solid damage from 10-15 away.

When I found out what tool was for the right job. Know your battlefield, and know your enemy. Work your play accordingly. Adapt and overcome. That sort of thing.

I had it click in 2 stages.
Stage 1: rerolled human to Charr at lvl 66
Stage 2: tried all the builds and traits I had ignored before
loving it now at 80

This is an interesting read. My Engineer is currently level 26 and I do ok (but not great) in PvE. I’ve tried all the kits and weapons but my problem with the profession is that the multitude of skills don’t seem to gel or flow properly. It feels like I could press 1-5 in Grenades (or 5-1), switch to flamethrower and do the same without joining them up in some form of strategy.

Maybe that will change as I play him more.

when i switch my flamethrower build from the carrion/ soilder line of stats to the beserker/ knight stat lines on my flamethrower

I think it was the first time I used rifle #5. I lol´d so hard when my human engineer went “AAAAAAAARRGHAAAH!!!1”.

My engineer clicked a lot when I was using grenades #1…

For me, it clicked when I first picked up the Elixir Gun and the Medkit.

I usually start out laying out bandages (just in case), then switch to the Elixir Gun and start shooting the enemy, stacking bleeding. When he comes closer, I put poison on him, lunge away with Acid Bomb or Rocket Boots, put cripple on him and bleed again.

Engineer clicked for me before the game was even released. I’ve always wanted to play a class like this in an MMO - when they announced the engineer as one of the playable classes it was love at first sight.

In game they’re everything I had hoped they would be and more. Engineer FTW.

It clicked for me when I got the flamethrower and the elixir gun. 30 Skill points in Fire Arms for “Juggernaut” getting 7 stacks of might + 200 toughness just for having it out + any runes that build might or crit chance, i basically double my damage. Skill 1 was doing around 400 or so and now it’s cranking out 800+ per stream, and the 2nd slot skill explodes for pretty nice damage, was doing 700+ now it’s doing 1400+ when it esplodes. I’m lvl 66 by the way, and I don’t have the greatest gear, just some karma rewards from vendors or green drops from random stuff. PvE mostly.

When I stopped trying to play it like other classes.
Tip: your utility skills are F1-F4, your weapon and extra-utility-because-you-are-MacGyver skills are 7,8,9. It makes all the difference when choosing what to run with.

7 stacks of might @66 is only 170 power. That’s more like a 10%ish damage increase. The reason you’re doing more damage is just because you’re higher level. Honestly at the moment juggernaught is a very mediocre talent. It is basically a ~10% damage increase if you sit in FT all the time (which you shouldn’t) and ~7% damage mitigation.

For me it was when I first pulled out my flamethrower, and when that one became neutered by it’s terrible scaling I had a second one when I started using grenades seriously.