Guild Wars 2

I’ve been meaning to make this thread for a while.

I seem to have lots of trouble beating engineers in 1v1 on my Guard. I win more 1v1s than I lose against pretty much every other profession. Mesmers would be the next hardest after engineers for me personally, but I don’t think I am alone there. I don’t know if it is just bad luck that I run into talented Engineers or whether or not I am doing something fundamentally wrong. I suppose it is worth noting that Engineer is the class I know the least about.

So two questions

1. Does anyone else have problems against engineers as a guardian?

2. If you are consistently successful against engineers, what type of guardian are you rolling with?

I guess I’m trying to work out whether this is a problem with my build or a problem with my playstyle. I don’t expect a build to have the same results against all professions but it feels like something is amiss that I can handle most other professions with a much better success rate than I can engineers.

FTR, I am stacking a fair bit of power/prec in my gear, with tough/vit trait-lines and shout utilities + Signet of Judgment. I run with GS and Scepter/Shield.

Tl;dr? Is there a trick to engineers, am I having bad luck finding all the good ones or is it an issue with my build (I’d prefer it be the latter, I can handle having one bogey profession).

Maybe I need to hit the wiki page up on Engineer or something.

I’m on the same boat concerning facing Engineers, I can get really easy match-ups the same way I get incredibly strong ones, but the hardest ones by far are condition tank builds with grenades and toolkit sporting a pistol/shield, I had to spec for condition removal through Runes of the Soldier and Pure of Voice trait to stand a chance against those, you can literally do nothing with 5 or 6 types of conditions on you lasting for an eternity if you haven’t above average condition removal, other than that build, DPS engineers are much accessible to deal with as a Guardian.

My advice is to keep ranged with Scepter/x (I’ve been using the torch as a off-hand since it does compliment the scepter nicely in ranged damage) until you do a good bit of damage, try to force them to use heal or shield block and get close to melee them up whilst using shouts to clean conditions and boon up-keep.

It won’t work all the time since the Engineer player skill will determine how he can counter your initiatives as well, but going straight on face to face it’s really the quickest way to get yourself killed against that setup.

Edit: I forgot to mention this, but having a -40% condition duration food on yourself is already going to aid you fighting against heavy condition engineers.

When it comes to Engineers (like Elementalists), they can bunker to a level beyond Guardian. It seems a entirely unfair for a ranged, heavy-utility class to have over what should be a sturdy, melee class with limited CC.

If you see the Engineer using grenades, use Retaliation. Generally, Engineers specialized for grenades will hit you 3 times which in turn will hit three times back. With significant power, you can hit the Engineer back for around 600 per attack. Your standard Zerg equipment (Soldier or Sentinel) will suffice against grenade Engineer builds. The heavy amount of Health and Armor will negate most damage: direct or conditions. Having Soldier gear for Power main raises Retaliation to its greatest potential.

If the Engineer is using a condition build, be sure to have condition removal ready. Traiting Virtue of Resolve to remove three conditions and/or having Shouts with condition removal will help. You can also use Contemplation of Purity when the Engineer bursts conditions onto you for an instant turning of the battle.

Thanks for the advice so far guys. Learning some things I didn’t know (partly because I’ve never played engineer).

I have a lot of retaliation and condition removal in my build. More often than not it seems to be the direct damage rather than conditions that are doing the damage. I feel like another issue is I often get locked down in engineer fights (they have some nifty immobilizes I take it) and am left to use my generally crappy ranged DPS.

Sadly, it seems as a class we do not do well against engineers. My brother mains an engineer and he scoffs when ever he sees a guardian. And the regen rangers are another pain in our arse, they out heal us by a long shot.

The only class that can withstand a condition engie by far is the necro because of their ability to manipulate and return conditions. The engie’s ability to spam conditions are unparallel , you definitely need ALOT of condition removal to survive the burst. Also watch out for that prybar , you’ll see some white streaks between you and the engie signaling you’re about to be pulled and comboed for mass confusion toppled with a plethora of conditions. Anything with a shield is a tankier spec , 2 pistols are high hp burst condition spec and with a rifle they are control spec so keep your slots filled with stability. Gl out there

Yeah, good bunker condition engineers are a pain to deal with 1v1. Big thing to do is when they drop the supply crate is to AoE the turrets hard and get them down, between the snares, the conditions, and the healing that one elite gives them it can wreck your day pretty bad. Otherwise you have to try to get away from it, but that just works in the engineer’s favor when they start bursting grenades.

One thing to make sure you have on you when going against a condition engi though is a scepter, used like a melee weapon with a 300 range you can keep constant damage on them, which is big for negating their regen. I personally run hoelbrak + poultry and leek soup for 56% condition reduction, along with whatever other removals i have (either Pure of voice, or smite condition/contemplation of purity when solo meditation built) All of this also helps with being kited as snares fall off fast, and are fairly easy to remove.

Overall though, Engineers when in the right hands are EXTREMELY good against guardians, and are going to be a tough fight no matter what.

As a guardian it is impossible to win against an equally skilled engineer.
It will never happen since he will kite you and burn you down with his conditions.
Engineers are OP in WvW partially because of the +40% condition duration foodbuff, which means they can almost keep a permanent burning just by auto-attacking.
When that burning is ticking for almost 1k pr. second you have to rely on burst dmg, which the guardian is severely lacking, especially against a tanky condition engineer.
Furthermore, the healing turret is also OP in it’s current state, although that applies to both sPvP and WvW.

In short: No you are not bad, all guardians will lose to an engineer equal to the guardians own skill level. It’s a matter of class.
And yes, Mesmers are the second most difficult especially if they run a Phantasm Build. Fighting a shatter-build should be a pretty even fight if you know how to counter it.

As a p/s HGH/Condi engi myself i find melee fights to be among the favorite as the target will be within short range of my grenades at all times.

Personally there are 3 things that can very easily get me killed.

1. Retaliation. Pop this as you go into melee with the engi.
2. Range between me and the target, further away the easier grenades are to dodge.
3. All else fails – Duo with a Mesmers, especially sword/phant/confusion type.

And watch out for the pull.

Engies are rly tough to beat, but as a guardian you should not be losing to them. If you are dueling try changing your utils around to best match your situation, not blindly go with (just an example: save yourselves, stand your ground, judges intervention) adapting is key. I have both a guard (which is almost 80 therefore I wont base much off him) and a warrior that is 80. On my warrior I can beat an engie or another guardian not because I keep trying after maybe one initial loss, but because I learn how to play them where as many people keep trying to do the same thing. Guardians have many options to choose from in their utilities, so explore them. you may find a pattern. For instance. I found that when fighting guardians with a GS and X it suits me best to use signet of stamina on my warrior over lets say another signet. As you are fighting an engie you want to look at what they are going to be most likely using based on what you see. for engies I keep constant pressure and stability along with saving one dodge roll at all times for that supply drop.
sorry for the wall of text but thanks if you read it all