Guild Wars 2

Okay before I begin this post, I do not know if this is a bug but more of an observation… When in combat EVERYONE is slowed down by a massive amount. Yet in both WvW and sPvP, when attacking an engineer he can pop something and be SUPER FAST… This allows them to run away 90% of the time, while everyone attacking is super slowed. The only thing I see on them is that stupid vigor, might, swiftness, fury crap that never goes away on them.

So the question is, are Engineer’s supposed to be able to use swiftness in combat while other professions swiftness doesn’t work in combat?

You are observant.

Engineers can get pretty much perma-swiftness from http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Centaur
if they spam their med kit and med kit 5 skill.

(I’ve heard that other classes can get perma-swiftness much easier.)

Engineers can also get a short-term speed boost different from swiftness called haste
from http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Super_Speed

Haste gives doubles movement speed while swiftness only increases movement speed by 33%.

Engineers also have several other ways to get swiftness, including a trait that grants it for crits and another trait that grants it for just switching kits every 5 seconds.

That’s not swiftness, it’s the Slick Shoes toolbelt skill Super Speed. It’s 5 seconds of “out of combat with swiftness” speed, even in combat. It says it gives double, but that’s only accurate when in combat. Out of combat it’s equal to swiftness.

Swiftness works in combat for everyone, it increases your speed by 33%. Your base speed is just lower, so the total bonus isn’t as big as it is out of combat.