Guild Wars 2

@coglin: Actually, I found insanemaniac’s post useful in more ways than I’d expected. I don’t mind discussion about my choices sucking, as long as I can get some insight out of it, and I got the insight I needed. So everything’s good!
Is Condition Damage really that good in PvE that it is better to go for it than for Power when you want to deal damage? The more I learn about the inner workings of this game, the more it confuses me.
Okay, now I see you edited your post, but I can’t stay much longer. I’ll read it later.

@Carpboy: Link noted down for further reading.

@Carpboy Dude, if you’re going to just ignore the thread and be insufferable you can go and be insufferable outside this thread. You don’t seem to be restrained by the thread’s content anyway, so I don’t think you’ll notice any change doing it elsewhere, thank you, bye.

@insanemaniac: That cleared up many things, actually. Well then, there’s no viable PvE tanky build because the game is botched at the core of its design, that’s actually quite funny, to be honest. And I can get behind that. I don’t have any problem with people telling me this is not viable, anyway, but I like understanding why things are that way.

Let’s talk WvW then, I don’t like zergs, and dungeons end up being quite boring anyway.
How should I go for a WvW tanky-support build, then?

Is there any way to edit the topic title, by the way?

You could have started there, you know. There’s a difference between telling someone something is wrong and telling someone why.

I’ve heard that zerker is the only thing that exists for PvE, yes. Okay, so if we get past the fact that this game is fundamentally flawed and get to the part where I don’t want to get the best existing build but the best tanky build possible, which is where I wanted the discussion to start, we could talk about the best build possible within the realm of not-optimal-because-they-are-not-berserker builds.

Very helpful, the door is right there.

Hey! I’m fairly new to the Engineer (I’ve been playing it for a month and I still feel like it has tons of potential I haven’t tapped into yet) but I love it.
I like going tanky and, so far, it’s working for me, it’s frustrating when I get all the aggro even if I’m just standing there doing absolutely nothing and my party is doing every crazy thing ever, though; but my Aggro build is rapidly turning into a cool in-joke, so it evens that out.

Anyway, I can’t help but wonder if I’m doing things right, specially in the traits, skills and equipment department (I know I’m not doing things exactly right in combat, but I’m slowly learning to take into account all my finishers and fields and with some luck I’ll grow some extra fingers by the end of this month).

So what I’m aiming for is a PvE non-zerg build. This mostly translates into a Dungeon build, but I like doing anything that doesn’t involve fifty more players killing the same humongous dude I’m killing. I like solo exploring and doing small-medium events, but I guess those are doable with any kind of build as long as you get your kitten together and know where your buttons are.

TL;DR:
This is the build that looks the most like my healer/tank PvE build right now, I’d like some tips improving it.
Disclaimer: Yes, I know I’m lacking two runes and a backpiece. Money don’t grow on trees! (Also I’m not sure what runes to get yet!) But feel free to recommend any.
Also: I tend to switch my major traits a lot to get a feel of what’s better, so those aren’t exactly set on stone (and I usually switch Reinforced Shield for Stabilized Armor if the enemies have lots of CC, for example).

So, now for the questions:
Is Cleric equipment worth it? I chose it because of the traits converting Healing and Toughness into Power. It seems synergistic, overall, but I was discussing the choice of Power over Condition Damage with a friend the other day and, really, all I know is that it seems right due to the trait distribution I’m using. I’m not trying to kill things through conditions, but through MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS. Conditions are a plus (when I’m not in dungeons I usually switch some Explosives traits for the condition ones), but not my main focus, especially when I’m usually on a party with a Ranger, an Elementalist, a Thief and a Mesmer. So should I go for some Condition (Damage or Duration?) runes or equipment?

I have 10 points on Tools because Speedy Kits is awesome for exploring, but I never know what to do with that Trait in Dungeons. The minor trait saved my kitten many times, though, so I’m not keen on just switching those 10 points into another line.

I assume Pistol and Shield is the only way to go tanky, but I have a question about that: What stats are kept when you put on a kit? I’ve been testing and I think the shield’s armor is scrapped when equipping a kit, but do other bonuses (other stats, runes or extra toughness from Reinforced Shield) carry over?

Is there any acceptable substitute for the grenade kit for range and bomb kit for melee? I personally like the wrench for melee, but since bombs have of area of effect damage, combo fields and healing, everything else seems underwhelming. As for the grenades… well, they have insane range, high damage output, conditions both defensive and offensive, so they have everything going for them.

And that’s all for now. Thanks in advance!

I thought I could add my two cents here.

I’ve been playing Engi for… a month, maybe? But it’s already my favourite class. In fact, it became my favourite class the moment I used that go-up-to-level-20 scroll on the character.

The class is FUN. Like a ride on an amusement park-level fun. But it lacks options.

It’s not like the Guardian or Warrior examples someone put up there. Those are one, or two utility skills you must use under certain circumstances. In the Engineer’s case, I’ve yet to find a reason to not use Pistol&Shield as weapons, Healing Turret as healing skill, Bomb Kit and Grenade Kit as utility skills and Supply Crate Satellite Drop as elite skill everytime, everywhere.

That leaves me with an astounding amount of one free utility slot. Which I almost never use anyway unless I need the Elixir Gun when I’m on a party and there are no other healers around or I just want to have fun burninating things with the Flamethrower. For me there’s just no point on switching over anything else because everything else is useless in comparison and those skills have all the options built into them.

The Engineer is a solid class, I like playing it. I can do many things and I have fun doing them. But that comes at the price of completely ignoring around 22 skills out of 27.

Imagine an Elementalist that has to equip the attunements through utility slots and whose only weapon choices are the scepter and the staff. That’s an Engineer.

This also has one side effect, which is what kept me off the class for a year: Playing a low-level Engineer sucks beyond any real or imaginary boundary you can come up with. I tried playing an Engineer four times until I got that anniversary scroll. I always ended up deleting the char before hitting level 15 because oh god it’s so kitten boring I can’t even. The Engineer is a class that needs utility skills to be playable and entertaining. And there’s nothing in the game hinting to the fact that the only way you can do the same things other classes do is through weapon kits. Or that turrets suck.

I don’t know how I would fix this, actually. Granting the Engineer a melee weapon choice (we can do that with kits, we know, but that’s exactly the point) and allowing to switch weapons could work, maybe. Fixing turrets would also do wonders for making the class a bit more varied, I guess.

Based on my solo PVE experience alone:

1.-Engineer
Few usable or interesting weapon skills. It’s intended to be used with weapon kits, but it kind of locks you into some sort of supporting jack-of-all-trades role that doesn’t really do much except waiting for the enemies to get killed by turrets.

2.-Elementalist
Low (very, very low) survivability in PVE and its 4-elements-multi-kit doesn’t make up for it (doesn’t feel like it has enough single-target damage in damage-oriented buids and not enough sustain in survivability-oriented builds). It feels oriented more towards AoE effects, which is cool, but makes exploring or participating in some events a real drag unless you have a partner who can tank or keep the enemies away.

3.-Ranger
Fun, but too dependant on the pets keeping the aggro or constantly kiting. Some weapons feel just weird: Main hand axe, for example; atracts unwanted attention too easily, the way the cone skill (splitblade, number 2) works feels wrong (it’s part of a long-range set of skills, but it isn’t worth using it unless enemies are right next to you and doesn’t help keeping them away like the long bow pushback skill), not much versatility in fights; offhand torch doesn’t feel right neither at long range nor close up you’re either using the area burn at close range and wasting the torch throw’s range or using the torch throw at long range and wasting the area burn just to get the combo field; short bow bleed depending on positioning is interesting and plays into a fun gameplay field, but feels extremely inconsistent at times and forces strange decisions whenever monsters change targets erratically in fights. Not really big problems, but combined make for an overall weirdness feeling.