Guild Wars 2

I’m a Kits Engi. In my standard build, I have access to 30 skills while in (land) combat. My ele has access to 25 skills while in combat. My thief has access to 16 skills while in combat. I’m not sure how you’d justify giving Engineers access to even more skills without making the whole bunch of them less effective, and we surely do not need that on top of our weapon damage penalty.

Suggestion: You might use “Krewe” instead of “Corps,” in accordance with Asuran practice in the game.

Punkins.2087:

Velron.3729:

I’m thinking I need to come up with a fun hotjoin build using bomb kit + rocket boots for stealth launch every 20s.

kitten , there’s some negative nancy’s up in here after reading the thread.

This was a kittening AMAZING Engineer patch. So focused on the few bad that you can’t see just how kitten good we got it this patch. SO many builds just opened up, some kitten strong ones. Offensive and defensive new builds. Its great!

Well.. you gotta bear in mind that most players confuse personal failures at playing effectively with design problems..

Also, realize that we all have our own lens through which we view the profession. PvE/WvW engis and sPvP engis value different class characteristics. On balance, when sPvP has a “great” patch, it’s not unusual for WvW and/or PvE to be disappointed.

Healing Mist’s effect (regen) is/has been AoE. Is the stun break also AoE, or is it self-only? Gah, I’m not at home to log in and check!

Wait, wait, wait, Healing Mist is an AoE regen. Is the stun break self-only, or does it affect anyone hit by the regen????

The aesthetic differences between the light and medium sets are less obvious on the male version of the armor, which is also the version that the Asura and Charr wear. If you look at same sets on a humanoid female, the differences are extremely obvious. I like the medium set for my engi; I hope these skins are released soon!

I’m trying out shaman armor with apothecary accessories – vit/heal/condi dmg on the armor and tough/heal/condi dmg on the accessories. Still trying to decide about which runes to use.

I like Alchemical and Mechanical Operations Krewe [AMOK].

Kimbald.2697:

And versatile means ‘some support, decent survivability, decent but not strongest dps, etc…’

I’ve been running the following in WvW for quite some time. It’s not very good for solo/small group, but I run with a large guild force, generally. Note that the gear is chosen for survivability, since that’s usually our biggest concern. You could easily use the gear recommended in this thread to increase both your condition duration/damage and your buff duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0pqbHxynF17IyoCdWoHDWhpWfeIXPIEC;ToAA1CtosxYjwGrNObk2MEZiB (copy and paste)

Melee & ranged options, good in the water, good against architecture & siege, stun break, stun, daze, knockback(x2), fire/light/smoke/poison fields, blast(x3)/projectile(x2) finishers, perma-swiftness, might, regen, fury, protection, blind, confuse, poison, chill, bleed, vulnerability, burn, weakness, cripple, and several options for healing self and others. Best used with Endurance regen food for more dodges (which drop bombheals). That’s not a bad checklist. I know it’s not as high damage as some other builds, but I have yet to find another setup where I feel as versatile and resilient as I do running this Demolitions build.

Istra Ironfang, Centurion Necromancer of the Blood Legion, Magister of the Durmand Priory.

And here I thought I was just suffering from the ridiculous skill lag that pervades the WvW maps. If this is an Asura-only bug, please address it soonest! Engineers have a hard enough time keeping up with any other class, but we have one of the best stun breaks/invuln abilities in the game. Except for the Asuras, totally unusable for us, unless you keep a barf bag next to your computer.

Numot.3965:

If you’re quick enough you can: overcharge shot ->grenade barrage -> jump shot.

You’re better off running to your target, hitting jump shot in melee (for both takeoff and landing damage), blunderbuss, and THEN overcharge shot to get out of dodge.

Turrets are almost never worth a utility slot in any aspect of the game. The only time I put one on my bar is when I want to mine the Rich Orichalcum node in Southsun Cove. I slot a thumper turret to distract the champion karka while I mine, and ditch it as soon as I make my escape. I would never bother with them at all in PvP or WvW.

I’d like to see a buff to our support capabilities, since that’s where the devs seem to be trying to steer us. Possible options include:

- Stuff all of our elixirs into one kit and make them all throwable rather than drinkable. Anybody in the area of effect gets the entire elixir effect, not some random component thereof. Toolbelt for this kit, however, could be “Throw a random elixir” to grant a weaker version of a random elixir buff.
- Scale our heal-other skills a bit better with Healing Power (self-heals scale pretty well, excluding the turret). For example, we currently get 0.08 points increased heal per point healing power invested on a bomb-heal. That’s ridiculous.
- Make elixir-infused bombs actually infused with elixirs. So Bomb Kit #1 might grant a thrown Elixir H buff when used, in addition to its heal (including HGH and 409 effects if traited). Bomb Kit #2 could grant a thrown Elixir B effect, and so on. Boon durations would have to altered accordingly so we can’t just stack them up to the moon forever and ever.

Engineers wouldn’t have to get all of the above buffs, but the devs clearly think of us as a buff/debuff/support class. It’s impossible to reliably buff a group when your buffs require your team to be both stationary to accommodate thrown elixirs’ flight times and bunched up to accommodate the necessity of ground targeting, to say nothing of the completely random nature of thrown elixir buffs. “Hey guys, stand still and pile up (read: make yourselves into sitting ducks), and I might be able to give you Protection. Oops sorry, you got Swiftness instead.” That’s a really lousy support mechanic. If we’re meant to be a support class, we need more viable tools than just Super Elixir.

Isslair.4908:

So… you’re saying that guardian is a better support, than engi, but still tell us to go support on engi?

Where is the logic?

If you’re looking to something with your engineer that nobody else in the game can do, you might as well just shelve the engi right now. I think the point is to demonstrate that you can do good support as an engineer, maybe not BETTER than a guardian, but good enough to be useful.

I think the Runes of Altruism are more interesting for support engis than Giver’s stats.

While I don’t think the doom and gloom are quite as severe as some posters are making them out to be, I do think the OP has a point. The engineer is not as strong in any area as any other class. In most games, this jack-of-all-trades, master of none setup can work, because the other classes are all specialists. Being versatile is a useful thing. In GW2, all classes are jack-of-all-trades, or at least jack-of-several-trades, in addition to being the world champion at something. The engineer is not the world champion at anything, except possibly CC’ing itself.

It’s a fun class, and the mechanics are quirky and novel. I really enjoy playing it. But I’m not under any illusions that I am all that useful to a group. I am fortunate to be a member of a great guild that doesn’t mind gimping its groups by including good players who had the misfortune to roll a class that isn’t especially wonderful at anything.

If a new player trying out the engineer finds themselves frustrated most of the time, be aware that it likely isn’t the game. It’s a combination of engineer being a high skill cap class and also suffering from a disproportionate amount of bugs and other setbacks. We have the bones to be an awesome class, but it’s going to be a long and rough road getting there.

I really enjoy using rifle in close quarters. You get your best Blunderbuss damage at close range, plus I hit Rocket Kick and Jumpshot for takeoff AND landing damage before Rocket Boots or Overcharged Shot to get me out harm’s way. It almost makes me feel like a thief – run in, blow your cooldowns, and get the heck out of there. Also, take a look at Hip Shot. Its damage is not amazing, it doesn’t do a whole lot that’s special, BUT it is one of the fastest 1200 range autoattacks in the game. With the right traits and/or sigils (usually “on crit”), you can get some serious mileage out of a rifle. You aren’t going to be outdamaging a warrior, but I don’t think the rifle is in quite as dire straits as some people think.

No, it really is the engineers. I’ve bought 3 might-giving sigils in last couple of days for mine. With kit swapping and proper rune/trait choices it’s easy for an engi to maintain 10+ stacks of might. Good thing, because engis need that many to do sort-of-average dps in comparison to other classes.

One thing to keep in mind with Incendiary Powder is that it hits ONE target. Even if the skill that procs it is AoE, only one target will burn. It’s still useful for that one target, but you aren’t going to be setting an entire pile of targets on fire with a lucky grenade barrage.

Tekyn.5376:

Liquid.9672:

Tekyn.5376:

Is there a confirmed source from the developers that we’re getting weapon stats in the future?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Generell-questions-about-kits-sigils/first#post928692

Straight from the top brass.

Thank you for that, that’s interesting. I wonder if we’re going to get nerfed again to compensate.

Of course they will. When they give us our weapon stats, I bet all kits will get an across the board nerf so that we remain where we are in the overall balance picture of the game. If they let us move anywhere but down, then they have to rebalance everybody else up (per their Engineer class philosophy), and that’s a lot of unnecessary work.

Loco.4561:

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for the ALT+F4 change in WvW, multiple times last night people were doing the ALT+F4 trick on me to deny me a kill, very annoying. Looking forward to the changes.

Sure, but it cuts both ways. I’ve never dc’ed from the game while in a PvE zone, except for fractals. I crash out of WvW on an almost-nightly basis. Logging back in dead and taking penalties for that is going to be really aggravating.

We had Monday Melee Madness night in WvW yesterday, and most of the engis were rocking this build. Verdict: we prybarred them in the face! The build performed pretty well, even with multiples in the group. We just spread out to share the retaliation/reflect love with lots more people then one tankcat can manage.

tigirius.9014:

So I was just thinking, how sad it is that I have to go farm items i need on my thief because the sword/pistol combo actually keeps me from dieing every second, they actually hit multiple enemies usually ones that are literally outside the normal reach of any weapon save spears, and how they do enormous damage.

It must be nice to have full support from the devs on other classes to actually be able to hit multiple enemies even tho they are not using dangerous explosives or flamejets, and how it must be great to be able to actually be able to play their classes in other builds without worrying over if their main weapon choices will work or not.

If the glaring problems aren’t fixed on the 14th what will the rest of you do will you log out and not touch this game until the fix it? I’m planning on it. Seriously, and I’ve been called a fanboy every time i posted anything prelaunch because of what the initial research into what this game was supposed to be like showed, and now I’ve literally thought about going back the horrible elephant in the room because I cannot play the class I want to play do to the severe miss, explosion size, and loot issues on this class it’s immensely aggravating not being able to play effectively.

Good grief, tigirius, how do you build your engineer that it gives you SUCH trouble to play? I mean, sure the class has its issues (as do all of the classes), but I don’t feel like it’s impossible to play the game as an engineer.

tigirius.9014:

More then that, because there are so many bugs and because we’ve been nerfed (the idea to nerf the one class that doesn’t do much damage as it is) there doesn’t seem to be much reason to play one.

Sure people will make arguments that oh you can be a very skilled player to get around those bugs and if you knew what you were doing the bugs wouldn’t affect your gameplay but that’s actually not true. The bugs that are present now affect every build.

It’s literally impossible to play this class in anything other then WvW at this point. Have you tried soloing something in Orr for example?

I have I’m decced out in exotics and still I can’t three shot anything. It’s ridiculous.

I have a lot less trouble running around Orr and Southsun on my engineer than I do on my guardian (with which I am admittedly a rank novice). You’re right, I rarely three-shot anything, but nothing can three-shot me, either. By the way, what is the significance of being able to three-shot something? Put it this way, even in a completely tanky support build, it only takes me 5 shots to kill a young karka in Southsun. If you’re building and gearing properly for a glass cannon damage build (and using your skills right), you shouldn’t have any trouble killing most monsters efficiently.

I dunno about hammers or maces (I like Toolkit 4 and 5 too much to ditch them in favor of a mace with just the first 3 skills), but I do think we should get another kit in which the equipped weapon is a giant, 2-handed pipe wrench, or maybe a Wile E. Coyote-style 2 handed mallet.

Also, check your stats. When I started playing an Engineer, I thought rifles were absolutely terrible. They didn’t do much damage, and when they did, they only did it to one target. Pistols were so much better. Of course, I was geared almost entirely for condition damage, so the rifle should’ve been terrible! It got much better after I switched my stats. If you want the flamethrower to do reasonable damage at a reasonable rate, gear yourself out with Power, Precision, Crit dmg, etc. The burning is nice, but it’s not fast, and you might have better luck with direct damage.

I run a 30/20/0/0/20 build for dungeons (rifle/grenade Static Discharge build), and I regulate my survivability through my gear. If I’m not doing anything strenuous, just want to kill stuff as fast as possible, I wear full Berserker’s gear (Power, Prec., Crit dmg) slotted with Superior Runes of the Wurm (Vit + crit dmg) and full Berskerer’s jewels. For easy dungeons/fractals, I switch my jewels to the Valkyrie set (Power, Vit, Crit dmg) for a little more defense. If I’m doing something more dangerous like high lvl Fractals or WvW, I switch my armor out to a Power/Tough/Vit set with Superior Runes of the Fighter (might change to Dolyak) and my jewels to half Valkyrie, half Knight (Pow, Prec, Tough). My offensive rifle is a Berserker Rifle of (superior) Air, and my defensive rifle is a Soldier (Pow, Tough, Vit) Rifle of Air. I should probably change the sigil on my defensive weapon, but I haven’t got round to it yet.

Eleazyair.5716:

What type of armour set would best suite this build? I was thinking more for PvE at the moment. Maybe CoF Power/Prec armour?

Depends what you want to get out of the build. For outright damage, Berserker’s gear is the best choice (Power/Precision/Critical Damage). You can get it crafted or from dungeons. However, your build plus your gear give you zero survivability in this case. The minute anything serious looks at you sideways, you’ll be headed to the nearest waypoint.

You’ll have to strike whatever balance between damage and survivability you feel comfortable with. When I’m running around the world, not doing anything serious, I wear berserker’s armor socketed with Superior Runes of the Wurm, berserker rifle socketed with Superior Sigil of Air, and valkyrie jewels (Power/Vitality/Critical Dmg). For dungeon content and WvW, I switch to Soldier’s gear (Power/Toughness/Vitality) with Superior Runes of the Fighter, Soldier’s rifle with Superior Sigil of Air, and a 50/50 mix of valkyrie and knight (Power/Precision/Toughness) jewels. Soldier’s gear can be gotten from some dungeons, from Karma gear (except pants and weapon), and from WvW. The jewels are crafted.

Casia.4281:

That build has no support at all. Its all personal blocks and invul. That is not support.
There ARE engi support builds. that isn’t one of them.

Also tons of profs have stealth, stability, fear, blind, quickness to stomp with ease. Don’t be silly.

How exactly do you define support? If your vision of a “support build” is one that only buffs teammates without healing or much offensive capability, then no, it’s not a support build. By that definition, there’s no such thing as an engineer support build, unless you spec into alchemy and never use your weapon(s). That’s an awfully narrow definition of support, though.

When I look at a build that can soak or mitigate a lot of damage, distract the opposition, and/or perform some useful service for the group that is not direct damage, direct healing, or direct mob threat maintenance, that looks to me like a “support” build. The “tankcat” build’s creator uses it primarily for misdirection and rapid stomp/rez – that screams support to me, whether he’s buffing everybody else or not.

Townopolis.3607:

This isn’t a dungeon build, no but the same trait-point allocation (0/0/20/30/20) also makes a very useful and flexible dungeon support/control build.

The downside of such a build is that you’ll usually be slotting 1 or 2 subpar traits when you want to focus on one task (control, condition removal, general healing, survivability). The upside is that you can create a strong setup for any of those tasks or generalized support.

Would you kindly link your build? I usually run dps, and I’m interested to see what other engineers are using in support roles in dungeon/fractal groups.

tigirius.9014:

What modifications would you make to this build to make it more pve friendly?

Funny you should ask that. I’ve been fiddling around with it for this very reason. The latest iteration is:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/pve-wvw-toolkit-tank-tank-wvw-pve-9032.html

As stated above, you do not normally want survivability over damage in PvE. I exchanged some of the defensive traits for offensive traits, and you’d be surprised how hard Toolkit 1(#3) and Toolkit 3 hit. It’s not the sort of build I’d take to dungeons or fractal instances (I tried and felt extremely unhelpful to my group). However! It’s GREAT if you want to do a tour of Southsun Cove to gather resources or farm for mats. Those karka hit like trucks, but you can reflect their Evil Spines of Death right back at them with shield 4 and block some of the rest of their big hits.

Bombheals really shine if you are in a situation that requires your (ideally very large) group to be piled up in a ball for an extended period of time. I’ve used them to great effect on Stonemist sieges/defenses (people piled up on the gate or in the lord room). Other classes get bigger AoE heals, but they have bigger cooldowns too. Bombers can send up a cloud of green numbers and do it all day long, once per second.

So if you’re running with a zerg and smashing up some pretty resilient targets, bombheals are great. If you’re running solo/small group guerilla operations, bombheals aren’t so great. Either way, don’t worry about stacking healing power. Healing power doesn’t affect your supply crate’s heals, and you get a whopping 0.08 points increased heal from a bomb per point healing power invested on your gear. If you want to be a “healer,” you’re better off rocking an elixir gun. For a bombheal build, I usually go 30/0/30/0/10, spec for grenadier, and slot bombs, grenades, and throw mine for an extra handy knockback and a couple of blast finishers to take advantage of all the combo fields you can set down.

Also, Superior Runes of Grenth are currently about 8s on the trading post. You don’t have to grind a full set of Karma gear if you just want to try out the runes.

Grackleflint.4956:

What do you all think about Sigil of Superior Hydromancy for this build?

Try this only if you have confirmed that ditching a kit now counts as a weapon swap. It hasn’t, and I haven’t retested this recently.

If anyone’s still looking for a good Static build for PvE and/or WvW, this is the build I use in both types of gameplay:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pyUHxSyF17IyIFdGpBShe5XfeMftFEC;TgAA1UbZ2SsldL3WytGUA

For most open world PvE, I wear full Berserker gear with Superior Runes of the Wurm. For higher level fractals and WvW, I wear Soldier’s armor (Power/Toughness/Vitality) with an even mix of Valkyrie and Knight’s jewels. Armor runeset is Superior Runes of the Fighter (I got them for a tanky flamethrower build, and they work well enough here). In both cases, I have a Superior Sigil of Air on the rifle. Remember, all your survivability comes from your gear, since the build doesn’t have any by itself.

I like this build because of its versatility. I have fully specced Grenadier capabilities when I need them. It’s a good build for land or water combat, AoE or single target, close range or long range, stationary or moving. As linked, the toolbelts for Rifle Turret and Tool Kit put out a respectable amount of reliable damage, but I can always change them up for WvW, where I sometimes ditch Tool Kit for Elixir Gun. Grenade Barrage, especially, does a hilarious amount of damage provided you’re holding your rifle when you activate it.

I think the foundation is already there for kit customization, or at least some varied kit appearance. Notice how all the kits have a plain red handkerchief slung across them? I’m guessing we’ll eventually at least be able to show our guild crest, otherwise why have such a hanky there at all? We just need to wait for it to filter up to the top of some dev’s to-do list.

Kalas.4537:

But i do get why so many people are complaining bout the class, or sucking with it..it`s kinda complicated to see the golden-land here…but when you`ve been there…you just don`t wanna come back anymore.

EXACTLY! I keep telling my guildies this, especially the folks that really enjoy playing a support class. Not many have believed me yet, but those that gave it a shot are now maining their engis because it is such a fun and useful and versatile class to play once you get the hang of how to play it well.

coglin.1496:

nofo.8469:

Do tell what you use flamethrower for in WvW though.

Might stacks, significant added toughness for defense, nice melee range AoE, the AoE blind, and a knock back.

This exactly. When I run FT in WvW, I run with our frontline infantry to help soften up the opposition, mitigate some of their damage, and herd them into the teeth of our hammer wielders.

Kalas.4537:

When i look at this…well it looks good…then i run a explo-mode-insertrandomdungeonname and the party is like 3warris1guard1mesmer or 4warrs1nec..and i do get reminded why you don`t need any of this.
As mentioned : regeneration doesn`t count, it doesn`t stack, you will never get the reg of an ele or guard, etc. ..their effects count, yours just up the duration.
What do you need fire for? To apply a burning or get fire-aura? Water?
Poison is great no doubt and smoke is awesome too, then a mesmer hops along and you see chaosarmor. AoE immboilize..i don`t know bout your explo-runs, but most runs i see is just everyone smacking mobs at point-plank-range (some bosses excluded) and nasty ranged mobs are bubbled, if it`s realy neccesary. AoE-blind? Well there`s the blind spamming thief…AoE-confuse is useless, AoE-bleed is just a little damage up..and again stacks end at 25.

But well i`m still trying to find a useful expo-build…it just feels so kitten useless in comparsion to my guard, mesmer or my warri.
After reading through this thread i just get the feeling many here don`t know how others classes work at 80…or what they can/do offer.
Haven`t tried the knockdown-build someone mentioned here, perhaps that has some use against trash…will try.
I`m not talking pvp or wvw, just explo-modes (the whole rest of pve-content is a faceroll anyway).

And here, there’s evidence of people not understanding the full potential of GW2’s combat system. Have you ever taken deliberate advantage of combo fields and finishers? Put down a fire field. Apply a blast finisher. You get a stack of might. Apply 25 blast finishers, and you get 25 stacks of might. That’s a tall order for a small group, but if you have an Engineer specced 30 points in Alchemy with HGH traited, you can get really close to max might stacks with some intelligent play. And water? AoE heals of various descriptions. Additional finishers either magnify the effect or lengthen it. Or how about vulnerability? An engineer can put up 25 stacks of vulnerability on a single target all by themselves with the right setup.

Some of the easiest dungeons you’ll ever run are groups that take serious advantage of these mechanics. My guild runs a Panzer force for WvW, and it’s just as effective in PvE – 4 support-specced heavies and an engi/ele/mesmer/thief for utility. Build those might stacks and it’s like the dungeon suddenly became a game of Candyland.

Or don’t, if your group isn’t coordinated enough or has enough of that utility elsewhere. Most people in my guild have the sense to spec for utility, so I most often get asked to spec rifle DD/grenades for reliable ST and AoE damage that’s good at range, good in the water, and good against architecture elements whose hit boxes are currently wonky (I’m looking at you, graveling burrows).

Casia.4281:

Istarien.3147:

Casia.4281:

incin powder trait is single target. Its awful.

So is Incendiary Ammo, from what I’ve observed.

Interesting. Had not actually tested that.
Just looked at the 60s CD, and the 3 uses. and said. are you serious? yes. that is TOTALLY on par with grenade barrage, and big ol’ bomb.

Yeah, that’s what I thought also. But when you hit with an AoE attack and Incendiary Ammo is up, only one target actually catches fire.

I like vonBoomslang’s idea. Take the current offhand pistol shots and move them to the torch. Blowtorch could stay as-is, and Glue Shot would have to be changed to something like Sticky Tar. Then rework the offhand pistol to provide 2 more condition-based ranged damage skills.

Kalas.4537:

hmm where exactly is the engi a better supporter (or even close to) an ele, a guardian or a nec? healing? well, then you actualy never played a guardian…heck even a warri can do more healing and better support with his banners/shout….combo fields? mesmer, guardian, ele…then perhaps engi…so where exactly is the great suppport commin from? blind?->thief…. this is an honest question, cause i`m leveling an engi-alt right now..and i just don`t see any great support compared to my other chars….yes nades are funny..but aside from aoe-effects it`s still not that amazing.

What makes engineers amazing is their versatility. We are not scalpels – we are swiss army knives. One particular build I like provides fully traited grenades, fully traited bombheals, 4 combo fields (water, fire, smoke, and poison), 8 finishers (6 blast, 1 leap, 1 projectile), single target and AoE knockback, single target and AoE immobilize, AoE Chill, 2 AoE blinds, AoE Confuse, and AoE bleed. That’s on top of the AoE health regen, and the gear for it is tanky enough that I can stand with the melee and not get instantly vaporized.

And if I don’t feel like being a support and utility powerhouse, I can just as easily spec and gear for rifle burst damage and be right up there with the rest of you glass cannons.

Granted, the Engineer has a fairly high skill requirement. This is not a class where you can expect to mash 2-3 buttons and win the game. A well-played engineer is a beast, though, able to take care of herself and her group besides.

A (real) engineer credo I hear frequently: “If at first you don’t succeed, use a bigger hammer!” Of the weapons available in the game, if I had to pick a melee weapon for engineers, it would be either a dagger (everybody needs something to cut fuses, no?) or a hammer. The preferable melee weapon for an RPG engineer, though, is a wrench. We have the toolkit wrench, but the toolkit is a utility kit, not a damage kit. Perhaps the solution for engineers wanting a viable melee option is an entirely new kit that features an enormous 2-handed wrench, wielded solely for the purpose of laying waste to the opposition (not for fixing turrets or providing various forms of defense/control). That way, you get your hammer without doing anything preposterous to the class or having to introduce a new weapon into the game that only engineers can use.

Casia.4281:

incin powder trait is single target. Its awful.

So is Incendiary Ammo, from what I’ve observed.

My guildies think it’s hilarious when I use Kit Refinement and spam the med kit to keep swiftness up. They tell me my engine is backfiring. Oh well, at least it’s comic relief since it certainly isn’t good for anything else except maybe accidentally aggroing the local wildlife.

Ferum Flamebender.5910:

Engineers dps, -if we do not use grenades-, suck imho.

Have you tried a Rifle burst build? I do better rifle dps than grenade dps (single target).

Yes, we seriously lose our weapon stats when using a kit. No, it isn’t balanced, because SPvP engineers do NOT lose their stats (all stats are on an amulet), and our skills are (or will be) balanced according to SPvP. PvE and WvW engineers are roughly 7% less effective than their SPvP and TPvP counterparts.

Well, apparently this forum doesn’t like gw2skills.net links, and it’s not letting me edit my post. Let me try this again, with a different build calculator.

Frontline Flamethrower: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.8.0.0.0.2.0.0.0.80.91.95.96.102.8.0.43.0.0.0.245.248.251.260.0.0.272.277.0.291.0.0.0.30.10.20.10

Demolitions Medic: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.8.0.0.0.2.0.0.0.80.93.92.94.102.8.0.43.228.232.236.0.0.0.260.263.266.0.0.0.291.0.0.30.0.30.0.10

ETA: We have a winner. Thanks for letting me know the links were broken! And Beard, you’re a dear to be so affectionate, but I’m already spoken for. ;-)

Hello there, Beard! There’s a couple of categories of defensive Engineer. You can (a) build yourself to be a tank and thus be able to be an effective melee engineer, or (b) set yourself up to be an enemy-debuffer so they don’t hit you as hard. I’m going to go with (a) here, but if you prefer (b), I can address that in a different post.

First requirement, get yourself some tanky gear. When you first hit lvl 80, chances are that will mean purchased or crafted gear. Your best bet will be to go with Knight’s (toughness) or Valkyrie (vitality) gear (or a mix) if you’re building for direct damage. Good options for direct damage include rifle builds, explosives builds, and Flamethrower-as-primary-weapon builds. If you prefer to build for condition damage, you’ll want a mix of Knight’s and Carrion gear, and this setup is best suited to pistols, explosives, Flamethrower-and-Elixir-Gun-as-utilities builds.

Your ultimate gear goal, which will require farming for Karma, Badges of Honor, and/or dungeon tokens from Ascalonian Catacombs, Honor of the Waves, or Arah, is Power/Toughness/Vitality gear. Jewels should still be a mix of Knight’s and Valkyrie. Runesets that work well are Superior Runes of the Dolyak (for supertanks) and Superior Runes of the Fighter (for more offensively minded tanks). Since tanky engineer builds tend to stack a lot of toughness, I suggest taking advantage of the 10 pt Inventions trait that converts 5% of toughness to power whenever possible.

Personally, I prefer direct damage to condition damage due to condition stacking limits. I play a lot of WvW, and there’s nothing worse than realizing you’re in the middle of a dozen condition stackers and stomping all over each others’ damage output. To that end, I like the following builds that take advantage of a tanky setup:

Frontline Flamethrower: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pSYn1yuF1LJyoCdWoCSIoHAWddXiU8YNGA;T0AA1yvEeJhS9lCKqtMbJ2yulbL5WDKA

The first two Firearms traits are user’s choice – these are just my favorites. Juggernaut, with its 200 extra toughness and 6 permanent stacks of Might, is awesome in this build and gear setup. You have nearly as much armor/tough as some heavies, and your job is to run with (or more accurately in front of) the big boys in plate. Use Air Blast to blow targets back at your hammer and greatsword melee, Napalm to set knocked-down targets on fire, and your elixir/elixir gun to provide some frontline support in a pinch. Flame Blast and Flame Jet hit gratifyingly hard in this setup. It’s weaker in the water and lacks a really good ranged option, but it’s hard to beat if you do a lot of close-quarters skirmishing. It’s also an excellent build for the Orr Dynamic Event Karma circuit. Dungeons are a little more problematic with a FT build, but you can make it work if you’re patient.

For a more versatile build, I recently started playing with explosives.

Demolitions Medic: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0paZHxynF17IyoCdWoHS49pWfeIXtFEC;T0AA1yvEeJhS9lCKqtMbJ2yulbL5WDKA

This is a hybrid build that lets you be heal/support + respectable damage in melee with the bomb kit, and extremely effective damage at range/in the water with the grenade kit. You have to have some practice with aiming/anticipating grenades to get the full benefit of the build, but it’s worth it. You can bring the pain at range OR help keep your melee alive when they’re all stacked on a boss. Bomb heals don’t heal for a lot, but they hit everybody standing around you. If you’re in the middle of a zerg, your heal numbers will be staggering, even without any extra investment in healing power. I also bring Throw Mine as a handy blast finisher. It uses the same gear as the Flamethrower build, and the equipped weapon is player’s choice. Either rifle or pistol/shield are recommended for utility use only.

Hope this helps!

TurtleMuncher.9750:

Coming from an engineer with over 400 hours, you will be sorely dissapointed if you are wanting high dps.

Seriously? The one thing we lack is high burst aoe. Barrage isn’t bad for that, but it’s only 1 skill. Try building 30/20/0/0/20 (player choice, explosive powder, grenadier, rifled barrels, rifle mod, speedy kits, static discharge) with Superior Runes of the Wurm in Berserker gear + Berserker jewels + Sigil of Superior Air on your rifle. Utilities are Rifle Turret (just use the Toolbelt skill), Grenade Kit, and Tool Kit (again, mainly for the Toolbelt skill). Use your toolbelts on CD while holding your rifle and tell me that isn’t satisfactory burst dps.