Guild Wars 2

I politely disagree.
Addressing as many points as I can (I apologize, yours is a long post).

1. Toolbelt for the most part replaces util skills set as turrets and kits.
2. Can be built to be extremely flexible (a very good thing in pve especially dungeons.)
3. Rifle, pistol – shield. Both have very good weapon skill sets. Some control and some damage.
4. Turrets should not be thought of as a (place down and forget) item. Use them in combo fields. Use them situationally. Abuse the fact that supercharge is on cd even if the turret has been detonated.
5. Damage can be good, however like in every class you will have a tradeoff, however I agree, we as engies have to do more I think, to get the damage potential out. (put more skills on cd in a combined way)

To close I think that engies are just extremely fiddly. They have really good potential. I really think it comes down to a high skill cap.
No I am not saying “QQ noob, L2P” I am saying that don’t quit experimenting just yet. There is ALOT of ground to cover with an engie. A ton of choices, some of which can synergize amazingly.

Just one example, I run heal turret, flame turret, flamethrower kit, bomb kit, motar.
Heal turret applies a buff for 13 secs or so of regen, why keep it up always?
Instead I drop both then flame wall across them, detonate both turrets and use my shield combo finisher to give the whole party or nearby zerg instantly 9 stacks of might.

As stated, control and support are important. I might even add to say completely underrated by pugs.
So to do dungeons I would say priorities the following:
1. Stay alive.
2. Support your fellow crawlers (combo fields, combo finishers, giving boons.)
3. Control the fight (snares for the melee mobs, blind some ranged mobs ect.)
4. Focus your damage, if nothing is called then call a target (even if the choice is wrong at least it has been made.)
5. Be ready to change your utility set up as needed for the dungeon sections, even at times be ready to change weapon sets before an engage.

For a good build in dungeon pugs, would be well rounded one.
Which takes some support (buffs, condition clears, combo fields)
At least one control if not two control abilities (util weapon skill, whichever)
And a prioritized source of damage (condition damage. Crit with effects from traits. Flat damage.)

In guild groups, or organized groups, you can actually get away with glass cannon with greedy evasive skills to survive, leaving control/support to the other four members. But in pugs, due to their unorganized nature, you really have to have a well rounded build, to fill in as needed, as situation dictates.

As far as turrets are concerned, if going for a full turret spec I would suggest you keep one or two turrets off cd (situational use).

If you’re going to drop a turret, slap your belt skill on cd. If you need the belt skill again don’t be afraid to blow a turret up.

Don’t be afraid to detonate a turret to combo in a field. Essentially try to get full use out of the skills. Playing with a friend who is on an ele, or something with combo fields (even another engie with flame thrower) can also help as they can lay a combo field on your turrets.

I think the reason why Anet designed turrets to not be so tough (apart from thumper <3) is that you should be not only using overcharge at the right time, but when overcharge is on cd to detonate them off in a combo field.
The cd’s are not too terrible if you run pistol shield so that you can kite/block enough to survive.

Personally I have seen both good and bad groups in dungeon PuGs (explorable).

There is no real way to force agro, the heals are not large enough to have a dedicated healer. There is no holy trinity, how can we then do dungeons???

The issue, I personally find is that people are trying to fill one role, when in actual fact they need to fill at least 2 if not pitch in for all three.

Min-Maxing your build for damage for example will not work. Stacking only toughness and vitality, is also a very bad idea.

When Anet removed the trinity, they essentially wanted people to build well rounded characters.
For example, if you’re a warrior. Going GS – Longbow + stacking damage signets and damage gear and expecting this to be good for dungeons is a very very bad idea.

Try and make your build flexible.
So maybe use the GS you love on the mainset. But take for the love of god either alot of util for cc/support ooooor your offset being something like mace – shield.
Essentially with that set up your shooting for control + damage.
The crucial point being, that the only times I found a pug unbearable, was when one or two members were simply not flexible and in certain fights we lacked the key components needed (be it support, or control).

Hope that helps a little. Combo fields are also good to take along too. However I would priorities on ensuring everyone in the dungeon understands they will need to pitch in multiple categories of roles.

TL:DR;
Dungeons are challenging, more because the pug groups that attempt them have a group make up of – dps, dps, dps, dps, support-control. Or dps, dps, dps, control, support.

When its far more successful to have groups of – dps-control, dps-support, dps-control, control-support, dps-control.

Or even better when every build can cover all three categories.