Guild Wars 2

I find a lot of people use the healing turret no matter what. And instead I use Elixer H to trigger HGH, (including toolkit) giving me four might. How come people always use the healing turret anyway?

How do I counter rangers, thieves, and guardians? I find that these three classes are my Achilles tendon. Hunters, outrange outright. Thieves Out burst me. And Guardians kinda stall me out. The others I don’t have too much trouble with.

I want to get the most damage I can out of the grenadier kit/ and mortar kit, what stats would I focus on to get the most damage out of them?

How can I improve my builds?
Currently I have two builds:
(Crit and power focus build)

Build 1 (This is the one I really want to fix up)
(Focus on Condition Damage and Power)
Rifle
Sigil: Sigil of Peril & Sigil of exploitation
Rune: Rune of the Berserker
Amulet: Carrion Amulet
Utility & Heal: Elixir H, Grenade Kit, Elixir Gun, Flamethrower
Elite: Mortar Kit

Specializations:
Alchemy:
Protection Injection, Inversion Enzyme, HGH

Firearms:
Heavy Armor Exploitation, Pinpoint Distribution, and Modified Ammunition

Explosives:
Grenadier, Shaped charge, Shrapnel.

(I originally was going for a grenadier/mortar build. And I found that it turns out, I made my eliixir gun and flamethrower for stronger at the end of the day. Should I just scrap the explosive build and just go for flamethrower and elixir build. Or is there anyway to salvage this build and turn it into a mortar and grenade build.)

Rifle
Sigil: Sigil of Peril & Sigil of exploitation
Rune: Rune of the Eagle
Amulet: Marauder Amulet
Utility & Heal: Elixir H, Grenade Kit, Elixir U, Elixir B
Elite: Mortar Kit

Specializations:
Alchemy:
Protection Injection, Backpack Regenerator, HGH

Firearms:
Heavy Armor Exploitation, Skilled Marksman, and Modified Ammunition

Explosives:
Grenadier, Shaped charge, Shrapnel.

I like the damage on this build, but I die hilariously quickly…

Hey! This sounds chill! I was looking for a small casual guild to join so I can make friends and actually get to know members XDD! (I’m surprised about the voice chat, not that I ever really use it.)
Anywho let me in!
(And also perhaps a discord chat might be fun!)
Personally: I’m like sem-hardcore in a few ways. Like I’ve got a level 80 engineer and a few other level 20+ characters. But I don’t have HOT. I play a lot of pvp but I don’t mind playing PVE either. I’m also learning to abuse the market hehe.
Likes: Chill people, Even chiller people, anime, cartoons, longboarding, Writing, lets plays, and Drawing
Dislikes: Really aggressive people… I dunno what else I really don’t like.

Alright so here’s what I ended up doing, for those of you still curious.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlcThatY1VwvLQ+FL3FF4CGhBQ4EGQZm4B1D5AA-TJBFABC8AAIZ/hoLDAwFAAA

I switched out my plan to kill as fast as possible to becoming a tank. And I changed the pistols to rifle so if I’m in 1vs1 I can stall a bit and wait for health elixer to come back if I’m in a tight situation. Of course it allows me to catch up with opponents if they decide to run from me. I liked the boots because they just allow me to have a higher chance of escaping. And in some situations I can act almost as a decoy during a pvp match. The reason why I didn’t use what you guys were recommending was one, because I just can’t use the elixer gun. (I dunno why I just suck at it.) And second I don’t have HoT. I didn’t like the turret heal. Because you have to throw it out on the spot and I guess elixers work better for me due to what I’ve invested my skill points in.

Thanks for all the recommendations.

Unfortunately I don’t have HoT. I do plan on getting it with Black Friday/ Cyber Monday coming around the corner, though.

I specifically want to play a flamethrower build. Why? Because I just want to. I’m going to throw out my AED and Elixer B. And I’m going to swap out my sigils. Thanks for the tips, I’ll let you guys know how it turned out.

(I’m sure I’ve made lots of makes. As I’m a newb and I don’t think I’ve done enough research.)
My build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUIC1ahVXBmXBkfhl7iCsBjwAIcCDoMT8g+hcA-T5ABwAAeAA02focZAA

(Sometimes I have the wrench kit as oppose to the Elixer U.)
The main point of this flamethrower build is to abuse crits and burning to annihilate my foe as fast as possible. When I find myself in danger I use my heal to let me continue my burning. My problem is, is that I find myself completely outranged, and at times out damaged. I feel like I do really good in team fights, and in 1 vs 1, I do trash. (Mostly because of not being able to hit with my flamethrower.) (Unless my opponent is running from me or I use my Elixer X and wreck havoc.) I’ve tried the personal battering ram, for the extra stun, but unfortunately I just can’t get close enough. I’ve thought about using other kits, like grenade and bomb kit, but I feel like if I won’t deal enough damage. Am I simply playing wrong, or is something like Elixer U not meant for pvp?

Thanks people! I’ll go back and start leveling then

Please prepare yourself for some really noob questions, sorry.
I wanted to ask how do you access your profession skills? I played till level 8 and I have no idea how to use them. I’m a Charr Engineer, so I’m expecting to be able to pull out a turret and stuff, but how do I do it? I understand that there’s weapons skills, but are they different than the profession skill?