Guild Wars 2

So true. and I imagine that this is as it should be.

I have been asked to relogg from my engineer to any other class before we even started the instance. I had a grenade-build at the time.
Then again that group was terrible. Maybe they couldnt do anything but flame citadel p1 fast runs or something.

Usually and as far as instances go no one cares what I am doing or what class I am playing as long as I dont’ die all the time.
I make a point of not joining the labeled zerker groups any more in the LFG because they tend to be complete morons who spend all the time bickering, dieing or ragequitting.
Dont get me wrong, I did zerker runs for a while (not with my engi). They can be faster if everyone knows what he is doing. But tbh: they are not that much faster. It depends on the encounter.

The one thing were ppl actually pay attention are the higher lvl fractals. Again: zerker could be faster and all that… . Guildgroups, TS and ppl who know what they are doing do pull it off. But those won’t argue against a grenadeer-zerker.
Those who will tend to be so narrowminded that they just know one way to play and as soon as something unexpected happens (= someone joining the party who does not run full zerker but utility, healage or, gods forbid, conditions) they either kick you (and you dont have to worry about them any more) or start arguing and consequently dieing because you cant do 30+ fotms while typing all the time.

shorter version:
play what you like and be good at it. to hell with zerker runs. they are overrated. you can do all the normal instances anyway. fotm.. well: you need to play them some before you are 30+. and then you ll know for yourself what you like best.

No. Maybe as some kind of engineer contraption (moving turret ultimate?).

at least it wasnt feared because of its close(ish)-combat-fast-movement capabilities

shortbow is great für crit/condition builds and can be traited in the crit-trait-line (skirmishing).
1 = fast, ranged bleed
2 = ranged poison (can hit multiple targets)
3 = gives distance, leap finisher, evade, swiftness buff
4 = bleed + cripple
5 = stundaze

Thats the shortbow, great for movement, crits that apply conditions (very fast autoattack), versatile (mostly) single target weapon.

plus!
you can use dual axes too
less utility/defense, more AE, slower autoattack (but bouncing)

weaponswap them when you feel like you don’t need the evade+CC

negating a nerf is like a buff – regardless of the name of the class. no need to get hysterical?

torch is nice because of one more condition in addition to all those bleeds, poison and occasional vulnerability. its a good combo field for that condition, too. so.. if you are going for condition damage, it is worth the try.

mes and thief are really strong in s/tPvP.
I didnt try out the thief that much but the mes got a LOT of viable builds for s/tPvP. compared to other classes, of course. which is good, I guess. It would be better if that could be true for all classes, not just one or two.

when I see an ele in sPvP, i usually think: d/d? k, 30 in water, probably a bit in arcane, classic
when I see an engineer, i usually think: p/p? condition HGH build. if there are turrets, he’s trying a bunker build.
when I see a ranger, i usually think: BM or trapper, lets see…
and so on.

and usually Im right. There are exceptions, of course. But it would be really, really nice if there were more exceptions than quasi-rules.

I ve read the exact same arguments in the engineer forums. About engineers, of course. I wonder if we would find them in the other forums, too.

Nah. he said we are “close to eles” right now but that can be fixed. XD
it made me laugh

I thought they nerfed that, too?

Try this for steampunk-theme-ing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeEI-hh3MG0
Abney Park in general. Great steampunkish music.

Ostricheggs.3742:

[…]
I was honestly thinking about that earlier, and the depressing answer is that there are no other viable builds that don’t rely on HGH.
[…]

This is something that bothers me. HGH-builds are not that good because of only HGH but because of the whole Alchemy-Line which is just so kitten good.
Its the condition-removal-line. We got other removals but none that good or easy (or just an unskilled elixir).
Its the selfbuff + buffduration line on top of that. Plus the utilities of the elixirs themselves which really aren’t bad.

So.. even non-tournament-builds tend to come back to one form or another of HGH. At least thats what is happening to me.

like this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Iron_Legion_Shield

Which isnt a spinning cogwheel, tbh

I ran a similar build the past few days. I had the same problem that I didnt trait the cleansing formula and thus had no or not enough condition removal.
That worked out thanks to a Sigil of Purity.

The build seemed very solid for me, especially since it was very easy to swap in an elixir gun for support if needed.

but then I got to thinking: what about gadgets (which can remove some conditions and stun, too)? and I moved on, experimenting, tinkering. Somehow the flamethrower got lost under my workbench in the process. XD

I like the idea.

Mine was:
since the turrets don’t move they should all apply some kind of field (O_O maybe even a combo field?!) which buffs allies or debuffs enemies around them.

Terrahero.9358:

[…]
So what, we need to sit here and cheer that the turret i never use now does 10% more dmg to a target i dont want it to attack?

This.

Not that I am an unhappy engineer. I just don’t get the turret buffs from the last patch. Or maybe I don’t get the turrets in this game.

They might. :.-) and who knows how that boon-nerfing will be.

I like the engineer because we can adapt very well and I never feel useless or pinched into a single role (like being always ranged or being a supporter oder beeing DD only and so on).

The con is: it can get tedious. For example: The grenade kit alone is a buttonsmashing mess in which you have to control the camera, throw ground-targeting aes and while not running in the thief, a wall or off a cliff.

But it is SO rewarding if you get it right…
and that applies to a lot of stuff the engineer does.

http://gw2lfg.com/

never failed me. Maybe Im not as hardcore a PvE player as some ppl here are but I honestly never had problems.
They didnt complain about me being an engineer, either. Or any other class, for that matter.

this thread is just great. Thank you, Swagg.
I REALLY hope the devs take some time to read. Wishful thinking but one can hope.

I would like that!
Elixir gun, too, pls
and a toolkit of doom!

the “unarmed” kits should get something, too.
http://gallery.burrowowl.net/images/33/333c296e147b90b7675c54f8bf7cee31

The Elixir S camera issue is really annoying. But tbh.. I ve learned to play with it.
I’ve played Charr, Twig and Asura so far and Asura was the most fun. Charr is just epic (try /threaten). Sylvari glow in the dark which makes up for being so butterfly-fluffybunny nice (it doesnt compensate Trehearne and you’ll have to live with the fact that he will want to call you “brother” (or sister, I guess)).

I really don’t think that playing Asura is a disadvantage.

Thanks for this, Amadeus.
I’m experimenting with everything NOT HGH atm and can’t wait to see what others did after the patch. :P

The one in the Wayfarer Hills (way up north) is lvl 80
BUT I could do it with my lvl ~50ish toon, upscaled, I guess.

decent for what?
Im quite happy with my engineer. I never went for the big numbers. If I had wanted that I would have played Thief or Warrior or experimented something with my Mesmer’s shatterbuilds. TBH, I just play what I want to play and can’t see the point in playing a single class as if it were some kind of principle. Its not.

So.. yes. We can get trolled by one guy who sounds like starting a crusade for engineers while all he is doing is mindless bragging. Not that theres anything wrong with mindless bragging, ugh. Or attention-whoring. 
Maybe my playstyle is all wrong and I should get worked up about ANet, too.

I suspect the warrior is supposed to deal high amounts of damage while the engineer isnt. anet concept stuff maybe. I dont really care.

pistols! condition havoc and they DO have a small AE on #1 (plus 3 and 4). They can pierce at 30 in firearms, too.
You can use a shield when you need it but I usually just stick with 2 pistols.

no over ever told me Im useless. But then I usually don’t join rush/farm runs. Maybe its those?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Post-Your-Build-Thread/page/3#post1660452

try some. then build your own.

I see your point.
But for me it doesnt seem THAT bad. I feel very versatile.

For melee (kinda) I pack the tool wrench. Elixir X can add some fun, too.
For group buffing (and zerging withouth grenades) I’m using the elixir gun, throwing toolbelt-elixirs like crazy. I love that elixir gun and its Combo Field. You can combine that with a variant of the dual-pistol-condition-build and be both, groupbuffer and duelist, at the same time. No specialist, true. But you were asking for a jack-of-all-trades anyway :P

Your hammer would be the Personal Battering Ram. Or the gadgets in general. combine them with the rifle (and/or flamethrower/elixirgun) and you get some serious mobility).

I really don’t want to say that I am as experienced as you are or as dedicated as you were. I just don’t feel so useless as you seem to feel.

I love the cultural. Even the T2, tbh

Nah, I wrote that with those two build-types in mind but assumed there were hybrids out there with other forms of boon removal/transfer/transform – the source of information on those would be the GW2 wiki http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Skills_that_remove_boons

About the rest: I simply dont know yet. They might implement something that prevents perma-boon-stacking but won’t hinder the lone Elixir here and there. They might go over the top like you seem to fear and I would hate that, too.
I HOPE for something like diminishing returns for self-boon-stacking (the “self” part is kinda important since you can’t prevent others from boon-buffing you by accident).

But thats all speculation, right?

There were always ways to steal boons, transform them into conditions, nullify them and so on. If you were solely boon-dependant, someone with such a strategy would be a pain in the kitten He, one the other side, was depending on his opponent having boons (or otherwise this part of his build would be useless). Upside, downside, game mechanics.
As it should be.

Elixir S underwater + Asura doesnt seem to bug. Maybe this helps somehow..

there should be an asura racial ability that transfers all asura-linked bugs to everyone around.
the bug-laser-multi-mirror-o-mat.
yep.

Im an asuran engineer and I beg for bugfixes, both for the race and the class.

ah, the “best build” question. Has it ever been answered in any MMO?

Truth is: there is no best build. There are, however, some good builds in the post-your-build-thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Post-Your-Build-Thread/page/3#post1627576

Tissitra.4153:

German user. Currently unplayable due to lag.

this.
+

everything. It is pointless, repetetive, not in the least “personal” and I really, really, really hate Trehearne. If there would be an option to kill him, I’d chose that ASAP. Even if that would mean that Zhaitan wins.

I’m levelling with S/F atm. I tried S/D, D/D, even the staff but scepter+focus really did it for me. Popping combos through the flamewall works better (for me, at least) than through RoF.
Nice utility (air and water), panicbuttons (earth) and easy combos (fire). Im dying less often, thats for sure.

The only thing that bothers me is the look. Its just ..odd on my charr.

nope, still didnt work. I ll give it a few hours and try again, I guess…

same here. worked well until just now

yup. As a Mesmer it is much more rewarding to NOT run with the zerg and try some Special Ops Missions

You can zerg but the AoE doesn’t work too well. I run a build with +random condition + cripple +confusion when my illusions are killed and spawn clones like crazy. Thats not mass dmg but it confuses and cripples the enemy zerg.

Like Irilith said the Illusions XI is great, too. Combined with a half decent shatterbuild and you can get burst AOE. Im not specced for that atm but I liked it for sPvP (yah, much smaller scale than WvW).

All in all I really don’t think that the mesmer is inferior in WvW. He is no elementalist or necro (or ranger or engineer if we are talking ranged AoE). He does other things and does them quite well.

its the same with necro or mesmer: if you decide to build a glass cannon, you will be extra-squishy and will die a lot no matter how good you are. You will do MUCH more dmg if you think your build through and get at least some survivability, utility and backup plans.

I bugged my last fight in the storyline with this. Twice. :-(
Cant count how often I got stuck somewhere while leveling up. This needs to be fixed

still bugged (Kodash)

same here, sparkfly fen sharks, stuck at 2/3