Guild Wars 2

I personally run full Berserker on armor and gems with runes that emphasize critical damage and precision (Golemancer). My build is 30/10/0/10/20 and focuses on grenades with high AoE con-removal/heal up time and rifle for CC. My slots are usually composed of med kit, grenades, elixir gun, and Elixir R for the support.

During a fight I almost always have vigor up or the capability of having it up on a whim. A good understanding of general fight mechanics and creativity will help you even outlast Warriors and Guardians like I have plenty of times. When you do get hit you have the ability to do 5k+1k(x3) from med kit alone and drop Super Elixir(x2) nearly every 20 seconds as well as a regeneration on a short cool down.

It requires a high learning curve to use full Berserker’s, but it isn’t possible. If anything I’d advise to use full glass cannon when you get comfortable with it like many have mentioned.

I can’t give you any proper guidance on the WvW aspect of Bomb Kit but I have successfully used the kit in every sPvP build that I’ve created including my current one which focuses on precision/toughness/condition damage.

When fighting against one or two players, confusion (not the condition) and timing is the key to landing those hits. Make them focus on something else, not the ground. Most of the time people tunnel vision onto their UI or where the enemy player is moving instead of where your condition fields/bombs are. We have the ability to switch between kits and our regular weapon with ease so you should use that to your advantage. Lay down combo fields or mayhem from your other abilities while switching back and forth to put down that bomb that just finished its cool down.

#2, #4, and #5 have a field, so just setting it up and kiting enemies into an area will definitely do you good. Dropping #1 and #3 successfully is a matter of whether or not the enemy is following you. Trick them by running behind a wall where your Concussion Bomb is laying down in the shadow. Creativity is your best friend in these situations as you utilize LoS and objects to your advantage.

A way to get that pesky glass cannon off of you is to drop a smoke bomb immediately followed by a concussion. He will continue to rage against you while furiously hitting his keys until he realizes that he’s just hurting himself.

Practice and evading are your best friends.

Eryelis, my human engineer.

Wallach.7291:

Thanks for the response.

I think we seem to agree that ArenaNet makes the assumption that the Engineer is playing with one kit equipped as sort of the “baseline” in regards to the class. It seems pretty much directly implied by the removal of the weapon swap feature that the other classes (sans Elementalist) have by default…

It does appear that we are on the same page regarding the Engineer profession is flawed in its most basic level, the weapon system. In aims of not beating a dead horse, I’ll get straight to the point. The engineer profession needs somewhat of an overhaul in order to address this issue. The likelihood of this happening is slim at best but we can at least theorize what the most appropriate changes would be.

First of all, to establish a common ground, would you agree that our utility kits are capable of replacing half of our regular utility skills (i.e. gadgets) with not only similar benefits but more versatility? If that’s the case, then half of our utility skills have been rendered useless because there is a utility kit in our arsenal capable of out-preforming each of them in some way. That ‘statistic’ alone is horrifying to accept.

In order to bring back the viability of many of our ignored utilities, certain adjustments need to be made to make them more appealing. If we take the function of signets that other professions have (passive and active properties) we could apply that to the engineer utility skills. Of course they wouldn’t be on par with the other professions’ signets, but it would still be reasonable.

Let’s use Slick Shoes as an example. The utility skill itself could remain the same, but the tool belt could have an addition. Since the idea of the utility is to deter danger through movement, the tool belt skill when activated can continue to be what it is now, but the passive can be an endurance regeneration of +25%; however, the tool belt skill would receive an increased cool down. This way the engineer would have to decide whether or not the speed boost is worth losing that +25% endurance during the encounter, be it PvE or sPvP/WvW. Despite it being such a ‘minor change’, it can be a world of difference when that endurance or speed is the difference between life or death for you and friends.

Now let’s look at probably one of the most ignored utilities we have: Throw Mine. We don’t have many blast finishers so this could be where we gain an advantage. The skill itself could now include a blast finisher on top of what it already does. The tool belt skill as a passive can be a one second daze on detonation of a mine, which would also work with the passive trait Evasive Powder Keg. So luring an enemy into melee range is now a more effective kiting maneuver if properly timed. The active tool belt skill, however, is a dropped timed mine that explodes for a blast finisher and knock back (with a longer cool down, again). So now Throw Mine becomes a blast finisher for working with groups in PvE (i.e. might stacking for group burst coordination) or an effective knock back tool with kiting capabilities for sPvP/WvW when defending.

These are all, of course, arbitrary ideas that I came up with while writing example, but this could possibly give the Engineer more group utility that we all love and better versatility for sPvP/WvW.

None of this fixes the fact that on a base level we are essentially at a disadvantage, but it does give you more of a reason to pick utility skills over kits if they provided a passive/active effect.

If PvP or WvW is the concern for the cap, why not just remove it for PvE exclusively? Fighting over huge group events is where this complaint seems to stem from, IMO.

When I read your post, OP, the initial thought in my head was that fixing the mechanics of the kit should be made a higher priority than the aesthetic. But honestly, appearance in MMO’s has always been my personal highest priority.

I wholeheartedly feel that if this doesn’t seem like a high priority for a-net, let the players design the kits via contest submissions. I’m sure we have players capable of rendering concept art and who are more than willing to lend a hand in beautifying our profession. The rules can be loosely based around the following idea:

Submissions must include:
- Associated exotic weapon theme (Invader’s, Inquest, etc)
- Concept design for each kit

The exotic weapon in the MH dictates the theme of the kits.

This would of course be a huge project but something along the lines of player submissions for the designs could help jump start the change.

I entirely agree with you that we should all be equivalent at a baseline, but I’d like to offer my thoughts on possibly why a-net decided to make kits function the way they do now.

The fact that our baseline core mechanics are subpar compared to others is probably because it was assumed that we would pick at least one utility kit to begin with. The synergy between kits and our regular weapon sets does tend to work out well depending on your stat priorities. To mitigate the fact that we aren’t able to pick a ‘utility’ slot despite wanting more variety in our arsenal, a-net introduced the tool belt system for us to gain that extra skill we would have lost otherwise. Of course the downside is that we can’t pick the skill associated with the kit, but we are capable of having three kits in our utility slots if we felt like it.

I think balance is the key for this profession. To make up for the fact that we have to choose a utility kit reinforces the creation of the tool belt. Your gadgets, elixirs, and turrets now give two skills to make up for that lost slot. However, you can’t pick them, again.

Not that this is a perfect example, but not picking a kit may have been considered by a-net something on par with not switching weapons in the other professions. You can definitely get by with a single weapon set but utilizing the other set opens up so many possibilities.

By no means do I think the kits are perfect nor the mechanic that they abide by; I just wanted to offer my opinion on why a-net may not consider this a fundamental flaw.

Why not just use Elixir S at an opportune time to get away from the barrage of cc? It’ll give you a few seconds to put some distance between you and a knockback even. Throw Elixir S after if you want to add onto it since both stealth and stability would help at that point.

GuilguiS.2738:

I really like your video. I’m running a power-crit build with nades myself. One really useful tip: Net your target before you use grenade barrage, you’ll get a sure full hit. I easily get 7k-8k with the barrage if the target isn’t a bunker, if it is i get “only” 4k. Engineers are a really versatile and fun class, i guess people just need to be a little more creative.

I always find myself using that tactic when a target is further away or after a BoB explosion (not sure if it was showcased well in the video). But I also found a good tactic with it is to hide it within your bomb explosions when a melee such as a thief or warrior is charging at you. Many skilled players know to dodge our grenades but they can’t dodge what they can’t see. Those rangers with infinite amounts of dodge though, man, I just guesstimate where they’ll be and toss the barrage based on their movement patterns.

Tassle.7810:

One piece of advice I’d like to give: Turn on “Fast-cast ground targeting”. It removes all those slight delays when you bring up the circles.

All that’s required is a lil mouse awareness.

You know, I turned it off when I first played grenades because I wasn’t very comfortable with the range or radius of the explosions. I definitely should try that now that I’ve been using grenades for a while. Thanks for that reminder, wouldn’t have even considered it unless you mentioned it.

You REALLY need to start dodging more.

Definitely a great point you brought up. I noticed that myself when I reviewed my first fights and did my best to fix it in my more recent tournaments. If you look at the segments where I was rank 7 and rank 9 you’ll see the huge amount of improvement on kit switching and dodging. (My shoulder armor changes if the number is too obscured for you to read on the video from rank 7 to 9.)

I know personally the lack of dodging was because I was overwhelmed by how many keys I have to press in a fight. After I got used to my build a bit more, dodging became easier since I was able to observe the fight better instead of staring at my hotkeys to ensure I was doing everything right.

Build and tactics:

The latest build I used in my more recent matches as shown in the video is linked to above. After going through my build, possibly one of the first few things going through your mind was how much emphasis I had on defense despite my video’s spiel about not being a defensive or bunker build. Bear in mind that I am taking two damage kits and my final utility slot is reserved for ‘encounter’ purposes (which in most cases is Elixir B to start a match.)

Despite the fact that I showcased many 1v1 fights, this build is not designed for that. So why did I show footage of me 1v1’ing all those people instead of the true purpose of this build? It was because I wanted to prove that this build just isn’t good for dying. Which is quite literally what I do in sPvP repeatedly for good reason.

It doesn’t matter what the fight is, this build is designed to take them head on and be annoying as hell. You can even kill people with it as the video proves. Most of my fights are centered around me roaming and barraging poorly managed nodes with huge amounts of firepower and explosives and dying because I end up drawing the attention of 2-3 of their team to that area.

So how does this help you? Well first of all, you’re not dying in moments like 95% of the sPvP population would due to their setup. You have ridiculous amounts of health, conditions removers, and toughness to survive comfortably against 1-2 people or even 3 depending on if you’re willing to ditch the node for a few moments.

The goal of the build is to push people off their nodes long enough to contest or possibly even take them. The amount of time they’re not gaining points because of a contested/taken node creates a huge gap in the entire minute or two you stay alive drawing their attention. If two of their team is wailing on you with as much power as they can get, that means only three of their team is combating against your other four. And many times if you’re handy enough you can kill them and take their node.

So to take full advantage of this build you have to be Bach on your keyboard. You have to compose an orchestra of death and demolition by constantly CC’ing your enemy with the arsenal available to you.

A basic fight with you assaulting a node would include you dropping their energy bar before the battle even begins with a barrage of #1 Grenade. You can even drop a #4/chill in the second throw if you’re feeling lucky. Your first move would probably be to dodge into the node and drop a BoB to scare them away. By then their energy bar will be almost at one tick or already there, causing them to dodge out immediately or put up something that protects them. If they dodge out, keep them out with a net or firepower. If they protect themselves, immediately switch to Bomb Kit and use #4 to drop a smoke field that reapplies blind for the next 3 seconds. The most common tactic after they regain a normal status is to burst you down as hard and fast as possible.

Creativity is what wins this fight. You have a stun immediately available via Supply Crate which also drops med packs early in the fight for when they try to burst you down. You can also drop #3 Bomb Kit since you possibly are already in the kit so you can apply some confusion on that pesky melee who dishes out fast attacks. You can even drop a Glue Bomb immediately followed by grenade barrage if you’d like.

The idea is to win out by keeping them off their node with heavy damaging explosives and marksmanship. Don’t forget that killing your enemy doesn’t necessarily mean that you win. If you lost in the end but kept that node contested for a minute while your team was the only one with an active node, you wreaked some serious damage.

There’s no cookie cutter way of winning every fight. There are too many variables and the only way to succeed is by practicing and understanding your build mechanics. Adjust tactics as you go as well; that’s why the third utility slot has been nicknamed ‘encounter slot’ by me.

As many people have said, I am an amateur at sPvP and I possibly wasn’t even fighting excellent players. On average most people I was fighting in the video were rank 30+. That probably doesn’t constitute much, but I personally felt if at rank 7-9 I was doing that well then there’s only room for improvement.

With all that said, good luck Engineers. I hope you find the ‘Sapper’ build to be as fun as I think it is. If you have any questions or want more details on tactics (I didn’t want to overdo the wall of text) please feel free to ask.

Hey there Engineers!

This is the debut of my experimental rifle-explosion build that I’ve nicknamed ‘Sapper’.

I’m new to the sPvP world, but one thing I noticed about Engineers in my short time here was that many players find us to be replaceable, or next to useless. We’re assumed to be only viable as a defensive/bunker profession for node holding. We’re told that if we wanted to run burst or condition — or whatever the build may be — some other profession does better than us twofold.

Of course many Engineers have proved otherwise, but something about the commonly used builds out there never clicked for me. It was either boring for me or I just lacked the skill to preform well.

It was then that I decided to create the ‘Sapper’ build.

Once I roughly put together a decent build that seemed promising I immediately queued for tournaments. The video above is a montage of my attempts to fine tune and excel with this build. In the end I finally created a reliable build that I was proud of and could stand its ground. I tried my best to show the better 1v1 fights with the build so you could see how well it preformed on its own.

I realize that I’m not the best Engineer out there, but hopefully you gave the video a shot. Any feedback or questions are appreciated and I hope my ridiculous intermissions didn’t bother you too much.

Depends what build you friend runs, but a profession that utilizes a lot of finishers usually compliments an engineer well. We have the ability to put quite a few fields down and depending on what finisher you use it can create some excellent combos. My fiance plays a ranger and the projectile finishers coupled with my fields has always proved to be fun and powerful.

If anything, play a profession that you find most enjoyable. You’ll make it work out in the end no matter what either of you play. Just make sure you’re playing the profession because it’s fun, not because it couples well with an Engineer.

Personally if I know the fight calls for condition removal, I run elixir gun in my ‘encounter-based’ utility slot (#3), as I like to call it. I also trait into Alchemy so I could switch my traits around to move from heavy offense to a mix of both support and damage before the encounter. I’m sure I’m not the only player around that uses it as well. And there is also the possibility of players running both elixir gun and flamethrower due to the fact they don’t want to waste the trait by not having both in their arsenal.

In reference to my previous remark it could help diversify builds by allowing players the freedom to choose different utilities without feeling like they aren’t taking full advantage of their trait choices.

Even though I’m not an avid user of either kit, I completely endorse this suggestion. It would allow for more diversity of our builds that try and maximize particular kits. Tool kit already has a trait that adds a cripple AND reduces cool downs by 20% so I don’t see why it couldn’t be acceptable.

To add onto PotatoOverdose’s excellent guidance on the uses of bomb kit in the various PvP settings, don’t forget the ability to combo field with all the finishers going on in WvW. Blinds being flung everywhere, stealth being repeatedly stacked for those precious moments smoke bomb is up. In a large group setting smoke bomb can an incredible advantage. And if played right you can use your bomb conditions to lay down some pain in sPvP. That pesky thief bursting at you? Drop a concussion bomb and laugh at his health drops while you dodge away.

Bomb kit’s uses are only limited to the imagination of the engineer as are many of the other kits available to us.

Despite what many people say about engineers only being viable in a defensive or bunker build in tournament PvP, I’ve successfully used an offensive Engineer and have won my share of tourneys with it (mostly PuG’s too). I’ve had no problems fighting nearly any combo of profession or build so far with my current build.

It’s definitely a surprise for most groups to see an engineer roaming instead of defending and many times they don’t know how to react appropriately.

Well the beautiful thing about the engineer profession is the versatility and viability of each ‘set-up’ you use. I personally roam around at level 80 with a rifle (shotgun, in reality), grenades, bomb kit, and I leave my last utility open depending on what I feel like doing. That set up may or may not work for you.

What I do suggest doing is trying out every weapon to see what clicks for you. I absolutely hated rifles until I played around with one with grenades at level 80. Until then I was whipping out my pistol and flamethrower putting conditions on everything in sight.

In terms of a build, adjust what you put your traits into based on what you enjoy doing. I think following someone else’s build as an engineer takes away from your experience rather than adding to it. However, sometimes looking at other builds opens your eyes to options that you never even considered.

In reference to your complaint with grenades, I personally can move and fight with them. It took a lot of practice but I use them in all my builds. And not just for the grenade barrage aspect of them; they’re excellent for CC.

Enjoy your engineer!

I don’t mean to hinder your pursuit for a proper answer but I think the reason you haven’t received an official one is because they don’t want to tell us. So many things in MMO’s have a guide for it, taking out the mystery and exploration of the game. I think magic find is one of those things that we just delve forward with our fingers crossed.

Personally I’ve only ever had good results with magic find with monster loot. I’ve never looted an exotic from a chest aside from the mad king’s puzzle one despite having loads of magic find. Rares are equally impossible for me to get personally as well from chests.

If you do it carefully your five gold and current crafting materials should be able to get you to your desired level of armorsmithing. You’ll definitely use some money making your armor but the turn out is well worth it. As an engineer using gear similar to yours for a while as a level 80, I can give you a personal account on switching to 80 rares and masterworks. The numbers don’t appear to be a huge change but all together it is significant.

If you’re worried about stretching your gold far enough I suggest using a guide to get you started on how the crafting system works with discovery and leveling expediently. The process of buying exotics individually at a slower rate may just kill your soul if you’re not up to the grind. I’m personally still using said greens/yellows and I’m having a blast without feeling like I’m losing out on the exotic craze.

Edit: Use your karma to buy weapons and gold to craft your armor. Forgot to add that.

TL;DR – Try out crafting. Use a guide to get your money’s worth if you’re worried about that and get out there and have some fun with it!

Of Quiet Resolve [QuRe] is seeking friendly, mature members for adventuring and what not. We plant our colors in the soil of Tarnished Coast.

We are a small guild whose goal is not to dominate the WvW, PvE, or sPvP spectrum but to build a community that desires to simply enjoy Tyria with its fellow members. We don’t have any requirements other than the willingness to participate in guild activities and a moderate level of maturity.

We don’t accept discrimination of any kind; no exceptions. We are here to enjoy a game in our free time, not be harassed. That is essentially our only guild rule.

If you are interested or have any questions, please feel free to send a mail/whisper to Eryelis.