Guild Wars 2

Engineer’s weapons are balanced to use together with kits iirc. Can’t speak for pve but in pvp you will need a kit to be able to keep up :p

no longer using elixir S and switched elixir H for healing turret, without X trait on alchemy. loving it :p

I will miss you, "elixir S + kit " It was the ideal way to drop bombs.
But I saw it coming, surprised it took them so long to change it. Liking the healing turret change, I wonder if the water field will stay after the turret’s gone.

I like the good old guild pistol skins

Pve solo ? Pve dungeons dps? Pve dungeons support? Pve dungeons hybrid? sPvP roaming? sPvP bunker? sPvP burst? WvW roaming? WvW zerg?

I’d suggest you take a look in the thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Engineer-Builds-while-the-6-Gods-are-Silent/ for some ideas.

For moving around you could either go with a permanent vigor build or a rifle/eg build though.

Isslair.4908:

Sometimes I even grab the aggro (woot).

Hmm, I get aggro most of the time, I thought the aggro was just random though.

With pistols + bomb kit I would normally suggest carrion.

Running
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqqbnpSyF17IxIFk+zgek362XRKqs+B
myself in dungeons & fractals.
With a mix of berserker & healing gear. It’s condition removal is superb, damage very nice (when played right) and healing is somewhat good.

Damage rotation: static discharges > jumpshot > blunderbuss > crowbar (+equip spell) > acid bomb
Support rotation: drop healing turret, drop rifle turret, detonate both for 3k area heal. Toolbelt area regeneration + 10s regeneration from initial healing turret drop = perma regen for everyone. Drop super elixir where needed.

It’s a very solid hybrid build, very fun to play and great survivability. Great aoe damage, but positioning and timing is important.

And the downside of on-swap sigils is it also prevents other sigils from proccing like on crit or on weapon-swap ones.

GoZero.9708:

Engineers aren’t too great at combo fields. We have Light from Super Elixir and Toss Elixir R and very short ones from the Bomb Kit. Likewise, we seem to lack the amount of Finishers that other classes seem to have in their main weapon skills, particularly the Blast finishers that maximize on combos (a Sc/D Elemental in comparison has up to 4 blast finishers to abuse with Ring of Fire for 9-12 stacks of Might).

An engineer can have up to 5 blast finishers quite easily too.
Big Ole, shield #4, healing turret and supply crate are already 4 easy to get ones.
It’s just that the timing and positioning is more difficult than with an ele.

Phuriocity.9218:

Disastro.4086:

Not listed in those charts is Water Field created by Healing Turret when it pulses it’s regen it only lasts for about half a second but can be used to trigger Area Healing very effectively by detonating the turret as it pulses.

+1 takes a lot of practice to time though because the timing on that pulse is really odd.

It’s actually pretty easy to use. If you put it down, wait ~0.5s and then use your blast finishers you can get the healing combo very easily.

Nope, it’s as ayden said, same range as the respective toolbelt skill.

We only need 2 things to make them useful imo:
1) Let them fire at our current target
2) no cooldown when you pick it up

Gelroller on reddit made some usefull tables with the use of the community.
All combo fields for all professions: http://i.imgur.com/UAwyv.png
All combo finishers for all professions: http://i.imgur.com/UAwyv.png

Just look up what each combination does et voilà The combinations I use most are area might, area retaliation, area stealth, leap fire aura, projectile remove conditions, projectile burn and projectile blind.

First of all, I’ll summarize what I meant again:
1) don’t compare class mechanics as a standalone aspect & don’t compare utilities as a standalone aspect; classes are balanced as a whole, not per category. When comparing, you have to compare traits, damage, usefulness, combinations, …
2) there ’s much more difference than sheer skill numbers
3) compared to kits, warrior banners are weak as weapons

Secondly,
If we had a kit on F1 and a kit on F2 (I assume it would be from a drop-down list and not stuck with default ones?, which would btw be a real hassle to do and is never going to happen), IF, then we would become OP compared to other professions.
2 kits + 3 utilities is insanely OP. They would have to balance the whole class again and do that so hard it would get a different playstyle altogether because of all the possible new combinations. Then a whole new kittenstorm of unhappy engineers would start. It’s not providing a solution, it’s creating a new problem.

-Clip (few, almost forgot to put my name at the end, would you have known it was me otherwise? :p)

To answer the title: While leveling I used p/p & bomb kit. (Now in WvW&sPvP I use P/S with bomb & toolkit.)

To answer your actual question: while leveling I found that in the levels 1-15 condition damage is OP, set things on fire and everything dies. Later on during lvl 40-60 I found that pure damage was helping me more, I switched to rifle/static discharge and everything died quickly again. During lvls 60-80 I switched back to my trusted P/P+bomb kit and never looked back :p

So depending on your level, it can make sense to switch to rifle/power for a while yes.

PS: I don’t have any hard proof, it’s just my leveling experience.

The word ‘versatility’ isn’t the word that comes to mind either when I play engineer. It’s ‘choice’. We can choose our kits and choose what to use because we aren’t bound to weaponcooldowns and such. But versatility?

Bleed: 121
Poison: 241
Burn: 720

Condition damage: 1356
Boons: 6 stacks of might (35 per might)

You can easily calculate the tick damage if you look at your condition damage though.
Just use:
2.5 + (0.5 * Level) + (0.05 * Condition Damage) for bleeds
(In my case that’s 120.8)

4 + Level + (0.1 * Condition Damage) for poison
(in my case 240.6)

8 + (4 * Level) + (0.25 * Condition Damage) for burns
(in my case 719.5)

edit: added formulas from wiki

1) I personally don’t recommend the rifle until you have some decent +power gear.
Normally it’s a good choice to pick the static discharge trait in tools.

2)Utilities that compliment static discharge are:
rifle turret (never deploy for longer than the toolbelt cd)
toolkit
goggles
personal battering ram

Utilities that work great with the rifle regardless of static discharge:
flamethrower
elixir gun (leap forward with jump shot and leap back with acid bomb)
bomb kit
rocket boots (for the toolbelt)
…

3)The survivability of the engineer comes from blocking, dodging, kiting and blinding.
Blocks can be found on the toolkit & shield, dodging becomes easier because of easy vigor acces and other endurance regeneration in tools; kiting is done with immobilizes and knocbacks and blinding can be found in traits, pistol, grenades and smoke fields.

The engineer also has very decent survivability traits: protection, invisibility, heal cd reset, …

Travail.7390:

Atlanis.6597:

Kits taking up utility slots would be alright IF they used our weapons stats and weren’t buggy. Take, for example, Elixir Gun. By putting this in a utility slot, we get a disengage (4), an aoe cleanse + stacking hot (5), a conal cleanse + poison + vulnerability (3), a bouncing cripple + swiftness (2), and a way to permanently apply weakness (1). That is a LOT more than any other class gets for a single utility slot.

However, the wrench in the machine is that other classes get a second weapon in addition to the three utility slots, which puts us at a disadvantage running 1 kit + 2 other. When we run two or more kits, though, I would say that we have an advantage over everyone save Elementalists (who have four different sets of abilities per weapon).

The Elementalist has the equivalent of 3 kits + 1 primary weapon at all times, without losing access to any utility slots. Necromancers can equip 2 weapons plus Death Shroud (which is essentially a strong kit) again without losing access to any of their utilities. Warrior Banners grant 5 attacks to whoever picks them up, as well as passive AoE buffs. There are weapon summons which grant 5 attacks to the user. We aren’t the only class with access to kits or kit equivalents.

And then there’s the matter of our F mechanic. Look at the Toolbelt for a moment, and consider what it actually does. It gives each of our utilities a second activated effect. Well, that’s great, but it’s not “better” than what other classes have access to without even considering their main mechanic. Every other class in the game, bar none, receives utilities with secondary activated effects.

- Signets (available to every class but ours.)
- The aforementioned Warrior Banners.
- Ranger Spirits.
- Necromancer Minions.
- Guardian Spirit Weapons.
- Mesmer Mantras (multiple uses of a single utility before placing it on cooldown.)

All of these include secondary activated abilities, just like our utilities have Toolbelt skills associated with them. Having a second activated ability associated with utilities is not unique to the Engineer, not by a long shot.

When every other class has F abilities (adrenaline, pets, shatters, etc.) in addition to these double-effect utilities, our Toolbelt starts to look pretty lackluster, doesn’t it?

Make no mistake, this class is no more versatile than any other.

-Travail.

I follow all your points but I don’t see how it makes the engineer lackluster, engineer has no cooldown on his kits, has the choice to equip 0, 1, 2 or 3 kits and can feely choose which one to use. An ele can’t go back to his original atunement for 15s (default) and can’t swap out one attunement for another.
It’s generally a pretty bad idea to try to compare other professions with the engineer. It’s a totally different style.
And the fact you are even comparing warrior banners to kits makes you’re whole discussion pretty lame imo. Banners are weak compared to any weapon, the only thing they are good for is short duration buffs and some movement between fights.

Atlantis makes sense in his post, you don’t travail.

PS: for me the engineer’s kits aren’t about versatility, it’s about freedom and choice. People who only look at it on paper tend to forget the 1s cooldown, the kit’s skills cooldowns, the practical use of all the skills, etc. They are just too hung up on number of available skills.

To anyone who wants a complete overhaul, why go for engineer in the first place? The class is fine imo. It just needs bug fixes and minor tweaks to skills I never use.

Although a super elixir S water field would be so great :o

You’re actually describing how to defeat a noob engineer, not a decent pvp’er :p.

For instance: the bomb kit, a good engi won’t try to kite you, he will stun, immobilize or knock you down before he puts his bombs. Or he will make you choose between 2 aoe attacks so if you dodge one you will get hit by the other or similar. (BoB is a great distraction, to lure them into a different area) The main counter is to stay at ranged, yes, but it’s far from ‘simply’ moving away.

Actually the main overal thing to defeat any engineer is to stay at long range. A good engineer is a melee killer. At range the grenades are easy to dodge, the static discharge also has travel time, most kits have low range. Fortunately, the engineer has a lot of gap closers, stuns and immobilizers to get in that sweet medium range.

You’re giving terrible advice in general actually, like the slick shoes. Engineers run towards you with that skill, not away.

Bargaw.4832:

Clip.6845:

while doing better damage than the warrior.

I lol’d.

Do you really wear berserker’s armor, try to support and claim to be more useful than a warrior?

I don’t wear berserker armor. I just told you it heals for 1300 without any healing stats.
And I don’t claim to be more useful than a warrior, I said I do more damage and heal about the same, but I can never take as much hits on my engineer as on my warrior.

Bargaw.4832:

Clip.6845:

Bargaw.4832:

Explain to me how engi support builds are nice?
In my knowledge engi supports ends on elixir gun 5th skill.

fumigate, healling turret overcharge, healing turret water field, toolbelt waterfield + regen, alchemy X trait, supply crate with it’s med kits and a massive amount of blinds.

How does it compare to shout warrior with soldier runes that still deals nice amount of damage? Healing turret waterfield doesn’t even work properly and rest of the skills provide only regen buff and minor amount condition removal, also I wouldn’t call 3blinds on 20+s cd (that take 2utility slots) ‘massive’.
Supply Crate? kitten please, have you seen battle standard?

well, 100% regen uptime and 100% condition removal uptime isn’t minor support.
And the waterfield works just fine, it only has a 20s cooldown and heals for 1300 hp in full berserker gear. I get 2 blast finishers off in them without trying. The warrior has to choose between regen & shouts, engi’s get regen 100% AND a waterfield burst heal while doing better damage than the warrior.
3 blinds on 20s cooldown? what have you been playing :p static discharge is 12s traited or rifle on crit blind has 10s cooldown. The other blinds are 20s yes.
And battle standard is for when it’s too late. I prefer too keep my team alive before they go down.

Good idea, I run a condition/power build myself in WvW/sPvP and a mix of static discharge & elixir gun in PVE.

Haven’t posted it anywhere though, and definitely don’t have time for making video’s right now. But people should know there are tons of good engi builds out there that haven’t been posted anywhere!

Bargaw.4832:

Explain to me how engi support builds are nice?
In my knowledge engi supports ends on elixir gun 5th skill.

fumigate, healling turret overcharge, healing turret water field, toolbelt waterfield + regen, alchemy X trait, supply crate with it’s med kits and a massive amount of blinds.

The Demonic Spirit.3157:

Finally , mine kit is very useful for interrupting and damaging foes at the same time.

:o Oh how I miss mine kit! Too bad it’s been gone since BWE3 though!

OT: Most of the kit skills are worth a utility slot on their own. (fire bomb, confusion bomb, smoke bomb, pry-bar, gear-shield, magnet, acid bomb, super elixir, napalm, etc…)
And most of them are very situational and/or require a set-up.
Switch to them when needed and get back to your weapon. Or visa versa: stay in them when needed but regularly switch back to your weapon(s).

It’s not comparable with other professions because of it’s unique properties.

Ofc not signets, but as has been suggested since beta’s it would be very nice if gadgets had a passive advantage while not activated.

Rocket boots could give a 10% movement increase in that case.

But Imo I don’t think it’s necessary, we have a trait for perma swiftness that’s way better than those petty signets

Yes, I’d either go with power & precision gear and static discharge + rifle. Toolkit, rifle turret, pbr & utility goggles work nicely with this build.

Or with condition damage & power gear with pistols + bomb kit.
You just HAVE to have used elixir U + bomb kit #1 spam at least once while leveling, it’s quite fun.

Just remember to pick the right gear with the right build and you won’t have any trouble.

And make sure not to stay in a kit for more than necassary! They are an ADDITION to your weapons. I’m afraid you may have been mislead by the boring #1 spamming grenadier engineers. This is NOT how you play the profession.

Oh, and ignore guys like Bargaw, but that’s kind of an obvious thing isn’t it.

Choice & freedom: 1s cooldown on weapon/kit swap & 4 skills on utility belt.

Kuruptz.4782:

Clip.6845:

To OP: no.

I do dungeons with different builds depending on the group composition: pure non-grenade dps (rifle + static discharge) if there’s 2 heavies in the group, support when there’s no heavies, or any hybrid in between combined with control (blind, immobilize, knockback).
In WvW I run P/P with bomb & toolkit & mix of carrion & rabid gear (statwise).
I do great at keeping my allies alive in small groups, I kill great amounts of players in zergs and I almost never lose a 1v1. (The hardest opponents are ranged thieves & mesmers, if I meet one of those my day is GOOD because they provide a fun challenge and often end up being a long fight)

Engineers were never meant to stay in a kit, it’s meant to be situational, pretty boring spamming 1 as you say anyway.

i mean those hard lies no doubt you do good in groups why wouldnt you infact just that you mention it is idiotic ill do good with any build with my engi or all other proffs

but saying you never lose a fight 1v1 just stop it ( or your specced bunker build ) wich you wont be able to kill the enemy

or you can kill enemy in wvw 1v1 he is scaled to 80 or the 80 is wrecked or brain damaged i am 110% sure my mesmer which is my main would delete your engineer over and over and over again wich is Supposed already to be superior 1v1

I said almost, and I also said mesmers are a hard opponent which i often lose against.
I always ignore scaled up enemies, and used to meet enemies in wvw for duels after a fun fight. (back when you could still find out their name)
Feel free to challenge me anytime you want, just whisper me. I’m on SR btw.

And i’m not being idiotic, I just answered the OP: were grenade builds all that engies were good for? > NO.

To OP: no.

I do dungeons with different builds depending on the group composition: pure non-grenade dps (rifle + static discharge) if there’s 2 heavies in the group, support when there’s no heavies, or any hybrid in between combined with control (blind, immobilize, knockback).
In WvW I run P/P with bomb & toolkit & mix of carrion & rabid gear (statwise).
I do great at keeping my allies alive in small groups, I kill great amounts of players in zergs and I almost never lose a 1v1. (The hardest opponents are ranged thieves & mesmers, if I meet one of those my day is GOOD because they provide a fun challenge and often end up being a long fight)

Engineers were never meant to stay in a kit, it’s meant to be situational, pretty boring spamming 1 as you say anyway.

tigirius.9014:

Why can’t we have this utility? I used to love to use my invis skill on the other game i played that had one and then parachute down while invis to prevent mobs from aggroing to me. That would be awesome!

They have flying boats why not have parachutes, or do they just post signs up on their boat walls saying , don’t fall, like that’s going to prevent deaths from people falling off the edge of the ships.

Parachute would certainly make much more sense then the “come here and find me” bombs flying everywhere approach of the engineer right now.

Y, slow fall + invisibility was great fun as a mage in wow AB from lumbermill to the blacksmith too.

I miss a slow fall option in GW2, it would make it very easy to get in some of the towers in WvW though, so I guess that’s the reason it’s not in the game.

Pistol/Pistol works best with carrion armor (pow/vit/cond).
You may want to switch 1 or 2 pieces out for crit/vit/cond.

For WvW non-zerging, bomb kit & slick shoes + random elxir are superb choices.
For traits
-the tier 2 alchemy ‘elixirs remove conditions’ is a must.
-the tier 3 firearms ‘pistol shots pierce’ makes sure you always hit your target
-the tier 1 explosives ‘bombs have larger explosive radius’ is a must too

you can freely choose how to spend your remaining 10 points and the non-specified traits.

I’d use a different build for dungeons though, but I don’t do dungeons with my engineer.

@second post, It’s really useless to pick the V explosives trait on P/P with a bomb kit, as you can keep burning up 100% anyways. If I’d use the same traits & gear as you I’d pick P/S, since with 50% crit chance, fury & that trait, the offhand pistol is made useless.

P/P is carrion gear all the way, you have access to all conditions. You may want to switch some carrion out with some precision gear if you have an on-crit sigil, about 25% crit chance is more than enough.

Berserker is only good for grenadier/rifle builds, and even then it’s not recommended.

If you’re going to want to perform, I’d switch out your mine for a kit. (I only like bomb kit, but other kits are possible).

In all honesty, I love my P/P engineer in WvW and own with it. But for dungeons I’d consider a rifle/support build instead.

If you feel like you crit enough, go carrion, if you don’t proc incendiary enough, go rampager.

Dasboba.1652:

Clip.6845:

I don’t see this as a major problem honestly, how many times do you get blinded? How many times do you get blocked? Invulnerable only lastst 5 sec max…
It only means patience & skill become more important.

NOTICE what debuffs are on you and act on it, NOTICE what your enemy is doing (blocking, invuln) and react.
> when blinded, hit with a normal skill and then cast your phantasm
> when you see an aegis/shield block, same thing…

My thief is traited to ae blind every time I stealth, which is pretty much every 4-5 seconds. I also have multiple other ways to blind. I always avoided mesmers in the past due to the way my spec works against them. I actually rolled a mesmer to learn more about the class and because the class seemed so neat to play. I find this change to be class breaking, and I say this as a thief.

Well, no offence, but you’re wrong. I too blind on stealth with my thief. And that’s the thing. It’s ON STEALTH. You need a target to cast a phantasm
As for the other ways to blind, they still dissapear after an initial hit with a different skill. The thief NPC in the mists is a good beginner training dummy to learn how to fight against blinders. I suggest some mesmers start with that.

Ying Kanade.7460:

ok, so i check out how bad the Phantasmal Berserker was nerfed and kitten A target is obstructed if there 3 steps on top of some stairs. That’s unacceptable. The enemy is clearly with you field of view. THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

Welcome to the way other players feel, I have had this obstructed problem for way too long on other professions than mesmer. Maybe now it will be looked at…

I always have played a mix of both, I let my phantasms cast once and then I shatter them.
I still do it this way, and have no trouble doing so since patch.

But to say the latest patch is in favor of these builds is for the wrong reasons I think. Mainly because the iBerserker seems to be bugged > misses 2 out of 3 hits.

People that say creating phantasms isn’t reliable anymore are seriously stuck on the theoretical fact that blinds&blocks deny the phantasm creation. Anyone who knows when they are blinded or enemies are blocking shouldn’t have any trouble with the new updates.

The only thing worth raging about is the introduction of new bugs, not the patchnotes imo. (LoS seems to be obstructed too often -noticed this on more than 1 prof-, iBerserker misses 2x,…)

I don’t see this as a major problem honestly, how many times do you get blinded? How many times do you get blocked? Invulnerable only lastst 5 sec max…
It only means patience & skill become more important.

NOTICE what debuffs are on you and act on it, NOTICE what your enemy is doing (blocking, invuln) and react.
> when blinded, hit with a normal skill and then cast your phantasm
> when you see an aegis/shield block, same thing…

Ross Biddle.2367:

Bonus to damage is a good thing. I approve.

Note to users: I love setting it off, then timing a blink into a group of enemies. It’ll burst on the other side

Indeed, it hits for a nice 1k! It’s the perfect weapon for a power/condition mesmer.
And the stealth let’s you get nice and close to pop the immobilizing clone from 1H sword as well.

then mix it up :d

‘follow’ ‘on me’ ‘we leave in 2sec’ ‘to longview’ ‘supply first’

I’m a mesmer/engineer/warrior myself and I’m happy with the changes.
I was afraid for big time nerfs, glad it isnt the case.

I just hope the next patch will be bug fixes only, not balancing.

I enjoyed it while it lasted… I had a couple of 1v1 duels, often complimented people that were actually good and had a couple of great convo’s too.

But yea, it wasn’t intended. Can’t wait for 2 things now:
-guesting
-duelling in pve

@MetaData, if only it were that simple.

Same problem here btw.

The bomb kit in WvW is great for 5vs5s and capping supply camps.

It’s also really great that you can equip it while using elixir S. It’s great for when your zerg is pushing and you want to go in first to immobilze, burn and confuse the hell out of them before they can run away

And as said, its great in sPvP for point capping.

Yes, it’s impossible to take WvW seriously if it’s impossible to tell how many enemies are in your line of sight.

Replacing unloaded models with blurry ones would be THE solution indeed.

For now I listen to my PC’s CPU very carefully, when it’s making more noise than usual it means it’s rendering a zerg of enemies :p

I was first stuck at 2/5 when other people had 3/5 with the same achievements and now I am stuck at 3/5. I hope it all gets fixed with getting the last achievement.

I think it may have something to do with the "Halloween Huntin’ " achievement. I could have sworn I got that one the first day and lost a tier on the second.