Guild Wars 2

Rifle turret. Because I need that hip shot for SD builds, if I ever go back to it.

Also overlaps with turret/bunker builds.

In list form, pros:
-Strong condition builds (easily the profession with access to the widest array of conditions).
-Decent party support. (Elixir R, strong condition removal, okay healing, reflect) Tons of blast finshers.
-Good amounts of control. (Net shot, turret knockdowns when traited, shield triple interrupt)
Cons:
-Inferior straight out damage. (Reliant on Conditions, or a kitten power/direct damage)
-Boon support isn’t the greatest. (Elixir mechanics/radius limits much of this)
-Huge learning curve.
-Arguably the class that requires the highest APM.

Just gonna put this out there because so many underestimate the strongest (imo) feature of Elixir gun: Fumigate. 5x condition removals in a cone, every 12 seconds. (Less when traited). Fumigate is more or less condition immunity for your party.

Overall, when played right, Engi is more than viable in dungeons. It just requires a bit more effort than ye olde zerker warrior/mes/thief or the elementalist healer with the trinity complex.

Even our damage builds offer tons of support. Traited nades are amazing for more or less perma 25 vuln, and routine access to aoe freezes and blinds.

mintberry.9013:

Shoyoko.7309:

Also we are really great at skipping parts in dungeons (if not the best), speedy kits and invigorating vigor for perma- swiftness and vigor.

Well I would say the thief for example is a lot better at it with the group stealth and that’s fine because it is a role the thief should have.

Engineer can technically achieve 13+ seconds of aoe stealth, regardless of build. Just takes a bit of time to set up. (Smoke bomb + blast finishers).

Definitely, Engineer is one of the stronger ‘skip’ professions. Not due to movement effects or such, but because of the sheer amount of potential blocks, perma swiftness and vigor and Elixir S, even without the cloak gimmick.

Melandru is open on Tarnished Coast once more, 1:20 pm Pacific.

120g in my bank at the moment.

Before last week, I’d never had more than 30g at once… And I’ve been playing more or less regularly since October, 1200 hours.

I tend to hoard and never sell/use my mats, so I know I have at least dozens more gold in materials. And that’s without the stack of Ectos!

Indeed still present. I noticed this on my new guardian today.

Both that it won’t stack properly if you already have swiftness, and that sometimes it won’t apply right away.

Kudos to the entire SAB team! Super Adventure Box came as a wonderful surprise.

And indeed, thanks to Josh Foreman here in particular, and any other developers elsewhere, for their presence on these forums. Really helps to make people feel heard appreciated as customers and fans.

Just to post my notes, I’ve done probably around 80 chests (Did more before ‘speed running’ and actually keeping track, didn’t get a skin til these 80 though). 2 shield, 2 greatsword skins.

So after having actually bought the Super Shield Skin… Wow. I didn’t know about the little custom animations! I’ve been wanting a shield with different stats, so time to transmog…

Sorta related to topic but, has anyone noticed inconsistencies with the shield animation? As an engineer, when I unequip a kit (which draws or ‘unsheathes’ your weapons), it spins and the little sword appears. But when I sheath/unsheath the shield normally, it only spins.

I’d say engineers are more the elemental shaman of Guild Wars 2. Enhancement has had plenty of times where it’s shined, and even was a fotm class for a long while in Cata. Could do tremendous DPS in PVE as well… all while Elemental could do is sit back, watch, and be jealous.

I believe that still applies today, but I dunno, I don’t play anymore.

I recently got Master Crafter as well. Opened up my achievements panel and searched for it, to see what it was worth out of curiosity… 0 points?

I got Master of Overkill some time ago, and I don’t recall what it rewarded, although it currently shows 0 points.

Out of curiosity, has anyone gotten a skin from the Zone 3 frog chest?

I’ve… lost count of the amount of runs I’ve done (for once my altitis is sorta paying off). But I’ve gotten one skin from the Zone 1 Chest, and two from Zone 2.

Edit: I ran Zone 3 as I’d forgotten to on my last character just now. Got a Super Shield from the Zone 3 chest, so yes, it’s possible from all three apparently!

Josh Foreman.8250:

It’s probably the speed buff we have to apply to you after combat or taking damage. That’s how we work around the ‘combat mode’ that is part of the GW2 system. Notice that you don’t slow down in SAB when you attack monsters? That’s because we’re giving you a speed buff of just the right amount to compensate for the combat slow down. But the system isn’t perfect because we can’t call a script to the exact moment the slow down occurs, so there can be split-second overlaps where you still have our SAB speed boost but you’re also exiting the combat slow down, resulting in a momentary surge. You would be shocked at the amount of crazy work-arounds we had to pull off to get SAB as platform-like as we did.

I actually most noticed this on entering combat actually. There’s occasionally a split second delay for me, before the speed boost applies. I’ve often stopped to wonder… “Huh, why did I slow down there?”

Now I know why!

As some others have said, engineer shield is essential to some builds, particularly control and support.

It offers three potential interrupts, reflect, block and moderate CD blast finisher, which is honestly probably my favorite feature.

Personally I don’t see the hype in the Super Shield though, I’ll wait for a Super Pistol!

IndigoSundown.5419:

Not hard, but tedious. My Necro normally takes 5 full cycles of dagger auto-attack to take out a heavy-armor L80 Risen Brute. A Molten Disaggregator, it takes 9-10 full cycles. I would have thought they had learned about more mob health !/= more interesting.

I’m reminded of Lost Shores. “So what if we gave mobs TWO HEALTH BARS?!”

I don’t have any trouble doing either the events or dealing with periscopes solo. You know why?

Because I’m level 80 and am going into combat with it in mind (stability is nice).

But that’s exactly it: I’m an experienced player and I have to take precautions to not get my kitten handed to me. In a low level zone. Where new players are first experiencing the world.

It is not a question of difficulty, yes, you can do it solo, even I can, and yes you can talk about your personal stories about how you’re so great. The thing is, this kind of stuff should not exist in a low level zone where people are still learning to play the game.

I understand the want to bring old players back to zones they haven’t probably been in a long while, and the whole drive behind living story, that’s cool. But it shouldn’t interfere with the new players coming into the game.

fiftypercentgrey.7108:

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.

The only times I’ve been asked for another class is with groups via gw2lfg.

I’m not saying anything good or bad about the site either way, I’ve had fantastic groups and I’ve had mediocre ones. Luck of the draw, more or less.

I’ve also been constantly asked if I have another 80 on forming a group. Fortunately I’ve yet to receive the boot. The stereotypes exist, and as Phelan mentioned; most people don’t give the class a chance.

Because it is indeed quite complex to play the class well, and frankly, hardly seems worth the effort when there are other classes that can be more directly useful in a group.

Gideoknight.4736:

I have also found that the flamethrower has a REALLY wide attack, hitting in almost 180 degrees. I tested this on the targeting dummies in Lion’s Arch so I can’t make ay promises about any other area.

FT is odd, to say the least. I was using it in Orr last night, and aiming at a cluster in front of me, while somehow also hitting a single Risen about 70 degrees to the left, no where near the visual for the flame jet.

I support the use of FT while in free aim, auto aim disabled. It’s wonderful to be able to choose what to hit, instead of being ‘locked’ to a single target. I only recommend selecting a target for FT#2, as sometimes it will go into the ground and become undetonateable, otherwise. None of the other FT skills require a target.

Shield and backpack are available now. They’ve said Rifle and possibly pistol is on the way, for SAB. I honestly don’t see how Engineers are neglected from SAB skins, even as it is now. (Personally I dislike the look of the shield though, I prefer my Priory Historical!)

Yeah… I will say that I’m slightly disappointed with how F&F has gone in terms of actual content so far.

GW2 prides itself in doing away with the old MMO cliche of fetch quests and endless grinds. Then they bring them back in the form of new content. Something seems off here…

Sedith.5381:

I know about Beaded underwater weapons: Lancea (which is supposed to be a spear) looks like a harpoon gun and Harpoon Shooter looks like spear.

Pirate weapons were once much like this.

My engineer misses her Trident firing out giant torpedoes…

Glad I could help Sephy!

Curo.2483:

Both those baubles that you guys mentioned are in the Dulfy guide, it’s just not clearly explained. However they are both mentioned vaguely at least. I followed that Dulfy guide 3 times and didn’t get the achievement either. I’m wondering if you need to buy the baubles in the secret shop that you need to bomb the floor of one of the shops to get in to?

I bought all three of those baubles at least once (the one that is a net gain you can buy only once), just to be absolutely sure.

I did not bother with the Queen Beedogs on my second attempt (for any zone), when I got the achievement, nor did I smash every item in the shops.

I have Charr characters with all the greatsword professions. And I have to say, that I think GS guardian looks the least natural and graceful.

Ranger and Warrior GS animations look fantastic in my opinion. The Guardian leap of faith is the same animation (minus the visual effects) as Ranger’s Swoop, which fits much better.

It just kinda feels to me, at first glance anyway, that Charr guardian GS animations are sorta the afterthought, as they were made with the other professions in mind.

That being said, I love Charr Guardian staff. Other races have an ugly overhead ‘thwomp’ with the autoattack that I just cannot stand. Looks like someone’s grandmother chasing off would be purse bandits with a broom…

Hammerguard.9834:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

my main is a female charr
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/51926/Kodin_1.PNG

I find it bothersome that you’re wearing cultural armor. Charr have a huge problem with armor choices (especially medium armor).

A huge problem such as? Personally I think both the T1 and T2 medium cultural peices are amazing looking. My engi rocked the T1 set for the longest time.

My one gripe about cultural Charr armor is the fact that tails clip through the T3 cloth.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

my main is a female charr
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/51926/Kodin_1.PNG

She looks like she could be a twin to my thief, Vexa! With… much fancier gear, heh.

Nerokis.8405:

What’s funny to me is that you felt motivated enough to make this topic, yet felt no inclination to try different strategies or ask for help. :\

This. Countless new players I come across don’t seem to get this concept, and frankly, I don’t understand it. If something is difficult and things aren’t working for you, isn’t that a clear message that you should try a different strategy?

It’s kind of the entire underlying theme to GW2 – the fact that classes are so very versatile and can do so many things. You have to mix it up to succeed – to constantly explore your class and abilities and find out what works where.

It’s also been stated that the F&F instances were intended to be more challenging than your typical story mode instance. Bringing a friend or two is encouraged, but not at all necessary if you put some effort into it.

I tried for the Zone 3 Baubles achievement last night as well. Painstaking 2 hour run.
Nothing.

Did it again this morning, and it turns out there was one bauble that the guides I was following did not mention.

You can get onto the root from the leaf below the one with the barrel on it, in a seemingly impossible jump. Took me about six tries… I’ll edit this post to add more specifics on where this is at later.

Got my achievements!

Just thought I’d make a quick post to point out some quirks I noticed in my time playing through SAB:

-When purchasing health potions, on reaching the maximum (9) the number counting the amount of have in the icon changes back to 3 for some reason. Using one will bring you back to 8.

-Vines in the Fungus world (the ones that stun and immobilize you) have a nasty habit of making keys disappear.

Flamethrower (and fumigate) works reliably once you figure out how to aim.

That being said, it shouldn’t take jumping through hoops and playing/aiming in a very specific way for an ability to work reliably.

Also: Flameblast is bugged in multiple ways currently still. Sometimes it gets ‘stuck’ and undetonatable. It also likes to do this by going into the ground and other objects.

I took my EG with me pretty much as soon as I got it, all the way to 80. Albeit, this was a time when Super Elixir was healing for more than it should have…

It’s only recently that I had to retire it’s permanent slot in my utility bar due to the KR nerf. I still sometimes use it, even not built for it at all, due to it’s incredible support and versatility.

By far my favorite kit in terms of aesthetics and how I feel my engineer would prefer to roll!

I always figured certain skills were indeed not meant to be blockable, even if they’re not described as such. Only way to find out if something is wrong with gear shield is to test another blocking ability to see if it works.

On a slightly related note: Has anyone noticed changes with Elxir S and R’s stun recovery?

I notice it no longer works on recovering from the self knockback on Rocket Boots. I was messing around Kessex Hills earlier too, and picking up the unexploded ordinance which has a chance to knock you back – I know for a fact that I used Elixir S to instantly recover from the explosion before – on knockdown effects. It no longer works.

Another stealth nerf? Or is it a bug with my (elixir) traits? I did switch to a quasi HGH/nades build recently.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Honestly, it looks like leftover patch notes from the February patch. I doubt they buffed it twice.

But an official response would be nice.

This.

Super Elixir’s healing is poor at the moment. It lost what was good about it with the loss of KR:

Stacking regeneration fields, and double condition removal (one usable while stunned/feared).

Imo, the impact heal needs to be improved, and I like the idea of condition removal working like Purging flames. Or perhaps, more like Healing rain – an additional condition removal over it’s lifetime.

Light field seems unnecessarily redundant for party support, since you already have fumigate, and possibily 409. I would gladly take a shorter overall duration for a water field instead of light, even.

If you’re going condition heavy, as others have said, you’ll lose access to a really good burn. Personally, I always keep a shield in my inventory, and I prefer shield aesthetically (dat clumsy p/p Charr animation).

Shield is great for dungeons imo, as it offers up to three interrupts, which can really cut down on damage from trash and vets in particular. And don’t discount the amount of damage the reflect can save you from. Shield also offers another blast finisher. I still prefer rifle for actual bosses though, because of that low CD immobilize plus the self knockback is amazing.

Pistol MH will definitely be your go to for AoE however (aside from kits), due to the low cd Static Shot, and, if traited, coated bullets.

My Iron Legion engineer! After sporting the T1 cultural look for so very long, when I’d finally built my PvE & magic find sets, I decided it was time for a rehash on her look.

I very much liked the ‘Commando’ look as well for engineers, but I didn’t wanna detract from the whole ‘improvised’ theme of the class. I love her oversized trenchcoat, particularly around her hands, as she looks like she’s wearing a coat a few sizes too big.

Second image is of her magic find set, an ‘adventurer’ type look.

I also particularly like how the TA medium set looks with these colors – I may put my spare tokens into this look for her: http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/armour/charr/charr-medium-dung-twilight-female.jpg

I honestly wanted to conduct a similar experiment. My first character was my mesmer, which I despised. I came back to make another one not along ago, and I found that, now I actually knew how to play the game, the class was fun and rewarding. (However, I did lose some steam on that and wound up leveling my Elementalist instead, but still.)

I get the sinking feeling that I would not find the same true of a second engineer, particularly with the nerfing of KR and the resulting loss of survivability.

This is speaking primarily from a PVE perspective.

draxynnic.3719:

Halcyon.7352:

Nah. Not at all. Instead I can quadruple aoe condition remove (traited water attunement, cleansing wave, 2x traited cleansing wave dodges). Or, I can choose to lay down a nice water field to team up with a blast finisher partner for some nice bursts to healing. (Not that Ele’s are completely lacking in blasts) It’s much easier to condition cleanse people at point blank than trying to hit with an elixir and hoping they’re near you as well if you need it.

Actually, if you don’t count the repetition of turret detonation and standards, elementalists have the widest range of blast finishers – it’s just that apart from Arcane Wave and might stacking with fire sceptre, the devs deliberately made it difficult to self-combo with an elementalist.

Yep! And I just learned that you can use ‘targeted’ abilities on things such as unlooted corpses. Allows me to plop down dragon’s tooth blasts without having to worry about a target moving around all over the place.

What I more meant though, was another player/party member having an unused array of finishers, ala thief shortbow for Area Healing spam.

I’ve seen no shortage of roleplayers titling their Charr characters – the Gladium.

Play as you want, it’s a game!

I’ve always held the idea that my Engineer became a gladium of sort – ala Ms. Soulkeeper – after dealing with reassembling her warband, and being assigned to join an order (the Priory).

She simply had bigger better things to do, for the good of not only her own kind, but Tyria.

Yamsandjams.3267:

I’ve also noticed that drinking the elixir will sometimes put it on cooldown but not provide any effect whatsoever. It’s not because I was interrupted or anything either, it just does nothing. I haven’t tried it much since the update to see if that bug was still there, but it was happening on occasion over the last month.

I noticed this as well. It’s happened to me twice, both times the cooldown was popped and I had gained no effects.

Equipping a kit is treated exactly the same as elementalist’s attunement swap – Activating a kit equates to weapon swapping, and will activate any on swap effects, limited by the effect’s cooldown of course.

Engineers do now benefit from weapon stats while using a kit, yes. Some reports of oddities however, like attack power being lower for some reason.

Kits will adorn you with a fashionable hobosack and make your main weapon(s) invisible for the time you have the kit equipped.

Edit: I might add, one nifty thing about kits is that activating a kit equates to using that skill slot. ie – equipping medkit counts as using a heal skill and will trigger any such effects.

Very nice Anet. Remove Veil, and replace it with nothing. Thank you!

Oxstar.7643:

Jumpshot, blunderbuss, prybar, throw wrench, static discharges. What’cha got? Oh and mega stacks of confusion.

Reliable accesss to the deadliest condition in the game. Blunderbuss is laughably bad with it’s condition damage. (short dur. 3 stacks, you may as well keep auto attacking) I’m not sure what ‘throw wrench’ has to offer aside from the low CD SD burst and ability to hit everything in it’s path. (Scepter air) Unless you happen to use turrets or something.

Oxstar.7643:

I could give my team and me those buffs and more with elixirs actually… As for the combo field, can you deploy a field that heals removes 3 conditions aoe and acts as a condition remove and retaliation combo field in one?

Nah. Not at all. Instead I can quadruple aoe condition remove (traited water attunement, cleansing wave, 2x traited cleansing wave dodges). Or, I can choose to lay down a nice water field to team up with a blast finisher partner for some nice bursts to healing. (Not that Ele’s are completely lacking in blasts) It’s much easier to condition cleanse people at point blank than trying to hit with an elixir and hoping they’re near you as well if you need it.

Oxstar.7643:

Measly eh? I think we’ve established already that EG works great to remove coniditons. And with backpack regenerator it’s the same regen effect.

I will bow to the EG’s cone condition removal spray. It essentially equals brief condition immunity only for your party in range. Soothing Mist is applied to nearby players as a second regeneration, versus Kit Regeneration only affecting you.

I might add, I find it amusing that Engineer must now either trait into Cleansing Formula 409 or have Elixir C take up a precious utility slot now, to consistently remove conditions, whereas a class intended to be weak to conditions has better access to condition removals. (Warrior)

Oxstar.7643:

Yes but your damage will suck pretty dang hardcore until the 25 or so seconds that you need to attune back are up.

Twent.. fi- what? Attunement is 15 seconds maximum. Can get it down to 9 seconds. While in water, you have access to some of the best healing abilities in the game, and can often help stack vulnerability and more importantly, chill. I might add, any damage with 25 might stacks hurts like hell.

Twent.. fi- what? Attunement is 15 seconds maximum. Can get it down to 9 seconds. While in water, you have access to some of the best healing abilities in the game, and can often help stack vulnerability and more importantly, chill. I might add, any damage with 25 might stacks hurts like hell.

Pretty small healing I have to say, with ONE kit I can set up a fire combo field, knockback a horde of foes, blind the same horde, do some great aoe damage, and set more people on fire faster than you can.

Ele has access to three fire fields, one of which has an incredibly long duration. People underestimate our ability to set single targets on fire for large amounts of time.

Oxstar.7643:

Yes, a new man who couldn’t do it. Congratulations on trying, congratulations on not being a successful engineer, it’s a hard class to master indeed, and those of us who do kick a lot of butt.

You wanna promote engineer, promote the things the class can uniquely do well. (Knockbacks, bunker, stealth access) Oh, and can’t forget, one of the best downed skills in the game. /sarcasm. When I go down as engineer, I instinctively look for the nearest waypoint. Granted, I didn’t go down often as engineer.

Kaos.9162:

Maybe if they rolled all the spirits into the elite. But even then, it still dies in two seconds.

Hey, you just summed up engineers and turrets! <3

OMNIBUS.2913:

Something to point out though. engineer was probably the least played class and look at all the buffs/changes they recieved(edit:apparently they were nerfed and not buffed?). Im not gunna quit nec however. I was very happy with the deathshroud change. The only things that really bug me is minion AI and bleed cap! There are some other things i dont like about nec but they dotn bother me enough to leave the class. I have enough fun with my nec in pvp and certain dungeons :]

My signature will attest to the actual effects of the March patch.

Phineas Poe.3018:

You actually don’t have to spend any money on Condition Damage gear.

Rabid gear can be bought fully with Karma from different vendors in Orr, including jewelry. That’s what I did.

If you do wind up needing more Karma and have karma jugs handy: Don’t forget to pop a Karma booster and Karma guild banner! I hear Ice Cream’s 5% karma boost also stacks (Haven’t tried it personally yet)

No idea if Laureate boosters add another stacking effect, but I’m saving my laurels for other things anywho.

I have to agree. Air elemental is surprisingly durable, due to it’s range and stuns as stated, I’d say more so than water’s infrequent heals keeping it alive.

I think the evasion attack by Fire looks amazing. But the thing dies too quickly to do very much damage, even if you literally switch to water just to try and keep it alive.

gkaare.8576:

I haven’t played in 2 weeks. I will get around to updating the post at some point. See this thread for why it doesn’t matter.

Anet has more important things to worry about than the least played class in the game. Dev said so!

Having this issue but not just in WvW, seen it with mesmers in the world.

Glad to hear it’s being addressed!

Not sure what happened, but the event got unstuck.
Anchorage waypoint is now uncontested on TC, and the next event has started as of the time of this posting.

So there is hope, beyond waiting for a reset.

Faction.4013:

emikochan.8504:

engi is for fun, don’t worry about things like viability.

Exactly.

Engineers are alot like the “Entertainers” in SWG, other, more completed classes enjoy watching the cool-looking things they can do when NOT killing or running dungeons with ease.

Agreed! I love my engineer for personal flair and being the class I most wish to play.

Unfortunately, I have to play other classes to be useful in dungeons and WvW in a manner I like. Engineer is still my main in spirit I suppose.

On subject: Flamethrower is still in a much better state than it used to be. It was buffed last month, and the only change they made with this patch was to remove the second damage burst from FT#2, the ‘double pop.’

While it’s not a contender for ‘best dps’, it’s still quite ‘viable’.

I’m with ya brother! My Elementalist just got to 80 about half an hour ago.

I’m loving the party support and damage burst S/D build I’m using. Practically 100% uptime on 25 might stacks (Lol HGH), a nice burst to healing when I switch to water, frost aura melee kiting, triple condition removals with Evasive Arcana.