Guild Wars 2

Pannonica.5378:

All explained here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

Most of it still holds true, except for the engineer not being able to use sigils, obviously.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012

“Engineer kits now inherit the bonuses from currently equipped weapon sigils.”

Some work better than others but sigils now work while using kits.

I only suggested the rifle because of your non-condi build preference. I use P/S with elixirs B and S also but grenades almost never come out. I use toolkit most of the time but for defending keep doors the flame thrower comes out. Just keep a close eye on your health when defending a door and stay back a good little ways with the FT so you take less of the enemy AOE. Mostly the necro greater marks seem to give me trouble and of course retaliation.

The only elite worth slotting is the crate but you probably know that already or possibly a racial ability if you have something useful.

I prefer the medkit for healing with points in the tool line it reduces the cooldown of the main heal “F1” and also has smaller medpacks for heals when equip and a condi removal. If you run with a group often I could see where the healing turret could be useful though.

If you are looking to level your alt in WvW I’d say either the rifle or the pistol / shield combo could work in a zerg. Although if you are going for power and higher damage that only leaves you with the rifle really. Which is fine for zerg work but you want to get the longer range trait in firearms if you want to be able to live through all the enemy area effect spells that normally go hand in hand with zergs.

I’d say engis are harder to level in WvW than other classes other than maybe the guardian only because they have very limited long range weapons to choose from. Grenades aren’t bad even after the nerf but at low level without the traits in explosives I’d say rifle is your best bet. With speedy kits traited and probably the toolkit for melee enemies and rifled barrels in firearms line for extra range with your rifle. Then I’d put points in vit and toughness until you know all the rotations and are more familiar with the class then you can spec as you like.

No one can make you like him, but if you are looking at doing PVE I prefer the rifle and flamethrower. I didn’t put anything into the explosives line and more or less spread out my traits in the other 4 trait lines. The CC ability of the rifle and the fact it hits pretty hard makes solo encounters a breeze but I would break out the flamethrower for times I had multiples. Using the flame thrower knockback is a must though.

I will say I really like to move around alot and this caused some problems with the flamethrower so it’s literally hit or miss with it. The bombs are also pretty great for PVE although they are somewhat boring to me. Just bombing everything behind you but the ice bomb is nice to chill then switch back to rifle to pick the things off.

I have a friend that never dodge rolls, almost never kites, and rarely switches weapons. I told him to stick with a ranger. If you aren’t a big fan of being active the engi probably isn’t the best class for you until they buff turrets.

Also if you haven’t done any crafting you could always spend a little money and level him up higher to see if the extra trait points would unlock something that might make him more enjoyable.

Knox.3748:

What gear and jewels would you play this tankcat build?

I’m sure it’s been posted many times but he uses the Power, Toughness, Vitality (a.k.a. soldier) gear that can be found as dungeon armor or karma armor in Orr. Jewelry is “Soldier” jewelry which can be bought on the trading post but only come in rare form unless you have lots of WvW badges, rolling the dice in the mystic forge with lots of orbs, or possibly running fractals.

KirinDave.6451:

I’m working on Mesmer and Necro myself. Both are very fun.

I like the necro a lot and it was my first class to 80 but since running with a zerg isn’t much fun to me I prefer the engineer for solo and small group work. Although I have trouble killing the good necros solo they don’t get me either with 409 traited.

You could always grow pawns in petri dishes like SoS.

Thanks for sharing your builds. I’m going to try some adjustments to my build so the pistol is a little better. I feel like the direct damage from my pistol is a 275 point per second DOT.

I am solo most of the time so defense is certainly important but I find my biggest issue is some people are able to get away from me if magnet is on cooldown. Which leaves me chasing them using pistol which finishes them off sometimes but other times they are able to get away or make it in a keep before I can finish them off due to the low damage from the pistol. Seemed like your shots were hitting in the 600 range towards the end of the video. I’ll have to experiment some to see what I can settle on.

Thank you again and I’m a fan of your work!

Play what you enjoy. I have a level 63 mesmer but don’t like playing him over the engineer. I plan to use the mesmer as a dungeon runner but I don’t see replacing the engi in WvW with him. I just don’t care for the mesmer really.

Do I like facing mesmers in WvW as an engineer. No, I don’t but I think the engineer is more fun so it’s the class for me.

Thieves seem like they would be a lot of fun too but there are too many bad thieves that makes me not want to play one. The bad engineers tend to just roll something else LOL. Not saying you are bad just that it’s not the class for everyone.

Well played Amadeus! I’m more of a Tankcat build with a few changes in traits but your pistols hit much harder than mine. Mind sharing what you have in the first two trait lines, Explosives and Firearms? I can get an idea about your hpts and toolbelt cool downs on the rest of the trait lines.

TheDevilWithinU.7092:

SoS will steamroll BG. Calling it now. Best of luck in the match-up between the 3 servers though.

What he said, from a JQ player perspective.

SoS in full zerg fashion and good commanders is a sight to behold.

SoS hitting Hills…no that was a distraction…20 seconds later hitting Bay…another 40 player zerg distraction…there are 5 golems at garrison water gate!!! Get there now!!!

While this is going on they farm our camps and yaks like it’s going out of style to choke supply…good times!

All I can say is BG you better have your game face on. With siege BPs in hand and when that WvW match resets come out guns drawn because T1 isn’t a walk in the park.

Best of luck to you!

Silver Chopper.4506:

@Mike.T – thanks for the suggestion but I’d rather not use grenades (ground targeted skills are extra work for me). Spamming them is a nightmare.

To clarify I didn’t suggest grenades. I suggested for PVE bombs and flamethrower. I said I didn’t care for grenades all that much.

I like the build posted above especially the 30 in the bottom line and the medkit as your heal. Smart move.

For the most part kits don’t benefit in a HUGE way from our traits. You will notice some scaling but it’s nothing too amazing IMO.

The rifle isn’t bad but it’s basically a single target weapon and a lot of PVE you will have groups or multiples on you. Nothing wrong with using the rifle to start a fight and when at higher levels with better traits and gear the rifle does pretty decent against single enemies. For leveling I would suggest trying bombs for a while. Just run around in circles and let the things chasing you get hit by the bombs. I personally like the flamethrower although there are some engis that don’t care for it. Grenades are ok but they are an acquired taste and without a lot of trait points in explosives I just don’t care for them much.

Overall, the rifle is just fine for solo encounters or you can use the CC abilities to keep the adds off of you while you burn things down one at a time but that requires changing targets during fights often. The rifle is good but when you have more than 2 things on you I’d opt for a kit.

I think the strategy is make every class terrible but one so everyone rolls that and then the devs only have one class to balance.

Get your good warrior names in now!

Roll an engineer. Spec to TANKCAT build. Smack them in the face with a prybar and watch the noob thieves kill themselves by spamming attacks on you. The good ones will invis and try again later so you just block them until they burn through their cooldowns. Glass cannon thieves are the easiest class to beat.

Or roll a necro with greater marks and spam staff AOE rings until they die or find someone else to stalk.

FiftyTwoBears.5482:

Medazolam.3058:

If the put a CD on SD and nerf kits due to applying weapon stats, I’ll toss my engineer off the top of SM

What’s SM?

Guess you don’t WvW on eternal battlegrounds much. SM = Stone Mist castle. The big one in the middle of the Eternal Battlegrounds. If your side controls this you can treb 4 or so keeps in the area. Normally the winner for the week will control Stone Mist the longest.

NaturalPortman.9562:

I was playing on my mesmer and elementalist today and I fought so many engis today (seems like new FOTM) And they can apparently use a wrench (is this hacks?) I thought they can only use rifle and pistol and shield. And he used this skill on me and hit me for 16k dmg and I died instantly, faster than mesmer shatter burst (which is pretty UP atm)

I know you devs dont give many engi answers but please nerf this ridiculous class.

Also make slick shoes a 120 second CD, that skill is the most OP rez and stomp interupt.

My guess is that his prybar hit you in the face for about 4k, then he drank elixir B to gain retaliation, then you killed yourself trying to nuke him. All in the matter of a couple seconds so I’ll just say don’t let an engineer get in your face if you want to live. Also, don’t attack when that confusion swirlie is next to your health bubble.

QQ for you.

FiftyTwoBears.5482:

I wanna try this build out…so is the Gear STats Im aiming for Soldier? Or what?

Soldier karma gear is what I run with with crafted knights pants. I still have my berzerker jewelry on just because a few extra points in vit and toughness isn’t really that important to me but the rare soldier jewelry is cheap so use what you like for jewelry. Normally I do something dumb like jump over a keep wall into an enemy zerg just to prybar someone with lower health then TINYDUNK only to be killed trying to get back in the keep so jewelry will not save stupidity.

I tried a semi glass cannon rifle build, grenade build (pre-nerf), but I love the TANKCAT build the most. 1 vs 1 almost always ends with me winning, stalemate (invising thieves that run off) of if I can’t land prybar enough on a slippery player (mesmer) I run off. When I screw up, I die but normally it’s something I’ve done and not some elite player I’ve faced.

I had 5 SoS enemies chasing me for about 5 minutes before I eventually mistimed something and they finally killed me a couple days ago. It was great times…BLOCK, BLOCK, BLOCK, BLOCK… INVUL, INVUL, INVUL…EVADE, EVADE, EVADE…etc.

I’ll sacrifice some DPS to be able to run through a zerg into a keep with almost no damage taken or be able to counter all those lame thieves. I’ve faced some good ones and the non-glass cannon thieves are harder to kill but normally they can’t kill you either if you have some practice under your belt.

I’m not as good as the original TANKCAT but I still love this build. I almost always WvW and this is by far the most fun I’ve had with an engi or necro. Thanks for being kind enough to share the build and the videos mischwolf.

I do use FT to defend keep doors and sometimes against siege equipment but that’s the only thing I swap out on occasion.

Art.9820:

Crafting, crafting! haha, if you haven’t completed cooking you should lvl really fast this way otherwise I suggest both, so you just don’t focus on lvling + you kinda enjoy the game more :P

What they said about crafting, it’s the fastest if you’ve got some money. You can get a decent amount of XP from WvW running with a successful group/zerg but if you try to go solo, you’d be better off doing DE’s in early Orr.

KirinDave.6451:

Magnet is too good not to take. I almost wonder if it’s too strong as it is right now.

Necro’s have nearly the same pull thing that also chills with Spectral Grasp. Thieves have something similar but the range isn’t as far.

Oxstar.7643:

Second, your build lacks heals. Elixir gun should for all intents and purposes replace Elixir S.

You could make that argument. I find Elixir S and medkit has saved me too many times against zergs that tend to show up. Elixir gun is a great option with the toolbelt heal but I’d only use it if I played WvW during off hours where zergs were a little less common. Or had a good group to run with regularly. For solo play I think Elixir S is better but everyone’s situation may be different than mine.

Nothing has changed yet. Read what the dev posted.

“We are working to make sigils work with kits. Our intention is to push this as soon as possible. Hope that helps.

Step two is to get the weapon stats to apply to kits as well. We felt sigils was the more important first step because it creates build diversity. Flamethrower with sigil of air? Yes please.

Jon"

Cleaning formula 409 traited (X in Alchemy line), 2 elixirs slotted and two in your tool belt make conditions not that much of an issue. Especially if you also have automated response traited (XII in Alchemy line) your only deaths should come from being completely outnumbered…or death to falling…as we’ve witnessed in Tankcat’s video, far too many good soldiers are lost this way.

If you have to ask that question…yes. Roll something else.

For those that like the engineer it’s a fun class but if you are looking to kill things as fast as a warrior, you should play a warrior.

Engineer is the spice of life you can play roles as support, dps, tank…so many options. Spicy food isn’t for everyone though. It’s not the “best” at any one role but the classes that are the “best” at any of those roles typically are only good at one thing. At least from my point of view.

I would say it’s between engineer and necromancer for the lowest. At least for the WvW classes I regularly run into. Mesmers have probably gone up and rangers have probably gone down from that census.

Krisstina.7238:

You dont need two kit to get infinite speedy…….switch to kit then press weapon switch and you will back to main weapon in no time.

Yes, after using it the first time it’s not hard to see how it works, but I do use grenades and FT for different things so I find switching between the two works best for me.

In the end. Yes, there a many ways to farm Orr effectively. I find the FT the easiest for regular trash undead. It’s 3 targets per pulse, times multiple pulses. So as long as you are moving it works great. If you are standing in one spot hitting the same three over and over…you’re not going to like tagging with the FT.

It also depends on the DE chain you prefer. Plinx where the rings of mobs move towards the center FT and spinning with the mouse work great. Plinx defend the landing zone it’s not so great because everything is so spread out.

The DEs defending the north and south entrances to the tunnel FT works pretty good too.

It’s all personal preference. I don’t care for grenades or the pistol(s) to tag with but if you have the correct traits in your build they could probably work just as good or possibly better.

Broken Angel.4956:

Its also easier to jsut put on auto attack on flamethrower and turn in circles with mouse, instead of using mouse to target grenades >_<

What he said. I find it the best overall. Grenades are ok for certain DE’s but I don’t like them as the best over all. I use speedy kits with the flamethrower and grenades to move between spawn points. I do use the grenade toolbelt skill fairly often and do use grenades for the champion (end of plinx chain) and some veterans but for general trash mobs it’s hard to beat swiftness and the flamethower IMO.

I think the necro still has us beat for problems. I leveled a necro to 80 before the engi and bleeds are all they have and their traits are all jacked up. Engineer isn’t a thief or warrior for DPS but they are very versatile unlike the necro. Even the necro isn’t really “bad” they just don’t have the options of the engineer. CC with the rifle, condi with the pistols, defense with the shield not to mention kits, gadgets, and elixirs…

There’s always room for improvement but we are far from the class that needs the most help.

BeardManly.2140:

What’s a good healing bomb build?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0mlNGMmlNGMa0xx0czVqosb

Healing bombs requires 30 point trait XI “Elixor-infused bombs” in the Inventions line.

The build above was originally for a sPVP point defender. So keep that in mind and you could move some things around. This build could be effective in dungeons but I’d probably use Elixor R instead of Elixor S for the “F” reviving downed allies and curing conditions.

Grenades are considered to be the best damage we have but I find them hard to land when my cursor gets lost in the explosions and attack effects. This doesn’t happen all the time but keeping track of it can be difficult at times. They have a nice burst F skill from the toolbelt. There is no auto attack on these.

Bombs could possibly be better than grenades due to dungeons typically being in tighter quarters and the AoE heal trait.

FT tends to not scale well at higher levels plus I personally find it difficult to consistently land the attacks while on the move. Which dungeons normally require.

EG has good group support with fair dps.

I too prefer the rifle over the pistols or pistol/shield but a lot of the CC it offers isn’t too effective against bosses and some trash mobs. The damage tends to scale better at higher levels than the pistols but if you don’t have someone in the group stacking lots of bleeds pistols could certainly be considered.

Yes, F1 medkit heal cooldown is affected by the tools trait line. I would expect the 25% health, 15 point toolbelt skill should refresh the F1 heal.