Guild Wars 2

Hm… My vote would be to make an “Engineer here, please be gentle” guild so that enemies can see it in WvW, and then just pray that your attackers will have some sympathy.

In all seriousness, though, the only thing I’ve had any success with is using Tool Kit’s magnet ability to pull enemy players into a group of my allies. Granted, I’m cripplingly obsessed with finding SOME use for those turrets, so I haven’t done much Engineer-exploring.

Would be par for the course, from what I’ve seen. I think we all know that afk-leveling is the only use for those pathetic guns, and perhaps even the only thing Engineer has going for it at all.

Is it against the rules to go afk while your turrets are laid down in an area with enemies? Is there any sort of developer answer to that question?

Richard, that’d be helpful! Even if I don’t end up using the build, or even anything like it, it might give me some ideas on synergy.

Elochai, I’ll try that, thanks. XD Shall try every possible turret-focused approach I can think of. Gotta make SOMETHING work!

Does the Flamethrower work well against any other classes/builds? I’ve heard that it had issues with targeting, is that still a problem?

Fenim, with point defense against single targets or really small groups, do the turrets actually provide much extra power, to your knowledge? Do you know if three turrets with just your normal weaponry for damage-dealing is a viable combination?

Zen, what does an Engineer need to do with the Grenades/Flamethrower to be good with sieges? Or, rather, Flamethrower. Grenade is pretty obvious, but Flamethrower is such short range that you need to be right in the mix of things, and I couldn’t see surviving that. And is that when sieging, or defending AGAINST a siege? Or both?

You’re right, Slamz, unfortunately. ;-; 30% damage reduction doesn’t mean much when it just takes effective HP from 3000-or-so to 4000-or-so, the self-repair is only a few hundred in very infrequent bursts, and the 15% extra damage is on a DPS of about 400… (Going off of memory.) I like the Toughness and Healing in the Inventions Trait line, but yeah, I guess sacrificing other Traits for the turrets just isn’t wise at all. :\

Victory, turrets are what feel right to me. XD I use turret classes in eeeverything. TF2, Borderlands, and a slew of other lesser-known games. I don’t suppose the Healing Turret is effective at supporting the team, at all? I know that the immediate self-heal is pretty good, combined with it intercepting certain projectiles and providing a few other helpful tricks, but I’m not sure the Regeneration it offers is potent enough to be of any use to allies. Isn’t its Healing boosted only by the Healing stats received through Traits, and not through equipment?

Ranc, I actually just made a Thief lastnight to try it out! It’s definitely incredibly potent… I was killing enemies more quickly at level 8 with the starter gear than my Engineer does at level 52 with 50+ Yellow-named gear. :\ The Initiative system is pretty neat, I like the lack of cooldowns. The traps are also kinda neat, though I’m sure there’s no way whatsoever to build around traps specifically. I went into WvW with the Thief at level 12 out of boredom, and was actually able to help out a bit via Scorpion Wire and sheer damage from Dagger/Dagger, plus the poison fields from the Shortbow. Granted, it was the first time in half a week that Stormbluff actually had a decent zerg-group going, so that was likely a big part of what made it effective.

Tulisin, I unfortunately sometimes feel like I’m just taking up a possible slot for another player, making myself more of a hindrance by being there than someone that isn’t playing due to a dislike of their class. X) If that makes sense. But I definitely (and obviously) want to use a class and build that I enjoy. :P Just having trouble finding that, really, as nothing stands out as something I’d use. As I said above, I use turrets in pretty much EVERY game I play, and having them be so cripplingly lackluster in Guild Wars 2 is kinda shocking, in a way. And when I don’t use turrets, I instead go for the super-versatile characters that can switch between doing each thing really well, in the middle of battle. Which I doubt is possible, here, really.

Allen, Necromancer definitely does seem potent with Conditions, particularly with a Plague Signet/Signet of Spite/Epidemic combo. XD Though I don’t know that I’d like such large cooldowns on the backbone powers of a character. (Ironic giving the turret love, but my love for robotic guns outweighs my timidity regarding downtime. :P) A Well build kinda interests me, but the cooldowns combined with the relatively tiny durations is a big putoff. At least turrets are technically permanent!

Sorry I’m being so difficult, y’all. Honestly, at this point, it’s just a big discussion. Which is still insanely helpful, I’m getting a lot of insight! But I’m starting to wonder if I should just wait until Arena Net gets on the ball and makes turrets worthwhile. XD

Oh, wow, that guy’s impressive! o_o

Icc, thanks for the in-depth information! You seem to have prior experience with Phantasm Mesmers; any chance you could give some more information as to what they’re capable of, in regards to WvW? What Phantasms work well as far as weapon-made ones go? Do Clones come anywhere near their effectiveness? Gonna look up that info in the Mesmer boards as well, but WvW-specific knowledge would be handy.

Ooh, Engineers do sound like they’re somewhat viable still. At least the grenadey types… Not so much turret-users, sadly. :\

Anyway, here are specific builds that I was thinking of. I apologize for using a bizarre character builder tool, I know it’s not the one that people usually link here. You can change it to English at the top right of the page.

Engineer is right here. The builder is a little outdated, so the second trait in Inventions should actually be the self-repairing turrets trait. Second Explosions trait could be switched out for having the explosive turrets trait, instead. Would also be able to convert the Inventions traits to Stabilized Armor, Energized Armor, and Elixir-Infused Bombs, for healing and an overall increase in personal effectiveness.

Mesmer was set up for summoning Phantasms… Dunno if that’s at all viable. x_X

Warrior has a ton of banners. My thought was to throw those around in giant wars to give a big edge to the entire team, and then sit back and pick off weakened enemies with the Rifle.

Elementalist was set up to be able to stack up one stat at a time via Attunement and the various summoned weapons. Kinda doubt the amount of each stat given is enough to make any sort of difference, though.

Finally, Necromancer is totally focused on summons. I’m not sure that they can last any decent length of time, however. Especially in giant wars.

Dunno, can any of those work, or should I get some lessons in build creation?

Thanks for the answers so far, y’all.

I’d definitely like to play for fun predominately, but being useful does indeed lend itself to that for me. XD Engineer turrets are a prospect that I adore, but they just can’t do a heck of a lot. Most use I can get out of them is setting a Flame Turret on the other side of a wall or door, where it can hit the enemies due to its piercing area-of-effect. And I’m not even sure that’s still how it works.

And yeah, Insanemaniac, I didn’t intend to keep the skills the same between PvE and WvW. What I do want, however, is to not have to change which trait lines I have selected between the two. I like the idea of a Mantra Mesmer, but the traits I’d want to use are hard to pin down, and I can’t see much that could be done with it when I want to use non-Mantra abilities.

And that’s with the build focuses I mentioned, or just in general? Unfortunately, I have a teammate that uses Guardian with Spirit Weapons, and I’d rather not step on his toes. X)

I’ve just recently started getting into WvW, and it seems like a ton of fun. However, my current character seems completely ineffective for it. I’m using a turret Engineer, with a few traits set up for the Grenade Kit. My thought is that, later in, I might be able to lay down my turrets behind big fights, and “snipe” with grenades.

However, I’ve heard many, many, many bad things about Engineer, particularly the turrets (which are the main reason I wanted to use the class in the first place), and my experience so far reflects that. I’m not sure if that’s just due to only being level 48-ish, or if it’s because of the class itself.

A few of the other classes/builds I like are summon-focused Necromancer, weapon-summoning Elementalist, and banner/rifle Warrior… I also get quite giddy when I see Mesmer portals, but I can’t for the life of me come up with a build that’d be able to use those to good effect while also being capable of normal PvE. Sorta liked the idea of having a lot of stealth abilities on the Mesmer, but that just further divides it from PvE content, to my knowledge.

Anyway, would any of those be at all capable in WvW? To be honest, if I could get some kind of assurance that the Engineer would be usable and potent towards the end, that’d be the best outcome. I really love turret-based playstyles in all the games I play. But if that approach is doomed to fail, which of the other setups above might work? Or am I setting myself up for disappointment no matter which route I take?

Drat. Alrighty, thanks for the answers, y’all.

Strangely enough, this’d be a deciding factor for me in choosing whether or not to use Elementalist (currently sitting on an Engineer, but I only made one for the turrets, and bleeech)…

Is there a cap to how many speed boosts you can stack? Or could you become Formula One Wizard by tossing together the two speed Traits from the Air Magic line, the Signet of Air, and one of the Air-attuned weapon speed boosts?