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Engineers any good ?
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
in Guild Wars 2
I'm still narrowing down my class. I just watched a cool Youtube on engineers. But many say they are a gimped class.
What do you think ?
Comments
They have less weapons and weapons skills than any other class, but they have the most utility skills which turn their skillbar into a whole new set depending what pack you use. Every class from what I've seen is quite balanced and has their own Pros/Cons.
Honestly, you just need to play what you like and stick with it. Anet is typically good at balancing, at least in my opinion.
Engineer has had many issues during the bwes, from underpowered rifles (which doesnt play anything like a rifle, except for the first skill, all of its cds deal more dmg/are optimal when near the target), which right now are slighltly subpar still to decent pistols being nerfed into oblivion... Shield offhand still seems to be an awesome control tool.
Despite what others have said here, engineer is probably the most sturdy of the 3 adventurer classes (competing closely with the ranger), and if traited/ specced properly has great overall tankiness, from passive skill procs when disabled to active condition removal (which was also nerfed from VERY good to just good).
Utilities range from 4 types: Gadgets, Turrets, Kits and Elixirs.
Gadgets are simple on use skills that tend to have somewhat low cd with a lesser cd toolbelt skill that does something completely different.
Turrets aren't what you would expect, the engineer is not heavily reliant on them like the TF2 engineer, they are utility skills, they won't kill the target by themselves (maybe the rocket turret will, but being extremely paperish in trade), they are usually sacrificial lambs for detonations (which will knockback if traited for), debuff and kiting helpers, requiring quite a big deal of environment awareness and positioning, so as not to have melee hacking at you and your turrets at the same time. Also, as of some stress tests ago, having an undeployed turret gives you a related toolbelt skill (rocket turret allows you to shoot a rocket from the belt, flame turret lets you throw napalm, etc).
Kits: They are similar to elementalist attunements, having 5 skills (the first being an auto attack with no cd, exception being the medkit, that had 3 bandages on the first 3 slots, a condition removal on 4th and a buff giver on 5th, making your main heal skill your toolbelt counterpart), usually being very situational, like any other weapon in game.
Elixirs: Love and hate surround Elixirs, some of them deal in random effects, some dont, either way, randomness usually comes with a tradeoff, being that whatever you get will have a higher impact than the usual certain counterpart (with exception of Elixir U, thats suboptimal compared to the walls and quickness skills because of cd differences), they are a great way to buff allies and grant yourself might.
For elites, the engineer has what is in my opinion the best elite ingame by FAR, the supply drop, a stun that brings in a healing turret, net turret and flame turret and some bandages, account for a total of 5 hard cc secs on a opponent if the stun connects (2s stun + 3s immobilize when the net turret fires), being a very well rounded skill. A mortar, which will rock in wvw, it has had its range improved in last beta, making for a total of 1400 range and probably more with related traits, being an aoe power house by itself, but by tradeoff being unable to shoot near it. Elixir X, is probably the one lacking the most among elites, even though it has been buffed a lot of late (by increasing its duration by a big deal and shortening its cd, making it have a theoretical 33% uptime), being a random mix between direct dmg, single target control, or aoe dmg/cc doesnt bode well for all playstyles, completely gimping condition based engineers who use the Elixir X.
As of now I would say that power engineers are near being viable and condition engineers still dominate as being the optimal damage dealers on the class (even after numerous nerfs). Grenade kit still has what I consider to be the biggest damage dealing potential ingame, but at the cost of being a pain to aim, being near impossible to hit all 3 projectiles on a moving target that is aware of you.
The engineer is still in the process of being balanced, as is the entire game, if something what GW2 will deliver lacking will be balance (every single MMO lacks it), and class domination wont be something definitive, I would not base my class choice on its strenght alone, but by play style, after all what GW2 is about is fun, not min maxing, unless you are into competitive pvp, and if you are indeed into it, choosing a class wont be an issue, you can just create a lvl 1 char and jump right into spvp after the tutorial.