Returning player with level 80 Engineer, needing advice.

[quake.9016]

Grettings to everyone. As mentinoned in my title, I have a level 80 Engineer but I feel completely lost when I play him now. I have 55 percent of the map completed, but I haven't played with any consistency in 6 years. I have started leveling up a Thief that is currently at level 17. I really am enjoying this profession. My question is should i just reroll my engineer and start from scratch? I feel i will spend more time getting frustrated with the toon that is already at level 80 with 54 percent map completion, however on the other hand I hate to lose whatever progression i may have on that character. What would be your advice and what would you do if you was in my shoes? I am really enjoying the game more now than i did in the past. Once i started auto leveling characters and played multiple toons at once I lost interest quickly. I feel that my approach this time around has been better, the world is beautiful so I might as well enjoy it. Plus I enjoy PVE. I am a current LOTRO player, so I am looking for an MMO that I can play in conjunction with that one. Thank you for any suggestions or help you may be able to provide.

[knite.1542]

If I was in your position I would just go back to the beginning areas of the game and relearn it with my character that was already level 80 or a new character if you prefer a different class.

 

I highly recommend against deleting your old character(s) because they will get some nice birthday presents.

[Naxos.2503]

Engineer is that odd class out of everything else that can literally fulfill every role not as well as every other class can specialize in. That contributes to the "Got engineer, what do" feeling most engineers get when they unlock their full class.

 

There are no right way to play a class, only tons of roles, and a large quantity of synergies. When I was on the finish line with mine, I asked myself "What's the thing I saw the least in use". At the time, every engineers used turrets -because they hadn't been gutted Anet =w= - And so I figured I'd settle on conditions which seemed to have a decent amount of synergies within that class. I experimented with kits, and with time, I found myself with the objective of stacking as many condi stacks as possible on my own, I think I was fairly impressed at my 12 burns, 5 poison and 4 bleed at the time. Scrapper released, but did little for me. Holosmith on the other hand played right in my... hand. Adding to my condition specialization some extra condi potential.

I've seen players going for full defense scrapper, not very efficient in damage, but very tough otherwise. Others just go for stacking as much CC as possible on a single char. Most engineers nowadays, especially core engineer will rely on conditions however.

The one thing I've never seen, to my greatest dismay is a full support healer and buff engineer. It has some skills to do that, but nobody's gotten around to it.

 

Never kill off an old char, take the time to look at the traits, and find matches with runes and sigils that make your traits more fun.

[Cyninja.2954]

> @"quake.9016" said:

> Grettings to everyone. As mentinoned in my title, I have a level 80 Engineer but I feel completely lost when I play him now. I have 55 percent of the map completed, but I haven't played with any consistency in 6 years. I have started leveling up a Thief that is currently at level 17. I really am enjoying this profession. My question is should i just reroll my engineer and start from scratch? I feel i will spend more time getting frustrated with the toon that is already at level 80 with 54 percent map completion, however on the other hand I hate to lose whatever progression i may have on that character. What would be your advice and what would you do if you was in my shoes? I am really enjoying the game more now than i did in the past. Once i started auto leveling characters and played multiple toons at once I lost interest quickly. I feel that my approach this time around has been better, the world is beautiful so I might as well enjoy it. Plus I enjoy PVE. I am a current LOTRO player, so I am looking for an MMO that I can play in conjunction with that one. Thank you for any suggestions or help you may be able to provide.

 

**1.** try to **avoid deleting characters**, especially old characters. **Birthday gifts are tied to the creation date of the character**, not the account. If you do decide to "re-roll" your engineer, it is highly advisable to make a new character on a new character slot and keep the engineer

 

**2.** I would personally recommend **trying out a new class**. If you are enjoying your thief, why not play that character for a while. The road to 80 is not that long and the **goal is to have fun** is it not? Once you have familiarized yourself with the game, you can jump on that level 80 engineer and continue playing him if desired.

 

**3.** If you have a level 80 boost from buying one of the expansions, feel free to use its ability to try out characters in the Silverwastes (when boosting a character to 80 you get teleported to the Silverwastes to try out the character, you then have to confirm the boost to finalize the process). While this will not give you any insight into elite specializations, it can help with getting a feel for different classes. Once you have one you enjoy, it will be easier to stick to that class

[Luthan.5236]

I'd suggest following Cyninja's advice. I deleted my 14yo GW1 account when I got back to really play GW1 the first time years ago last year. (I had basically a dead account old account with 1 char made back at release.) And I wasted all the gifts. :D Should have logged in and checked first.

 

Birthday gifts are a nice thing. There will be a lot of gifts coming with nice stuff. My suggestion is to make a new char in a new char slot and enjoy the personal story from level 1-80. Do map completion in core maps from your home starter area until Lion's Arch and from there to Orr. (Basically where the story leads you.) Then later you can go for 100 percent in other maps but that isn't really needed. (Unless you want legendaries or want the maps for exploratoin to get to know everything once.)

 

Try another classe/profession. Learn it. Engineer you can then later play at 80 on your main and also do other stuff. I don't think you need to start engineer form 1 again with a new char to re-learn it.

 

I played GW2 from release until end 2013 and I came back June 2019. I play engineer as main. I had no trouble getting back into my main. Playing a bit around with builds until I found something that is fun. (There are also sites recommending builds.) I'd just never use scrolls and tomes to level on a char I never leveld normally before. But with engineer I just knew the basics already and had my old gear and build where I could start playing around with new builds.

[Trise.2865]

Like all good Engineers, don't be afraid to experiment. There are no "wrong" builds, so fiddle around with combinations and synergies until you find a build that feels good. Then, rinse and repeat.

[Jimbru.6014]

DON'T delete your engineer. DO change its build to something relatively simple and fun to play to help yourself get back into the game and class. I'd suggest something like this...bombs away!

 

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Elixir_Bomber

 

As for leveling your thief, if you're having fun, by all means keep at it. Way too many people around here forget that games are supposed to be enjoyed, not treated like another form of work demanding 100% perfection in everything.

[Etria.3642]

Play the thief awhile. When or if you get bored, go back to the engi and give Holosmith a chance.

 

Power Holo either rifle or sword shield is really fun.

[Infusion.7149]

> @"Naxos.2503" said:

> Engineer is that odd class out of everything else that can literally fulfill every role not as well as every other class can specialize in. That contributes to the "Got engineer, what do" feeling most engineers get when they unlock their full class.

>

> There are no right way to play a class, only tons of roles, and a large quantity of synergies. When I was on the finish line with mine, I asked myself "What's the thing I saw the least in use". At the time, every engineers used turrets -because they hadn't been gutted Anet =w= - And so I figured I'd settle on conditions which seemed to have a decent amount of synergies within that class. I experimented with kits, and with time, I found myself with the objective of stacking as many condi stacks as possible on my own, I think I was fairly impressed at my 12 burns, 5 poison and 4 bleed at the time. Scrapper released, but did little for me. Holosmith on the other hand played right in my... hand. Adding to my condition specialization some extra condi potential.

> I've seen players going for full defense scrapper, not very efficient in damage, but very tough otherwise. Others just go for stacking as much CC as possible on a single char. Most engineers nowadays, especially core engineer will rely on conditions however.

> The one thing I've never seen, to my greatest dismay is a full support healer and buff engineer. It has some skills to do that, but nobody's gotten around to it.

>

> Never kill off an old char, take the time to look at the traits, and find matches with runes and sigils that make your traits more fun.

 

In WvW the "full support scrapper" relies on boon output from others as well as from converting conditions for med kit heal output.

 

It's possible to play holosmith as full power damage stats and the same goes for hammer scrapper.