Looking for help with PvE (story mode)

[Cruces.3280]

Hello Community

 

I just came back to GW2 after a 4 year absence, and purchased HoT and PoF.

I had a level 80 Engineer and Thief so I could naturally start HoT.

As of today I have both my Engineer and Thief at the same spot in Auric Basin in the story.

I am finding that I am more confident playing the Thief than my Engineer. KInda cringe when i start up a fight on my Engineer.

I"m wondering if there is a build what works better for PvE on the Engineer than what i'm running.

Currently i'm Holosmith with rifle.

I started with Scrapper cause I liked the idea of playing with a hammer but I read on the forums how Scrapper sucks so I switched to Holosmith.

I'm evenly split in Holosmith and Scrapper at 66% level.

I did all hero points in Auric Basic last night but 1, and have a total of 46 unspent hero points.

Would like to ask the community what build I should use to finish out the story/map exploration in HoT.

Holosmith or Scrapper? Power or condition? Build?

Any direction would help. Like I stated earlier, on my Thief (daredevil) I feel pretty good with p/p-staff, but I seem to die a lot on my Engineer.

I freely admit it could be me. I'm a casual gamer but I do enjoy the story of GW2.

[steki.1478]

Holosmith damage output is just insane. With a proper power focused gear you shouldnt have any problems because mobs can die from like 2-3 skills, and all holo skills have short cooldown. Having bomb and mortar kit can be very good because of their blind fields which makes you basically invulnerable if you fight mobs in those.

 

Your problem is coming from straight-forward thief build to engi which requires some weapon-kit-F5 forge juggling and using most effective skills from those, whether it's single target/aoe damage, cc, blast finisher or something else. It just takes time and practice, dont give up.

[stone cold.8609]

I play both professions as well. Engie is very strong in PvE, but plays much differently than Thief. I think you may need to play it more to get the feel for it, because it brings a ton of damage, CC, AOE, stability, and about 5K more life in full Berserker gear than Thief.

 

The strongest build in PvE currently is Power Holosmith and I'd suggest going with this as you currently are doing. As much as I wanted hammer to work, I found Scrapper to be underwhelming unfortunately and most of the gyros ineffective. You didn't mention your trait lines, but most people seem to run explosives, firearms, tools, or alchemy with holosmith. I've run combinations of all of them and they all work.

 

For starters, try to spend as much time in photon forge as possible since you do the majority of your damage here. While in forge, you are extremely bursty and typically I can down most vets (including PoF Hydras) well before I have build up enough heat that I need to leave forge. Next, you have to learn to keep an eye on your heat bar and learn to manage it effectively. Holo gives you three options for this in your major grandmaster traits and your choice of this has a major influence on how your build plays. I'd suggest trying them all out to see which one works best for you. Thermal release valve works well with a dodge heavy build, and combines well with the Tools line trait Adrenal Implant and Explosives line trait Minesweeper. Add a sigil of energy, and you will feel like a very tanky dodge spamming Daredevil (this was the first build I had success with, coming from years of playing thief). Photonic blasting module gives the most damage and is recommended by in the meta raid builds. Like most meta raid builds, it works well if you have all raid buffs and someone to look after your health. If using it solo, you have to be careful when you blow yourself up. Enhanced capacity storage unit gives you 50% more heat to use and gives you a chance to self stack might and do more damage if you go over 100% heat. Combines well with Explosives line trait Shrapnel and Firearms line trait Sanguine Array to allow you to easily solo stack max might using Strength runes.

 

With Power Holosmith, you can use either rifle or sword/x (pistol for a little bit of more damage or shield for block). Either set works, but I find the rifle to give range when you need it and better utility skills. Key point here - Engie rifle auto attack is terrible and you should never use it unless you absolutely need to range! I actually have the Rifle AA turned off so that it doesn't fire off when I don't want it to and delay other skills from triggering. When using rifle, you only use skill 5/3 combo, follow with skill 4 if you need CC and/or have stability, then swap to bomb kit as your melee auto attack. After learning to manage my heat bar, getting this combo down was the most important thing I had to learn to get comfortable with Holosmith. Alternatively, you could use sword/x and use the sword AA as melee and bring a kit as a ranged option (grenades or elixir gun). This is a bit less complicated to use than rifle and may be a good place to start as well.

 

There are many builds, but here is one that I use:

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdIQFAUnEILQm2t0IbFyKkxPLJywlsBULvF23DaCFAA3Qho0SfZcNGHB-jhRBABacBAMTJIAPAgrU+Rz+DUq+jQAKB-e

 

The elixir gun is swapped to fit the encounter (rocket boots, grenade kit, etc.).

 

And here is one that I used to use that plays a lot more like a dodge heavy Daredevil:

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdIQFAUnEILQm+u0IbFyKkxPLJywlsBULbG23tZ38bG3OfnAQfDcCeBB-jRRBABUq+zV7PK/MTJIAPAANuAACBoE-e

 

Good luck!

[Cruces.3280]

> @"stone cold.8609" said:

> I play both professions as well. Engie is very strong in PvE, but plays much differently than Thief. I think you may need to play it more to get the feel for it, because it brings a ton of damage, CC, AOE, stability, and about 5K more life in full Berserker gear than Thief.

>

> The strongest build in PvE currently is Power Holosmith and I'd suggest going with this as you currently are doing. As much as I wanted hammer to work, I found Scrapper to be underwhelming unfortunately and most of the gyros ineffective. You didn't mention your trait lines, but most people seem to run explosives, firearms, tools, or alchemy with holosmith. I've run combinations of all of them and they all work.

>

> For starters, try to spend as much time in photon forge as possible since you do the majority of your damage here. While in forge, you are extremely bursty and typically I can down most vets (including PoF Hydras) well before I have build up enough heat that I need to leave forge. Next, you have to learn to keep an eye on your heat bar and learn to manage it effectively. Holo gives you three options for this in your major grandmaster traits and your choice of this has a major influence on how your build plays. I'd suggest trying them all out to see which one works best for you. Thermal release valve works well with a dodge heavy build, and combines well with the Tools line trait Adrenal Implant and Explosives line trait Minesweeper. Add a sigil of energy, and you will feel like a very tanky dodge spamming Daredevil (this was the first build I had success with, coming from years of playing thief). Photonic blasting module gives the most damage and is recommended by in the meta raid builds. Like most meta raid builds, it works well if you have all raid buffs and someone to look after your health. If using it solo, you have to be careful when you blow yourself up. Enhanced capacity storage unit gives you 50% more heat to use and gives you a chance to self stack might and do more damage if you go over 100% heat. Combines well with Explosives line trait Shrapnel and Firearms line trait Sanguine Array to allow you to easily solo stack max might using Strength runes.

>

> With Power Holosmith, you can use either rifle or sword/x (pistol for a little bit of more damage or shield for block). Either set works, but I find the rifle to give range when you need it and better utility skills. Key point here - Engie rifle auto attack is terrible and you should never use it unless you absolutely need to range! I actually have the Rifle AA turned off so that it doesn't fire off when I don't want it to and delay other skills from triggering. When using rifle, you only use skill 5/3 combo, follow with skill 4 if you need CC and/or have stability, then swap to bomb kit as your melee auto attack. After learning to manage my heat bar, getting this combo down was the most important thing I had to learn to get comfortable with Holosmith. Alternatively, you could use sword/x and use the sword AA as melee and bring a kit as a ranged option (grenades or elixir gun). This is a bit less complicated to use than rifle and may be a good place to start as well.

>

> There are many builds, but here is one that I use:

>

> http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdIQFAUnEILQm2t0IbFyKkxPLJywlsBULvF23DaCFAA3Qho0SfZcNGHB-jhRBABacBAMTJIAPAgrU+Rz+DUq+jQAKB-e

>

> The elixir gun is swapped to fit the encounter (rocket boots, grenade kit, etc.).

>

> And here is one that I used to use that plays a lot more like a dodge heavy Daredevil:

>

> http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdIQFAUnEILQm+u0IbFyKkxPLJywlsBULbG23tZ38bG3OfnAQfDcCeBB-jRRBABUq+zV7PK/MTJIAPAANuAACBoE-e

>

> Good luck!

 

STUNNING.

This is the best review I've seen for the Engineer.

Thank you for your time. Gonna try the "Thermal Release" build first. Seems to be what i'm looking for.

Thanks for your time....just perfect.

[stone cold.8609]

Good luck with it! Let me know if you have any questions after you try it.

[Derenek.8931]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdQQJAqelcThyrY1VwWLw6FL3FF9q365OYDGhBgYB9D5AA-jxxEABAciAcS5ngKBVU9H30Tg/+DG8ABIFALK2A-e

 

This is my unkillable close range flamethrower juggernaut. Just close within melee, pop some potions and unleash flaming destruction on the enemies. Stacks massive regeneration and protection. All the while maxing the damage output with 10x attacks a second on flamethrower. Highest DPS of any class and the least damage taken